At times be a solo traveler is fairly difficult.Ya, you go to new places and meet some interesting characters, but you’re never in a fixed place and you never have a good friend to share things with.You build short very intimate relationships with other solo travelers out of necessity, but every 4 days or so you move on your own separate paths and you are once again alone.There’s something to be said to have common memories with someone: inside jokes, reminiscing, “Remember that time when.” But when traveling alone you don’t get that.When I was in Mendoza I built a pretty close knit community of friends like I said, out of necessity.Keith and I happened to be in the same hostel for the exact same time frame, we saw sights together, shared food, drank, but then inevitably after 4 days we parted and will likely never see each other again.That’s the nature of meeting people from all over the globe; it is very likely that you will never again cross paths.Oh well, sorry for getting deep but it’s something that often gets forgotten and pushed aside because you often just remember the good times and conveniently forget the gritty details.Rosy retrospection.Well now I’m in a new place and I need to meet some new people and start the process over again. P.S. I wrote this like 8 hours ago but couldn't post it, just to put your minds at ease I've already met a bunch of people again so I'll be good.
Well, I had been somewhat against blogging ever since I read two articles from stuffwhitepeoplelike.com (#19 traveling http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/23/19-travelling/ and #120 http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/01/11/120-taking-a-year-off/), but after briefly browsing through my old posts, I realized that a lot of my trip will be forgotten if it isn´t documented in some way. Since I hate taking pictures, this is the only outlet left. So first, the trip to date: 2/1: Pass FAR w/ 94 2/24: Pass AUD w/ 97 3/30: B-day 4/1: Flight/ Take REG 4/2: Guayaquil to Salinas 4/3: Montanita to Manta 4/4: Futebol con los pelucones 4/5: Murciélago, Manta, Basquet 4/6: Manta, Rita, San Mateo, enfermo 4/7: Canoa, Bahia, puente 4/8: Isla Corazon, San Vicente/Manta 4/9: La Finca, Gallos vs. Gallinas 4/10: Hotel Lugano, Vuelo a Quito 4/11: Centro Histórico, Mojitos y Karaoke 4/12: Huevos, Mitad del Mundo 4/13: Vuelo to Cuenca, Oro Verde = mierda 4/14: City Bus, Río Movie, Raviolio 4/15: Parque Na...
When we landed in São Paulo, Brazil we immediately left the city of 20 million people and headed 434 km to the "interior," or inner part of Sao Paulo state. Our destination was Assis, SP with a population of 120,000 and feel of Shelton, WA, or a town of about 30,000. The reason we went to Assis, or Center of the World as the locals like to joke, is because of the university of UNESP, which has an unofficial connection to Georgetown University. In exchange for teaching a three hour class for three weeks, Sandra and I were given free room and board at one of the professor's houses, João (Ja-Wow). I am teaching English and she is teaching Spanish. Pretty sweet gig if you ask me. 9 hours of teaching for a month of free accommodation in Brazil during the World Cup when the average cost per day for tourists in Rio and Sao Paulo is north of $500. Here's a map of Assis, SP. My first class I didn't really know what to expect. I'm not a teacher by vocation, I stud...
Classes started last Monday and I have been very busy. Here's a sample of a weekly schedule: Basically, I have 6 classes: Finance, Accounting, Statistics, Organizational Behavior, Ethics, and Microeconomics. Given that INSEAD is a one year program attempting to cover 80% of the material of a two year MBA, they cram in a lot of class time. So far the material has been very easy as it is all entry level stuff that I already covered in undergrad. For example, I was an accounting and finance major so I have taken 9 accounting courses and 6 finance courses. At INSEAD I am taking introduction to finance and accounting. Similarly, last semester I took econometrics for which statistics is a pre-requisite. At INSEAD, I am back in statistics again. The good news is that the teachers are very good and the classes are mostly case based with lots of discussion from students. INSEAD also has a very good zero-tolerance policy on using laptops or phones during class. At SAIS, I noticed th...
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