Couchsurfing in the US

I had my first couchsurfing experience in the US which was such a joy. My friends, Rachael, Corey and I decided it would be great if we said goodbye to the summer with a little trip to the roller coaster capital of the world. That's right, Cedar Point. It was a splendid trip especially considering how flaky we are at following through with activities. The plan was, I had to meet them in Joliet because Chicago was out of the way and Joliet is where 55 meets 80 and they were coming from 55. Makes sense, well I missed my first train by only 2mins. but I think it was a pleasant surprise because getting the later train just gave me about 30mins. of down time in Joliet. That was plenty of time because I ended up strolling the main street for a bit but simply got bored and annoyed with carrying my bag after a short while. I just found my way to the Public Library and read some photo and poetry magazines. I was soon met by the gang of two and we were on our way!
The open road was nothing different then the drives usually taken to get to and from school, with flat lands, crops and the occasional truck stop. As Rachael and I caught up on life, Corey sat comfortably in the back until...... We hit Michigan. Might I add, Michigan was not on the way, we had taken a wrong turn and had gone outta the way for just under 30 mins. No big deal, Rachael got the finally make it Michigan and we were back on the right track in no time.
The plan was to drive up to Ohio and stay for the night with a couchsurfing friend and then in the morning we would try to get up early for the roller coasters. Rachael had look into a few people for hosts and after several yes's, we had weeded out the others and chose Chris. His home was located in Sandusky and since Cedar Point is just outside of the town, it was one of the main deciding factors for our stay. He and Rachael had exchanged phone numbers and so we were able to give him updates on our progress to his welcoming home. Some updates included how we ended up in Michigan and our apology for arriving so late. All were greeted with wonderful words of humor and wittiness. He even Wikipedia-d some information on Ohio, and we of course had to return the favor and ask him to look up our own wikipedia jems. something to do with the state bird. Well it was such a treat when we finally met him in person and were introduced to his kitchy loft-like apt. Sadly the place was scheduled to become abandoned just 3 weeks after our stay and so we gave it a great farewell voyage. Chris was up on his Mod theme and had very hip lamps, couches and decorations. We all enjoyed the balcony the most and spent a few hours chilling and exchanging tales. It was so comfortable to be on a balcony and learning of the strange nightlife within Sandusky. He gave us many a tips of how to rig the parking at Cedar Point and it worked like a charm. He was very insightful and it was easy to see that we all got a long smoothly. After realizing that our clocks were all an hour delayed, we knew it was time for bed. As he slept, we found it best to make our own slumber party by laying all the couch cushions next to each other on the floor.
In the morning we all worked on a wonderful meal of Scrambled eggs, tortillas, and Cinnamon rolls. It did the trick and even more so when we found ourselves trying desperately not to be subjected to pay the god-awful amounts for crummy food within the park. Corey was on a mission to make it early in an effort to catch the good rides before the lines got too bad. Our goodbyes were bitter-sweet mostly because we were not guaranteed another meeting with Chris. Our time was precious and we were very thankful to have been blessed with such genuine hospitality. But the roller coasters were anticipating our arrival and we were not about the let them down.
Yeah it was another successful example of how Couchsurfing is quietly changing the world; One couch at a time!

I am back home

So the trip has come to an end.... I am so sorry that I slacked so much the last month and most of the month before. I am back home and when I can find the time I will try desperately to get you caught up woth what went on while I was in Europe. I had an unbelievable time and I know it was what I needed as far as the places I experienced, the people I met and the things I learned. I hope that I will take these things and somehow mix it in with the things that will come with this next semester. It was so great to finally make it home after the long trip. I do miss many things about Europe but I was exhausted and needed to have stable ground. My mom met me and we traveled around a bunch so wonderful!

