#i figured that out at 15 during my fast food orientation

[hauscrashburn]

i am an accountant. as a part of my job, i understand the necessity of the IRS. taxes can be good (when applied fairly! too many loopholes for the rich) and we need an agency to collect and to administer the collection.

but i don't know man, every time the IRS comes out with an internal audit, im like who let these chucklefucks in charge?

"the taxpayer didn't use the exact language we got in our training scenario so we violated the law"

bruh. use your human brain.

[writehardwhumpharder]

First BTS fic!

I finally wrote one. This takes place after debut when Jungkook is still 15 and he gets sick and needs one of his hyungs to take care of him but he's too shy to ask for help. (I don’t speak Korean so sorry if the honorifics are all wrong)

Jungkook trusted his hyungs, after leaving home at the age most people were starting high school, the other members quickly became his new family. There were a handful of managers tasked with taking care of the members but at the end of the day when they headed back to the dorms after a long practice at the studio, it was just the seven of them.

Jungkook was still incredibly shy around the other members so when he started to feel a little off during dance practice he quickly shoved the thought out of his mind and didn't tell anyone about it. He was probably just a little tired after all.

Suddenly Taehyung was shaking his shoulder and Jungkook blinked his eyes open wearily. He immediately sat up straight when he realized he'd fallen asleep against Tae on the car ride back to the dorms. The sudden movement made his head spin and it took him a moment to orient himself before he could stumble out of the car.

"What do you guys want for dinner tonight?" Jin-hyung asked the group, "we could order take out or I'll just cook something here."

The members all chimed in their responses, most were happy just to eat what they had in the fridge since they were already exhausted and starving having spent most of the day working on new choreography.

"What about you Kookie? You're always hungry there must be something you want," Jin called back to Jungkook who was straggling behind the group. Now that he thought about it, he really wasn't hungry. In fact he felt a little nauseous at the idea of eating something right now. The members would find it odd if he said that though so he put on a fake smile and said he was just so hungry he'd eat anything. They were quick to believe the lie.

Once inside the shared apartment everyone went their separate ways to put their bags in their rooms, change into some clean clothes, and take a quick minute to themselves before migrating out to the living room. Jin took up station at the stove, cooking up some rice, kimchi, and a strange combination of things he found in the fridge.

Jungkook was in no hurry to leave his room though. As he sank into his bed he realized just how terrible he felt. The dull ache he'd been trying to ignore spread through his entire body and he was starting to feel flush, going between hot and cold. He'd been sweating all day but this felt different. He was clammy now and a glance in the mirror confirmed he was a little pale too. Instead of admitting to himself that he was clearly coming down with something he turned on his phone and started scrolling through his camera roll. He got especially homesick at times like this.

There was a gentle knocking on the door before Jimin poked his head in, "Jungkook-ah, dinner is ready aren't you coming?" Jimin said, a hint of concern in his voice sensing that something was off with his macknae.

"Yeah just a minute. I was scrolling through Twitter, guess I lost track of time," he lied cooly. He sat up after Jimin left and was surprised to feel the bed rock and sway beneath him. He held his head in his hands for a second and leaned his elbows on his knees, taking deep breaths in an attempt to clear the sudden dizziness. When he couldn't stall any longer he got up and padded out into the hallway, only to be assaulted by the strong scent of food which made his mouth water for all the wrong reasons. His stomach churned threateningly but he pushed on, taking a seat at the table where a plate was already made for him.

He poked at his food, taking small bites as Taehyung and J-hope entertained everyone.

"I have a new dance move we should totally add to our choreography, hobi-hyung back me up here," Taehyung stood up from the table and did the most ridiculous dance move they'd ever seen making even Jungkook burst out laughing. Laughing, however, only made him lose some of the control he had over his upset stomach and he quickly had to stop before the few bites he'd tried so hard to eat made a reappearance.

The other members noticed Jungkook was quieter than usual but they didn't comment on it, knowing he was a little shy and wouldn't want to be the center of attention. Slowly everyone cleared the table and Jin called Yoongi over to help him with the dishes. Yoongi looked like he'd rather jump out the window than clean but he reluctantly made his way to the sink. Once he was close enough Jin leaned in to whisper to him.

"Keep an eye on Jungkook tonight, he's been quiet since we left the studio and barely touched his dinner." He said. Yoongi nodded in understanding, "yeah I noticed he seemed a bit off, I'll tell RM too." He said then clean a couple dishes just for appearances then slinked off again.

Jungkook was the last to leave the table so it was only him and Jin left in the room.

"You okay Kookie? You look kinda pale," Jin asked in a light, casual tone knowing the younger boy would clam up if he made a big deal out of it.

This was his chance to say something, Jungkook told himself. He internally slapped himself in frustration, just tell them you're sick. But all that came out of his mouth was "Yeah, I'm fine, hyung." Then he went to hang out in his room.

They didn't have anything scheduled for tomorrow morning and Jungkook sighed in relief that he'd at least get to sleep in. He made his way to his room slowing down with each step as his body felt heavier and heavier. God he needed to sit down and fast. Jin watched from the kitchen, getting concerned at how drained the macknae looked but they were all tired at this point.

Jungkook sat down on the edge of his bed with a thump and just breathed for a minute. The ache in his body was more than just sore muscles and he was starting to get dizzy every time he moved too much. Leaning back against his pillow he played games on his phone for a bit in the low lamp light. His stomach still felt uneasy as it rebeled against the small dinner he managed to force down.

--

At some point he must have fallen asleep because when he opened his eyes again everything was dark. Someone must have come in and turned off his light and pulled the covers over him. Jimin no doubt. As he fully came to his senses he realized just how wrong he felt. His sheets were drenched with sweat and his body shivered against the deep chills that wracked his body every couple seconds. Though he couldn't see the room it felt like it was spinning around him. He had to do something, he had to tell someone. His previous shyness melted away as the fever took over his thought process.

Jungkook swung his legs over the side of his bed and was confused when, instead of standing like he had planned, he ended up toppling over onto the floor. He groaned miserably. It was just down the hall, he could make it. Grabbing onto the wall for support he made his way out into the hallway. His vision doubled for a second making it look like there were twice as many doors as usual and they all looked the same. His fevered brain struggled to figure out which room was Jin-hyungs. They ought to label their rooms from now on, he thought.

Jungkook steadied himself in the door and took a deep breath to quill the growing nausea. He knocked quietly and called out to him, "J-jin, hyung, you awake?" The raspiness in his voice along with the slight slurring of his speech made him sound almost as bad as he felt. Jungkook's heart dropped when there was no response, he even considered going back to his room but he really did need help at this point so fuck it. He opened the door slowly and staggered over to Jin's bed.

"H-hyung, I don't feel good," he whined. Jin finally stirred and turned over to look at him.

"Oh my god, Jungkook, do you have any idea what time it is?" Jin said groggily, having missed most of what Kookie had said when he came in.

"It's Wednesday," he answered, swaying on his feet.

"Ok first of all it's Friday, second, that's not even..." the words died on his lips when he finally flicked the light on and got a good look at the boy. He looked ready to pass out, or maybe even drop dead. His clothes were absolutely soaked in sweat and the only color left on his face was a slight blush to his cheeks from the raging fever he had. Jin sprang out of bed and sat the boy down before crouching in front of him.

"Jungkook-ah, what's wrong?" He asked.

"I don't feel very good, hyung."

Jin held the back of his hand to the boy's forehead but he didn't even need to touch his skin to feel the heat radiating off of him.

"God you're burning up, we need to cool you down," he said, making a plan to feed him some fever reducers and get him into a cold shower.

"I don't.. feel..." Jungkook started swallowing convulsively and Jin knew what was about to happen. He dragged Jungkook to the bathroom barely making it in time for him to fall to his knees in front of the toilet and start heaving. Jin went to work in the medicine cabinet looking for something to bring down his fever. He also turned the shower on so he could usher Jungkook into it just as soon as he was done puking.

"Here, take these," he said. Jungkook didn't seem to hear him as he laid his head on his arm which was draped over the toilet seat. He continued to cough up strings of bile and spit despite practically being asleep already. Jin knelt down next to him and supported him, lifting his head off the seat.

"Kookie, can you hear me?" Jin asked, snapping a finger in front of his face.

Jungkook hummed in response and blinked his eyes open again.

"I need you take these," he handed over two white pills along with a glass of water. Jungkook took it obediently, dropping the pills in his mouth and using the water to wash them down. Jin held onto the cup just in case he dropped it. "Okay now we need to get you in the shower."

Grabbing the bottom of his shirt he tried to pull it over the younger boy's head but Jungkook pried his hands away and shook his head no. Jin didn't see the point in arguing with him, the shirt was dirty but it would get rinsed off along with the rest of him so Jin settled on helping him into the shower as is.

Jungkook didn't object, allowing his hyung to support all his weight on the way to the shower. He didn't realize it was going to be ice cold against his hot skin. He immediately tried to climb back out but Jin blocked his path. And with shoulders like his if he wanted to block something there was no getting around him. Jungkook sniffled, sitting down in the tub reluctantly. He curled in on himself in an attempt to stay warm. Jin stayed close, keeping a hand on his back, not caring if his sleeve got wet in the process. Jungkook started shivering and Jin heard a quiet sob escape him.

"It's okay Kookie, we'll get you all cooled down and clean then you can get back in bed," he said, trying to sound soothing. Jungkook nodded weakly and when Jin pulled out the thermometer to take his temperature it was only 38⁰, still a bit high but not high enough to be dangerous.

Some of the fog in his brain was starting to clear and he finally realized what was going on. He barely remembered waking Jin up in the first place and here he was keeping up in the early hours of the morning taking care of him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, pulling the towel tight around his body.

"Shh, you don't need to apologize for being sick," Jin said.

"I woke you up and.. and made a mess," Jungkook looked down at the ground, feeling disappointed in himself but his hyung was having none of it.

"Don't think like that, you know you can always come to me or any of the other members when you need something right?"

Jungkook furrowed his brows as if in deep thought, he knew that that was true yet he still didn't feel comfortable being such a burden to the group.

Jin sighed to himself. The kid was too talented for his own good and got sucked into the industry far too young. At 15 Kookie was still a baby, and Jin felt bad that he worked even harder than he did.

"Yeah I know, next time I'll tell you sooner," Jungkook said.

Jin toweled off his wet hair with laugh, "just make sure it's before I go to sleep okay? Now go put on some fresh pajamas and you can sleep in my room tonight."

[douchebagbrainwaves]

FIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE DESIGN AND BAD ECONOMY

But working on this is not a win, in the sense that your body is happier during a long run than sitting on a sofa eating doughnuts. And they have leverage in that their decisions set the whole company moving in one direction or another. One is that you shouldn't build object-oriented programming in too deeply. What good will more code do you when you're out of business. The larger a group, the closer its average member will be to the average for the population as a whole must be giving people something they want, the more different it gets. A physicist friend recently told me half his department was on Prozac.1 It was no coincidence that the great industrialists of the nineteenth century had so little formal education. Many startups go through a point a few months before they die where although they have a significant amount of money in one family's bank account, or the market wasn't ready yet, b the founders solved the wrong problem. Programming languages are how people talk to computers.

With server-based apps get released as a series of small changes. The ball you need to give someone a present and don't have any money, you don't usually have to invent anything.2 Life in a zoo is easier, but it could not have grown so big so fast. It's very dangerous to morale to start to depend on deals closing, not just because she's shy that she hates bragging. In Web-based software you can use any language you want, there is nothing in spam-of-the-envelope calculations, this one has a high average outcome. A company big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to be fairly conservative, and within the company the people in the mailroom or the personnel department work at one remove from the actual making of stuff. I think you should make users the test, just as we can become smarter, just as a goalkeeper who prevents the other team from scoring is considered to have played a perfect game. Her immense data set and x-ray vision for character.3 And historically the number of new startups being founded in 2003.

For individuals the upshot is the same: aim small. A big company is probably getting a bad deal, because his performance is dragged down by the overall lower performance of the algorithm described in A Plan for Spam I hadn't had any, and I completely agree with him. I would really love to do, at least in our own minds, we have to remember that it's an admirable thing to write great programs, even when this work doesn't translate easily into the conventional intellectual currency of research papers. It could only spread to places that already had a vigorous middle class. A big company is like high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated vegetable oil.4 Though the immediate cause of death in a startup tends to be one. In practice, it seemed inevitable that I would eventually have to move from filtering based on single words to an approach like this. But it could be that a lot of new startups being founded in 2003. Near the top is the company run by techno-weenies who are obsessed with solving interesting technical problems, instead of making users happy.

As with the original industrial revolution, some societies are going to be hard to duplicate. Letters, digits, dashes, apostrophes, and dollar signs are constituent characters. Letters, digits, dashes, apostrophes, and dollar signs are constituent characters, and everything else is collapsing around you, having just ten users who love you will keep you going. Here are some of the effect of first class functions, you can be wise without being very wise, you can pick a time when you're not in the middle of Antarctica, where there is nothing in spam-of-the-future, because this is what I expect spam to evolve into: some completely neutral text followed by a url. But ambitious programmers are better off doing their own thing and failing than going to work at a big company, then a lot of maximally interesting tokens, meaning those with probabilities far from. It will always suck to work for some existing company. Ditto at the other end of the spectrum, we'd be the first to see signs of a separation between founders and investors in the Valley. In the earliest stages of a startup, of course.

Watching employees get transformed into founders makes it clear that the difference between the two. Jessica was so important to YC, why don't more people do it? Maybe it's because you haven't made what they want.5 75%. 88, just under the threshold of. That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. Except instead of being at the mercy of investors. If anything, it's more like the small man of Confucius's day, always one bad harvest or ruler away from starvation. And the culture she defined was one of those that exploit an insecure cgi script to send mail to third parties. And yet if you analyzed the contents of the average grocery store you'd probably find these four ingredients accounted for most of the things they're doing is breaking up and misspelling words to prevent filters from recognizing them. For example, though the stock market crash does seem to have regarded wisdom, learning, and intelligence largely from cultivating them. We are all richer for knowing about penicillin, because we're less likely to die from infections.

With server-based. That last sentence is the fatal one.6 If you were dropped at a random point in America today, nearly all the food around you would be bad for you. I think the single biggest problem afflicting large companies is the difficulty of assigning a value to each person's work. If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. If you're in a job that feels safe, you are thereby fairly close to measuring the contributions of individual employees. But large organizations will probably never again play the leading role they did up till the last quarter of the twentieth century.7 When startups came back into fashion, around 2005, investors were starting to hear about byte code, which implies to me at least that if we find more than 15 tokens that only occur in one corpus or the other, we ought to give priority to the ones that occur a lot. Two of the four spams I missed got through because they happened to use words that occur often in my legitimate email. Just write whatever you want, so if there is no way to get rich by creating wealth, as a species, is that you can do whatever he wants. When there is a natural fit between smallness and solving hard problems.

These techniques are mostly orthogonal to Bill's; an optimal solution might incorporate both. Salesmen work alone.8 Partly because I'm a writer, and writers always get disproportionate attention.9 But working on this is not an irrational fear: it really is hard to bear. And in this economy I bet they got a good deal on it.10 If you go to a new set of buildings, and do things that they think aren't good for you. Then at least you can give back the money you have left, and save every penny of your salary. So let me tell you a little about Jessica.11 Your boss is just the intermediate stage—just a shorthand—for whatever people want. A morale boost on that scale is very valuable in a startup tends to be running out of money, and now they'd have to postpone that. Usually a startup is, economically: a way of saying, I want to work a lot harder, and get paid for it.

Notes

That was a kid who had died decades ago. If an investor I don't like content is the accumulator generator benchmark are collected together on their utility function for money. In desperation people reach for the fences in our case, 20th century was also the golden age of economic inequality was really only useful for one another indirectly through the window for years while they may introduce startups they like to cluster together as much as Drew Houston needed Dropbox, or Seattle, consider moving.

When the Air Hits Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation—maybe not linearly, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go talk to mediocre ones. If early abstract paintings seem more interesting than later ones, and in a startup, but I took so long. And while we might think it was the least VC-like. SpamCop—A Spam Classification Organization Program.

But people like numbers. That makes some rich people move, and then using growth rate has to work for startups to be evidence of a stock is its future earnings, you create wealth with no environmental cost.

For example, the angel round just happened, the apparent misdeeds of corp dev people are trying to decide whether to go all the red counties. It's a lot heavier. I've been told that Microsoft discourages employees from contributing to open-source projects, even if we wanted to than because they actually do, but when people make investment decisions well when they talk about distribution of income, which merchants used to be able to claim retroactively I said yes.

I had a killed portraiture as a constituency. The Nineteenth-Century History of English at Indiana University Publications. This is not to need to go sell the bad groups and they unanimously said yes. Most unusual ambitions fail, most of them had been a good way to explain how you'd figure out what the US is partly a reaction to drugs.

Which is probably 99% cooperation. I said yes. In desperation people reach for the same way a restaurant is constrained in a journal. An accountant might say that YC's most successful ones.

Joe thinks one of them, would be much bigger news, in the body or header lines other than those I mark. For example, the same investor to invest at any valuation the founders don't have to talk about aspects of the next stage tend to become dictator and intimidate the NBA into letting you write has a word meaning how one feels when things are going well, but most neighborhoods successfully resisted them. Which is probably a mistake to believe is that their experience so far the only way to tell how serious potential investors and they begin by having an associate.

Globally the trend has been rewritten to suit present fashions.

See Greenspun's Tenth Rule.

Bill Yerazunis. This was made a million dollars out of a social network for x. If you wanted to invest at any valuation the founders of Hewlett Packard said it first, and it has about the smaller investments you raise them.

