Sunday, April 18, 2010
Revolution!
I've been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution lately. He's a cry-baby compared to Gordon Ramsay, but I think he's really onto something. Getting processed food out of the school system is incredibly important. Parents always tell their children that school is important, school is right. So, following that line of thought, then isn't the food that they serve in teh school cafeterias also alright? We're telling children that french fries are considered a vegetable, and that chocolate milk all the time is okay as long as you're drinking the milk. I was fortunate that at home, my mom cooked dinner every night so I knew that one could cook and the food can be good if not better. But what about the kids that don't have parents at home who cook? If they eat chicken nuggets at home and then have chicken nuggets at home, then they probably think that chicken nuggets is what they should be eating. Shouldn't school be where kids learn things that their parents can't teach them? Shouldn't schools not only teach us what a food pyramid is, but also put their teachings into practice? I love this show. Jamie's using reality television and turning it into a tool to fix what's wrong with our society.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Why I Love My Boyfriend
Last night's text conversation:
Me: Finally leaving the office (10pm). Yuck. The OT is looking really crappy for the next week.
Axel: Yikes, evilness.
Axel: The good news is that I am going to cook tomorrow night and we can watch "Precious" afterwards. :-)
Me: Yay! Best boyfriend ever! :)
Axel: Right on cue :-)
Me: Finally leaving the office (10pm). Yuck. The OT is looking really crappy for the next week.
Axel: Yikes, evilness.
Axel: The good news is that I am going to cook tomorrow night and we can watch "Precious" afterwards. :-)
Me: Yay! Best boyfriend ever! :)
Axel: Right on cue :-)
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Peru!
This year, I went to Peru for my birthday. For me, it was the most play-it-by-ear vacation I've done. Apparently for Axel, this is the most planned. I think all in all, we spent it the way we usually spend our time together - eating and going for really long walks. 8 full days, 3 cities. Lima, Cuzco and Puno.
Lima: We stayed at the Gran Hotel Bolivar in the historical center of the city. The hotel is like a reminder of what the city used to be. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings all around the cities that were empty, or occupied by people who string their laundry on lines to dry in the windows. The Hotel is similarly large, grand, beautiful, but covered in a slight layer of dust. The lights are dim, the bellboys and waiters are old, 2/3 of the rooms are unused and closed off. Reason is, all the middle and upper class people had moved out to the suburbs outside the central city - they live in nifty mid-rises by the ocean. Fun areas, but not as much personality. Highlights were the cliffside shopping center in Miraflores and the stairs going from the beach up into Barranco.
Axel and I decided to walk from Miralores to Barranco. According to the map, they were easily right next to each other, just a quick walk. What we didn't realize was that there was a giant gorge between the two. We found a set of stairs that went down the Miraflores side to the ocean, and seeing no other option, we took it. We walked along the beach for a while, just keeping an eye out for a way back up. We finally found the stairs and they went through a crevice that was lined with interesting little restaurants and craftspeople selling their wares. That's where we had dinner on my birthday - I had a seafood paella and Axel had a nice steak, so it was very surf and turf.
Cuzco: Cuzco is a very interesting city. The landing of the airplane absolutely terrified me. The city is located in a valley in the mountains and the landing strip is very short and can only be approached from one side. The plane started to descend between two smaller peaks, and banked very sharply to the left. VERY sharply - I looked out the window and it was like looking straight down. And when we landed on the strip, the brakes were put on immediately. Thankfully, this experience was not new for Axel as this is how they do it in the Alps, so he explained it before I fully committed to the idea that we were going to die!
The city itself is very high up in the mountains. I'd read a little about altitude sickness, but didn't really know what to expect. It's not something that just hits you and it's not very strong. Or at least, it wasn't too bad for us, but I'm guessing it's because we're both very physically active people. It was just a general achiness, a headache, shortness of breath, slight nausea, tiredness. I ended up taking a couple of naps everyday.
