Finding Happiness...One Dish at a Time.

I realized that the most "happening" pictures on my camera so far are of food, so I figured I might as well focus on what makes this trip back to my hometown so special - FOOD.

Before I go into much detail about God's gifts to mankind, a.k.a foods, I will share some fun things to do with your youngins here in Ecuador. In Samborondon, there's a place called "Tierra Diversion" or "Land of Fun" (I think that's the name). There's a bunch to do, like drive bumper cars into other people, ride a giant caterpillar, or play foosball or air hockey. It's like a year-round carnival here. 

Saturday night I went out with friends to Plaza Lagos (http://www.plazalagos.com.ec/home.aspx) for dinner. This town center was re-done recently, and the formal inauguration will be in 2 weeks. It is one of the nicer town centers in the city.

Food time!

Dinner was great. We ate at "Tupac", named after the last Incan emperor Tupac Yupanqui. This was my first shot at higher-end Peruvian food...seafood to be exact.

Risotto with choclo (corn) and peas, fish on a slab of melted cheese and avocado, topped with caramelized onions. Amazing.

After little sleep (about 3 hours), I got up and explored the city before having lunch at an Ecuadorian restaurant that served traditional favorites with a twist. I cropped myself out of the picture on purpose. I was looking a little rough.

White rice with menestra (beans), patacones (fried plantain slices), salad, and breaded popcorn shrimp. To die for. All this topped off with a fresh squeezed orange juice over slushy ice.

Dinner was awesome as well! I was taken to Urdesa to eat sushi.

The crunchy looking roll is tempura with shrimp filling, the orange looking one had tuna, the black one had eel, and the colorful one topped with avocado and caviar had salmon. All these rolls were dipped in a mixture of eel and soy sauces with sesame seeds. Nom nom!

And with that, I conclude my edible segment of the day.

Onto Familiar Business

Back home in Florida I enjoy trying foods from different parts of the world. I'm especially fond of Middle-Eastern cuisine - Lebanese at the top so far.


For many years there has been a prominent Lebanese community throughout my hometown: Guayaquil. There are countless restaurants serving "kippes" or "shawarmas" or "hummus". Last night I had the opportunity to dine at a small restaurant in an area called Urdesa.


Here we are eating a chicken shawarma and kippes. The soda "FioraVanti" is very traditional here. One of my favorites for sure:

 

After dinner, my friends took me out to the Hermitage area of Guayaquil for a "welcome back" party for a friend who is studying in Mexico. This is was my opportunity to finally enjoy the night for what it was...not to worry about other dinners and outfits or planning the next day's outings, etc.


Here are a few of us from last night:

For now, I am staying in the concrete jungle that is my home city. Next week I plan to visit nature at its finest. Stay tuned!

Go!

After many hours of travel, I finally made it to Guayaquil!
The sky was very overcast, but if that means the weather will stay fresh, keep it coming! Last summer the heat here was unbearable, so I hope for nicer weather this time around.


There really is nothing like going to your hometown and reading words of welcome. The inside of the newly re-done airport, José Joaquin de Olmedo (GYE), has "welcome" written in about 10 languages! Since I'm a language junkie, I felt right at home from the moment I left the airplane.


Here's a picture of the outside of the airport:

As I left the airport and entered the city, I read this one more time:

I was picked up and taken to lunch by a family friend staying in the north of the city. Unfortunately, my camera died by the time I made it to lunch at "El Sabroson" - a restaurant specializing in sliced pork and turkey sandwiches. This place is amazing. As soon as the glass doors opened, my mouth was watering! 

The smell of roast pork and turkey in traditional Ecuadorian fashion brought me back to my childhood, when my family would get together to feast on these fragrant breads holding sliced pork with an onion sauce. Wash it all down with a cold soda.Wow! 


No worries! Tomorrow I'm asking to eat the same thing, so a picture or two will be here.


After unpacking and taking a long, cold shower, I came to a friend's house where I found the newest addition to the family walking. This is him after wearing himself out by running around the house. haha

After spending time with the baby, some friends took me out to Samborondon to have dinner. This is us at dinner:

The picture above is of a really traditional Ecuadorian meal - rice with brown beans (menestra) with grilled meat (pork chop, beef, chorizo, and chicken) parillada. 

Ready, Set...

July 18, 2012

         It’s so hard to internalize the fact that I’m a few hours away from being in the land that saw me birthed to this world – Ecuador. I’m at Miami International Airport with many other travelers, but the reality of my situation is still a bit strange to me.

My trip overall began this morning at 5:30am. I took a shower and prepared to come to Miami by 11:00am. I was met by a good friend who took me to lunch at Flannigan’s. We then went to another friend’s house to share a couple of laughs.

It is currently 4:15pm, and I am at gate H4 waiting for boarding to start at 4:45pm. I will be making a stop in Panama City, Panama, for several hours, and I am super excited to see what the city has to offer.

As of now, here’s a picture of me before arriving to my gate:

I normally travel with a long-sleeve shirt to avoid freezing on the plane, but following my mom’s suggestions I decided to wear a couple layers before putting on a sweater on the plane so I can carry more in my ticketed luggage. 

Tackling a Rainy Day

"Tropical Storm Debby spawns fatal tornado in Florida, drenches coast" - CNN


Needless to say, many of us Floridians have had a rainy day. After a couple of conversations with friends and family in different parts of the state, I came to the realization that a rainy day equates to a lazy, dull, or lethargic day. Although I usually blame rain for making me sleepy, today I decided to overcome this drowsiness brought on by Mother Nature. Without further ado, here are some ideas of things to do to keep you active during a downpour:


1. Embrace the rain. Just because it's raining you shouldn't lock yourself up. Today I had lunch with a fraternity brother and a friend at a Lebanese restaurant. The rain actually cooled the area off a bit, so it was pleasant not to be sweating after leaving your car for once. After lunch, we visited the only mall in this city, and then we toured west Gainesville for a bit. The movies are also an alternative.