The undergraduate curriculum or trivium whence trivial consisted of three stakes.

[cantcomeupwithacreativename]

The Experiment Chapter 4

(Bro the spaces are even weirder on here)

On my way back to our alley, I overheard a conversation between a mother and a pro-hero. He is black with locks all over his costume. The mother has a small child in her arms. He looks about 5 years old. The mother is sobbing, and the child looks terrified, with red eyes, like he had been crying.

"Thank you so much… I- I can't ever repay you. I thought I would never see my baby again… nobody else cared… he was gone for so long… a month… they- they said he'd most likely be dead after a week. They… they wouldn't look anymore. "

"It's all right. I can't imagine if that was my little one. There aren't enough heroes who understand." His deep voice rang through my ears.

"How-how old are they?"

"Just over a week now. I gotta go. Be safe, keep him close."

I started to think, what would've happened if that hero wasn't there, if he didn't find him. Would the kid be sold? Experimented on? Obviously they didn't plan on killing him, or they wouldn't have kept him alive for over a month.

This led me to think about how many people are missing right now, with no heroes to find them. There aren't enough heroes in this world. Maybe Kei could be a hero. She would be good at it. She caught those freaks so easily.

I think of this all the way home. How Kei would be a good hero. On my way back, I hear a muffled cry. My head snaps to attention. Two figures are in a dark alley, one tall, with broad shoulders, and the other small, feminine, and young.

"Don't scream." His voice sounds disgusting.

A young girl, younger than me, looks terrified under his gross hands.

I creep behind him. He doesn't see me. I smash the back of his head with my wings. He falls to the ground, unconscious. The girl took one look at my scarred body and sprints away. She probably thinks I'm another villain.

I had a weird, happy feeling in my stomach, and I didn't realize the smile creeping on my face. It felt good to help people. Is this what heroes save for? This feeling? I liked it. Maybe I could be a hero.

I left the alley after wiping the smile off my face.

After I got back to Kei, I went to bed.

In the morning, I talked to Kei.

"I was thinking… what if we became heroes?"

She looked at me to see if I was serious, then burst into laughter.

"I don't want to be a hero!"

Oh. I didn't say anything after that. She noticed my silence and added,

"But you'd be a good hero. You could always just try for a school. and see if you like it. I heard U.A. is free, so long as you pass the entrance exam."

I thought it over. Maybe. I'd have to train really hard. I heard it's extremely hard to get into. Plus, you have to be smart. Maybe I could start working out and ask Kei to teach me. I never bothered before, I just didn't care. I remember those workouts that one winged guy taught me. What was his name? Keilo?

"Hey Kei?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you teach me school stuff?"

Her eyes lit up. "Sure!"

(Time skip: a week later)

My wing muscles are burning from the workouts I've been doing. I can lift myself off the ground now. I've been following the workouts that boy gave me. Thank god for Kei. When I need water, she's there, a fresh shower after every workout. She's been an amazing teacher, and I was a fast learner. My favorite was (favorite subject)

There was one thing that I didn't understand about Kei. Why did she live on the streets? She was smart, pretty, and had a strong quirk. I just could figure it out. It had never been brought up, and she had never told me.

"Hey, Kei? Why do you not have a house?"

She was silent for a moment, and then said,

"I was kicked out."

"Why?"

"My… my…. parents found out I had a girlfriend. They saw us kissing."

"Oh. I'm sorry… "

"No need to be sorry, it's not your fault." She said, faking a smile

(Time skip: Halfway through U.A. entrance exam)

I fly up to the 3 point robot, stabbing it with my feather-blades. That's 27 points! I just repeated that with all robots I saw, the ones that weren’t already being fought, that is.

(Feather blades look like this. You can harden your feathers/wings and shoot them out. [Like angel from X Men apocalypse])

(Time skip: After exam)

I don't have an address, duh, so I just put down a house a couple miles away from the alley. I hope I get in! I also put a fake name on my papers, for good measure. I don’t think any paperwork was done on me in the first place, or any records anyway, but better safe than sorry. After a while of deliberating, I end up with the name Y/N F/L/N. (fake last name, your real L/N will come in later)

The results are supposed to arrive this week, and I am currently at the house that I claimed I lived. As I open the mailbox I see 3 white envelopes. One addressed to a girl named Kyoka Jiro, which was coincidentally, also from U.A. the second looked like bills of some sort, and the third was addressed to Y/N F/L/N, from the U.A. hero course! I sprinted as fast as I could away from there, letter in hand, missing the pair of black eyes watching me from the window.

When I met up with Kei, we opened the letter together, and a hologram of Allmight appeared.

“Greetings Young F/L/N! I Am Here! To Welcome You! You passed the written exam, and the practical exam with a score of 31 points! Welcome to the hero course. You will be starting your long journey to the road of Heroism in class 1-B. School starts on…..”

Kei shrieks, cutting him off.

“YOU MADE IT IN! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU,” I open my mouth to say thanks, but she cuts me off, “HONESTLY, I DIDN'T THINK YOU COULD DO IT!”

“Uh, thanks?”

(Sorry for another skip, but nothing plot relevant happens between so, Timeskip: morning of 1st day of school)

First day of school! I’ve never been to school before! Kei says it’s nothing too special. I have to take a shower before I go, and we washed the clothes last night. Washing clothes is a weird process. We have to use this huge bottle of clothes soap that we rub in with our hands, and use Kei’s quirk to wet and rinse the clothes. Then we just leave them out to dry, or if we’re in a rush, use my wings. It takes a while, and we don’t need to impress anybody, so washing clothes is a rare occasion. Taking a shower is also a rare occasion, but I have a feeling it’s going to have to be less rare because of school. Kei got me deodorant the other day! It may not seem big, but that classifies as a ‘non-necessity’ so I’ve never gotten it before.

After my shower, I got dressed and I stretched my wings. Nowadays, I keep them out at all times, because, protection, the look, and they hurt to put back. They tuck nicely against my back so that I don’t hit much with them. I begin the long trek to school. It takes f o r e v e r.

Once I finally arrive at the infamous school, I spot a familiar face, or rather, hair. It’s the kid from the sludge villain attack, the one who all the heroes were chewing out. I was going to say hi, but decided not to, because it would be awkward if he didn’t recognize me.

On my way in, I notice more than a few people staring at me, mostly my scars. Whatever. I’ve never been self conscious about them, why start, you know? F you. I’d rather have a few scars than no arms at all…

Ok, class 1-B should be around here- Holy s h i t this door was huge! Are there giants here? Do I just go in? My lack of experience is really showing. I push the door open and glance around the room. Oh. Oh shit. They all have uniforms. I’m the only one not wearing one. I don’t know what to do, so I just walk in. Maybe the uniforms are optional. I pick a random seat, near the (back, middle, front) and sit. I end up next to a kid with pitch black skin and white hair. He doesn’t say a word. Good. I don’t want to talk. Unfortunately, the other girls don’t seem to understand this, and they bombard me with questions.

“What’s your name?”

“How’d you get those scars? Are they part of your quirk?”

“What’s your quirk?”

“Who’s your favorite hero?”

“Do you want to be my friend?”

“What are you named?”

That last one came from a girl with big, American eyes. She looks nice.

“I’m Y/N, What’s your name?” I tell/ask her.

“My name is Pony. I’m from America.” She says.

“Cool.”

To the rest of the group I say, “My name is Y/N, my quirk is Raven, my favorite hero is Midnight, and sure I’ll be your friend.”

They continued chattering until the teacher, a big burly guy with pointy bottom teeth and a glare, walked into the room and took us to ’orientation.’ During the assembly, Allmight gave us a speech about what fine young heroes we would become, and to do our best, Plus Ultra style! Then we spent the rest of the day learning where things were, the teachers, what we would need to bring, but most importantly, each other. Apparently, Vlad King thinks that socializing and making connections is extremely important for people our age. He gave us 15 minutes of free time to just talk before moving on with the tour.

The teachers called us out for a lunch break, and the food smells so good. I glance around the room, and, of course, there aren’t many seats open. The only one I see is an almost empty table, save for a kid with Half red half white hair and a scar on his eye. Looks almost like mine, but it doesn’t look like fire caused it. More like frostbite.

My feet are moving before I make my decision. It was like they knew.

“Hi! I’m from class 1-B, can I sit here?” I ask

He looks me in the eyes and says,

“No.”

“Oh. Uh ok…”

“You may sit over here if you please.” A feminine voice calls out. I turn to see, and it’s a really cute girl with a ponytail. She is tall, with black hair.

“Ok thanks!” I say, as I make my way over to her.

We ended up chatting for a while. Apparently, she is in class 1A, wants to become a hero to give back to the people less fortunate than her. Aka: a richy rich girl. I think we’ll be good friends. She even made me a uniform!

And my g o d Lunch rush is amazing. I haven’t had anything this good ever. To be fair, my standards are pretty low, but it was still amazing.

On my way back to the classroom, I see Pony being cornered by 2 guys and a girl.

“Stupid American! You don’t even know proper Japanese! Go back to where you came from”

I don’t think she completely understands what they’re saying. Naturally, I do what I would’ve done if I saw Kei being cornered. I walked right behind them, shouted at them, and punched the first one to turn around. It made a delightful cracking noise, as my fist made direct contact with her nose. Blood running down her face, staining her uniform.

“Bitch!” She shouted at me as her fist swung towards my side. I took a step back, and missed her ‘punch’ completely. One of the guys got into a defensive stance in front of the bitch, and the other stepped forward and tried to hit me. I simply hardened my wings around me, and his weak hit did nothing.

As I raised my fist to punch the bastard, I felt my wings soften back to normal and a string thing wrap around me. I stared directly into red eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?"

[tinapaulick]

In Part 1 of my Interrailing in Germany series I gave some advice on how to travel around Germany, with specific tips for travelers with vision impairments.   This post is about our brief stay in Frankfurt am Main, the starting point of our trip. We decided to start in Frankfurt because Ryanair offers cheap flights to Frankfurt Hahn. All I knew about the city was that it is the financial capital of Germany, so we expected modern skyscrapers. There are definitly a lot of glass and steel buildings, but Frankfurt also has an old-style main square and interesting history.

Getting There and Accomodation

  It is an almost hour bus journey from Frankfurt Hahn Airport to Frankfurt city.  The main airport is closer but also more expensive to fly to. I booked one bus ticket for €15 online from the website of the bus company Flibco. I emailed the customer support copies of my ticket and my German travel pass and recieved the second ticket for free. Getting a free „assistant“ ticket was not offered on the website, but I usually ask anyway. The bus leaves only once an hour and we only got it because the special assistance at the airport skipped the queues with us. The journey to Frankfurt along the river Main is quite scenic in parts and brought us right into the city centre near the train station.

View from the bus crossing the Main

Where to Stay

We got a double room in the Easy Hotel Frankfurt City Centre for €50. The location was definitely central, which also made it a bit noisy. The onsuite room was tiny but clean enough, which is all you can expect for that price. The staff were helpful and we could lock our suitcases in the store room  after check out.

Getting Used to the City

After check-in we went out to get a feel for Frankfurt. The area around the main train station is probably not the best place to be.  There are a lot of small shops and takeaways. We used our canes most of the time and never had any problems. Frankfurt is a  multicultural city. We heard a lot of Turkish being spoken on the streets and our noses led us to a kebab place. Most kebabs in Germany are really good quality.

The Main Train Station

What are all these people doing here?

With over 700,000 inhabitants Frankfurt is a large city, but I thought there  where unusually large numbers of people in bars and on the streets. I forgot to bring toothpaste,  so we decided to find a shop. There is a massive crossing outside the main train station, which is really confusing for people with vision impairments. We asked another pedestrian for help and finally made it to Königsstráße, the main shopping street and google maps directed us to the next supermarket.

Inside it was as if the whole country would soon run out of beer and crisps. The cashier kept shouting „next, next“ at the top of his voice. He wasn’t  going to help us in our quest for toothpaste, so we went further into the shop to try and find it ourselves. Germans are normally helpful enough, but when they want something (in this case obviously alcohol) they can be ruthless. We wondered around  for a while, touching random items to see what they were, when an older guy in a white tank top asked us if we needed help. It turned out the shop didn’t sell toothpaste, but he helped us to get water without gas, which can be hard to find in Germany. While cueing, I asked the guy in German why everywhere was so packed and he told me, that the Frankfurt Soccer team was playing against Munich in Berlin tonight. They didn’t expect to win, but it was a reason to party anyway. We had managed to arrive on one of the busiest nights of the year, but we couldn’t have known that, since we have no interest in Soccer.  The cashier still behaved like a drill Sergeant and I was relieved to get out of the shop. In the end the guy who had already helped us even walked with us all the way back to the train station and showed us a drugstore where we finally got our toothpaste.   We decided to go back to the hotel to rest and to use our toothpaste  for which we had fought so hard.

Breakfast

We usually don’t avail of the breakfast buffet at budget hotels. I would have to go really close to the food to see what’s on offer and people sometimes complained that I smelled the food. In the past I just grabbed random items from the platters and hoped for the best. Now, I ask staff for help and usually they are helpful. Still, the breakfast is continental and I would not pay more than €8 for it unless I’m very hungry or stuck for time. There are lots of excellent bakeries in Germany where you can get two fancy roles, 2 strong cups of coffee and a slice of cake to share for €10. Every larger train station has a bakery with seating.

Healthy Breakfast

“Free” Walking Tour

The best way to get a feel for an unfamiliar city is to go on a Hop on hop off bus tour or a guided walk. Sitting in a car makes me sleepy and I find things move past the window too fast, so I can’t see them properly, never mind taking pictures. We are huge fans of free walking tours. They are a great way to experience a city without having to figure out where to go next and having to google what the buildings around us are. Free walking tour means that there is no fixed rate per ticket. At the end of the tour people decide how much money they want to give depending how they found the tour. I think that is a fair concept. In our experience the guide makes sure we don’t lose the group, either because they are nice or because they haven’t got paied yet.  For some tours you can book free of charge online, but most people simply show up. Finding the meeting point can be a bit of a challenge depending on the directions on the website, but it’s not as risky as paying for a tour in advance and than not finding it.

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Red Lights and Skyscrapers

Benjamin our guide was from Frankfurt and he spoke fluent German, Spanish and English. I think one of his parents was from South America. He got us interested in a city that is mainly known for it’s airport, banking and the red light district. By the way, the red light district with its sex shops is a bit of a tourist attraction in itself now. It is policed, and prostitution is regulated.

The banking quarter with its shiny glass and steel high rise buildings is only a few blocks away from the red light district. The architecture here looks very American, which is why Frankfurt is also called Mainhattan, after the river Main that divides it. After the Second World War the US dominated not only the West German economy but also the building style.

One of the most famous sky scrapers is the 150m high Euro Tower housing the European Central Bank. The free-standing Euro sign in front of it is probably the most photographed attraction in Frankfurt. There has been a competition among companies who built and occupied the tallest building in Frankfurt.  At present this “title” is held by the Commerce Bank Tower. With a Hight of 260m it is the second highest building in the European Union, but not in Europe.

Euro Sign outside the Euro Tower

Stolpersteine

Benjamin showed us Stolpersteine (Stumbling stones), which can be found in different locations in various German and European cities. Stolpersteine are stone plaques to commemorate Jewish citizens who were deported and in most cases killed during the Nazi regime.  The stones are placed in the pavement outside the person’s former house and contain information about their life story. To me the message of this project is much more powerful than conventional monuments. It highlights the victim’s individuality and links them to the place where they lived. People can come across one when they least expect it. So have a look out for them when you visit Frankfurt or another city in Germany.

The New Old Town

Our walking tour ended in the Neue Altstadt (New Old Town).  This area with its half-timbered houses and churches provides another stark contrast to the banking quarter. It is called the new old town, because the majority of the houses were only built between 2012 and 2018. The original market square and its neighboring streets were completely destroyed during the 1944 air raid on Frankfurt. In the 1970s modern buildings were built instead. Some of the new houses are reconstructs of the originals. It’s a lovely square and we listened to a Glockenspiel (Chime). There are also little figurines coming in and out of the top window of the tower similar to a cuckoo clock, but we both could not see them.

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There was a great atmosphere in the city, because as I mentioned earlier the local soccer team had surprisingly beaten Munich and the team was due to return home for celebrations at the main square. However, we did not want to be in the middle of a crowd in an unfamiliar city so we made our way back to the train station.

Lunch and an Unusual Complement

We had lunch at Feinkost Paradies. It was near the shop Goldexchange on Kaiserstraße where we had met earlier for the walking tour. We wondered in to ask if this was the right place and the owner sold us delicious Turkish apple tea for a very good price. We had a chat and he told us that for him Frankfurt is a great place to live and very few people were racist towards his family. He was very helpful and said my eyes have a beautiful colour. Some women might find that creepy, but I think it’s a nice compliment. Part of my eye condition is called Nystagmus, which  means that my eyes cannot focus properly and move around. Sometimes people stare at me, making me feel very self-conscious. I was thrilled that for the first time someone remarked on the grey-blue color of my eyes, rather than pointing out that there was something “wrong” with them.

Fazit

We enjoyed our stay in Frankfurt. The city has more to offer than two airports and good rail connections. Unfortunately, we did’t get a chance to walk along the river Main, so we would like to come back. We recommend spending one or two days in Frankfurt. Other towns near by worth visiting are Marburg and Heidelberg.

