Participant Recommendations

On our last day of recording in Syracuse, one of our participants spoke about the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, in Cazanovia, NY - about an hour away from Syracuse proper. So the moment that work finished, the three of us piled up on the car and headed over.

Cazanovia is what you picture when you say "small suburbian town." We drove past main street before making it to the Art Park.

After spending some hours around, we drove back to Cazenovia proper, walking around "Main Street searching for what to eat. We eventually decided on The Lincklaen House. The place was chock full since apparently one of the local High Schools was having prom, and the kids were using the outside steps for pictures. One couple even were having dinner in the restaurant area, and the three of us struggled to not "aww" at them during their date. I enjoyed having Grand Marnier Salmon - pan seared Atlantic Salmon with sauteed spinach rice pilaf and a grand marnier butter sauce. It was quite delicious and I ate every bit of that.

After dinner we continued walking around main street, getting an ice cream first, we went off to Lakeland Park to look at Cazenovia Lake. 

Today, we were up early to take the plane back to New York. I said goodbye to Syracuse by watching some Golden Girls. Not a bad visit at all. 

Hello Syracuse!

Mariel and I took one of the newest Facils on her first trip - kinda local but there were planes involved. Welcome to Syracuse!
The flight there from NY is short - we spent more time waiting for the plane than on the plane itself, I felt. Once we arrived though, we went out in the search of food. We decided on Eva's European Sweets, a Polish Restaurant, which apparently has been around forever.

The place had a really funky vibe, with about a gazillion knicknacks on top of every available surface.

We chose to share an order of the potato pancakes, and each ordered a different set of pierogi's.

The potato pancakes made me wish we weren't sharing an order. My pierogi's were the potato and mushroom and frankly I wasn't too wowed by them, but I did taste Mariel's and Katie's and they were delish.

After food, Katie and I went to the Erie Canal Museum to kill time while Mariel went off with the car. We got to see replicas of Canal boats

And other nifty things about the Canal. We finished the evening by walking around downtown Syracuse, were we saw some woman putting these "hats" on these sculptures:

 We couldn't figure out the point, but they looked cute.

All in all, not a bad first day in Syracuse.

First Saturday

Mi Cariño and I have vowed to try different things this year and we tried this one upon her suggestion. Enter Brooklyn Museum's Target First Sunday! It was my first time at the place. We tried our best to just walk through. Really enjoyed Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party. And the mummies. Mummies are fun. We also ran into Naomi and Carolina there, and it was nice to just chat for a bit.

Also, a picture of really, really old cross stitching. The art has come a long way baby!

We finished the evening with some pizza and beer, really just relaxing. Not a bad way to begin a year I say!

Bienvenue à la Nouvelle-Orléans!

So I've left ages and ages go by since I last updated here, but I've kept the pictures because I keep telling myself I'm not just going to skip it. In the interest of time and what not, the next few updates will be more tumblr like than usual. (As if this wasn't so, anyway.)

In any case, middle of my Southern Tour and I have the day off! Although I have a car available to me, New Orleans is enough of a walking place, especially since I'm staying near the action.

Pretty and colorful French Doors, everywhere.

A quick visit to the French Market

Followed by a visit to Plaza d'Armas. It's essentially a town square, and it reminded me a lot of the town square in my hometown in Bani.

Before a stop at the Presbytere and the Louisiana Museum. Both were quite interesting: they had a "hurricane" exhibit, "Living with Hurricanes - Katrina and beyond,"where they showcased not just Hurricane Katrina, but also the history of the State, and the city, with the various Hurricanes that have passed by. There were also exhibits about Louisiana History, and a real fun one for Mardi Gras.

A beautiful church next to the Presbytere, whose name I can't remember

Inside shot!

Out of the church, I ran into a street performer. There were quite a lot of them, all over the city. I don't know if they need to get "licenses" the way they do in NYC in order to not be harassed by the cops, but this one seemed to be doing well considering it was Tuesday afternoon around 3.

After all of that walking (and believe me, it was a lot. I left the hotel at around 9am and just walked, walked, walked until 3:30pm) I made a stop at The Sun Ray Grill, where Mary Lee works. She treated me to a most delish Chicken Club Pita, which is sliced grill chicken, ham, bacon, lettuce and tomato, with a trio of melted cheeses. They served that with fries and Creole Honey Mustard.

As soon as I said my goodbyes to Mary Lee, it started to rain with gusto. It was an expected surprised, since the day had been muggy and hot. I made myself comfortable in the front of the restaurant, where they had a tin roof, and just enjoyed the sound of the rain. It was just like the rain of my childhood: hard, fast, small. The sound of rain on a tin roof is one of my most favorite sounds in the whole wide world. Once it finally calmed down, I started to make my way back to the hotel. While walking, I ran into these informative plaques:

Which was most definitely something about New Orleans/Cuban history I did not know, since to my understanding Martí had worked on the flag in New York City. Go figure.

I leave you with a picture of a flower that transports me immediately to the Dominican Republic, everywhere I find it:

I don't even know what kind this is. All I know is looking at this my eyes water and I think of home. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed my visit to New Orleans - it had enough aspects of the Dominican Republic AND New York, to make me feel like I could live there happily. As long as I don't have to drive outside of the little bit that I walked around on. ;-)

It's Nawlin's Dawlin!

