Balance

New posts

2009-02-20T14:30:00.000-05:00

2008-08-04T18:09:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that I have 162 posts on this blog. Perhaps that includes comments. In any event, check out my updates here. You can leave comments on this Blog because my tumblr does not have a comments function. Or I would love to hear comments via email.

Saludos!

News from ESOF

2008-07-19T06:39:00.001-04:00

Please click here and read. Yes, a blog is meant for others to read :)

blog to be changed

2008-07-08T19:50:00.004-04:00

I'm not into blogger these days. I will blame this mostly on my lack of internet artistic ability and knowledge of HTML.

Hit me up here for now.

if anyone knows if tumblr can work with nomadlife that would be awesome info

If you can make it there...

2008-02-28T17:52:00.001-05:00

Michael Bloomberg's submission to the NYTimes is very illuminating piece

Queens

2007-12-18T13:19:00.000-05:00

I really like Seth Kugel's videos about off the beaten path New York wonders. Here is one about Queens, a borough that I have not spent enough time in.

My motivation

2007-12-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

I love TED

2007-11-15T15:37:00.001-05:00

The TED conference website has been a continued source of inspiration for me. It addresses today's most serious problems and celebrates the most innovative solutions and people.

I really like this speech by Jeff Skoll, founder of Ebay

An Awesome Company

2007-10-31T15:18:00.000-04:00

Hola Companeros,

It has been forever since I've posted, but I just wanted to give a shout out to an excellent company called Guayaki that is selling a great product that I love: Yerba Mate.

Below is a movie about what the company does. I hope everyone can enjoy the wonders of mate as much as I have now.

Latin American website

A clear mind

2007-07-15T23:38:00.000-04:00

Wow, nothing like perfect packed powder in the middle of July. I imagine the rockies are somewhat comnparable to what I experieinced at Las Leñas, but either way, I have never had such beautiful sourroundings while skiing. Conditions were near perfect as was the snow. I´m about to keel over from fatigue, but overall i am extremely satisfied.

Nothing like the adrenaline rush of controling the work of gravity. Cleared my mind, better than anything I could have imagines. I didn´r realize how much I missed skiing.

Amazing pics to come. Tomorrow I will visit Vineyards here in Mendoza and return to mi Buenos Aires querido for a few days before parting ways.

Quite sure this is hasta luego between Argenitna and I.

A return is necessary.

spell check isn't working so deal with my typos

plan foiled

2007-07-13T15:39:00.000-04:00

So i went and tried my luck at Chile. My luck failed me. The road is closed due to bad weather and they do not know when it shall reopen. I think I'll try to make some lemonade and head south to las leñas. Sking in July, wouldn't it be nice.

Saludos desde mendoza a toda mi gente!

El sueño cono sureño terminando pronto

2007-07-11T16:04:00.000-04:00

In the news, it snowed in Buenos Aires. First time since July, 1918.I was on a boat returning from Uruguay when my friend told me that it was snowing. I thought she was joking, but when we approached our destination of Tigre, a suburb of Buenos Aires, sure enough, there was snow.

Yesterday was the last day in the office, although I will continue working on a few things for Amartya to be completed state-side. Today, I leave for Mendoza and Chile to see life on the other side of the Cordillera. Expecting dreams to be lived.

When people ask me for my thoughts on returning home after nearly 10 months abroad, my response is generally a mixed bag. I look forward to it with trepidation about the reverse culture shock. Sometimes there is a thin line between the dream and reality.

musing

2007-07-04T17:31:00.000-04:00

It's been hard to post of late because synthesizing many thoughts has not come easy. Instead, I will stick with some loose observations.

Being abroad for approximately nine months has been quite an interesting activity in that I have only stepped outside of myself recently to hear and attempt to understand other ways of seeing life and the world.

In Colombia, I spent most of my time with foreigners and spoke extensively with Gopi on his views on global economics, governments, balance of power in the world...

Other than this, my time there was relatively free of people challenging the way I saw the world in a political and economic sense and more about slowing down and helping people out just because, and not necessarily because you expect something in return. This culture that is decidedly not North American is something I have tried to adopt in some way and I find quite refreshing and beautiful.

It exists in Argentina, but in a different way.

In Argentina, I have encountered many very well educated and insightful people, who are equally critical of me and my country's influence in the world. On the one hand, there can be ideological differences, which can come down to a simple, we agree to disagree end, or we can enter the moral discussion of neo-liberal economies and the negative and sometimes hypocritical effects it has had mixed with Argentine corruption.

I don't have much opinion yet, and I am not sure if I'll ever be one to hold an ideology around which I make all my decisions, nor do I feel that is a goal worth striving for.