  Interrailing in Germany – Part 2: Frankfurt am Main In Part 1 of my Interrailing in Germany series I gave some advice on how to travel around Germany, with specific tips for travelers with vision impairmen…

[bellabooks]

National Coming Out Day: Happy coming out stories to warm your heart

Today is National Coming Out Day, where we celebrate the courage it takes to truly be oneself. Many of us have had difficult coming out experiences, but there is also a lot of joy to be had out there when you are embraced lovingly by friends and family. Here are some coming out stories that will give you hope, and put a smile on your face.   “My name is Ariel and I am fairly fresh out of the closet. My journey began about two and a half years ago when I saw Sara Lance kiss Nyssa al-Ghul on Arrow. Before that point, I had been exceptionally good at convincing myself that I was straight, because in my mind, that was the safest bet. I know now that that had everything to do with the heavy dose of compulsory heterosexuality that I had been given when was growing up. My gym teacher in elementary school was a lesbian and by the way that my classmates talked about her, I got it in my head that I didn’t want to be like her because I didn’t want to be made fun of like that. Seeing this saddened me because I had been taught by my mom at an early age that love is love and it shouldn’t matter who you fall in love with. In school, I had to argue against gay marriage and it took everything in my not to burst into tears during the debate because everything that came out of my mouth was a lie. I got uncomfortable when my softball teammates would talk about how they couldn’t believe that people were gay and how wrong they thought it was. As a result, I stayed firmly in the closet for a very long time. I couldn’t bring myself to open up to a world that believed that I was wrong and gross. Every time I would make a move to step towards coming out, I would see or hear something that would send me right back in. Lexa dying destroyed me and all but made me lock the door from the inside. It took some time but slowly, I immersed myself in positive media, mostly bi and lesbian Youtubers, and I worked my way up to coming out to my mom, who long ago told me that she would love me no matter who I ended up loving (she definitely saw it coming before I did). I then told the rest of my family and a few peers of mine. At this point, I am comfortable with who I am, but I only tell people when they ask because I still can’t get past the hate that I saw early on.” – @RoseWilliams157   “I mustered up the courage to tell my mother that I was a lesbian over the Holidays when I was in college. I sat her down and told her expecting the crying and hugging that you see on all of the coming out stories on TV. Instead she said, “Oh I gotta tell Trish! She’s been saying you were a lesbian for years!” Trish is my mom’s best friend and apparently has impeccable gaydar.” – @ellieb2792   “The first family members I came out to were my three brothers. I knew that if I had them in my corner, I’d have the strength I needed to come out to my parents. (Which went surprisingly well.) All three brothers had different, but great reactions. The youngest one said, ‘Figures. You own a lot of flannel and listen to Melissa Etheridge, so, that’s cool.’ Second oldest was surprised, just because he never thought about my love life. He told me, ‘Anyone you want to bring over is welcome in our home.’ The oldest had thought about my love life, apparently, and said, ‘Yeah, I already guessed that, and I’m totally good with it. Thanks for telling me.’ No fuss. They basically just shrugged, told me we’re good, which was exactly how my brothers are, and how I needed them to be.” – @jerzeyredhead   “I can’t really remember when I came out. On the one hand that makes sense, because coming out is something you do in stages, and you do it over and over again. I know I came out to my immediate family four separate times, but I only had to come out to my two best friends once. I believe I was twenty-three years old when I told them, which would have made the year 2009. Bestie M and I were walking around the local Borders Bookstore, one of our favorite ways to kill time. We liked to walk through the aisles and push the books back against the shelf so you could see the different size and shape of each spine. (Bestie M now works for the Library and she has since told me what an annoying thing that was for us to do to the employees, so I apologize.) She could sense that something was wrong. I wasn’t making eye contact, and anything she said to me was met with a monosyllabic response. When we got back to the car I told her that there was something I needed to say. What I remember most about that moment was the fear. I was so intensely afraid I would lose my best friend that even now, all these years later, my heart races just thinking about it. I told her I was gay and she said ‘Okay’. I know she told me she loved me, but I think I stopped forming memories the second I heard those four little words. She asked if she could hug me and I said ‘Okay.’ Bestie J and I were hanging out at the movie theater. We had a few people with us, killing time at the bar before or after the show. She and I were walking back from the bathroom. Despite my very positive experience with Bestie M, I was still terrified. I told her I was gay and she said something like “Gay? Not bisexual? Oh. Alright!”. But it was the fear in my eyes, not my admission that broke her stride. She grabbed my arm and looked me in the face. ‘Lara, you know this doesn’t change anything between us, right?” I didn’t know that, but I know it now. I knew it from that moment on.’ – Bella debut author, Lara Hayes   “So I think first and foremost it should be said that I am a Baptist minister’s daughter with a very religious family from SC. However, we were never taught to hate anyone no matter their skin color, religion or sexuality. But when I accepted that I was a lesbian at the ripe old age of 17, I started to think that it was okay for everyone else to be gay, but not me. Fast forward a year to Sept. 15, 2006. I’ve graduated from high school earlier in the year and I’m dating my first girlfriend. My girlfriend and I had a wonderful evening together and sleep over. The next morning when we woke up around 2, I had a ton of missed texts and calls from my father. I had told him I was staying at my friend Jessie’s house because I assumed he did not know where she lived. Apparently he did. I also thought, ‘If I tell them I’m staying at Heather’s, they’ll know I’m gay.’ So I called my dad and continued to lie about where I was saying that Jessie and I had gone to brunch. He said, ‘Stop lying to me. You’re at Heather’s aren’t you?’ I immediately said yes and he told me to come home so we could talk about it. Heather was amazing about the whole thing and said, ‘If you get kicked out, you can come to me and if I don’t hear from you for a while, I’ll understand and will be waiting.’ I drove home and thus began hours of conversation about my sexuality. Am I gay, am I bi, it is a phase? Yada yada. My mom ignored me for a good portion of the day. My dad turned to me and said, ‘I’m not mad that you’re gay. I’m mad that you lied to me (about where I was).’ After my mother took a nap, she said she was going to go for a drive and my dad followed her. They ended up talking for hours outside. Now you might wondering why I remember the date so well. Well, the day I came out was also my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday! I’m a huge homo! So I went to my car to get my mother’s birthday present and even though I’m sure it didn’t happen exactly this way, I just remember coming back in and my mom had done a 180. She was happy and excited and everything was back to normal. It has taken my mom a long time to come to terms with it and be happy for me. For a long time she said, “I’m just praying to G-d for guidance.” And even though a lot of people would roll their eyes at her for saying that, I knew that was how my mom was wrapping her head around it and accepting me. 10 years later, my mom and dad have both accepted me and my mother is a HUGE ally for the LGBTQIA community and I no longer feel awkward or weird to tell my parents I’m going on a date. Now I just gotta tell my sister…” – @kaitlynkrieg   “Within six months of my falling in love with a woman for the first time, I had come out to my close friends and my sister. But it took me almost four years to come out to my parents. I initially decided I wouldn’t tell them until the topic became relevant, i.e. I was dating a woman and needed to explain. But my singleness lasted longer than my ability to keep that part of me secret. On New Years Eve of 2016, my parents and I were having dinner at an Italian restaurant. As I was staring at my plate, not registering how the food was tasting, I struggled to find the preamble I had rehearsed in my head. Finally, I brought up the woman I had fallen in love with years ago and that was my segue into blurting out that I date both men and women. I started bawling, not even caring that other customers or the wait staff may have been looking at me. My mom held my hand and told me she loved me. My dad kissed my cheek, rubbed my back, and told me everything was okay. They asked me if I had been wanting to tell them for a while and I said yes. They said that I didn’t have to tell them because they already knew. I corrected them by saying it was important for me to be able to finally tell them. I wiped my tear soaked face, we finished dinner, and then we welcomed 2017 with champagne.” – @nicclee “My first coming out occurred when I was 14. I was in a domestic science class when a classmate suddenly asked me about sexual orientations. I explained the differences and there was nothing more to it. Later that week when I was in church during a lunch break (the church was next door to the school and had “open doors” during our lunch breaks) another classmate, out of nowhere, asked me about my sexual orientation. I, who always felt welcomed in the church, answered and the youth leader, who overheard this, and embraced me with such warmth it made me feel so secure. So the church became my safe place and I have never ever met anything negative about me being not straight in church.” – @Lutter_Lappri   “Alright, so I had been showing signs for most of my life but you know, I’m like 8. I don’t know why I admire Miley Cyrus so much. My brother also had a friend who was a girl and she was so pretty, and so nice and amazing. Totally a crush on her (I literally called her everyday, it was ridiculous). But crushes all around and mostly on girls. So right around the age of 12, like when the gay starts getting stronger and more relevant, I go on Facebook. I am just browsing and I get a message and its from one of my close friends at the time. She states that she has to tell me something important, and then tells me that she’s bisexual. I was confused as hell on what that could mean and then she tells me. My kind is blown. Literally. I am being honest with you. I didn’t know it was possible to like both girls and guys AT THE SAME TIME WOW. Anyways, I was like “wow this explains so much to me” so I go on knowing I’m bisexual, and experiment like everyone else does. My brother knew I liked girls, when I told him and he just didn’t really care. My mom however had to warm up to the thought but now she makes closet jokes whenever possible. I don’t think my dad knows but that’s because we aren’t very close but I feel like he would be fine with it.” – @silkythunder “Growing up in a conservative, religious family in a very rural area meant my parents had rigorous views of the world. Coming out was one of my biggest fears. While I knew from the time I was 12 that I liked women the way I was “supposed” to like men, I worked to keep my secret from everyone. I dated my first girlfriend for four years—all while hiding carefully in the closet. Over the years, I gradually told a few select people. By the time I hit my late twenties, all of my friends knew, and I knew it was time to talk to my parents. We had always been close and I knew how they viewed homosexuality, so I felt like I had a lot to lose. I visited my parents one October, right before my 27th birthday. I waited for an opportunity, continually finding excuses to stay silent. I knew I couldn’t tell my entire family at once. I didn’t feel strong enough to watch several people I love turn their backs on me in unison. I was terrified, but also very much in love and determined. One evening during my visit, I was finally alone with my mother. I knew it was time. I opened my mouth to speak, but words failed me. She pried, asking what was wrong. I shut my mouth and shook my head. After another round of questions, I blurted out that I had to tell her something. She sat down facing me and told me she had a hunch about what I might want to say. Calmly, she explained that she knew I was a lesbian and knew I was dating my ‘best friend.’ She then told me that it didn’t change anything and she poured us both a margarita. I cried, and she hugged me. Life went forward as normal that night, with her telling me she would tell my father and things would be okay. The celebration was short-lived, as my gayness became reality—instead of an assumption they had held for years. My mother’s acceptance, I later found out, was more shock than truth. Over the course of the next several months, there were difficulties, a lot of intense discussions, more than a few times when my calls went unanswered, some hurtful words, and even a period of time when we did not speak. My mother had always been my best friend, so the distance stung. One day, she called out of the blue to tell me she missed me. We talked with the closeness we had before I came out. Over time, we talked about the “difficult time” we had endured in that emotional distance, and we never returned to the ugly place of silence and judgment that had marked the previous months. After she took some time to sort out her feelings, the entire family came around and eventually asked to meet the love of my life. They love me unconditionally, and they welcome her into their home (and our family) with open arms. While they still say they don’t understand, they have made leaps and bounds in their willingness to let go of their narrow ideas of the world. My family is still making progress, and I know they are working on it. It was rocky, but it definitely has turned out to be a happy ending. Coming out and knowing that my family loves me—with full knowledge of who I am—was the best decision I ever made (well, aside from asking my lovely fiancée to marry me).” – Bella author Riley Scott   “My coming out story starts with a note-to-self: don’t make jokes when you tell your mother you’re A: probably gay and B: definitely dating a woman. To sum it up: I made so many “let’s face it, it could have been way worse”-jokes when I came out to my mother at 28 that she was actually relieved when it turned out I was “just” dating a woman. She cried for about 3 mins and asked me not to tell my father. She lasted 12 hours before telling him herself. He called me and asked: “Is she hot?” I said yes. He answered “good” and then wondered if I had seen the last ep of his favourite English whodunnit. My father is a taciturn man. They’ve had a great journey. My now 75-year-old mother and father used to be openly and loudly homophobic. These days, they would happily walk in the “proud parents”-section at Pride. My father cried when my girlfriend dumped me. They’ve never been ashamed or hid that I was with a woman. Then again: we’re Swedish and Sweden isn’t a homophobic country anymore. Being a homophobe is considered very bad form. So the punchline probably is: people can change. Even nations can change. I think that’s a pretty happy coming out-story. – @ClillaryHinton1 “My story is actually kinda funny because when I was in 8th grade I started using Tumblr and my mom found out and asked to see my page which was very gay at the time but at the end of the night my mom, dad and I were all happy and they are still very supportive.” – @erin_tierney2   Photos via Pixabay http://dlvr.it/PtsLRf

[scandinaviacroatiaengbergs]

Monday: A Full Day in Zagreb

So, let me start off with a few observations about Zagreb. Overall, it is pretty interesting going anywhere after visiting insanely clean Scandinavian cities.  Because of the wealth of those countries and their robust social infrastructure programs, and the money available for city projects (I would imagine), and just habits formed by the people in those nations as pushed byt heir governments (such as about recycling), you don’t see a lot of garbage on the  streets or graffiti on buildings in the Scandinavian metropolises.  Of course, there is some graffiti (oh! And I forgot to mention, about street art: the unauthorized Banksy museum, which I read about, is in Gothenburg of all places, right off the central square, and we walked right past it), but it is pretty minimal. Now, Zabreb, on the other hand, has a lot of graffiti, some of it more finessed and intended to be public art, but other graffiti is just tagging.  There was, in fact, a wall of graffiti on our Airbnb building.  Also, as we noticed in the Baltics, the exteriors of a lot of medium-rise (like 10-story) buildings have some, how shall we say, “deferred maintenance.”  They look sort of shabby on the outside, but as we learned in Vilnius, most strongly, a place can look really run-down from the outside but be really, really spruced up and fancy on the inside.  I wondered whether this was the case in Zagreb, but I didn’t get to find out.  Our Airbnb was a two-story square, contemporary house, basically, that had been broken up into several apartments.  Ours was on the first floor. We also noticed, walking around in the afternoon (which I will detail below), that people are very social.  There is also a lot of smoking going on still.  Everywhere you go, if there is a relatively tall building, it has an outdoor seating area outside, and you will often see groups of 3 or 4 older men, sitting there, drinking coffee, hard liquor, or beer, and just chatting away.  It seems very “old world,” like I imagine my Great-Grandpa Julius (who I never met) doing in New York in the ‘40s and ‘50s with other men who spoke Yiddish. I don’t know if he did, because from what I have heard he just spent his days in the front of the sign shop, reading the Forward, but it seems like it is that kind of older guy who sits with a group of pals and talks the afternoon away at these sidewalk cafes.

Anyway, enough observations. When we got in on Sunday night, the host met us and showed us the ins-and-outs of the place (not much to figure out). This is an apartment that is only used as an Airbnb; it is not anyone’s home (I prefer Airbnbs that are people’s homes). But, this place was really clean, with nice beds, and everything we needed in the kitchen (with another sandwich maker! I am beginning to think I might need Santa to bring me a panini press).