Once work was finished in Mobile, we immediately drove to New Orleans, LA. The ride wasn't so bad, and Lauren is a pretty good and confident driver, so it was easy street in that department. Quickly I got in touch with Mary Lee, who took me to Mandinas - a really old New Orleans style restaurant that's been around for more than a 100 years. It had a great atmosphere, essentially the first level of a house gutted out to make space for the restaurant.

We started with some fried eggplant, which y'all know is my favorite vegetable.

Since it was Monday, Red Beans and Rice had to be had, and I figured I'd share Mary Lee's Gumbo. I topped off the beans and rice with Italian Sausage.

After dinner we drove around, picked up Mary Lee's girl, then headed to Columns Hotel to just chill out. It's a hotel, a huge ass house/mansion essentially, with yet another first floor gutted out to make space for a restaurant/bar. I had me some Abita Amber.

And because, apparently, one can't go to New Orleans without having some Beignets, sometime around 11pm we made our way to Café du Monde.

The whole town had a very New York feel - in the sense that it seemed like everyone was out and about at almost midnight on a Monday night - but the low houses, the verandas, the colorful storefronts, not to mention the narrow streets reminded me I was not home. I really enjoyed it though - although I'm not much for going out that late at night, what I like the best, is the possibility. 

Miami, Part 2

Spent another week in Miami with Mi Cariño and her family. It was a great visit indeed, and the time just FLEW. Which is nice, and then it isn't.

We flew in Tuesday night, in theory. By the time we were heading to the airport, thunder was crackling like crazy, which delayed us right off the bat - originally we were scheduled to depart at 9pm but that didn't happen until after midnight. Thankfully Mi Cariño's parents still picked us up and we arrived at the house somewhere close to 4am. But since we had nowhere to go the next day it was all good, and we just spent Wednesday lazying about and catching up on sleep.

Highlights from the trip: a visit to Coral Castle Museum.

This guy (25) is jilted by his 16 year old fiancee. After deciding he will never love anyone else, that no one else can love him, and being told by the "Sweet Sixteen" that she was saying no to him because he didn't have any money, he made it his life mission to build himself a castle. And he did so, by using Coral. It's essentially a sculpture garden, the guy's name is Edward (you look up his last name!) The amazing thing is that he built it all himself, and he did it at night so no one could see him. He "knew the secret of pyramids" apparently, and went about making reading chairs, thrones, bedrooms, a well, a confession room, a place to stargaze, and a place for children to play. It's actually kind of impressive. 

I mean, y'all, he made a heart table. Without modern tools. We're talking before 1951. Amazing. 

Another Highlight - Zoo Miami. Mi Cariño, two of my nieces, and my buddy O and his youngest son Caleb and I, had us a good time looking at animals and melting in the sun. We should've gotten a bike to ride through and minimize the walking and the child whining, but it was all good. Witness, cute picture of kid turned Jaguar!

We also visited the mall and had us some fun at Dave & Buster's and went crazy at the bookstore buying the kiddies books (and ourselves) and had us a 50% dinner at some chain looking restaurant thanks to the girls and their connections. Here, a pretty decent spaghetti bolognese. 

Which makes me say: let's talk about food! First there was Yucca with grilled chicken and maduros.

We ate that at Las Islas, where we ate at the last trip. The food was once again, uninspired. But the Abuela likes it, and so, we go. 

Then, we had pasta bolognese at some fancy outdoor restaurant by their "Lincoln Center." The area has a name. I do not remember it. It was very nice, like a loooong strip of stores and restaurants. Does it count as an outdoor mall? We ate there after watching "Sarah's Key," a movie that's just chock full of happy, happy, joy, joy. (Smell the sarcasm.) It was a nice movie, though. So was the pasta. 

A couple of days later we ate at some new trendy restaurant in the heart of Miami. Kill me because I don't have the desire to check for the name. I suck. We began with some cheese balls as appetizers

An I had me an extremely expensive Chicken Mofongo. It was worth it though, the stuff was delish. But don't tell Mi Cariño I said that.

On our last night there, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory, a first time for me. The food was good, I had meatloaf with mashed potatoes. I'm pretty sure I took a picture of that, but can't find it, so just imagine it. Mi Cariño sent me a picture of our dessert though:

The Cheesecake did not disappoint. Neither did this amazing week. I will leave you with an image from Matheson Hammock, a manmade area we visited (but did not swim in) that afforded us a great view of the Miami skyline. But don't worry, I did swim in Miami Beach. I even got a tiny tan! So, yay.

Ich bin ein Berliner!

So I had to take vacation days or I would lose them, and my friend says "I'll be in Berlin for Easter weekend," and I answered with "I want to be in Berlin for Easter weekend!" And so I was. 

We had a blast. We both arrived on April 1st and the first order of business was to get us something yummy to eat. Enter Vietnamese Food restauran Hoai Nam, a couple of blocks from our apartment.

The atmosphere was very nice and they helpfully had the menu in English and German. I began the meal with vegetarian dumplings, kimchi, and Saigon beer. 

