Petraeus: Reconsidering Values

I'm sure a lot of you are aware of the situation regarding David Petreaus' resignation on the basis of an extramarital affair. My question is why this is relevant in the scope of his position as Director of the CIA. Initially my reaction was that this is a smokescreen, that something bigger had to be going on, and that there was no way a sexual affair would be considered so weighty to dismount this (very successful) man's career, especially when it is a career so crucial to the state's armed forces and national security.

It's been 4 whole days since the story broke and the 'scandal' has broadened into a shitty daytime soap opera including useless Florida socialite Jill Kelley and General John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Here's the summary:
Paula Broadwell is David Petraeus' biographer.
Paula Broadwell has been fucking David Petraeus.
David Petraeus admitted he had been fucking Paula Broadwell and resigned from his position.
Paula Broadwell sent anonymous, 'threatening' emails to Jill Kelley, warning her to stay away from Petraeus.
Jill Kelley reported the emails to the FBI.
Jill Kelley has exchanged thousands of kinky emails with John Allen.
Investigators are currently poring over these kinky emails.
John Allen is denying an inappropriate relationship with Jill Kelley.
John Allen replaced David Petraeus as head of Central Command in Afghanistan.
David Petraeus supposedly sent a shirtless picture to Jill Kelley.
LOL SRSLY.


Here's my take:
Just as there should be separation between church and state, there should be separation between personal and business affairs. It is not ok to cheat on your spouse, but that is an issue that should be resolved within the marriage, not through headlines and resignations, especially when someone as qualified as David Petraeus is giving up a position that he is extremely experienced with and equipped to handle.

Just look at his wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus). Before being the Director of the CIA, he was a 4-star general with over 37 years' Army experience, including a host of commander positions. He has a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, an M.P.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton, and a completed fellowship at Georgetown. I'm not saying no one else in the military has a comparable pedigree, and I'm not saying that degrees make a person competent, but a unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, 94-0, to make Petraeus the Director of the CIA, is significant. Before that he was in command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.


Tell me, why is all of this counteracted by the fact that he put his penis in a vagina that wasn't his wife's?

Here are the reasons I've seen that support the resignation, along with my counterarguments.
1. This is evidence of poor judgment and a broken moral compass.
- Can't say cheating on your wife is a good choice, but being a bad husband does not make Petraeus a bad CIA director. I actually think the two are totally separate issues. Also, when did one's judgment in personal matters become grounds for such public criticism and subsequent assumption of not only character, but competence? I think we'd be hard pressed to find anyone who does not think Petraeus could still perform, if not excel at, his director duties, but the message that this resignation and the acceptance of it sends is that enforcing these conservative marital values trumps all else.

2. Potential of blackmail for highly classified information that the Director of the CIA is undoubtedly privy to.
- This one's easy. Come out and admit the affair, then work it out in private with your wife. No secrets, no blackmail. Done.


Now to address the root of the issue. One user comment I saw on LA Times sums it up quite nicely:
"Our culture, once again, stupidly throws away desperately needed political and military leadership by insisting on conservative religious sexual mores as being more important than effective management.

If these liaisons actually damaged security or our defense, the individuals should be disciplined, of course. But if not, I suggest would-be critics apply their irrelevant sense of sexual morality to their own personal relationships and let others work out theirs.

This travesty damages our nation more than many terrorist acts."

Ok, maybe the last line is a bit dramatic, but the essence of this commentary makes its point quite clear. Actually, I was going to expand on it but that doesn't really seem necessary.

I'll just leave you with an article that my faithfully monogamous boyfriend sent me:
Here. NYTimes.

The point of the article is that plenty of leaders in history, even some of the most successful, effective ones, were cheating scumbags, but since it didn't affect their ability to govern and lead their respective people, IT DIDN'T FUCKING MATTER and NO ONE CARED WHERE THEIR DICKS WENT as long as their BRAINS STAYED WHERE IT COUNTED MOST.

