Upon meeting Piedad

Upon meeting Piedad, my house mother, the doubts that had been implanted into my brain throughout the day, immediately subsided. She was the first of the house parents to arrive at the hotel and I was happy about this as some of the younger volunteers where starting to try my patience after a day of adding “P.S.” to the end of all their sentences (I’ve gathered that the use of the “ P.S.” statement is used to signify a spoken sentence that is supposed to be an afterthought from the initial statement . I considered it funny at first, then plain out annoying once all of them started to say it, then thought about trying it out to so I could sound early 20 something cool,, only to realize once again how lame it sounded).

Piedad had an instant smile for me and I for her as Pete, the WT Field Director, took a picture of us. Smiles and a hug, really are all that one needs to bring one back to a level of comfort that makes you feel as if everything (including being annoyed by “P.S.” statements) is going to be okay for the next year. As we were departing with my two bags, which I am sure flabbergasted Piedad, one of the volunteers, Kieth, graciously offered to carry one of them to the taxi. Piedad tried to explain to the two of us that we were going to have to walk a couple blocks for a taxi because some of the streets were closed for a marathon so I refused the help.
Off we go, Piedad and Nicole, madre y hija, with Nicole lugging a large pack on her shoulders and a large suitcase behind her and Piedad carrying, refusing to wear, Nicole’s small backpack and binder. We go a few blocks through Mariscal, which is also called GringoTown, to one of the main streets, with Piedad grabbing my hand and saying “Cuidado” every time we cross an intersection. The first street we try for taxis proves to be fruitless, the taxis are either packed or going the opposite direction. Piedad decides we need to walk back towards the hotel and up a few more blocks to another busy intersection; notice the word up, put emphasis on it and then remember the luggage as well as the fact that Quito sits at 10,000 feet. Let me take a moment to describe the setting a bit more. Quito’s weather is much like San Francisco’s during the day with a tad bit of humidity added to it. This means you always need to have a jacket handy and once the sun goes down you’ll probably be wearing it, which I was, upon Piedad’s insistence that I must not catch a cold. However, let me note that when you are carrying two large bags the jacket only serves to seal in the humidity surrounding your body and heating it like a hot bath would. By the time we get to the next large intersection both of us are winded and I am sweating like I just ran the marathon that has us walking the streets of Quito like this in the first place and I am wishing I could have taken Keith up on his offer. There are traffic jams everywhere, we have exited Mariscal and entered into a poorer neighborhood where I have to navigate the suitcase past the families trying to sell fruits and day old newspapers on the sidewalks. Piedad is determined to get us a taxi yet every time we stop at what she thinks will be “the” intersection the same thing happens, the taxis are full or they are stuck in traffic going the opposite way. We have now been walking about 45 minutes at an angle of about 35 degrees. I’m learning a lot on this walk, mostly about Piedad. Even though are communication is minimal I can tell she is a strong woman with a lot of love in her heart. She smiles a lot yet I can see a sad story on her face of about 40.
We finally get to a point where we can no longer go up and it is here that our luck changes. A taxi stops and we both struggle to get the larger suitcase into the trunk, jump in and immediately start to laugh at the situation. We laugh even more as we realize that the taxi ride only lasts five minutes and we should have just finished out few blocks home. A tranquil small home filled with love and trinkets, lots of trinkets.

There is more than a feeling in my stomach telling me that this first walk home will be turning into a metaphor for the challenges I will face this year. At the very least I now have the comfort of knowing where home is and have Piedad to laugh with once I get there.

“We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make.” -Ted Kennedy

By the time anyone reads this I'll be flying over the Pichincha volcano of the Andes mountains and landing in Quito, Ecuador. The past few months have been, what can best be described as an El Niño hitting my life. I've packed up shop, said my goodbyes, and am officially following one of my many dreams.

This is the perfect opportunity for me to come clean on a few things. I'll be off the grid for a couple of days and by the time you talk to me next you'll have forgotten what I'm about to say. First and foremost, I am not a saint as evidenced by the extremely excessive partying I partook in over the past two months.  Next, I have about as much courage as the Cowardly Lion when he first met Dorothy. Lastly,  any talk of my being noble is absolutely out of the question. I bring up these traits now because they are all things that were said to me in the last week or so and all three of which made me feel uncharacteristically uncomfortable. Although I may be taking a different path than some I really am no different than any of you.

