New Age

Applying for jobs has been fun. . . not. But, I did receive a quirky application the other day. After succeeding to Round 2 of virtual interviewing, I was asked to answer the following 3 questions:

Q. What is Scoutmob?
A. Like Goodie Mob of the app world; a super-swag mobile app, born and bred in ATL, Georgia, used for scouting out the best of the best locally-owned businesses in your city to help you get "tha hook up".
Q. If you had one last day in Atlanta, what would you do and where would you go?

A. Funny you ask, because I’ve had two “last day” moments. My first “last day” in Atlanta, so I thought, was spent packing and buying décor for my first apartment in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. I was geeked to move to the urban environment and attend grad school at SAIC. My second “last day” in Atlanta was 2 years and 2 months ago. I spent quality time with the fam, and then flew across the world to my new home in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

    However, if tomorrow was another hypothetical “last day” in Atlanta, I would use Scoutmob to find the best Vietnamese phở for breakfast, or a cute café in Virginia Highlands. I’d scout the best southern style soul food for lunch, and for dinner I may check out my favorite spot Loca Luna. In between the meals, I’d eat again. I’d use Scoutmob to find that west midtown bakery that served Coca-Cola cupcakes back in the day, I think it's called West Egg (now they have Sweet Tea Liqueur Milkshakes, whaaat!). 
    Actually, for dinner, I would find a restaurant serving African food. It would be my going away celebration, because my next destination would be Cape Town, South Africa. Design Indaba, here I come!

Q. Design a quick logo refresh of your favorite Atlanta brand/hotspot/locale/joint/team/strip club.

Strip Club? Can't say I have a favorite one in ATL or anywhere for that matter, but I will say my favorite area, Little 5 Points, could use a nice imagemark. 

Learned Behavior

So, its been almost a month since I've been back. 25 days to be exact, but who's counting? Took a couple of weeks to get used to the time zone, and "daylight savings" business. I'm happy to be home, to smell grass, and trees, hear the crows, scare the squirrels and watch out for deer. My parents work later than normal so I get to smell real breakfast food in the morning instead of rotten dog meat or whatever it was cooking in the hem next to my complex. I can drive a car again, yaaay, and listen to the latest hood music on Atlanta's r&b/hip hop station. I can bop my head along, snap my fingers, do a twist and have no one stare me up and down. . . well they might stare, but not too hard.
Its almost like I never left! I mean, it's not hard getting used to something that hasn't changed in two years. However, since I've been back there are certain habitual Southeast Asian tendencies I have yet to let go. Here are a few learned behaviors or things I've grown to appreciate while living in Vietnam:

1. I can honestly say I am comfortable being over heated until I break a sweat. I can drive in the car and not turn on the AC. Instead I roll down the windows and keep it movin. Nothing wrong with sweat, its melted fat. Though I can't do this with my mom in the car, she has hot flashes.

2. I rinse out every glass jar till its clean before I throw it away. I think this is a good habit, it will keep the trash from smelling rotten, but the habit started to keep the ants away.

3. (My mother had to remind me) "Do not put water on my floor!" Okay, ok, I've gotten used to showering directly on a tiled bathroom floor, no bathtub, no inclosed structure just shower and floor. In Vietnam structures are built to hold or repel water and built strong to hold high winds. But it gets me thinking, How come U.S. houses in flood/hurricane zones aren't made with concrete?

4. I live for juice. . and water, I'm always thirsty! Unfortunately I don't have a juicer, so I put my 'rents blender to use. I made my mom a cucumber/lemon juice/mint/honey smoothie to die for!
Add a little rum. . . It's the drink of the summer ;-)

5. I'm extra conscious about my surroundings and security. Always checking my back, people walking behind me, and I still turn my check card around so when I open my wallet you don't see the words "Bank of America". You don't need to know where I'm from. For all you know, I could be Guyanese. And, I refuse to be a victim of identity theft. 

Calm? before the storm

PEACE OUT VN!

So a typhoon came through HCMC the Sunday I had to fly out. I got out of Vietnam safely, though it was pure craziness up to the hours before my flight left. Seemed as if everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Electricity went out, stiffed with a crazy amount of money (USD) bill written in vietnamese which lead to being cheated out of my security deposit, freelance project almost went awry, typhoon came, bags too full, luggage broke, my thumb is bleeding, I mean really???

But lets count our blessings, I have the world's greatest friends, who came to the rescue to help me escape out of my apartment before the landlord could ask for more money. So thankful for the extra luggage they spared to help save me some dough for over-sized bags. Their wit also helped me sneak my super extra heavy carry-ons on the plane, though neither bag could fit in the overhead or underneath the seat. The small black bag made it to Tokyo when the handle snapped off as I exited the plane. Awesome! Now I have to drag the bag behind me, which already weighs about 40 pounds, while carrying a 30 pound-child of books on my back. Blessing number two, Narita has handy carts available for no extra charge. This made my 8 hour lay over very pleasant. Once I get to the gate I noticed a group of Black Americans waiting to get on my flight. After I get my seat number one of them offers me a seat and starts chattin it up. Not really in the mood to talk, this dude quickly mentioned he's with a traveling singing group called "The Platters." Yeah, I figured they were singers. The name doesn't ring a bell, but I smile and nod and watched the video footage on his ipad of their performance in Manila. Of course he was trying to spit game, but Blessing number three, he was kind enough to help with my bag all the way to Atlanta. He got it on the plane at Narita, in the over head bin, then took it down once the plane landed, stood in the customs line with me holding it, and took it down to the baggage claim area before security check in. I miss Black men! It dawned on me later in the flight, that the older Black man sitting behind me on the plane, who was part of this guy's entourage, really was part of the original singing group The Platters, and helpful-kind dude was his son. Crazy, "Only You!" lol I guess they have an international following.

