In my search for the Abroad Blog of the Week, I’ve been reading dozens of travel blogs over the past few days. Some were written by first-time travelers, while others documented the wanderings of what I would call professional globe trotters. But there was one travel blog this week really caught my eye: If You Ever Find Yourself In… The blog of two well-traveled sisters and their mom, If You Ever Find Yourself In… takes a different approach to sharing their global adventures. Rather than just retelling their story, the three South African bloggers take on the role of a tour guide. The women share what you could do in Copenhagen, Prague, Apricena, etc. They focus a good bit on nature, exploring outside of the city, and participating in local events. If I ever do find myself in Copenhagen, Prague, Apricena, etc., I will certainly look to this blog for thoughtful advice on how I should spend my time.
If you ever find yourself in Apricena, visit the historical city of Vico.
With Florence being the top study abroad location for American students, I tend to try to veer my advisees as far away from it as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I think Florence is great, but I’m pretty sure the Florentines and the Americans would benefit if the city were a little less populated by U.S. college students. However, not all students heed my advice, and many still decide to go. Some isolate themselves to the American culture, but some really do engage and find a way of making Florence a true Italian cultural experience. Recently one student told me that she was able to really discover Florence through an organization called Cup of Local Sugar.
Cup of Local Sugar’s goal is to find knowledgeable and welcoming locals who can help the curious traveller better understand their culture. Started in Italy, the locals are mostly in Europe but are slowly spreading across the globe. Locals provide experiences in one of the following categories: coffee abroad, explore, move, play, or taste. These experiences go on the COLS website and then visitors can sign up to participate and schedule the time that works best. COLS does a good job of vetting both locals and visitors to make sure it is a positive experience for everyone.
When I heard about this organization, I was immediately intrigued and completed the application to become a local in San Diego. I didn’t hear from them for a couple of weeks but last Monday they contacted me to set up a Skype interview. In the interview they asked my reasons for applying, what would be some things I would recommend someone doing in San Diego, and then just asked me to tell something about myself. (I told her I was 4’11″…it was the most interesting thing I could think of.) The interview lasted about 35 minutes and was fairly laid back and comfortable. At the end, she told me they would get back to me soon. As of Saturday, I am officially a Cup of Local Sugar Local! Of course I haven’t actually met with any visitors yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
If you are interested in showing visitors your country or are about to travel somewhere and would really like the local experience, check out Cup of Local Sugar. And if you’re coming to San Diego, be sure to sign up for a coffee abroad with me, Elise B. (my sweet experience should be posted in a week or so).
For any of you that have studied abroad, this YouTube clip by Amizade will definitely bring back fond/embarrassing memories. I will admit that my first time studying in Italy I may have said a few of these…”Could you take a picture of me?” I hope you get a good laugh from it. I did.
I found a great new website this weekend through Stumble Upon called Which Book. You put in the type of book you want to read and the site spits out recommendations. It inspired me to start my future reading list and I’ve made up my mind to do it by region of the world. I’m starting with Asia; the books have to be set in Asia and preferably written by a person of Asian heritage. I hope to mix it up a bit with fiction and non-fiction. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Sawako Ariyoshi, The Doctor’s Wife, (1978) the story of the wife of the first doctor to use anesthesia in Japan and her relationship with her mother-in-law (as a doctor’s wife, I thought I could relate to this one)
Pearl S. Buck, The Three Daughters of Liang (1969), the story of a woman in early Communist China and how she copes after her husband takes a concubine (I read Good Earth a few years ago and really enjoyed it so I thought I’d give Pearl Buck another try)
Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness (2009), the spiritual leader of Buddhism gives shares his wisdom on happiness (I just saw the Dalia Lama speak at SDSU a few weeks ago…amazing!)
