Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra Performs

When someone discovers something awesome, one doesn’t keep it to one’s self, but instead, shares it with everyone. Recently, I discovered something rather surprising. The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra performed recently at the Ted Talks Conference. They are the product of Venezuela’s El Sistema, where the most talented youth go on to be part of a real orchestra and go on to making great music. At the conference, where the founder accepted the TED Prize, they played Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 (2nd movement) and Arturo Marquez’ Dance Song No. 2 (wait or forward to that second number, it’s great!). The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, also a product of El Sistema, and who is the new Musical Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

I saw one of L.A. Philharmonic's performances but unfortunately Gustavo Dudamel wasn't part of the performance that weekend. I guess I should have reserved another ticket for a performance in which he was conducting.

Chinese Food Mysteries

Ever wondered about the origins of General Tso's chicken? Just wanted to share this video from TED Talks.

Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was General Tso? and other mysteries of American Chinese food

Food - Just Like Travel

Whenever I can’t find the time, or the opportunity, to travel I take comfort in food, which can transport us to other places just as well. One of my best memories from being in other places is from having all that wonderful food. Food is such a basic necessity that sometimes we tend to overlook it, settling on the first fast food joint that we find. Not that they’re all bad, we had fun savoring all the dips at an El Pollo Loco in L.A.

Remember “laswa”? It always reminds me of Negros and home. Green Indian mangoes take me back to trips to Lian, Batangas and the eat-all-you-can Indian mangoes near the beach. After snorkeling, it’s the desert after all that grilled fish. Or how about those seaweeds that sort of look like little beads, which are a good reminder for Cagayan de Oro. Sometimes, something very simple can also take you home. For me, that would be grilled cheese sandwiches made on the stove. It’s a bit of a weird method, but it works for me.

Sometimes, food also takes you international. Take grilled chicken, which reminds me of nights grilling fresh chicken breasts and beef steaks in my hotel room a couple of years ago (crazy I know, but we figured out a way to manage the smoke detector!). I associate Mexican food not only to Mexico but to Los Angeles as well – tacos and nachos at Tito’s Tacos near Sepulveda Boulevard, etc. etc. Burritos transport me to Baja Fresh in Nashville, TN with the cool lunch crowd that always fills up the place. Some of the best steaks I’ve had were from team dinners in the American South, so when having steak (or even just a bit of beef that kind of tastes like such) I always think of Birmingham, Alabama and the Capitol Grill in Atlanta. Churros and the matching chocolate can take you to Spain. Mozart chocolates and “kanabanosi” (those European beef jerky sticks) takes me to Austria. Or chicken adobo, which reminds me of Atlanta and the endless experiments I made trying to make adobo in my little kitchen there, or at least something that resembles adobo.

This is making me hungry again so I need to think of something else now. Well, we will always find something to enjoy about food, and besides the delectable tastes, we will always find a place to associate it with. Bon appétit!

Alpine Experience in Helen, Georgia

Nestled in the mountains of Georgia, the town of Helen is a must-see for all Georgia visitors and those who head to the Southeast US. Being in Helen is like entering a totally different city, almost like being in Europe, except that you're in Helen, Georgia.

The architecture is European, creating an alpine look and feel that can make Oktoberfest a richer experience. When we went to Helen, it was more of a "tour" of the place so we didn't get to participate in the Oktoberfest festivities. I know what you might be thinking, but yes, we didn't even get to taste the sausages and the pretzels. We did get to go to a Wendy's, which still had the alpine-European architecture.

A few miles outside the town center, we stopped by the Habersham Winery. They hold free wine tastings and they have pretty good wines. My friends thought it was an opportunity, considering that they thought they missed the beer at Oktoberfest, so we all flashed our IDs and went swirling and sloshing and spitting our way through the collection.

Near Helen is also a great place to unwind, the active kind that is. You can hike your way through the really walker-friendly hiking trail to Ruby Falls. It's a great hike after a week of hard work, with all the greens and the little streams every now and then. Our friends from Kansas who were with us thought it was really cool (they thought they didn't have something like that in Kansas).

Below is a picture of a tree I found that I think grew up on rock.


There are many other experiences in store for everyone at Helen and in the surrounding areas. You can do mini-golf, kart racing, river rafting or floating on one of those tubes, hiking, swimming, and a lot of other things to do. Happy travels.

