Nuff Ting Gwon: Photography, Film & Adventure

Apparently I'm not intermediate

2008-04-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Apparently when you do outdoor activities in BC you need to know your skill level. In Toronto, there are no activities that require a skill level. If I want to go to the ROM, all I need is basic geographic knowledge of the city’s layout and $20. With the same level of skill I can visit Kensington market, cruise Queen St on a busy Sunday afternoon and then go the gym. Apparently in BC there are further separations in the “skill level” of the citizens.

So when we first saw the sign that said

“Only experienced hikers with advanced skills should attempt this climb”

We didn’t think much of it. We made our way to the trailhead with our awesome Toronto “we can do anything” and “of course we’re experienced and advanced” attitudes.

When we reached the trailhead our attitudes quickly changed. The very first 10 steps on the trail involved scaling a large wall. It was meant as a message to say “if you can’t even get on the trail, you shouldn't attempt the accent”. We looked around for the “real route” and I’ll admit I was looking furiously for the short cut. None existed. Laughing and a bit shaken, we started our way up the mountain.

For the first 10 minutes Sam made me aware in intervals of 30 seconds that maybe this is dangerous and we’re not good enough to do it. Was she right? Were the signs below reading “intermediate climbers only” accurate? They couldn’t be…. So we kept climbing, having no clue what we were getting into.

About half way I started to worry, that I was putting us in danger. I figured it will probably get more steep as we keep going and if it starts raining we’re really going to be in a bad position. The rocks would be far too slippery to climb down on with no equipment and old runners. Sure enough, it did start to rain a bit. We were hot and panting because of the climb so we stripped down to our t-shirts, but the air and rain was chilling in a refreshing sort of way.

About half way up we found a large cliff overlooking how far we’ve come so far. At this point we ran into the fist signs of humans since we set out up the mountain. There was a group of indigenous tourism students that were trying to accomplish the same feat today. They started singing and their voices helped give us the drive to continue to the top.

Sure enough the second part of the climb was much more advanced. We used the roots of trees to pull us up to the next levels. In areas that were particularly steep we had to use chains and ladders to get up cliffs. Leg’s shaking, hands cold due to gripping on to cold rock and crawling to try to stay low to the ground we made our way up past the trees so we could really see how far we’ve come. What a visual present to reward us for all of our hard work and risks. No one else around. Just Sam and I. The sun peeked its head out from behind a cloud momentarily and shone on the lake and mountains below. We looked to our right and we were in the clouds. They were hovering right beside us.

We clung to trees for dear life and lectured each other on how important it is that we don’t look down, fall, or not test out every footing or hand hold as we keep making our way up. It’s all rock at this point. There are no more trees. Another 10 minutes up the mountain and I see the peak. But the wind picks up and because there are no trees I can see exactly how high and vulnerable we are. I get scared and push my body to the rock. I call for Sam to come and join me and I say “I think this is good enough”. She’s fully excited and says “we’ve come this far, it’s just 20 more yards up to the peak… get up, let’s go”. Knees rattling, hands shaking…. I crawl slowly up the peak and lay on my back. What a rush! Definitely the biggest nature accomplishment I’ve even had. No one else was on the peak of this mountain. Just Sam and I.

We enjoyed the peak for 15 minutes but as we looked around the clouds were moving in around us. I was petrified that it would rain and we would get stranded up in the mountain. There is no way we could make it down the last 10 minutes of cliff if it started raining.

I thought rain was inevitable. I was tying to think about the smartest safety thing to do in this situation. If we stayed at the top and got stranded at least a helicopter could hover over us and get us off the mountain. However, if we got stuck further down then we’d be in the forest and it would be hard to find us. Plus I kind of thought that ending our trip on an emergency helicopter ride would be a really cool story….. Then I realized I don’t even have a cell phone to call 911 if I needed to, plus it seemed like a thing that a 16 year old girl would do that didn’t get enough attention from her dad. So we started our desent.

The decent involved lots of nice “what if” games. Like “what would we do if a bear came at us right now”. For those of you who know me well, you know that I’m pretty sure I could beat the following animals in a fight…

1. A bear
2. A shark
3. An ostrich

Animals I don’t think I could beat in a fight

1. A school of piranhas
2. A horse
3. A tiger

Most people don’t think I would win against a bear. So I’m forced to explain how I would win. It’s dirty and unconventional but I think I could pull it off. Then they usually respond “but Ster you’ve never even been in 1 fight in your whole life”. And I’m like “phhh so… fighting a human and fighting a bear are two totally different skills”.

To sum up my story, we make our way back all the way down. We have huge smiles on our faces knowing that if we knew it was going to be that hard we probably wouldn’t have done it. But we were glad we did. Here are some pictures of the top!

Inner Peace & Suburbs on the Road Less Traveled

2008-02-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

We shout “cuidado” (“careful” in Spanish) to each other as we descend into the valley hugging the river below. We need to make our way down about 200 feet to get to the crystal clear river below, but there is no path and the decline is steep… Impossible in many areas. We carefully dig our fingers into the roots of the trees above and carefully make our decent, double checking each branch, rock and root we grab onto in order to test its trustworthiness. We slowly get closer to something we haven’t seen, only heard, but we just “have a good feeling about it”.

Closer to the bottom it becomes slightly more dangerous but we see the river up close at last. About 8 feet deep in the deepest part and crystal clear green water at the foot of a waterfall. The sounds, the sights the smells are spectacular. All senses are stimulated. We get ninety percent of the way there, but we are now faced with one last obstacle. We need to trek across a fallen tree that’s covered in slippery moss. I start to make my way across to test it out but turn back because it simple wasn’t safe or intelligent. Thankfully, Sam finds a small cliff with a hollowed out tree trunk that we can hold onto while we descend the last 10 feet.

We made it all the way down, and it’s more breathtaking than we anticipated. We jumped rock to rock, trying not to get our feet wet as we make our last few steps towards a big rock in the middle of the river. We find comfort on the rock awarded to us by mother nature herself for making our journey off the beaten path 200 feet above. I looked at Sam, who was perched on the same rock as me, and said “this place is totally symbolic to all of the benefits that carving out your own route in this world has. It’s kinda like with all things… ya know? If you take the time, risk a little, and work a little harder than you would if you took the carved out path above, you will be seriously rewarded at the end. Ya heard?” ** (Footnote - 1) . I loved the symbolism and meaning in what we just did.

We waited until it started to get dark then we made our way back to the town as to not get lost in the woods at night. Getting lost at night in the woods is something I really want to do, but have yet to convince Sam that it would be fun and safe. Using the same approach as our “carve your own path” strategy earlier, we make our way back to a local general store using a new route. Unfortunately, this time we went a little too far in the wrong direction and found ourselves in the most uninspiring, run of the mill residential suburb we’ve ever been through.

Today really boils down to two lessons.

1. Beauty, meaning, love, inner peace and deep, rich experiences are found on the road less traveled

2. Apparently so are the suburbs.

** I may not have said “Ya heard”…

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things...

2008-01-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

my baby picture at birth

A handful of years later: Apparently I'm crossed eyed

Sabrena: munchkin in the front: Dana: Habs jersey. Me: beside grandma

Appently I do this look a lot when I get shy.

Dana (Middle) Sabrena and I.

Dana

Me showing dana an invention. Him looking very interested.

Christina (Dana's daugther) showing dana her presents: Dana looking very high.

Sabrena at home with classic 80's art in the background

Sabreana passed out

Benjamin an dChristina

Dana and I joyriding. Sabrena and I not sleeping.

Wipe out

Mom, Dad, Subby, Dana and I

My mom as a baby

My mom as a little girl

Grandma!

Molson Canadian ad with my sister in it.

Subby and I

Subby playing with our step dad

Subby having a bath in the sink

Subby

Subby and maybe her boyfriend. Apparently she was running with the wrong crowds when she was 3.

Subby (her powerband) and me at her b-day party.

Greasy Sabrean putting girls up in her house. She should know better. Where was her mother?

Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new... but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design? ~Paracelsus

Panaramics

2008-01-20T20:05:00.001-08:00

View from our front yard at sunset

View of downtown

36 hours ago

2008-01-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

Edith Piaf playing in the background, the mountains in the foreground. This is my first morning in Vancouver. My life once again positively transformed through change. Just over 24 hours ago I was celebrating new years in a park in Kensington market in Toronto with my sister and a couple close friends. We had a small stereo system with us, so with fireworks exploding in the background, the roar of the bars and the not so impressive sound coming from our $30 stereo system we spent the last second of 2007 at the top of a park slide and we brought in the new year by sliding down the slide and making our 2008 wish.

Toronto started getting hit with a snowstorm at around midnight but it didn’t slow down our outdoor conversation, dance and music party. Shortly after warming up at a nearby house we made our way to Kum Jung Yen, a grungy but welcoming little restaurant in the heart of Toronto’s China town. The restaurant doesn’t play music so we used our portable music player to entertain the full restaurant our mixes of Wu Tang Clan, Tribe called quest and Hot Chip. Nobody seemed to mind.