Kien Nguyen, The Tapestries (2003), about a boy with royal Vietnamese blood sold into slavery at the turn of the twentieth century (this just looked good)
Mishima, Yukio, The Sounds of Waves (1994), a young fisherman is entranced at the sight of the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village (I needed a good love story in the mix)
Fan Wu, February Flowers (2007), a girl goes off to college and becomes a woman in 1990s China (as a Study Abroad Advisor, I thought this sounded pretty interesting)
In addition to these, I have a few books of Asian influence that I’ve already read and would definitely recommend:
In 2009 I ventured to Peru with 16 college students, 1 faculty member, and 2 tour guides for a 14 day study abroad program with the University of South Carolina. As the program assistant, I handled the finances, student concerns, escorted the group on all excursions and classes, and I counted to 16 a lot. Not a bad job, huh? It really was a fantastic group and an incredible program. The geography professor that taught the class had been a Peace Corps volunteer back in the 70s so he was up for all kinds of adventures.
Me and part of our group at Machu Picchu in May 2009
So last night when I was browsing Open Table for a restaurant and came upon the Cafe Secret Cocina Peruana, my hubby and I decided we should give it a try. Although the service was a tad slow, the food was authentic and savory. We agreed to go 100% Peruvian beginning with our beverages – a pisco sour and a diet Inca Kola. To start we had papitas and yuquitas, which were fried potatoes and yucas served with hard-boiled eggs and olives in a really yummy sauce. For dinner Hubby got ceviche with shrimp and sea bass, while I had pascado sudado, a spicy dish (my mouth was on fire) with snapper, onions, and tomatoes served with quinoa. The meal brought back fond memories of a great trip and it was great to share it with Hubby.
These are traditional Peruvian ingredients that Cafe Secret uses in their dishes.
Me eating pescado sudado
Shrimp and Sea Bass Ceviche
Diet Inca Kola – it kind of tastes like bubble gum.
As you may have already guessed, the student lunch this week was of the Japanese persuasion. It also required very little cooking as I pretty much bought everything (100% fine by me!). We had spicy shrimp tempura rolls, california rolls, edamame, rice, and red bean angel rolls from the Asian market. While most of the food (especially the sushi) was devoured, everyone was a little hesitant about the red bean angel rolls. They were made from a red bean paste spread over a light angel food cake roll and had a very mild sweet flavor. My dad always says that no cake is worth eating if it doesn’t go “thud” when it hits the plate. These definitely didn’t thud, but they seemed fairly authentic from what I remember eating when I was in Japan. Fortunately I didn’t think they were so bad so I brought two packages home with me…dessert for tonight!
On a side note, I have to give Ralph’s (our local grocery store) huge props. The two women who work their sushi counter were awesome! They took my order and made my sushi on the spot. Plus, they were delicious!
Our Japanese spread
Perfectly plated!
This picture is not quite accurate. I actually ate my sushi with my fingers. Embarrassing, I know, but chopsticks and I just don’t get along.
These are the bean paste angel rolls from the bakery at the Asian market.
This morning I went to our local grocery store to pick up the rest of my needed items for our Friday Lunch. While waiting for my freshly made sushi rolls, I decided to treat myself to a cup of coffee. I went up to the counter and was warmly greeted by a pleasant gentleman with an accent I couldn’t place. After some niceties, I finally asked where he was from. He responded that he was Iranian but had come to the States a long time ago. Having just read Prisoner of Tehran, I actually felt somewhat competent to ask if he moved before or after the revolution and he responded that he moved to New York right after the revolution started in 1979. He then immediately said that Iran is a beautiful country and has a lot to offer as long as you could stay out of the political aspects. He told me that he had gone back several times since he left. I asked him how it was to return and his response really got me thinking. “Someone once told me that you can only love one woman. While it was good to go back, I am an American now. I left Iran behind.”
Having always been an American, his words got me thinking. Is it possible to belong to more than one country? Is it possible to love two “women”? Last night when I was reading Bringing Up Bebe, Druckerman said that American kids brought up in France usually felt American in France, and French in America. In essence, they never really felt at home; they never really belonged anywhere. Does this mean if you don’t belong to one country, you don’t belong to any? Unfortunately I don’t know the answer but it something I’d like to explore more. I welcome opinions and comments.
