Back on a plane but just for the weekend

I am about to take a plane again just to take my nieces back to Ecuador. They spent three weeks with her super cool aunt Daniella, their "personal shopper". It's going to be really tiring to travel just for the weekend but the good part it's that I'll get to see my family and friends.. well.. at least for one day. I haven't started packing and yet I already got one full suitcase full of other people's things, and some reels that my dad ordered online. Who orders curtain holders or whatever they are called in English? Luckily a friend who is pretty good at packing luggage needed to send some clothes for her nephew and she did all the packing today.

Earlier tonight I shopped for a friend from Ecuador via Blackberry messenger, a couple of blue jeans and tops... The thing is you can't buy anything in Ecuador these days... We are back to the days that everything was prohibited, import duties are way high. For God's sake, my Dad was here on business last week and he went to Walmart to get all his goodies, cereals etc. that he doesn't find there anymore... We were saved from communism in the 70s... we never would have imagined that would we get a socialist-leninist government in the twenty first century. When will people realize that doesn't work?

I for my part, will go to the supermarket in Ecuador to get muchines (some marvelous yuca made croquettes if I may call them that way) and other ecuadorian stuff. I have a pre-reunion for my twenty fifht graduation anniversary on labor Day weekend, in Miami.. Haven't seen most of them well, obviously.. in 25 years. Yet I still care for some of them specially the ones that did elementary school together.

Guess I have to start packing.. at least a couple of things to wear this weekend... Read more!

Back to normal is nice, but what a great time I had

Loved Germany as always. It feels like home †o me.. A friend and I biked on the side of the Rhine River and visited some other places, close to Koblenz. The weather was perfect, didn't miss the heat we experienced in Rome or Florence, and that was waiting for me in Houston.
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After my trip to Europe I had to go to Ecuador for two weeks.Very conveniently, I scheduled a business meeting just before a huge Family Party in Cuenca. My uncle turned 80 and my aunt and cousins invited the family (I have 40 cousins) to come to Cuenca for the weekend. This might sound really cheesy, but heaven must be a little like those hours we spent together... So much joy, singing, crying, laughing out loud. People from all ages dancing together and having a blast!
Those cuencanos are really hospitable people... Everywhere I went people were so kind. It was a little contrasting to how some people treated us in Italy or Spain.. Well, we have to understand, July is too warm for them... My cousin from Barcelona say that during July and August, people open their businesses late and mad that they have to open them.

Anyway, I can say I spent the month of July doing what I like the most: taking thousands of photographs, and sharing them in Facebook or Picasa (link on the right). I did it mostly for my closest friends, but the truth is they are not that good with internet, so many other people I barely know commented and followed our trip Read more!

Internet is not that accessible in Europe

I really don't want to find out how much the data roaming charges will sum up in my T-Mobile account. But my BB was sometimes the only way to have access to internet, work e-mails and yes, have to admit it, Facebook. I posted almost every day to Facebook and my blog in spanish (for all those good people who reject joining it)and uploaded my pictures, almost daily. It seems family and friends were following me and kind of wondered what happened when I wasn't posting anything.

So far I had to pay for internet in both hotels I've been in Madrid, (both four stars), had to pay zero, zippo, for excellent internet in both IBIS hotels we stayed in France (two stars), paid in one of the two hotels I stayed in Italy (both terrible connections)... Picasa greatly helped, I had little time and energy to dedicate to the task... But it worked...

I am on my third week in Europe and have visited four countries and around 12 cities. Later this week I'll end my trip in my beloved Germany, to get some rest from my vacations... I'll be posting some of the interesting things (or uninteresting) I was able to see or do in this trip.





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Made it to Madrid

I realized this was a holiday weekend when I got to the airport in Houston and later in Newark. Specially when I got to the plane to Franfurt and there wasn't a free place. Luckily I was so tired because I hadn't gone to bed the night before, that I had no peoblem sleeping Only problem was that my flight to Madid was leaving at 4pm and I got to Frankfurt at 10 am. The airport was full of people an it was not easy to figure out where I had to check in. Once I did, and got to the humungus Lufthansa terminal, I followed the example of a couple of american tourist and took a wonderful nap on top of three chairs. While I got there I noticed the smoking areas, that were rooms with glass rooms. Ughhhh . Depressing. I also wondered why at the aiport you can't finnd bratwurst or currywurst those wonderful wieners or whatever they are called in english.