Cheaters:
Allen Dulles, CIA Director in the 50's and 60's, lauded as "the greatest intelligence officer who ever lived." (By his biographer. Lol.)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, obviously a President and a General. D-Day, anyone?
John F. Kennedy, if you need an explanation please never speak to me again.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, yep, even with the polio.
George S. Patton, General in WWII, 1912 Olympic pentathlete (Thanks, wiki!)



THE POINT: Can we please stop caring so much about who people sleep with and instead, judge and condemn/commend people based on their merits and achievements?

By this I mean to also include the irrelevance of sexual preference in the judgment of character, the measure of ability, and the distribution of civil rights. But that's a slightly different argument. Maybe we should just throw this 'sanctity of marriage' ideal out the window and see if society becomes even a tiny bit more functional.



There it is. I feel better. I know what's important to me and I feel strongly about it. Maybe, hopefully, we can start seeing some social progress soon. A lot of the election results were highly encouraging: Tammy Baldwin being elected as the first openly gay senator, and Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington all supporting gay rights victories. Even so, we have a long way to go.

Let me know if you actually made it to the end of this post, I'll owe you a hug.

West Coast Googs

Last weekend Alex, my best friend from home, finally came to visit me in LA. Not only was it the first time she had seen me out here, but it was also her farthest trip west. The pics are a mix of mine and Alex's. Mine are the good ones :)

She got in on Thursday and I went to pick her up after napping through the VP debate and finally watching Remember the Titans. I love football. Alex's In-n-Out cherry was popped that night and she loved it. Animal style.

Friday consisted of visits to some of the more accessible huge houses in Beverly Hills, ridiculously ritzy shops on Rodeo Drive, cruising through Hollywood, and visiting Amoeba Music, one of the largest record shops ever. Seriously, like too large to reasonable handle just browsing. Without a definitely plan or title in mind you could go crazy in this place but luckily I came across two movies that I was very happy to spend my Groupon on: Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Miss Congeniality. Documentary-style food porn and the funniest movie of my childhood, respectively.

Perfection.

Going back real quick to Rodeo Drive shopping-- Coach and Prada were the lower end stores there. As in, we could reach and conceive of purchasing something from there. We also went into the Ralph Lauren where our relative 'poor' was instantly noted and I personally felt a little like a second class citizen, and like they were taking note of whatever we touched so they could sanitize it later. We also went into Cartier and were surprisingly regarded as real humans, likely because we could have potentially been young mistresses for some rando loaded guys. Anyway, this place probably had more security on duty than the Mona Lisa. They also had diamonds that sparkled to blindness and were comparable to my eyeball in size. Maybe the TSA should ban diamond rings on flights.

Bugatti randomly parked on Rodeo. Totally ridic.

On Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Alex was sad that we didn't run into Miley.

 We also dropped by the Hollywood & Highland shopping center which is adjacent to the Dolby Theatre. Next door is the Grauman's Chinese Theatre with celeb handprints in the cement and all along Hollywood Blvd are the walk of fame stars. Touristey LA, but a must do. On the way back to my place we stopped at the Yard House for some happy hour. One of my favorites in LA, located downtown at LA Live, the complex that also houses Staples Center, the Grammy Museum and the Nokia Theatre. Happy hours are one of my new favorite hobbies and the good ones deserve recognition. More on that later.

Pi day!

 Saturday morning we hiked to the hollywood sign! It was about a 2.6 mile hike and pretty relaxed.

The back of the sign.
The fence below is as close as you are allowed to get to it.

View from the top of the hike.

Alex overlooks Hollywood.

Dropped by the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Angel's Knoll, housing the bench featured in 500 Days of Summer. Turns out the park is a homeless hangout and smells like stale piss and is in the middle of industrial downtown LA. Movie magic at its best. That afternoon USC played Washington and obviously it was a requirement to watch. Too bad it was an away game but thankfully our defense showed up and saved the day. I got a huge stress pimple from watching that game. Thanks for that, Kiff.

