Rural Life

I enjoyed rural life; driving on small roads with few cars, surrounded by land of all types (mountains, trees, farms), largely undeveloped and where it is, mostly quaint (maybe that is getting Vermont-specific :) I like having only one or two places to hang out. It's NICE. You aren't overwhelmed with options at every turn.

Opinions aren't fixed, of course. My opinion about rural life is a culmination of many things in my recent life:

(1) Like most city apartment-dwellers I am starved of all the things I got in my VT home: a huge kitchen, multiple rooms - a room for every function!, a kitchen table, a TV, multiple floors and 2 pellet stoves. (Maybe this could wear off with time, as I start to crave culture and chaos?). Similarly, I am NATURE starved!!!

(2) I may feel differently if I were single, at least about the likelihood of meeting guys given the lack of things to do. But at the same time, what a nightmare dating in NY can be. People are friendlier here if there are less of them.

(3) There is another more elusive factor which has to do with my early life in VT in a rural area. While I was here, I visited my old house in Colchester. There is feeling I get when I look at the horse farm at the end of my old street, the expanse of land, sky and skyline - a few steps from our door! A calm feeling, that links me to other points in my life when I felt similarly calm. I know there is a root there that grows a feeling in me, which feels good.

For now, suburban visits and NY life, but hope is ahead...

Food Inc

What inspires me to post? Life seems more normal to me now, even though I am still doing exciting and different things. More on that later. But something else that came my way that I wanted to share was the film Food, Inc. I'm sure many of you have heard of it; it came out over the summer.

It's crucial to be fully educated about our food system because it touches so many important areas of our lives and our community: health (obesity, diabetes, eating habits), safety (e coli and diseases born out of some horrid industrial food systems), worker's rights and immigration (providing opportunities that are humane and viable), policy (the usual story of the big businesses that control our government and government prioritizing those needs over all the vital needs I am listing here), animal cruelty, sustainable development (what jobs are we providing in this food system? and often overlooked, what jobs or tasks are we taking away? ie, small farms, seed saving, etc), environmental impact (livestock is one of the top few contributers to greenhouse gas emissions).

Need I go on? I highly encourage everyone to see this film, and would even go as far as to consider it a matter of personal responsbility. With a movie like this, you can't use ignorance as an excuse as these issues keep growing. For some it will be about being introducted to broad ideas, for others, more about learning new supporting details or even just being reminded.

Their website also lists some take-aways. The most important reminder for me is about meat. Not only eating less meat (the quantities most of us consume is not natural, and because of environment costs), but also avoiding convential meat (tyson, purdue, etc) because of the unsustainable way they do business (environmentally, socially, health-wise). It's easy enough to get meat from farmers markets, farm shares and CSAs, or ordering directly from farms.

Take it in!

Green Mountain Farm to School

Check out this program on Vermont Public Radio about Green Mountain Farm to School (the place I am working this fall)!

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/85852/
(click on Listen)

Enjoy!

Reviews of Guatemala

Because I have so much time and am so kind-hearted :-), I posted a review of Antigua and Lake Atitlan on the lonely planet forums. Here are links if you want to check them out:

Antigua:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/message.jspa?messageID=16186829#16186829

From Guatemala

Lake Atitlan:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?messageID=16186873&#16186873

fun stuff.

Ventures

Frank started two new websites / companies. One of them got written up (independently) today!
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/firstlinefiction-com-for-all-aspiring-short-novelists

The other one is TykeRider. They are just starting marketing for it, but its a great product so hopefully that won't be a tough task.

It's been fun talking about the sites and strategies. The whole exploit reconfirms my idea and hopes for achieving a happy work/life. Focusing on and redefining (1) who is your boss, what is your motivation, why are you doing your job? (easy questions to answer with your own company) (2) work schedule - flexible is amazingly freeing.

As for me, I start my mini consulting gig this week. Going well so far! I leave for VT Sept 27th.

Coffee Economics

I finished my paper on coffee (for the summer class I took at UCLA) - it ended up being about the economic sustainability of the industry. It was VERY interesting to do the research and write the paper. I talked to so many interesting, smart people, who have great perspective on broad issues, as well as getting to volunteer and become involved with some great organizations. (Maybe I should go to grad school?) I ended up focusing on the economic sustainabilty over the environmental impacts because it was just so obviously wrong. Here is my first paragraph:

Worldwide, coffee is the second largest export commodity after oil, valued at 60 billion dollars annually (PBS). Guatemala is among the top 10 players in this rich business. Not only important in the world market, coffee alternates with sugar as the top export in Guatemala; a key source of the country’s income. In 2005 the agricultural trifecta of coffee, sugar and fruit accounted for 1 billion dollars, or one third of Guatemala’s overall exports (ITC). This number is only a shadow of the total value of the market, realized once these raw materials are converted into end-products and sold to consumers.

Over half of Guatemalans work in the agriculture industry, many nurturing these cash crops. In the face of this wealth, how is it that Guatemala is one of the 10 poorest countries in Latin America, with over three quarters of its residents living below the poverty line (World Bank)? This paper will explore the economic sustainability of the coffee industry in Guatemala, examining the political and social roadblocks and the efforts to forge new paths.

You can read the rest here

And here is the photoessay

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

There and Back Again

I'm back. The first signs of culture shock:
- i keep saying hola, gracias and si (esp to waiters)
- feeling like the airplane toilet was a luxury - you can throw the TP in toilet and hot water comes out of the faucet!
- taking $80 out of the ATM and knowing it will only last me a day, maybe two. ouch.
- i can turn on the tap and DRINK the water!

Other than that, its not too hard to adjust to NY or the US. I have some really great things to look forward to:
- I am doing a short-term consulting project (paid!) gathering/documenting business requirements for new green energy startup. awesome! it only lasts two weeks in sept which is perfect.
- I "move" to VT on Sept 27th to work at Green Mountain Farm to School. I am working there for three months, well volunteering you may call it, getting a stipend and free housing. I am psyched to live in VT and somewhere rural for a bit, and am really excited about the organization and people there.
- Christina's bachelorette weekend is sept 17th! we are all hanging out in NY. Sarah is pregnant! And then going back to LA in Oct for christina's wedding and seeing my sister.
- My friend Dave form Australia (my Asia traveling partner) is coming to visit.

AND I arrived in NY in one of my favorite months. Looking forward to seeing all my friends, hanging out with Frank and enjoying as many restaurants and nights out as I can afford!