Cello Wars

When two of my greatest passions come together:

BEST. VIDEO. EVER.

EVER.

Categories: cello, star wars

What Do You Mean having a Vassar Degree Isn´t Good Enough to Be a Barista?!

It´s that time of year again...at least for me. I´m back to being hunched over my computer swamped with 10 Word files and what seems to be fifty billion Safari windows open as I simultaneously work on cover letters and just finding more jobs. Today I successfully applied to a few cool jobs that I´m hoping to get interviews / callbacks for, but immediately decided to apply to a couple of easy backups just in case. My backups usually amount to applying to work in retail or food service and I´ve been eyeing a couple of Barista jobs posted on GoodFoodJobs.com for a while so I figured I might as well just apply to that.

Oh wait. I can´t.

Stupid fine print.

So today I discovered a really really ridiculous phenomenon going on in New York City. It turns out that some of these presumptuous coffee places actually require you to have experience serving coffee for you to serve coffee. And not just "some experience" but one of them requested 2 years of experience serving coffee in NYC.

TWO YEARS.

I have a hard-earned double degree in Film Production, and Chinese Language and Culture from Vassar College, one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States if not the world, I speak three languages fluently, managed to become the youngest Assistant Director in Ecuador after only 5 months, and you are telling me that I am not qualified to serve coffee? An action so simple, so mundane that I perform it every single morning half-asleep to wake up?

Does anyone else see something wrong with this?

Some pretentious corner coffee shop in NYC telling me that my college degree is worth doodlysquat.

It just seems like these places lack perspective in general. I do understand that some seemingly easy retail jobs might require some experience for the same job in a different store. For example, it is not the same to be Sales Associate at a Chanel Boutique or at your local K-Mart. Just as it is not the same to bus tables at your nearest highway diner or The Standard in NYC. Someone working for a high-end retail boutique or restaurant requires a certain amount of tact, grace, stress management, and a different set of skills because of the different standards and clientele at these establishments. The difference often being a 15% tip on a $50 bill versus 15% of a $600+ bill.

But some jobs in customer service really don´t have that difference. A cup of joe is a cup of joe whether you get it at the pretentious coffee shop or a big chain. My experience drinking coffee (and I have a lot of it) tells me that a barista will take the same amount of time making your expresso, and will do it with the same amount of cheeriness at either place. What´s more, Baristas in large chains such as Starbucks often are nicer and warmer and more pleasant that those in smaller places with a few notable exceptions. The other thing about that is that usually when I go to a smaller coffee place to sit down and write/think it is because of the ambience itself or because they serve some product I would prefer to spend my money on (such as fair-trade coffee). Thus, as a coffee consumer, I really can´t tell or really care if your Barista is experienced or not and it doesn´t factor into my choice of coffee supplier. The only thing I care about is that your employee serves me a hot cup of coffee that hasn´t been burnt. A feat that, as I said before, I can accomplish every morning while half-asleep.

So really, little pretentious corner coffee place in NYC, does a Barista with 2+ years of experience really make your coffee better or your customer´s experience at your establishment better? I think not.

And maybe I´m a bit of a disgruntled post-grad that is tired after spending the whole day applying to jobs that mean something to me that happened to come across this ridiculousness of yours. Or maybe I just don´t appreciate you telling me that my college degree is essentially worthless.

Categories: Coffee, job, ridiculousness

Restaurant Review #8: Clover Fast Food

Restaurant Name: Clover Fast Food (or Clover Food Truck)

Location: Various (Clover HSQ - 7 Holyoke st, Cambridge. Clover MIT - 20 Carleton St., Cambridge....and like 6 others. You can check their locations at www.cloverfoodlab.com)

Kind of Food: I say vegetarian, but they don´t like to call themselves that. So I really don´t know. Can we settle on delicious?

Price Range: $5-$10 (seriously, if you spent more than $10, what on Earth did you order? The whole truck?!?!)

What I ordered: CHICKPEA FRITTER. Repeat with me: CHICKPEA FRITTER. And Hot cider. And rosemary fries. And Egg and Eggplant sandwich. Really, there is no end to the deliciousness that is the Clover food truck at MIT.

Comments: I eat here at an almost daily basis. Really. Mostly because my mother can´t cook/she calls to cancel on lunch at 2 pm and I´m really too cold and hungry by that point to cook/look for food. But convenience set aside, it is actually pretty fantastic food. You´d expect that food from a food truck wouldn´t be that good for you or dripping in grease. Or something...not so for Clover. Their chickpea fritter sandwich (which if you haven´t already noticed is my favorite) gives you a healthy dose of protein and vegetables and packs a neat little 430 cal. Not bad at all! I´ve also had their Egg and Eggplant which I don´t like as much mostly because it involves hard-boiled eggs, which I am not really a fan of but it is pretty good too. And if you like fries, I would definitely suggest trying their version of them - cut and fried on the spot and served sprinkled with rosemary. Yum! I also hear they´re launching their own beer this Friday at their Harvard Square location. The $3 per glass launch price is very tempting to go and check it out. The other nice thing is that they have trucks all over Boston so you´ll be able to find one near wherever you are.

Categories: Boston, foodie, Restaurant Review

Restaurant Review #7: Topolobampo

Restaurant Name: Topolobampo

Location: 445 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60654

Kind of Food: Mexican Gourmet

Price Range: $25 - $90 per person (tasting menu anyone? I know I was tempted....)

What I ordered: Trio Trio Trio (cebiche fronterizo, cebiche yucateco, seaside cocktail), Eggplant enchiladas, Classic Margarita.

Comments: I was REALLY tempted by the tasting menus. They sounded incredible. The price for one of them (around $90) was offputting, but the thing that really drove me away from them was the amount of pork in the dishes. Really, my allergies can be a pain in the butt sometimes when out on culinary adventures. I settled instead on the Trio Trio Trio as an appetizer and the Eggplant enchiladas as an entree. The Trio Trio Trio was absolutely fabulous. Spicy and infused with lime, the seafood tasted and felt fresh and refreshing - sending me on a 5 minute culinary vacation to the Mayan riviera even though I´ve never really set foot in Mexico. I was also big fan of Trio Trio Trio because it reminded me of traditional Ecuadorian cebiche and some of the interesting haute cuisine variations I´ve tasted on it (kiwi-based cebiche is surprisingly blissful) and so it tasted a bit like home. The Eggplant Enchiladas, while less exciting, were innovative and flavorful. I got nothing in the semblance of a tortilla anywhere in the dish. The eggplant was cut to slices so thin that they themselves were the tortilla keeping a small pile of vegetables and eggplant and mole in a little roll. Delicious and just the perfect size to be full but not stuffed. I must say the Margarita helped with the experience. While the flavor of it was nothing really exceptional, it packed a punch, and delivered - and I can also say that I could tell it was quality tequila, which is something that the average Margarita usually lacks.

Topolobampo was a fantastic experience in Chicago, although I would recommend making reservations in advance.

Categories: Chicago, foodie, Restaurant Review

Restaurant Review #6: The Palm

Restaurant Name: The Palm

Location: 837 Second Ave, New York, NY 10017

Kind of Food: Steakhouse

Price Range: $30-$50 per person

What I ordered: Signature crab cakes. Ceasar Salad

Comments: First of all, let me clarify that I´m a bit of a certified idiot. I went to a steakhouse and ordered the crab cakes, which were honestly not that great. There is very little food that I´ve encountered that I´ve had trouble actually eating and those crab cakes were definitely one of them unfortunately. Everyone told me to get the Chicken Parmesan (which would have been the intelligent choice) that was notoriously excellent. I was put off from it when I glanced at the caloric count next to the choice - I´ll skip the 1200 cal Chicken and stick to the 560 cal crab cakes thank you very much. I really should have gone with the chicken. Of course, it was a bit of a fish out of the water situation - a semi-vegetarian at a steakhouse isn´t exactly the best idea. However, the party I was with enjoyed their food enormously. And to be completely honest, even I was wishing I had ordered their steaks. Cooked to crispy perfection on the outside and juicy and tender inside. The smell of meat and sea salt and pepper wafted through the air, annoying my stomach that was stuck with the bland and gooey crab cakes. The sides were pretty amazing as well, with the breaded onions being my favorite. Crispy and stringy, they reminded me of the nests of fried noodles served over kobe beef at Quito´s prime sushi eatery Noé. After the main course, we ordered a small buffet of decadent desserts that included cheesecake and a mouthwatering carrot cake. The thing that impressed me the most, however, was the quality of the service. Really, the best restaurant service I´ve ever encountered and the first time I´ve wanted to overtip someone in a long time. The waiter was attentive, polite, and efficient. They even were nice enough to remove a dish that a member of our party didn´t like entirely from our check. They changed our cutlery quietly and unobtrusively and observed proper serving etiquette and were very helpful in accommodating a large party of 9. Well done!

All in all, a pleasant experience. I daresay I would definitely go back, but this time I will stay the hell away from those awful crab cakes.

Categories: foodie, NYC, Restaurant Review

Restaurant Review #5: Psari

Restaurant Name: Psari

Location: Suiza N34-41 y República de El Salvador (www.psariquito.com)

Kind of Food: Mediterranean Fusion

Price Range: $15-$25 per person

What I ordered: Grilled octopus. Lady Psaritini.

