NYC Latino Hoods

by Erik Olsen on

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a bunch of pictures put to audio has got to be worth, uh, more than that. In the case of this audio slideshow from the San Francisco Chronicle, the value is higher than an article, but let’s say a bit less than video.

Seth Kugel and Carolina Gonzalez are the authors of the book “Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs” and in this entertaining and relatively short audio slideshow they introduce us to places in New York City where Latino culture is thriving with the smells of churrasco and cheese in the air.

Having lived in New York for some time now, I have to say it’s rather pathetic of me that I don’t know all these places, but the slideshow here provided some nice impetus to check them out.

Mr. Hu: Do NOT Tear That Wall Down!

by Iva Skoch on

Interesting news keeps flowing out of China, so we’ll keep relaying it. It turns out that a private contractor was building a new road, which destroyed a section of the Great Wall of China, as well as a large beacon tower.

The fine on the contractor, from the Cultural Relics Bureau of Inner Mongolia, was a tiny 500,000 yuan ($63,000 USD), for the destruction.

This took place in the Inner Mongolian village of Longsheng, near Fengzhen, north-west of Beijing.

I guess they figured they still have 4500 more miles of the Wall left.

Couch Surfing Travel

by Erik Olsen on

Many many moons ago, I traveled to Europe with a program called Servas that essentially set yo up with people in other countries and allowed you to stay with them for a few days. A quick Google effort reveals that, indeed, the organization is still around. This was pre-widespread-Internet days, and so what the group did was give you a stack of books with people’s names and numbers, and you had to arrange the stay via the telephone and a archaic system of communicating whereby word were written on paper and actually sent in an”envelope” to another person, thus conveying a message. Anyway, Servas was cool, and offered me, a fresh-faced kid right out of college, the opportunity to meet and stay with other people who I am sure I would never have met otherwise. It got me out of the hostel system, too, which can be both hectic, over-crowded and annoying.

Well, in the modern age we have the Internet and we have enterprising people eager to make these types of connections easier. And we have a new program called the Couch Surfing Project, a Web site that lets travelers and adventurers get a unique taste of local life. The project is the brainchild of Casey Fenton, who got hold of a university list serve and e-mailed hundreds of local students asking for a place to crash. Rather soon after, he received scads of e-mails from students offering their couches and their friendship him. Very nice. And so for now, Couch Surfing is a free, nonprofit service with more than 60,000 members. Some seven continents are represented (although we haven’t confirmed this and wonder where in Antarctica one can find a couch….and close to 200 countries.

Could be a very cool opportunity not just to reduce the cost of travel, but to get in with the locals.

Luscious Latitudes Magazine

by Erik Olsen on

Lusciously photographed Latitudes Magazine has got a new issue out today and I take seriously my responsibility to let others know about this superb travel magazine. I hardly ever hear other people talking about Latitudes, and that is a shame. It is a lovely magazine with an Internet version that crackles with color and impresses with clever hidden “easter eggs” inside each online issue. There is always an Italian and English version, depending on your Latinate inclination, and in Windows you can actually download a full, bursting version of the magazine to your laptop so as to carry and read when wireless and on the road.

This month’s issue features jaw-dropping images from Amsterdam, Thailand, Los Roques (“An Eden in the Caribbean”), Slovenia and more. I’d link to the specific stories, but the whole thing is in Flash (one of the format’s drawbacks) and there’s no bookmarking function. But look at it this way: now you’ll have to browse the magazine yourself and to savor all the wonderful visual surprises inside. Or something like that.

A Piqniq in Japan

by Erik Olsen on

Living in a foreign country as an expat can be rough. There’s the language, of course, but then, depending on where you live, there are also a host of other cultural issues with which you must become familiar so as to not offend the local population. To wit: when I lived in Thailand, I was unaware that it was offensive to Thais to show people the bottom of my feet. It is also offensive to touch people on the head. Never mind the cultural reasons behind these two customs, suffice it to say I violated both of them in short order, the first with my boss, who was Thai and who politely reprimanded me and explained the issue, thus saving me from subsequent vocational calamity.

Well, of all countries across the globe, Japan is perhaps one of the most culturally sensitive and cultural complex. Making it there as an expat, and being successful, can be a very difficult experience. Emotional turmoil, in the words of a friend of mine who lived there for several years with her husband.

Well, for those considering or actually living in Japan, Piqniq is a social network for English-speaking families that would like to use the internet to help themselves get along. The goal of the site “is to create a Japan-specific online community and information resource to help you and your family get things done in a country where simple tasks can easily become complicated.” I did not sign up and have little further idea what Piqniq is about, but I thought it was an interesting site, concept-wise. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s used it what they think.