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I had to wait Read more!

Digital era travel challenges

I have to catch a flight in a few hours to Newark, then Frankfurt and Madrid. I still haven't finished packing. And then I have to go pick up my passport to the German Consulate, because although I am a permanent resident, as an ecuadorian I am a second class citizen to European countries. I have to get a visa. I had totally forgotten about picking it up. Thank God I checked...

I already packed my clothes, but still need to pack all my gadgets. I didn't realize they were so many... This digital era is complicated! We are going to drive, so we need a GPS. Also my father and brothers, and specially one of them, need to be connected all the time, so I had to get one of those usb sticks, a personal hotspot, unblocked phones to get SIM cards, etc. Also I will take my Kindle (which I only use and enjoy when I am in an airplane), ipod, camera, SD cards, card readers, adapters, and cables, and cables, and cables.

The truth is I need to be connected all the time too.. need to make wire transfers and call payroll and stuff. In small companies you do it all.

And it's the first time in at least a decade that I travel without a Mac (Powerbook, then Macbook). I find that even the 13 inch is heavy.. So I got one of those cheap and nice Asus Eees. I first learned of them from one of my brothers. I am kind of mad at Apple because they haven't made netbooks yet, and the Macbook Air is way too expensive.

Well now off to try to catch my flight. I have a bad record of losing them... Twice because I went to the Continental Presidents Club... and forgot to check the time... so I haven't set foot on one of them since.
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Summertime heat + travel = dead plants

It happens every year. My Mom and Dad visit during Spring and Fall. My Mom who has the most beautiful plants down in Ecuador, buys new plants for my condo. Then she leaves and gives me all the instructions on how to take care of them, how often to water them, and how to talk to them.
It all goes well until I leave for a week or two. Then I come back and notice one is losing its leaves rapidly. then it dies. or at least that's what I think. Until my Mom comes back and miraculously resurrects it. Some times they are really really dead, so there is no use in doing anything.
I left just for 8 or 9 days at the beginning of June, and one of the resurrected ones died on me.. bad... It was so beautiful.
Now I am leaving on a Family Trip to Europe for 18 days and wonder if I'll find something when I come back. I hope so.
At least I know there is one that surely be alive and kicking when I come back: These plants never die! And I find them really pretty. This is the first plant I got when I arrived in Houston...so it has survived almost 6 years.. Yeah I guess I should ask someone to come water them once a week... but the only neighbor I know comes back the same day I leave.
(That is one of my secrets: Haven't even met my neighbors, or seen them! isn't that a shame??) I don't understand why we don't even coincide in the elevator or something...
Crazy Read more!

New Facebook-Life realities

The other day I sent a picture to my Facebook profile, and later got an e-mail saying a good friend had made a comment. When I wanted to answer her, realized the comment was not there, and when I searched for her... she was gone from my Facebook contacts. So, are there Facebook ghosts???

I got a little worried because she is going through a divorce and went back to Ecuador to sell some things, etc. and I didn't have her e-mail address, because I contacted her through Facebook. I thought, well, I hope she is doing Ok, I'm going to pray for her.

Then today I got a call from another friend, who usually takes Facebook breaks. She has two really active toddlers and thinks that sometimes she uses too much of her time to be on-line and in FB. She told me she had briefly connected to Facebook and she didn't find our friend either, and that she was worried... That made too of us.

The strange thing is we haven't seen our friend in who knows 5 years? but when we contacted her on FB we started following her life, and we miss that. I think that with Twitter and FB our relationships are changing a little bit.. we are following people's lives, and when we don't have updates, we feel strange.

I for example am a little frustrated that my best friend back in Ecuador won't consider getting a Facebook account or a Blackberry, and since we both have too many things on our hands we never e-mail... Now we look for instant gratification and instant communication... Good thing that when we meet we have the best conversations, that won't replace FB or Twitter updates.. it will always be better.

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