Dinners, plural

So I have been slacking for sure so sorry about that. I should be studying right now but I spent allllll day yesterday working on a drawing assignment and I just want to write because sitting and drawing really gets your mind a wandering. Italy has been good and I have been really put in a place of understanding why I was brought here and just how important these experiences are. A lot has happened since that wonderful trip to England.
I had some wonderful nights hanging out with the lovely ladies I have grown to love here! We had one night where we just sat around for several hours and laughed about the most random things, honestly I was even having trouble keeping up with the pace of the conversation. It guess it did not help that we had this long night yet weirdly eventful night after a dinner with my Italian friend. Giovanni is this Italian from Salerno who Angela and I met while taking a walk. He is super sweet and was working here for just a few weeks so we asked him if he wanted to be shown around. The problem which turned out the be a blessing is that he spoke nearly no English and so in order to communicate I had to dig real deep for the Italian I have been learning. Wow that is difficult but oh so rewarding, and tiring. One night he took me out for dinner and it was so delicious. We went to this little place that was hidden down below in a basement probably once for wine storage and we enjoyed Florentine steak and pollo. The olive oil was so fresh and the atmosphere was really welcoming. We talked about a range of topics and I wasn't too bad with my Italian. I had to do a lot of hand and body gestures but hey I already do that.
Anyways he is a chef and so we agreed that he was going to show me how to cook sea food (frutta di mare) and so we went to the local market bought all the ingredients and had a wonderful meal. He took over my tiny kitchen and just went to town making pasta with spinach like greens and Calamari. It was buono. I decided to contribute good ol Cornbread in order to give him a little taste of America, that and I love Cornbread!!! We had enough to food to fill the bellies of Lynn, Denise, his and me and I had a meal later on in the week.
So in return we took Giovanni to a thanksgiving dinner where he had the works. Sweet and regular mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey, and the best, Pumpkin Pie!!!! So it was great, and after the church that hosted the party, St. James, had a live Italian folk band, what a night. It is a great holiday, but I did miss my family. So needless to say, thanksgiving is themed around a really beautiful concept, community and thanksgiving. I guess when it comes down to it, you can always be thankful to be among beautiful people and a large warm meal.

Jolly ol' England

WoW, I had a great time in that lovely place. My friend Angela and I went to England just for the weekend which is a common practice for students studying abroad. Angela and I had an agenda, it started with a D and it ends with a cute ending. We saw that Death Cab was coming to Nottingham and hey we are only a few hours away by airplane and i guess if you include all the alternative travel that is included. The thing was that Angela's friend who is studying in London was so confused why we would come to the UK and not come to London. Andrew had a great point and so we incorporated London into the trip agenda, best decision ever. I have no idea what we would have done in Birmingham and Nottingham.
So we got on the train early in the morning and headed off to Pisa which is a big port for cheap airlines to fly out of. Withing hours we were in a place that we had no trouble talking with the workers and being able to find our way to London. The flight over we had this random man start talking to us and he was pretty out there. We wished our passport never fell between the seat because it just gave him and invitation to start conversation with us. He explained how he spoke seven or eight different languages and he said he's lived in over 75 different locations and that he could not tell us what he did for a living. He was so hyper and just kept talking so we listened because it passed the time but then when we arrived to London it just kept going and it got a little creepy. So yeah we had to devise a plan to get rid of him and the Lord helped with that one.
Oh we knew we were in Britain because the first interaction we had with the locals were these kids on the train and one had a fake black baby in their stroller and another had a pregnant belly shirt and another was in a wheelchair and the last one had a video camera. They were all taking on alter-egos and it was hilarious. I love the wittiness, it was a breath of fresh air and we could ask what they were doing, it was glorious.