Comments:

Best. Grilled. Octopus. EVER. I´m usually really picky about Octopus and tend not to order it because it is unusually chewy. I think that if not well prepared, it is easier to chew on an eraser than a piece of octopus. But Psari´s octopus is grilled to perfection. Crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. The grilled octopus is so good that I don´t even remember what I ordered as an entree (the octopus is an appetizer). Unfortunately, the charm had worn off by the time dessert arrived. Dessert was ok. But the creme bruleé wasn´t really creme bruleé and that bothered me and my dad. The Marchesa Chocolate cake was pretty fabulous though. The guanábana ice cream creates an interesting combination with the dark chocolate cacao cake served with it. Another slam dunk at Psari is their Lady Psaritini cocktail. A delicious vodka-based martini with an infusion of cherry and chile. Spicy, sweet, and strong in one small bottle. One of the best signature cocktails I´ve had in a while.

Categories: foodie, Quito, Restaurant Review

Last Day in Quito

The sky is cloudy this morning - an endless gray cotton that stretches out beyond what I can see. At 6:30 am, the lights in the houses sprawling across the valley have still not died out. The fog has begun to rise above the mountains, leaving thick drops of dew stuck onto the green foliage in its wake. "Winter" here at the equator (or technically slightly north of it) has begun. I definitely prefer it to the ungodly heat and the Equatorial sun beating down on you that we were getting but two days ago.

Part of me believes that the cloudy sky is Quito´s farewell to me. Almost as if it were sad to see me go. And part of me is touched, because I am sad to go too. In my year and a half of living here, I´ve come to appreciate more of it. I´ve come to hate it less. I´ve come to see its other face that it had hidden from me while in high school. It is a thriving bohemian city that is struggling to find its identity. It no longer is the Quito of old - the one that belonged to the conservatives and bigots and hypocrites, but it still wears that mask. And until it can learn to remove that mask, I´m afraid that I cannot live here.

But despite me leaving Quito, I take Quito with me. In the same way that I take Amsterdam, and Qingdao, and even Poughkeepsie with me wherever I go. It doesn´t really define me or even tell me who I am or where I belong or where I am going, but it is part of me.

I´m reluctant to really get out of bed today. Not because I don´t want to wake up or because I´m getting nostalgic about Quito but because I have no desire to begin to face the list of stressful situations the city is bound to throw my way today. Murphy, it seems, has taken up residence somewhere near here and is running amok across town. Why Quito? Why? Why would you prefer that I go around all day trying to solve the issue of my paycheck being incomplete than me taking a stroll around the city center one last time?

Oh Quito...I hope that someday we´ll really understand each other. Until then, I think I´ll wander across the streets of Boston or New York or London or Beijing or Amsterdam or wherever the wind takes me - waiting, for you to grow up.

Categories: Ecuador, Quito, travel

Syncretic Traditions in Latin America

I came home today after a very long day (car decided to stop working, had to do some errands about town) to find a dead cat in my driveway. I was upset by this. My parents say it was probably the dogs that killed it because it trespassed into their territory. I mean, it wasn´t bleeding or anything. Just seems the dogs...I don´t know.

Anyhow, I had to dispose of the carcass. I felt a mix of grossness and sadness. I´m a cat person and I can´t imagine my own cat, Luna, ending up like that. Just really upsetting all around. Anyhoo, my mother told me to dispose of the carcass and then wash my hands and then do her a favor. What she asked me to do was to go upstairs to her room and wash my hands and face with some holy water kept in a flask in the shape of the Virgin Mary. I ask why. She said to just do it and then she´ll tell me. So I do this, and then ask her why I had to do that. She said that it was to protect me against any evil spirit or force that might harm me. Like from the cat or something.

A normal person would be skeptical about this, but I´ve seen my fair share of scary spirits to really not appreciate the extra protection (I´ve seen a shadow person and a ghost). Also, there´s something about growing up here that made that request and the logic behind it not seem weird. But it did get me thinking about how much of local folklore and practices really are mixed in with Catholicism in an interesting way here in Ecuador.

The first thing that comes to mind is the process of a "limpia" which is a ritual done by a Priest/Shaman (yeah, a Priest who is also a Shaman...you read that correctly) that basically cleanses your spirit. I´ve had one. I´m not supposed to reveal what goes on there. But suffice to say that it is WEIRD, but that it works. Weird shit happens during that.

Weirder still, my Great Aunt (who is a nun) had one done too and had a discussion with the mother superior at her convent because she felt it conflicted with her belief in God. The Mother Superior said something along the lines of "there are forces out there that we are not meant to understand".

Then there is the fact that my mother and my aunts lighted white candles and went about praying the rosary in my room when I saw the Shadow Man there. Surprisingly enough, I never had any more paranormal activity in there. Ever.

Or the mysterious family ritual I had done when I was 13 and go my first pimples. It is supposed to drag pimples away from your face. Can´t reveal the ritual, but it has to do Catholicism. I rarely get pimples on my face. My brother, who refused to have it done, gets tons.

All this stuff seems part of normal life here. And it dawned on me earlier today as I washed my face with holy water that maybe it is slightly peculiar.

Inneresting.

Categories: daoism, religion

This Particular Workaholic Needs a Break

I´m burned. I´m just seriously tired. I´m starting to think that taking that extra week at work was a bad idea, but I need the money, so I´m weathering the storm. Except I´m not really. I don´t think. I´m at that point where I just don´t care anymore. And maybe that´s not a point I should be at. Part of me is just really frustrated that the company waster two and a half days of my time last week that could have been spent otherwise. The other part of me is just tired of having to come home to no personal time and work on another project. Right now that project is the translation of a screenplay that is...well...idk if I can really say, but I just feel that it is boring and not particularly innovative. This just makes it difficult and tedious to get back to it and finish it. And has landed me in hot water with only 63 of the 102 pages done so far. With those 102 pages needing to be turned in by tomorrow. Joy.

At this point, I´m just really looking forward to Sunday, when everything needs to be done and turned in. I finish this translation tonight, my job at the office on Friday and then the doc should probably be done by Sunday evening.

In theory.

Naturally, these things have a nasty habit of being affected by Murphy´s Law.

The thing is, I have so much work that I dream about working in my sleep.

Raise your hand if you need a vacation!

Categories: stress, work

Remembering A. G. Mendieta

My Grandfather died two weeks ago.

It feels weird to write that down. It feels weird to say it.

It feels even weirder to think that it has already been two whole weeks. I suppose I´ve been absorbed in work. There has been a lot of it. And a lot of errands to run before I leave.

I was the fourth person to hear about it in my family. First my uncle. Then my other uncle. Then my grandmother.

And me.

They couldn´t reach my father and they figured I could.

It was a weird moment. I was trying to solve some logistical issues at work concerning the locations we had to visit on the field the next day. The world whirled for a second. I was out the door to the patio the next.

It took 30 minutes to reach my father. His response was little more than an awful pained high-pitched cry followed by the dialtone on my cel.

That was followed by two hours of confusion. Of not knowing what to do. Later hiding in the stairwell at my Grandparent´s apartment complex, afraid to go into the apartment. The only time during the day I let some tears flow.

Because the whole day was followed by "You have to be strong for your father E. You can´t waver."

And I didn´t. Because in a sea of grief I could not be another wave, and so I wasn´t.

My voice, my resolve, my strength wavered once. During a phone call that was never answered. During a voicemail message that was never returned.

But I knew that I was at peace with my Grandfather´s death.

Alberto Gonzalo Mendieta Vivanco was a remarkable man, and he lived and died the way he wanted to. He died while out on a walk, which he loved to do (the walking, not the dying) and died with a clear conscience, without owing life anything. He was full of life and he lived life fully. I say to myself, if I am able to achieve that, I would go on a happy person. So few go that way....and yet all should.

Tomorrow, I run/jog/walk in his honor. He would have loved to see me finish the Nike 10K. And so finish it I will.

Good Luck Grandpa Gonzalo, on your next great journey.

Categories: death, grief, journey, meditation

A Lantern in the Dark

I went to the Daoist (or Taoist) temple in Quito yesterday (was unaware that there was one until last week) and it was quite an experience. I am forbidden to really talk about it because of the nature of this particular branch of Daoism but also because the experience itself was so intimate and personal that I doubt I would be able to truly describe it if I could. Taoism exists in several forms: the religious one, the life philosophy, and the pure philosophical canon. Yiguan Dao (the branch of Daoism the temple I went to belongs to) is dedicated to spreading the life philosophy of Daoism which I think is pretty cool. Daoism is seen, as the original source word Dao suggests, as the path to enlightenment or heaven or whatever you want to call it. And thus it sees religion or spirituality as one of those paths to be followed. Every path is different just as every life and every being is different. One can find the path to happiness through Christianity and others through Animism or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whatever you believe in. It depends on the person.

I´ve felt that I´ve been traveling down my own path for some time. I´ve been aware that it is a path for some time as well. What I experienced last night is akin to receiving a lantern to light the way, and realizing, for the first time, that I had been walking without one. I´ve been walking in the dark.

Now to really explore where this path leads me to....

Categories: daoism

Halloween Spirit

It really is a shame that I´m stuck in Quito, Ecuador for Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays and I´ve always enjoyed making elaborate costumes. The last (and best) one I´ve made was Wall-E.

My costume played "Hello Dolly!".

You can´t beat that.

This year (like last year) I´ll probably just watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" again and eat more sweets than I´m supposed to. Wearing costumes to work or to anything other than a halloween party is strictly banned in Ecuador (so trick-or-treating is out) and I´m really not into going to discos, so I guess another viewing of "Nightmare" will have to do. I could watch "Rocky Horror" but really, that´s not fun if you ain´t wearing slutty clothes, slightly drunk, and in an auditorium full of people who are willing to make fun of the film with you.