Landscapes: Westwood Village

Westwood Village in Los Angeles, California as seen from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Home to entertainment and technology industry companies, University of California - Los Angeles, budding filmmakers, Fox Theater at Westwood, Diddy Reese (cookies!), Noodle Planet and a lot of other restaurants and shops.

To Live Inside a Mall

When I found out that I was to stay at a hotel that is connected to a 200-plus-store mall, I was dumb-struck. No way. Er,sure!

Two and a half years ago, I was assigned to work at a client located in Birmingham/Hoover, Alabama. I was kind of excited to find out where I will be staying as I was to be there for several weeks. So when I found out that I was to virtually stay in a mall, the first word that came to mind was "dangerous".

I am actually not that into shopping. I am probably what might be called a "bursty shopper". I shop only when I feel like it and when I absolutely have to. But when I do shop, I really shop. :)

So there we were, we made our reservations to the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria Mall. It's a 15-story hotel with around 330 rooms. It's literally attached to the Riverchase Galleria Mall and it's also one of the state's most popular tourist destinations.

During that first week in Birmingham, we faced a lot of work so I never really got to do some serious shopping. On the two days that I did go around the mall, I suddenly had this weird feeling that everything was expensive and ended up only buying a couple of DVDs. I got Batteries Not Included, a Syvester Stallone sports movies collection... stuff. My kuripot side prevailed.

Why is there so much hype on shopping malls, I wonder? It has become a park and a tourist attraction. Which is also good, in a way. The urban planners and the marketing people have gotten really good at this. It's not that they're bad, but there could be so much more places and activities to do out there. I guess it is the generation of the shoppaholic and the maller.

One associate went out running in the woods of Birmingham every night. So he discovered all these great running trails in the area. Birmingham is like that, it's urbanized, yet it has these pockets of woods here and there. He liked the urban-nature interplay of the city so much that when a career work-life balance issue came up, he eventually moved there.

The week after we came to Birmingham, we moved to another hotel 19 miles from the Galleria Mall. So after work, I had to do a little bit of driving to get to the hotel. That's when I started discovering places off-the-beaten track. For example, I discovered this park with a garden, a hiking trail and a running path that winds through woods and trees and a few inclines here and there for a little bit of challenge. There was also this scenic drive that I can't remember where anymore because I just happened to pass by there because I got lost.

After wandering around, I finally discovered where the rest of the young and hip crowd of Birmingham hang out - at The Summit, a huge mall complex, strip mall style, and has almost everything that you would ever need or want. Fun. That is where the real shopping began. That though, is another story for another day.

Why would anyone do that?

What to write... what to write? I haven't traveled or been somewhere in the past few months so I have no exciting breaking news to write. Then I came across this picture and remembered the afternoon I took this picture. This was taken around three years ago actually. With three other friends, we went around town trying to discover interesting places. Right across the CNN Center, we discovered this park, the Centennial Olympic Park, with this fountain on the ground shaped like the Olympic rings.

When I saw it, I thought it was really just a normal fountain. But these kids made it just a bit more interesting. They were out there in their bathing suits, playing around the fountain. What's weird though was their reactions. They would go to the middle of one of those rings, stand there and wait for the fountain to come blasting out of the ground. Then when all this water will splash around, they will scream at the top of their lungs, while still in the middle of the ring, mind you, then run across the splashing fountain to get out of the ring. Like, duh... I must be getting old.

Have you ever seen a child put a finger on a hot kettle just to know if what everyone is saying (that the kettle is hot) is true? Or the adventurous traveler try white water rafting to know what it would feel like if the raft tossed you high up in the air, or worse, capsized? Well, one of my friends went to Colorado and tried white water rafting. The raft capsized. :D Fortunately, they were all just fine.

Fernbank Museum on a Weekend Afternoon

Fernbank Museum, originally uploaded by Rizza Po.

Other than New York, where else can you find a museum that offers dinosaur fossils, martinis and movies in IMAX on Friday nights? Answer: the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. It's a geek paradise - DNA models, dinosaur fossils, life-like replicas of animals in the wild like bears, deer, and other exotic animals. There are also areas for play for kids and the not-so-kids, like a giant bubble-maker, science tricks, and other great stuff. Though we're not exactly kids anymore, I think we kind of enjoyed it.

