Community Organizer

While I wait for my security clearance so I can walk on the African continent, I've been volunteering for the New York City's public advocate's office. The public advocate is the vice mayor of NYC - the president of the city council.
A large part of what the office does is constituent services - we serve as the city's ombudsman and respond to NYC residents' complaints against city agencies.
Besides manning the city 311 hotline and managing the pagillion complaint cases, I also got a taste of community organizing. I'd like to think it's what Obama did after he got out of college in Chicago, but my utter abysmal communicative abilities and less than perfect temperament compared to him make this comparison moot.
Anyway, one evening I escorted a staff to Asian Brooklyn - Sunset Park - for the Asian Pacific Heritage Month celebration. The purpose of the trip was to present a public service city award for an Asian American healthcare professional by the name of Tommy Cen. Initially an intern mistakenly printed the name Tommy Chen on the award - and I was elated when I saw that and immediately grabbed the award certificate and displayed in front of my cubicle - to the dismay of the staff. Fortunately, Bill De Blasio has not signed the award yet so it's not official. Still, I will frame this public service award.

Today though was my first true community organizing experience. When I got to the office in the morning, I was drafted by the Bronx team to go to Co-op city Bronx, which is all the way North near Westchester. Apparently the workers there are on strike - technically a employer forced lockout - due to a 4 year wage freeze. Anyway, the entire trip takes 1.5 hours one way and when we got there, it was obvious why we HAD TO BE THERE. Trash bags were piled mountains high and rodents/insects were infesting the apartments in the largest co-op housing development in the world.
We were hanging out fliers and speaking to the union/tenant organizers. The union leaders were at first very skeptical of the intentions of our office and asked me how much I was getting paid to do this; When I told them that I was volunteering, instantly the leader's face changed and all of suddenly I was being respected. Apparently the stereotype of the incompetent corrupt politician running the city runs so deep in the psyche of these people.

After we got done with co-op city that took most of the day, I was drafted by our case manager in charge of ACS (Administration of Children Services) to go to Brooklyn to address the closing of daycare centers due to a proposed $9 million budget cut. I was supposed to represent the office at a particular parents meeting at a daycare center with a high chance of being closed. I barely accepted the offer and took another hour to venture to this part of Brooklyn that is 90% Black Carribean American which I've never been to. Standing in front of a passionately angry crowd of parents, I was intimidated on multiple fronts..especially considering the fact that I was representing the city as an Asian in front of 100% Carribean Americans and was probably 10 years younger than most of the people I was supposed to be rallying/lecturing to. I was sweating profusely after walking outside in the sultry weather and the nervousness didn't help.

Luckily, an ACS middle aged lady was very supportive of my cause and the office. She probably sensed my inexperience and nervousness and actually provided the introduction/icebreaker that I was supposed to say...That made my life so much easier so that I didn't seem like a random intruder totally overdressed for the occasion - someone you can immediately spot and pin down as a surrogate of the elite Manhattan political establishment. So this lady saved my life and I was at least given the greenlight to hand out my petition that everyone was supposed to sign in addition to a plethora of other fliers and information. Though much less nervous, I was still put on the hotspot during the meeting a few times and had to pull some De-Blasio or Obama style inspirational speech out of my ass.
In the end, it was a transformational experience to say the least

30km Mountain Biking in the Andes

Jan 9th: We went on an 8 hour bus ride winding through the Andes from Cuenca (in the Southern Sierras) to Ambato (Central part of the country) and eventually Banos (right below volcano Tungurahua – over 5300m). We succumbed to a mild form of altitude sickness while on the bus from Cuenca to Alausi – while passing by 4000+m ascent/descent.

Jan 10th: today was a crazy day of mountain biking. We rented mountain bikes right from the hostel. It was a breathtaking experience because it was a descent down 30km of the Andes over nearly 1000meters. After the trip, the skin on my forearm was red/purple simmering from the sun’s ultraviolet damage – and two days later it still hurts two days later.
The route we took is the old road from Banos (elevation 1800m) to Puyo (900m) – 60km total. Thus there were lots of buses, trucks driving on the road as well – except the new road goes through at least five tunnels while the old road – also the road for bicycles and motorcycles only go through one tunnel. But it was quite scary with trucks and buses roaring down behind you and sometimes honking constantly to warn you of the potential consequences if your bike strayed into the middle of the road. Going through the tunnel on a bike was a more harrowing experience – the tunnel was narrow enough for only one vehicle and with no lights. It was horrifying riding in the middle of the tunnel – it was pitch dark and you can’t even see the ground – I was afraid that I was going to bumped into a rock and fall/injure seriously.