But, that being said, here´s some examples of excellent halloween spirit from people who are allowed to celebrate it (aka Americans). I´m not sure if I like "Party Rock Anthem" or "This Is Halloween" better. Tough call. Thoughts?

Categories: costumes, halloween

Weak At the Knees

That time I slumped onto the floor in late May has been floating around my head lately.

That day, that moment, my knees turned to jelly and failed me and my vocal chords in so much pain they could not produce a single sound.

Just a painful soundless cry of deep sorrow.

And the sawdust that replaced my stomach - the heavy and airy sawdust that just existed there in lieu of my natural organs - had me gasping for air.

It felt surreal.

That single moment has marked me forever.

As I try to explain - to understand - certain events in my life that led up to that, I am at a loss for reason. I only know what I feel. A deep, profound loss that echoes in my persona now. A loss compounded by discoveries that were made in the months following that.

My metabolism hasn´t been the same. New exams didn´t line up with previous medical examinations. Reasons were in short supply. It was eight months afterwards that a doctor finally concluded that I must have suffered a deep emotional shock. Until he uttered those words, I didn´t really understand how much emotions can impact one´s physicality.

And now my mind fluctuates between anger and grief. Something that meant the world to me was definitively lost at that moment. And it took me a whole six months to really understand that it was the only way that could have possibly gone.

Eventually my voice came back. The sawdust was cleaned out. My knees solidified.

But the wounds have not fully healed. Where the sawdust was is just now a gaping emptiness that goes with me wherever I go.

I try not to dwell on it.

But there are some days, like today, when I do.

Categories:

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died today. Seems sort of surreal.

The man who changed modern computing is gone. A visionary entrepreneur is gone.

May he rest in peace.

www.apple.com/stevejobs

Categories: apple, entrepreneurship, iphone 4, steve jobs

More Enticing Cupcake Pix

More Cherry-Malamado-Chocolate Cupcakes! This time in mini form and with buttercream frosting (forgive me for the radioactive green color - I ran out of all other food colors).

Categories: chocolate cake, cupcakes, foodie

Restaurant Review #4: Las Hamburguesas de Rusty

Restaurant Name: Las Hamburguesas de Rusty

Location: Av. de los Shyris y Río Coca (Main) / San Luis Shopping (Valle de los Chillos) / Plaza Antara (Cumbayá), Quito, Ecuador

Kind of Food: Good Ol´ Fashioned American Diner Fare (Latin-American Style!). Fast Food.

Price Range: $3-$10

What I Ordered: Rusty Mix (Rusty Simple with Cheese, Curly Fries, Root Beer)

Comments: Rusty´s is quite an institution in Quito. The place has been around since the time my dad was a teenager in the 1970s and has been run by the same eponymous owner since its inauguration. Rusty (an old aging American wearing his red beret and with his signature blonde mustache styled into Dali-like fashion) will take your order personally if you show up for lunch hour at their main site and he´ll mumble it into a microphone whose sound is lost amongst the sounds of the friers and the burgers and the soda machine. Kinda makes you wonder how your order appears just as you ordered it on the tray at the end of the line. But this is all part of the charm. The other part of the charm is finding a better fast food alternative to McDonald´s and Burger King in Quito that has its own local flair without sacrificing the ability to get some good old-fashioned American diner food if you need it. All for under $6. In all honesty, Rusty´s cheeseburger is one of the best burgers I´ve ever had and it tastes the same way it did when I was a child, and my dad swears it tastes the same way he remembers it tasting back in the 70s. Nevermind the radioactive orange color of the cheese. Biting into that cheeseburger feels oddly comforting and satisfying - a decent fast-food lunch. Served with your delicious burger is a side of fried something of your choice. You can get regular fries, steak fries, onion rings, a pronto orito (basically a corn dog where instead of the hot dog you get a deep-fried plantain - it tastes better than it sounds, trust me), or some cheese poppers. They recently added the option for curly fries too. I haven´t eaten curly fries since I last ventured into the Acropolis Diner 2 blocks away from Vassar College (and I was plenty drunk then and trying to convince my equally drunk friends that I was totes fine despite the recent break-up I´d gone through). I ate a whole plate of them then. But a plate of curly fries from the Acrop certainly don´t measure up to the satisfaction of downing a small order of curly fries from Rusty´s. They came right out of the frier....perfectly spiced and coiled. And then, of course, is the icing on the cake. It is the only place in Quito where you can get Root Beer (Barg´s) from a soda machine.

ROOT BEER.

Do you understand that? I live in a world where you cannot get Root Beer at any restaurant you pop in to. A place that serves traditional American, cold, machine-mixed Root Beer is heaven. And the Cheeseburger-Curly Fries-Root Beer combo at Rusty´s is perfection. So next time you are in Quito and in need of a Cheeseburger fix. Skip McDonald´s and Burger King. Walk past El Corral (and please don´t even LOOK at Tropi Burger). Go straight to Rusty´s and bite into a satisfying meal that is soaked in tradition and recent Quito history.

Categories: foodie, Quito, Restaurant Review

Restaurant Review #3: Cactus Café

Restaurant Name: Cactus Coffee & Salad Bar

Location: C.C. Plaza Cumbayá, Junto al Autobanco del Banco de Pichincha, Ecuador. (www.cactusfood.com)

Kind of Food: Healthy, Tex Mex, Italian, Sandwiches, World.

Price Range: $6-$15 per person

What I ordered: Chinese Chicken Salad, Caesar Chicken Salad, Tex Mex Wrap, Nachos, Chef´s Chicken Panini, Mummy Juice, Berry Blast Smoothie, J-Bay Juice, Baja Juice.

Comments: One of my favorite places for a nice healthy and light meal that leaves you feeling full but not stuffed and definitely refreshed. For years I subsisted off their Tex Mex Wrap whenever we went here (it is a wonderful, perfectly-wrapped delicacy of rice, grilled chicken, beans, and veggies served with a yogurt-cilantro sauce and their signature pico de gallo on the side) but have recently expanded into trying other options. My favorite so far is the Chinese Chicken Salad. Yes, it is served with authentic mandarin oranges and crispy wonton strips. It is, indeed, the salad of your people! (Margaret Cho anyone?) The Chicken Panini is fantastic too though - the chicken is fresh and not dripping in mayo, served over a lightly toasted whole-grain roll. Fresh salad with yogurt-based dressing on the side. Yum! But the real reason I´ll duck in here most of the time are their fresh juices. They have about 20 different varieties that are made on order. My favorites include the Mummy (Oranges, Tangerines, Raspberries), the Baja (Limes, Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries), and J-Bay (Limes, Passion Fruit, Raspberries). Feeling like having something a little more substantial? Smoothies are a great option too, with the Berry Blast being the best choice.

Categories: foodie, Quito, Restaurant Review

Democracy is the new Communism

Last year, in the aftermath of the 30S riots in Quito, I posted the following note on my Facebook account:

"I heard the word democracy thrown around a lot today but I begin to wonder what it means, if we can define it because everyone seems to be defining it differently or not defining it conveniently. I heard the word oppressor thrown around a lot today and I begin to wonder what it refers to. Is the oppressor the one that monopolizes the media and de-legitimizes the voice of its detractors or is the oppressor the one that irresponsibly puts the safety of the civilian population of a country in jeopardy? In the end, I think that the crisis today represents a failure to listen, a failure to communicate, intertwined with egos and agendas from all factions. It represents an inability to negotiate and compromise. What happened today was anti-democratic. But a lot of what has already been happening here for 4 years is also anti-democratic. Had it been otherwise, this crisis would have not happened in the first place. 

I hope that the government takes this incident as a chance to reflect on their policies and decisions and how a lot of them are things that have stirred much unrest among certain groups in Ecuador. That decisions cannot be made unilaterally like they have been done up until recently, that there needs to be more transparency and more dialogue.

But this crisis has also brought to light a lot of things that are not right with the country. The control of the media today was awful as the coverage was completely and blatantly biased and media offering alternative viewpoints being completely cut off and made unavailable to the public. There is no freedom of speech here. And that becomes painfully clear today. Because freedom of speech is not just about being free to agree with a position but being free to openly disagree with it without being called names, or have labels slapped on you, or have your voice de-legitimized by saying it is misinformed and being manipulated by someone or something else. The unwillingness of the government-controlled media to present alternative voices and viewpoints on the situation reveals a fear of losing control and power...something that is frankly terrifying to me because a government should be concerned about governing and not about losing their image. $37 million of the government's money is spent on advertising the president's media campaigns. That's $37 million that are desperately needed in a number of other areas in this country that has 75% of its population living under the poverty line, a growing unemployment rate, and a decreasing investment rate.

It is no secret that I have no love for President Correa. I find him arrogant, stubborn, and petulant. He is politically irresponsible (hearing about his views on the Yasuní issue and the new Higher Education law is something that really angers me) and far too in love with his power for comfort. But he was constitutionally elected. And as such, I think that post commands respect and while I sympathize with the reasons the police force had a strike, I think that the way they went about it was irresponsible and put the safety of the civilian population of the country in jeopardy. I really hope the government takes this as a plea to listen, to stop pointing fingers, stop picking petty fights, stop demonizing factions that disagree with them. Perhaps listening to some constructive criticism will do them some good.

I think that today's greatest oversight was perhaps analyzing the validity of the opposition's dissatisfaction, failure to recognize a problem that has clearly been brewing for some time now, that there is sufficient unrest here to shake the country up as bad as it did today. It is a symptom of something being wrong, something that needs to be addressed. I hope the government sees that instead of taking this day as a victory, as another proof of them being right.

