live long and prosper

summer vacation, is this you?

What a mild winter. Am needing some R+R.

above: mmhmmm from bklyn

below: mmmmm from Kalustyans

above: mmmm

below: mmmm

new roof view mmmmmhm

below: smoked salmon lunch at Ikea. yeah.

^ how I know it's the holiday season

and not

the summertime

can you take to my mistakes and like me anyway?

Please, facebook, stop telling me what songs he's listened to
today.

This is a song he's played me once,
on my birthday.
And the first he listened to that morning
on the double decker
coach bus
with tears
streaming down our faces.

brave

this is forgetting, isn't it?

It's a long time since we saw each other and I feel
I am forgetting you. The memory of you
dies in me day by day,
the memory of your hair
and everything about you.
Now I'm looking for a place to drop you
a line, a verse, or crystal kiss-
and so depart.

If no grave will receive you,
no marble nor crystal sepulchre-
Will I have to keep you always with me
half-dead and half-alive?

If I can't find a chasm to drop you into
I'll look for a lawn or field
where I will scatter you softly
like pollen.

Perhaps I'll trick you into an embrace-
and go away irrevocably
and neither of us will know the other.
This is forgetting isn't it?

Ismail  Kadare

Losing Daylight

A season chock full of changes.

Family, friends (old and new), and climbing. 

What's there to complain about?

A city tucked in a rolling valley

Quintessentially conservative Quito rocks back and forth between the culture-rich traditional Old Town and the indulgent New Town that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Or is it the other way around?

Tucked high in the Andes, surrounded by wicked and respected, some extinct and some at its prime, volcanoes. Quito welcomed me with breathtaking views- literally. Being approximately 2800 meters (1.7 miles) above sea level, my lungs were at the mercy of this city. 

Met with stares, smirks, cat calls, and "Chinita's", I was eager to start my Ecuadorian adventure. 

Quito is caught between the roots and the shoots of the generations. A memory of Pre-Colombian ghosts stay alive in Quito, along with the corporeality of poverty. These people of purely indigenous descent are visually distinguished from those of mestizo heritage post-Spanish conquest. They are seen throughout the Old Town with wagonfulls of fruit, namely tomatillas (a tree tomato) and platanos. 

I adopted a sense of standing out in the city but felt a heavy hospitality characteristic of the entire nation. 

Along the Avenue of the Volcanoes, aka the Panamericana Highway, I jumped on and off transcontinental buses, and hitchhiked in the compact cars of the warm hearts of Ecuadorians- I went north from Quito to the extraordinary cloud forests.

Stay tuned!

[I am finally blogging about my journey. 'Bout time, right?]

noms

Lavendar yeast doughnut from the Doughnut Plant and blood orange and raspberry gelato. The most perfect doughnut gelato sandwich. Doughnuts from the Doughnut Plant are heavenlyyyyyyyyy.

Had to try out Artichoke's pizza; to see if they're as good as they say. And yes, quite delicious.