SO the train ride was great, and I saw really cute sheep along the way and had time to just reflect, I find that to be the hardest but also the most crucial part of traveling. It is like too much time and your mind starts to contemplate life to the fullest extent, it is amazing. So yeah sitting on the train I got through a big part of my book but was distracted by all the conversations I was able to understand, it was crazy. I could understand and it was hard to disregard after several months of only understanding tourist conversations. I couldn't help but listen in because someone meeting a friend to go out and get completely smashed was way more interesting than reflecting on life. And it definitely helped that the accent was so attractive and enjoyable to listen to. English people are very proper and just pleasant people from those that we interacted with, I think it is a large generalization but we found it to be quite pleasant whenever we talked with people. The first people we met were these newspaper men and one of them was a huge music buff and best of all he was all about blues and we talked for a good ten minutes just about Chicago Blues until Andrew met us and swiped us away. '
He was our own little Kiwi tour guide and he took us a good distance to show us his school,
St. Paul's Cathedral, where there was some type of circle being projection on the facade, but mostly we just walked around and got distracted by the buildings and people. He ended our night in the town by taking us to a pub and we met some of his classmates. When we walked by the Tate Modern we passed this instillation for Oxfam and a photographer who took these wonderfully engaging photographs that were displayed in light boxes. The photographer is, Cheka Kidogo, super talented. We had some chips and nachos which did not hit the spot but we headed to his house and we were greeted by his parents with a lovely meal. They were so great and they are missionaries there working at a church in the area but they normally live in New Zealand which explains their beautiful spirits. I would love to go and visit them especially after they showed us
pictures with postcard backgrounds. We were spoiled with a warm house to spend time and the night at. We had a great time connecting and just learning about what we had been up to both before Italy and during our study abroad. They were intrigued by couchsurfing as most people are, and we happily informed them.
The next morning we woke up to a full breakfast with yogurt, fruit of all kinds, cereal, wheatabix, juice, caffe, and more. It was a blessing to just feel like a honored guest and be greeted with so much kindness. We had a full day of sightseeing so we headed off quite early. Andrew had a full plan for us and just took us all over, it was awesome. London is a beautiful city and apparently we might have brought the sunshine with us from Italy because it was a beautiful "sunny" day. It felt so foreign to me to think that the usual is cloudy because I am just used to that weather to description to be a rare occurrence. We saw so much and had a blast interacting with the people and just trying to talk as frequent as possible with people before we had to head back to Italy. I felt awkward and would often forget that I talked the same language so I had to just get used to the feeling and talk with anybody. We of course saw all the usual things, Big Ben, House of Parliament, The Prime Minister's house, Buckingham Palace, ate lunch in St. James Park, and many other sights. The funniest thing was seeing these guards that worked at the Equestrian Club, The Horse Guards Parade. We watched them change and they were quite the drama queens, with these obnoxious boots. They would just walk through the tourists and not stop, like a cannonball coming through. The next guards that we met were way more chill. They were guarding something and they would just do this little routine and so we messed with them of course and we witnessed a little girl get completely freaked out and start crying a ton when she saw them up close. The parents were cute and witty and they scared the kids more by saying the guards were off to go get back children. I missed hearing dialog between families, so sorry if that is useless information but it made some of my day.
It was a whirlwind of touring the city and we were pretty exhausted but we still had the concert to head to for the night.




Sadly we missed our couch bus and had to take the later one which set us off course. Luckily Gill the lay from couchsurfing picked us up from the bus station and took us back to her place for some tea and a nice place to relax for a bit. We wanted to get to know her and assure her that we were legite so with that decision we ended up missing most of the concert which she also brought us to and ended up catching just the encore. Death Cab is an awesome band to watch live and we were happy to just know that we saw them in England, what more can we say. Nottingham is an strange place well not really but at night it got quite wild and we just were so exhausted that it was good just to sit have a kebab and people watch. Gill was the highlight of our Nottingham trip, she had traveled all over the world and she was so sweet just in for the night taking care of her sick daughter who is also very sweet. We sat and talked and also watched t.v. which was a treat for us well to an extent because we got sucked into the show about the 100 top icons. In the morning Gill took us to the airport at 4:30, what a sweetheart. So we were thankful and we really enjoyed our time with her and with Nottingham, Oh Nottingham!
We arrived to Rome and were immediately reminded that we were in Italy because the bus we got on left like 15mins. late and they crammed it with people and it was just like yep we're back!
Roma is a beautiful place with so much to see, we only caught a little bit and actually wound up watching a calco, football, tournament with all South Americans. It felt like I was at Montrose beach on a Sunday and that made me happy. I walked around a grabbed a couple pictures but mostly we just sat there to eat. I did meet an Afghanistan man who spoke wonderful English and he told me how he goes to this park because he has not found his place in Roma yet but feels connected most with the South American community. He was very informative and I was happy to hear about Afghanistan. I can safely say it was a wonderful weekend, and a lot thanks to Angela she is quite t