But of course this is all politics. And I'm sorry to say that my experiences with Ecuadorian politics have left me jaded and without much hope for politics or politicians of any kind. Also, I've seen too many cases of corruptio optimi pessima to be left with any hope at all."

Today, it is the first anniversary since 30S and I´m thoroughly upset by the way this event is being marked. Today, according to the government, Ecuador "commemorates" 30S and "remembers" one of its darkest days in recent history. There is a 200,000 person gathering at Av. de los Shyris for this purpose. 200,000 gathered in the name of commemorating the day democracy almost died.

I´ve come to hate that word. Democracy. It gets thrown around a lot. And I don´t hate it because of what it means or what it stands for (I strongly believe in Democracy. It might not be a perfect system but out of most political systems out there, it is the one that has worked the most effectively in recent history I think). I hate the word because as of late it has become a weapon, sort of the way "Communist" was back in the McCarthy Era in the United States. 30S has been painted as an event where people went out in defense of democracy where in fact it became the exact opposite of that. So much of what was seen on TV or how that event has been portrayed since has been fabricated by the impressive propaganda machine operated by the government. So much history has been rewritten and twisted around that even I have begun to doubt my own memories. Today I was sickened when I saw the government take control of all the national channels in the morning to air a small "documentary propaganda" about the "heroes of democracy" - members of the special elite team that rescued President Correa from the hospital.

Heroes of democracy.

I´ve seen propagandas urging the population to bring those who perpetrated 30S to justice, urging them to not let the "opposition" oppress them any longer. That only through the government can freedom come. That only the government can guarantee freedom of speech, progress...

This of course, being broadcast simultaneously on all channels. The advert itself being produced with tax dollars that could be easily spent on things the country needs - like houses, or improving infrastructure. Produced by essentially passing laws that pretty much force advertising production companies to make these adverts for extremely low budgets or face problems from the IRS.

Freedom of Speech?

What a laugh.

I ´ve felt more freedom in China.

New political leaders pose as the defenders of democracy, of people´s right to elect leaders. A lovely speech to use as a distraction while every other right is stripped from right under our noses.

Categories: politics

Running On the Edge

I. Hate. HATE. running.

I cannot tell you how much I hate, abhor, detest, passionately dislike it.

And yet despite of that, I´ve made it a habit of running every morning at 6 am for an hour. And today, I ran my first 5K race.

No, I didn´t win.

But I didn´t come in last either. I beat my personal record (from 60 minutes down to 53) and was able to finish without much trouble (excepting some minor burn in my legs).

Tonight, I signed up for the We Run Quito Nike 10K for October 29th.

Yeah, I´m slightly nuts.

The reason I run, even though I hate it, is because it gives me some discipline in working out and it is a means to an end. I need to be fit and I need to be lighter to get back into what I´m really passionate about - fencing. My trainers and coaches have made it very clear that if I don´t drop 30 pounds and improve my overall fitness, premature re-entry into fencing might result in some bad damage to my left ankle (which although completely healed by physical therapy, can still be, quite literally, my achilles´ heel). So after grumbling for a bit and cursing the alarm clock, I drag my butt out of bed and onto the road.

Other reasons to go running is the fact that (1) I can run anywhere, (2) I can´t afford a gym, and (3) apparently the neighborhood I live in is like runner´s heaven. The roads here are ideal for hard-core training. I can´t tackle the hill my house is on yet, but there is a smaller incline road off the main road that is a good starters circuit. Someday I´ll try the bigger hill. Someday when I go completely bonkers and decide to sign up for "La Ruta de las Iglesias" a notoriously hard but beautiful race that takes participants on around Quito´s old colonial center at night. This all sounds wonderful until one realizes that the colonial center is built around the steepest hills in the city. Cars regularly have trouble going up them. Imagine running up one of those things.

No thank you. I´ll stick to my flat races....

Anyhoo, the 5K I did today was one I signed up while I wasn´t quite there mentally (i.e. I was deluded by exhaustion). The conversation went something like this:

Dad: There´s a 5K on Saturday. Do you want to run?

Me: Uh-huh.

(falls asleep on couch)

The race itself was going through the Chaquiñán (Quechua for "road") which is basically this dirt road that follows what used to be the railway tracks. It starts in Cumbayá (the suburban town I inhabit) and ends up somewhere in Puembo (a place so far that it takes 40 minutes to get there by car). Insane nutty athletes run this whole path on a regular basis on the weekends. Me? I did a bicycle ride there once...when the school made me do it for Environmental Education. Like all excursions of the sort, it sucked.

(Tangent: The school often forgot that most of us were not insane nutty athletes and would organize dumb field trips like that under the excuse of getting us outside. "Let´s go hike up Ilaló!" was the more reasonable trip, but sometimes we´d get stuff like "Let´s go hike up Cotopaxi!", which, honestly, guys, there are PROFESSIONAL HIKERS who have trouble climbing up that damned glacial volcano. What makes you think that a gaggle of 80 prissy prep-school high schoolers are going to be able to accomplish that?)

Anyhoo, the Chaquiñán trail is pretty intense. It is dusty, pretty hilly (with a lot of ups and downs), and it is riddled by unstable footing. Some more experienced runners told me (later on) that it was a difficult trail to do, especially in the morning with the Equatorial sun beating down on you. So, all in all, considering that I didn´t stop once and that I got to the finish line, I feel very accomplished.

They tell me the Nike 10K is easier. Mostly flat. All inside the city (so on asphalt) and at night (no tiring Equatorial sun) so it should be ok. I still have to train though. I don´t think I´ve ever really done 10K in training. I usually just stop at 5, which capped off to about an hour. I guess that means more hours of training in the morning.

Ah well.

I think I can do it. :D

Categories: health, race, sports

More Reasons to move to China and start making films there

A film based on the 1911 revolution. Pretty awesome-looking.

Categories: China, film, trailer

A Message of Hope

A lovely song that´s been on my mind as of late. I listen to it when I´ve been feeling down.

Here it is:

Categories: music

Daoist Wisdom

"I was pondering what it is that brought be to this extremity, but I couldn´t find the answer [...] Still, here I am - at the very extreme. It must be fate."

- Zhuangzi

Categories: daoism, quotes, wisdom

Getting up in the Morning

The alarm clock I need to get up in the morning:

Tocky from Nanda Home:

Another awesome little creation from MIT Media Lab alums...I came across it while looking at the Object-Based Media Research Group Website.

Categories: MIT media lab, tech

Eat Free Range

A wonderful little Chipotle ad.

Make the change! Go free range!

:D

Categories: advertisements, foodie, vegetarian

More Cookie Monster love

Some more love for my favorite Sesame Street character. This time he sings Tom Waits. He should totally host SNL (Cookie Monster, not Tom Waits...:P)

Categories: Cookie Monster

Diamonds Are Forever

As some people who know me know, I´m not a big fan of diamonds. But this particular diamond I´m pretty fond of simply because it blows my mind.

Also, it seems they really are forever. Go figure.

http://newyork.ibtimes.com/articles/204033/20110825/pulsar-diamond-planet-white-dwarf.htm

Categories: cool stuff, pulsar, science

Remembering Commencement

I was surfing the internet when some article mentioned Lisa Kudrow´s Commencement Address at Vassar College in May 2010. Being a member of that graduating class, and having been sitting in a white chair sweating through my nice dress and polyester graduation robe in the Poughkeepsie humid air to actually witness the event, it brought me back and made me reflect a little about what she said that day.

To begin with, I vaguely remember people being kind of ambivalent about the selection of Lisa Kudrow as our speaker to begin with (my freshman and sophomore year roommate OM thought Hilary Clinton should do the honors, but then again, in almost Chuck Norris fashion, she thought Hilary Clinton was the answer to pretty much any problem - which was funny because a big group of us thought OM was our own version of Chuck Norris. She is one of the few people I´ve met that I can really label as being Badass. The other is M. M is super badass.). I liked the idea of it. Except for the fact that I didn´t realize that I would be getting my diploma in front of 4000 people and 2 very famous, very incredible actresses. My worries on commencement day were limited to frizz control, the zipper in my dress that wouldn´t zip, and not tripping in front of Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow. I failed on the first two accounts but thankfully succeeded in the third.

Anyways, I think the speech was very good and had some great pearls of wisdom for both us (the soon-to-be grads) and our parents. My parents really enjoyed it as well - my dad (a university educator by profession who has seen his fair share of commencement addresses) thought it was one of the best he had ever heard. But the best thing about it is that I fully credit Lisa Kudrow (and her speech) for really turning my parents around on the whole film thing.

Her words were:

¨By November of 1985, I declared that I would pursue acting. My parents and family were thrilled for me and that was the first and most important, wonderful show of support I got. (Look at parents) My parents and family were thrilled, THRILLED. Truly. My Vassar friends were shocked, SHOCKED but supportive and polite. I . . .was terrified, and not because I didn't think it would work out — I was weirdly confident...for no reason at all — but because this didn't exactly feel like it was a choice as much as succumbing to a compulsion, and I didn't analyze what led me to this point, whether it was divine intervention, or a lapse in judgment or sanity, I just listened to that inner voice.¨

My parents actually took her advice. They stopped (for the most part) telling me to go into something practical and provided emotional and financial support to establish my own film production company. They were also they financial backers of several business trips to film markets around the world.

If I ever meet Lisa Kudrow, please remind me that I owe her a huge huge huge hug and a very big thank you.