The question that I have gets back to this idea of what I mention about this Latin American culture and how people interact with one another. The US is a country that was created with a certain degree of individualism. We are constantly looking to get ahead of our neighbor, brother, father, friend. We help if it benefits us or if we feel so compelled, and when we help, we often expect some form of retribution. This was the basic commentary of an Argentine trainee in Canada and it angered me when I first read it, but now realize there is some truth to it.

For the past two days, a friend stayed in my apartment. Today, as he packed to leave he asked me what I expected him to do for me in the way of an offer of some sort. It was a nice gesture and I appreciate it, but nothing was necessary, and I responded, please don't worry about it and enjoy Buenos Aires.

I'd never deny that I come from an individualistic culture and I would never claim that I have changed being abroad for less that 1/20th of my life. I saw a cultural difference that has caused some tension for me, and I expect to feel that as I make my return to the US. I hope that as we face many challenges in the US, we stop looking inwards to show how great we are and start learning outwards to gain a better understanding of what and who we are. Then from there make decisions that are informed.

Going abroad can often lead to a great deal of self-righteousness. I hope I don't fall victim to that and I am counting on my faithful readers to prevent this.

I muse and muse again. Travel beings this weekend.

Basic Itinerary:
Friday, July 6 - Uruguay
Possible trips thereafter would include

North of Argentina
Mendoza
Central and southern Chile
Patagonia

Will be double dreaming during this trip. The dream is being lived and simultaneously will be dreaming up a new dream to be lived. heavy

Dreams come true

2007-06-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

For all the haters out there!

Basically, I have one month left in Argentina. Been thinking a lot lately about my year of travel and all I can say is that dreams do come true! Realizations may come soon or may not, but while my blog is inactive, my mind is exactly opposite.

The Answer!!

2007-05-31T11:31:00.000-04:00

It was rare that a day would pass in Bogotá when I wouldn't take a bus or the transmilenio. This means that I would daily see a ritual that I never understood, but eventually grew accustomed to. As a seat on a bus opens up, Rolos (Bogotanos) will move to take the seat, but do not sit down right away. Some times they will support themselves on the back of the seat, but won't sit. I was very bewildered by this practice for my entire stay in Colombia. Finally we have the answer in Semana, a weekly news magazine!!!

There is a myth that hot seats transmit hemorrhoids and bacteria, especially plastic ones. Therefore, waiting for the seat to cool off rids the seat of bacteria. Others do it out of comfort, they don't like a hot seat. And others maintain the practice out of tradition.

Another urban myth uncovered. I especially like the commentary in the article.

Córdoba and SDL Cono Sur 2007

2007-05-30T15:19:00.000-04:00

A great event. A great organizing committee. It was awesome to meet so many people from Córdoba and Uruguay, as well as get to know the Porteños better. I'd say this is the first conference where I've been really able to participate in Spanish. Still have so much respect for the majority of people in @ that participate in English conferences at such a high level. One day I hope to be at that level in Spanish.

Cordoba is a much smaller town than BA. It still has a very Colonial feel to it. I was constantly reminded of Antigua, Guatemala, and Cartagena, Colombia. An awesome new member, Tobias, took us around the town and the outer areas with his friend to see a bit more, which was also great. We caught a sunset and then went back into the city to prepare for the conference.

Still recovering a bit and reflecting on what my next steps are coming off the conference, in AIESEC, and at Cornell...

Zen baby

2007-05-23T13:39:00.000-04:00

Event Information
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET His Holiness will deliver a speech entitled "A Human Approach to World Peace." This speech will elaborate His Holiness' views on practical measures by which ordinary individuals can contribute to creating a peaceful, compassionate society through awareness of the increasing interdependence of the globalized world. Suggested reading for this event would include His Holiness' Ethics for the New Millennium. This event is cosponsored with Cornell University's Department of Anthropology. All proceeds of ticket sales and product sales assist in bringing His Holiness to Ithaca. Namgyal Monastery is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
When?
Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:00 PM ET
Where?
Barton Hall Cornell University Nothing like nosebleed seats to see his holiness. Tix here http://www.namgyal.org/bridging/tickets.cfm

Some good advice

2007-05-22T18:09:00.000-04:00

Life Lessons 012: 12 Ways to Get More Out of College by Doing Less

by Harry R. Lewis

Dear Student,

You have gained admission [to Harvard] by participating and excelling in a variety of academic and nonacademic activities in your secondary school. We hope that you will continue to cultivate many of the qualities that distinguished you in your pre-college years--your pursuit of excellence, your strength of character, and your ability to balance your academic drive with participation and success in extracurricular activities.

And yet, college is different from high school in important ways, and some habits acquired in anticipation of applying to college may not serve you as well here. Many high schools have counseled students that a longer list of activities, with as many leadership roles as possible, would impress college admissions committees more than a shorter list with fewer titles. Yet in later life most of what we do outside our jobs we do because we want to do it, not because we are in any tangible way rewarded for doing it. College is a transition period; we will certainly give you grades and transcripts attesting to some of the things you have done here, but many of the most important and rewarding and formative things you do will be recorded on no piece of paper you take with you, but only as imprints on your mind and soul.