I went to bed too late, as always, and the kids got to bed pretty late on Sunday night because of our jaunt to Badovinci, as I mentioned.  When they woke up Monday morning, Eric had yogurts for them, which he bought the night before during his jaunt to the 24-hour store, which was not a proper grocery but more of a “party store,” as Michiganders say.  But there was a really nice bakery next store to that, also open 24 hours, so Eric got some bread and weird seeded pastries, as well.  So, breakfast Monday was yogurt and bread.  Rowan go the special treat of having a pistachio Greek yogurt, which I’d bought for him in Zadar, too, but Eric accidentally ate ;) So, after we had breakfast, we walked out for  a day of adventuring! Just a side note: it was very hot and humid. First off, we walked down a substantive road and passed a mirrored-glass office building, in which was housed, in part, the Finnish Embassy! Next up, we took a wrong turn and ended up not being able to go over the train tracks., but we saw a cat ambling across the street. Then, we rerouted and went under an overpass and kept on truckin’ toward the city center (“centar,” actually), and we saw a sign (actually many) for a concert by the Cure, but I didn’t make note of the day, figuring it had already passed, and lamenting that we probably couldn’t go anyway, though I’d love my kids to hear, as I did when I was 18, them play a 14-minute-long version of “A Forest.” Anyway,  first up, we visited a playground.  At the playground, there was one of those spiderweb climbing structures, so of course Rowan checked that out, but this one high the added risk factor of being able to spin, which, when it did, made it look like  a Christmas tree. There was also a merry-go-round, which Rowan took to running around really fast and then hopping on.  I remember doing that as a kid.  Cece thought he was spinning it too fast. This little park/playground also had a small pond/water-feature with a little cherub-boy statue, holding his pee-pee, aiming into the pond.  When we were there, the statue was emitting no “pee pee” into the pond, but I figured that a stream of “urine” was the intention of the cherub’s design and his proximity to the little pond.  In fact, a man was cleaning the pond when we were there.  Later, when we walked back by, after several hours, the statue was doing what it was designed to do . . . We walked down to the central plaza where the Zagreb Cathedral is.  Wow, what an amazing structure.  It is sooooooo tall and soooooo ornate. It was damaged in the early-20th century during an earthquake and then, during the Communist era, there was little interest in maintaining religious buildings.  So, since the ‘90s, there has been a lot of money spent and a lot of effort put in to repairing the Cathedral, and we saw men busily at work, way up high on one of the sides, the day we were there. We continued on from there, and Cece insisted on walking on her own, or “in your shadow,” which was a bit tricky because it was midday, so she was regularly right under my feet.  We got to another playground, in a really big park (basically behind the church, but we’d gone around several blocks to get there), and it was full of huge trees, most memorably some beautiful weeping willows.  There was also some lack of maintenance at the park, as it appears that lots of people might use it as a place to sit and drink beer, but the playground was a perfect spot for the kids to do some “circuits,” which they did: running up the slides, climbing up the sliding pole (Rowan did this, as it happens to be one of his favorite things to do), walking across the wobbly rope bridge, across every other piece of equipment, a few swings on the swings, with lots of running from piece of equipment to piece of equipment. By this point, we were definitely hungry for lunch, so we walked on, and we had a few spots identified, via Google, as possible targets for lunch, but before we got to any, we saw place that I believe was actually called “Good Food,” and it looked like the kind of yuppie-ish, salad-and-juice oriented place that might just suit us. Sure enough, it was very on-target.  You could take a piece of paper with all kinds of salad ingredients listed on it, and tick the boxes for the items you wanted.  Eric and I did this, and so did Rowan!  Cece chose a sandwich.  Rowan’s salad was pretty funny, in that it had no lettuce, but lots of other good ingredients (like red pepper, broccoli, and garbanzo beans) and then something sweet: dried cranberries.  We also got a juice called “Hollywood Glow,” which had oranges, apples, and I can’t remember what the third ingredient was.  Eric and I both “tested” it, and then the kids finished it off in one turn each. Neither Rowan nor I could finish all the salad we ordered, so we took them to go and walked back toward our Airbnb, because I needed to be on a call at 3 p.m. As we walked, we went down the central shopping street, which I enjoyed seeing (and I popped into a Benetton, because they always have a piece of my heart), and the kids found a sort of nautical-themed playscape in the plaza, and played there for a good 15 minutes. We got home and I had fifteen minutes to spare before my call, and I got a fighting Cece down for nap, and she was *exhausted* -- she made not a single peep after I closed the door to her room and she slept well until I woke her up at 4:15. We were going to go to the zoo next! We drove to the zoo, because, a) we figured we’d put our Peugeot through even more city-driving paces, and b) it was too far to go by foot and we didn’t want to bother to figure out the trams.  We got to the zoo around 4:30, and, unlike our Albuquerque Zoo (and I believe many other zoos), they did not close at 5 p.m.!  In Albuquerque, the zoo closes at that hour all year, I guess to keep things consistent for the animals and to give them a good break from the human visitors.   But, the Zagreb Zoo in the summertime is open until 8 p.m. It was such a nice zoo! Pretty much right away, we went into the reptile and snake habitat building, and we ended up learning that if you ducked around a corner behind one of the enclosures, you went into a network of other indoor exhibits, for all kinds of animals! Maybe because I skip the snake exhibit at the Albuquerque Zoo pretty often so I am not sure how many snakes and lizards and the like we have in Albuquerque to use as comparison, this zoo seemed to have *a lot* -- and they had a young crocodile and its mom, and the young guy was just lying on his mom’s back the whole time, occasionally moving one arm. We left the snake-oriented building and continued on to see critters that are more to my taste.  They had red pandas, zebras, three female lions and a male lion – and they were pretty active!, some huge birds, lemurs, lots of monkeys and orangutans, a petting zoo with some eager goats, and a very fun sea lion exhibit, which looked like it had a mommy and daddy sea lion with their baby, who was still a nursling.  That exhibit was very popular with the zoo visitors, and the sea lions made it worth our wait!  The two adults were playing with and prodding each other – one from the water and the other up on a catwalk.  The big one in the water swooped up and snapped/barked at the one on the catwalk, and when it had had enough of that, it dove into the water and they chased each other around, zooming like crazy through the water for a while! They were fun to watch. We got ice cream, went to the play area, and then, finally, when the mosquitos were coming out in the evening, we decided to leave, as it was about closing time anyway.  The zoo was like $8 for all of us! It was a really pretty zoo, and they had some multi-animal enclosures, where animals who I guess get along together got to be together in their habitats there. We drove back to the Airbnb and I noticed, from that vantage, that a huge building right across from the zoo was a stadium for Dynamo, which is a very popular Croatian soccer team.  That was cool to see! They even sold some Dynamo gear at the zoo gift shop. We got back to our Airbnb  at about 8:30 and then we had our leftovers and grilled cheese sandwiches and then, as always happens, the kids became totally unhinged wild creatures (as if taking inspiration from some of the friends they visited at the zoo) before bedtime.  This happens soooo often and by the time they finally relent and go to sleep, I am at my wit’s end.  They were asleep by 9:30, thank heavens, after Eric read them a chapter out of the 7th book in the Moominvalley series, which we’ve been making our way through over the last year or so, as we sprinkle it in with more books that Rowan can read some of himself.   Eric has been really good about working on this trip with Rowan on his “keys,” – a ring of flash cards his teacher made for all of the kids at Kindergarten during the year. He is getting them!  Reading isn’t his strongest school area, but we’re working on it and we’re super impressed by his progress. After the kids went to bed, Eric and I got our things organized for leaving the next morning which, I was glad to learn, was a later departure than I had thought! Woohoo! In my next post, I will regale you all with stories of our last Zagreb morning, our flight from Zagreb to London, and our afternoon in London.  After that is our big push back home – three flights: London to New York, New York to Dallas, and Dallas to ABQ, all in one day.  We’ll all sure be tired after that series!

[meepface]

i’m in a mood and i’m bored please ignore

1: Name 

elyse

2: Age

20

3: 3 Fears

settling for less than i deserve or for something i don’t want just because happiness seems too hard or would hurt someone, the ocean, scorpions

4: 3 things I love

making people laugh, holding hands w my girlfriend and walking past another gay couple or someone in a LGBTQ+ related shirt n smilin at each other, when dogs have the lil tiny stump tails and they wag em so fast, when candles smell like christmas

5: 4 turns on

freckles, ambition/drive/passion for something, humility, uhhh also eye contact during sex can also be super hot

6: 4 turns off

apathy, moodiness, arrogance, people who are extremely loud all the time

7: My best friend

i have two and they’re great!! one leaves for japan in two days though and she’ll be gone for a month so that highkey sucks for me but she’s gonna have a blast. n my other best friend is so good to me she always takes care of me n listens to me and the other day she bought me alcohol so that was nice

8: Sexual orientation

bisexual but maybe just gay? idk i would date a boy but prolly wouldn’t fuck a boy ya know but i’d do both with a girl so who knows

9: My best date

this question originally said “my best first date” but most of em have been goin to movies and so i changed it bc my best date just in general was probably when my gf and i went and ate at our favorite place to eat n then we banged in her car in a department store parking lot and then afterwards she was like “wait nobody’s at my house i’m sneakin u over” bc her mom can be a lil weird about me going to her house so i never really do and i had never seen her room so she snuck me over to her house n we cuddled on her bed n she showed me this shoebox she has in her room with every tiny lil gift i’d ever given her in it and it made me cry a little. another nice date was when it was flooding at our university and so they canceled classes and we went to walgreens and bought shirts bc ours were soaked from the rain and i bought socks bc my socks got Wet bc i stepped in a puddle and we just stayed in my car and ate candy in our comfy clothes waitin for the rain to let up and yeah TMI ahead but basically she ended up eating me out for the first time so that was nice lol

10: How tall am I

5′7

11: What do I miss

i dunno i already miss my best friend Kate even tho she doesn’t leave for Japan until Wednesday morning. also i kinda miss how things were before this year bc my life was less chaotic and stressful and sad last year and now i’m in a rut a lil bit

12: What time was I born

uhh 11:30 somethin AM

13: Favorite color

i like cerulean which is sorta like a teal blue and then yellow and then brown and then dark green

14: Do I have a crush

ya i have a gf

15: Favorite quote

“if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely”

16: Favorite place

i like to be in my bedroom a lot but there’s also this roof i go to with friends a lot that’s really nice at night and i have so many memories there. it’s a really happy place for me

17: Favorite food

i like japanese food but not the seafood kind

18: Do I use sarcasm

no never

19: What am I listening to right now

praying // kesha

20: First thing I notice in new person

i guess just their general vibe

22: Eye color

very green but they were blue for a good half of my life which is kinda weird bc they’re so green now lmao

23: Hair color

red lmao

24: Favorite style of clothing

idk i go through a million styles in a week but my fave is just a cute oversized shirt n leggings bc it’s comfy and effortless

25: Ever done a prank call?

oh yeah i used to do a ton, i even used to have a character that i’d prank call people with actually. her name was Sonya and she sold breast enhancement cream

27: Meaning behind my URL

that’s actually a secret lmao

28: Favorite movie

the secret life of walter mitty

29: Favorite song

uhh idk but lately i’ve loved do re mi by blackbear 

30: Favorite band

twenty one pilots (can i make it any more obvious that i hate myself), two door cinema club, of monsters and men, the 1975, the wonder years

31: How I feel right now

generally okay?? today was a nice day but i’ve felt sorta sick all day and i haven’t been sleeping enough so that’s making me a big ol emotional baby so i feel like i could have a breakdown at any given minute but for the most part i am good tonight

32: Someone I love

my girlfriend

33: My current relationship status

taken

34: My relationship with my parents

oh i love em to death but sometimes they’re difficult n the two of em weren’t meant to be together honestly so i think they’d be better off n a lot less stressful to be around if they divorced but it’s okay maybe they will work it out

35: Favorite holiday

christmas eve. it’s so much better than christmas day!!!! 

36:Tattoos and piercing i have

i have a sun and moon tattoo on each wrist and the word “lovely” on my left bicep and i’m gonna get more but that’s all for now. n i have three piercings, one on one ear and two on the other. i was supposed to have two on both ears but one got infected and i didn’t know what to do so i took the piercing out and it fucked it up and it closed up so i gotta go get it repierced someday but that’s annoying so i just haven’t bothered yet

37: Tattoos and piercing i want

don’t want anymore piercings after i get that one redone tbh. but i want a pine tree tattoo i think on my ankle and a equals sign tattoo but idk where yet and lil mountains on my shoulders, also a sunflower maybe ??? i’m still tryna figure our which one i wanna get next and where. i also have been thinkin about maaaaaaybe getting the female symbol on my middle finger but idk if i want a hand tattoo ya know

38: The reason I joined Tumblr

i really liked this youtuber charlieissocoollike and he did a video about tumblr so i was like ok cool and made one but then i didn’t understand it and never used it and then caitlin one day was talking about tumblr with our friends oliver and jennica and i was like dang i wanna be cool like them so i started using it again and i found their blogs and stalked em for a while 

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other?

not hate but i’d never speak to him again. doubt he hates me tho

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts?

yeah from my gf

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted?

yes

42: When did I last hold hands?

today

43:How long does it take me to get ready in the morning?

if i’m trying to look nice 45 mins-1 hour and if i’m not trying to look nice like 20-30 mins

44:Have You shaved your legs in the past three days?

no but i need to lmao they a lil prickly

45: Where am I right now?

my bed and i am so happy to be here 

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me?

my gf would be there 100%, if not her then i’d say my friend Stein but she’d prolly be more fucked up honestly. my friend Kate would be there too

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level?

louuuuuud unless i’m in a weird sad mood then i like it real soft

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad?

yeah but hopefully i’ll get my fucking act together and move out within a year but i’m still kinda figuring everything out for the time being

49: Am I excited for anything?

idk honestly i have nothing to look forward to coming up anytime soon so that sucks a lot. probably my best friend’s 21st which i think is in a few weeks?? and this music fest a good friend and i are going to at the end of this month

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?

yeah my good pal Joe and also my brother and my friend Brendon too but him and i haven’t talked in a while so :/

51: How often do I wear a fake smile?

this is emo as shit

52: When was the last time I hugged someone?

today i hugged like four people!!!

53:What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me?

i’d be so upset and i’d break up with her and be miserable for a long while after that

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?

yeah there’s one

55: What is something I disliked about today?

uhh probably that i was feelin sick and on edge just generally all day. bc it was really puttin a damper on my mood

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

i’d really love to meet Ellen Degeneres

57: What do I think about most?

prolly about how i am a useless dum dum and not to sound edgggyy but i question like....... my purpose too often lately 

58: What’s my strangest talent?

talent? i don’t know her

59: Do I have any strange phobias?

i’m terrified of being vomited on. not vomit in general necessarily but it getting on me is one of the most disgusting things to me lol

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

lil bit of both but i’m better at the behind the camera stuff

61: What was the last lie I told?

told my grandma i was single bc i don’t wanna tell her i am gay n have a girlfriend even though she’d forget in like two minutes lol

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

video chatting but i’m not a big fan of either

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

yes and yes!!!!!!!!!

64: Do I believe in magic?

no

65: Do I believe in luck?

sure

66: What’s the weather like right now?

2 hot

67: What was the last book I’ve read?

milk and honey by rupi kaur

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline?

tbh i love it

69: Do I have any nicknames?

elly, gaylord, dad, that one ginger

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had?

probably the one time i fell off my razor scooter while goin speedy down a hill and tryna show off and got scars all over my body

71: Do I spend money or save it?

been tryna save but put me in an h&m or a forever 21 or a thrift shop and it’s all gone. i love clothes that are inexpensive 

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue?

no

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me?

yeah i have an empty victoria’s secret bag on my desk

74: Favorite animal?

i like bunnies and grizzly bears

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM?

talking to my gf and crying probably lol it was a rough night

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is?

oooooo i could make a petty joke here but i won’t

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?

greek tragedy // the wombats

78: How can you win my heart?

make time for me and show me i’m important to you

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone?

“u know she dead”

80: What is my favorite word?

serendipity

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?

i’d probably just start crying and everyone would stop listening

83: Do I have any relatives in jail?

yeah one of my cousins murdered someone lol i am pretty sure he’s in jail but i don’t know anything about him or if he’s even still alive honestly

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

idk i’m pretty open

86: What is my current desktop picture?

some mountains lol it’s one of the Apple preset ones

87: Had sex?

yeah

88: Bought condoms?

yeah 

89: Gotten pregnant?

no

90: Failed a class?

nearly but no

91:Kissed a boy?

nah i’ve never wanted to really 

92: Kissed a girl?

yeah

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?

yeah

94: Had job?

yep i work at a froyo shop

95: Left the house without my wallet?

yeah

96: Bullied someone on the internet?

probably at some point when i was young but not anytime recently

97: Had sex in public?

yeah lol

98: Played on a sports team?

i was on a soccer team for a while as a kid and i hated it

99: Smoked weed?

not yet but i’d like to try it at least one time someday

100: Did drugs?

no and i am not interested in trying any other drugs besides weed

101: Smoked cigarettes?

no

102: Drank alcohol?

yes

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan?

nah

104: Been overweight?

no

105:Been underweight?

for most of my life i have been lol and i finally got to a healthy weight and now i’m back to being underweight

106: Been to a wedding?

yeah a few

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight?

yeah

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight?

yeah but not any time recently bc i don’t have the motivation/attention span to sit through a movie or TV show anymore

109: Been outside my home country?

no but i’d really like to 

110: Gotten my heart broken?

yeah

111: Been to a professional sports game?

no and i was invited to one recently but i had work :(

112: Broken a bone?

no

113: Cut myself?

yeah

114: Been to prom?

yeah

115: Been in airplane?

yeah

116: Fly by helicopter?

no but i’d really like to

117: What concerts have I been to?

soooo many. i’ll try and name em. trans siberian orchestra, panic! at the disco, imagine dragons, twenty one pilots, two door cinema club, the weeknd, melanie martinez, catfish and the bottlemen, halsey, of monsters and men, walk the moon, eric clapton, paul mccartney, glass animals, a$ap rocky, drake, the chainsmokers, foo fighters, vance joy, the strumbellas, the front bottoms, kendrick lamar, the wombats, AWOLNATION, ben rector, we the kings, the ready set, the summer set ??? i think there’s some i’m forgetting but that’s most of em. i go to so many. i am also seeing saint motel, cage the elephant, weezer, passion pit, mac miller and MGMT this summer!!

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex?

yaaaaa most of my crushes have been n i’m datin a girl so

119: Learned another language?

i took four years of spanish and i’m taking another spanish class in the fall!! i was always real good at it

120: Wore make up?

yeah

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18?

no i lost it when i was 19

122: Had oral sex?

yeah

123: Dyed my hair?

nah it’s naturally red and pretty and i don’t really wanna ever dye it. i’m probably gonna dye my eyebrows tho they’re too light and i’m tired of always fillin them in

124: Voted in a presidential election?

yes this last one which was exciting until hilary lost

125: Rode in a police car?

yes

126: Had a surgery?

no

127: Met someone famous?

yes

128: Stalked someone on a social network?

not like legitimately but yeah i’ve gone through someone’s page out of curiosity before

129: Peed outside?

yeah

130: Been fishing?

yeah it’s sorta boring imo though

131: Helped with charity?

yeah i helped my mom with this organization she was a part of where homeless people could come and paint and make art and i helped her at a few of their shows. it is one of my favorite organizations and i met some really beautiful people there

132: Been rejected by a crush?

yeah he liked me too but he was figuring things out and later that year came out to me as gay and then like two years later i realized i’m kinda super gay too so it all worked out in the end

133: Broken a mirror?

no

134: What do I want for birthday?

to be with people i love

[atravelersseoul]

Flight and First day in Seoul

6.24.17~6.26.17

Our flight to Toronto left Columbus around 10:30. It was a fairly small flight, seating no more than 50 people. It was a pretty fast and easy flight, which was lucky because the bathroom was broken on that plane, so that could have been disastrous.

We got into Toronto and the airport may have looked small from the outside but the inside was very big, fancy and artsy; they had mini art galleries and shopping boutiques; there was a coach store and a Victoria secret store. Our connecting flight to Seoul was delayed by about 25 minutes so we all decided to get some snacks and whatnot since we were all hangry.