I then waited up until 4:30 in the morning for Samantha to finish work. We spent the next hour getting ready for our 5:30 airport cab pick up. We barely got our sleepy bodies and 300 pounds of luggage into the cab before departing to the airport.

The snowstorm was now getting worse but we made it to the airport with much time to spare. After paying almost $200 in overweight charges for all of our baggage we made it (¾ asleep) through security. Sam fell the other ¼ to sleep just after the metal detectors and passed out on the floor of the airport.

I stayed up taking pictures of her until our plane arrived. And of course we sit beside the lady with the worst cackle laugh on the plane who found great humour in a Jackie Chan movie. Apparently she’s one of 8 people in the world who find him funny. So after having left an hour late because our plane was frozen and needed to be sprayed with antifreeze solution, we landed in Vancouver. We threw our stuff in our sublet and we immediately went out for a quick walk to the grocery store. After getting settled in we both passed out early.

At 7am this morning we decided it was time to explore Kitsalano neighbourhood, Kit’s beach and Granville Island. We spoke with locals on the beach early morning and slowly made our way to the outdoor market. We cruised around very slowly, checked out many of the local shops, purchased fish and cheese and made our way back home through downtown.

After having a glass of wine at a friends house I’m ready to call it quits. Looking forward to seeing what’s next.

A man's memory is not a summation,it is a chaos of vague possibilities - Jorge Luis Borges

2007-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

This post may become filled with Aphorisms as my wit fails me today. Also failing is my ability to post a blog post regularly for my family and friends to see. 1 post every couple of months has turned out to be a less than effective strategy on maintining a readership and has even led my brothers and sisters to stop visiting my blog. The viewership of this page now consists of myself and my mom. It has become more an email to my mom with a URL. Which is a nice segway into my first aphorism: If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. This is how i feel about my blogging abilities. In the world of facebook and myspace, blogs have become a thing of the past. Something '06ish, newspaper'esqu, too "printed word", not digital enough.

Sorry mother, I've been rambling. How are you? Things here in Buenos Aires are fantastic. We will be making our voyage back to toronto in just a little over 2 weeks. We have met some fantastic people since we've been here and it will be hard to say good-bye. Sam and I went for dinner last night in Palermo Soho at this nice little restaurant on a cobblestone, tree lined street with perfect city ambience and agreed that we need to return to BA as soon as possible. Describing the culture of Buenos Aires is not something that would fit within the framework of the email, however, i will say that their value system seems to be much more aligned with the values of what the human soul actually seeks. And you can sense it in the details around you. I have been fortunate enough to have worked on my spanish enough to be able to watch Castellano films and understand, more or less, what is going on. Obviously the visual format helps, but because i have been watching spanish cartoons in the morning and going to films at night, my listening comprehension has improved greatly. When I get back, I want to buy you 4 movies, most by Argentinian directors, and most taking place in BA, and watch them with you with english subtitles on.

The films are

Las mantenidas sin sueños

¿Quién dice que es fácil?

Ciudad en celo

El amor y la ciudad

You also mentioned you have been watching films from Isreal. We should organize a film day with the family where we watch our latest favorites? maybe we shouldn't invite my brother Dana, as i know he's not one for subtitles. The dumb fool can't read quick enough and just ends up speaking pigeon english under his breath which distracts everyone else. I can say this because I know, he too, has stopped reading this blog.

Below I have posted pictures for you to see. We went to an Aerosmith concert with Velvet revolver (the guys from Guns and Roses are in a new band) the other day. We have also been going to dances at night time. Overall, things have been very good. My reading has been split down the center, either childrens books (for 8-10 year olds), my latest entitled "frin" or spanish literature, my latest, "The Book of Sand" by Jorge Luis Borges. We can talk about the books I've read when i get home.

Love you

Buenos Aires is a very dark city with a very bright sky. We have a private rooftop patio where we can see the stars all night. The Souther sky is much different than our Norther sky. I took this picture just after the sun went down.

A huge soccer stadium (can seet 60,000 people) + all of the people on the field. I think there must have been close to 80,000 people at this concert.

Downtown BA after we finished watching the orchestra.

Our neighborhood

Sam in our house

A family wine store in our neighborhood. They set up a few chairs at night and play nice music.

At Bar Danzon in Recolota

Sammy and I

Eating at Bar 6

Kata and her mom. Going away party for Mathias

3 days of fragmented thoughts

2007-03-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

picture: Me doing my sunday spanish cram session

To my left, I see a man in a cage, nostrils flared, both hands holding the cage which he calls his home, knawing at his encasement, our eyes meet. I’m mesmerized temporarily, before fear forces my eyes to the road. Probably a victim of Paco, a highly addictive cocaine by-product that transforms humans into the living dead. My ears are fixated on the sounds the caged man is making but my eyes go their own way and find refuge on the skeleton of a dog partialy sunk into the ground.

Picture: Hand made shack

I look to my right, I’m waved into a school, a boy runs up yells “Hola amigo. Que tal”, throws me a high five, his little sister, not wanting to the re-construct the academic sentence of her brother offers a high pitched “hola” and throws her little hand up for a high five. I bend down for a hug and a picture. She puts her fingers in her mouth and smiles the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. The sound of the knawing is still in my head and the audio contrasted with a little angle before my eyes throws my mind into a tailspin. Someone yells “milk time” and the kids run to get their milk. I forget the knawing.

Picture: Beautiful smile

We sit on the ground to film the post milk dance party, which lacked music but not spirit. Diego, a director of a production company in Villa 20 offered the group of angels his best shot of reggaeton so they had a beat to dance to. But the song died out quickly, when Diego realized he only knew 6 words to the popular kids dance song. But no beat was needed. They were all turned into the same internal radio station. They didn’t even notice the music stopped. The dance wagged on. Afterwards the kids wanted to watch themselves on the camera, they crawled all over me tying to get a glimpse of themselves on the cameras. Their soft cheeks push against my own unshaven cheeks. This makes me smile. They sit on my lap, jump on my back, lean on my shoulders and crawl on my head. This moment overwhelms me with joy. These children have nothing. They’ve been pushed to the margins by default. Being young children, economic wellbeing is out of their control. On the surface, their homes and streets look unfamiliar and unfriendly. Cages, hand made homes, and the curious stares of locals who quickly recognize the un-weathered face of someone with a home with 4 protective walls and temperature control. We look our age, they look their experiences. Yet, these children maintain their innocence and showcase their joy of the world for everyone to see.

Picture: Dancing in the slums

I leave the school, I find myself doing a dance of my own as I try to fend off the biggest swarm of mosquitoes I have ever seen in my life, I’m covered head to toe in bites. I pray that the biggest killer of mankind will stop their attack or at least call a cease fire while I try to make it to our next destination a few blocks away. The mosquitoes are too bad, we jump in a car and head back downtown.

Picture: Diego thinking of a new song to sing

I get home, my mind overwhelmed with new thoughts and experiences. I feel that poverty is almost impossible to understand. I saw life and death living next door to each other. People who have almost the same, with completely different life outcomes and perspectives. This is why poverty has yet to be properly defined. It is agreed upon that poverty has to do with deprivation or lack of well being, but beyond this point, there is much debate. There is something bigger at play here. There are new conclusions to be drawn.

Picture: Bedroom in one room shack

The next thing I know it's 8am and I'm jumping out of bed to meet with Maya, the director of the documentary. I’m late, I can’t find a bank machine that’s not broken. I have to try the subway for the first time. Surprisingly I figure it out pretty quickly. I also realize how much I love subways. I take a moment, buy a fruit from a homeless guy, and wait for my train. I arrive at the stop “constitution”. My gut talks to me. It says “put your hand in your pocket to protect your wallet”. I feel bad but I listen to the little guy. I hate when my faith in the human race fails me. I feel snobbish, thoughtless, and I also felt obvious about the fact I was protecting my wallet. How unnatural is it to walk around with one hand in your pocket. I sense people’s eye’s are on me after realizing I’m protecting something of value. I meet another little angel on my way upstairs to see Maya. She sees I have a bottle of water. She asks me for a sip. I say of course, and give her my bottle of water, she takes the littlest sip. I feel suspicious. I check my pocket. I feel horrible about thinking she was capable for that. She gives me my water back. I take a few steps away from her before I realized I should have given her the whole bottle. I turn around, tap her on her little shoulders and tell her she can have the whole thing, she said “no thanks, I just wanted a sip”. Strangely cute.

My hand in my pocket I run up a broken escalator to meet Maya. We get ready to board the subway which is taking us to a Hugo Chavez speech in a soccer stadium on the outskirts of the city center. I take my wallet out to get the 70 cents it’s going to cost me. Maya, yells at me and tells me to keep my wallet closer to my chest. She explains “I just watched two different guys get robbed within the last 30 minutes”. I felt less rude and thoughtless about protecting my wallet beforehand, but not better about second guessing the little angel.