Camminare

It's a little random but I was just listening to the John Mayer song and it definitely relates to the activity that occurred this week for me. I had a wonderful weekend which involved staying in Florence and enjoying the beauty that exists within reach. I have enjoyed these weekends which I have spent here because it helps me not to feel so much of an outsider. My friend Angela and I took a nice long enjoyable walk that started in the somewhat suburb Fiesole. We took the #7 Autobus and when we arrived to the town, we just walked down the main street and it took us all the way down to this other little town, Settignao which is very quaint and just a wonderful place. So the walk took us about 4 hours but we went at about a 1 hour mile speed because we were super distracted and wound up looking at all different things from the clouds to the leaves on and off the trees. Also we were living off the earth because not only did we find a few apples to consume but we picked a couple olives and we plan on making those edible. The walk was so good because we were able to take our time and enjoy some greenery, fresh air and calm noises. We just enjoyed the scenery and I had my medium format camera so I hope to have gotten some great landscapes, especially because we passed two castles, castelli. They were not inhabited and just had their own little characteristics. I like just visiting Castles, they are just so interesting and they put you in a strange position being so close to them and knowing that they have been through so much. Well yeah it was just what the doctor ordered, besides the few sun-showers which forced us to take shelter under trees or a makeshift gazebo. We even had a little picnic which is the same word in Italian. Per lo pranzo we ate (abbiamo mangato) some bread, cheese, peanut butter and apples. (pane, formaggio, burro di arachide) It was a great lunch and we were very thankful to have a place to scurry to once the rain started falling. It was a great walk (camminare) and I hope to head up there sometime soon before (primia) the weather (tempo) changes. After (dopo) Angela and I took the autobus to her house (sua casa) and there I met (incontrare) her host father (padre) and we collectively tried to talk (parlare) Italiano with him.
It is quite difficult to talk on the spot because you learn these sayings that may never come up in the conversation so then you are stuck trying to think of English-like words in Italian.
The following day My roomie, her friend (sua amica) and I met Angela at the Marcato Centrale and there we picked out dinner fix'ns. They picked out these really big tortellini and I almost got a Pumpkin but I wasn't sure if we were headed straight home so I plan on going back for one. Afterward Angela and I didn't head home, instead we wandered to the river(Arno) and there we met some Italians. They ranged in ages but they were all there fishing. I guess that is the place to go and talk to Italians because they are already taking it easy and so they speak slowly and it works out because they also are in the mood to talk usually. It was a great conversation that we had and Angela and I combined our Italian knowledge and got by pretty far. There was a guy named Giovanni and he was basically visiting because he lives in Torino but he is working in Florence for just a few weeks. We agreed to show him around a bit and so from there we went to a caffe and talked a bunch more. He bought us cappuccinos and little pastries. It was a great time and we talked about all sorts of things, I definitely feel that my Italian is improving. So yeah I may not have been able to say what I wanted to say but the act of trying proved to be quite rewarding. I will definitely head back soon to the river to hang out with the fishing guys.