At night we went up to Santa Monica to eat on the promenade and hang out at the pier at night. It has a ferris wheel and small amusement park and is really pretty when all lit up at night, especially when the reflections bounce around on the surface of the dark water. I love the beach at night. It's so peaceful and so powerful to realize how insignificant you are.

Alex played Skeeball at the little arcade. Look at the ball going
into the little hole! The middle center one. Yay.

Sunday we were back at Santa Monica for daytime beach bumming. Charlie and I had our first beach league game and Alex was cool to sit around and talk to Christian, then walk around and explore downtown SM. Hit up the farmer's market and got some Homegirl tacos, then drove up the PCH toward Malibu. That's always such a beautiful drive and the scenery is gorgeous- No wonder so many celebs crash their cars there. Destination point was the Getty Villa, a Greek-style villa that's part open air ampitheatre, part museum, part architectural playground, all in the name of preservation and expansion of Greek and Roman cultural knowledge.

Part of the Villa.

It's art.

We may or may not have spent some time in the children's section.

We collected a souvenier from their
herb garden. Alex did not approve.

 By this time Alex and I were both pretty exhausted. We met Kara and Bryan for dinner in Culver City and then went back to my place and promptly passed out. At like 9:30. Party hard.

Monday morning was a lazy time. Slowly rolled out of bed at around 10(I took a sick day from work), and went to see USC campus. Showed Alex all of my favorite spots and all of the prettiest ones that they show everyone on campus tours. Then I got a parking ticket. Fuckers. 1:15 in a 1 hour street parking spot. Do they know how many bobas or margaritas I could have gotten with that citation money?? :( Whatever. Headed back west to Marina del Rey and went stand-up paddleboarding! It was really fun and pretty easy to pick up. Neither of us fell in the water but I sit-down paddled for a bit because my feet were getting hot. Really, these boards are huge and really sturdy. I'd love to take one out in the ocean sometime and be on moving water. Hopefully it'll be easier than surfing because that shit is hard.

Monday evening was the best. Alex's flight was a red-eye so we had plenty of time to party before shipping her back to the east coast. We went to happy hour at my favorite beach bar in Manhattan Beach, featuring buy-one-drink-get-the-second-for-$0.25. Yes, a quarter. So when you order one drink they just give you two. Alex had multiples, and that was just the start of the night. Their fish tacos are amazing too-- crispy, big halibut filet, crunchy but not too heavy slaw, grated cheese, and this amazing garlic-habanero sauce that I always have to ask for on the side. Refried black beans were good too. Refried beans are great in general. We finished happy hour dinner, took a walk by the beach and saw sunset, very romantic, and headed back.

This is where I live.

This is Alex invading where I live :)

Untold other events transpired between the time of dinner and boarding time, but the only this you need to know is this:

This post-it ended up on Alex's head.
It reads, "Choose carrots instead :)"

And so ended the weekend of epic reunion. Alex is back to not responding to my texts or tweets, being on the opposite coast from me, and so we regress to the mean. Until the next adventure!

P.S. Tickets back to Atlanta booked for December!

Also, FOOTBALL! YEAH! TROJANS! FALCONS! Omg I'm scared.

Weekender: Not Just for Students!

While there are occasionally things I miss a LOT about being in school (ex// days with only 2 hours of class, extended lunches, mid-day naps, playing ultimate with the Hellions, and street tacos), one of the things I will never have to miss is football season. The annual weekender is a quintessential part of the USc football experience and shockingly this was only my second one.

This year we were vetted for a big revenge game against Stanford. We all know what happened there and I'm still kindof in #USCDenial so I won't talk about it here. Despite that strange occurrence, it was still a pleasantly eventful weekend and a wonderful getaway from real life.

