Yenny Otero

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.

Christmas is not an eternal event at all, but a piece of one's home that one carries in one's heart.

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What is killing us?

Sunday, November 26, 2006 9:02:40 PM

After an exhaustive review of the research literature, here's the final word on nutrition and health.:

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

3. Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

5. Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

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Don’t Try to Change the World

Monday, November 20, 2006 8:50:04 AM

After discussing about life and everything with my friend Wolf, I found this small story that I've heard long ago. I still find it relevant, you cannot try changing the world if you haven't started doing something good with the first gift that was given to you, yourself:

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Source: Unknown Monk (1100AD).

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Razones para amar a Colombia

Saturday, September 30, 2006 12:55:21 PM

Colombia

I was browsing around in a lazy saturday morning and I found this very cool article with reasons to love Colombia... there are so many reasons to carry in our heart a lifetime of memories in this small piece of paradise...

Sorry... it is in spanish (as everything in Colombia)

Razones para amar a Colombia

Por los lunes festivos.
Por la tienda de la esquina y las ñapas.
Por cantar Tutaina Tuturumaina en Navidad.
Por los Chitos, la Colombiana, el Tamarindo Lux para el guayabo. Y los jugos en agua. O en leche!.
Por el pan con salchichón adentro. Con gaseosa.
Por el olor a tierra caliente cuando se viaja por carretera.
Por el Mirador de las Palmas. Por Monserrate. Por el Castillo la Popa. Por los Termales de Santa Rosa.
Por los paseos de olla.
Por el sancocho y la bandeja paisa hasta en el Amazonas. Por el ajiaco boyacacuno!
Por el Divino Niño y la Virgen del Carmen. Por el Milagroso de Buga. Por la Virgen del Jordán.
Por el Tamal. Por todos los tamales. Con una, con dos o con tres carnes!
Por los algodones rosados con azúcar.
Por el equipito del alma....... tu tu tuuu
Por el patacón verde y por el plátano maduro.
Por el mercado de las pulgas, los buñuelos y la arepita con queso.
Por la fritanga. Para una, para dos o para cinco personas.
Por la bandeja Paisa.
Por el : "se acabo el año" , cuando aún vamos en Julio.
Por oír "Cambio BOTELLA PAPEEEEL...!!!!" o por escuchar al sicólogo de los pobres: " SE ARREGLA LA De PRESIOOOOOON...!!!!"
Por el bocadillo con queso.
Por la arepa' e güevo.
Por las fresas con crema.
Por La Costeñita, Águila, Club Colombia y Cristal Oro. Por la Póker y la Pilsen, la del amargo seco y suave!
Por el rebuscador que en el bus te dice:"Esta bolsita de maní tiene un costo u valor de 300 pesos. Para mayor economía, puede oler la bolsita sin compromiso".
Por una siesta en hamaca.
Por el Manimoto y el Bom Bom Bum.
Por la papa salá, la carne asá y el ají pique.
Por el aguacate, la uchuva, el mamoncillo, la sandia, la guama...
Por el mango biche, el chontaduro con miel, la mazamorra con panelita de coco.
Por Rin Rin Renacuajo que salió esta mañana muy tieso y muy majo...
Por el Guaro con agua de pasante y una coquita con ensalada en la mesa.
Por los "Eh, Avemaría pues!", los "Oiga vea", los "Chévere" o los "dele dele, dele dele"
Porque siempre habrá alguien que le ayude a encontrar una dirección y se despedirá con una sonrisa.
Por el copito de nieve o raspao de pueblo, con lechera.
Por Cartagena.
Por el Boletín del Consumidor y el Minuto de Dios (en tus manos colocamos este día que ya paso y la noche que llega).
Por pagar promesas en Girardota o en Buga.
Por Sábados Felices.
Por Las Frunas y por las bananas con sabor a anís.
Por las milhojas y los pandeyucas.
Por las lenguas y la torta borracha.