Barcelona

Wow this was an amazing time and I am so thankful that Angela was my buddy for this journey. Sadly she came down with a random case of food poisoning or food allergy so that was lame but she was a trooper. Seriously if I was as sick as her I would not want to get on a train, bus and a plane, oh and let's not forget Xavier's car. We had a full day of traveling the first Lunedi of the break and so I started my day with a hike. Angela was to join me but I let her sleep which was amazing for the both of us. I had alone time and she had zzzzz time. My hike was quite random and I had no idea where I was going. At this time I was still in Bardonacchia and so I was up in the mountains of Italy. It was a beautiful day, a little foggy but it made for a great walk. I just had some time to think and time to connect with God, it's quite majestic when you are surrounded by mountains and you feel so humbled being so small. I walked for a good hour through the town but that was not that eventful, I wanted nature not streets and cars. Finally I found a beautiful path that lead me to a Castle, it was wonderful. I could not have asked for a nicer time to take a walk because I had to sit for almost the entire day because I was stuck on many transportation vehicles which do not allow standing.
So Barcelona, first Angela and I were so blessed with the couchsurfer we picked. He waited at the airport for an hour because we couldn't use our phones and didn't know how to work the phone teamed up with his number. We are so glad we finally got a hold of him because he took us to his house and it was so nice to finally rest and to rest in a home of someone. I would have not liked placing Angela in a hostel for the night especially in her condition. Xavier and I stayed up a couple hours just chatting and he worked on his English and I just spoke not trying to try Spanish or Italian. I know, I was lazy but he needed the help more-so than I did. It was chill but when we woke up in the middle of the night it was clear that Angela and I not having a blanket would be a problem. Spain had a big cold front come right through and we got the most of it. The next day was raining the entire day and so Angela was still out of commission and we just walked around Barcelona and took it easy. Xavier met up with us later on in the day and took us back to his house. I went out and bought some soup fix'ns; celery, carrots, peppers, potatoes, chicken broth, noodles, and the secret ingredient; lime. I took the mother roll and made us a nice big pot of chicken noodle soup and it was wonderful. We all hugged a warm bowl of it and sat in for the night, just what the doctor ordered in Angel's case. It was great to be settled and have access to a kitchen.
The next day Xavier took us out for a little day in Barcelona, first we stopped at a bakery called La Panera which was a small little cafe' and we had chicolatta caldo which is basically hot chocolate pudding. We headed out and went straight to Park Guell which is the park with the super long mosaic park bench and it was beautiful. Besides the lame weather once again, we had a fun time running around and checking out all the beautiful mosaics. I want to make one when I get back or sometime soon because they are wonderful and they seem pretty practifal, take old broken things and reassemble them to make something new. We also went to La Boqueria which is a huge central market in the middle of town and it has all types of items and some charming little places to stop and grab a quick lunch. We were pretty cold and I just wanted to go someplace and eat something light and steal their heat for a few moments. We wound up going to some genaric place that had the front door wide open and I ordered pizza, not exactly what I wanted but it had to do. I would write down the name but more for the fact that it should be detoured. So after lunch Angela and I headed to the MACBA, which is a contemporary art museum. It was great and the metra took us right there, it is quite close to La Boqueria so th estop is Leica or something like that and you just head down l'Hospitale street. I could not have asked for a better place to get lost in with so much photography, I was in heaven. It was cool to see what Barcelona's contemporary art scene looked like and how they compare to the rest of the world. There was one exhibit where the photographer took portraits of the latin kings in Barcelona and is researching about their culture and how they fit into the whole makeup of Barcelona. Sadly there is a large drug problem in Barcelona and we witnessed it head on and it was quite depressing. I think it is important to understand where these individuals are coming from and see that they may not know of any other options, so prayers for them are important to just give them a boost in the right direction. Following the museum visit which lasted the rest of the day, we went back to Xavier's and again I made a big soup for everyone. I am on a soup kick and I have no problem with that.