After jumping the turnstiles, (not because I didn’t have 70 cents, but because everyone else was doing it and I would have been trampled if I stopped to try and pay), we squeezed into the subway. Then we squeezed some more. I didn’t need to hold onto anything because the human cargo was keeping me in one place. Every inch of my body was being pressed against by another human body with great force. Breathing was difficult and to make matters worse, others in the subway put hygiene on the back burner that day. I have never experienced a “squish” like that before. I decided to do a test between subway stops. I thought it might be interesting to see if I would remain standing if I allowed my legs to give out on me. Surely the pressure from the other humans pushing against me will keep me in my position. Test hypothesis was correct. However, I received strange looks as my change in body pressure started to make others feel uncomfortable, so I turned the power back on to my legs. I was having a blast, this subway ride was ranking near the top of my list in terms of “coolest subway experiences”, even beating out my “A train” subway experiences in New York. The train and I had some type of connection. The old beast realized I was having too much fun and decided to light itself on fire. Smoke started filling our car as we barreled down the dark subway tunnel. The smell or rubber filled my already compressed lungs. I hoped my companions who helped me so gracefully conduct my gravity experiment with my legs would be as helpful and cooperative when it came time to evacuate the train. No one other than people in our car realized there was fire so the train didn’t actually stop until the station at which time an official standing on the platform yelled out “get the %^&* out of the subway”, someone smashed some glass, someone else ran for the fire extinguisher. This was my first experience with the subway in BA. Incredible. My subway teammates, quickly made their way out the car and pushed me all the way up to the street to fresh air.

We made it to the Chavez rally and we got everything we bargained for. One of George bushes biggest critics moved a crowd of, I’m not sure how many, but a lot. The only food I had this day, a yogurt, about 13 hours before started to wear off and a slight fear of fainting kicked in as I noticed my body waving back and forth while I was trying to stand still. We took a cab for dinner at midnight, a common time to eat here then called it a day.

Picture: Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela

Today, as I finally get to hang out with my girlfriend I find myself having hand to hand combat with my allergies, which so sneakily snuck up with my in my 27th year and seems to be getting worse as every day passes. My face stayed in a Kleenex all day. I felt Sam’s frustration as she tried to talk to me only to be rudely interrupted by a concert of my obnoxious sneezes that required that I find a well anchored tree to brace myself to endure the impact of the actual "ha chu" part . Needless to say, I’m not very good company today, and Sam quickly decided a tango class and milonga would be a nice substitute to a sneezing boyfriend. But my allergies have allowed me to write this post since they have forced me to stay inside today. I hope you enjoyed it.

To my angel sister, as a reminder of how far you’ve come.

Picture: Sam doing spanish in our house

Caution: Women with a briefcase is dancing

2007-02-18T17:23:00.000-08:00

New things I've learnt in 2007.

When you go to a club that recieved 4.5 stars on gay.com, you're going to a gay bar.

Walking in the rain isn't so bad

2006 was so 2005

Sundays, this city closes down: I am a firm believer in a solid day of do nothing but read and write day.

we have turned our dining room into a dance room. I think a dance room should be as mandatory as a bathroom in a house. just you, a set of speakers and your willingness to boogie.

I have not yet figured out what the sign with the women on it means. I will keep you posted.

me buying orange juice

Bus out of the city for the weekend

me at a beach

the clouds at the beach

the beach at night

Subby seeing the Atlantic for the first time

Baby whale and mother

Sam waching me coming out the water

Sammy and her dad at a cafe

View from the bus station

beach at nighfall

Beach at sunset

Beautiful City of Punte Del Este

beaching it on a cloudy day

My outdoor livingroom

Sam happy to be walking around our neighborhood

Sam's dad in the cemetary

Little beach town

My new years present to you: Conversation starters

2007-01-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

The sky is bluer here

Men greet each other by a kiss on the cheek

Women greet men by a kiss on the cheek

If you don't like kissing people, you won't like it here

Almost 40% of people live in poverty

There is 95% less begging than in Toronto

I have found out that my name doesn't work in Latin America and I need a new Spanish name. I'm not making a chiste (see notes below for definition of chiste). the beginning of my name "ste" and the end of my name "ing" are impossible for Spanish people to say. what I usually get is "Starleen" our "Audi". I have changed my name officially to Audi, until i can think of something cooler. any suggestions are welcome.

On new years eve everyone throws their work from the last year out on the street (see picture to the right)

Paper shredders are 1) slower and 2) less fun than the previously mentioned paper disposal method

Even if you don't have work papers to throw out of your window on new years, throwing anything from your balcony is fun and will be encouraged for this one day.

The word for "joke" in Spanish is "chiste" and it is fun to use in the context of an English sentence. i.e. "I know a great chiste about a parrot, a pirate and George Bush

The Spanish word for point and the Spanish word for bitch are dangerously similar

The English word for soup and the English word for sope are hard for Spanish people to differentiate.

On that note, I'll leave you with a chiste:

– Fui al doctor para que me diese unas pastillas para quitarme las ganas de fumar.
– ¿Y sigues fumando?
– Sí, pero sin ganas.

2007 is the year of the pig (boar) according the chinese calendar, but I want to give out a shout out to all the sheep and the monkeys!

Here are my pictures from the last bit.

Subby reading on my couch

A market we shop at

Tango Show

Free opain air concert for peace

Downtown

Downtown 2

Streets in San Telmo

San Telmo market

Subby in La Boca art market

Subby & I cruising the city

Begining of a street protest

Driving through the countryside in Uruguay

Punte Del Este: Uruguay

Buenos Aires Streets

Subby & Sam in San Telmo Market (Buenos Aires)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Its hot and tropics here in BA right now. We just finished seeing Sam's dad off and are about to welcome my sister, Sabrena. She's spending all day Christmas in an airport or airborn. Likely the most boring way to spend Christmas.

When she arrives we're off to Punte Del Este to hit the beaches and do some snorkeling. I've posted some pictures of tango shows, bookstores, cafe's and concerts. I hope this gives you a better idea of the character of Buenos Aires.

Let me know if you need my address to send presents.

I'm not picky.

Tango Show

Tango Cafe

Church Orchestra

Book Store

Patagonia & Happy Feet El Penguino

2006-12-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

We spent the last week in Patagonia (the province of Chubut) where we came face to face with happy feet el penguino. Happy feet agreed to do a quick photo shoot for us (photo to the right). really nice guy. The big screen ads about 5 feet, turns out he's only about 16 inches tall.

during our week we also got within 10 feet of a right whale and her new born baby, saw wild ostriches, lama's, lizards, sea lions, elephant seals and something that looked like a mix between a dog with horns and a naked rabbit.

All and all a fantastic experience. But because I just took the last 5 days off, I have a lot of work to do right now. So I'm just going to post a handful of pictures of the region.

I miss you all and hope to hear from you all soon.

Sterling

leaving Buenos Aires at Sundown

Sandstorm on our beach

Early arrival in a small town in Chubut

Whale mom playing with her baby

Sammy and her dad out on the South Atlantic

our beach with seo lions

close up of the sea lions playing (or fighting) in the water.

Cowboys

Me: Finishing the last pages of the book "the end of poverty" by Jefferey Sachs. Highly recomend. Thanks for the book Simron.

Tango Night Out

2006-11-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

My Spanish is slowly developing, I’m discovering very cool Spanish music (elecro-flamenco, classic tango and reggaeton) and I find myself getting more attached to Buenos Aires. For the first time in a long time I have also found myself over my head in work as Rob and I try and raise a huge chunk of cash to fund a business venture that will allow us to own the rights to a technology that will take advantage of the huge price discrepancy between the British pound and the Canadian dollar. So I’ll soon be getting paid in Pounds which is close to about 6 times the value of the Argentine peso. So my money will go a very long way. I plan on retiring in February, maybe sooner.

My retirement post will come in February, for now I want to talk to you about tango. The other night Sam, myself and a couple other people from our Spanish school went to “Michelangelo”, which is a stunningly beautiful old building located in San Telmo (the same neighborhood, that president bush’s daughter got robbed in a couple days ago). We were welcomed at our ride, by a host who helped Sam out of the car, and guided us to the stone archway entrance. At the dimly lit front entrance we were guided behind long draping curtains into a quite room, with live tango music. We were pampered beyond belief. Campaign, hors d’oeuvres, music, breathtaking surroundings, and a small live tango show. We had it all. Below is a picture of the small room we waited for the show in.

After this teaser, we made our way upstairs for dinner. I won’t bore you with our meal details, but I will tell you this: Steak is very good here and I eat way to much of it. In fact, I have a ponch now. Awesome.

The video above (which I could only see using internet explorer, not firefox) is a small clip I took of the show (notice the live tango orchestra in the background!). Tango originated here in brothels and was a way for sex worker and client to get to know each other. However, as time passed it turned into a hobby for high society. My guess is that it’s probably the only element of prostitution to do so. That is unless, high heals originated in brothels as well. High heals are pretty popular now as well. Anyways, getting off topic.

So the greatest thing about introducing me to tango is the fact, that after watching the show I decided to skip the lessons and try the most advanced moves on Sam right away. Turns out, that’s not a good idea, outright dangerous. Remember, the move from the clip above at the end where the guy picks of the girl and then drops her inches from the ground. Well I pretty much did the same thing with Sammy (emphasis on “pretty much”). I’ll let you imagine the outcome. She doesn’t want to tango with me anymore. I need to find a new partner.