2. Don't nap - clean. It's easy to get sleepy on a rainy day, but use that time to clean something. My mom always says, "if you're bored it's because you're not doing something that you should be doing." And like always, she's right. After spending two weekends at home in Brandon and another two in Miami, my room accumulated enough chores for me to take care of. For example, dust. Dust is everywhere, and I have yet to understand why it exists.

My dresser after being dusted.

My dresser on a regular day.

3. Exercise. There are so many things you can do in the comfort of your home like jumping jacks, wall-sits, push-ups, sit-ups, etc. I'm not a fan of all of that because it requires a lot of dedication and time..and I'm not usually willing to do all of that on a daily basis, but I'm determined to shed the pounds I've gained in the last year. After feeling the burn, cool down by jogging.

4. Jog in the rain. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I finally had the opportunity. You should  prepare accordingly, like wear light clothing, put your phone in a Ziploc® bag, etc. After jogging, hang your clothes to dry and place a towel under them to collect excess water. Take your shoes apart so that they don't begin to smell.

5. Fix your clothes. By "fix" I mean wash, fold, iron, put away, and/or arrange your clothes. Luckily today I just had to arrange my clothes to separate the things I care for more from the ones I can live without if my place burned down. Tomorrow, since it'll be raining again, I plan on ironing some of my shirts to get them back in my closet...finally.

6. Practice the languages you know. I'm big on languages. My first one is Spanish, followed by Italian that my mom tried teaching us from a young age and that I regained in college, then English, then French. I feel comfortable in all those four. I speak Hindi/Urdu and Arabic mediocrely, so I don't consider that I speak those fluently, just to get by. I understand Portuguese almost fluently, but speak it mediocrely as well. I can read Russian, but don't know what I'm telling you. So the last two I almost never bring up in conversation for obvious reasons.

Reading Le Petit Prince and typing what I could into Arabic.

After watching T.V. for an hour, I called it a day. It may not seem to be the most exciting list of activities, but these are things that I enjoy doing for the most part, and they definitely kept me busy on this gloomy day.

Until next time!

If Scars Had Words

Every day, at some random point, I spot a scar that is placed on the left side of my right thumb. It's about an inch long. Nothing too too fancy. No one really knows I have it until they stare at my hand like creepers. But despite how insignificant this little scar may seem, it reminds me of where I come from on a daily basis.

My scarred thumb next to my little friend's 9month old thumb.

I am truly blessed - not lucky nor unaware of the struggles I've encountered on this short journey of 21 years called life. As I type on my laptop, I think about my exact location on Earth and within the space of time. Today I am sitting in my apartment in, what I call, the armpit of the state of Florida (a.k.a Gainesville), in the U.S., in the Northern hemisphere, west of the Prime Meridian. But I have come a very long way...physically. Twenty-one years ago I was in a crib, in my parent's house, in the Southern hemisphere, in a little paradise of a country called Ecuador.

Now, I'm sure there are enough blog entries out there about immigrants and their unique stories to last a lifetime, but this one is worth looking over. I feel that getting a sense of who I am from the get-go is important.


I was born into a privileged family in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My father's side of the family descended from English businessmen/merchants/nobles....quite frankly I hear better things about my family from Ecuadorian strangers than from my actual relatives. It's a fact that the Gilberts have been influential doctors, athletes, politicians, entrepreneurs, etc. so it's no wonder that a fortune existed at one point. My mom's side of the family arrived to South America about 4 generations ago from Oviedo, Spain. The Lara y Granda family split to Venezuela and Ecuador upon arriving to the not-so-new world. My maternal grandmother then married my grandfather, a member of the Paredes family. 

That's me in the middle - waving at the age of 2wks.

By the time I was born in 1991, my parents and sister Gisella moved into a house within a neighborhood set aside for the sailors/marines and their families. We were able to live there because a portion, or perhaps all, of the neighborhood was owned by my mother's uncle. The house had one level and was very spacious from what my childhood mind remembers. We had a woman to wash our clothes, a cook, a gardener, a nanny, and a handy-man who walked my sister and me to our "jardín", or pre-school, but none of them lived with us. Our huge backyard was my domain. By the time I was 3, if I was missing, anyone could find me playing with geese and ducks, singing hymns to them, or running through the mango and guava trees. Because I was an explorer at such a young age I thought I could do ANYTHING. Which is why one fine day, I cut my finger.


My parents took out an old T.V. to be thrown out later in the week. It didn't work for some reason, but I thought I could fix it because at that age I thought wiggling the antenna would fix anything on a T.V. So I found a piece of scrap metal and tried forcing it onto the antenna to make it longer and fix whatever was wrong with it. Applying all my force to join the metals, the scrap piece slipped downward, sliding and slicing my thumb. I associated blood with dead animals since I had seen many brought to the kitchen to be cooked, so I freaked out. Our gardener saw me bleeding and came running for me, but by that point I left a little trail of blood across the front patio and ran through the living and dining rooms until the trail ended at my mom's lap. She took care of my battle wound, but the scar remained.


Every time my scar comes into sight I remember the trail of blood that I left behind on the patio..and then my mind wonders to memories of pristine happiness, of anniversaries, birthdays, new year eves, "carnavales", etc. So much happened on that patio, and I refuse to forget that feeling of bliss and uninhibited happiness that I felt from all those experiences.


These memories are the energy reserves I need in order to continue when the present leaves me hanging.

My second birthday with my parents.