I didn't go to work on Friday and Charlie and I left in the morning, up the 101, to our first logical stop on a drive north-- Santa Barbara. Lots of ultimate tournaments in SB have conditioned me to love and crave the real Freebirds burritos on Embarcadero, right off UCSB's campus. Really there's not anything out-of-this-worldly about their burritos, but they are always so solid with quality, delicious ingredients that all work together so well. I got my usual: a chicken burrito with rice, black and refried beans, veggies, pico, onions, cilantro, jalapenos, cheese, and lettuce. Basic. But undeniably good.

Farther up the 101 the car had a minor malfunction and the splash shield under the front bumper decided to half-fall off and drag itself on the freeway. We lacked the simple tools that would have been necessary to temporarily fix it ourselves, so we got towed to a local auto shop. Tow trucks are giant and impressive. And it was hot as hell standing on the side of the freeway, especially when huge semis would drive by, blow hot dust and air into our face, and shake the Prius like a salt shaker.

Right before our little incident.

Stupid splash shield.

A real Tonka truck came to tow us!!

At the auto shop they told us it looked like more than a few screws were missing (um, Toyota service center-- you're paying for this), so they just took off the splash shield. It was made of pretty flimsy plastic which told me it wasn't actually a crucial part of the car's functionality. It's just an external cover so since it wasn't a mechanical failure, we were off to continue our slightly elongated trek to Monterey!

We had intended to take some time and explore Asilomar and some other nice views in Monterey-- not quite enough time for a hike or anything which really just means I have a reason to go back :) Same with the Redwoods, but that's a separate story. Arrived in Monterey at around dinner time so we walked around Cannery Row, saw the aquarium but didn't go in, through this rando antique/pimped out car show called Cherry Jubilee, to Fisherman's Wharf. I like this wharf way better than the ones in San Francisco. It's much smaller, more local and homey and therefore less touristey and commercial. When you walk down it's lined with restaurants that all have clam chowder samples to try to entice you to come in. It's amazing how competitive these restaurants are with each other. They know all of the specials each of them is offering and matches, if not one-ups it. When deciding where to eat we literally eliminated an option because they DIDN'T offer a free calamari appetizer. Fosters a pretty awesome, affordable, ocean-view dining experience for all involved.

Ok, so the chowder reviews, in order of tasting so my brain doesn't get too confused:
Crabby Jim's- perfectly creamy and balanced with potato chunks and enough clam to taste but not too salty
Gilbert's- slight sweet corn aftertaste... maybe they use corn starch as a thickener? also, strong celery flavor.
Old Fisherman's Grotto- way way way too thick. I could barely pour this into my mouth. Texture matters! This is the one that was supposedly famous. WRONG.
Crab Louie's- tasted like the ocean, and not in a good way. also, the cream and the clear liquid weren't fully emulsified so it looked less opaque.
Abalonetti- slight lemon flavor-- a welcome distinction from its competitors.
Isabella's- roasted garlic flavor. rich and chunky but a good, balanced texture.
Domenico's- the guy was unattentive and unfriendly. chowder wasn't impressive either.

Our three favorite chowders were Crabby Jim's, Abalonetti, and Isabella's. Abalonetti is the one that got eliminated because of lack of free appy (though we bought a chowder-to-go from them afterward), and Crabby Jim's had a wait so we ended up at Isabella's. It's one of the nicer, pricier options on the wharf but with a homey Italian family story, an award-winning chef, free calamari, and all-night happy hour, we figured we might as well. The starter foccacia bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and roasted garlic dip was good. We ate 2.