Two of our friends based in Houston, but working from Kansas City, decided to visit Atlanta that weekend since Hurricane Katrina was hovering near the Mexican Gulf at that time (yes, this photo was taken in 2005). We all decided to go to the Fernbank Museum that weekend since it's just nearby. Besides, I have been passing it everyday for several weeks already yet didn't even get to peek inside. But we were glad, it's a great place for a drowsy weekend. You will get scared, have fun, be awed and amazed, see a film on IMAX, all in one place.

Oklahoma City: Steaks, Bricktown and A Water Taxi

The boat guide slowly steers our boat through the dark waters of the man-made canal. The night sky is clear, the crowd at the nearby stadium is going wild, the younger generation are all at the giant cinema complex a block away, the hip and the fabulous are waving at us from the terrace of the bars and restaurants above us, and we all wave back. When we pass by a foot bridge, the boat guide tells everyone to shout "yee-ha!" Obligingly, we all shout back - men, women, children - "yee-ha!"

Oklahoma in Two Days
That is a scene straight from my trip to Oklahoma City. I was working on an engagement for one of the oldest and largest non-profit organizations in the US and my Manager wanted me to go over to Oklahoma for two days to visit one of the client's facilities. I was shocked at that, for even in the Philippines, I haven't even been assigned in Laguna. Now, he wanted me to go visit a city in another state, for only two days. From where I came from, that just wasn't done!

Arriving in the city on a Thursday, I get lost right away two miles from the airport. Blaming it on the car steering and bad directions, I went around the airport loop several times before finally finding my way out to the main highways. It seems I have a penchant for getting lost at the wrong places at the wrong times.

That afternoon, deciding to do something "local" other than working at the hotel, I went out in search of Lake Hefner. The lake is pretty near the city (according to the guidebooks) and I found it easily. Yes, I didn't get lost this time, thanks to online driving direction. There's a park around the lake and on a work-day afternoon, it's quiet with a few families having a snack here and there, several kids on the playground and rain clouds brewing in the distance. There must have been some kind of wind that day for after taking only a few photographs, it started to rain. Off I went back to the mall.

Obviously, I don't want to elaborate on what happened at work the next day. Suffice it to say that I saw some really cool stuff and had to do a lot of writing and editing afterwards. That night though, I thought that I had to make the effort to get to know the city a little bit. Sometimes, we do business in different cities but we just go to the places that are familiar to us and we do things that were part of our routine back home. At that time though, I was determined to understand local culture, so I madly read the magazine at the hotel, the one with all the city guides and information. Then off I went to find local flavor.

Get Me Some Local Flavor, Er Culture
Oklahoma is famous for its steaks. Please don't ask me about the beef production statistics there but the restaurant seemed to be on all the major recommendations for things to eat. I went out to the city center and settled on one of the best places in town - Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse. An Oklahoma native, Mickey Mantle was a baseball legend. Now, what could be more Americana than a medium well prime rib at Mickey Mantle's in the middle of Oklahoma's Bricktown district? I thought it was one of my luckiest nights.

After all that heavy-hitting dinner, I had to go and pass the time by doing something fun and frivolous. When I saw the yellow water taxi, I knew right away that I had to get on one of those. After all, my drama was supposedly to do what the locals do and experience what the tourists do.
The water taxi is a longer version of a speed boat. It goes along the Bricktown canal which winds its way through several blocks in the city center, affording one with a good glimpse of the bar and restaurant crowd, historical points of interest and several foot bridges. Unlike the Venetian gondolas though, this water taxi is powered by an engine.

So there I was, riding the water taxi with groups of families, a couple of people my age and an older couple. The weird thing is that in this water taxi ride, the guide doesn't just point out things and places of interest, he also makes everyone wave at people in outdoor tables and terraces, as well as cheer on everyone to say "yee-ha!" everytime we pass under a bridge or foot bridge. Until this day, I never understood why it's done. It must be a Southern thing. But I do intend to find out soon.