Which leads me to my next task, creating a manifesto of sorts: (note the fancy name for  what will essentially be a list)
1) I am a detrimental dreamer. If I am not careful I will end up pulling a Gatsby and killing the dream instead of living in it. Luckily, I've read the book enough and experienced the not so glamorous end of a few dreams that I have finally found ways to live in the moment each and every day. So as I move into this next year I hope to take the detriment out of detrimental dreamer and live the dream while creating new ones.
2) I am also an idealist. Hence, one of my favorite websites and procrastination tools is idealist.org. Don't confuse idealism with being a dreamer. They are different. These are  the ideas that I believe in and will guide all (well most) of my actions for the next 365 days, if not more:

• Rousseau's concept that all people are good people when they are born. It's a matter of perspective really. It's much like the concept innocent until proven guilty.
  
• Lock's natural rights: life, liberty and property. Included in this is the right for every person to have access to an education, especially young girls.
  
• The sociological notion that humans are social beings. If you take humans out of their societies or their cultures you take away their humanity and return them to their animalistic roots (this is also closely associated with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs). Remember, "It takes a village..."
  

I'll stop there and let you mull those over for now. If you haven't figured it out yet these are the underlying reasons for my move to Ecuador. I know better than to say that I'll be saving the world on this trip, that is not what I ascribe to. Rather I'll be meeting new "good" people, providing a few with some knowledge of the English language, and taking part in a society and culture different than my own.

And you better darn well believe that I'll be bringing thoughts and memories of all my family and friends along with me for the ride.

The Best Of... A(nother) List by Nicole

I awoke this morning contemplating a question a friend asked last night, "What will you miss the most?". A single, short answer is really quite impossible to give as I have been spoiled by the Bay Areas many treasures over the past 26 years of my life.

So in true lazy summertime form I spent the better part of this morning compiling the following "Best of The Bay Area" list for all two of my followers (shout out to Mom and Kacie) in the hopes that you continue to take advantage of everything this place has to offer.

Starting with food:
#1 Best burger and shake: Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto, hands down no exceptions
#2 Best breakfast place & item: Hobbees Blueberry Coffeecake
#3 Best pizza: I'd be committing heresy if I didn't say Pizza My Heart (although I do have another list ranging from high class to a greasy mess if you are interested)
#4 Best sushi: A tie between Minatos in Japantown and the place in Capitola above the ice cream shop.
#5 Best frozen treats: Another tie between Jon & Bons Frozen Yogurt in Chico & Micheals Gelato in Palo Alto
#6 Best sandwich: Alotta's in Los Altos
#7 Best pasta place to take your married girlfriends so they can drool over the Italian waiters: Pasta! in Palo Alto & Mountain View
#8 Best farmers market: Campbell's on Sunday morning's

On to outdoorsy stuff (since we have to work off all the food we just ate):
#1 Best place to volunteer: Village Harvest and Urban Sprouts - JUST DO IT!
#2 Best daily run (ok you caught me, daily walk): The Dish in Palo Alto & Rancho San Antonio in Los Altos & Crystal Springs in San Mateo & the UC Santa Cruz track at sunset & Bidwell Park in Chico
#3 Best hike w/ a view: Point Reyes or really any hike in Marin County
#4 Best kick my ass and call me Sally day hike: Purisma Creek off Skyline -down Harkins Trail to the redwood forest and then up (and I mean UP) Whittmore Gulch trail.
#5 Best climbing gym & yoga classes: Planet Granite in Belmont
#6 Best beach: hmmm...I was quite fond of that one secluded beach Erica and I found off Highway 1 until we were run off by that old, really tan naked guy

Drinking and Dancing Establishments:
#1 Best day drinking: Zietgiest in SF (#1 they have Great White ON TAP, #2 Good, and I mean good, Bloody Mary's) and possibly Half Moon Bay Brewery when there is a band playing.
#2 Best place to see any band: The Little Fox and maybe even the Big Fox in Redwood City
#3 Best dancing: Yes, I have to do it and say Santana Row. Oh that actually kinda hurt, I must also say I much prefer the impromptu living room dance party with friends to the 60 year old overweight guy your "friend" claims wants to dance with you @ Rosies (can we say awkward and completely inappropriate on said friends part although we still say thank you to said friend for trying to help a sista' out).
#4 Best local winery: Ridge (take a lunch and enjoy the view) & Savanah-Chanelle (blueberry wine baby, blueberry wine)
#5 Best BBQ: Any friends backyard

***Oh man, I just realized how long this is and how many list making rules I broke in writing it (seriously you can't have two, even four, items under one number, c'mon Nicole you know better). In a nod to the readers time I cut out the following categories: Best Places to Live (remember the 19 skunks), Best Day Outings (which included the Tactdial Dome in the Exploratorium) and Best Local Shops (Keplers Books being #1). I will close this out with a little secret, I kept the original title of the list until the end of this blog as I knew the common reader would read no further purely by the precedent it was setting with its length:
"The Places I've Spent my Time and Money and Created Many Nostalgic Memories With Friends Since Graduating College".

P.S. Yes I did really just write Best 19 times, I was going for a new writing style called obsessive repetition.