Actually finding a tango (milonga) partner is a pretty funny process. At tango dances the boys stand on one side of the room, the girls on the other. If (as a man) you look over to the other side of the room and see a girl looking at you, you’re supposed to be a macho man and look away. But after you look back, if she is still looking at you, that’s your invitation to go and ask her to tango. Quite the process.

Chau.

Buenos Aires: Dos

2006-11-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

So it only seems like we've been here for about 2 days, but it's been over 2 weeks now. We're really in the groove now. I can go to stores and kind of order what I need. And even if I don't get what I want I still get something. For instance, the other day I tried to order a steak and instead got a plate of SPAM. I can't even complain to the waitress because I haven't taken a class on complaining yet so I just sit there and eat my SPAM and pretend it's what I meant to order. When Sam says "that's not what you ordered is it?", I just reply "what do you mean? This is totally what I wanted... why do you want to trade for your nice roast chicken?".

I am also in Spanish school right now and I have to do about 4 hours of school / day. It's such a blast. Nobody speaks english in the school so I'm just winging it. For instance today, I had to put together a sentence about my house.. here is what I intended my sentence to read..

"my apartment is fun becuase we listen to music, dance and eat all the time"

What I wrote was
"my apartment is a joke because we musical, and eat food from the street".

Not exactly what I intended to say. My teacher has no reservations about laughing at me. It's awesome. So to work around the giggles in the class I try to speak quickly in spanish in the hopes that it will be too quick for anyone to understand. That way, if I'm wrong maybe they let it slide. It turns out they are a little slicker at spanish than I am, and they are on to me. For example, here is the sentence I presented to the class.

".. Amueblado es tambien colletto".

Which means.... absolutly nothing. I guess I didn't say it fast enough because they picked up the error. I spend most of my day working on the speed at which I say things. Vocabulary can come later.

It's a total blast here. Sam and I just look at each other sometimes and we know each other "gets it". This city is so satisfying. There is something particularly sexy and enjoyable about Latin American Culture. In fact, my little sister just sent me some quotes she found in the library in Toronto the other day about Buenos Aires in particular. Unfortunately I don't have the sources of the quotes, but here they are..

"the ability of Argentines to reinvent themselves is amazing.  The
unpredictability makes life exciting, it injects creativity into
theater, nightlife and fashion."

"I felt that pent-up energy reverberation across this sprawling
metropolis, which I have loved for its Paris-style boulevards, Bell
Epoque buildings, soulful music and gracious, gorgeous people."

"We never lost our spirit...We know the art of life."

"Today B.A. is a potent cocktail of the sophistication, madness and
ambition of Rome, Paris and New York: it still beats Rome for pure
style, Paris for routines and rituals and New York for the title
"the city that never sleeps."

"Argentine generosity is legendary"

"Though fashion is a priority in looks-obsessed B.A. human
relations trumps all"

"Time, patience and intimacy are now luxuries in the world--and we
have them all.  Those things make Argentina even more appealing."

La Boca Barrio

I just think those quotes do a good job of giving a brief summery of the attitude here. It's like
nothing I've ever experienced before. I catch myself having these euphoric moments over little
things, like watching kids kick a soccerball down a busy road, cars pushing each other down the
road (If a car stalls, another car will come from behind and push the stalled car where it want's to
go. It's so funny to watch them try to take corners or stop at lights). Likewise the nightlife is super
cool here and people have been so nice to us even though we have pretty serious communication
barriers. Everyone is giving us their numbers so we can hang out at night, bringing us over to their
apartments and so on. In fact, I just recieved a phone call (while I was just writing this sentence)
from a man who says he knows a friend of a friend of Sam's mom. Anyway he found our phone
number and wants to take us out to a polo match in Palermo next weekend. People are so
human here. You don't need excuses or planning to meet with people. The phone call I just
recieved went a little something like this..



Me: Hola
Him: Hola. Sorry for mi english is bad
Me: no problem
Him: Is Samantini there?
Me: no sorry, can I take a message
Him: what is your name?
Me : Sterling
Him: Zurlin?
Me: no. Sterling
Him: oh. that is a hard one.
Me. Yes, what is your name?
Him. Rolofo
Me: Folojo
Him: no. Rolofo. just rolo is fine.
Me: cool Rofo.
Him: zurlin does you want to come to a polo match with me and my friend?
ME: Sure Folojos.
Him: Here is my number --------
ME: Great I'll see you soon.

It's totally random but things like this seem to be happening all the time. In canada kindness from
complete strangers is looked on almost as a weakness, or at least with suspicion. Here it's
expected and very welcomed.

I have lots more to say, but it's almost tea time here. Timing here is a little different. It's a much
slower pace. People have breakfast at about 8 or 9. Lunch at about 1 or 2, tea time is about 5
and dinner is about 10.

Let me explain tea time to you. When Argentines were young they would go to school all day and when they got home at about 4 their mom's would have some milk, or tea, and cookies for them. Well it turns out as you get older you never plan on letting go of tea time. So now as adults they still celebrate tea time. At 5 everyone goes out for a tea or juice or mate and desserts. There is not one meal you have here without desserts.

On that note. It's tea time.

Colorful houses in La Boca: We took a class trip to this neighborhood.

Buenos Aires

2006-11-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Flying over chile

Yes, I am finally here. This city is amazing. Much more amazing then even my high expectations. My neighborhood is stunningly beautiful. 20 foot wooden doors, marble sculpture, old French architecture, countless fashion and food boutiques (no chains or big department stores). It's very European here. Think Paris, with a touch of Rome having a head on collision with Manhattan, then divide the price of everything by 3 and you have Buenos Aires. I can't spend money quickly enough. Samantha (Samantini, what people call her here) and I go out for dinner each night. We spend time in our neighborhood called "Recolletta" going to really high end Italian or French restaurants. We get a bottle of nice wine, nice lamb, fish or steak meals, a couple of appetizers and desert. Then we pay them the equivalent of about 30 dollars before heading off to the club district to accidentally party at a "transformer" party. Transformers as I soon found out are not the robots we are familiar with from our childhood, but instead surprisingly sexy men dressed as women. They flirt with me, I flirt with them, we all dance, people make jokes and Samantini stares at me with slightly discouraged eyes.

In fact, I realized it is suprisingly okay to flirt with transformers. South America is pretty macho. but when a man dresses like a women and flirts with men, they seem to be very receptive. It's very funny to see macho Argentine men dance with the transformer host as if she was a girl. The wig and the dress make them forget the women is really a man. they hold her very delicately around her waist, let him/ her grab their croch and more. I thought these guys must be crazy to be doing this. They 100% forgot that this was actually a man. then the transformer came over to me, winked and pinched my nose. I giggled. he had a wig on. it was okay. that is what I'm telling myself.

Our apartment

Our aprartment from our second floor

I have leart a lot since I’ve been here. For starters, no one can speak English which means every conversation I have on a daily basis is awkward. Allow me to give you what I think the conversation I had this morning was when I signed up for my gym membership. I will write everything in English but remember, they are speaking Spanish and I am also trying very hard to speak Spanish.

Me: hi
Them: hi
Me: uh.. (long pause). I need ticket for gym
Them: (log pause) what
Me: I’m here 2 months, need (then I show move my arms as If I was lifting weights)
Them: (spoke for about 2 mintutes in fast Spanish maybe about pricing, maybe about features, maybe asking questions… I don’t know. I just looked at them intently, smiled and every now and again let them know I recognized one or two words they said (i.e. yes, I know the word “arm”)
Me: how much
Them: $100
Me: can I buy a lock from you?
Them: no sorry
Me: (thinking they said “you can rent one on a daily basis” said: pefect here 5 pesos for (long pause… not knowing how to say lock. Show them with sign language what I mean)
Them: (confused looks and give me back my money)
Me: (thinking lock must be included in price) thank you
Them: what is your name
Me: Sterling
Them: zerlin?
Me: No, Sterling
Them: zerey?

And this goes on for a long time. It’s kind of a funny experience to know every time I go out it’s going to be awkward, without exeption. The good news is my vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis. I also now know how to say “lock”.

But there are many things I still get confused over. I recently approached our waiter and asked him in Spanish if “I can have your wallet?”. Apparently I get the word “wallet” and “bill” mixed up a lot. The result is people thinking I’m robbing them. Kind of akward. I will just say “I no take you, I no take you”, that way they know that I don’t want to rob them. But since I don’t know the word for rob, I just use “take” instead. I no take you.

Countless city parks

No cars allowed streets

our area

Recolletta Cemetary

Samantini preparing dinner

Sam doing work in our apartment

So the language is coming along quite nicely. Sundays are kind of fun here. Everything is closed, which means lower chances of getting into an awkward conversations. We also have cable for the first time in our relationship and we spend it watching amazing Spanish television shows. In fact we even go to Spanish cinema. We went to this film the other day about…. I’m not sure, but it was kind of neat watching a full film in spanish without subtitles. I was kind of like watching a silent film, but with sound. It was the opening night so the directors were there with the crew. They gave their speeches and then sat right behind Samantini and I. Samantini lasted about a half hour before she started doing that funny thing people do when they fall asleep in class. The head jolts down a little too quickly and it wakes you up so you jolt your head up. You regain consciousness for about 30 seconds only for the process to repeat itself. I felt bad for the director who was sitting behind us so I put Tini’s head on my shoulder so she could sleep without being rude. So got her second wind about a half hour later when they turned up the volume in the theatre. We both watched until the end of the film. After the film we discussed it which was the best part of the experience. Here are our conclusions about what we watched.