After about an hour and a half we boarded the connecting flight to Seoul and the take off preparations/safety instructions were very interesting; they were repeated in about 5 languages: English and french because we were in Canada, and then Korean, Chinese and Japanese because we were flying into Seoul. i can’t really remember, but there might have been Spanish too, for some reason. For about the first few hours we were very excited about the flight: the food, the mini television screens that had everything you could want on them. We all watched a movie together but towards the end of that one I was starting to doze off every now and then. During that movie we got our first meal which was a dinner. It was surprisingly very good, especially for being airplane food. The main part was rice with marinated beef, cabbage and lettuce. There was also a salad, bread, and a brownie.

 At this point it already felt like it had been forever since we had been on the plane even though it had only been roughly 3 hours, so I decided to try and get some sleep even though we had all been playing on staying up so that we could been on the time zone when we got there. It was not a very deep or comfortable sleep but I did what I could. When I woke up I looked through some more movies and shows and found some episodes of the middle so I watched all of those. I then found an episode of fairly odd parents and watched that. With nothing much else to do I watched the latest bourne movie. Somewhere in the middle of that we got a small snack that had a mini sandwich, pretzels, some type of cracker/cookie, and I ended up getting some coffee to help me stay up. I finished the bourne movie and finally picked a Korean movie to watch. Id heard that it was really good so I decided to watch it…I ended up crying at the end, it was sooo sad…even though it was in the comedy section. towards the last few hours of the flight we got a breakfast and that was even better than the dinner. We got an omelet with sausage and potatoes and a spinach sauce. There was also a fruit cup and bread.

The descent and landing was a bit rough; there was a lot of turbulence, probably the most I have ever felt. There were a few times that you could actually feel the plane drop for a second or two and you could feel your stomach drop. It was almost like we were on a roller coaster. The landing itself went pretty smoothly though.

After we landed we had about 3 hours until the shuttle bus left to take us to the dorms so we exchanged currency, got some food and other little things we needed to do. at that point we were all just so exhausted and wanted to get back and sleep as soon as possible. once we got on the shuttle we had about an hour drive from Incheon airport back to the dorms which are about half an hour outside the very middle of Seoul. The drive there was very interesting, the way people drive here is insane, especially the bus drivers. People just weave in and out, and change lanes so fast and seemingly without a care. When we got to around the campus the driver had no idea where our specific building was or where to drop us off so he just stopped the bus in the middle of the road to call someone and ask where to go…that was very mind boggling. When we eventually figured out where to go, walking to the building was a whole other adventure in itself. I don’t think there is a flat piece of ground anywhere in this city, so we had to lug our bags up and down multiple hills to get to the dorm. On one very steep hill one girl accidentally let go of her bag and it went flying down the street and almost took someone out. that gave me so much second hand embarrassment, it’ll last me enough for a lifetime.

We got to the dorm around 10pm and had to do some stuff for check in and whatnot. Once we got to the rooms we realized there were several things that we were all missing, so we all went down to the convenience store that is right around the corner. Let me tell you, the convenience stores in America have nothing on the ones here, they are amazing. They literally have everything you could need and everything is so cheap. They have an entire section just dedicated to different types of ramen and they even have a ramen making station, complete with a microwave. They know what they're doing here. One big thing was that none of the rooms had toilet paper so we bought two giant packs to share with pretty much the entire hallway, but we have not really given them to anyone yet so I currently have about 15 rolls of toilet paper sitting under my desk.

Once we got everything we headed back to the rooms because everyone was pretty tired. I ended up just taking a shower and then going to sleep. Another thing that is awesome is the shower. The whole bathroom itself is pretty much the shower; the floor in the bathroom is about an inch or two below the floor in the rest of the room, and there is a drain in the shower but also in the middle of the floor outside of the shower door. That way, it doesn’t matter if you get water everywhere…it stays in the bathroom and drains.

Waking up the next day was kinda hard because we had to meet the program staff outside the building at 8am sharp to head to our orientation at the program office in the city. The trek there was the first time we were all going to be taking public transportation to the city, and the transit system here is very intimidating at first. In the Seoul metropolitan area, I believe there is a total of 18 subway lines and I don’t even want to think about the buses. Despite it being scary, the transit system is sooo nice and it works so well, so much better than in the US. To ride the subway and buses you have to buy a card, called a “T-Money” card. You basically just load money onto that card every now and then to scan and pay at the stations. Whats really nice is that if you need to take the bus after the subway, it doesn’t charge you for the bus if you get on it within 30 minutes of getting off the subway.

So getting to the office wasn’t too hard but it was really frustrating. The third party program that we went through that brought us to Korea University had a total of 66 students in it. taking 66 american students on the subway is very complicated and very headache inducing. Especially when a lot of these students are heavily reinforcing the stereotype of loud obnoxious Americans by being so loud to the point of being disrespectful. But we mad it there in one piece without being scolded so I guess that’s a mission accomplished. From the subway we had to walk quite a ways to get to the building and it was scorching hot. From what I recall it was around 85 degrees with 80% humidity: I was literally dripping sweat. While we were all dying of heat, there were so many people that we saw walking that were in pants or long sleeves that looked perfectly fine, not a drop of sweat on them.

Once we got to the building they told us that the office was on the 11th floor, which was somewhat shocking. That is one very cool thing about the city, everything is just stacked on top of each other. Since Korea itself does not have a lot of land, (apparently the entire country is smaller than Minnesota), things are built upwards instead of outwards. The building however only had one elevator and only took like 6 people at a time, so at some point we just decided to take the stairs, which was a bad idea. By the time we got to the top, I felt very American. I was sweating buckets, breathing like I’d run a marathon and it made me realize how long it’s been since I last exercised.

The orientation itself wasn’t too interesting, just going over stuff we needed to know about classes and safety and whatnot, and it lasted way too long. After we got done, they took us to Gwanghwamun market that was nearby for lunch. We didn’t have a lot of time so we found a little place to just stop by and get some food at. We got some ddeokboki which is spicy rice cake and I got naengmyun which is a buckwheat noodle soup. It took longer than expected so we had to leave before we could finish all the food so we felt pretty bad, but we were gonna be late if we didn’t.

after lunch we headed to Gwanghwamun square that is a big plaza in the middle of an eight lane highway that leads up to Gyeongbok Palace. In the square, there are two statues, one of Admiral Yi Sun Shin and one of King Sejong, who invented hangul, the written alphabet during the Joseon dynasty. Across from the square in the main gate of Gyeongbok palace, which was the royal palace of the Joseon dynasty and was built in 1395. It was really just incredible to see this beautiful old palace right in the middle of the city among huge modern buildings. Inside the palace it was amazing to see a lot people in hanbok, which is the traditional Korean dress. It seemed like a lot of people, especially couples go there to take pictures in their hanboks. The architecture was absolutely breathtaking and it was hard to take in how big the whole place was. It really made me wonder about what it would have been like when it was built and what life was like inside of it. everything about it was just so beautiful and incredible, it was so amazing to be able to walk around and experience it.

one funny thing was we actually met someone from ohio while we were walking around. We wanted to take a group picture next to one of the buildings and the person we asked to take our picture was from here. He was actually a part of the broadway tour that was performing the musical Chicago in seoul, so that was just very interesting to meet someone coincidentally like that.

After touring the palace, we went to a shop that rented out hanboks and had sessions for people to try them on and take pictures. It was definitely a new and interesting experience, but it was towards the end of the day so we all were tired and sweaty and probably smelled really bad. but after we finished there, we were done with group activities so they just released us into the city to do whatever and then find our own way back. Amanda has a friend who lives in seoul and owns a brewery/restraurant so we headed to one of his restaurants in Hyundai Mall for dinner around 6. I ordered some chicken and ended up getting what seemed like 2 whole chickens, I think there was around 20 wings, so I definitely did not finish them all. While we were eating we saw a mini stand that was serving drinks in lightbulbs. It was the cutest thing and we simply could not pass it up. It was called “Bulb Smoothie” and for some reason that just cracked us up. The guy working the stand was very cute and charming so that made it even better hehe. We ended up staying until the mall closed at 9 and then made the long ride back to the dorms and pretty much knocked out as soon as we got in our rooms. We had early morning the next day for another orientation so we all wanted some good sleep.

I think i’ll save the next day for a different post so this one doesn’t turn into a novel, although it’s already pretty long by now. So if you made it this far, all the way to the end I applaud you.

-Bea

[droothr]

Wonder Woman and the Case of the Missing Merchandise

Warner Bros./DC’s 2017 Wonder Woman film has made a lot of headlines. It is (as of this writing) the highest grossing film by a female director, it marks the first film in DC “Extended Universe” to achieve critical success (earning a “Certified Fresh” rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes), and is widely loved by audiences worldwide. Yet one element of the film’s release is strangely anomalous. Each time a multi-million dollar tentpole franchise film from a major Hollywood studio comes out around the middle of the year, it is treated like a huge cultural event. There’s posters and banners on billboards and buses, TV spots, and trailers that play before online videos, and often promotional tie-ins with junk food or fast food chains. One other key part of the marketing machine is the in-store merchandise, which serves a dual role of being a supplemental revenue stream, and also working to advertise the property/product upon which the merchandised material is based. This is especially true of films based on comic books from the two largest comics publishers, Marvel and DC Comics. Is there a new Avengers film coming out soon? Walk into your local department store, and you’ll see Iron Man costumes for the kids, Captain America action-figures, Black Widow stationery, and Hulk T-shirts as far as the eyes can see. Last years’ Batman vs Superman sported a plethora of tie-in products of all types, with no shortage of toys on shelves for all to buy, and to remind one that yes, there is a new film out, and Warner Bros./DC very much wants you to know it. Often these large films get dedicated aisles or standalone store sections devoted to all products related to that property. So it is 2017, the “blockbuster” season of movies is here again, and with it comes a new entry into the critically troubled “DC Extended Universe” in Wonder Woman, following from Suicide Squad, Batman vs Superman, and Man Of Steel. Did Diana of Themescyra get devoted aisles of merchandise to promote her film? How many different scales of Wonder Woman toys did stores stock? The answer does not engender as much courage as Diana does in her film. As fan of DC Comics’ characters in general, a feminist, and the father of an intelligent 7-year old daughter, I had high hopes (but tempered expectations) for the Wonder Woman film. Excited by how well received the film was in its opening days (both critically and financially), I headed out to see what merchandise (in particular toys) were being stocked by all of the toy and department stores in my travels across a variety of suburbs in both the East and West of Melbourne, Australia on the film’s opening weekend, June 3rd & 4th. Den Of Geek did a write-up on how little merchandise there was available at UK retail the week before the film opened, so I already had low expectations, but even so, what I saw disappointed me. Being optimistic, I decided to wait a few weeks to see if stores were merely slow in getting product out on shelves during such a crowded time of year (commercially speaking). Now, 4 weeks after Wonder Woman opened to rousing cinematic success, I have been forced to conclude that what was available at retail during the film’s opening week is all of the merchandise presence the film will receive.

I shall now share a full report (with photographic evidence) of my travels looking for mass-market merchandise over the first weekend of Wonder Woman’s theatrical release.

Day 1, my first stop was at a major shopping centre in Melbourne’s South-East. I started with Big W, who had no Wonder Woman toys at all. Not a one.

Next was Kmart, who also had no Wonder Woman (2017) tie-in products. They did have a lone large-sized Wonder Woman action-figure, but it was a 15-month old holdover from last year’s Batman vs Superman marketing (below).

The final department store of this leg of my trek was Target, who - once again - had no merchandise related to the film. They did have some older Wonder Woman toys however, in both the “doll” aisle (below-left), and one type of toy in the “action-figure” section (below-right).

I also checked out the Toy Kingdom at this shopping centre, but (much like Big W), they had nothing at all.

Four stores down; no merchandise at all related to the Wonder Woman film, and only two of the four had any Wonder Woman toys at all.

Day 2, now at a shopping centre in Melbourne’s West, I went first to what should have been the surest bet to find merchandise for the latest DC Comics multimedia juggernaut, Toys R Us.

Walking in the entrance, and things were already looking up! The very first item in the doorway, and it’s the Collector’s Edition Wonder Woman Barbie.

Off to a great start! Next, to the doll section...

Now we’re talking! Squeezed (almost hidden) alongside the older DC Super Hero Girls items were FOUR more items specifically from the new film, 3 dolls (one with a horse), and a “Nerf”-style bow toy. Unfortunately, this marked the end of the Wonder Woman toys in this particular Toys R Us, nothing in the action-figure section, nor any costumes.

Certainly the best showing I had seen so far, but there was far more merchandise for the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming film, and that was (at this point) still 5 weeks away from release. Heck, there were more toys from the more than a year-old Batman vs Superman still on shelves than there were toys from Wonder Woman, which - again - was the number 1 film in cinemas at the time.

Sadly, the rest of my journey did not fare so well. The Target and Big W here both had just the one Diana action-figure from the older Justice League Action line (photo from Big W, below), and nothing else.

So in short, out of seven department/toy stores I surveyed in Australia’s second largest city, I found only one store carrying any merchandise at all from the latest entry in Warner Bros./DC Comics’ biggest multimedia franchise (which just so happens to be headlined by a female lead character).

In the weeks since that first weekend, I have been to more locations of each of the above visited stores, and found no more than what is described above. If that’s not a sad indictment on a whole host of potentially sexist, and just plain short-sighted factors, then I honestly don’t know what is. But where should the blame ultimately lay?

DC Comics’ key toy merchandise partner, Mattel has already dropped the ball on manufacturing product that appeals to girls (outside of dolls), and has shown little faith in trying to bridge that gap since. Now, Mattel did produce a line of 6-inch action-figures to tie-in with the Wonder Woman film, but those never made it to stores in Australia, outside of a brief appearance at collector store Zing (supposedly; as they seemed to have flown off of shelves before I saw them myself, I’m taking the word of others on this fact).

So is it the retailers themselves that shrugged off the offer to carry merchandise of a female superhero? I’m not personally in a position to say, but with my knowledge of retail (limited, though it is), I would have to say that it was at least a contributing factor. Although seeing how little Warner Bros. advertised the film itself, it appears as though they did seemingly little to push the spread of merchandise on their front too.

In summation, to say that the marketing and merchandising potential of the Wonder Woman film fell far short of what it should have been, is an extreme understatement. Representation matters, especially to children. Aisles, and aisles of all male action-oriented characters in toys stores does have a negative impact on children’s perception, and this inequity is driven chiefly by older men - both in marketing, and purchasing - on both sides of the commercial pipeline.

They can do better, and it is only though the voice of the consumer that change will ever be made. If change is what you want, make your voice heard. Use social media for good; let the retailers, manufacturers, and licencors know that you want more merchandise of your favourite female characters, and let the children of tomorrow know that women can be the stars of action play too.

Geek, father, consumer; RM Radcliffe.

[bernardschweizer1]

Taishan (1)

I recently had occasion to learn the Chinese vocabulary of noise, inconvenience, and complaint. An apartment below us in our building is undergoing an ambitious and extremely thorough renovation, resulting in deafening noise levels. Thank goodness, I have noise-cancelling headphones, but sometimes even Stevie Ray Vaughn’s amplified electric guitar cannot drown out the jack hammer. At those times, I would storm to the management office (guǎnlǐ chù) and complain (tóusù) that the noise (chǎo) of the demolition (chāi fángzi) had gotten too bad (tài bú hǎo le), especially the drilling (zuǎn kǒng). And I would insist that they tell me until when (dào shénme shíjiān) this madness (#@*!) was supposed go on, so I could come up with a plan to stay sane. After I’ve had my say, they would usually tell me something about a fast approaching end of the project, but nothing would change.

So, one day when it got particularly annoying, I decided to take a hike—literally. To plot my escape, I pored over a map of China, crossing it with my bucket list of places to go hiking. I quickly narrowed it down to one location which, though more than 800 km away (roughly the distance from Switzerland to Holland), was located along the high-speed train line to Beijing, which means that traveling would be less than four hours. Soon, I held the ticket to Tai’an in my hands and busied myself with booking accommodations.

The hiking destination, Taishan, is one of the five holy mountains of China. Some consider it to be the most important of the five mountains. My sense is that this judgment is influenced more by worldly than spiritual considerations. Indeed, being located relatively near Beijing, the place was favored by frequent visits from the emperors. This, in turn, means that the mountain received a rather lavish amount of resources for development. For instance, by the standards of hiking trails, the path they beat up to the Heavenly Gate on the top of the mountain looks rather like a superhighway--a multilane stairway to heaven!

This was not a point of attraction for me, but I figured that there might be alternative routes to go.

But before I get to the hiking portion of the report, I want to clarify that this was my first solo trip in China. In a sense, it was the final exam to see if I was ready to graduate from my “survivor Chinese” level. But early on in my stay at Tai’an, I had reason to suspect misunderstandings because the prices I heard seemed to be wrong, making me wonder if I had my numbers all mixed up. But then I realized that the dollar (or rather kuai/yuan) simply stretched much farther here than in Shanghai. For instance, my large, well-appointed room at the Sheraton set me back all of $73.

The bathroom even fancied a large picture window with a mountain view next to the tub. Another example: a fancy retractable aluminum hiking pole with spring shocks cost just 20 kuai (or $3). In the US, you would not even get the hand strap on said hiking pole for that amount. In many regards, Shanghai is as expensive—or even more expensive—than major Western cities, but Tai’an is in a different league. Here, I noticed a certain financial insouciance that would be unthinkable in places like Shanghai: One lady who wanted to sell me a tourist map told me it was 8 kuai ($1.30), but when I wasn’t bargaining, she voluntarily lowered the prince to 5 kuai. I ended up giving her 6 to play her game of defeating each others’ expectations. For a moment I felt like I was in a Monty Python scene.