Charlie got this amazing-looking spinach fettucine in garlic cream sauce that was absolutely LOADED with seafood. It came with a whole lobster tail, a bunch of scallops, shrimp, and I don't know what else.
I just got an oysters rockefeller appetizer because I was not too hungry after all those chowder samples. Oh, and I had a happy hour margarita. Nom. Side note about the oysters rockefeller-- the oysters were delicate, but the rockefeller topping had bacon in it. I know this might sound snooty but I'm so over bacon in restaurants. They seem to think it's a failproof addition that will improve any dish. Not true. It's often overwhelming and that amount of smoke and salt doesn't enhance a lot of dishes and I think it masks a lot of other flavors. So I try not to order anything with bacon anymore. It's best fried for breakfast with scrambled eggs. Classic. So yeah, oysters rockefeller minus bacon, plus more parmesan (it's an Italian restaurant!!) would be ideal.

Yeah, the actual food was slightly overpriced, but it's comparable with neighboring restaurants and it's to be expected from touristey locations like this. After dinner we meandered to Charlie's aunt and uncle's place. Really nice place in slightly remote farmland that's just civilized enough, and within a few miles of the highway so still pretty convenient. His aunt does pottery and she gave me a garlic-shaped container to bake garlic in! It's so cute, I love it. No picture because then everyone will love it and try to steal it.

Saturday was gameday and we went into Palo Alto after a nice breakfast with the relatives, visited with another of Charlie's uncles. This was my first time meeting him and I'm really glad we were able to spend some time there. I can't verbalize it very well but he exudes such a vibrant energy-- a very warm and open kind of person. And they have a two cats, one is fat, and the other chases and tries to pounce on a red laser dot. Adorable. Afterward we parked and got a bite to eat before heading into the stadium about an hour before gametime. The cute little 'village' they have right off ofcampus with a Trader Joe's, lots of eateries, and plenty of little shops is something USC desperately lacks. That, and an offensive line. Oh wait. Not talking about that. Whatever, Stanford has a tiny stadium and they still struggle to fill it. And their bitch ass student section is eternally shocked at any win they can muster. Apparently any W is worth rushing the field for. Four years in a row. Bleh.

Sunday we went up to Oakland to visit my grandma! Dim sum and come catching-up ensued, though Charlie was slightly less able to communicate with her than I was with his family. Thankfully he loves peggle. Hung out a bit with the gma, packed up a ton of food that she prepared for me (EEEEEEE NOMMMMMMM!!!!! FAVORITE!!), and started the drive back.

Now we're back. Somehow it's Wednesday.
Went to pickup in SM last night. It was really enjoyable and I'm in terrible shape but unlike Rose Bowl pickup where everyone's cliquey and kindof exclusive and you have to wait years to play for a few minutes, everyone was really nice and chill here and still ran hard. Maybe it wasn't actually hard... maybe I just thought so since I currently have the endurance and strength of an obese, beached whale. Even an obese, live whale can swim forever. Anyway. Back to real life, starting to really get settled into a new routine hopefully including both ultimate and orchestra on top of the basic essentials-- good food, sports, income, and Charlie :)

Parting picture-- pluots!!

Lastly, the Falcons won in MNF this week with a strong defensive showing against Peyton Manning.

Rise up and Fight on!

Sugarfish

Believe it or not, since moving to LA nearly 4 full years ago, this was my first dineLA experience. Good thing it was awesome. I went to Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa in Marina del Rey, a place I had heard of many times before but never tried because of the price tag. Let me tell you-- totally worth it. The food is impeccable and the service is friendly and attentive, serving each next plate within the last 2 bites of the previous.

Detailed recap of my lunch:
Edamame appetizer-- nothing special. Boiled, chilled edamame. Can't really screw this one up.
Tuna sashimi in scallion and ponzu sauce-- delicious. Plentiful cuts of lean tuna without a single shred of that nasty white connective tissue crap in a wonderfully acidic, balancing sauce. Perfectly firm yet tender (?) texture and rich in flavor, attesting to the quality of the fish. Too much tuna is just red, mushy, and tasteless these days.
Sushi taster-- albacore, salmon, yellowtail, and scallop. For possibly the first time in my life, salmon was my least favorite of a lineup of sushi. This is because the others were amazing, not because the salmon was lackluster. This is one of those places where the chef doesn't recommend soy sauce if he's already put sauce on the sushi, and won't indulge requests for extra rice or salt. Could be pretentious, but he has a right to do so because the way the sushi is prepared is purposeful and effective. The albacore came with some scallion garnish and ponzu, salmon with toasted sesame seeds, yellowtail with a crisp, fresh lemon essence that was infused even through the rice, and the scallop, my favorite of the day, had a distinct serrano accent and some slightly salty sauce that highlighted the buttery, fresh, raw ocean circle.