In need of a Japanese inspired dessert for tomorrow’s lunch, I decided to scope out the Asian market scene in San Diego. Upon my Google search, I found 99 Ranch Market which I had heard good things about before. So after work I headed to Clairemont-Mesa, a part of San Diego known for its authentic Asian cuisine. This being my first time in an Asian market, I didn’t know quite what to expect but here is what I discovered:
1. The primary language spoken is Mandarin. Fortunately everyone switched over to English as soon as I walked up to the counter.
2. This particular Asian market extended far beyond a grocery store. They also had a restaurant, dessert stand, gift shop, and Asian book store.
Although I couldn’t read what half of the products were, I loved walking up and down the aisles looking at the different packaging. I definitely plan to go back.
I’m one of those people who still use Yahoo! to get news. I know it is not the most worthy of news sources but for random stuff, they come up with some pretty entertaining tidbits. For example, last week they posted this video of one of the icebergs off of the Uppsala glacier in Argentina flipping over.
While slightly scary, the video actually brought back great memories of my all-time favorite trip to Argentina in December 2004. A good friend was living in Buenos Aires for the year getting a culinary degree so it was the perfect opportunity to visit South America for the first time. The plan was for her to show me around BA and then we would fly to El Calafate to hike the glaciers and go horseback riding.
BA was awesome. We ate the best steaks, saw Nora Jones in concert for my birthday, bought new leather jackets, and I even helped my friend celebrate Hanukkah with my own DIY paper menorah. The day came that we were going to fly south. But before we went, my friend had a sushi class that I was allowed to attend. At that point in my life I did not eat sushi. However, I wanted to participate so I prepared it and my friend ate both hers and mine. I mean it couldn’t go to waste, right?
This is the actual sushi I made…ok…I had a lot of help.
We rushed straight from sushi class to the BA airport, made our flight, and arrived at the El Calafate International Airport. We successfully picked up our shuttle which was to take us into the village to our hostel. But about 15 minutes into our journey, we had to make an unexpected stop. The sushi ended up not agreeing too well with my dear friend and instead decided to bond with my shoes. For the next 18 hours she lost her sashimi along with everything else in her stomach. We finally made it to our hostel (which thankfully had a bathroom in the room!) where she immediate went to bed and I left on the hunt for saltine crackers. Please remember readers, I was an Italian major in college. My Spanish is pretty terrible. So I bumbled around town with a Spanish dictionary and filled in with Italian hoping that somehow I could get the point across. Fortunately it worked and I came back with dinner for me and sick food for my friend.
The food poisoning did subside and we made it for our glacier hike the next day. Wearing our winter gear in the El Calafate summer, we put on our crampons and trekked for a few hours. Considering her condition my friend kept up amazingly well but she did skip the shot of Jack Daniels they served at the top of the glacier. Despite a little food poisoning (and an eaten ATM card), El Calafate and the glaciers were spectacular! Almost 8 years later, it is still my favorite location I’ve been to.
But more than the amazing glaciers, what I loved most about that trip was the friendship that was sealed. What began as a trip to see a college friend, ended up being an experience the forged one of the closest friendships I have ever had. Almost exactly two years ago this same friend was my maid-of-honor and toasted me at my wedding to this same story. Who knew that bad sushi in Argentina would be the catalyst for a life-long friendship?
I’ve been reading through dozens of blogs this week but wasn’t finding anything that really stood out to me until I came upon Healing Pilgrim. The blogger, Amit, writes from Bali where she volunteers, explores, and heals from a traumatic accident she experienced while cycling through Cambodia in 2009. She shares her journey of rehabilitation in a foreign country as well as the culture, travel and awakening she has experienced along the way. She is detailed in her stories and explanations and her blog provides great insight into traditional and herbal medicine, the religious and spiritual traditions, and the way of everyday life in Bali. Browsing through the past few months of her posts, Healing Pilgrim reads as both a personal narrative but also a cultural guide to a beautiful part of the world. If you are interested in learning about non-Western medicine, Southeast Asia, or just are looking for something a bit different to add to your Google Reader, I would recommend giving Healing Pilgrim a try.
, (1978) the story of the wife of the first doctor to use anesthesia in Japan and her relationship with her mother-in-law (as a doctor’s wife, I thought I could relate to this one)
Global From Home 