Even though elevation drop is quite dramatic, the actual road features quite a bit of up and down – much more uphill than what we were expecting, and hence the entire trip was more tiring. Some segments of the road is also unpaved with unbelievable amount of mud – almost impossible to ride especially uphill. We made frequent stops while going uphill, using sugarcane juice to relieve ourselves. But the downhill component was still a blast– we were zipping down the main-road with at least 30km/hr. We also walked our bikes through muddy paths. However the whole way we were treated with buena vistas of the Eastern slopes of the Andes...There were waterfalls/cascades everywhere!

One of the most interesting detour was at a little village named Rio Verde. While we wanted to refresh our sweaty faces with the cold water from the Green River, we were drafted by Ecuadorian MTV channel to be in their cell phone commercial. My travelmate Gary had to hold hands with a sexy Ecuadorian girl, or put her hand around her shoulder and walk her around in a very romantic manner.

The extra fascinating piece of scenery we saw was the ash plume from the volcanic activity of Volcano Tungurahua. Apparently this volcano is one of the most active in the world with constant daily activity.

Jan 8: Cuenca + Guinea Pig + Awesome locals

Jan 8: Cuenca: todo un mundo (Cuenca, we are one world). This colonial town is truly impressive - the city is a UN heritage site because of how the downtown is completely preserved from the Colonial days. The city streets today are no wider than they were 150 years ago - all cobblestone and all the houses are all painted in bright colors - and especially the blue/pink/brown churches around the downtown square.

Life is so amazing here that we don't want to leave anymore. Everything is so cheap and exquisite...the landscape is so majestic, the city so beautiful, and the people so collegial and welcoming. It is such a stark contrast to the stressful lives we lead in NYC.



We went to savor a local specialty for lunch - roasted guinea pig. We were the only customer in this family style restaurant - tres estreas - for their lunch hour. Before we started speaking, they already brought out a full guinea big for us to examine. We then witnessed the guinea pig being washed and cleansed of its inner organs - and subsequently roasted....
Unfortunately, even though guinea pig meat is extremely delicate - the psychological trauma prevented us from feeling like we had a full lunch meal. So we tried out this other very quaint exotic desert place just so we can savor Latin postres - lots of fruits: papayas + figs + helados from really fresh vacas milk!






The most thrilling part of the city experience was the cultural shock while visiting a large open-air supermarket. All the fresh fruits/vegetables/diary products/meat grown in the local region. And most of all you see all these Native American families sitting there selling their family farm's produce (usually three generations - the grandma, the mother and the daughter).
The place was so exciting for a number of reasons: 1) the dirt cheap fruit/vegetables/dessert we can get and 2) we can practice our spanish by bargaining. I felt like I was experiencing what I've always remembered from 9th grade Spanish textbook - teaching tourists how to bargain in local markets.



When I started bargain just for bargains sake - I quickly realized that it is a really stupid thing: 1) the Native American vendors realized that I was not going to buy anything so they would stop talking to me. THe first thing they ask once you even approach them is "how much do you want"; and also 2): I realize that these native american vendors do not charge "foreigners" at a higher price after watching what the locals get - it's dirt cheap already. For example, we got 6 mangos for 1 dollar; 20 bananas for 1 dollar;



They also have ginormous chocolate sheets and most bizarre of all, raw ostrich eggs as appetizer or desert. We were curious enough to try out - raw ostrich egg mixed with carrots and lemon....probably the most healthy drink I've ever had. We also bought fresh milk and made banana sundae at the hostel.

The part about the city and the country that made us really emotional was the family style restaurant. There is this family we frequented for two nights who were so nice to us that they would cook anything we ask and would offer us all the local stuff that we should try out. They just make all the dishes for us base on what they have in their refrigerator - and the first night we asked whether they have chivo - goat or not - and they said no, and so next dinner they bought goat meat expecting that we would come over again for dinner.
From sitting in that family restaurant for two nights, three hours each, we even observed the Ecuadorian family dynamics and almost became friends with their kids.