Here´s the full address for your viewing pleasure:

Categories: graduation, Lisa Kudrow, Vassar, wisdom

Malamados

So I got into a pretty bad discussion with a friend yesterday and decided to take my mind off of it by baking. Cooking and baking and exercising are usually my go-to activities when I feel particularly stressed or upset. Yesterday I decided to make for the second time, these Cherry Mud Cupcakes that I found in a cupcake book I bought way back when I was in college and spotted the book on sale at B&N for $3. I´ve made them before, and they came out really well so I decided to give them a second shot but also decided to experiment a bit with them.

The recipe actually calls for 1/4 cup of Cherry Liquor, but lacking in Cherry liquor and feeling a little bit more alcoholic than usual, I substituted that for 3/4 cup of equal parts Malamado (a Malbec fortified wine from Argentina. Very nice stuff) and Whiskey. I wasn´t sure how they´d come out, but I figured that my brother and his friends could wolf down the batch if anything went wrong. Thankfully, it didn´t. It actually came out really well. And now I am going to call these cakes "Malamados" (which is a mash of the phrase Mal Amados meaning "Ill-loved").

I covered them with dark chocolate ganache which I added a decent splash of Malamado to as well. Delicious!

Here they are:

The Minis I made:

And the full-sized:

The brown stuff around the big ones is the Ganache. The unfortunate side-effect of adding Malamado to the Ganache is that the Ganache doesn´t completely emulsify, so I had to sort of pour the ganache over the cupcakes to sort of decorate them. But consistency set aside, that ganache is pretty damn awesome. It also makes a really delicious Chocolate-Malamado Ice Cream.

Categories: baking, chocolate cake, cupcakes, foodie

Understanding the Complexities of Modern China

Ecuador is currently undergoing a bit of a tumultuous transitional period. Transition into what, I am not entirely sure about, but it is nonetheless a transition. It started last September with the 30-S riots. It is the fourth major political upheaval the country has seen in the past 16 years. And the fourth Coup d´Etat as well. Yes. It was a Coup d´Etat. I will firmly maintain that it was a Coup d´Etat - it did not start as one, but the President turned it into one. I´m not a fan of the President. His methods are questionable, and he surrounds himself with a bunch of sniveling weasels that really are the problem with the government. I think that he has good intentions, but also remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions - and with that in mind, the whole country is being led down into mouth of Erebus itself. Also, the man has an attitude problem that often gets him into trouble. I don´t particularly agree with his political ideologies (I don´t particularly agree with most political ideologies in fact) but I´m not that militant about disproving their validity as a lot of people I know are.

That being said, I am most certainly am not in favor of all the stuff going on right now. A journalist and the newspaper he wrote for were just sued for $45 million and 3 years in prison, and found guilty, by the president for defamation of character and disrespect for the office of the presidency because the journalist wrote a piece criticizing the government. The event echoes the feeling of experiencing 30-S from my house - information filtered through the national channels that were suddenly all overridden by the one government-controlled channel, who cried against the rebels curtailing their "freedom of speech" when they cut the wires that allowed them to override all the other channels. Part of me is kind of scared. Rumors are flying around about the government monitoring Facebook posts and blogs and even emails for stuff that could be potentially volatile. But then, part of me reminds me that, well, this isn´t exactly a first-world country, and judging by other rumors, I doubt they can really take in such a huge scope. That being said, it still feels like it is the death of free speech here. And that in itself is tragic.

However, I get mad when people start comparing what is going on here with China´s (and by China, I mean the part of China known as The People´s Republic of China) recent (the last 100 years, which in the scope of Chinese history is very recent) history. Today I read a comment on Facebook about how what is happening here is even worse than what happened in China. There was also someone else back in October that made a careless remark about Mao Zedong and how he seems tame in comparison to the President. This makes me mad because that comment was made out of ignorance of the complexities of the rise of the modern PRC. Yes, freedom of speech is dying here, but it is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING in comparison to what happened in the 50´s, 60´s and 70´s in China. I love China, don´t get me wrong, there are many many good things about it, but that being said, it has gone through one hell of a transformation to get where it is, and is still continuing on that path. We cannot even begin to really understand what it was like for the people of the time to go through ages such as The Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. We cannot even begin to understand what it was like to recover from that, to be reborn from that, to carry those traumas in our modern personal and cultural identities. We cannot even begin to understand the mindframe of Chinese culture. So radically different than our own Western standard, but just as immensely rich and complex. All it takes is to stand in Confucius´s tomb, or the Longmen Grottoes or any other of the many cultural landmarks traumatized by these periods and stare at the 2000-year-old decapitated Buddhas and 1000-year-old graffitied grave markers and feel the weight of that destruction, feel the weight of the decisions behind that destruction, and the people behind those decisions. All it takes is to talk to the ordinary Chinese middle-aged guy who cannot stomach Xiao Baicai (Little Chinese Cabbage) because that is all he ate for 2 years during his childhood. All it takes is to stare at the way parents cherish their one child as they play among the spring peonies.

I am not saying that the PRC´s tumultuous modern history didn´t have its good aspects too. It did. In a bizarre way, it opened up a lot of opportunities for a lot of the Chinese population that would have not had access to them otherwise. But the opening of these opportunities came at a huge cost, one we cannot even begin to fathom. It is a complex issue - the rise of modern China. Full of ups and downs. And it is weighty and huge.

So no, our problems are not in any way comparable to China´s, just as China´s problems are not in any way comparable to ours. It feels like a 10-year-old child comparing their problems to and claiming to understand the problems faced by a 60-year-old adult. So, at the risk of sounding a little crass, to all of you making careless remarks about this issue: get your ignorant asses to a Chinese History course and get some perspective.

Categories: China, pet peeves, politics

God Bless You JK Rowling

I was perusing around JK Rowling´s official site (don´t ask me how I got there, let´s just chalk it up to a similar situation in which I ended up spending 4 hours on Wookiepedia) and came across this post:

"Being thin. Probably not a subject that you ever expected to read about on this website, but my recent trip to London got me thinking...

It started in the car on the way to Leavesden film studios. I whiled away part of the journey reading a magazine that featured several glossy photographs of a very young woman who is either seriously ill or suffering from an eating disorder (which is, of course, the same thing); anyway, there is no other explanation for the shape of her body. She can talk about eating absolutely loads, being terribly busy and having the world's fastest metabolism until her tongue drops off (hooray! Another couple of ounces gone!), but her concave stomach, protruding ribs and stick-like arms tell a different story. This girl needs help, but, the world being what it is, they're sticking her on magazine covers instead. All this passed through my mind as I read the interview, then I threw the horrible thing aside.

But blow me down if the subject of girls and thinness didn't crop up shortly after I got out of the car. I was talking to one of the actors and, somehow or other, we got onto the subject of a girl he knows (not any of the Potter actresses – somebody from his life beyond the films) who had been dubbed 'fat' by certain charming classmates. (Could they possibly be jealous that she knows the boy in question? Surely not!)

'But,' said the actor, in honest perplexity, 'she is really not fat.'

'"Fat" is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her,' I said; I could remember it happening when I was at school, and witnessing it among the teenagers I used to teach. Nevertheless, I could see that to him, a well-adjusted male, it was utterly bizarre behaviour, like yelling 'thicko!' at Stephen Hawking.

His bemusement at this everyday feature of female existence reminded me how strange and sick the 'fat' insult is. I mean, is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I'm not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain...

I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? 'You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!'

'Well,' I said, slightly nonplussed, 'the last time you saw me I'd just had a baby.'

What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

So the issue of size and women was (ha, ha) weighing on my mind as I flew home to Edinburgh the next day. Once up in the air, I opened a newspaper and my eyes fell, immediately, on an article about the pop star Pink.

Her latest single, 'Stupid Girls', is the antidote-anthem for everything I had been thinking about women and thinness. 'Stupid Girls' satirises the talking toothpicks held up to girls as role models: those celebrities whose greatest achievement is un-chipped nail polish, whose only aspiration seems to be getting photographed in a different outfit nine times a day, whose only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs.

Maybe all this seems funny, or trivial, but it's really not. It's about what girls want to be, what they're told they should be, and how they feel about who they are. I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls. Rant over."

All I can say is, AMEN Mrs. Rowling. Couldn´t have put it better myself.

Categories: harry potter, stupid girls, weight loss

College Dorm Nostalgia

My old dorm is on the Vassar homepage today! I miss it! I miss living in an Architectural landmark.

Noyes house pride! :D (because REAL dorms have curves)

You can see it much bigger and in better resolution at www.vassar.edu.

Disclaimer: Pic isn´t mine. Don´t sue me!

Categories: college, dorm, nostalgia

Restaurant Review #2: Alma

Restaurant Name: Alma

Location: El Monitor 188 y Quiteño Libre, Quito, Ecuador (+593) 22252248

Kind of Food: Contemporary / Latin-American Haute Cuisine

Price Range: I honestly have no idea since we were invited to dine there as guests. But TripAdvisor says $18-$35.

What I ordered: We had a especially created 10-course gourmet meal designed to be paired with 7 different wines. Among the dishes served were Duck Carpaccio with Passion Fruit Sauce and a side of goat cheese, Grilled Octopus, Crayfish-Avocado Salad, Grilled Tuna with Sichuan Peppers and Passion Fruit Sauce, Duck Confit, Taxo Sorbet, Swordfish with Pineapple served over White Carrot Chips, Chilean Sole and Oysters with a light lemon-garlic sauce, Shrimp Ravioli, Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries and Dark Chocolate sauce, Passion Fruit Creme Brulee, Apple-Caramel Spring Roll.