Highlight of Cuzco was when Axel rented a motorcycle. Machu Picchu was closed, but we still wanted to see the other Inca sites in the sacred valley. The one in Pisac was 40km outside the city according to the map. We figured it would be more fulfilling and less stressful to just rent a motorcycle and go it ourselves rather than get on a bus with 30 people and have to share the site with them. It was a great idea. The mountains are amazing, and you see a lot more when you're out in the open with only a helmet on your head. And the roads were actually still in bad condition because of the landslides at the end of January. We saw a couple places where the earth beneath the asphalt had washed out and the road was caved in, and we saw a couple places with giant piles of rubble and boulders. Those would have been tough to squeeze by on a bus, but easy for a motorcycle. We got to Pisac and found out the main bridge into the town was completely washed out. The buses took to stopping on the Cuzco side, and having people walk across a smaller pedestrian bridge and getting on another bus on the Pisac side. We got to just ride across the bridge since the motorcycle was small enough. Axel laughed his head off maniacally as we did. O triumph! So, after getting lost twice, and realizing that Pisac is only 40km in a straight line, we finally made it to the ruins. And they were totally worth it. We were extremely high up at the peaks, and there were no railings. Just you, the cliffs, the ruins and the wind. There was a fun path that you could take to a watchtower that goes through a hole in the cliffs - we fit just fine, but if an overweight tourist were to try...well, they'd find that that would be the end of their path. We'd been to Saqsaywaman, another Inca ruin, earlier in the day, but it was nothing compared to Pisac. Saqsaywaman was gradiose because of it's largeness, but Pisac was built into the cliffs. The ruins were much more intact and had a completely different, rambling quality to it. We agreed that this trip was the highlight of the entire vacation.
The worst part of the trip came that night. I had something bad to eat or drink and spent the entire night throwing up. Awful. We took it super easy the next day. Axel was actually expecting me to be so down and out that I would just lie in bed. He actually seemed content to stay in the hotel and play doctor, but I was determined to get out and see more of the city, albeit slowly. We ended up going to see this church that was built on Inca ruins. Nice, but not as fascinating as Pisac.
Puno: We got onto a bus for Puno a full day after my throwing up. The bus went extremely high up into the mountains where there was snow, and clouds were much closer to us. I enjoyed most of the ride until the last couple hours when the stupid busdriver decided to turn on the heat and not turn on any ventilation. Between the food poisoning, the sun, the altitude nausea and the fact that the bus had zero suspension...well, I stopped talking those last hours because I was afraid something would come up. As we rumbled into Puno the heat just got worse and I started to dry-heave. Axel held my hat (which he bought me) under my chin and saying, "Throw up in here!" Fortunately, we got to the bus station and as soon as the bus stopped, I got up and started pushing past people to get out. This big thug looking guy got annoyed, but when he turned around and saw my face (it was greenish, apparently), he yelled for everyone to get out of my way. Thank god. I went outside and immediately sat down in the cold air. Axel came out and dragged me over to a shaded corner and then went to get our stuff. Somehow we got to the hotel and I just curled up on the floor because I didn't want to throw up anymore. Poor Axel took care of everything and had the ladies that ran the hotel bring up some tea. He tucked me into bed and hung around for a while before going out to find some food. I woke up sometime after dark and felt well enough to read a book, and he came back within 15 minutes and had a big bowl of chicken soup and some good bread for me. Best boyfriend ever. :)
I felt much better the next day. We walked a little around Puno but realized there really wasn't that much in the city to see, and the exhaust from the cars was just terrible. We went to the harbor and hopped on a boat to go see the floating islands. The boat was all Spanish speaking people, and it drove extremely slowly, and when we got there, we found that the islanders had a presentation on how their society works and it was only given in Spanish. I was delighted to find that I actually understood a lot of what was being said. After the presentation, we went on one of their reed boats and they rowed us to a special island that had a collection of restaurants. There, Axel had the very best ceviche he's ever had, and I enjoyed a little bit of fried trout. We decided that Puno was definitely best enjoyed on Lake Titicaca, so the next day we got up at 6:30 so as to be at the harbor at 7:15 to take the boat out to Taquile, an island 3 hours out of the city. On the boat was a girl we saw from our tourbus, as well as a Benedictine monk who was out to spread the good word. Axel absolutely detests monks, so as soon as we could, we went to the roof of the boat and lay in the sun. The girl from our bus turned out to be named Sophia, an anthropology student from Utrecht in the Netherlands. We talked to her on the island and found out she'd gotten into a big argument with the monk when she, in his non-stop sermon, asked her where she was from and then said, "Ugh, the Netherlands! Land filled with perverts, whores and homosexuals!" So much for god loves all, no?