Por las chocolatinas Jet y sus laminitas.
Por la ciclo vía de los domingos.
Por la mazorca con mantequilla y sal.
Por las tías cariñosas.
Por los vendedores que en Colombia parecen culebreros.
Por la Lechona Tolimense y los Pío Nonos de Supía.
Por el frío de Santa Elena o del Muña. Y el calorcito de Girardota o de Melgar.
Por los Reinados y las Ferias. Y las Ferias con Reinados!
Por comer crispetas en las plazas de pueblo.
Por los loritos que en las plazas de pueblo adivinan la suerte.
Por la cantidad de mujeres lindas.
Por las verduras y las frutas frescas y baratas todo el año.
Porque aquí se toma el mejor tinto y el mas barato.
Por las empanadas de iglesia (con carne de zancudo).
Por el Metro y el Transmilenio.
Por la Ferias de Cali y de Manizales. Por la Feria de Las Flores.
Por los Carnavales de Pasto y Barranquilla.
Por las serenatas.
Por la cuajada con melao y las obleas con arequipe.
Por jugar Cartas, Rumiquiú o Parqués hasta altas horas de la madrugada. A palo seco!
Por sentarse a tomar cerveza en un bulto de papas.
Por el jugo de níspero de Lorenzo, en el parque de Tolú.
Por el agua panela con limón para la gripa.
Por las cometas en Villa de Leyva o en Cerritos.
Por Discos Fuentes que nos hace bailar todo el año con sus 14 cañonazos.
Por el show de Jorge Barón.
Porque en la tienda de la esquina le fían (si es buena paga).
Por "Es La Negra Soledá la que se goza mi cumbia..."
Por el Ponqué Ramo.
Por una taza de chocolate con parva y queso derretido..
Por el paseo en Chiva los viernes en la noche.
Por la papa chorriada y los "perros con todo".
Por el fútbol (aunque siempre perdamos).
Por la rellena con poleo.
Por la ruana y la jugadita al tejo con amarga
Por el Sanjuanero (en mi tierra todo es gloria cuando se canta el joropo, cuando se canta el joropo......)
Por las Fiestas de San Pedro.......... Uy San Juan!
Por las rumbas. Con o sin toque de queda.
Por el "Dulce Jesús mío mi niño adorado, ven a nuestras almas..."
Por las novenas bailables con el COMBO DE LAS ESTRELLAS.
Por las cabalgatas.
Por los campesinos.
Por los paros.
Porque la gente te mira a la cara cuando caminas por la calle.
Porque cuando uno va al campo la gente que pasa por ahí, dice: bueeenas!!
Porque no se sabe que clima va a hacer mañana. Y mucho menos en dos semanas.
Porque uno no para de sorprenderse.
Porque la gente aplaude cuando aterriza el avión.
Porque la gente mama gallo por todo.
Porque siempre se ven montañas.
Porque se pueden comprar cigarrillos sueltos.
Por los alumbraos de diciembre.
Por los músicos de los buses.
Por viajar por los pueblos.
Por la parranda del 31 y la quemada del muñeco: feliz año, feliz año.
Por Juanes, Shakira, Vives, etc...
Por Botero.
Por Las islas del Rosario y las Playas de Juanchito.
Porque se pueden pedir serenatas a cualquier hora.
Por los Año viejos.
Por la pólvora.
Por El Espectador de los domingos.
Porque aquí se habla el mejor español del mundo.
Por la Pony malta con pan.
Porque Los Colombianos NUNCA nos rendimos.

Por ustedes, que llevan consigo al extranjero y a cualquier lugar todas estas cosas y muchas más, porque son el mejor producto de este País y le demuestran al mundo todos los días que hay millones de Colombianos que trabajan, estudian y se esfuerzan por progresar y sacar a Colombia adelante.

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CAMPIONI DEL MONDO

Monday, July 10, 2006 12:52:54 PM

Football for me has been, until now, a synonym of boring sunday afternoons staying at home watching swetting guys running around behind a ball. When there is a football match in Colombia you should not rely on public transportation, getting things done or any inteligible response (specialy from guys) as everything stops in time while everyone becomes a couch potato to watch the game. Some times I even participated cheering for Colombian's team successes but still I have bravely fight against being part of the madness. This year I had to give up.