Andean ascent from Guayaquil to Cuenca: sea level to 4000m

Today we got off to a late start after. I was afraid that we slept past 10AM because my circadian clock is still stuck in the New York phase – while at the Equator it’s bright sun at 6AM. We rented a local van to drive us to the Andean colonial town of Cuenca – the third largest city in Ecuador.

The four hour roadtrip (ascension) from Guayaquil on the Southwestern Coast to Cuenca – a city 2500 meters (8000 feet) above sea level – ascends from the misty tropical rainforest to the Andean alpines. The road continuously increases in altitude for a couple of hours – from sea level to 4000 meters – 14,000 feet. During the first half of the trip, the road is extremely narrow and in sometimes unpaved conditions and twists through the misty Andean Western slope. You cannot see anything past 10 feet at the most – and yet all the drivers were driving 30-40mph. Nobody in the US would drive on that kind of road even in clear conditions for over 15mph - yet Ecuadorian drivers were racing in the fog with cliffs/drop-offs of over 5000 feet on one side of the road. It was a harrowing experience.


But once we reached around 2000m – the road is now above the fog and the we could see the majestic rocky Andes rising above a sea of clouds. We also saw indigenous villages along the roads with lots of lovely horses, cows, and best of all – llamas roaming around in the high Andes - and they feed on shrubs/alpine vegetation!! Moreover, the temperature also tumbled…

The Andes indigneous people literally live in the clouds on the edge of mountain cliffs. They are so use to climbing hundreds of feet just to reach the nearest water well or store. We observed that their legs are much thinner than me or you. They carry on their back basketloads of produce and walk miles to the nearest road where they station by the roadside and sell produce to long-distances buses that pass by....lots of fried bananas, corn, pig skin, maize products.

The road subsequently winds through Cajas National Park – in the alpine highlands above 3000 meters (10,000feet). Cajas means box - meaning there are a lot of We saved 40 dollars from park entrance fee by telling the local guards that we are only passing by the park to get to Cuenca. But not to miss this awesome photo-op in the Andean mountains, we stopped by a roadside bathroom at around 4000 meters. The temperature is around 40F – so we had to change into long sleeve/spring clothing immediately following our one day of tropical 95F weather. I also managed to touch one llama in a herd.

Coming down the hill into the Andean valley of Cuenca – we felt like going into towns in Tibet or Yunnan province. Not only are the terrain and the landscape very similar, the people of Tibet and Southwestern China look and even dress in a similar fashion as the Andean indigenous people.

Cuenca is really a lovely colonial town. The streets are as wide as half of one lane in the US – and all cobblestone – really similar to cities like say Bern, Switzerland, or Prague, Czech. While we were looking for a place for dinner, we immediately ignored all the restaurants with hamburgers and sandwiches that are mainly for Western tourists.

Now they are singing this “imagine” song by the Beatles in Spanish at the bar across the street. There is no wireless here so you see that it is very interesting to see hostel people sitting near the window trying to steal wireless.

La Playa and Colonial Guayaquil

The most fascinating visit of Guayaquil and the Southwestern Coast was the drive to the Pacific Coast. We rented a car with the most amicable Peruvian taxidriver I've ever met who drove us two hours to the coast one way and also back (80 dollars for the entire trip for the 4 of us). Our drive took us across rural/suburban landscape of the Southwestern Coastal Ecuador. One easily sees the income equalities of a Latin American country - Ecuador is already better than most but it still obvious. Tons of gated and completely walled communities featuring rich people's own shopping malls, parks, apartments, mansions in contrast to the slums right outside the walls. But these poor towns have their own specialties - with pigs, cats, fowls, dogs roaming free; children using the most basic equipments to play basketball and soccer. Large plantations of bananas, arroz, moras, maize fill the landscape - and unafraid of being crushed by vehicles, peasants surround your vehicle to sell their fried bananas and fruits.

We were stopped at a makeshift roadside checkpoint by police who "wanted to check whether the Peruvian driver's license" - luckily we didn't have to bribe the police to get out of that ordeal. On the way, I managed to practice some Espanol with the driver - using my little pocket dictionary and phrasebook. The small quaint town of Playas is basically a town empty of tourists during this off-season. Stray dogs roam the colonial cottages..and you only hear the crashing of the waves, the chirping of insects and some children on the streets.

