Argentine Eyes

Some of you who have been with me on my journey when I first stepped into Argentine soil right from the beginning may remember that at one point I wrote an autobiography about my life. As well as an encounter with an Argentine woman who would eventually become my Argentine mother.  The autobiography was called "Argentine Eyes" and it was done through wattpad.

I know that many people publish hundreds of stories on wattpad daily but I've only written one and then I haven't done much on wattpad very much. But the other day I decided to log in and look at my work and got struck by lightening when I saw that it has 3.4 K reads!

At first I thought there must be a mistake or I was reading the numbers wrong. I wanted to pinch myself. At most I thought it would be a worth a few hundred reads by a select group of people who were interested in Argentina. My books popularity has gone above and beyond anything I could have fathomed.

Wanna share a beautiful story of how this book impacted someone's life.  Being non-fiction, all the places I describe in the book are real.  One place that I talk about was a school called the Vamos Spanish Academy. As a language learner, picking the right school makes all the difference between paying for an overpriced pretentious course and learning next to nothing or paying a fair price and having a fantastic experience as you accelerate your journey to fluency.

Someone read my book and about my time at the Vamos Spanish Academy and actually decided to go there for real. They messaged me telling me that they ended up the school and had a fantastic time. It's moments like these that are the true reward as a writer. Yes, seeing that ones book has been viewed thousands of times is lovely. But nothing beats knowing that something you wrote impacted someones life.

So I am reposting the book here again for your reading pleasure. Simply click on the image above and it will take you to my book on wattpad. It is quite timely as well because this is the week that Argentina celebrates the May revolution. A moment in history that resulted the birth of the beautiful city of Buenos Aires on May 25th. And if my memory serves me right I actually started writing "Argentine Eyes" on May 25, 2011, the day that they commemorate the revolution. Happy birthday Buenos Aires. TE AMO

Death by Hot Chocolate: Sweet Stories from Vancouver's Hot Chocolate Festival

"Do you have any suspended coffees left?" I asked the cashier.

"Unfortunately no, we are completely sold out." She replied

"OK, then I'll buy one then." I gushed.

Her face beamed with gratitude, thanked me for this gift I was giving buying the first suspended coffee of the day. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a suspended coffee is a coffee you can prepay in advance for a homeless person to be able to have a drink. There are several places in Vancouver that have this program, East Van Roasters was one of them.

This particular exchange took place when I was visiting EVR to sample their hot chocolate that was part of the hot chocolate festival going on in Vancouver. Looking back, I'm glad that I wasn't silly enough to go make some new yrs resolution about losing weight or eating healthy because that resolution would have been out the door the moment the hot chocolate festival started.

There may be many tasty places to visit in Vancouver but what makes East Van Roasters extra delicious is that every order comes with a taste of charity. Located in the Rainier hotel, all the women who work at EVR also live at the hotel. And all the income from the sales of food drink and merchandise go directly towards these women, enabling the women of downtown vancouver to be able to support themselves. And most of all for these women to be able to live a life of dignity.

The Hot Chocolate Festival took place from Jan 16-Feb 14. Like a bull unleashed from its pen, I galloped through every nook and cranny of the city satisfying my sweet tooth with sinfully delightful cups of hot chocolate. There were more than 59 flavors of hot chocolate available throughout the city. And 5% of all the proceeds from the whole event goes to support East Van Roasters.

The Corrie Ten Boom Story: Discovering the Hiding Place

This is the season where there are a multitude of inspiration post about love, sacrifice and salvation. As a person I'm extremely inclusive and that also reflects on the type of writings I choose to do here on this blog. I make every effort to create content that are enjoyable to all no matter what background, faith, culture or walk of life you are from. So in the spirit of inclusivity, I've decided to veer away from doing what everyone else is doing and writing about the cross or salvation or using lots of Christian talk. Interestingly enough the people I'm about to introduce to you today were all about inclusivity....the Ten Boom Family.

 Pretty much if you're Christian or from Holland the story of Corrie Ten Boom should ring a bell. The Ten Boom family had a famous watch shop in Holland (the watch shop is still there) and during world war 2 played an active role in helping Jews in hiding. Eventually they created a false wall that would serve as an escape route if ever their home was searched. The false wall became known as "The Hiding Place".

In  Dec 2013 during a wk in Amsterdam I took a train to Haarlem and got to see the Hiding Place.  The Ten Booms house and watch shop is still standing and I sat in the very living room the Ten Booms once sat hearing tales of this extraordinary family.






Eventually they were found out and arrested for helping the Jews. There are amazing stories of their family life before their arrest and also incredible stories of what happened in the concentration camp at Ravensbruck where Corrie and Betsie would find themselves. For the purposes of length I'll give you the highlights. All the rest of the story can be read in the book "The Hiding Place"


 

This Little Monkey Still Has a Snakebite on Her Arse (no sexual nuances intended)

My heart has been waiting forever for this day to come and now the day has arrived.....Feb 8th is HERE.  Today isn't your average monday, it's a special day for me for a multitude of different reasons. Let's start with the obvious that today is the start of the Chinese new yr. Gung Hey Fat Choy to everyone around the world. What makes it even more special is that it is the year of the monkey, my yr. For each of us out there celebrating Chinese New yr that falls upon the animal of our birth yrs happens only once every 12 yrs. And to top it off this yr the lunar calendar Chinese new yr happens to fall on feb 8th and in Chinese culture 8 is the luckiest number of all.

But there is another secret reason why feb 8th is a significant day for me, this blog turns 6 yrs old TODAY. It was on feb 8th 2010, that I sat in my dorm room thinking to myself "hmmm, I wonder what would happen if  I took copies of all the emails I've been sending to a select group of people and posted it on a blog?" So I did exactly that, I innocently posted copies of my writing, my blog began exploding with hits from visitors around the world and the rest is history.