Exploring the Andes from the editing room

“At last, my greatest creation! It is compleeeete!”- anyone remember Dexter’s Lab? Yep, that’s me right now. I finally wraped up the Andes documentary! And it took me three whole weeks! No finals have ever made me so tired as editing this documentary. Whoever thought a documentary only requires some people willing to travel and a guy handy with a camera was wrong. Yeah, we were lucky enough the lovely members of Explorer Club gave us the tapes (more than 12 hours of recording) of their trek over the Andes for free. But after all the time I spent in the editing room I think I could get a job as an Andean guide if I ever fail at journalism. Why was I given this task? Well, my boss thought I am some sort of expert on Latin America since I talk non stop of my adoptive Chilean family and of my plans to reach Chile and Argentina one day. Anyway, in spite of my Chilean and Argentinian connections viewing 12 hours of footage, re-writting the scenario of the documentary over and over again, choosing the best scenes, picking the right music and deciding which moments to cut or minimize so everything would fit into 26 minutes wasn’t easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest thing I’ve ever done but, after seeing the final results, I couldn’t be any prouder! Sure, I’ve been finishing work at 10:30 pm, going to bed at 11 pm(unheard of before), fighting with the editors, the producer and the graphic designers but in the end I think it was worth it. Besides, I had a pretty neat excuse to cut classes.

My final thought on the Andes, Chile and Argentina? Well, I’m gonna repeat it : Can’t wait to get there!!! Saying the scenery was breathtaking would be an understatement. And I already knew the people are great. I did find out the difference between llamas, alpacas and vicunas. And decided newborn alpacas are the cutest creatures ever! I enlarged my culinary Chilenismos with lomo a lo pobre, sopa de mariscos and beer in a pitcher(amazing sollution for serving alcohol). I am certain now that Argentinian guys are the hotness! And, after, seeing that kid from the human orchestra dance in Santiago de Chile I remembered dear Marnie’s demonstration on Chilean vs US dancing. It’s all in the chest- hips coordination, baby!

PS: I got the pictures from the expedition from explorer.org.ro

1 year

One year ago I was on my way back to Burlington, Vermont. I had spent New Year’s Eve with my family and when the clocked ticked 12 times on January 1, 2007 I made my wish. New Year’s wishes are supposed to be kept a secret, otherwise they don’t come true. But my wish did come true so I guess I can make it public now. As I sipped my champagne I thought of what I wanted. Easy, a hot guy as my new room mate! But after a second I thought: Look, let’s be reasonable here, no way they’re gonna put a guy in the same room as you. And in the unlikely case they did, yeah, you’d have a chance of hooking up with him but you’d also fight like crazy. So, I took another, bigger sip of champagne and wished with all my heart that I’d get a nice roomie, one with a sense of humour, a taste for parties and an ID that said she was over 21. Fast forward onto January 14, 2007. I was in a cab heading towards Burlington (affectionately known as B-town, no. 4 beer capital of the world and home of Ben& Jerry’s ice cream). I was tired, jet lagged, high on like 12 espressos I had in Milan, a bit drunk from the wine I shared with an old friend I had met by chance on the Italian airport and most of all worried. How will I feel with half of my friends now gone? Will some bitches make me uncomfortable? Will I feel all lonely? (cue to Bobby Vinton’s song , hehe) Will my new room mate be all right? As I entered B building with the gloomiest look ever on my face I heard Yumi shout: Anca chan! You’re back! She dragged me to the commons room where some people were having a party. The food smelled so good and the music sounded fun. Then, a girl with a huge smile came over to me and said at a really fast pace: Hello! I’m Paulina! I’m from Chile!..And I’m your new room mate! 15 hours of flight and seven more of waiting around on airports had made me pretty trashed. I mumbled something like: Hey, nice to meet ya! and crawled upstairs. But on the inside I was really happy. Somehow, part of my soul knew that on that day I had just met for the first time my Chilean sister, Paulina. The rest is, as they say, history!

Ham ham in Jamaica

November 20, 2006- my second day in Jamaica. The date that will go down in history as the time we (Tracey, Adrian, Miguel, Christine and myself) visited Bob Marley’s house in Kingston, ate fantastic jerk goat in the dingyest market bar ever and forced Miguel to chat up the locals and ask them to share some of their local…aahm, customs with us. What followed really turned our Jamaican holiday into one of the trippiest trips ever: “poeming” on the terrace, some “devirgilations”, “2 rooms of culture” in Port Royal, violating beach regulations, Joy?-ohh, joy! , smoking in the car cos it’s more “pedagogical”, almost getting busted by the police, Tracey saving our sorry international asses, spending the kitty on silly clothes and statues, loads of Red Stripes, Applebees(the rum not the crappy fastfood), trailing the Blue Mountains-”Fucky Mountains”, making our way through a coffe plantation, discussing ham ham(that’s what dogs say in Romanian) for hours in Port Antonio, red snapers, rice with anything, curried anything, fried plantains, all alone in the Blue Lagoon, heavy rain, “alternative” way to see Dunn’s River Falls, crazy “rain”bathing, the end. Ahh, how I miss those times!