Now, I understand how people becomes fans of football. Football is a social sport and is better enjoyed when watching it in large crowds, suffering, screaming and chearing in symphony with fellow fans. We first watched the Germany - Italy game with my mom and, for the first time, I experienced the feeling of suffering and celebrating for a team that was not Colombian.

We didn't only cheer for Italy because of our friends and (almost) family back there, it wasn't just for Alessandro and all the nice moments we have shared with his family... we were cheering for Italy because of all the nice strangers we met in the way, for the good kids in Milan's station who helped us with our heavy luggage without being asked to do so, for the nice taxi driver who understood that we only had 13 euros to get to the station, for the sweet Argentinian-Italian guy in Bergamo who let us stay in the hotel reception when, at midnight, we had no place to wait for our early flight. Italian people is nice even if you have never met them before and for that (and for the amazing food they make) they deserve this victory!!

And after a game that looked more like a soap opera than a world cup final, with a lot of acting from the Franch team (sorry, they were falling all the time trying to get a fault and make Zidane score) with a brilliant goal from the Italians, with the deserved red card for Zidane (I understand that the comment could have been hard but, there is no excuse for a professional reacting like that), with the defensive game of the Italians and the many lost opportunities of the French, with all the suffering, with all the celebrating and, even with the rain, Italy has become world cup champion for the 4th time making it a really good sunday afternoon for a great country.

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Italy 2 - Germany 0

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 2:45:33 PM

World cup

Italy has won the game with Germany and the party seems to be just starting if they become the next world cup winner.

Yesterday we watched the game Italy-Germany in the big screen of Rådhuset, they were so many german supporters that you could feel in the ground every time Germany did a good move. But Italy was stronger and with 2 amazing goals they took the host team out of the game... a lot of people cried but we could not do anything else than screem, hug, laugh and celebrate... it was very exciting... I like football now!!

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Barcelona and world cup

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 7:19:34 AM

Travel

My mom has come to visit me, she got a good deal to Barcelona from Bogota. I could get her a ticket to Oslo for 167 euros but instead, I have taken a week vacation and for only 60 euros / person we are traveling Barcelona - Milan - Frankfurt - Oslo.

We have spent 2 days in Barcelona, the nightlife here is incredible and there is so many people from all over the world having fun together... we have had a great time!!

I have also learned how much fun football can be. When there is a game, everyone gathers around tvs to scream, enjoy and suffer the game... yesterday Italy won at the end of the game and there was so many people in the pub that we could only see it from the window, when it happened, everyone scream and celebrate. It was so much fun! I like the world cup now...

PD: Dear Dominique, sorry for what happened to Switzerland yesterday in the world cup... 3-0 with Ukraine... ouch!

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LeArN ChInEsE

Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:11:09 AM

Chinese

Did you know that one out of every five persons in the entire world speaks Chinese!!! And it is the official language for three of the world's fastest-growing economies: China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

One more reason to learn chinese...

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Wild Swans

Friday, June 16, 2006 1:30:57 PM

I started reading Wild Swans in Xinjiang because Sheila had brought it and it looked interesting. When in Beijing I got my own copy and continued reading while I was in bed due to the food poisoning. The further you read it, the more interesting it gets... I have been reading it in my way to work and yesterday, after not being able to stop in the last chapters, I finally finished it. It was soooo interesting and it opened my eyes to all the violence lived in the period of the cultural revolution. Now I have more questions than answers and I am very curious about how it really was... so far I can only conclude that Mr. Mao didnt deserve to go to heaven...

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Xinjiang chapter 3. "Xinjiang is a good place..."

Friday, June 16, 2006 1:12:47 PM

Xinjiang, China, Travel

After 2 weeks of writting bits and pieces I finally wrote the last chapter of our Xinjiang adventure.

As Arkan's (local Xinjiang singer who gracefuly combines traditional sounds with clasical/spanish guitar) song says: "Xinjiang is a good place". Every time I have the opportunity to share about my trip with someone I discover how blessed we are to have been in this "piece of middle east"...