Comments: I think I died and went to heaven after last night´s meal. We joined some American friends that were leaving today for a last meal in Quito at Alma Restaurant. They brought the wine, Alma provided the food. I will begin by saying that our hosts´superb wine selection set aside, the experience at Alma was marked because of its perfect (and I do mean perfect) wine and food pairings - a feat remarkable in itself when the Chef had not opened any of the bottles for inspiration and did the pairings on sheer culinary knowledge. Unbelievable. As for the dishes, they were all fantastic. My personal favorites were the Duck Carpaccio with Passion Fruit Sauce and a side of Goat Cheese as well as the Passion Fruit Creme Brulee. The Duck Carpaccio simply made my day because I haven´t had the chance to have Carpaccio in over 6 years because of a pork allergy, and so being able to savor it again (albeit made from Duck) sent me over the moon. The Passion Fruit Creme Brulee was a delightful surprise - I´m not a huge fan of Creme Brulee as it tends to be far too sweet for my taste, but the Passion Fruit infused it with a shot of acidity that gave it a much more complex (and less sweet!) flavor. I also had a ball with the Tuna with Sichuan Peppers and Passion Fruit Sauce. The roasted Sichuan Pepper gave it a smoky, hot, and slightly oriental flavor that reminded me of cooking dumplings in Beijing and that flavor was complicated by the sweet undertones of the Passion Fruit. That paired with a peppery Syrah was just absolute heaven. Admittedly, dinner was a blur (7 wines do take their toll) but I would say it is one of the best meals I´ve had ever. So if you are ever in Quito and in the mood for some fine Latin American Haute Cuisine, Alma is a definite must.

Categories: foodie, Quito, Restaurant Review

The End of Childhood

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released in cinemas worldwide a week ago on Friday July 15, 2011. A 11-year story finally came to an end, and with it, the absolute end of childhood. I feel that it was the last threshold, the last marker that I needed to pass before full-fledged adulthood. It ended. Therefore I am, much like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, finally an adult. I´ve seen the film 3 times so far. Once on the Midnight Premiere, one a day later, and one last sunday. Last Sunday I saw it in Spanish. Which wasn´t bad. Haha. In any case, the film is good, and solid, although I feel Part 1 is the stronger of the two overall, there are moments in Part 2 that simply take the cake. The Prince´s Tale sequence is my favorite. All three times, it has had me in tears by the end of the 5-minute interlude, with Alan Rickman simply stealing the movie with it. Another of my favorites is this little action sequence where the trio runs across a courtyard. In the span of two minutes, the film pays tribute to all the 7 other films in a very elegant and emotional way. My whole adolescence, and Harry´s journey, passed before my eyes in a flurry of magical moments.

What will we do without Harry Potter?

Many people of my generation are asking themselves the same question.

For me, the answer is simple. I have experienced, thus now it is my turn to create.

Categories: harry potter, job

Some Spiritual Uplifting

I´ve been feeling a lot on the downside lately. Arguments with my family have been escalating and reached a climax recently. Among the things I discovered is that apparently, I´ve messed up my relationship with my dad a bit. It is a two-way street mind you, but it is there. And I´m angry and irritable and cold. I try not to be, but a lot of things have happened recently that have sparked those reactions. More notably, the fact that it seems like everyone has an opinion on the weight loss process I´m going through and they don´t hesitate about telling it to me (I even had the trainer at the club gym make some really unnecessary and hurtful comments to me and my mother will also make a comment if I go for another slice of toast, for example). These experiences, coupled with the fact that it is becoming increasingly psychologically difficult to function in Quito, have understandably made me emotionally fragile and sensitive. Being essentially bullied by pretty much a whole system because I am not a size 2 while I am trying to lose weight to be healthy is not an easy storm to weather. I consider myself to have thick skin, which is really hard to get under. But sometimes even the thickest of skin feels thin.
Before I went to China, I was practicing Kudalini Yoga twice a week with a friend of my mother´s. I must admit that practicing Kudalini yoga was really helping me with the coping process since it helped me balance out some negative feelings I experienced. I stopped when I went to China because I honestly forgot. I was having so much fun and felt happy and balanced that in a way I didn´t feel the need for it. A week ago, the teacher sent me an email about a 4 hour chakra cleansing masterclass with this big Chilean yogi. It was only $20 to attend and I figured it would be worth it, all things considered. So yesterday, armed with all of the anger and frustruation and sadness I´ve been feeling lately, I marched myself to the masterclass with my yoga mat. A lot of really questionable new-age muble-jumbo aside (I can´t really take anyone claiming to know the purpose of life very seriously) it really did me a lot of good. There was this part where she had us do a meditation to let go of our anger. It basically consisted of pretty much punching the air as we repeated a mantra. But it went on forever and she encouraged us to get angrier and angrier and say the mantra faster and faster. I released so much energy in that meditation alone that I could hardly go through with it at the end. A lot of the physical pain I had at different points in my back were gone afterwards and I felt balanced once more. The depressive feelings, the anger I had been bottling up for months and months, were all gone. I did not feel at peace. I did not feel happy. But the anger was gone. And for that, I am thankful. The air in that room after that meditation was charged and heavy. Thick with stagnant qi that had suddenly been forcefully expelled from 35 bodies. I felt it float away harmlessly.
Meditating in a roomful of people, especially when a mantra is involved, is always better in my opinion. Maybe because I one of the ways I meditate is through auditive concentration. Meaning that I keep my mind focused on the duality of unity and division of voices and harmonies in a chant. It feels like a wave and multiple waves - it reminds me of the very nature of the universe itself in that everything is unique but also part of a greater whole. Feeling 35 of the more devoted yogis in Ecuador tune a mantra together feels as incredibly powerful - like being in the middle of a giant tuning fork trying to tune into the frequency of the planet. Hard to explain, I know, but something ethereal and beautiful to experience. Meditating as a group I think is preferable because you are there for yourself, to work on your own problems but you draw strength from the other people there too (the Yogi yesterday correctly pointed out that how can we heal the world if we cannot even heal ourselves? How can you understand the world if you cannot understand yourself? By understanding yourself, the world becomes clearer. Because we are a reflection of the universe. We are a microcosm that is a reflection of the macrocosm). It emphasizes that aspect duality of individuality and the greater conscience. The feeling of interconnectedness with the world. We are part of the planet and the planet is part of us.
Of course, at the end of the masterclass, we were told to go eat light and go to sleep.
I, having eaten a very light lunch, did nothing of the sort. I wolfed down a hamburger with curly fries and root beer (yes, I found root beet in Ecuador!) from "Las Hamburguesas de Rusty" and immediately regretted it. It was my first hamburger and piece of meat in 5 months. My stomach, unaccustomed to eating meat, decided that it hated me and hated hamburgers. I think I don´t like the taste anymore.
Mehr.
I guess you could call it karma for disobeying the yogi.
Oh well....

Categories: angry, anxiety, Ecuador, foodie, hamburgers, meditation, yoga

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

What a beautiful line...

Categories: music

A Return to Normalcy

It has been a day of re-beginnings and good news. I started to train under the supervision of a Sports Medicine trainer today (I have a dual goal of losing some weight and also getting fit enough to be able to fence competitively again) and it went rather well. My ankle didn´t bother me, which is huge progress and the doctor said that I could start basic fencing training within a week if my ankle and fitness proved strong enough. Yay! Mind you, I still have to train with the trainer but I can also start practicing some fencing on the side. Which is awesome awesome awesome. I´m thinking that if all goes well, I might actually be able to compete and place well in the Ecuador Grand Prix that is happening in late July/Early August.
The second good piece of news is that if my health is back up to normal standards, all of my food and drink restrictions are gone and I can lead a normal life again. Weeee!
The third re-beginning is that I´m starting to look for jobs again. My gig at the Ad Production Agency will be up this Thursday and while I have high hopes of being re-hired for another project, I think it is only practical and sensible to start looking for other gigs that might come up. I´m thinking that I might look into other ad agencies maybe and just hire myself out as a freelance 2nd AD for the rest of the summer. Although, again, I´m hopeful my current employer will re-hire me for the next project they have.
Fourth re-beginning is that this morning I secured a spot in Module 5 (Advanced Chinese) at the local Confucius Institute. I´m going to start taking some Saturday lessons to get a bit of a refresher on my Chinese and keep up the practice.
I´ve also been looking into other alternatives of what I can do in the summer or shortly afterwards. One that caught my eye today was a 21-day intense Flight School out in Wichita, Kansas. I think I might seriously consider it since I´ve always wanted to learn how to fly and it seems like a good idea. Plus. It is in Wichita and I would definitely love the chance to go back and visit my birthplace.

Categories: Chinese, health, job, Wichita

Ewww + wtf

Ewwww:

(1) Was sitting on the bus coming up to Quito and found a used condom stuck in between the seats. Thank God there were a bunch of empty seats. Needless to say, I moved.

Wtf?

(2) The post-production guys downstairs must be bored out of their minds because they keep playing a technocumbia version of the Imperial March from Star Wars and singing along to it. It is amazing and hilarious. But also kind of wtf-inducing.

Ha.