The highlight of the night was when Xavier's friends came over and it was just obvious that he was pleased with our visit and his friend's all had the chance to practice their english and enjoy a change of pace. They enjoyed the soup but more so they enjoyed the cookie cake that we made. Angela was just wanting to bake and so we conjoured up a random recipe and it turned out both a disaster and a master piece. First we boiled some cloves and then added some ingredients to that; butter, sugar, milk, eggs, and then we added flour, baking soda and cinamon. The last thing we did was break up a dark chocolate bar because chocolate chips are pretty much not a thing over here. The only baking dish we had was a caserole dish and so we added the mix to that and baked it for a little bit. The problem was that the bottom was burning and the top was pretty good but the inside was not getting there. Xavier told us to nuke it which we were hesitant to do but it turned out pretty good. We just had a pretty gooey cookie cake which was a hit for the spanish people. Xavier told us that they talked about the cookie-cake, which they named it, the next day at work which is hilarious. We all sat around and ate the cookie-cake and two of his friends really didn't speak English so there was some translation going on but the two Xaviers took off and let us with the spanish speakers, that went way better than we expected. We talked for a good hour and yet we spoke only a small amount of eachother's language. I think that was great and I know that is how I need to learn a language. I just need to have no crutch from people being able to speak English.
The following day we headed up to Xavier's roof and it was a beautifully sunny day and it was great to just hang out with his friends and I got to play around with my Medium format. Xavier's friends treated us like best buds and it made all the difference. Since the day was so nice Angela and I headed to the parks close to the sea and they were enormous and really pretty. I love walking and I love it even more without the rain. Xavier's friend Xavier met up with us and he took u son a personal tour through the Gothic District which has the houses of Gaudi and some other beautiful works of arcitecture. He took us around and it was so easy because he knew where to go and he spoke to people if we needed something, it was great. After that we all met at La Sagrada Famiglia which is the church that Gaudi started but it will not be done for another 20 years or more, it is crazy. From there Xavier drove us to the top of one of the mountains in Barcelona, to the Olympic village and this super cool fort. It was closing so that trip was kinda quick.
That night Xavier took us to this amazing Tapas bar which was totally authentic and we enjoyed some really great Spanish Tapas. Everything having to do with tapas is fried but we had potatoes, green chiles, calamari, and what looked like blood sausage. It was delicious and we enjoyed the Spanish atmosphere.
So yeah if you want to go to Barcelona do it and don't let rain stop you because there is some real beauty to be found there. Both in the people and in the scenery.
Early in the morning Angela and I headed to the bus station to catch one to Madrid. xavier walked us to the Metra and it was sad little goodbye but we had a good time so all is good. The tain ride lasted about 5 hours but it wasn't too bad, just the act of sitting for that long was killer. Once we got to Madrid we had no idea what we were going to to. I had contacted a couchsurfer but we needed a number to call and that meant we needed internet so we headed toward the University stop on the metra. The metra is overwhelming at first but then it is a breeze once you get it. In no time I just brought up to Angela that we should just skip out on couchsurfing; enjoy a night at the museum and a long dinner and just head to the Airport a numch early because we had a 6 am flight. That was the plan and so we went to the Contemporary museum which has a bunch of Picasso and Salvador Dali among others.
Right around the corner of the Museum there is a super authentic little bar that we snatched a quick lunch from before closing ourselves in the Museum. The guy behind the counter spoke no english but served us this delighful Potato ball thing stuffed with Spinach. It hit the spot and we were good till we stopped for Thai food after the Museum. Over all the plant to no-mad for a while worked out perfectly but left us with only an hour of sleep and so we were done by the time we reached Florence. So Fall Break was a Success, and Angela was a great buddy to travel with.

