Connecting from a Distance
Also, the moon, cacao, cooking, and an uncommon commute
Hola mi gente,
I decided on a name for my newsletter: an uncommon commute. There’s some thought I put into this name which I’ll detail below. Angie and I have been adjusting well to our new life in Grenada, but it hasn’t been without difficulty. If anything is essential to maintaining sanity in the midst of big transitions, I’d say it’s living with intentional patience.
Keeping that in mind, here are 5 things I thought were worth sharing:
I’ve been thinking a lot about the many ways technology helps people stay connected from a distance. I connect with people and places via music, so while living abroad, I’ll often stream The Current out of the Twin Cites or WXPR’s Northwoods Cafe out of Wisconsin’s northwoods. These are great ways for me to connect with the Midwest, a place I will always call home. I’m connecting to Grenada too, through music. Two great trends I’ve enjoyed about the music here: 1) popular songs that have been caribbeanized (think Simon & Garfunkel with steel drums), and 2) 80s/90s soft rock and R&B. There is a radio station here that I swear plays Luther Vandross at least 50% of the time. If you’d like to tune into Grenadian radio, I’m a big fan of Radio Garden (also an app), which allows you to stream radio stations from all over the world. You can explore the globe through an interface similar to that of Google Earth, each green dot representing a different radio station. This is how I discovered Interferencia IMER (Instituto Mexicano de la Radio), broadcasting out of Mexico City. I highly recommend it. They play a wonderfully eclectic mix of tunes. It was through Interferencia that I first learned about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers being traded to the New York Jets. At the time I thought, “How appropriate is it for a Spanish teacher from Wisconsin to get big-time Wisconsin news from a Mexican radio station?”
“If you ever feel far away from me, just remember, you’re not so far away. We still see the same moon.” My grandma always used to say this to me. She passed away in 2002 and I still often think of her when I look at the moon. She’s not so far away. The moon is a continuous, visual reminder that when you’re far away from home, you’re still connected to it. I put together a moon mix a while back, Luna, and happened to be listening to it last week when my mom texted me that she was looking at the moon and thinking about me, and about my grandma. It was a serendipitous and beautiful moment, like most are when contemplating the moon.
Wisconsin Moon Every once in a while Angie and I will go on a detox. It’s a good reset that’s meant to help you get control of your cravings and prevent you from mindlessly snacking. A hero of Angie’s is Dr. Mark Hyman, who wrote the book, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet and accompanying cookbook. Whenever we’re on the detox we’ll usually enjoy a piece of dark chocolate after dinner. It’s been pretty cool to learn more about dark chocolate and how its production is a growing industry in Grenada. I wrote about it in a post, Food of the Gods, which describes some of the health benefits of dark chocolate that we learned on a recent visit to a chocolate museum in St. George’s. As a side note, the guy who gave us the chocolate demo at the museum informed us he was a good friend of Billy Ocean. I’ve since been keeping an eye out for him.
Angie is an amazing cook and has done most of the cooking up until this point in our marriage. Since arriving to Grenada, I’ve assumed the majority of cooking duties because Angie is so incredibly busy studying. It’s a pretty accessible way for me to support her because we have always valued creating good, healthy meals to enjoy together as a family. One of Angie’s favorite cooking websites is Made With Lau. The site is run by Randy Lau whose mission is to preserve and share his family’s cookbook. The recipes are super easy to follow and include videos of Randy’s father and expert chef, Chung Sun Lau, walking you through it step-by-step. So far I’ve tried my hand at Chicken Stir Fry and Mapo Tofu with Chicken (the later I made while, in the true spirit of Grenada, jamming to some Billy Ocean). If you like Asian foods, I recommend checking it out. Your taste buds will thank you!
This past week I named my newsletter, an uncommon commute, and updated my about section to unpack some of the reasoning behind it. You can read it here.
Thank you all for reading! I hope you found some inspiration for today’s moments, whatever they might be. If you enjoyed reading, go ahead and click subscribe to receive future newsletters.
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Be well and I hope to see you down the road sometime soon!
Eric
Congrats on launching the newsletter. Good luck on the adventures.