Samantini Review: the film was about Venezuelan kidnappers who took a CIA informant hostage. There was also a girl who liked to be naked. The man at the begging had really funny shorts on. At the end they let the CIA informant go

Sterling Review: the film was either about Vietnam or Bolivia. There was a girl who liked to be naked.

That is what we got from the film. But we still watch a film everyday to practice our language skills.

Barring communication barriers, everything else here is great. Our apartment is beautiful, we have lots of great Spanish music we listen to all day, we ate like royalty and we take great care of ourselves.

I’ll post more soon, but I just wanted to say “hi” to everyone to let everyone know we’re safe and sound. Here are some more pictures below.

Downtown

our neighborhood

more of our area

the view from our apartment

Before Departure

2006-10-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Before we leave on Tuesday for Buenos Aires, Argentina for an unknown amount of time, I thought I would do one last post just for fun. However, I don't have very much time right now, so I'm just going to upload some random pics from the last 8 years I've lived in Toronto.

Picture from Koray's balcony. My apartment is the one to the left! Many nights out here having drinks, cuban cigars, chats and chill music sessions.

The view from my Livingroom!

My apartment from the ferry heading off to the toronto island beaches

Sammy walking to the beach across the street from us.

Sam; singing with a glass of merlot. Me; wasting no time.

Snowboarding.
The lesson: Humans are not stronger than mountains.

Random Other pics of booting around....

Small town in Cuba. We had dinner at a Cubans families house and then they took us for a tour of their town. We couldn't communicate with the women who was showing us around and feeding us, but it was likely the best tour of my life.

Cool thing about having a boat: Access to beatiful deserted islands.

Sam on a deserted beach on an island just off the coast of Cuba

Getting to the airport was a huge opperation. We were staying in someones house who couldn't speak english and we couldn't speak spanish. Then when we needed to get to the airport there were no taxis in our little town, so the nieghbors came together to help us out and a man agreed to take us if he could bring his wife and child. gypse cabs are illegal in cuba but the places we stayed didn't have regular taxis so we had no option.

Our captain.

We arrived in a very poor rural village in Cuba. Sam's mom is walking ahead with A women who took us in to feed us. The whole town came out to the house to look at us. Kids sat around and looked at my shoes and people invited us to chicken fights. Interesting town.

Backyard of another family that invited us over for coffee. That stream looking thing in the backyard is the sewage system. I found that out when it started raining.

View from a locals apartment we had dinner (i.e. tomato salad & rum) at.

We gave out toys to kids in slums in Honduras.

two boys who's family lives in the slum would come to our boat to hang out with us.

This is the little piece of boat they would leave on.

Revolutionaries in Cuba

Cuba: Cigar smoking grandma

Cuban armed guards that would harras us everyday by searching our boat, ordering us around, searching our bags etc. We would always offer them pankakes, but they couldn't understand us. They love their pictures being taken.

View from the boat at sundown

Sam and I outside of the colleseum in Rome

Sam and I wating for the sun to go down in Greece.

chilling in Santorini, Greek islands.

Greek islands

Eating and chilling in Florence, Italy

Wating a concert in Florence, Italy

Small town in the South of France. We played soccer with kids, had a BBQ and Sam saved me all week with her french skills. I stayed mute. Not talking, and not even being expected to talk is kind of cool. I just worked on my smile and body langauge. I am now voted number 3 in Canada for smile and number 2 for body language.

Unorthodox brand of parenting

2006-08-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

Sammy, Subby, Christina & Benji

Christina and Benji just left my place in Toronto, to head back home out east. We had a blast while they were here. They pretty much take care of themselves. They are like the kind of kids I want to have; independent, can cook, clean themselves, pay their own way and don’t do drugs. I did realize that I think I’m going to too laid back of a parent though. If ever in doubt about things like bedtimes I would simply ask them what I should do. I would ask them “when do you feel like going to bed”, which they responded “about 2am”. I think it’s fairly reasonable for an 9 year old to stay up until 2 on a Wednesday!

We had a great time though, we strolled around downtown, Kensington market, queen st, skydome. We even went to a busker festival to watch some really entertaining performers eat fire and make gay jokes to crowds of kids. Pretty unacceptable humor for 4 year olds, but they all seemed to get a kick out of it, so who I am to say to say when kids should start to be exposed to adult humor.

Sammy and Sub and I also took the kids swimming at the pool in my building. Sam was teaching Benji how to swim. He already knew how to do the doggy paddle, but she wanted to teach him the overhead stroke. Here is the somewhat successful result.

Sammy teaching benji how to swim: He's so cute, but look at how afriad he is.

3 Very Srange Men: A pictoral essay on Krups, Thano & Cream

2006-08-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Me arresting Jon for smoking

I wake up to the sound of racial slanders being thrown around outside Jon’s 8th street apartment. “f!@k you crazy nig!@’r” one man’s shouts at the other. Only a half second later the exact same insult is echoed back. I groan, rub my eyes, and make my way out of bed to peek out the window to what, juding by the language being used, is going to be some black and black agression. To my surprise I was wrong. It was a 70 year old white man yielding a cane vs. a young black man using an 8 foot 2x4 as his weapon. As if I wasn’t already surprised by the fact that this is how some people start their day at 8am in the morning, I was even more surprised to find that the small 3 foot wooden cane was actually doing a pretty good job of fending off the 8 foot 2x4.

So naturally, instead of calling the police to break up a fight which seemed it may be a bit uneven (considering the weapons and descrepency in age), I opened the window and took my seat on the fire escape with my camera and helped show my support for old man underdog.

Yes. I was back in New York. A city I am in love with. Not just because you can see people take their anger at the heat wave out on each other at 8 in the morning, but also because you can see them do it at throughout the day! The city is crazy. Even our friend Jon who professes to be Canada’s craziest citizen doesn’t come close to the craziest in New York. He just looks on with jealous eyes. After an old man with a fishing vest and no undershirt passes us signing and dancing to “material girl” (a Madonna song), Ruby looks over to Jon and says “you don’t even scrape the tip of the iceberg Jon” to which Jon quickly snapped back “I’m not competing with crazy people rubes”. But you could see it in his eyes. He was disappointed in himself for not thinking about the fishing vest, Madonna combination himself.

Rubes on the roof trying to descretly protect himself from Jon wandering hands.

It’s the individuality that turns me on to this city. Standing out is paramount. The result is the creation of a city which celebrates differences, tries harder than most, and has a lot of fun. My cup of tea!

We all tried to do as much work in the day as possible, But we would constantly call each other to see who would be the first to stop doing work so we could all hang out. Someday’s we’d work until 11pm, but we usually tried to make it much earlier, or we’d take breaks in the day to eat, hang out or work out.

I’m not going to take you through the entire play time itinerary but I will tell you about a couple of the highlists. First of all, all of us in New York spend a lot of money. Only in New York can you spend $30 per drink at a lounge. Only in New York can you get your brunch bill and have it $500. Brunch! And only in New York can you find yourself back in front of an ATM more often than you’re in front of a meal. Only in New York.

Rooftop bar on 5th ave.

Jon’s law firm held a party at cool rooftop patio on 5th ave, that we all had a blast at. As you enter out onto the roof, you see the empire state building just next door as well as the rest of Manhattan. A beautiful experience. For the next few hours, Jon, Ruby and I all told our usually assortment of bad jokes, which were even less well received than they usually are. Then when it was our time to go Jon got upset with us because he didn’t say bye to anyone yet. Unbeknownst to Jon, everyone he knew left. It was just us and strangers. But our lecture to Jon did nothing to deter him from looking. So as he stood in the middle of the bar, upset he realized we were right and as he looked back and saw Rubes and I bent over laughing at him, decide to throw us a curvball. He approached a table and sat down. But we quickly realized by the dirty looks Jon got upon his arrival at the table that these were not his work mates or friends. There was no doubt he wasn’t welcome. For those of you who know Jon, dirty looks don’t really do much to stop him. Don't let his impressive vocabulary and life experiences fool you. He as about as mentally developed as a baby squirrel. So as we approached to save the table from Jon, he got up and ran. It was kind of like approaching your dog after the dog realized that they did something wrong. You know that moment when you look each other in the eyes and as you start approaching the dog smiles and takes off? We’ll that’s what this was like, but our dog was a 200 pound man in a suit. For whatever reason he thought he would be able to camlifouge in with a large group of women. He made himself a seat on a couch full of women. As we approached to grab Jon all we heard him say in his “Jon feminan voice” was “I haaaate men”, to which one girl gave him a high five and replied “totally”. Altough it sounds like the conversation may have had potential we decided to save the poor girl from Jon’s divorce story and grabed him. For those of you who don't know Jon's divorce story, I'll sum it up very quickly. Jon married an older wall st worker, brought her to canada to live in his dorm room, married her and she soon left him for a videographer of adult content who lived in his parent's basement.