The island was...well, it wasn't so amazing. Very picturesque, the food was quite good, but not much to be seen. We went to the main plaza and as Axel was photographing me, a little girl hurled herself into my side and insisted on being in the picture. And then she immediately asked us to pay her for having her be in the photo. I figured 30 cents, why not? Axel was unhappy because 1) we did not ask for her to be in the photo and 2) if we give money to children, they'll never learn what it really takes to earn money after the cuteness wears off. We ended up giving her a half sole, which is around 15 cents. Apparently it's like handing her $5... The boat ride back took forever - 3 hours! But then, we were on the boat because we didn't want to be in the city, so it generally made sense. We had our last meal in the city at a random 24 hour cafe which apparently made the best Alpaca meat Axel had while we were in Peru. The place is extremely unpretentious, and has a very ambitious and proud chef and all the staff were very knowledgeable and proud of their food.
Generally, a really great vacation. I topped it off reading Julia Child's biography on the airplane. That book is like food pornography. O fooood....
Lima: We stayed at the Gran Hotel Bolivar in the historical center of the city. The hotel is like a reminder of what the city used to be. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings all around the cities that were empty, or occupied by people who string their laundry on lines to dry in the windows. The Hotel is similarly large, grand, beautiful, but covered in a slight layer of dust. The lights are dim, the bellboys and waiters are old, 2/3 of the rooms are unused and closed off. Reason is, all the middle and upper class people had moved out to the suburbs outside the central city - they live in nifty mid-rises by the ocean. Fun areas, but not as much personality. Highlights were the cliffside shopping center in Miraflores and the stairs going from the beach up into Barranco.
Axel and I decided to walk from Miralores to Barranco. According to the map, they were easily right next to each other, just a quick walk. What we didn't realize was that there was a giant gorge between the two. We found a set of stairs that went down the Miraflores side to the ocean, and seeing no other option, we took it. We walked along the beach for a while, just keeping an eye out for a way back up. We finally found the stairs and they went through a crevice that was lined with interesting little restaurants and craftspeople selling their wares. That's where we had dinner on my birthday - I had a seafood paella and Axel had a nice steak, so it was very surf and turf.
Cuzco: Cuzco is a very interesting city. The landing of the airplane absolutely terrified me. The city is located in a valley in the mountains and the landing strip is very short and can only be approached from one side. The plane started to descend between two smaller peaks, and banked very sharply to the left. VERY sharply - I looked out the window and it was like looking straight down. And when we landed on the strip, the brakes were put on immediately. Thankfully, this experience was not new for Axel as this is how they do it in the Alps, so he explained it before I fully committed to the idea that we were going to die!
The city itself is very high up in the mountains. I'd read a little about altitude sickness, but didn't really know what to expect. It's not something that just hits you and it's not very strong. Or at least, it wasn't too bad for us, but I'm guessing it's because we're both very physically active people. It was just a general achiness, a headache, shortness of breath, slight nausea, tiredness. I ended up taking a couple of naps everyday.
Highlight of Cuzco was when Axel rented a motorcycle. Machu Picchu was closed, but we still wanted to see the other Inca sites in the sacred valley. The one in Pisac was 40km outside the city according to the map. We figured it would be more fulfilling and less stressful to just rent a motorcycle and go it ourselves rather than get on a bus with 30 people and have to share the site with them. It was a great idea. The mountains are amazing, and you see a lot more when you're out in the open with only a helmet on your head. And the roads were actually still in bad condition because of the landslides at the end of January. We saw a couple places where the earth beneath the asphalt had washed out and the road was caved in, and we saw a couple places with giant piles of rubble and boulders. Those would have been tough to squeeze by on a bus, but easy for a motorcycle. We got to Pisac and found out the main bridge into the town was completely washed out. The buses took to stopping on the Cuzco side, and having people walk across a smaller pedestrian bridge and getting on another bus on the Pisac side. We got to just ride across the bridge since the motorcycle was small enough. Axel laughed his head off maniacally as we did. O triumph! So, after getting lost twice, and realizing that Pisac is only 40km in a straight line, we finally made it to the ruins. And they were totally worth it. We were extremely high up at the peaks, and there were no railings. Just you, the cliffs, the ruins and the wind. There was a fun path that you could take to a watchtower that goes through a hole in the cliffs - we fit just fine, but if an overweight tourist were to try...well, they'd find that that would be the end of their path. We'd been to Saqsaywaman, another Inca ruin, earlier in the day, but it was nothing compared to Pisac. Saqsaywaman was gradiose because of it's largeness, but Pisac was built into the cliffs. The ruins were much more intact and had a completely different, rambling quality to it. We agreed that this trip was the highlight of the entire vacation.