That was my quick adventure in OKC. I must have been there for only 48 hours but I felt like I had done a lot. I can still remember the sounds of the crowd from the baseball park across the street, Bricktown, downtown, and the drive around the city. What I did there was somehow affirming for me, that I can balance business and having other pursuits outside of work. What happened to that "affirmation" though is another long story. That trip also marked a start to having a new attitude towards business travel - that we can work hard and do business in other places but that it is also equally important to take the time to absorb the local culture, the city's eccentricities and traditions, as well as experience the local attractions. It can make a trip a richer experience.

Moments to Just Do It

In our travels, there are times when we are so attracted to a certain scene, a certain view that we get the urge to take a picture. We hold an internal mental debate whether to just grab the moment and take that picture, or risk looking naive, or worse, like someone from the boondocks.

I often have times like these, and often, these happen at weird times like when a camera is not exactly easily reachable or allowed - like in the middle of the road while driving, or inside a plane that is about to take off, or a hundred meters up in the air inside a cage-like thing for humans (they called it a cable car, ha...) suspended in the middle of two hills. Exciting, but insanely distracting.

Often, the answer is to give in. There is a running joke among some of my friends that I am the only person they know who will stop on the shoulder of a highway road to take pictures. It's like that Nike commercial, just do it. How I wish we can also do this more often in life. You know, grab the moment and just do it.

Stone Mountain Park: Sculpture and Laser Show

"Hi, are you guys Filipinos?"

After living in Atlanta, GA for a few weeks, it was the first time that someone asked us that question. We all look at the American woman and her daughter behind us, smiling. We are on the train that goes around the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, a 5-mile trip that goes around the base of Stone Mountain. We acknowledge them and she exuberantly invites us to meet her Filipino husband. When we got down the train, we all follow her to the picnic area. A voice inside me is saying that we shouldn't talk to strangers, but I trust my other girlfriends' instincts and follow along.

We meet the husband, a missionary from Samar. We talk a little bit and listen to the wife talk about how she used to go to the post office in Samar to deliver and mail letters to her mother in the US. They then invite us to go and visit Myrtle Beach. Great.

This is Stone Mountain Park, "America's favorite picnic ground" prior to the Civil War. The main attraction here are the activities around the stone mountain, also called "the largest deposit of merchantable granite in the world." In short, it's a mountain that is actually made up of solid stone. On the northern face of the mountain, there is a gigantic carving of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. This is the world's largest piece of sculpture.

After walking around and taking the cable car to the top of the mountain, we get hungry. So we pile up on the car, go out of the park and find a Chinese restaurant that offers a buffet spread. When you have six people who have different tastes, Chinese food is the only food we can all agree on. Chinese food is also generally cheaper in the U.S.

The buffet is good, there is a wide selection and there is a desert bar which includes fresh fruits and ice cream. We all think we are in food heaven. Who knows how many plates of food we have consumed that day. Who was counting anyway? What I don't forget up to now are the mountains of orange wedges piled high on our plates.

After the heavy early dinner, we go back to the park to catch the laser show. Parking space is nowhere to be found and we go around the parking area several times. Two of my friends are already threatening to literally move the motorcycles parked nearby. Then our prayers are answered and we finally find the prized parking space.

There is a big crowd in the picnic area. We find out that guests sit on the grass; others brought a picnic blanket, while others have picnic chairs. The sound-and-light laser show includes lasers beamed on the side of the mountain, fireworks and music. Of course, country music too.

On the way home, we sit in silence and wonder at the day that went by. Why was that Chinese buffet so cheap when we ate so much?

If you want to read more on the park, more info can be found at the Stone Mountain Park website.

Back Lot Tree

I always feel blessed when I see this picture. We were riding the tram that goes around the Universal Studios lot in L.A., and since we were on a studio tour, we were restless. There were a lot of information that were being given to us, so many facts and so many interesting things to see. I could never remember in which particular part of the lot that tree stood, but I can remember that it was in the middle of a cicular driveway. There was something about the tree’s shape and the way that the light fell on it that I was compelled to just take a picture of it anyway. Everytime I look at it, I feel thankful for the blessings given to me at that particular moment. Who knew that light and shadow could ever work together like that?

On Sunday, there was a fire that destroyed parts of Universal Studios Hollywood back lot. It is said that even the popular King Kong exhibit was burned down. I hope that the tree is still there, standing proud and playing tricks with the light.

If some areas were destroyed, maybe there will be additions to the park soon. Change can be a good thing. What new attractions do you think can we expect to see this year and next year?