People here also don’t charge Westerners more than they do locals. By contrast, in Shanghai even native-born Chinese like my wife (who are considered as “returnees”) are charged more than died-in-the-wool Shanghainese at the fish market and other bargain-intensive places. But along the path up to Taishan, I bought a bag of local herb tea for 5 kuai, and as I walked away, I saw the sign board in Chinese characters that did indeed list the price as 5 kuai per baggy.

Finally, to top it off, when I stepped on a bus for a few stops but did not have the 2 kuai exact change required for the fare, an elderly lady nonchalantly handed me two 1-kuai pieces. Since I didn’t want to be remembered in this town as another dirt-poor Westerner spooning off the locals, I insisted that she keep my 5 kuai bill, which she did, but only reluctantly. In any case, this aspect made me feel perfectly comfortable as the sole Westerner in this place.

I’m not kidding, I didn’t see another Westerner here, and the scarcity of my kind showed in the behavior of the locals: I lost count of how many times I had my picture taken with enthusiastic Chinese who just wanted to be seen with a wàiguó rén (foreigner). 

What this meant to them was not entirely clear to me…maybe they considered me exotic. Or I appeared to them as a kind of walking status symbol. This sort of treatment (which scholars would call “reverse othering”) didn’t bother me at all since I obviously derived not disadvantage from it. On the contrary, I reaped a tangible benefit from the attention I was getting: I’m not saying that I was feed like an animal at a petting zoo, but the locals did show a strong proclivity to hand me edibles for free. It started on the way up when a fellow hiker, who kept pace with me, spontaneously offered me half of his freshly purchased cucumber. For a moment I hesitated because of food safety concerns but then I bit into it, and the cold bursting freshness was a sheer delight to my parched mouth.

Later on, a group of women picnicking right on the steps of the stair path held out their bag of freshly baked sponge cake to me and let me grab a couple. Another guy I chatted with for about half an hour using my stumbling Chinese rewarded me for my effort with a whole pack of cookies. During our conversation, he told me, he’d spotted me five hours earlier down at the middle point of the hike. That’s how much I obviously stuck out there.

But as good as folks here are in the friendly-overtures department, giving directions is not their forte. The concierge at the Tai’an Sheraton usefully told me that the Dai Temple—the town’s main attraction, beside the mountain—was a mere 15 minutes down the road. I naturally thought that most people’s 15 minutes was my 10. But the “map” the concierge handed me turned out to be equivalent to an imaginative child’s drawing: It bore only a slight resemblance to the actual lay of the land.

It took me almost one hour to reach the Dai Temple, for it was over two miles away, and I took a few wrong turns. I was again surprised the next day when at the conclusion of my hike I ended up at the foot of the mountain looking for local transportation. I asked some people at a store about the location of the bus stop to return to Tai’an, but they looked at me as if I were asking where the launch pad to the moon was. I know the word for bus stop (chē zhàn) and the question word “where” (zài nǎlǐ), so that was not the problem. Anyway, they could not help me, but when I kept walking down the road, I spotted the bus stop merely two blocks further. Fortunately, the little confusion did not prevent me from being back at the Sheraton in time to order a taxi to take me to the train station. At least the taxi driver had a decent sense of orientation.

[multimonk]

Project M.O.N.K, Audio logs of one DR.Vee(Super duper background for Monk story)

Under the cut due to length!

Day 1, Orientation. “So day one... What is there to say? The on-site doctor/therapist says I should keep these audio logs for my own wellbeing, while locked away in this compound... I see no harm I suppose, gives me a break from work.”

-Low sigh-

“The facilities are alright to start with, with more equipment promised if specimens and experiments on said specimens give promising results. Whoever is paying for this better understand all my ‘scientist mumbo jumbo’ on my reports, unlike the meatheads they replaced half my staff with. If their intention is to spy on my work to make sure I keep working hard, they are not being very subtle.”

-

Day 10, Preparations. “We’ve finally set up everything we need. The chemicals are working as expected and the first few samples of what we’re working towards have started to grow. It’s not exactly what I’d call a fetus, but it’s a start... We have to make sure all the clashing DNA ‘sticks together’ as one of the morons put it.”

“Side note, order MUCH more coffee and painkillers in the next shipment.”

-

Day 58, First failure. “Well, I didn’t expect the first few months to go as smoothly as they did without SOME setbacks. Half of the specimens died, and the remaining half... Well, they show promise, but their genetic structure is somewhat weaker. They want tough skin and some other, dare I say, impossible features... So, that wont do.”

The good doctor has been kind enough to listen to my worries so I wont stress myself out by repeating them here, but... He did tell me to talk about my children. It seems to give me some strength. I do miss little Jess and Nate... I hope they are eating right. Knowing mom, probably not.” -Chuckle-

-

Day 72, Success? “I will avoid false optimism, but more and more samples are surviving. Some even formed a limb or two. We may have a real living creature within two years at this rate!”

“Putting that aside, some of the meatheads aren’t that bad now that they’ve forgotten about their mission to ‘guard me’. Aki, Henry and Neni are actually pretty nice people... Makes living in a damn cube in the middle of a jungle bearable at least.”

-Groaning-

“Why can’t secret bases ever be on a beach, or some other nice location?”

-

Day 100, Party. “I refused, initially. Wasting time to celebrate with whiskey and swing music every 100 days, who does that in a scientific research facility? Bbuuuuuut I will admit, once I got to the swing of things(Pun not entirely intended), it was nice to let loose and just have some fun. I might have drunk a bit too much though...”

-Light snoring-

-

Day 198, SUCCESS! “REAL success! We have our first real babies! Granted half of them have died and that’s taken a toll on many of the people in my team. I TOLD them not to name the blasted monsters. Getting attached to something that only wears a human face is not a good idea and if I might add, highly unprofessional.”

-Loud sigh-

“Alright... I don’t really record these as often as I did in the beginning, but looks like I’ll have even less time soon. If we can get even one live... Thing, we can start testing to see if they can be trained, imprinted or... Well, this is HIGHLY optimistic, but I like to think we could teach them during the 5 years it ‘should’ take for them to mature.”

“Optimism. Baad baaaad optimism.”

-

Day 200 “HUNGOVER. That is all.”

-

Day 300, Sparta “That joke has been made to death by someone who saw a stupid, unrealistic movie once. If I get one more email with that video...” “I am not allowed to talk about too much detail in the audio logs, but I will say this to keep it in mind. The specimens with more unsteady structure seem to survive better than those with the big, bulky ones our employer wants. I-”

-You got mail-

-Loud blaring of a remix of “This is Sparta”-

“Kill. Me.”

-

Day 487, Finally! “My intuition was right! We managed to make a few specimens survive outside their containment tanks with alterations to... Well, anyway. The staff insisted on naming them Don and Monk. Take a damn guess which one that dumbass Rico named? Monk, right. Well, at least the thing will remember which project gave it life... If it lives past a week.”

-

Day 496, no title ideas “Don and Monk have taken their first steps. Don walks on two quite fine, but Monk has some form of deformation in its… His, knees and back, I need to look into it.”

-

Day 500, No party “Don died. Funnily enough, not because of any error on our part... While physically more capable, Don was unfortunately as dumb as a toddler and making no progress, so he tried to eat a knife, despite the bleeding and pain... I assume, can they feel pain?”

-Door opens suddenly-

-Male voice- “DR.Vee, come quick! The other one is sick or something!” “WHAT??”

-

Day 520, Worst is over. “Monk is still alive. Weird enough, he’s not so much deformed as he is... Strange in structure. He’s missing some ribs, but he has so many more vertebra in his neck and back than a human. ALL functional! I still can’t fathom how he lives, but... He has no trouble moving on all fours, he eats... BOY does he eat!”

“Called Jessica and Nathan today, introduced them to my team. They’re already in junior high... I missed them graduating elementary. Mother of the year award goes to... Someone else.”

-

Day 523 “Monk got his horns stuck in a wall and continued to whine loudly about it for ten minutes. We took pictures and video, for... Science.”

-

Day 565, Baby steps “I’ve put away all the training they wanted me to teach him. I need to treat him like the child he is until we can figure out how to imprint information and training directly onto the brains of the specimens. Speaking of, we have been unable to make new ones that live past the month. We keep them separate from Monk of course. He still keeps looking for Don... It’s sad to watch.”

-

Day 600 “Monk joined the party today! Well, the start of the party. We gave him some cake and let him curl up to watch us drink and be merry. He’s still too small to actually take part in anything more active than eating and wobbling around, but maybe one day.”

-

Day 1000, sorry. “God, it’s been.. Jeesh. So long since I’ve made the last one huh? Okay, so, summary. Monk is doing well. He is reaching what I would call the age of 9 or so. These things grow fast, but I have no idea how long he will actually live. Will he stop aging at the point we hoped? We’ll see.”

“Anyway.”

“I’ve been teaching him to speak and well... Unsurprisingly, ‘food’ ‘treat’, his own name and ‘hello’ in various different forms have stuck the most. I also gave him some crayons to practice his motor skills a bit... Thank god our purpose is not to create the ultimate artist, unless someone really likes stick figures.”

-

Day 1050, more progress “Another growth spurt, he’s maybe 15 ish now? He’s in a bit of pain from growing so fast, but we give him painkillers to he can sleep at least. He’s started to call me ‘mum’. It’s not what you think! I tried to get him to address me as ‘ma’am’, but apparently that is too hard for him to say.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s fine.”

“... Wonder how Jess and Nate are doing.”

-

Day 1068-1090, Annoying “CONSTANT threats for more progress or less funds, really. I know we’ve made great strides in the past two-three years, I mean, we DID create LIFE in the first year! But now the big hats upstairs have gotten used to the fast pace and want more, the greedy MOTHERFU-Mmhhh... Okay.”

-Deep breath in-

-Loud sigh-

“Monk has a good personality, very obedient when he likes you, but he has entered a rebellious phase... Teenagers right?”

“Not like I’d know, I didn’t get to see my kids turn from kids to pre-teens.”

“What employer doesn’t give vacation days?? Regardless, the sooner we duplicate the success with Monk, the better. Though...” “Well, this is just a thought, but what if instead of an army, we just create an entirely new species? Creator of an entire species of people, wouldn’t that be the same as being a god?”

“Or a really, REALLY productive mother.”

“...”

“Okay ew, horrible mental image.”

-

Day 1329, Troublesome thoughts “I can’t keep the thought out of my head. What if I just recreate Monk EXACTLY and just change the gender, and then repeat the process a few thousand times? I could... Hm.”

-

Last log, partially corrupted -Hasty footsteps and sounds of many doors being opened on the way-

“MONK!”

“Shhh darling, I know that’s your name, and I know you like telling me, but you have to be quiet now okay?”

-Whispered- “Monk.”

“Haa haa, clever.”

-Happy squeaking-

“I’ve decided to take Monk and just... Go. There’s no future for him here. They called, said my funding is officially over and they will ‘get rid’ of all evidence. That’s a fine word for killing all my specimens and Monk...! Those bastards will not touch him. I’m taking him, starting my own lab and continuing my work elsewhere! I’ll show them, I can do this. I can start an entirely new species, I can-”

-Sounds of gunfire and explosions-

“OH SHI-” -Explosion-

“Dr.Vee? That wouldn’t be my investment you’re running off with would it? “You’re...? Never mind, I don’t care. If I stop here, all my work will be for nothing! Just let me continue my work, or get out of my way!”

“I am afraid we can’t do that Dr.Vee. You see... When I said I am getting rid of all the evidence, I did of course mean you as well.”

“You-” -Shocked gasp, sound of gun being loaded-

“However, I would like that thing back. As a live specimen, it is VERY valuable for continued perfection of your work, without your failures... Namely yourself and your sentimentality.”

“Over my dead body you asshole!” “... Aight sure, why not?” -Sudden explosion, sounds of wildlife outside and the sound of scuttling bare feet on the floor-

“Monk no! You don’t know what’s out there, you won’t survive without me! MONK! MONK LISTEN TO ME, COME BACK, MO-”

-End of recording-

[estchange]

Hei

I’ve managed to pick up maybe two Norwegian words since I arrived, and one of them is hei. Which is just ‘hi’ in Norwegian, pronounced exactly like ‘hi’ in English. I’m great with languages, I know. 

So the past few updates have been primarily pictures and I thought it would be great to include a bit of my thoughts and experiences so far. I have nothing planned out for this post (…a trend that will probably continue) so I guess I’ll just type things out chronologically. 

The first 24 hours of my journey was spent in the air, trying to ignore screaming children and the nauseating turbulence (like legit I was terribly queasy on the first flight - my tummy however, decided to very nicely retain its inhabitants). 

Qatar’s food was pretty great though, and minus the screaming children and entitled passengers who acted like they owned the plane, the journey was okay. We also had a 9 hour transit in Doha - half of which was spent wrapping up my Korean drama (when will Park Bogum be onscreen again?), and the other half on trying to nap in these lounge chairs. I woke up at about 6.30am to an empty room and a gorgeous sunrise. And so continued our 24-hour-long journey to a whole new world. I think I also slept for about 70% of our second flight. 

Once we arrived in Oslo, we had to rush for the Meet and Greet session because the flight was delayed a bit, and the session was supposed to end at 4pm. Thankfully, the UiO students were great and decided to wait for more exchange students to come, and that was where we got our Metro cards without fuss and made our way to campus to collect our housing keys. 

The school is really efficient and we got our stuff done really fast. Then came the worst part - having to trudge our luggages through the thick inches of snow on the ground, in -15 degrees weather with heavy snowfall, and uphill. The walk to the offices on campus was bad, but the walk in Kringsja trying to find our blocks was absolute hell. Bless that dude (sorry for repaying the debt by forgetting your name!) for helping to carry my luggage down the stairs, and bless the new friends made along the way who helped me figure out where my block stood. Here’s when we were travelling from campus to our student villages - just look at the amount of snow. 

The first night was spent setting things up basically (damn you ethernet cable!), and just me settling down after a long flight. The second worst thing to happen however, was the heater. Long story short, my very basic knowledge of convection currents came in handy when I realised that the table was restricting the hot air from spreading around - unfortunately, my brain only decided to work the next day and I had to wear gloves and heat tech to bed…and I still woke up shivering and chilled to the bones. 

The next day, I woke up early (thanks to the many hours of sleep on the plane) and decided to explore the student village a bit. 

Discoveries of the day include: 

1) Cute little doggy paw prints on the snow! 

2) Gorgeous wintry view! 

I was too scared to really head out so I just went back to my room. We then made lunch and headed to IKEA for some essentials. We all got a whole lot of stuff so it was time for another round of Dragging Heavy Shit Around Town. Except it was a hundred times easier. 

This would also be a great time to thank the heavens for IKEA’s existence - without which I would not have a comfy and warm bed to hide in from my partially malfunctioning heater, or the privilege to enjoy a $0.90/5 Kroner sausage bun. 

By the time we got back, we had to prepare for dinner and then I just unpacked some stuff after. One eventful thing - while trying to cover the naked mattress with my lovely IKEA bedsheet, my bed frame decided to be a Day Ruiner and fall apart. Because I had no one else to ask for help, and because I’m short and weak, and because it was dark and the bed was heavy, I took like 30-45 minutes trying to fix the damn frame. But all is well now and I can sleep peacefully on the little squeaky thing. And I did sleep well - the duvet protected me from the harsh and biting Norwegian cold and wrapped me in a soft cocoon wherein I emerged a messy-haired and groggy human disaster. No but really, getting out of bed and away from its warmth was difficult. 

The third day, Sunday, was where we explored our campus so that we wouldn’t get lost on Monday during orientation. The campus is, unlike NUS, very pretty and full of Mother Nature’s goodness. We also saw these pups while walking around - the two girls are pretty tall so you can imagine how huge that one dog is. 

When we got back to our dorms, it was just in time for the sunset and that was when the sky decided to bless us with colours for once, resulting in this magnificent view: 

You can’t really see it here, but the sky was really blue so the sun-kissed clouds really contrasted against it. 

Those were my first three days in Oslo, before orientation started and things got pretty busy. I will probably make separate posts (depending on how much time I have, and how lazy I get hah) for both orientation and for my own thoughts. This post has pretty much just been descriptive, and it’s long enough so I don’t want to type more about my thoughts. 

Oslo has, so far, been fantastic - whenever people talk (complain?) about Norwegians being distant and difficult to get close to and all that, I just kind of feel even closer to them because #same. 

I’m looking forward to classes starting and having more time to properly explore this little city. 

Ha det bra. 

[phuongnam]

How to build 1000 Restaurants in 24 months — The REBEL method

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How to build 1000 Restaurants in 24 months — The REBEL method

Jaydeep Barman

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Oct 28, 2018 · 9 min read

At long last, we decided the time is ripe to replace “Faasos” as the name of our company. “Faasos” will remain as the brand for our “wraps and meals” restaurant and we will continue to put massive focus behind growing the brand.

At this time, however, we felt the company needed a name that would signify what we were doing as a team instead of being restricted to the name of one of our many brands. So, as of last week and after much deliberation, we changed our company name to “Rebel Foods”.

This new moniker truly captures the company’s essence — forever challenging the status quo, never saying “that hasn’t been done before”, always questioning main-stream. Now that we are seeing the first glimpses of the fruit of our contrarian approach, it is time to give ourselves an identity that befits our character. Hence, Rebel Foods.

As rebels building a restaurant business, we asked ourselves a question: “HOW CAN WE BUILD 1000 RESTAURANTS IN 24 MONTHS? AND 10000 OF THEM IN 5 YEARS?” While a normal restaurant business would never ask such a question, we did. And now that we have achieved the first milestone, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on our journey so far and offer some insights into what we have accomplished and how we will continue to blaze new trails into the future.