As the days progressed, our need to amuse our selves started to increase. At a club one night Jon and I invented a new type of party called a "slap party". The slap party is not to be confused with Jahnke's "pajama party" (email Jahnke if you want to know the rules of the Pajama party. He'll be more than happy to teach you). Take a look at Kirsten's face after I introduced her to the idea of a slap party.

Really not impressed

At 3 in the morning, we all decided to go to another bar Jon "knew about" and has "been to before". Needless to say, no such bar existed. So instead we ran around the streets of NY until 5 in the morning having a slap fight.

Jon Robes and I held our ground. But in the end we all learnt an important lesson; While guys won't fight with full strength.... girls will. Jon got a fat lip in this fight sceene.

Even though we were out really late every night, we all still woke up relatively early to get our work done. Rube, Mya and I all managed to even take a meditation class in the west village one day. I think meditating is something I'm going to incorperate into my daily life. I know my hippy mom is probaly the only person who wont make fun of me for this, but I had a some really interesting experiences in the meditation studio, so I want to keep it up.

All in all, I would say it was some of the best hanging out we've all done in a while. We would make it to great summerside concerts in the day, cruise around the city during the heat wave and try not to die, hang out with Jon's family at restaurants at night, take off to Brooklyn at night to hear good music, visit street festivals, work out, eat a lot of great food and enjoy many random laughs.

Before I went to New York, I went to Philly to see Rubes. Below are some more pics of Rubes and I in Philli and all of us in NYC.

Rubes and I chilled at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a couple of hours.

A Couple of me in Philli! First one is me with a Rothko Paining, next one is me on the "rocky" steps.

View from Jon's room.

Downtown Philli

View from Ruby's office in Philli

Ruby at MoriMotto (an Iron Chef) in Philli. If you don't mind spending $100 bunsun / entre, I highly recomend it. One of the best meals of my life.

Rubes and I had the Rodin gallery to ourselves!

Machine Guns & Cute Kids

2006-04-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

Cool shot I took on a beach

Hello again everyone. It’s been a couple of months since my last entry so I thought I’d throw up another posting. I just read that only 50% of people who set up a blog continue to post after 6 months. I don’t want to become a statistic. Here we go.

This time I’d like to write about a recent trip Samantha and I took to Honduras to visit her mom who just bought a beautiful piece of island property there and has been living there on her sail boat for the last half year or so. I had emailed some of you a while ago, but since then I have got new pictures developed so I’ll post up my new pictures.

We visited the Bay Island Area just off the coast of the mainland. This region possesses beauty beyond belief. However, it also has many of Central America’s worst problems. For starters, Honduras is the poorest country in Central America. It is plagued with an awful AIDS outbreak and in many parts it has an excessive crime rate. There is a strong weapons culture there and many people carry around guns and machetes. When disputes break out (even minor disputes) they are often settled with violence. People coming from developed countries are strongly urged to exercise caution at all times. There are a long list of rules, most of which we didn’t abide by, for foreigners to follow. Foreigners are not to take economy buses as they are sometimes run off the road by criminals and the victims robbed. There have also been numerous shootings and stabbings on these busses. When you take a taxi you need to ensure you’re driver locks all doors and agrees not pick up any other passengers while you’re in the cab. While at stop lights in busy intersections it’s not uncommon to be robbed. Even in the bay islands, although the crime rate is lower, theft, kidnapping, murder and pirating still take place. This is due, in large part, to poor infrastructure, government and police corruption. Unfortunately, most violent acts go unpunished, which in turn keeps criminals on the street and crime rates high. The police have even instituted a special police force to protect foreigners as they are often the target of many of the nations crimes. They have also instituted another leg of policing where men which machine guns patrol the streets to help the police deter violent behavior. Here is a shot I took while we were driving through a city called Coxen Hole, a place the US Department of State says to avoid at all cost after sundown.

Here is another picture in Coxen Hole of a small girl pulling a boy on a bike. While we were there, I notice countless kids roaming the streets by themselves. In fact, seeing anyone over the age of 40 was rare.

Here are some more pictures of kids that I took while we were on our adventures.

I feel strongly that a large part of traveling should be about self education, especially when traveling to less developed countries. Too often, foreign travelers construct and artificially boundary between themselves and the locals. Often this is done of fear and it may seem like safe rational behavior at the time. However, you are giving up on such a life altering opportunity to see how other people really live. Likewise, I don’t feel that you’re that much safer if you’ve alienated yourself from locals. Feelings of criminal bitterness and resentment, coupled with hunger make you an easy target. It’s not easy to get involved in the local community especially if you can only speak English, but its worth it’s worth a try. Samantha and I were fortunate enough to have met a great family while we were in a city called French harbor. This family consisted of a single mother and 6 children. The husband was an alcoholic and left the family to fend for themselves. Samantha and I brought money and toys for from Canada for this family. They are in a remote part of a remote island and there is no way that international aid reaches such ghettos.

This family was squatting on a property near the bottom of the harbor. In fact, the area we docked our boat in was all squatters. People construct their own houses and don’t pay rent. In this case, this family lived underneath one of the houses on dirt floor. Considering the circumstances it was a very clean place. However, you can’t help but realize that there is no sewage system and these people are literally living amongst their own sewage.

I didn’t get too many picture of this neighborhood as my video camera is worth more than 3 years salary for some of these people. We were already drawing too many looks and comments. I just remember it being a sight that will not leave my memory for the rest of my life. Here is a shot of the street that leads to the house of the kids above. You can see where they live below the house at the end of this street.

After our visit with this family, two of the young boys came back to the boat and we took them snorkeling. After hanging out for a bit over food and juice we and asked how we can send them money to help pay for their education. Unfortunately, in this case, it wasn’t possible. They are squatters and don’t have an address or a bank account. Sending money is virtually impossible. Here is a picture of us gearing up to go snorkeling.

During the first nights of our stay, I was being kept awake at night because I could hear gun shots, sometimes machine gun fire and other noises, which I’ll be honest, scared the wits out of me. We were in the middle of nowhere, hanging out with squatters, and there we’re no other tourists around. We were neglecting every point made on the US Department of State website regarding safe travel in the area. After, the first few days, I started feeling much more comfortable. Even the gunshots stopped bothering me (I found out that it’s common for people get drunk and shot their gun off in the water or air).

My princess on the deck of the boat at night & me discovering how cool night vision is!

Below is a picture at sunset of a monstrous shipwrecked boat that had crashed into the mainland. Just the skeleton of the boat is left, You can get a feel for how huge this wreck is by counting the floors of the ship.

I don’t want to go on about the hardships of the island for too long, because in all fairness, more good happens then bad. And while poverty and inequality are everywhere, there is also a sense of community, sharing and resourcefulness that I’ve yet to see a developed country possess on the same level that exists on the island. Family bonds are tight, neighbors both know one another and help one another and people laugh and dance on the streets.

While we were in the country we had to change our style of living as well. For one, no more showering. All bathing needed to be done either in the rain, or the ocean as did all your laundry. Here is a picture of me showing in the rain while at the same time washing my shorts. You’ll notice in all my pictures I’m wearing the same clothes. That’s not because all pictures were all taken on the same day. I didn’t change. In fact, I gave all my clothes away to Patrick and his brothers. I was left with a sweater, a t-shirt, shoes and the cargo shorts you’ll see in all of the pictures. So this is how we shower and do the laundry at the same time (yes I'm using dish soap)…

We don’t have many pictures of us wearing much in terms of clothes. I just lived in shorts, Samantha wore her bathing suit and Sam’s mom, as usual… was naked quite often.

In terms of eating, we’d often catch our own food while we were sailing. Louis (Sam's moms boyfriend/ soulmate) and I would go lobster and crab fishing with either spears or try to catch them with our hands. Those days snorkeling with Louis amongst barracuda, tuna, blow fish and parrot fish were some are some of the most awe inspiring, breath taking views I’ve ever seen. Perfect visibility under water. Often, just snorkeling in about 10 feet of water, with the sun hitting our backs and casting great reflections through the crystal clear aqua ocean water, onto the white sand ocean floor. Pieces of coral would stick up and sometimes large formations would form for us to go and explore. It was just Lou and I out for a few hours at a time, swimming under water trying to hold our breath for as long as possible while looking for lobsters and hoping the barracuda to our left wouldn’t snatch our catch away before we get to the surface.

During our walks one sunny day, we found a place to go “jungle jumping”. Jungle jumping consists of a group of guys driving you up a mountain, then you jump from one part of the canopy to the next. It’s a pretty make shift operation as you can see with the tilted wood platform hanging off the tree. But it was fun, and everyone lived.

At the end of every night we’d always have a little party. Some nights if we were in the city we’d head down to a bar on the beach and hang out around a camp fire.

For the last few days of our trip Samantha and I went scuba diving twice a day. That’s a whole other story so I won’t get into it now but for those of you seeking a rush I highly recommend checking out scuba diving. Below is a picture of the kids we hung out while diving.