We were shocked to find this resort-like beach – hundreds of yards – perhaps hundreds of kilometers long – with beach huts dotting the landscape - completely empty!! As far as the eye can see, there was one two local men carrying a fishing net in the distance and one men jogging on the beach. The beach huts were likewise completely deserted. Not for a thousand years could we eve imagine that we would have a private beach to enjoy…especially in our early 20s - with a driver waiting for us while we were taking a long time absorbing as much of the equatorial sun’s radiance, the soothing breeze, the song of sea birds, the crashing of waves, the soft sand and the tranquill beach huts!!!!!!
In addition were lucky enough to catch the last hour of sun before sunset – to exclaim our joy to the rest of the world, we learned how to say sunset in Spanish – puesta del sol. The beauty was speechless…

We at dinner at a local beach restaurant - only now do I realize how spoiled we were. We spent 7 dollars each gorging on crabs, oysters, lobsters, clams etc....This meal is basically a 500 dollar seafood deluxe meal in the States on a beachfront restaurant. The restaurant owners were stoked to serve us for sure.

Late at night, we strolled around the lakefront of Guayaquil and climbed 400 steps to reach the Santa Maria chapel on top of a hill in the center of the city. The top of the hill features a gorgeous panorama of the entire city – and on the way, the pathway winds through the local communities – with quaint and colorful little stacked rows of adobe/brick/colonial houses sometimes featuring bars, small shops, and cafes. The local people even were playing “bingo” on the steps.
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Most amusingly, that area of the city has a preponderance of security officials. And I had the feeling that each time we pass a security official, they would page the next one reporting that they are monitoring a group of Asian tourists. Thus we felt extremely safe strolling around the lakefront/the hill late at night ☺

Oriental aliens in Guayaquil

Dias cero y uno: Iguanas + sunset over the Pacific + from icebox to saunaland

I finished the first day of a long journey on the Southwestern Coast of Ecuador near Guayaquil and I already fell in love with this fascinating country.





It was a ridiculous journey from the start: after mistakenly taking the A train to 125th st station after taking the 1 train down to 42nd street, we arrived at JFK with only 45 minutes to spare. We asked the airtrain operator which terminal is Aerogal - the main Ecuadorian airline in such a panic mode, the operator said that of all the years he worked in JFK, he has never heard of this AEROGAL airine - so he suggested that we "start with terminal four" - that was so comforting for the three of us (I was the only one with un poco espanol abilities - far from being able to get around easily). Luckily, the plane was delayed by over 2 hours - so we left JFK after 2AM and arrived in Guayaquil around 9AM. There were no other Asian faces on this full Boeing 767 flight besides the three of us. The temperature in Guayaquil at 8AM was 80 degrees.

The custom crossing was another test: my travelmates who hold Chinese passports had a tough time: only Colombian and Chinese citizens need visas to visit this Andean country of 11 million. The border officials had difficulties deciphering what the silver sealed visa stamp and documentation were saying in their red PRC passports....another friend with a Taiwanese passport also received intense scrutiny of every page of his passport. Even though Taiwanese citizens don't need visa - their passport's country name is "Republic of China" - one word off from the "blacklisted" "People's Republic of China" passport.

Once we changed to our summer clothing in the airport bathrooms (literally stripping from our winter coats and sweaters into only shorts and shirts), we took a $5.00 taxi to downtown guayaquil (Ecuador uses American dollars - and we only use $5.00 and $1.00 here since everything is so cheap in this country). Once we met up with our Taiwanese colleague in the hostel we started strolling around the Colonial downtown Guayaquil; rented a private vehicle to tour the pacific ocean beach....Right now I'm sitting in a hostel overlooking the lagoon Rio de Guaya which feeds into the Pacific Ocean - with a private 4 bed bedroom decorated in pink for our party of four - with swing beds outside and quaint balconies....sipping on delicious tropical fruit Mora and Cicruela juice with a gorgeous ocean breeze.

Never did I imagine that with a Chinese face, I would be stared upon by all the locals. Guayaquil while it is the largest city in Ecuador with a population of near two million, is not a tourist destination. There are tons of rural migrants to this largest city - commercial and financial center of the country - to register as temporary worker. Police with batons and rifles straddle every streetcorner. Street vendors yelling "agua agua" or "helado helado" are the last resort to go to if you dehydrate in the scorching humid sun. But People are all out in this 95 degree afternoon weather - with children wearing tight uniforms and bank employees in dark suits. The buses are reminiscient of the style of the 1950s - with doors perpetually open and no air conditioning. The roads are barely marked with lanes. And we frequently see chicas bonitas riding on the back of pickup trucks. Barely any place has air-conditioning - the temperature of this place remains around 90F all year around - hence Ecuador/Equator.