Well I still had 3 large bags to lug to the second security check point, and stand in a long line again, with this 30-pound-child like back pack just to go through another set of metal detectors, then to the "plane train", then to baggage claim. The silver lining was knowing that my dad, who I have not seen since Christmas 2010 would be waiting for me on the other side of the black tape at Hartsfield-Jackson. There he was looking the same, with glasses and sweat suit. His face is skinnier, looking more like an older Barack :-) There's nooo place like home!

Wale of a tale.

wales!

Its the very last night in our little paradise of Absolute bliss. To end this lovely spa holiday we went snorkeling and on our way to the next destination we spot a wale!! Actually it was two wales, possibly a mother and child. It got closer and closer and we saw some gills. . . and a mouth. Amazing!

Tonight we will eat our last super-food healthy meal and watch Eat Pray Love in the hotel theater. Awww, I definitely don't want to leave.

Anh Thong National Park, mixed water lake

the James Bond, near Anh Thong National Park

Yogi Monster Day 3

chill-laxing

The pain in the back of my legs will not go away. It is the end of the last day of our 3-day rejuvenation spa holiday and I feel great. Just had my colon cleansed for the first time, and it actually made my arthritic hands feel better. After performing Hot Yoga for the last time, I ended the day with a tumeric scrub. I'm squeaky clean!
Here's how the day went:
6:00 AM
Wake Up
6:33 AM
Breakfast: chocolate muffin (it wasn't that great), with bananas, goji berry tea w/ honey and soymilk with brown rice porridge, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds.
8:00 AM
Colon-hydro therapy info meeting. Gotta know what's about to go where the sun don't shine.
9:15 AM
Alright lets get this over with.
10:15 AM
Sleeping by the pool. Although quite uncomfortable, the hydro cleaning therapy made my arthritis feel better.
1:00 PM
Pilates with Sean, the Brit.
2:00 PM
Lunch: Pineapple, coconut and mint juice, Greek salad w/ feta and bell peppers, Tom Sum Soup with chicken and brown rice
3:00 PM
Facial
5:00 PM
Nutritional meeting with Janell, the resident Naturopath
6:00 PM
Super Hot Flow Yoga
7:00 PM
Thai Herbal Scrub
9:00 PM
Dinner: the last supper :-( Green salad with hummus, carrots, flax seeds, cherry tomatoes, Poached shrimps w/ lemon juice dressing, shallots, cilantro, and fresh greens. Papaya blend juice to drink, it's my last free juice, tastes like liquid honey comb cereal.

Yogi Monster Day 2

our last free juice :-(

I'm super sore. So lets start the day off right with the Steam Room, and of course more juice!
7:10 AM
Steam room then juice, cucumber, lemon and honey. Its like lemonade with cucumber.
8:30 AM
Beginners Hatha, Intro to Yoga
9:35 AM
Breakfast: today was coconut yogurt (yummy goodness) w/ fresh fruit and a porridge of brown rice with warm soy milk, cashews, cinnamon and chunks of young coconut.
10:15 AM
Wrote in my blog.
11:00 AM
Tooo tired for hot flow yoga, so I just went on the treadmill.
12:00 PM
Aroma therapy Massage
1:10 PM
Leg and Tummy workout practice routines.
3:00 PM
Lunch: seaweed wrap first, then black bean burrito with soy, wheatgrass and coconut water juice, mixed salad. That wheatgrass was hard to swallow.
4:00 PM
Sat by the pool, then slept for the rest of the day
9:30-10:00 ish PM
Dinner: veggie salad w/ hummus flax seeds and pumpkin seeds, poached chicken w/ mango, goji berry and ginger tea

Yogi Monster Day 1

It is the end of day 1 (Tuesday March 20th) of my yoga retreat with Tiffany. We started the vacay with Angor Wat first. That was quite the excursion, with the long bus ride to Phnom Penh, then another bumpy 7 hour ride to Siem Reap. Climbing through the temples from dawn till nearly dusk, in the heat was also exhausting, but lots of exercise. So it was a relief to finally get to our island destination of Koh Samui, Thailand for our 3 day rejuvenation session at Absolute Sanctuary.

Since we're on a 3-day rejuvenating plan, we have a limited menu of meals, but 3 meals a day, all very fresh and delicious food. BUT the best part of this spa holiday is the unlimited juices, yes unlimited. I love it. For my next blog entries I am going to share my day, the schedule and what I ate during my 3 days of rejuvenation:
7:00 AM
Breakfast at the Love Kitchen.1 silver-dollar sized pancake with the most delicious coconut yogurt. Scrambled eggs with salad and lemon grass tea. Also had some pineapple juice
Sauna for 10 minutes
8:30 AM
Detox Yoga
10:00 AM
Flow Yoga
12:00 PM
Lunch (thank goodness, I was starving)
1:00 PM
Consultation with the receptionist
2:00 PM
Sauna, again and juice!
2:15 PM
Head, Neck and Shoulder Massage with heat compress
4:30 PM
Infra Red Sauna
5:00 PM
Welcome Ritual (Foot Massage)
6:00 PM
Hot Flow Yoga, it's like a milder version of Bikram, but still very intense.
9:00 PM
After sweating myself silly we get to enjoy a small, but filling dinner. Thai glass noodle salad with sesame was the starter. Then steamed sea bass with yummy mango, papaya, pineapple salsa, served on a banana leaf. To drink I had a refreshing iced mint tea. Like mojito without the kick.
Good night!