Hand rolls-- not something I would usually get but these were pretty tasty and I'm glad I got to try them. Burrito-style sushi weirds me out but the toro roll was rich and fatty, though unspectacular. The blue crab roll was surprisingly light. I have a tendency to question any cooked meat presented sushi-style, but this was delicately marinated, tediously extracted from the shell, and pleasant to nom. Also, the fish:nori ratio was excellent.

My only, singular point of criticism is that their rice is a bit too loosely packed. They intentionally do this to create that 'melt-in-your-mouth' thing, but 'fall-between-my-chopsticks' is a little more of what happened, especially when the sushi was pre-sauced. Really, the top quality fish has already stolen the role of mouth-melting.

Then back to work, yay.

Today marks 3 full weeks of being employed and nearly 2 weeks of living at my new apartment in Playa del Rey. All is wonderful and I still can't get over how lucky I am that everything has fallen into place this way.


I don't know why these last few lines have a white highlight. Please ignore.

Read, Eat, Sleep, Watch Sports

Watching 4th quarter of game 2 of the NBA finals. Durant is killing it and I want a piece of Westbrook for myself, but I don't get why OKC makes things so difficult for themselves, digging big holes to crawl out of at the end of the game.

Maybe they're just baiting another choke from 'KingJames'.

Anyway, post-Aruba, staying at home for an extra week since it seems pointless to sit in my apartment alone when I could be hanging with my fam and watching the little bro play another tennis tourney especially since I won't have the time to lounge around like this next summer.


The last few days in Aruba were much, much better than the first. We managed to find a few hidden gems frequented by locals but are too out of the way for most tourists. This means we had to rely on the kindness and generosity of people who had cars to give us rides. (Take note: if you're going to visit Aruba and plan to leave the resort bubble, RENT A CAR. Preferably a 4x4 Jeep to overcome the natural landscape.)

Wednesday we went to Mangel Halto, a beautiful little bay known for snorkeling. While the water wasn't as clear and the fish weren't as bright or plentiful as Hanauma Bay in Hawaii, it was a nice piece o beach with a pretty distinct mangrove forest to tunnel through to get to the water. A little farther off the coast there's apparently a shipwreck and pretty good diving-- definitely added to the list of things to try. Then went to dinner on a dock. Really cool atmosphere, good food, and not outrageous prices.

An iguana on the beach at Mangel Halto!

Inter-species marriage?

Love this! Someone built a ladder to a rock. 

Silhouetted Mom in the sunset. We just walked up this dirt
road along the coast from beach to dinner.

Found this anchor on the side of the road.

Our dinner table at Marina Pirata!

 Thursday we hitched a ride down to San Nicholas, site of a huge oil refinery formerly owned by Valero but recently shut down and acquired by China. That was one of the really unexpected things about Aruba-- there are a ton of Chinese immigrants there! Apparently they initially arrived for something oil-related in the 40's and now nearly every grocery store on the island is Chinese-run. That's the other thing. Nearly all of the fruits and vegetables are imported. Did I already write about this? The most easily developed parts of the island are dedicated to tourism and majority of the remaining land is extremely rocky and arid. No space for farming. Anyway, went to baby beach, known for its calm, clear, shallow waters, followed by a undistinct but fun little music festival that night.

Clear blue waters at Baby beach.

Sand crab! He's so cute!!