We found one Chinese restaurant near the center of the town called "Chow-la-fan" - or "fried the rice" and the boss of the restaurant and maybe her children were the only Oriental Asian looking people we saw in the entire city. The basic fried rice is only $1.20 - four of us ate three plates - 90 cents per person for lunch! Take that New York!! In any case, four oriental people strolling around become the new tourist attraction for the locals...we felt like some exotic animals in a zoo exhibition. One German missionary here came up to us and started speaking Chinese....In any case there are lots more Europeans and some East Asians in Quito and Cuenca - more touristy cities in the Andes.

We stumbled upon some parks in the central part of the town and you see dozens of Iguanas resting on the sidewalks, ponds and clinching to those ginormous mangrove and other tropical trees. The local people do not look so amused by the iguanas. Iguana is the national symbol of Ecuador and so they are greatly respected and treasured with statues and symbols everywhere.

Tale of Two Campuses (I) - Shock of generational divide

It seems true but scary that it's impossible to physically leave Princeton. I thought that after I graduated I won't be back for months but in less than two months, I hopped on campus on at least four occasion already!

But there is another campus that I have to dip my feet in - Columbia. But oh lord they are campuses on different planets.
While immersing myself in the Columbia world, I have to pretend to be mature so I can fitin witheverybody is in the 25-30s range. Most people have had years of work experience and are all well mannered, dressed, and yes scarred by the competitive, life or death working world. As someone freshly out of college, it's natural to be intimidated.
#1: They are more mature...with more life stories, experiences to share
#2: They are excited to be back in school...unlike me still completely burned out by Princeton.
Yeah grad school in that kind of environment is Princeton on steroids.

I was at one of their happy hour event on Wednesday, and it was amazing chatting with all these working professionals about going back to school. Many of them with impressive years working in the i-banking, consulting, law firms industries. Plenty of international students as well (50% of the class). The first thing they ask you is where have you been working, and I begrudgingly admit that I'm a fresh graduate. So it'll be a very interesting/bemusing experience in the next month meeting all the classmates.

At Princeton, I found myself interacting with a group of class 2014ers - students who were selected for the inaugural bridge year program in which they take a year off to work for a NGO in one of the four countries - Serbia, India, Peru and Ghana. These kids were obviously brilliant, but also very boisterous and somewhat immature - something I forgot that existed still in the first years of college. That starkly reminded me how much we, as seniors as recent graduates have been scarred by the Princeton life - how "growing up" during college years means becoming more dull, and frankly, less spontaneous/interesting/funny person. Which is sad of course but it is the reality imposed by the restraints of the society....because after people have been working in the professional world for a while (through summer internships during college), they have to act professionally/conform to the standards of the workplace/society and all that and be politically correct, mature, responsible....all of that take away the youthfulness/spontaneity of your memorable childhood years.

Just sitting in the common room overhearing conversations of incoming freshman was
amusing enough. The sports teams arrive earlier than the rest and so I was in the same common room as the swim team when they were hanging out. They completely shattered my previous stereotypical views of the "jocks" of Princeton even. At first they were gesturing and spewing out phrases that were incomprehensible to me - idiosyncratic languages only understood by their teams. But then all of them became very serious and delve into a deep philosophical conversation involving classes/major/career choice - and at that point I really wanted to chime in. And they were flying words like John Nash, taking multivariable calculus, investment banking internships, comparing the different ivy league students...these are like the cookie cutter convos of supposedly the nerds of nerds.

Of course I've had intellectually brilliant athlete friends, but since I was never an athlete, I thought that they don't have that kind of philosophical convos when they gather. Now after eavesdropping on their internal bread-butter day/day conversation, I was impressed and have a new found respect for these hardworking athletes.
In the end, when an athlete started playing the Coldplay on piano and started singing, that was even more brilliant (all these crazy kids with a multitude of physical/mental talents). And when they approached me, I was mistaken as one of them - incoming 2013er.

For the 2014ers..we orchestrated some icebreaker events for them including twister, apples/apples and asking scandalous anonymous questions. That was even more amazing to watch these joyous, energetic kids with unsatiable imagination, talent and curiosity.