Terra Madre= Amazing

Oh man how the break did begin with a bang! I attended the Terra Madre 2008 conference and it was unbelievable. Oh man, I had no idea what to expect, I guess I was told that it had something to do with sustainability and the quality of food. Low and behold it was a movement, supporting the connection of community and food processing. This is a conference that now held it's third birthday and so people come from all over the world and learn about new ideas to spread sustainability and how to give more back to the people that matter most which are the farmers. The conference was held in Torino where the 06 Olympics were held and so you can image we pretty much filled the stadium and there were opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies. 152 countries were represented and counting because there were tribes within those countries that may as well be separate. Honestly the speeches were pretty great especially because they had live translation in 11 languages but that too can leave you with mis-translated information. Regardless the speakers included the President of Slow Foods, a powerful Woman Activist in India, a highschool student from Massachusetts who created his own school garden. The president of Slow Foods, a powerful Italian man, was so passionate about getting people inspired to take action and most of the time he was directing his speeches to the power that the youth holds. His name is Carlo Petrini and this quote says a lot,
"Eating is no longer about Love, but about consuming fuel. A woman cooks some food and no one smiles at her to say thank you. Neither is there any fascination with food. In Mediterranean Europe there is still that fascination, still the conviviality, the ritual. The most important thing about eating is to enjoy the moment of affection between family members or friends or work colleagues. A civilization that loses its ritual becomes poor. It is especially important for children to learn again how to experience communal eating"
So you can image that people were so different because it is a message that involves the entire world and it is especially directed to the that are falling into the trap that commercialized food companies created by luring people in with the desire to make things convenient. So at Terra Madre I learned of the struggles that farmers face daily and how they are coping through these struggles and also the wonderful things they are doing to in a way fight back and inform people that they are important people and deserve way more recondition than they are getting. The opening ceremony was great and it was just a great way to get people pumped about the days that lay ahead.
The great thing about my opportunity was that all the youth were sent to the same housing complex which was in Barranacchia about an hour away which was where the athletes stayed for the winter games. On the bus rides I met so many different people, both nationally and internationally. I met a lot of people from the east and west coast who were giving me great examples of how to bring knowledge of this problem to my campus. A girl from Yale explained how they have a school garden and how they sell a lot of the food that they grow to their campus dining centers and of the food that they are unable to grow or produce the school buys from local farmers. It was inspiring too, to hear of Eat-ins going on across the United States which is a form of protest but it is peaceful and spreads a great message. Basically a sit-in involves a group of people that buy ingredients from local producers and collectively they cook a meal to be served on a big long or very obvious table that is in the middle of a public space. The protest is an informational gathering that brings people together to enjoy a completely sustainable meal in hopes of inspiring others to do the same but more importantly it spreads awareness about the injustices of farmers that are ruled by the commercial enterprises. I definitely would like to take part in one or organize one for ISU and see how it turns out. I already love having pot-lucks so this will just be icing to the cake. I want you to image people from all over the world coming together and enjoying each others company and learning from each other with and without a language barrier, that is what I witnessed at Terra Madre and it was unbelievable. The beauty that I witnessed just shows how God has given us difference to embrace and just leave us speechless. Seriously I had some of the best conversations in my life and they mainly involved looks and or many hand gestures.
When I was there I attended several talks about the increase of spreading the knowledge and so on which were wonderful but became repetitive, I wished that I attended more of the interesting shows on things such as cheese production and wine tasting and things that I may not regularly have the opportunity to enjoy. So yeah if you get the chance to attend this wonderful event make sure to check out the events taking place at the Salone Del Gusto, they will blow your mind.
To fast-forward, I would like to just tell you how amazing the closing ceremony was. It started with speeches that were again inspiring and gave us even more of an incentive to change the way we grocery shopped and changed how we consume our food. After the speeches it became a dance part with a mixture of cultural music ranging from Ethiopian drumming and horn blowing to Italian traditional music to Native American ritual dancing and drumming to Belarusian Accordion playing to Arabian marriage performance which were all teamed up to the music of Mau Mau. It was a three hour dance party with people teaming up from all over the world. I captured some great photos but they do not give it justice. I want you to picture a Mexican with a sombrero dancing with a Hippie like girl and African women and men dancing with Chinese people both in traditional garb. I danced along side random people and enjoyed the company of Angela and my new found buddies from Switzerland who were sweet girls that I became really close with over the course of the conference it did help that I invited them to stay in the empty beds in my room because they were given the opportunity to attend the conference but were not provided with housing and basically it was impossible to find housing. But that is another story in itself, so here is a link to the media that was taken there. I looked and honestly could not find enough information to truly enlighten you of the beauty that took place but they are planning on making a documentary so keep your eyes peeled.
http://multimedia.slowfood.it/index.php?lng=2
This is also a wonderful site with these beautiful portraits taken at Terra Madre of the faces of the world. Please check it out because I would often pass the area where these were being taken and I cannot even tell you how different all the faces were and the photographers did a great job of capturing their unique qualities. Also I want to just end with informing you that I cannot even tell you how many different foods I consumed just from walking around the different stands and just enjoying the different flavors that my mouth had the privilege of tasting. There was a lot of cheese and meats, honey, chocolate and cookies depending on the area you were in but you did have the surprising treats from random places that were just so random. I enjoyed some really great things including nuts, Israeli treats, Italian soup, man the list goes on. So yeah I wish I could just bring you along because it is impossible to try and tell of all the tasty treats. But yeah I guess the next post will be of my continued adventures to Barcelona and just what all occurred there.
Oh I almost forgot, Angela and I and our new Turkish buddy made signs to give out free hugs and by the end of the night we had only gone through the hang out spot at the youth logging and wound up with over 15 different languages and even more friendships with wonderful people. I think it helped that Terra Madre was like a big filter to pick out people that are passionate about sustainability and preserving the land and the people, so I already took a liking to most individuals I came into contact with. So yeah I really enjoyed myself and I hope to some day attend another Terra Madre.