So I realized that I sort of do a few restaurant reviews here and while I usually do some big compiliations or lists of restaurants I eat at while I travel, I also want to make a sort of Restaurant Review of restaurants I just want to comment on so I started this new kind of post. So here's the first post!Restaurant Name: La BricolaLocation: Vía Láctea, Cumbayá, Quito, EcuadorKind of Food: ItalianPrice Range: $15-$20 per personWhat I ordered: Eggplant Parmesan (Appetizer), Scallops in garlic sauce (Appetizer), Gnocchi Napoleteana (Main Course),...
Sunday, January 30, 2011
I've been hit with a bunch of suggestions to look into grad school/applying for grants lately and I've begun to do some research about it. Not that I am going to apply to grad school or a Fulbright or anything like that anytime soon, but I guess it is a good thing to know all the options available to one. So far, I've managed to figure out a few things: (1) I should probably take the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi or 汉语水平考试) at some point. Seems like a good thing to have and more proof that I can, in fact, speak Mandarin Chinese. I want to be able...
Friday, January 28, 2011
Some lovely lyrics from Iron and Wine's new song "Walking Far from Home":I was walking far from home But I carried your letters all the while I saw lovers in a window Whisper, "Want me like time, want me like time"The new Iron and Wine album is awesome by the way. My favorites are "Walking Far from Home" and "Monkeys Uptow...
Thursday, January 27, 2011
So I was over at Manta, Ecuador this Monday helping my aunt (who runs a tourism operator here) with this big cruise ship operation. The job is not bad. You get paid a flat rate for the whole day (which is pretty steep by Ecuadorian standards) and have all of your food and travel expenses paid. The hours sort of suck though. And so do the uniforms. Which is how I ended up iron-clad in khaki from head to toe (big, baggy khaki shorts and a big, baggy khaki polo) that was only made worse by the fact that they made us wear bright orange vests with reflector...
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
So tonight I spent the night going over my brother L's college app essays and it made me think back to my own time doing college apps 5 years ago (gah! Has it really been that long?). One of the things I was noticing as I was going though my brother's essays is his vagueness and lack of specificity when he was going through what appealed to him about the colleges and their programs. I was quick to point that out and told him to go and fix that right away. What he came back with were essays that were wonderfully illustrative as to why he wanted...
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
So this morning coming back from pilates (yeah, I get up at 5:30 am to go to a 6:00 am pilates class. No I don't know what the hell is wrong with me) my mom and I stopped at the bakery to pick up some bread because we'd run out of it yesterday and we would be needing some for breakfast. The place smelled heavenly. The bread was warm and just out of the oven. Freshly baked bread is one of the best smells in the world. For some reason, that got me thinking about what my favorite smells were and that led to me remembering Amortentia (a love potion)...
Friday, January 7, 2011
Some of the best street food I've had throughout the years (and the places I got them)!(1) Burritos from El Matador taco truck in LA. Go for $5 a pop ($1 for tacos). (2) Stir-fried noodles with sprouts from the guy with the wok behind Qingdao University. The guy will hold back on the MSG if you don't want/like it. Also available with rice or flat noodles. A lunch-sized portion that is unfinishable goes for 3 yuan (or about $0.45). (3) Spicy tofu with flat rice noodles from the other guy behind Qingdao University. The guy will cut the noodles right...
So, first things first:Happy 2011!I've been avoiding posting mostly because it feels weird to publicly acknowledge the fact that it is no longer 2010 for some oddball reason. Don't ask why.Anyhoo, today's post was written in my trusty reporter-style Moleskine notebook (love them!) back on Monday on the airplane that was taking me back from Guayaquil to Quito after spending about 6 days in the Ecuadorian coast doing basically nothing.So here goes:It is under bizarre circumstances that I found myself spending New Year's Eve amongst a bunch of hippie...
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