The main course consisted of Tofu Noodles with coconut milk:

It was a great way to begin our visit!!

The next day we went on a walking tour of mostly East Berlin. We saw all the big attractions: Checkpoint Charlie, the Berliner Dom, Museum Island, the TV Tower, a bit of Berlin Wall that's still left, Hitler's Bunker, the new memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe, the German memorial for the victims of War and Tyranny, the Royal Opera House, Bebelplatz and the memorial to the book burning that happened there in 1933. Awesome, and exhausting... some pictures: 

After all that walking we were starving! First we took a break at a small café and had a bit of a snack

We did go drinking, which was great and fun. The beer was cheap and of EXCELLENT quality. There are no pictures of debauchery available, however ;-)

The next morning though, we took our time waking up and had brunch at around noon. We had to search but found a little brunch place, practically empty. I had the Chorizo and sweet pepper omelet

The omelet was good, but it made me feel a little queasy later. More sightseeing happened, in the meantime - the weather was perfect and we rode U-Bahns and S-Bahns all over the place. We ended Saturday night by watching the movie "Precious" with German subtitles - yeah, we like to keep it light and sweet during vacation. 

Sunday also had a slow start, but in a good sense. Museums were visited, we went up to the TV Tower observatory (not as cool as the Empire State Building, but who's comparing?) and also up to the Berliner Dom roof and had great looks of the city. We didn't make it too far into West Berlin, unfortunately, but I guess that means we'll have to go back. We finished our visit to Berlin by having a delicious meal at a Vegetarian restaurant in Kreuzberg. Some awesome Rose wine and a stuffed aubergine in a bed of a tomato sauce:

The next day I headed back to the States, via London. I made a quick stop at the Brittish Museum.

I made what I believe was a brilliant attempt to actually at the very least walk through the entire museum, which consists of three levels and what seems like countless exhibitions. I failed miserably.

To cheer myself up, I walked to the West End and attempted to find a good show. I ran into Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Sanaa Lathan and Phyllicia Rashad. I got super excited. 

But then I find out that the show is sold out for the night. Bum-mer. I keep walking and almost inmediately I run into another theater, where Dirty Dancing (Yes, based on the movie) was playing. I figure, what the hell, right? I liked the adaptation of Legally Blonde to the Stage (actually one of my favorite musicals, say what you will,) and the show's been open for years by now, there's no way it would be open for long if it wasn't good. So I got whipped out my student ID (yes, it is expired, but the Brits didn't seem to care) and purchased me a 20 Pound seat, which was on first mezz, second row center. What luck, right? 

Before the show I walked around - I found at least three different Thai food restaurants, but this is the one I chose

Thai Square was a GREAT choice. I let the waiter know I had a Show to make and she brought out my Tofu Pad Thai inmediately

It was one of the best Tofu Pad Thai's I've ever tasted. The Tofu had a wonderful scald to it, the noodles had a good consistency, the sauce made me very happy. YUM to the MY. 

Quickly though, as I was cutting it close, I ran to The Aldwych Theater thinking that as soon as Dirty Dancing was over I would skip over to the Stage Door on the other theater and get to say hi to the actors of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

Dirty Dancing... What... a waste of my time and money. They included EVERY SCENE of the movie. Even though it made the entire thing run choppily and made scenes sometimes less than a minute long. What that means is that it took longer for the actors and the stage to set up for a scene than it got them to actually say the lines. The dancing was not properly Dirty, I'll say that too - severely dissappointed in that respect. AND they added scenes to the whole deal: A bit about Neil the grandson going freedom riding and Baby and her mother having more a rapport, as well as showing Baby's mom and pop talking to each other a bit more. Unnecesary scenes for the movie and certainly unnecesary for the show. These people really needed to get the important scenes together, combined some of the scenes to make the flow better, and they seriously needed to choose a Johnny that had a bit more experience with modern dancing and not a completely ballet trained dancer. The guy was horrible. 

The only saving grace of the show was the actress that played Baby's sister. Now, she did almost a carbon copy of what the movie actress did - but it was a good choice. Singing during the talent show and her way of dancing: perfect. What upset me is that the entire theater went crazy when Johnny did his "Nobody puts baby in a corner" bit, which came out rushed and quickly, and done badly. They started cheering and SINGING ALONG AND OUTLOUD when the "I've had the time of my life" number came on, as if: a)they had never seen the movie, and b)as if the actors were any good. Really, I cannot possibly explain how angry I was at my having spent money on this. And then, to boot, by the time I was out, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had been long over, and there was not even a slight chance to say "hey" to Mrs. Cosby. Feh. 

Regardless, I enjoyed the walk back to my hostel, and I had good chamomile tea before bedtime. The next day I checked out early and decided that my last meal in London before heading to the States would be what they call "The full English."

This protein-and-grease fest consists of buttered toast, fried bacon, fried egg, fried sausage, and beans. Topped it with a cup of coffee and off the Airport I went. I felt a little queasy there for a second, but it was well worth it. I'm pretty sure that on this mini vacation I put on all the weight I lost in the month of March. Huzzah.