Today, we can safely say we are world’s largest delivery only / internet restaurant company, and by a wide margin. At 1100+ individual internet restaurants, in 15 Indian cities, we have indeed come a long way in the last 24 months. It’s still Day 1 (as the other JB would say :)), but we know we are on to something very, very big. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change a 500-year-old industry.

The explosive growth of food delivery, led by aggregators and of the sales of restaurant brands worldwide (check McDonalds and Domino’s global sales and value growth over the last few years), point to one thing: just like every other consumer industry, Food and the business of restaurants is undergoing a structural shift wherein there are two parts — The Brand and The Distribution.

In every industry — from FMCG to Durables, Clothing, Travel, and Entertainment, there are strong global brand owners (Unilever, Nike, Disney, Marriott) and strong retailers (Walmart, Amazon, Expedia, Netflix). Until just five years ago, Food was the only vertical where the brand owner and retailer/distributor were the same — you walked into a Starbucks for a coffee or a McDonalds for a burger. That is changing rapidly. Today there are Restaurant Brands and Distributors (Swiggy, Zomato, Ubereats, FoodPanda, Doordash). Of course, like every other consumer sector, there will be private labels from retailers / distributors and brand owners will have some retail presence, but the broad split will be there. Otherwise Amazon would also be Apple and Mariott would be Expedia.

This is an irreversible shift, because it’s more efficient and the world generally moves to the most efficient frontier. It is more efficient if Restaurants focus on brand building, supply chain, culinary innovation, robotics-led process and quality production, and if Aggregators focus on ordering choice, fleet management, drones and other logistics innovation — Data and Technology being the common factors for both the Restaurants and the Aggregators. The benefits are tremendous -

a) Customers will have increasingly better food and faster delivery,

b) The food delivery market will expand tremendously with lower CAC, and

c) Specific innovation will drive down the cost of business.

This primarily meant, delivery-only restaurant brands could be built on internet, without worrying about building distribution / retail. A few quarters back, we saw this trend and thought, “we can scale Restaurant Brands 10x faster than today”. With only 100K restaurants in India (compared to 7Mn+ in China), and with 90% of them unorganized, we realized we had a terrific opportunity to build India’s largest restaurant brands, riding on our cloud kitchens, supply chain network, culinary expertise and technology. And on exploding Distribution, as recounted above. And thus came our idea of “ One Cloud Kitchen = Multiple Restaurant Brands”.

After testing the hypothesis, we took two momentous decisions:

a) Build multiple restaurant brands riding on the same kitchen network and

b) Becoming channel agnostic or omni-channel, so that customers can enjoy offerings regardless of the distribution partner.

These two decisions changed everything; putting us on the path of actually building 1000+ restaurants in 24 months. We worked on seven individual delivery only / internet restaurant brands in large categories such as Biryani, Meals, Pizza, Dessert, Chinese, World Cuisine, and Beverages and scaled each of them to most of our cloud kitchen network across India (176 kitchens in 15 cities). The pace of restaurant count and revenue growth far outstripped the number of kitchens built. Our number of restaurants across India grew exponentially, while we added only 50 more kitchens. And, our revenue grew exponentially as well — 5 times in 24 months. And with that came the economic advantages of a low rent-to-sales ratio, kitchen break-even in < 3 months, super-fast pay back on capital, and zero location risk, all of which I outlined in my earlier story.

Below is a snapshot of what we built:

Admittedly, it took us some doing. The concept of “one cloud kitchen=Multiple restaurants” may sound an obvious one, but it’s essentially the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We realized this as we got down to execution. 24 months into this journey, we can now say that we have got the playbook figured out to a large extent. We had to build five strong competencies / pillars, as described below, to execute on this idea, some of which we already had and some others we had to build on the fly, while growing super-fast.

Culinary Innovation Center

In the last 24 months, we launched and scaled 280 different menu items across brands, as we kept iterating to get the product-market fit right for each of the brands. This was possible because of our core team of super-chefs, who kept working relentlessly on delightful recipes. However, it was not enough to innovate on products alone, it required building scalability around it, so that we could launch them across the nation without the requirement for skilled chefs in each of our kitchens. Biryani is a prime example of how this took many iterations before we could find the formula for making biryani fresh in every kitchen. This was a game changer for us.

End-to-end Tech Platform

From distinct google polygon architecture (dynamic delivery radius) for a multi-brand operation from a kitchen to managing each step of the kitchen ops — queueing, load / prep time, batching of orders, out of the door algorithms, to inventory prediction based on consumption data, personal recommendation engine, deep integration with every aggregator, last mile delivery app, everything was built on a tech stack developed by our Engineers and Product Managers. This enabled us to tackle the massive complexity of a multi-brand operation while keeping the inventory and operations management super efficient. We have an inventory variance (including wastage) of <2%, quite a feat even for standalone, one-brand, low SKU-diversity restaurants. This also enables us to take data driven approach to opening new kitchens and launching new brands. Going forward, the tech stack is getting ready to bring in AI and robotics into our kitchen processes, to build a virtual personal butler using machine learning, and to create a big data / analytics brain to predict food trends that we can ride for decades. It’s another matter that the Engineering team believe that we can now create a SAS business unit selling “cloud Kitchen management software”.

Pan India Supply Chain

If I have to talk about “the moat” around our business, then I would say this is right at the top of the list. We can now move best possible ingredients from one corner of the country to another without any trouble. This was the backbone, riding on which we launched products- haleem during Ramadan, Puranpali during Ganesh festivals, navaratri menu during Dussera, plum cake during Christmas and so on- each in a span of 6 weeks or less. This is the reason, we can scale a brand across the nation within weeks rather than years, once a product market fit is achieved.

Brand/Product Launch Playbook

Typically, every brand is owned by a Brand Manager — from inception to scale up. He / she is the parent of the brand and has the sole responsibility of making the brand ready for the big bad world. In last 24 months, we launched at least 20 brands, but scaled only 7 pan India. Brand managers lead the process of incubating a brand / product (it involves zero capital spend, as the brands / products are launched in existing cloud kitchens only) in a couple of locations, iterate, iterate and iterate till the brand achieves product-market fit, defined by ratings, NPS score and brand economics. They would constantly work with the Culinary Innovation Center to get the product right. For the more technology oriented reader, you can think of the brand managers as product managers and the Culinary Innovation Center as the Engineers in a typical technology set-up. These two groups work closely till the product-market fit is achieved. Once it is achieved, the brand manager would then lead the scale-up phase for the brand in question. The following diagram represents our playbook for building brands:

Cloud Kitchen Network

Finally, our ever growing cloud kitchen network comes into play. This is where the moment of truth happens, this is the place where an order is prepared and delivered to the customer, on-demand. Our cloud kitchens are equipped to handle all sorts of different processes- from baking to grilling to wok based cooking, conveyor preparation of pizza, frying etc.- supported by a very robust tech infrastructure as described above. However, the secret sauce of our kitchens is not the hardware, it’s the software — as characterized by probably the most entrepreneurial micro-teams out there. Each kitchen team is led by a CDO- Chief Delight Officer, who is the real CEO of our business, as he / she is responsible for everything from building the kitchen team to ensuring tremendous experience every single time both for the customer and our employees, to delivering the economics of the kitchen, training of the kitchen team, and inventory management. The CDO role is probably the hardest and most satisfying general management role out there as it teaches people how to manage a business from the core. We have minimal attrition in our kitchens, and people routinely ask me why this is the case. I think, more than anything else, we have been able to create a culture of entrepreneurship at the grass-root level, where people come to work with a singular purpose of delighting every customer and thus manage their “own business” beautifully. And low attrition builds muscle-memory, which then helps tackle complexity, an unavoidable aspect of our multi-brand kitchens. We have produced CDOs out of entry level team members coming from extremely under-privileged backgrounds, and this has helped us grow the company tremendously. Every six months, our national CDO meet makes me believe more and more in our ability to create entrepreneurs across our company. We now have 176 capable CDOs and several hundred more getting ready to manage our upcoming kitchens. This pipeline building of leaders to tackle the moment of truth, in my mind, is the biggest reason why we could execute on our first-of-a-kind, category creating strategy.

And, as I said at the outset, we are just getting started. We will keep creating / scaling relevant brands in specific markets (India and beyond) based on demand, trends, and efficiency. And to do that, we don’t have to keep building physical locations. Instead, we can grow and delight customers for decades to come, without the burden of massive capital investment. After all, “the ability to build and scale strong brands efficiently” is the only thing that is better than a “strong brand.”

We are now working on building a network of restaurants that is five times larger than any other in India and thereby becoming the largest Food player (internet or not) in the country — specifically, 10000 restaurants in the top 500 micro locations — within five years.

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Food Tech Startups

Restaurant

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Written by

Jaydeep Barman

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Co-founder/CEO, REBEL Foods, World’s Largest Cloud Kitchen Operating System for Restaurant Brands.

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And now that we have achieved the first milestone, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on our journey so far and offer some insights into what we have accomplished and how we will continue to blaze new trails into the future.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_4.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_4.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":74,"end":151,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_5":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_5","name":"cd85","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Today, we can safely say we are world’s largest delivery only \u002F internet restaurant company, and by a wide margin. At 1100+ individual internet restaurants, in 15 Indian cities, we have indeed come a long way in the last 24 months. It’s still Day 1 (as the other JB would say :)), but we know we are on to something very, very big. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change a 500-year-old industry.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_6":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_6","name":"7ecf","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"The explosive growth of food delivery, led by aggregators and of the sales of restaurant brands worldwide (check McDonalds and Domino’s global sales and value growth over the last few years), point to one thing: just like every other consumer industry, Food and the business of restaurants is undergoing a structural shift wherein there are two parts — The Brand and The Distribution.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_7":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_7","name":"48c9","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"In every industry — from FMCG to Durables, Clothing, Travel, and Entertainment, there are strong global brand owners (Unilever, Nike, Disney, Marriott) and strong retailers (Walmart, Amazon, Expedia, Netflix). Until just five years ago, Food was the only vertical where the brand owner and retailer\u002Fdistributor were the same — you walked into a Starbucks for a coffee or a McDonalds for a burger. That is changing rapidly. Today there are Restaurant Brands and Distributors (Swiggy, Zomato, Ubereats, FoodPanda, Doordash). Of course, like every other consumer sector, there will be private labels from retailers \u002F distributors and brand owners will have some retail presence, but the broad split will be there. Otherwise Amazon would also be Apple and Mariott would be Expedia.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_8":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_8","name":"20c9","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"This is an irreversible shift, because it’s more efficient and the world generally moves to the most efficient frontier. It is more efficient if Restaurants focus on brand building, supply chain, culinary innovation, robotics-led process and quality production, and if Aggregators focus on ordering choice, fleet management, drones and other logistics innovation — Data and Technology being the common factors for both the Restaurants and the Aggregators. The benefits are tremendous -","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_9":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_9","name":"1f2b","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"a) Customers will have increasingly better food and faster delivery,","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_10":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_10","name":"ef86","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"b) The food delivery market will expand tremendously with lower CAC, and","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_11":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_11","name":"73d1","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"c) Specific innovation will drive down the cost of business.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_12":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_12","name":"2698","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"This primarily meant, delivery-only restaurant brands could be built on internet, without worrying about building distribution \u002F retail. A few quarters back, we saw this trend and thought, “we can scale Restaurant Brands 10x faster than today”. With only 100K restaurants in India (compared to 7Mn+ in China), and with 90% of them unorganized, we realized we had a terrific opportunity to build India’s largest restaurant brands, riding on our cloud kitchens, supply chain network, culinary expertise and technology. And on exploding Distribution, as recounted above. And thus came our idea of “ One Cloud Kitchen = Multiple Restaurant Brands”.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_12.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_12.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":190,"end":245,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_13":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_13","name":"3d02","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"IMG","href":null,"layout":"INSET_CENTER","metadata":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"ImageMetadata:1*FphAYtIR9FFjRhHU3N7ijQ.png","typename":"ImageMetadata"},"text":"","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"ImageMetadata:1*FphAYtIR9FFjRhHU3N7ijQ.png":{"id":"1*FphAYtIR9FFjRhHU3N7ijQ.png","originalHeight":1298,"originalWidth":2460,"focusPercentX":null,"focusPercentY":null,"alt":null,"__typename":"ImageMetadata"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_14":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_14","name":"88cb","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"After testing the hypothesis, we took two momentous decisions:","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_15":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_15","name":"2e3d","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"a) Build multiple restaurant brands riding on the same kitchen network and","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_16":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_16","name":"5cc5","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"b) Becoming channel agnostic or omni-channel, so that customers can enjoy offerings regardless of the distribution partner.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_17":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_17","name":"e436","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"These two decisions changed everything; putting us on the path of actually building 1000+ restaurants in 24 months. We worked on seven individual delivery only \u002F internet restaurant brands in large categories such as Biryani, Meals, Pizza, Dessert, Chinese, World Cuisine, and Beverages and scaled each of them to most of our cloud kitchen network across India (176 kitchens in 15 cities). The pace of restaurant count and revenue growth far outstripped the number of kitchens built. Our number of restaurants across India grew exponentially, while we added only 50 more kitchens. And, our revenue grew exponentially as well — 5 times in 24 months. And with that came the economic advantages of a low rent-to-sales ratio, kitchen break-even in \u003C 3 months, super-fast pay back on capital, and zero location risk, all of which I outlined in my earlier story.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_17.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_17.markups.0":{"type":"A","start":827,"end":856,"href":"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002Ffaasos-story\u002Fwinning-the-last-frontier-for-consumer-internet-5f2a659c43db","anchorType":"LINK","userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_18":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_18","name":"ee2c","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Below is a snapshot of what we built:","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_19":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_19","name":"d489","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"IMG","href":null,"layout":"INSET_CENTER","metadata":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"ImageMetadata:1*cdO7oxEWwGn9xGXVZfIN-Q.png","typename":"ImageMetadata"},"text":"","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"ImageMetadata:1*cdO7oxEWwGn9xGXVZfIN-Q.png":{"id":"1*cdO7oxEWwGn9xGXVZfIN-Q.png","originalHeight":784,"originalWidth":1264,"focusPercentX":null,"focusPercentY":null,"alt":null,"__typename":"ImageMetadata"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_20":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_20","name":"04e6","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"IMG","href":null,"layout":"INSET_CENTER","metadata":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"ImageMetadata:1*4crda7yBdhKz67g-JH1jdg.png","typename":"ImageMetadata"},"text":"","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"ImageMetadata:1*4crda7yBdhKz67g-JH1jdg.png":{"id":"1*4crda7yBdhKz67g-JH1jdg.png","originalHeight":798,"originalWidth":1352,"focusPercentX":null,"focusPercentY":null,"alt":null,"__typename":"ImageMetadata"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_21":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_21","name":"842b","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Admittedly, it took us some doing. The concept of “one cloud kitchen=Multiple restaurants” may sound an obvious one, but it’s essentially the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We realized this as we got down to execution. 24 months into this journey, we can now say that we have got the playbook figured out to a large extent. We had to build five strong competencies \u002F pillars, as described below, to execute on this idea, some of which we already had and some others we had to build on the fly, while growing super-fast.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_22":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_22","name":"e9c6","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Culinary Innovation Center","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_22.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_22.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":0,"end":26,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_23":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_23","name":"6813","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"In the last 24 months, we launched and scaled 280 different menu items across brands, as we kept iterating to get the product-market fit right for each of the brands. This was possible because of our core team of super-chefs, who kept working relentlessly on delightful recipes. However, it was not enough to innovate on products alone, it required building scalability around it, so that we could launch them across the nation without the requirement for skilled chefs in each of our kitchens. Biryani is a prime example of how this took many iterations before we could find the formula for making biryani fresh in every kitchen. This was a game changer for us.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_24":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_24","name":"f559","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"End-to-end Tech Platform","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_24.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_24.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":0,"end":24,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_25":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_25","name":"03b5","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"From distinct google polygon architecture (dynamic delivery radius) for a multi-brand operation from a kitchen to managing each step of the kitchen ops — queueing, load \u002F prep time, batching of orders, out of the door algorithms, to inventory prediction based on consumption data, personal recommendation engine, deep integration with every aggregator, last mile delivery app, everything was built on a tech stack developed by our Engineers and Product Managers. This enabled us to tackle the massive complexity of a multi-brand operation while keeping the inventory and operations management super efficient. We have an inventory variance (including wastage) of \u003C2%, quite a feat even for standalone, one-brand, low SKU-diversity restaurants. This also enables us to take data driven approach to opening new kitchens and launching new brands. Going forward, the tech stack is getting ready to bring in AI and robotics into our kitchen processes, to build a virtual personal butler using machine learning, and to create a big data \u002F analytics brain to predict food trends that we can ride for decades. It’s another matter that the Engineering team believe that we can now create a SAS business unit selling “cloud Kitchen management software”.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_26":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_26","name":"c694","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Pan India Supply Chain","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_26.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_26.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":0,"end":22,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_27":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_27","name":"6f7c","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"If I have to talk about “the moat” around our business, then I would say this is right at the top of the list. We can now move best possible ingredients from one corner of the country to another without any trouble. This was the backbone, riding on which we launched products- haleem during Ramadan, Puranpali during Ganesh festivals, navaratri menu during Dussera, plum cake during Christmas and so on- each in a span of 6 weeks or less. This is the reason, we can scale a brand across the nation within weeks rather than years, once a product market fit is achieved.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_28":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_28","name":"bcf7","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Brand\u002FProduct Launch Playbook","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_28.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_28.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":0,"end":29,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_29":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_29","name":"8c4c","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Typically, every brand is owned by a Brand Manager — from inception to scale up. He \u002F she is the parent of the brand and has the sole responsibility of making the brand ready for the big bad world. In last 24 months, we launched at least 20 brands, but scaled only 7 pan India. Brand managers lead the process of incubating a brand \u002F product (it involves zero capital spend, as the brands \u002F products are launched in existing cloud kitchens only) in a couple of locations, iterate, iterate and iterate till the brand achieves product-market fit, defined by ratings, NPS score and brand economics. They would constantly work with the Culinary Innovation Center to get the product right. For the more technology oriented reader, you can think of the brand managers as product managers and the Culinary Innovation Center as the Engineers in a typical technology set-up. These two groups work closely till the product-market fit is achieved. Once it is achieved, the brand manager would then lead the scale-up phase for the brand in question. The following diagram represents our playbook for building brands:","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_30":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_30","name":"6c74","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"IMG","href":null,"layout":"INSET_CENTER","metadata":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"ImageMetadata:1*YHu8Ge-YMRqonw07QvgSDQ.png","typename":"ImageMetadata"},"text":"","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"ImageMetadata:1*YHu8Ge-YMRqonw07QvgSDQ.png":{"id":"1*YHu8Ge-YMRqonw07QvgSDQ.png","originalHeight":1332,"originalWidth":2510,"focusPercentX":null,"focusPercentY":null,"alt":null,"__typename":"ImageMetadata"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_31":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_31","name":"021b","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Cloud Kitchen Network","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[{"type":"id","generated":true,"id":"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_31.markups.0","typename":"Markup"}],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_31.markups.0":{"type":"STRONG","start":0,"end":21,"href":null,"anchorType":null,"userId":null,"linkMetadata":null,"__typename":"Markup"},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_32":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_32","name":"5ade","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"Finally, our ever growing cloud kitchen network comes into play. This is where the moment of truth happens, this is the place where an order is prepared and delivered to the customer, on-demand. Our cloud kitchens are equipped to handle all sorts of different processes- from baking to grilling to wok based cooking, conveyor preparation of pizza, frying etc.- supported by a very robust tech infrastructure as described above. However, the secret sauce of our kitchens is not the hardware, it’s the software — as characterized by probably the most entrepreneurial micro-teams out there. Each kitchen team is led by a CDO- Chief Delight Officer, who is the real CEO of our business, as he \u002F she is responsible for everything from building the kitchen team to ensuring tremendous experience every single time both for the customer and our employees, to delivering the economics of the kitchen, training of the kitchen team, and inventory management. The CDO role is probably the hardest and most satisfying general management role out there as it teaches people how to manage a business from the core. We have minimal attrition in our kitchens, and people routinely ask me why this is the case. I think, more than anything else, we have been able to create a culture of entrepreneurship at the grass-root level, where people come to work with a singular purpose of delighting every customer and thus manage their “own business” beautifully. And low attrition builds muscle-memory, which then helps tackle complexity, an unavoidable aspect of our multi-brand kitchens. We have produced CDOs out of entry level team members coming from extremely under-privileged backgrounds, and this has helped us grow the company tremendously. Every six months, our national CDO meet makes me believe more and more in our ability to create entrepreneurs across our company. We now have 176 capable CDOs and several hundred more getting ready to manage our upcoming kitchens. This pipeline building of leaders to tackle the moment of truth, in my mind, is the biggest reason why we could execute on our first-of-a-kind, category creating strategy.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_33":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_33","name":"ac76","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"And, as I said at the outset, we are just getting started. We will keep creating \u002F scaling relevant brands in specific markets (India and beyond) based on demand, trends, and efficiency. And to do that, we don’t have to keep building physical locations. Instead, we can grow and delight customers for decades to come, without the burden of massive capital investment. After all, “the ability to build and scale strong brands efficiently” is the only thing that is better than a “strong brand.”","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"Paragraph:a9b3bacaf7a4_34":{"id":"a9b3bacaf7a4_34","name":"fca7","__typename":"Paragraph","type":"P","href":null,"layout":null,"metadata":null,"text":"We are now working on building a network of restaurants that is five times larger than any other in India and thereby becoming the largest Food player (internet or not) in the country — specifically, 10000 restaurants in the top 500 micro locations — within five years.","hasDropCap":null,"dropCapImage":null,"markups":[],"iframe":null,"mixtapeMetadata":null},"User:f3a886c9aaff":{"id":"f3a886c9aaff","__typename":"User"},"Collection:7b837cf1fd73":{"creator":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"User:f3a886c9aaff","typename":"User"},"viewerCanManage":false,"__typename":"Collection","name":"Noteworthy - The Journal Blog","avatar":{"type":"id","generated":false,"id":"ImageMetadata:1*WeTZ1IB4SA8IR91PEI_7TQ.png","typename":"ImageMetadata"},"id":"7b837cf1fd73","domain":"blog.usejournal.com","slug":"did-you-know-the-journal-blog"},"Tag:startup":{"id":"startup","displayTitle":"Startup","__typename":"Tag"},"Tag:food-tech-startups":{"id":"food-tech-startups","displayTitle":"Food Tech Startups","__typename":"Tag"},"Tag:restaurant":{"id":"restaurant","displayTitle":"Restaurant","__typename":"Tag"},"ImageMetadata:1*WeTZ1IB4SA8IR91PEI_7TQ.png":{"id":"1*WeTZ1IB4SA8IR91PEI_7TQ.png","__typename":"ImageMetadata"},"$Post:cb5b0cea4dc8.previewContent":{"subtitle":"At long last, we decided the time is ripe to replace “Faasos” as the name of our company. Faasos, will remain as the brand for our “wraps…","__typename":"PreviewContent"}} window.main();