You may succeed more fully at the things that will be most important to you if you enter college with an open mind about the possibilities available to you, but gradually spend more of your time on fewer things you discover you truly love. You may balance your life better if you participate in some activities purely for fun, rather than to achieve a leadership role that you hope might be a distinctive credential for postgraduate employment. The human relationships you form in unstructured time with your roommates and friends may have a stronger influence on your later life than the content of some of the courses you are taking.

The most important thing you need to master is the capacity to make choices that are appropriate to you, recognizing that flexibility in your schedule, unstructured time in your day, and evenings spent with your friends rather than your books are all, in a larger sense, essential for your education. In advising you to think about slowing down and limiting your structured activities, I do not mean to discourage you from high achievement, indeed from the pursuit of extraordinary excellence, in your chosen path. But you are more likely to sustain the intense effort needed to accomplish first-rate work in one area if you allow yourself some leisure time, some recreation, some time for solitude.

Here, then, are some ideas to consider.

Don't try to get every detail of your academic program nailed down ahead of time. You don't need to know as a freshman which four courses you will take during the spring of your junior year. Interests shift, courses change, and you will change as well.
Don't think you're doing something strange or wrong if you take a term or a year off from college before you graduate. If your motivation is flagging, or your grades are not what you think they should be, or you're just not interested in what you're studying, take some time off to refresh yourself and get your focus back. Look to a term or a year of foreign study as an option that may benefit you intellectually and broaden your horizons in nonacademic ways. Study or work abroad can provide a new perspective that brings into sharper focus what you are studying.
Don't choose a major for reasons of professional preparation. It's a mistake to think that there is an optimal course of study leading to a particular postgraduate career. Many students have majored in Economics, thinking it would prepare them for life in the business world, or in Biology, thinking it is the route to medical school. These perceptions are inaccurate and can keep you from getting the full benefit of a liberal arts education. You gain more from being intellectually engaged with a subject you love than you could acquire in professional training.
Don't be afraid to change majors. Students are sometimes inhibited from switching fields because they have "only" a few courses to go in the field they now dislike, or because with a late start they can't achieve everything that other students will have achieved in the new field. Balanced against the disadvantages of flagging motivation to study the old field and the opportunity for intellectual joy in the new field, such inhibitions against the change may be unwise.
Make choices that leave you more choice and more flexibility. This may be the most important advice of all. Think of your freedom of choice--of what courses to take, of how to spend your Sunday afternoons, whatever--as a commodity that is precious in and of itself. Don't construct a schedule for yourself that wastes that freedom. Learn to do constructive things with your time not because you have to but because you want to. For most of the rest of your life you will be reading a book or playing an instrument or going to a lecture in the evening simply because it is interesting and fun. Get yourself in that frame of mind sooner, and you will be a happier and more interesting person later.
Leave something for after you graduate. If you decide late in your years here that you want to go to medical school, don't feel you have to cram the pre-med courses into your senior year when you should be getting the most out of your thesis. Slow down--plan to take those courses when you can give them due attention. Likewise, if you've been a Music concentrator and you fall in love with archaeology, don't feel you have to switch concentrations--take another course or two, and consider taking more after you graduate, at night, in summer school, or as a graduate student.
Look inside yourself for the question you are really asking. A student who asks, "How can I do a joint concentration in Music and English?" probably wants to know something more profound, such as, "How can I keep my interests in literature and in music alive simultaneously?"
Don't try to do two major extracurricular activities simultaneously. If you're starting on the varsity lacrosse team, you probably shouldn't accept the lead in the musical the same term.
Join a student group and work to change it, rather than starting a new one. The skills involved in working with others towards common (even if not identical) goals can be as important in later life as a talent for entrepreneurial innovation.
Don't ignore your health, physical and emotional. Your mind and body will break down if you don't relax, exercise, eat well, and most of all, sleep. Give yourself a break--take a few hours just to go to an athletic event, a movie, a theatrical production, a rock concert. Sit outside and read a novel, go to a place of worship, find a pleasant place off-campus where you can be alone with your thoughts. Hang out with your friends, play frisbee, keep up the dining hall conversation till everyone else has left. It won't hurt, and will probably only help your academic performance. And get away from school over vacations. Your academic work will be better and more productive if you are not burned out from having done it continuously for too many months.
Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Find subjects you are happy studying, and things you are happy doing, even if you are not going to be the best in the world at them. Do the things that matter most to you as well as you can possibly do them, but don't be hard on yourself if your best at many things is not as good as someone else's.
Finally, don't treat my advice--or anyone else's--as rules you must follow! What matters is that you come to understand what you want; the challenge is to give yourself enough breathing room to discover your own loves and how to pursue them, your own ambitions and how to achieve them.