Sunset from Midtown Atlanta

I have no idea what to write about that picture. I just wanted to share it… Call it nostalgia if you will. Vacation sunset meets industrial/residential area. Hehe.

That shot was taken facing western Atlanta, and if I moved my camera just a little bit to the right, I would have included Atlantic Station in the shot. Atlantic Station is one of the area’s newest premiere entertainment, residential and business hotspots.

How To Catch Crabs in the South

More river talk... here's my take on crabbing during a visit to Beaufort.



In the early morning darkness, we all file out the door to go crabbing. It's cold outside, and out beyond, dawn is slowly crawling out on the horizon. We walk on the wooden planks to get to the hut nearly floating on the side of the river.

We are in Beaufort, S.C. and we are about to haul out of the water the morning catch. I have never seen yet, nor cared to ask, how crabs are caught. I have always dismissed them as someone else' problem, hence, something that I don't have to think of. I have also noticed these little crab-like folks that run around on the sand when we go to the beach, but I look at them as cute little thingys that you chase around on the sand. So when everyone goes into an amazed state at the mention of catching crabs, I play along.

When we get to the hut, we look for the rope that connects to the basket trap. We haul it out of the water and find crabs... and chicken. It turns out that "in these parts", they attract the crabs with raw chicken quarters. Yes, as we say it in slang, sosyalin! You put the chicken inside the basket trap, put it in the water and leave it either for the day or overnight.

What we get are Blue Crabs, because parts of its claws are blue. Later, these will be cooked, the table will be covered with newspapers, where after an hour or two, a mountain of crab shells will show up.

I don't eat crab anymore due to dietary "rules" I have adopted, and don't ask me why. But it's great to see people eating from the bounties of the rivers and the seas, eating fresh and simple food. A big part of travel is also about tasting the local flavor, both the simple and the more complicated gastronomic delights.

Crabbing was a simple exercise of putting in a basket and hauling out the basket. Well, yes, there was the chicken too. But when done in the fresh morning air, in clean waters, with friends and family, it can be a pretty rewarding experience.

Frank Gehry and MOCA Los Angeles

Earlier today, I discovered this video of Frank Gehry's talk (From 1990, defending a vision for architecture). I never realized that it's kind of long but it's a good introduction to him and his work. I loved his design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.


When I was in Los Angeles, I happened to wander into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (L.A.). It's also a great place to discover design. It's just in front of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and it has a great collection of Frank Gehry's designs, including the previous versions of the Concert Hall when it was still being designed. There are also a lot of interesting stuff there like, like a mechanical skirt that "blooms" or sort of moves. There are architectural models of the Bubble Building in Beijing, the Beijing Olympic Stadium, fabric designs by Issey Miyake and other great stuff on fashion. What's more, the entrance fee is only USD$8. That ticket also got me free entrance to their satellite museum at the Pacific Design Center. But I wasn't able to go there anymore as I ran out of time.

Grand Avenue is a good place to wander and explore. What are your favorite architectural highlights in your city?

Visiting Savannah

In my previous post (It Takes Clouds to Make a Glorious Beaufort Sunrise), I wrote about a trip to Beaufort, SC. After Beaufort, our party went on to explore Savannah, Georgia, which is only around 2 hours from there. Savannah is a beautiful city; I have been there twice and every time I always find something new or cool. It's a city rich with tradition and history. There are historic homes all over, historic cemeteries and historic forts. The downtown area is now one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States.

I took the picture above at the Colonial Park Cemetery. With Spanish moss hanging from trees, silence, old tombstones for publishers, businessmen, leaders and patriots, the cemetery is calming yet eerie at the same time. That's why I found it interesting to find people reading or walking/exercising there. Usually, cemeteries are only visited on special occasions or on November 1st. But here, people treat the place as a park.

In Savannah, I love walking on River Street and Factors' Walk, visiting the "squares" that are all over the city, having lunch at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons, walking around to look at the unique architecture and, generally, just soaking up on all that Southern charm. An author, Nick Cohn, talked to someone in Savannah once and that person told him that the secret to living there is to live slow, to learn to drip like honey.