So that’s my very brief summery of my trip to Roatan, Honduras. I’m not going to end this post with the stock comments of “we are so fortunate to live in Canada”. I think that’s pretty obvious. I also want to say that much of what was said on the US governments website was a bit exagerated. There are many places within Honduras which are completely safe. The west end in Roatan is one of those places. It's actually an island paradise and I would highly consider living there myself.

However, what I do want to encourage is for those of you who are planning a trip to Central or South America to take the time and try to find families who need help. Contrary to popular belief, poverty more often then not, has a friendly face and you don’t need to endanger yourself to find people living in sub par conditions. I think Sam’s mom and Louis are setting a great example by helping families wherever they go. In Cuba they became close to a family with an expecting mother. They were all out of room in the current living situation so Sam’s mom came back to Canada, asked her friends for $20 each and helped the family build an attachment to their home. The whole thing cost $300 (Cubans are very resourceful). The last time my good friend Caroline went to Cuba she brought medicine, clothes and toys for less developed parts of the country. It’s too easy to flock to Havana or Veradero and drink cheap rum, hang out on white sand beaches. Such a vacation can often be accomplished by bringing a micky of Captain Morgan’s to the nearest beach on a sunny day. The ubiquitous travel template is ignorant, self indulgent and lacks a sense of creativity. If you want to see a great documentary about this issue see "Life and Debt" by Stephanie Black . It's a Jamaican travel documentary that captures the horrible effects that the unawareness of foreigners within the country has on the people. The travel industry in Jamaica herds its visitors like sheep in the hopes of not allowing their visitors to see that 99.9% of Jamaica is really like. Often the only Jamaican visitors they meet are the rare tourist industry worker with their Hawaiian shirt and smile on. You are given a gross misrepresentation of what Jamaica really is.

Now, I’m not calling for you rename your vacation to “humanitarian aid week where we have no fun” and I’m not asking for you to find your vacations on http://www.give-my-money-away-and-avoid-beaches-while-staying-in-the-shade.com/ . I enjoy having me feet in the sand, and getting a tan just as much as the next guy. I just think with the advent of global travel we must take it upon ourselves to make sure we are being fair to the residents of the places we are visiting.

Well, that turned into a preachy rant! Sorry about that. Let’s get back to the pictures. Here are some other pictures of various things that I took while we were there.

The view out of our boat in the early evening

Notice the ship wreck off to the left of the picture

Another huge shipwreck

Sammy on the bow during huge waves. I tried the same thing and almost died... not fun

Best part of having a boat: Access to deserted beaches!

Just before sundown

The view on our way to a party help by Sammy's mom lawyer on the island

Sammy and the boys at a mansion in the jungle.

We'll that's it for now and likely for a while. Hope to hear from you all soon!

New York, New York

2006-03-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hey friends and family. I've decided to post a blog about my New York Living experience rather than email you about it because it's easier for me to upload pictures and change / add information when I want.

As many of you know I had decided I wanted to go live in Manhattan for a couple of months. I've always been intrigued by the city and wanted an opportunity to get to know it more intimately. I also thought I would use this opportunity to help grow my business to the next level by attending various coaching seminars and networking events.

What I have seen and learnt here, I could not put into words. It has exceeded and continues to exceed my highest expectations. This is not to say that everything has been fun or easy since I got here, to say that would be an outright lie. This is a city of extremes. You are either on top of the world, or having this city serve you a beating on a platter. This city requires that you have a New York mindset. Failure to think like a New Yorker is an almost guarantee that the city will find a way to bring you to your knees having you scurrying to find the quickest way out of Manhattan and back home. Just ask Samantha about the night we accidentally stayed in the Marcy Projects, considered the MOST dangerous project in all of the united states in the 80's (which has since cleaned itself up a bit... thank God).

It took a while for me to get into the swing of things, but now as I write this I'm confident to say that I've figured New York out, or at least my small part of it. I don't think anyone can make the claim to actually "know" the city. New York is too complex, vast and ever changing to ever really get your head around what it really is. The island of Manhattan is a Vortex sucking in everything from Ideas, people, wealth, commerce and celebrities to less desirable things such as crime, greed and disease.

New York, and Manhattan Island in particular has the uncanny ability to change forever those who step foot in it. Even if you're from a big city, you'll need a new set of urban skills to get by here. Things such as social classes are much easier to distinguish in New York. Neighborhoods, often only a 15 minute walk from one another, contrast each other in housing type, race and the economic status of their residents. Here are a couple pictures of two neighborhoods that are located about a 15 minute walk from each other..

On the topic of neighborhoods, New York has some of the finest, most varied neighborhoods that a city can offer. I walk around quite a bit just to see the innovations this city has to offer. One of my favorite places to do this is SoHo, which simply stands for South of Houston. this neighborhood is home to some of the riches and hippest people in the city. high end boutiques, galleries, restaurants and bars line the streets. However, it lacks the boring the predictable feel that the equally, if not more rich, upper east and upper west sides offer. SoHo, like the rest of Manhattan is covered in Graffiti and offers you an assortment of interesting characters to look at who tend not to wander north of 14th street. There are also flee markets, funky cafe's, and few parks to hang out in. Below is a picture of SoHo

The greatest thing about New York, is that everybody is doing something and nobody cares what people think of them. Not only do they seem not to care, they appear to be oblivious to the fact that they are not the sole inhabbitant of Manhattan. The first thing I noticed when I got of the train is that New Yorkers could care less who is eavesdropping on their conversations. People speak to be heard here.

It's not just with small talk either. I hear people negotiating record deals, men getting rejected by women, business owners openly talking about their revenues and next business endeavors. However, there is no better place to hear the sounds of New York, than on the Subways. There was actually a book just published by someone who walks around New York and takes notes on all of the conversations they here. Here are a few snippets from that book.

Girl: I'm not going to the gym today.
Queer: Oh my god, this is like the gazillionth time you've cancelled. Honey, no offense, and I didn't wan't to have to tell you this, but you give me no choice. You're starting to get fat. You need to start going to the gym, like, every day or no man's gonna wan't you.
Girl: You gays are so fucking judgmental. Oh, and since I'm such a fat cow, you can go find someone else to help you stretch and have to deal with your sweaty balls in their face.
--Starbucks, Park Row

Girl #1: I hate my haircut. But it might just be in pictures. I need to look at myself in the mirror for a few hours.
Girl #2: Like you do every day?
Girl #1: Yeah, I'm a little vain.
--60th & Columbus

Grandma: Who is that? What's the commotion about?
Teen girl: It's Paris Hilton.
Grandma: Who is that?Teen girl: She's a media blowjob, Nana. Let's get a move on, we're late and Daddy's waiting for us at the hotel.
41st and 6th

Girl on cell: Can you hear me when I roll my eyes?
82nd and York

Woman on cell: Yeah, I have to go. I'm too distracted on the phone, and I don't trust anyone in this terminal. People are speaking Spanish behind me, if you know what I mean.
--LaGuardia

It doesn’t stop, people have the most ridiculous conversations and they don't care who hears them. Fantastic!

Another thing I noticed about countless people is that many of them are doing their own thing. As an entrepreneur myself I love meeting people who have started up or are in the process of starting up their own companies. Many of the people I've met operate their own magazines, started their own DJ companies, executive recruiting businesses, software development companies, real estate companies and the list goes on. There are also countless actors and models flooding this city in the hopes of finding work. They come here because they know that New York is the engine of celebrity creation.

Below is a picture I took in a park of a small photo shoot.

Another thing I love about the city is the contrast between new and old, clean and grungy. For example, New York has a subway system that looks like it has been burnt down a dozen times. It's dirty, noisy, obnoxious and is home to some of the cities craziest inhabitants. Here is a picture from the subway platform I take to get home.

I’d never see anything like this in Toronto. The music in the subways is great as well. One night I spent some time just getting off at popular stops to hear the subway performances. It's not like Toronto, which provides an old man with an accordion trying to make a buck, or a homeless guy who learnt to use the latest fisher price piano. New York subway musicians are phenomenal. Picture big bands, trumpets, saxophones, drums, harmony, soul, rock, R&B, African Music, South American Music, crowds... this is what Subway performance is in New York. On almost every level, this city does it big. There is no room for the fisher price piano in New York, you'd be lucky if you got a sympathy quarter.

Speaking of money, this is a city that requires you have money to stay here. One of the most expensive places to live in the world. Yup, New York loves money, and many within it's boarders share the love. To see this all you need to do is take a stroll uptown and see the lines of limo's, walk around midtown to see the assortment of 5 star hotels and restaurants or take a walk downtown to see the heart of it in the financial district. I walked around heavily protected wall street during rush hour once. I've never seen rat race, until I've seen that. Suits running around after trading is over trying to get back to their urban palaces. Here is a picture of wall street just before the sun goes down.

You can't avoid being influenced by the energy of this great city. New York City is a metaphor for effort, hard work and achievement. This city has overcome so many obstacles in it's day from draft and race riots to fixing up urban slum areas and getting back on its feet after having been so aggressively attacked. Now this city stands as one of the most admired cities in the world. And for good reason. It's a think tank, a celebrity creator, an economic powerhouse, and a Mecca for the artistic minded.