It's your life, even at Harvard. Enjoy it.

--Harry R. Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard, former dean of Harvard College, and author of Excellence Within a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education (Public Affairs, 2006)

nivel 5

2007-05-18T17:29:00.000-04:00

So today I became a student of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). Ask any Argentine and they will tell you it is the best institute of higher learning in all of Latin America. This could be true, only time will tell. I will be taking a foreigner class so I won´t be victim to the weekly teacher strikes that make it almost impossible to graduate from the UBA in less than 5 years.

So the run down is:
9-11 M-Th Spanish level 5/7
12-7ish office
9-10 Boxing class (3 times i week I think...gotta leave a little time for some spontaneity) and repeat.

It can be done. The dream is being lived live in front of your faces! Do not hate.

hmmmm

2007-05-11T19:00:00.000-04:00

This week was the first week that I have felt home sick since my early days in Colombia. I think part of it is a weird mix of second semester classes coming to an end, Christine leaving, and me realizing that I have 3 more months of FUNdraising, minus the fun. Hmmm it's not that I don't like my job, but I have come to the realization that there is little fun in fundraising.

"This is my home, not the church" Photo by Jean-Maxime who randomly took a picture of my apt building while in NYC for a weekend.

Anyway, three months will go by in the blink of an eye and I will be home to start the two years of school that I have left. After hearing so many stories of successful MC terms turning into brilliant opportunities for the future, I started thinking, perhaps I peaked too early in @land. Everyone has their course and mine has been basically brilliant. All I can do is smile on the past, be happy for so many friends, and not worry too much about the future.

Right now I'm brainstorming plans to escape to Chile or Uruguay for a week after I finish my first grant application. Any ideas about where to go in the abyss that is the southern cone of Latin America.

In other news, Clarali comes to BA for 12 hours on June 5th. This is amazing. I remember how torn up I felt saying goodbye to her and some others just before leaving for Colombia. I have had incredible luck because this will be the third time seeing my Venezuelan partner in crime since my traineeship adventures started. It has been a good year full of bittersweet moments. Luckily the sweetness sticks out.

an odd day

2007-05-09T23:08:00.000-04:00

Today my job really started you could say. I started searching for foundations to apply to for 2008. I feel very nervous from the lack of transition, but it is up to me in this job to ask for everything, which I am still adjusting to.

In other news, I tried to go to a forum on Colombia today in the Museo de Bellas Artes,

but due to bumper to bumper traffic, I was delayed for about an hour and the never helpful and always lazy security guards wouldn't let me in claiming that nobody was allowed in the building after closing, even though there were 250+ people at the forum.

Come to think of it, I have always hated museum security guards. They are the ruiners of all joy in museums. Don't touch, don't sit there, be quiet, no pictures,...

Signed on to AIM tonight and spoke to some old and good friends. It has certainly been a while. Makes me look forward to going home, but I still plan on enjoying the next 3 months here. Still feel a bit melancholy from the loss of the roomie, but not as much as she feels.

One moment in time

2007-05-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

The view from my evening stroll home. It is very easy to find moments of tranquility amid the BA madness of rush hour. Trying not to take life for granted. Easy with nights like this one.

2007-05-07T23:37:00.000-04:00

It doesn't suck to be a trainee. Noche Colombiana was brilliant except the Colombian bar was going charge us a ridiculous amount. We went and played Jenga at the bar next door. No vallenato or Guaro, but a good time with friends.

A lovely reminder of Colombia

2007-05-07T23:34:00.000-04:00

The Restaurant around the corner from my apt.

Alittle bit closer reads... Arriba, Abajo, Al lado, Al otro, al centro, al sexo, y pa' dentro :)

Another fallen Soldier

2007-05-02T16:12:00.000-04:00

My roommate Christine sets off tomorrow back to Germany, another fallen soldier. I have seen and felt her pain as she literally tears herself away from a place that she loves dearly. Lack of appetite, generally less talkative, and a bit nostalgic, she is in shock. This whole week brings me back to the week that Christian left Bogotá. The emotions were so intense.

Serial travelers seem to be a bit masochistic. They love to learn about a new place and a new culture, only to feel the pain of being forced to leave it at some point by circumstance. I am lucky and unlucky that five months is just the boarder for feeling this sort of attachment. Christine has been here eight and Christian was in Bogotá for a year. Either way, you feel the loss, but it’s just less intense.

Only one thing to do. Celebrate the times you’ve had and I am confident we did that. That’s right, despedida Colombia style: aguardiente, house party, club, and then lay low the next day.

A tribute to you Christine. May we all cross paths again.