Charlie's Bar! Apparently an Aruban landmark. Fun place
and decor, but kindof just an excuse for expensive American
bar food and draft beer.

Balashi, Aruba's Beer. One of the few things
actually produced on the island. Aruba also
has one of the world's largest water
desalination plants.

Charlie's Honeymoon Sauce. It was really tasty.

Creeping on the photo shoot next to our hotel.

Gogurt sky sunset! Mom on the dock.

Cool costumes along the back street at the music festival.
Hellions represent!

The last day before airport day consisted of a jeep tour led by the amazing local woman. Mother of 6 and grandmother of 7, she's one of the liveliest, happiest, most carefree yet adventurous and loving people I've ever met. She took us to Andicuri beach on the northern coast, totally secluded and serene but with rough waves and rocky coast. Then the natural bridge was pretty majestic and the natural pool was filled wish fish and eels which we called to the surface with bread.

The Jeep. Janky, but so bad ass. The door latches only work
sufficiently to prevent them from flying outward and the entire
body is covered in Sharpie messages. Canvas top, open air,
perfect for adventuring.

Me on the natural bridge.

Climbing down to be under the bridge = good idea.

Drive through the Arikok national park.

Natural rock formations surround a pool.

The walk down to be poolside. This was after a 20 minute,
bumpy ass ride into the park.

We signed her Jeep. All in all a good trip.
Mom-daughter time!

Since I've been back Nadal won a record 7th Roland Garros title, I've finally finished the Harry Potter series, Charlie is still in Europe, and Boeing's relocation assistance has proven amazing.

Glad I got to see Alex before she left for her internship at Goldman Sachs. And she turned 21!! Happy belated. It's our 10th year of friendship.

D'aww! The caption should be in present tense but Alex was
still in high school when she made this. Forgivable.

Oh, and I get to see Ben Sollee live again! I need to broaden my musical horizons. Suggestions? I'll take book suggestions too!

Aaaaaand after some huge shots by KD to bring the game within 2, the Heat win game 2 100-96. Boo.

Last thing-- a piece of unsolicited advice for those still early in their college careers. Choose a major depending on potential future job prospects. They tell you to do what you enjoy. Don't listen. Unless you also plan to enjoy being unemployed :)

Aruba: Pre-packaged Fun

So... Aruba is not all it's cracked up to be. We went to Oranjestad, the capital, which I expected to be a sort of cultural center of the island: lively, fun, delicious... No such thing. Even the government-sponsored tourist info center was NON-EXISTENT. Like, there's a little 'i' in a circle on the map between the Renaissance Hotel and the Parliament building-- we get there-- no information center. Everyone we ask looks at us like we're stupid. Considering tourism is their main source of income you'd think they would try a little harder to be helpful. The capital consists of 2 blocks of sketchy jewelry stores, a shopping center that looks like Dutch Cake Fairyland (Royal Plaza), a giant bus hub which was actually really useful, a Valero gas station, and a ton of sketchy alleys and construction.

Confused Licious in Oranjestad, in front of the
Norse Frosting Plaza, or whatever.

So there's a sign but no information center.
I don't <3 you right now, Aruba!

Apparently anything worth seeing has been moved to the high-rise part of the island where all of the main resorts are, around Palm beach and the northwestern end. This leaves Oranjestad pathetically lackluster. Even the touted Bon Bini cultural festival every Tuesday night seemed like a government-induced waste of effort. We didn't spend the $5 to go in because the whole 'city' was so run down and uncomfortable, and the official tourism website where I got a lot of other information had already proved unreliable.