Its brilliance doesn't stop inspiring me. I spend a little bit of time, on almost a daily basis in one of this cities libraries. I get most of my work done there. I found the humanities and social science library on 42nd st the most amazing library of all and have been spending most of my time there. Here is a picture of the outside of the library.

I've also been trying to make it to church once a week, which in all honesty, I haven't done, but I have managed to make it every other week or so. Here is the St. Patrick’s church on 5th ave that I've been going to.

5th Ave is one of the most expensive streets on earth. Home to retail shops of the top designers, jewelers, and gadget makers. It's also the heart of the Rockefeller empire. I was actually walking down 5th ave one day thinking about the chaos the city went through during the depression. Executives and Brokers were literally jumping out of their office windows to meet certain death. As I was thinking about the stress and chaos of the city the man beside me, who was obviously on an important business call, had his cell phone cut out on him. Within a fraction of a second after getting disconnected he started swearing at the top of his lungs "you stupid F!@#ing twat phone.... fill in the rest yourself but be sure to include some of the most degrading sexually aggressive terms you know). He then grabbed his phone and started violently smashing it against a small pole that keeps traffic out of the Rockefeller center. He continued on with this escapade yelling his assortment of swear words, many of which were unknown to me until that day! He didn't stop until he there was nothing left of the phone. About a 2 minute ordeal in all that left his "8" button lodged in the cleat of my shoe. A cop sat on the other side of the street chuckling but most citizens just walk by as if seeing a suit attack his cell phone was as common occurrence. For me, such a sight was as uncommon as a hip dentist. Since this point, I have seen countless other events which has blown my hair back and I too am starting to become desensitized to them. ahh, New York!

This city is the world representative for power and wealth in America. Looking down wall st at 5pm, reading the cities financial papers or just mingling around the business class will give you a glimpse into New Yorkers insatiable desire for money and power. It's a glimpse into the soul of New York City.

New York is a hub for all of those who seek to get to the "inside". People flock here in the hopes of getting involved in the right social circles, meeting the right people and in doing so being launched into a higher social class. Many of Americas rich have homes in the city even if they don't live here on a year round basis. A Manhattan address is a social symbol and an identifier that you're either on the inside or looking for a way in.

This is not say however, that all living within Manhattan are well to do. The cities many different neighborhoods give way to an assortment of social classes and urban complexities. However, most of these people have their heritage in families coming to the island seeking a better life. Unfortunately the reality for many people is a life of struggle and below par living standards.

I've spent much time here in the village and in the Lower East side. two the manhattans young and hip areas to be. this was not always the case however. Not too long ago this city used to be plagued with crime and slums. These two areas were a couple of the worst neighborhoods in this part of Manhattan. However, in the 80's there was a dramatic turn around when various politicians, the most widely known being Mayor Giuliani, cleaned up the streets by arresting everybody. I've met numerous native Manhatanites who explain to me the process they saw take place in the East Village first, then the lower east side second. "Cop cars just lined the streets and busted everyone for anything" a friend told me. "even if you just j-walked, you’d get a ticket" she continued. The result was that the crime moved to other parts of the city. This continued until most of the crime and bad neighborhoods have been wiped out of Manhattan. The result is gentrified neighborhoods like I've never seen before. People have various views on the methods used to get the homeless, drug addicts and criminals off of the island. One girl told me "growing up in the East Village in the 80's had me watching my back all of the time. I had to be concerned with things like being mugged or raped. However, I also hated looking out my window and seeing walls of police cars push people out of the village. Many of these people, threw the greatest parities, did the best art and added to the culture of Manhattan. Now yuppies have moved in, started their own definition of "cool" businesses and have taken away the old culture of this area." Below is a picture of the East Village today.

Speaking of neighborhoods, there is not better place to see Manhattan than from the sky. Unlike many other cities manhattans skyline is tough to see from one angle. No one angle fully captures the size and scope of this island. Here is one picture taken of the east side of midtown only. This a very small fraction of the city.

Here is another small snippet of the skyline I took from the Brooklyn Bridge of the Downtown Area (agin a very small part of the whole island).

Since I've been here I've been fortunate enough to have met some great people. I also had some of my best friends come down and visit with me for a weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of Scott, Ruby and a I being so unambiguously homosexual.

Before they got here, I also had Samantha come into town for a weekend. Our first night, although adventurous, memorable and sometimes scary I’d soon rather forget. Thanks for being such a trooper baby! The next couple of nights were great. Filled with live music, bar hopping in Brooklyn, SoHo cruses, zoo's, central park, and a couple of simple nights in our pajamas sitting on our bed in our very New York room with a bottle of wine, sharing our ipod buds and chatting about our next adventures. for a guy who doesn't like to use the word "cute" too often, I’d have to say it is the only word to describe the atmosphere of those nights.

Once everybody left, it was just me and New York again. Even though I'm alone, I hardly notice it. Conversations surround me all the time, there are so many things to think about and I'm pretty good at meeting strangers to hang out with. The guy who rented me the place I'm living at right now took me out to Carnegie Hall the other night to hear one his friends perform in an Opera. Afterwards we all went out to an expensive Italian restaurant and ate and drank for free. why? I don't know, and I don't ask.

Being from Toronto and having many connections to people living in less populated areas I get a lot of slack. I hear people say things Like "I’d rather shoot myself than live in Toronto". "Ya, Toronto is okay, but it's too dangerous". "ew, I hate Toronto, it smells there" or the ever so stock comment "people in Toronto are too mean".

Having lived in Toronto for the last 8 years I can say with confidence that none of the above are true. Sure every now and again you'll get an unfriendly TTC operator give you attitude when you're trying to figure out what stop you need to get off in order to get stop at Palmerston, but for the most part Torontonians are helpful and most of us don't "pack gats". I think many people who are unnecessarily negative and crass towards large cities harbor a secret sense of envy and they find that this type of offensive behavior makes them appear confident with their decision to keep life more predictable and small.

Whatever the reasons may be, people hold the same aggressive distaste towards New Yorkers. "I hate New York", "New York smells like shit", "New Yorkers are too rushed and angry". Again, being here for over a month now and running into hundreds of people and interacting with thousands I can say that this city (next to Athens, Greece and on par with Toronto) is one of the friendliest cities I've ever been to. People are quick to lend a helping hand, smiles are everywhere and it only smells like shit in certain neighborhoods at certain times of the year.

sure, it's aggressive and fast paced but that's half the thrill. Its city life and it makes life interesting. I think some of the hatred of all big cities stems from "little brother complex". New York is big, popular, rich and confident, and it knows it. From a little brother perspective what’s not to hate. Reminders of this cities confidence are everywhere. Just look at the following street sign for example. This is called, big brother rubbing it in little brothers face.

There is no escaping the fact that you're in New York. Reminders come in all shapes and sizes and surround you all times of the day. Central park is a classic example of this cities confidence. In the 19th century New Yorkers decided they needed a way to escape the daily grind of the city. However, instead of leaving the island and venturing to less populated parts of the state, they decided to bring the country to them. That's confidence!

Central Park, an 840 acre park was built to duplicate the feeling of being in the country. You can go boating on a pond, have a picnic in a park, go snowboarding on a hill, or just relax under a tree. The park is filled with birds, frogs, fish, squirrels and other animals that would normally only be seen in rural areas.

Brooklyn Bridge is another example of New York’s confidence in itself. Never before has such a feat been accomplished. During it's time, it was one of the tallest structures in American history. Never had anything of its size and magnitude been constructed before. However, New Yorkers didn't let the fact that this bridge would push the limits of modern day engineering to its limits stop them from constructing it. This attitude is representative of Manhattans confidence with itself on many different levels.

One of the things I love most about New York is its age. It's old and it looks it. Even the best neighborhoods in the city have a grungy feel to them. Barbwire and graffiti are everywhere, roads are torn up and windows are broken. Here is a picture I took of Chinatown when things were closing down.

Here is a picture I took in SoHo. it's hard to tell in this picture but the road is uneven, there is graffiti on almost all businesses, there are dumpsters on the side of the road and colorful buildings line the street. This is one of the cities premier and most expensive places to live but an outsider might have a hard time seeing that by just looking around.

I took this picture in a park in SoHo.

The combination of old stuctures standing beside new structures give the city a unique feel that not many cities inside of north america offer.

Gas lit lamps line city hall park

New York doesn't simply have parking lots, instead they have parking skyscrapers. This is a small one (only two stories), but as you can see they actually have to park cars on top of each other to make room. These are often 3-4 levels tall. I don't know how they get the cars down. But I kind of like the mystery of it, so I'm not going to ask.

I've included this shot becuase it's a very average New York look. for those of you who haven't been to New York before, I'm hoping to give you a good feel for what the city looks and feels like. This intersections looks similar to hundreds of others in the midtown area.

We'll that’s' it for now. I hope to have both informed you of my life in Manhattan and given you a glimpse into the city of New York. For those of you who haven't been to the city, I highly recommend you check it out. For others, such as my wicked rock and roll hippy mom who can't see New York because she has a criminal record from growing "herb" because she thought it looked "pretty", you can live vicariously through me.

I love you all and I hope to see everyone soon!!!

High fives and hugs and kisses to everyone.