Categories: gross things, job, star wars, work

Oreos (which I hate) and Crunch Time (which I´m nervous about)

It has been a bit of a weird day so far and it is only 11:30 am. I woke up, as per usual, at 6 am much to my chagrin. My body has been getting used to early wake-ups but that means that on the days I don´t have to wake up early (like today) it usually means that it still wakes up early. Anyhoo, I dragged myself to my last session of Physical Therapy (yay!) and to my great delight found out that I can now jump without my ankle hating me. This is good mostly because I can now get back to training for fencing and hopefully compete again soon. The Ecuador Grand Prix is coming up in July/August and I want to try to be able to make it there to get a national ranking. It would also be nice to just get back on the strip with an epee in hand. But besides the physical therapy, I came back home and had a bit of a talk with my mom about how I needed more support to make the "I´m leaving in September" thing possible. It isn´t impossible right now, but transportation to and from work has been a huge hassle. Mostly because they´ve been insisting on me taking the bus. I don´t mind the bus to Quito in the morning, but taking the bus in the evening/night really is a safety issue and is really dangerous. Luckily, they´ve come to pick me up, but it does limit my mobility by my parents´free time which isn´t really an optimal situation. We´ve reached a bit of an understanding now though, which is good.
After that, I went to the den for pretzels and got oreos instead. I immediately regretted it because every time I find Oreos I forget that I DON´T LIKE THEM. They´re far too sweet. Even dipped in milk. I can never manage to eat more than one or two before I get really sick of the sugar. I don´t like prepackaged cookies in general though (except for Peppridge Farm ones...you know, Milano and that kinda stuff) but I always forget about hating oreos. What´s more. The ones I ate this morning weren´t normal oreos...they had blue filling for that Rio movie and stuff. Bring back the normal ones!
Oh well.
Then there´s the reason why I´m still at home right now. This is because this afternoon the 1st AD and I have some serious crunch time to do. We have to put together this really hugely complicated keynote presentation for the clients tomorrow morning and so we have to sit around formatting everything and waiting for everyone to send us everything we need. So I´ll be doing my 9 hours of work at odd times today. Hell. I´ll probably be doing more. I´m not too terribly worried. I´ve been warned that a lot of that time is kind of dead anyways and involves a lot of waiting around for people to send you stuff, but still...kinda nervous. Haha. The people at the office made it sound somewhat painful.
The good news is, Friday is a national holiday so we get a bit of a breather before the shoot on Tuesday. Also, hopefully, I´ll be able to jump over to the other project they´re shooting on June 8 and 9. They haven´t assigned a 2nd AD yet so I´m thinking about lobbying my case. The 1st AD has been saying he won´t need one until pre-production, which is two days after my current commercial shoots, so I could definitely make it. I´d love to get a few more gigs! It means more experience and more saved cash for NYC. Both decidedly good things. :D
Another thing is, that I´ve decided, for all intents and purposes, I am a vegetarian who will eat a hamburger on occasion. I´ve noticed that even my chicken intake has been dwindling, so it is just easier to explain being ovo-lacto-pesci-vegetarian than to list off the meats I can´t eat and why I can´t eat ´em. Just saying....

Categories: AD work, foodie, job, NYC, vegetarian, work

Trial By Fire and Anniversaries

I know I´ve been a little absent from my blog for the past week or so. That´s mostly due to the fact that I got hired for a job (as a freelancer for a project). I´m the 2nd AD for an Advertisement Production company and I´m working on a short set of 3 commercials that will be shooting (theoretically) on May 31st. It has been a bit of a trial by fire mostly because the 1st AD hasn´t been able to be around this week which means I´ve been doing two jobs and learning the system at the agency (which is different than film) at the same time. I think I finally got a hold of it on Friday. Even so, it has been really long and very tiring days. Theoretically, the workday goes from 9-6 but the earliest I´ve left the office is 6:30 on Wednesday. It is a lot of work and a lot of fast thinking. I keep being super freaked that I´m going mess up and will be fired (because a single mess-up can get you fired in film/advertising). Advertising itself...well, it isn´t my first pick of work, but it is similar enough to film and I´m happy to be in a similar sort of environment. Also they´re paying me. It was kind of a funny story actually - I went in to interview for an internship and got a job right off the bat instead. They needed a 2nd AD and the Human Resources girl knew me from a previous shoot we did together about two years ago and knew I was a good 2nd AD. It felt good to get the job to be honest - it validates what I already know, which is that if they give me the chance to interview, I think I can nail the job. But to interview I need to be near the jobs...which is why I´m deadset on going to New York in September. Hopefully, I can get a few more advertising gigs at the same place and save up some money or just get the experience. I think it is really valuable experience to have in my CV - especially since the agency I work with has won a ton of awards and is internationally recognized. I´ve also been picking the other 2nd AD´s brain on some post-production tips. He´s worked at some impressive places for some impressive clients so I figured I might as well.
Besides the huge amount of work I´ve been doing lately, I´ve been pondering about the upcoming anniversary of my college graduation which is tomorrow. It feels really weird, to be completely honest, to no longer be able to say I am a recent graduate of Vassar College. It really feels like it puts an end to an age of transition. My stint in Academia seems to go further and further away and that in itself also feels strange since I´ve grown up in academia since I was 2 (my parents, being college Professors, would take me to their campus since I was a baby) and I feel the most at home in a college campus. But even the familiarity of the local university where my parents work at has begun to be compromised - it feels somewhat alien, and full of people that are much younger than I am. Or maybe I just feel old.
It is a strange transition and a strange moment.
At least, I am happy the rapture didn't happen yesterday (not that I thought it would). I was getting sick of all those ads all over the internet. I think we´re safe from any eschatological predictions until late 2012. Which is good.

Categories: AD work, anniversary, eschatology, film, graduation, job, Vassar

Playlist Four

So, I figured I should post one of these because I´ve been listening to a bunch of cool stuff lately.
Here goes:

(1) Someone Like You (Adele) - Yeah. I jumped on the Adele bandwagon too. Can´t deny her voice is amazing. However, while everyone seems to be in love with "Rolling in the Deep" (which is the next item on this list anyways), I prefer "Someone Like You".

(2) Rolling In the Deep (Adele) - Again, echoing what I said before....this one is good but not as good as "Someone Like You".

(3) Codes and Keys (Death Cab for Cutie) - I just discovered tracks from Death Cab´s upcoming album "Codes and Keys" and they´re really good. I think it is a nice return to the tone and feel of "Transatlanticism" which is my favorite album by them.

(4) Home is A Fire (Death Cab for Cutie) - The video is AMAZING. And it features art by the same guy who did Obama´s HOPE poster design. The lyrics are really lovely too.

(5) The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack (Liars) - I´ve had this one on my itunes for a while now. It was actually on the final playlist for Pulsar (now called "Rain After Winter"). It is just a very uplifting song. Helps wonders with crafting emotional arcs for stories!

(6) Nietzsche (The Dandy Warhols) - N recently gave me the 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia. "Nietzche" is definitely my favorite. A little more on the metal side of things and great for driving or waking up in the morning. Or both.

(7) Shakin (The Dandy Warhols) - Again, on the same CD as "Nietzche" but not so metal and kind of weirdly empowering. Also great for driving.

(8) Doors Unlocked and Open (Death Cab for Cutie) - I like the tone of this...idk. Feels like going on a journey of some sort. Definitely must keep in mind for project playlists!

(9) Death is the Road to Awe (comp. Clint Mansell, played by the Kronos Quartet) - From the soundtrack of "The Fountain". I really love this piece in general, but the Kronos Quartet version is simply amazing. I mean, the Kronos Quartet is amazing in itself - I´d LOVE to see them live...maybe playing some Mansell or Glass or even Sigur Ros (they play a beautiful version of Flugufrelsarinn). Currently working on an adaptation for string chamber ensemble!

(10) Gymnopedie III (Comp. Erik Satie, orchestral arr. Debussy) - We played the Gymnopedie I with the string ensemble which got me curious so I poked around YouTube and found a beautiful orchestration of the Gymnopedie III which I like better because of its lovely dark undertones.

Categories: music, playlist, playlist four

Fluid Interfaces

So I was poking around the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab again (Grad school prospects are something I´ve decided to start thinking seriously about considering I will have to apply sometime in the next 2-3 years) and I watched a video for one of their projects Sixth Sense. It is a device that helps us interact with the digital and real world at the same time. I must say it is really cool - inexpensive (the guy says he wants to make the hardware open-source and that you can build your own for $300), environmentally-friendly, and with endless possibilities. The coolest function is the fact that he can just frame something with his fingers and the device will take a picture. Nuts! The possibilities of the mobility for digital photography and film with that sort of technology would be pretty incredible. Fluid Filmmaking! (sort of)
So check it out if you have some time!

Categories: Graduate School, MIT media lab, tech

The First Sentence

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful."

Matilda, Roald Dahl

That is the first sentence of the first book I ever read on my own. I was five and a half - nearly a month had gone by since my parents had moved us from the lovely rolling flat lands of wheat farms and airplane hangars of Wichita, Kansas to the depths of the Andes in Quito where the mountains rose like dark giants in the night - when my father brought home Matilda from the bookstore. I insisted on trying to read it on my own. I was old enough, I said, to read a whole book. It took me a week to get through it (at the rate of a chapter per night) and upon finishing it, demanded more books by Roald Dahl. It was a first step, I realize now, in being amazed by writing and storytelling. The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The Twits, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox (who could forget Fantastic Mr. Fox?)...they all played like films in my head. But none of them have been as influential on my life as that first one - I wanted to be Matilda. I wanted to read the whole library. To be unapologetic about being smart.
Dahl spoke the language of children - he was an incredibly gifted man. But more than anything, Dahl is probably the best storyteller I´ve ever read or seen. Re-discovering Dahl is always a pleasure, always an experience - as the layers of those children´s books pull back to reveal true storytelling genius.
Part of me still want to keep that promise I made to myself when I finished Matilda - I want to be as good of a storyteller as Dahl was. Someday.
Hopefully....