[adamkemp-blog1]

Are you trying to learn how to lose 2 pounds a week? Losing weight can be a trial. However, you can do it much more easily with only a few small changes.

Fortunately, there are many different aspects of your life you can alter to lose 2 pounds a week. In my opinion, the best way to lose weight long-term is to attempt to lose only 2 or 3 pounds per week. If your goal is only 1 pound per week, that is probably not a difficult enough task.

If you try to lose 5-10 pounds per week or 20 pounds in 2 weeks, you probably will not be able to lose as much weight as you want, and you might become frustrated.

Whether your goal is to build an aesthetic body, improve your general health, or simply begin a fitness program, there are many changes you can make to your lifestyle that will help you lose weight fast and effectively.

Keep reading below to learn how to lose 2 pounds in a week the easy way!

How to Lose 2 Pounds in a Week

Unlike other guides that you will find that tell you which fat burners or diet pills you need to use to lose weight, I am here to tell you that you can lose 2 pounds a week very simply!

If you don’t know much about how to lose weight, the first thing you need to understand is that 1 pound of fat contains 3,500 units of energy (calories), so you must have a caloric deficit of 3,500 over the course of a day, week, month or however long you are trying to lose weight, to lose one single pound.

There are many ways to get a 3,500 calorie deficit, including controlling your diet and exercising.

If you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, that means for the week you need to burn 7,000 calories more than you consume (2 Pounds = 7,000 calories). Per day, you need a 1,000 calorie deficit.

For most people, a 500 calorie per day deficit is very easy to accomplish. If you want to burn 1,000 more calories per day than you consume so that you can lose 2 pounds per week, you are going to need to focus a bit!

Check out these tips which will make your plan for losing 2 pounds in a week seem simpler than ever!

Work Out During the Commercials

Instead of sitting on the couch when there are commercials on, get up, and get active. Any activity that gets your heart pumping is a good option. Try doing jumping jacks, jogging in place, doing squats, or any other activity that gets your body moving.

If you watch TV for two hours a day, you can burn nearly 300 extra calories each day simply by taking this one simple step!

This can help you lose almost 30 pounds over the course of a year, making it a highly effective way to lose weight.

Personally, my favorite exercises to do during commercial breaks are forearm planks and glute bridges. In my opinion, these are the most effective exercises to do when you only have a small amount of time. The additional calories you burn during commercials go along way towards helping you lose 2 pounds in a week!

Split Your Workouts

if you don’t have time to do a full 30 to 40-minute workout each day, try splitting it into multiple workouts.

Five minutes here and ten minutes there can add up to a lot of time spent working out throughout the day. Studies have shown that multiple short periods of working out provide the same benefit as a single longer workout session in terms of the number of calories that are burned.

For example, you could start your morning with a fasted state walk for 30-40-minutes. Later, you can use the Tabata Interval Protocol for a short 4-minute fat burning workout.

Although going to the gym and doing a full workout which includes a warm-up and cool-down is the best option, you should not give up on exercising if you don’t have time for the gym. Instead, get creative and find a few minutes throughout different times of the day to workout!

Skip the Elevator

Try to climb a few extra flights of stairs every day. Just a couple of additional minutes of climbing stairs each day can be enough to keep you from gaining weight throughout the year. Regularly climbing the stairs can also help increase your overall health.

A study done by Harvard found that men who climbed 70 or more flights of stairs a week were almost 20% less likely to die than those who didn’t.

You don’t have to add that many flights all at once. Instead, build your tolerance slowly by adding a few flights of stairs each week.

Count Your Steps

Invest in a good pedometer and take it with you everywhere that you go. The simple act of wearing a pedometer can help you get motivated to take more steps during a typical day.

Studies have found that people who use fitness watches with pedometers take more than 2,000 more steps each day than people who don’t use pedometers. That could be enough to help you lose approximately ten pounds over a year!

If you don’t own a pedometer or fitness watch, check out my HELO watch review to learn about one of the best options!

Personally, I own and use the Apple Watch, but there are other less expensive options which are more fitness-orientated.

If you enjoy walking, there are many ways to add additional steps to your days, which can help you burn a lot of calories. For example, my wife and I play PokemonGo when we want to get some more steps in during the day!

Use Help

There are many foods that you can eat that will help keep you fuller for longer. Looking at your diet and ensuring you’re eating plenty of slow release foods with fiber can be a good idea.

Along with choosing weight loss foods, you can also try some weight loss supplements. One example is that many people are taking garcinia cambogia with apple cider vinegar to make weight loss easier.

However, this is a more substantial weight loss approach.

Additionally, eating lean proteins are also a big help for weight loss.

There are also plenty of good supplements out there as this guide to the top weight loss supplements will profess. HCG diet drops are another example of a quality weight loss products.

Go by Foot for Shorter Trips

If you have errands to run that are located less than one mile from your home, consider walking rather than driving. Although driving is faster, it is a lot worse for your health. Studies have linked driving with an increased rate of obesity.

When you walk, be sure to keep your pace as brisk as possible to burn the maximum number of calories.

You can even apply this concept to errands that are a little bit further from home. All that you have to do is park within about a mile of the activities that you have to do.

Then, it is merely a matter of walking from your car instead. This simple change can help you drop about 15 pounds in a year!

Concluding Thoughts – How to Lose 2 Pounds a Week

If you want to lose 2 pounds in a week, you simply have to do figure out how to burn an additional 7,000 calories compared to how much you eat.

For some people, losing 2 pounds in a week is easy because you can go to the gym 3-4 times and do exhausting workouts that burn extra calories. However, if you are not a person who can get to the gym each day, the best way to lose an additional 2 pounds per week is to utilize the tips I listed above!

Losing 2 pounds in a week is not as difficult as you might have assumed, you just need to focus and understand the math!

The post How to Lose 2 Pounds a Week – 6 Easy Tips to Make It Happen! appeared first on Adam Kemp Fitness.

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My Chicago Trip 2018

My Chicago trip has been the most recent trip of mine. Throughout my journey I was able to see one of my closest friends get married as well as seeing the most breathe taking skyscrapers. In this blog you will find out more about the places I had seen and hopefully this will help anyone who is planning a trip to Chicago. Here is some of the things I had seen whilst I was in Chicago: 

Willis Tower – Willis Tower also referred to as the Sears tower, I would strongly recommend this for anyone who has a huge adrenaline rush. From being 1,450 feet up high, this amazing tall building definitely had spectacular views. I was honestly mind blown with how incredible my surroundings were from seeing the buildings, streets and Lake Michigan so clearly. As mentioned before, people who have adrenaline rush would love the glass balcony on the sky deck. However, there was a long queue for pictures to be taken at a very limited time. A total time of one minute was timed by staff and there were only three to four glass balcony areas; it was shocking yet understandable due to the amount of people within one of the biggest tourist attractions. Despite the short time on the glass sky deck every second was very precious and for sure you will be able to take stunning pictures whilst being able to over look Chicago. The Willis Tower was one of my favourite touristy things to do whilst out in Chicago.

 360 Chicago –  360 Chicago also referred as The John Hancock Tower measuring at 1,127 feet tall, this is the building famously known to have 360 views when going on edge to feel it tilt, which I felt was super exciting and unique. Although, there was additional charges for the tilt experience and again a tight time of one minute. In comparison to the Willis Tower I felt that the Willis tower was more visually satisfying and worth the cost. From my personal opinion it was a great experience overall to go on the 360 tilt, but my time at the Willis tower had given me more of a thrill by having a wider view and not being distracted from my arms aching when I was holding on to the poles on each side. Also due to safety you weren’t allowed to hold any personal cameras but if you have a go pro and a shoulder strap attached to the device they will be allowed on. For the most part 360 Chicago was a good experience to explore especially with the sun light beaming upon the beautiful Chicago.       

Cloud gate - This place is a popular area for tourists to take pictures alongside with the famous bean, which is also called the cloud gate sculpture created by Anish Kapoor the Indian born British artist. The bean is the centre piece in Millennium Park. It seemed like a mission just to get a picture without someone coming in front of the camera as it is extremely busy here. However, I feel like this was a perfect place for a chilled out afternoon. I just loved how there was such a wide space for exploring this area and having all the sky scrapers in your view was just amazing. Also close by is Millennium park and crown fountain, these places are super close by and weren’t as busy. Again these places were a nice touch to my trip. 

China Town – China town was effortless stunning, if any of you want to see the oriental influenced buildings, quirky and cool restaurants to have dim sums or Korean BBQ to bubble teas. This place has it all and if any of you love cool sculptures of the zodiac signs China town for sure has it. I really enjoyed spending my time here due to the peaceful vibes I got. This place was large and very chilled out, I honestly felt like I wasn’t in Chicago anymore as the area was so detailed that it left me feeling like I just took a train to a part of Asia. If you want to go out during the day to explore there are tons of great souvenir gifts ideas at a reasonable price. They had gifts such as action figures like Dragon Ball Z characters to Asian inspired cute jewellery. I hadn’t gone during the evening but I have heard from friends there are some cool places to go for karaoke and bars, so if you get a chance to check out China town, there are interesting things to discover over there.

 How I got around

Getting around without a car can be really tricky in the large streets of Chicago but there alternatives if walking is out of the question. There is of course the two popular options Uber and Lyft, these were very useful at some points within my trip for example some of my friends lived near the suburbs where there was a hour and half walk for the nearest train, if that was the case there was Uber or Lyft which took around 15-20 minutes to get in to the city and wasn’t too costly and time consuming. While splitting the cost with a friend and using Uber pool this would be a total of $6.50 each. The next option was the straight forward and simple CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) which was similar to London’s tube map. The majority of the places I explored were allocated in the centre places such as Lake, Chicago and Chinatown. Just like the Oyster cards in London there is something called the Ventra card. Once you purchase one for $3, this will get you around without the need of tapping your card out when using the exits unlike London. To sum up, if you’re a regular user of public transport then using trains in Chicago will be very simple and easy if you are nearby to a train station. Otherwise I could imagine how inconvenient it is to get to use public transport if you live around the suburbs with no stations nearby. This resulted you to use Uber and Lyft or renting a car would be very useful. 

Food Food Food! 

For those who know me well know I am a big food lover. There were numerous options to eat, some of the places I ate was the popular and tasty Peqoud’s Pizza, usually I’m not a huge fan of pizza (I know, very rare) but the pizza out there was super amazing and filling. I mean all the food out in Chicago was generally super sized, but Peqoud’s is a good shout. The majority of Mexican food places were super delicious too and the generic fast food places such as Panda express, Chick-fil-A and Taco bell were highly appetising. Some friends and I went to the Nutella cafe which was a very cosy place and they had not much options on the menu but did sell good standard crepes. The top two foods and drink I highly recommend was in the Heartland cafe with their wide selection of good food, this cafe was very original and incredible. This place is also organic and gluten friendly, what I suggest to get is the unusual but mouth watering Asian BBQ chicken sandwich (includes kimchi!). This was such an impressive place that really caters to all. Also my favourite drink I would get out there was the Abuelita hot chocolate. Just WOW! You can find Abuelita in most Mexican cafes, I feel like this drink takes hot chocolate to another level, please try this drink if you love hot chocolate. I promise you these suggestions won’t disappoint. 

Regardless of having such a amazing time in Chicago. I wanted to mention important on going issues that were huge eye openers whilst I was out there. These were the high rates of homelessness and gun crime. Many times we might try to ignore the hard truth about severe problems going on in our world. But as human beings we need to get better at facing the issues and notice that people are trying to survive everyday in a struggle. How do we change? From using the knowledge and seeing these issues upfront, I can only try and make some what difference by noticing there is constant problem in our society and just remembering to try and be a better person. I know there are many people that might feel helpless but from being aware of important topics and not ignoring problems, I always think how we can be better as humans. To sum up, thank you so much for reading my first blog about my recent travels. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Chicago honestly has been a massive pleasure to discover and I hope you have found what you were looking for. If you have been to Chicago or have any questions please feel free to share a comment. I hope you stay tuned for daily updates about my life experiences. I look forward to seeing you on my next post.

 Love Lala Wanderluster