These are some funny things that happened on the last days of out trip:

Day 9:

We woke up early to travel to Burqin, 7 people in the car: Martin, Stephan, Mark, Dom, Sheila, me and our Han chinese driver. We were too spoiled by having the wonderful experience of riding Ibrahim's car.. his sweet personality, knowledge of the best restaurants for the tipical food and amazing attitude made all the difference. In this new trip our driver was not as friendly as Ibrahim, wanted to take us to the restaurants he liked (that had nothing to do with tipical Xinjiang food) and made us wait outside of the militar gas station where he got free gas.
We got too many snacks for the road: nuts, hazzlenuts, dates, raisins, sweets... we were tired of so many snacks after the second day.
After a long trip we arrived to Burqin, we shared a delicious watermelon (that Dom broke gracefuly letting it fall in the floor) watching the sunset in the harbor and we went for more Polo and Kebabs in the night market where sellers wanted to drag us to their "restaurants".

Day 10:

Finally in our route to Kanas Lake! This is a beautiful lake very close to the border with Mongolia, Russia and Kazakstan. First of all, we needed to find accomodation so we went to see the houses next to the lake. After realizing that they would have no heating, seeing the wholes in the wooden walls, checking the temperature and by the hint of the huge "army style" green jackets they were offering us, we decided to go to the "village" to find a warmer place to sleep. We staid in a big wooden house in two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls... on this time guys were luckier as they got the warm room while we were freezing in the morning trying to cover every centimeter of skin with the sleeping bag.
On that day we rented horses from the people in the village (Mongolians) and went around with them for about an hour, time enough for Sheila to get scared of his temperamental horse and for the guide (who was walking behind us instead of riding with us) to get tired and request for the money (20 yuan) and the horses back.
Other unforgetable moment in this horse ride was when my PM called me and I could hardly talk about the issue he needed to solve because
1. my horse was jumping
2. I did not know how to make it stop jumping
3. I could hardly concentrate....
We were so hungry after the ride that we went for a chinese restaurant... very expensive (for the standard of the region) but we got quite decent eggs with tomato.

Day 11:

Mark's stomack was not so happy so he preffered to stay in the village while we went trecking to a high point where we could see Mongolia and Russia.
In the afternoon and, after walking back to the village, we drove to a place closer to Ghost city where we spent the night in very unexpensive accomodation.

Day 12:

We woke up to drive to Urumqi, in the way I finished the Bookseller of Kabul and had time to think and write about gender issues in Colombia... is incredible how much your way of looking at your own traditions changes when exposed to a different option... I will write a blog post about it later..
We passed by "Ghost city", amaaazzzzzing! Took some beautiful pictures there.
We said goodbye to Mark , Martin and Stefan before heading for Turpan, our last stop.

Day 13:

In Turpan, we got a lady taxi driver that took us through the interesting places... some places where more of a tourist trap (like the private show of Uigur music where we paid 5Y for a picture) and some where just really cool (like the place with 1001 types of raisins... yummi!)
Flaming mountain is realllyyyyy hot!!! People says that in the middle of summer, you can fry an egg on the stones there...

Day 14:

Go home, we had our last lunch with Lamb dumplings, coconut juice and kebab while we discovered that it might be time to go home...
After boarding the bus at Turpan I discovered that I needed a badroom urgently. After stoping in the middle of the road and me, refusing to do what I needed in front of a bus full of people ++, we got to a public bathroom on the side of the road... I found what happiness ment in that moment
We made it to the plane for 5 minutes! When arriving in the bus station the taxi driver discouraged us because we were too far away of the airport!!! Ahhh!! When we finally made it, the girl in the counter could not understand what an e-ticket was and tried to suggest me to buy a new ticket... at the end everything was fine thanks to my dear friend Jia...

This was an unforgetable trip!

Next day I was back working in Beijing... finishing work, preparing to say goodbye to my new-old friends and getting ready to come back to Oslo where friends, responsabilities, plans and adventures where waiting for me...

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