Categories: books, Roald Dahl, storytelling

A few others of my favorite shorts

My favorite shorts!

Categories: film, short film

A Very Cool Short Animated film

Hey!
So I was reading January´s copy of American Cinematographer (for some reason Ecuadorian customs decided to hold on to my copies of this year´s American Cinematographer and just delivered them to me yesterday) and there was an interesting article about the cinematography and effects done for Ben Lovett´s music video for "Eye of the Storm" and how they were based on a short film called "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello". I decided to check the short film out because "Eye of the Storm" is actually super cool. Anyways, it is one of the most beautiful and unique short animated films that I´ve seen in a while. The style is steampunk silhouettes and reminds me a lot of Chinese Shadowplay (a form of puppeteering that has had enormous influence on Chinese National Cinema). Basically, if you have 26 minutes to spare, it is well worth watching!

Here is the film:

Categories: animation, film, shadowplay, short film

Gymnopedie

So I just came back from a concert with my string ensemble here. I must say that we were much better this semester than last even though half of our repertoire was cut because they only gave us 30 minutes to play (we were going to play Bartok and Granados and...and...ugh....the issues of playing with a string ensemble in a contemporary music institute...they think we´re boring and old-fashioned or something). I think we sort of bombed our finale, a custom composition that was stupidly hard (just the tempo was kind of ridiculous) that was given to us 3 weeks prior to the concert and is inspired by a mix of Andean rhythms. We did, however, play Erik Satie´s Gymnopedie I to perfection. Seriously, I don´t think I´ve ever played something so well in my life. My part was mostly whole notes harmonizing with the first violin. BUT, that being said, my harmonics really add depth to the piece.
I´m very proud of my performance! :D

Categories: cello, music

Proof that I´m an Incorrigible Nerd

Just spent 3 hours on Wookiepedia. There really is too much information on Star Wars out there...O_o.

i.e. Did you know that Obi-Wan Kenobi was born on the planet Stewjon? Did you know that it is a tuckerization of Jon Stewart´s name? Did you know that Admiral Motti´s (the guy Vader force-chokes in A New Hope) full name is Conan Antonio Motti and was named after Conan O´Brien?
No. You probably don´t.
You probably don´t care either...

See? I think I just reached Nerdvana...*sigh*

Categories: nerdvana, star wars

I have a PLAN

Yes! A plan! I´ve officially decided that come August / September I am getting my ass to NYC somehow. If I can get there sooner, I will. That´s the plan. I have a few loose ends to tie up around here during the summer, but once that is over it is NYC or BUST. Ha.
No. Haven´t gotten a job yet.
Yeah still owe the rents a ton of money for the trip.
BUT job prospects in this side of the world are looking up. WOOT!

Categories: job, NYC

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 First trailer!

I really want to see this!
Admittedly, not the best trailer ever, but the film still looks pretty epic.

Categories: 2011 film watch list, film, harry potter, Summer Blockbusters, Summer Blockbusters 2011

Perspectives on the Value of a Good Education

I just came back from a weekend at the beach.
No. I didn't go to vacation. I went to work. I scored another gig with my aunt's travel agency. They were managing the operation for the Royal Princess from Princess Cruises and as always they needed responsible English-speaking hard working young people and they pay well and cover all travel and living expenses while we work so it really isn't a bad gig at all. The only problem with it is that these gigs are kind of spread out and kind of rare so getting it is a pretty good deal. I got assigned to managing the hospitality desk, which is basically the first thing that the passengers see when they get off the ship and the place where we un-confuse them. Not bad. I've done it before so I know how to run it and all you really need to do is smile a lot and be quick on your feet to answer questions or solve problems.
Film production is much more stressful and much faster so dealing with passengers is a breeze.
Anyways, Sunday, which was the day of the operation, was a busy and tiresome day. I got back to the hotel sometime around 6:30 pm after a 12-hour work shift and kind of decided I was going to plunk down on the hammock in the room balcony (my aunt always puts her whole crew up in a nice hotel and I was rooming with her so we had a balcony with a hammock) to read "The Wheel of Time: The Eye of The World" that I had started the previous day. Of course I got a hankering to go check my email on my iPhone before I did that and so went to the cafeteria. On my way to the cafeteria I ran into the rest of the guides sort of relaxing in the pool and was convinced to take a small dip in the water with them.
I think it was a good idea.
I kind of went back to the rooms after that and fell asleep until my asthma kicked in.
Anyways, the next day, I woke up at 10:00 am after 8 hours of Benadryl-induced sleep (that asthma attack turned into a full-blown allergic reaction which was only calmed down when I took some Benadryl that had the unfortunate side effect of putting me right to sleep) and went with my aunt to do all of her closing-day errands. Meaning, I went with her to see how she paid everyone for their services from the previous day. I found it really educational because the woman runs her operation like a tight ship and she believes in paying well and making sure everyone is comfortable and well-fed because she knows that if your employees and your providers are unhappy then the operation will jot run smoothly. It was so nice to see someone who understands that when producing an operation, whether it be a film or a tour operation, keeping the people that work with and for you happy is essential. Stuff like this is like running an army and is very hierarchical. And as much as we would like to say that an army runs on ideals, what it it really runs on is it's stomach and its physical condition. So if you invest s little more on really feeding your little army well and giving them a comfortable bed to sleep in, they will keep their spirits high and go to hell and back for you. I guess it is the idea of buying loyalty, which also buys you control and control over quality. A lot of producers or people involved in operations and logistics dont really realize that. The human factor is essential, and sometimes at the expense of cutting costs, it gets ignored or pushed aside and the only thing that ends up suffering is the final product.
Two other tips I picked up from my aunt: pay the full price and tip well. You'll accumulate good service and favor for the next time you run an operation in the area....and you will run another operation in the area. Also it keep you ahead of your competitors as your providers will keep loyal to you.
Anyhoo, getting a bit of a lesson on running a big operation proved really useful I think because there are a lot of things I can easily transfer into my knowledge of running a film production that could make things a lot easier or efficient. But one of the most poignant moments of my day had nothing to do with job training.
You see, my aunt has her little side projects sort of scattered all over the place. One of these is a little traditional adobe hut in a town near Manta where she takes the passengers to observe the process of weaving straw into Panama Hats. The lady who does the demo also owns the house which has a lovely sort of charm to it. My aunt and her minions (loyal followers...) have all pitched in to slowly improve the site more and more. As I said, it is a really simple little hut, but it has very nicely kept fences and a charming little garden. And the people living in it are quite lovely simple people too.





On top of really helping with the house's upkeep, my aunt pays the lady and her family a "rent" for her demo and for allowing all of the tourists to come onto the property and mill around and see a traditional adobe house. So we went up there midday Monday to pay the woman and to help her out with a few other legal things concerning her property registration and whatnot. As we were talking, her youngest boy, Miguel (of about 13 years age), came up to the house with the family donkey carrying a bunch of things. My aunt, having known Miguel since he was a toddler, was surprised to see him at home on a school day. She asked his mother what he was doing home.
Reluctantly, his mother admitted that they had gone to register the boy in the High School but when he got his class assignments, he had 7 teachers, each of them requesting a very long list of school supplies that they wouldn't be allowed into the classroom without. The mother said that despite everything, she couldn't afford all of the supplies being asked for, and it had been difficult to tell her boy that he couldn't go to school anymore because he couldn't afford it. She told us that it had been a huge downer for Miguel and the family, as Miguel had been planning to learn English and wanted to eventually go to university, and having to scratch those plans because of not being able to afford the school supplies had been a huge blow.
My aunt, being my aunt, stepped in immediately and told the woman to march herself into town and re-register Miguel in school. She said that she would personally take care of the costs of the school supplies for his entire high school career provided that he did well in school and committed to it. Excited, the woman called Miguel over and told him the news. The expression on that kid's face was just...indescribable. My aunt gave a kid and a family the hope for a better future, and had just promised to make sure that it happened provided that he did his part as well.
I damn near choked as I held back my tears.
Schooling...so many people are denied access to this basic right because of stupid reasons such as a teacher not allowing a kid into a classroom if they can't afford the school supplies. Such a simple thing, so easily fixed...can ruin a child and a family's livelihood and hope for a better future. Miguel's problems put my life back into a bit of perspective, which is always good. I received a world-class education both in High School and College. I worked for it, and I worked really hard for it, and I took advantage of it - but in a certain sense, considering the kind of family I was born into, a good education was something I always took for granted because that was what we treasure the most. Not going to college was never an option, dropping out of high school would have not even crossed anyone's mind. Education was always there, just available. If I wanted to learn more, I could always learn more. Sometimes I forget that getting that is not available to everyone.
I believe in Education as being the doorway to freedom - of mind and spirit. It teaches us to question, to understand, to explore. It helps us advance and revolutionize and create. It is a tool we should all have access to, because at the end of the day, they can take everything from you except your education - your ability to experience the world and revolutionize it.
Seeing what my aunt did for Miguel reminded me that I should be thankful for my schooling, and that I should do more to help others have access to it. Many people tell me to become a teacher, but I have too much respect for teachers to go down that path. I know I don't have the patience for it and would not be a very good teacher. There are other ways to help out - so I'm mulling over what those could be.
For now, I am extremely proud to be my aunt's niece...she just gave one kid and one family their hope for a better future back. In this vast world, one more light shines on.

Categories: Ecuador, education, travel