The high-rise area is known to local people as Little Miami and that's exactly what it is. Yes, the beaches are covered with white sand and the water is nice and calm, but all of the areas that are a little nicer or more relaxing are fully manufactured. Giant shopping centers filled with the finest American retailers and average American restaurants, fancy all-inclusive resorts with their own expensive and thoroughly-advertised restaurants and pools and spas, it's anything you can get at any other resort in the world. All of the activites that are available are what I refer to as pre-packaged or manufactured fun. Like Disneyland, but with less thought and creativity and engineering efforts. Things like guided RV tours, glass-bottom boats, and sitting on a floaty thing while being dragged around in a circle by a small motorboat just aren't fun to me. Oh, but there are casinos here too. No thanks. Also, the beaches are nice but honestly nothing special enough to merit a visit here. (Hawaii)

I did enjoy riding the bus away from Oranjestad to Palm Beach, lounging there, and then walking back south through all the beaches and along all of the hotels and resorts. All of the beaches here are public so the resorts can't block them off for private use only. That's nice. Unless you're paying $500/night to stay there. I still say that public transport and walking around are the best way to see a new place, even if it takes a lot more time and energy. Obviously this isn't true wherever you go, but I think this is generally how I get the best sense of a new place. (Sydney)

A nice part of Eagle beach, just south of Palm beach.

Wandering. The beach in this segment was tiny and rocky
and therefore there were no establishments in sight.

One redeeming part of Aruba is the little place where we're staying. It's in Savaneta, on the opposite side of the island that's meant for tourists, but it's a lovely, cozy little family-run place that has about 7 rooms total and a unique array of really friendly, outgoing people. Of course, it takes a specific kind of person to turn down the resort vacation that Aruba is known for and instead opt for a tiny, out-of-the-way place that's surrounded by dirt roads and is a 10 minute walk from the nearest bus stop. So yes, nice place, friendly travelers, really great owners, but the inconvenience and inaccessibility of everything is a major downside. Even so, we managed a pretty nice dinner the first night. We walked to a local fish market down the street and bought some fresh mahi mahi and shrimp and grilled it. There was also a teeny little bakery with fresh breads and snacks. Slightly disappointed with the lack of local food readily available for purchase. Maybe it's just because they don't grow anything here and import almost all fruits and vegetables... I just thought that with Dutch affiliation and Caribbean location there would be something more unique. (Taiwan)

At least the scenery was really nice on our walk.

The teeny little snack shop. Even my head almost hit the awning.
Charming in its own way but not a reliable resource.

The view from our room really is gorgeous.

Dinner, night 1! Fresh grilled mahi mahi and shrimp.

This guy was ginormo. And a shrimp. Ginormo shrimp. Haha.

 You might be wondering-- why the hell would I come to a vacation destination in the Caribbean and not stay in a nicer place with more accessible amenities? That's not how I do. If you are new to reading this blog or are too dense to tell, I like experiencing things for their true value and identity and all-inclusive resorts just aren't enjoyable to me. Yes, I've stayed at them and yes, it's nice to be waited on and served at your every whisper but I don't enjoy it as much as others might so really it's not worth it for me. I like wandering around and exploring local life and culture and seeing and learning about how things and people and cultures differ so widely in various places. There's really just not much here.

A nice tree on the northern bit of Eagle beach. Really serene.

A DIY swing. Hilarious and surprisingly sturdy.

Maybe I'm being unfair and maybe I'm spoiled to have so many other amazing adventures to compare this to but really, if you aren't into spending a million dollars for a completely manufactured and less-than-distinct island experience, maybe Aruba shouldn't be at the top of your list.

Hopefully the next few days will have more interesting things in store, but really if they don't I'm ok just lounging around the mini-hotel's nice patio furniture. Though the beach here is really small and rocky, the water is still nice, the sun shines, and the island breeze carries away any worry.

Other quick updates:
I got a car! Black Toyota Corolla. I'll have in LA when I'm back in a few weeks! My brother suggested getting the license plate to say 'Lish'. Thoughts?

Also, I got to see that same little bro win a doubles tourney the day before leaving for Aruba.

BIG first serve. Too fast for me to capture the contact point.

SHO PROUD, LITTLE BRO!!