The worst part of the trip came that night. I had something bad to eat or drink and spent the entire night throwing up. Awful. We took it super easy the next day. Axel was actually expecting me to be so down and out that I would just lie in bed. He actually seemed content to stay in the hotel and play doctor, but I was determined to get out and see more of the city, albeit slowly. We ended up going to see this church that was built on Inca ruins. Nice, but not as fascinating as Pisac.
Puno: We got onto a bus for Puno a full day after my throwing up. The bus went extremely high up into the mountains where there was snow, and clouds were much closer to us. I enjoyed most of the ride until the last couple hours when the stupid busdriver decided to turn on the heat and not turn on any ventilation. Between the food poisoning, the sun, the altitude nausea and the fact that the bus had zero suspension...well, I stopped talking those last hours because I was afraid something would come up. As we rumbled into Puno the heat just got worse and I started to dry-heave. Axel held my hat (which he bought me) under my chin and saying, "Throw up in here!" Fortunately, we got to the bus station and as soon as the bus stopped, I got up and started pushing past people to get out. This big thug looking guy got annoyed, but when he turned around and saw my face (it was greenish, apparently), he yelled for everyone to get out of my way. Thank god. I went outside and immediately sat down in the cold air. Axel came out and dragged me over to a shaded corner and then went to get our stuff. Somehow we got to the hotel and I just curled up on the floor because I didn't want to throw up anymore. Poor Axel took care of everything and had the ladies that ran the hotel bring up some tea. He tucked me into bed and hung around for a while before going out to find some food. I woke up sometime after dark and felt well enough to read a book, and he came back within 15 minutes and had a big bowl of chicken soup and some good bread for me. Best boyfriend ever. :)
I felt much better the next day. We walked a little around Puno but realized there really wasn't that much in the city to see, and the exhaust from the cars was just terrible. We went to the harbor and hopped on a boat to go see the floating islands. The boat was all Spanish speaking people, and it drove extremely slowly, and when we got there, we found that the islanders had a presentation on how their society works and it was only given in Spanish. I was delighted to find that I actually understood a lot of what was being said. After the presentation, we went on one of their reed boats and they rowed us to a special island that had a collection of restaurants. There, Axel had the very best ceviche he's ever had, and I enjoyed a little bit of fried trout. We decided that Puno was definitely best enjoyed on Lake Titicaca, so the next day we got up at 6:30 so as to be at the harbor at 7:15 to take the boat out to Taquile, an island 3 hours out of the city. On the boat was a girl we saw from our tourbus, as well as a Benedictine monk who was out to spread the good word. Axel absolutely detests monks, so as soon as we could, we went to the roof of the boat and lay in the sun. The girl from our bus turned out to be named Sophia, an anthropology student from Utrecht in the Netherlands. We talked to her on the island and found out she'd gotten into a big argument with the monk when she, in his non-stop sermon, asked her where she was from and then said, "Ugh, the Netherlands! Land filled with perverts, whores and homosexuals!" So much for god loves all, no?
The island was...well, it wasn't so amazing. Very picturesque, the food was quite good, but not much to be seen. We went to the main plaza and as Axel was photographing me, a little girl hurled herself into my side and insisted on being in the picture. And then she immediately asked us to pay her for having her be in the photo. I figured 30 cents, why not? Axel was unhappy because 1) we did not ask for her to be in the photo and 2) if we give money to children, they'll never learn what it really takes to earn money after the cuteness wears off. We ended up giving her a half sole, which is around 15 cents. Apparently it's like handing her $5... The boat ride back took forever - 3 hours! But then, we were on the boat because we didn't want to be in the city, so it generally made sense. We had our last meal in the city at a random 24 hour cafe which apparently made the best Alpaca meat Axel had while we were in Peru. The place is extremely unpretentious, and has a very ambitious and proud chef and all the staff were very knowledgeable and proud of their food.
Generally, a really great vacation. I topped it off reading Julia Child's biography on the airplane. That book is like food pornography. O fooood....