Remember that movie called Forrest Gump? "Life is like a box of chocolates" and all that? The scenes where he was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus were shot at Chippewa Square. Unfortunately, the bench is not there anymore. There's a replica of the bench at the museum at the Savannah Visitors' Center.

I think I actually wrote something about Savannah before, which I will look for after writing this. Some of my suggested things to see and do when in the city are below. Savannah is a city great for walking, so I suggest you stroll around, take out the camera and explore.

Must see:

• Factors' Walk
• River Street
• City Market
• Colonial Park Cemetery
• Bonaventure Park (where the statue commonly associated with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil used to be; it's now in a museum)
• Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
• Telfair Museum of Art
• Chippewa Square
• Forsythe Park
• Historic Homes (great also if you can schedule during the Savannah Tour of Homes)
• Tybee Island (for the Tybee Island Light Station, the first lighthouse on the southern Atlantic coast)
• Mercer-Williams House

Must dos:

• Eat. There is Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons (the Sunday buffet has a good Southern spread) and other nice restaurants at the City Market.
• Visit the "squares".
• Join a ghost tour.
• Walk along River Street.
• Watch how a taffy is made. There are stores selling water taffy along River Street.
• Take pictures of the unique architectural highlights.
• Find unique water spouts. There are uniquely designed water spouts all over; I saw one shaped like a fish' head.
• See all the must-see's.

It Takes Clouds to Make a Glorious Beaufort Sunrise

Around two and a half years ago, I got invited by a friend to go to Beaufort, South Carolina. I have been looking for the pictures from that trip for years now. While poking through my email accounts (yes, I maintain several email accounts), I found pictures from that trip that I emailed to myself years ago. Past disaster recovery plan trainings are working, I guess.

We arrived in Beaufort at night, just long enough to meet our host, my friend's family friend who were gracious enough to let us stay at their lake cabin. The next day, we woke up very early in the morning to go crabbing. Going around in the dark, the morning light slowly crept on the horizon. Everything was still and quiet. The picture above is a testament to that beautiful moment when you get afraid to even whisper.

Then the clouds came. Big, glorious clouds that we all went scrambling to get our cameras to get pictures. It was still silent, the water was calm, but the clouds made our day. As they say, it takes clouds to make a glorious sunrise.

Pasadena Museums

Around five hours ago, the Mars Phoenix Lander landed on Mars. In mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California everyone was celebrating in the middle of the chaos. This reminded me of my little adventure about a year ago, when I went to the Huntington, maybe took a wrong turn and got lost along the way, then ended up at the gate of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That was exciting... but it also scared me in a way, so I quickly made a U-turn and looked for the highway.

Why was I in the area again? I was looking the Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens, which is only one of the most beautiful gardens in the East coast and has one of the most extensive and impressive art collections. The Huntington is free every first Thursday of the month. When I was there, I didn't have to get a ticket, but it seems they now require everyone to get advanced tickets on Free Day.

Another great museum to visit is the Norton Simon Museum, also in Pasadena. It's free every first Friday of the month, from 6pm to 9pm.

More great links and info to free museum days in Los Angeles here: Free Museum Days.

Dreamy Morning Drives

There's a road in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta, GA that winds through dreamy homes, where people regularly do their morning jogs and a canopy of trees shade you from the hot Southern sun. For several weeks, I had to pass by this neighborhood where some of Atlanta's wealthiest citizens live. My morning drive consisted of going through Peachtree Street, then Ponce de Leon Avenue, a left on Clifton Road at the corner of the Druid Hills Golf and Country Club, and winding my way up to North Decatur Road. At first, I dreaded the drive, where the roads are crooked and the maximum speed is only 25 mph. But after a while, I began to enjoy it, I began to appreciate the landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the place and "ambience" of the neighborhood.

Coming from the Philippines, where the drivers are kind of suicidal, I found it funny to have to stop everywhere there's a stop sign printed on the road and on intersections, when I was running at a top speed of 23 mph. I noticed too, that everyone was very courteous, so when at an intersection, I stop, and when there's another car coming from the other side, I wave and yield to the other driver. It wasn't a place run by stoplights, it was the South after all, where grace and good manners were de rigeur.

Sometimes we face uncertainty, find ourselves at a new place or are forced to be where we don't want to be. But sometimes, with a little bit of luck and effort, we can find ourself enjoying the place and the whole experience.