Author: gringopotpourri

Gringo - aka Scott - was born outside of Chicago and has lived most of his life in or around big cities. He spent two years of his adult life in Mexico City (talk about big cities!) and fell in love with Mexican food and culture all while weathering the challenges of life in a city with over 20 million people. Life's unpredictable journey has since brought him to Tennessee, where he is close to family and to the natural beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. Scott also enjoys movies, hiking, top ten lists, and travel in general.

Holiday Travels – Part Five

Christmas is just around the corner, and this year I’ll be spending the holiday in Eastern Tennessee. I doubt that it will be the “White Christmas” of song – temperatures have been just a bit too warm for snow – but it’ll be spent with my dad. The family as a whole – mom, dad, sis, niece, dog, and me – is celebrating Christmas a few days early, with my mom traveling back to Memphis to spend several days (including December 25th) with her daughter and granddaughter. When family members live in other parts of the country or state, it’s challenging to coordinate the logistics of getting everyone together.  And I say this having a small family! Anyway, I’m sure many of you can relate.

I am a sucker for nostalgia, and I often spend time that should be dedicated towards, say, finding a job, gathering proverbial wool or thinking happily of days gone by. As such, I thought I’d continue my series of “Holiday Travels” entries with another bit of fond musing. If you’re curious, my previous post in this series was last December’s Québec City and Montréal entry. I hope you’ll give it a read; the “Related” section at the bottom of that post should then direct you to older entries in this series.

From Memphis to Londontown (2006)

2006 was an epic year for yours truly. I had the best financial year of my life and a generous vacation allotment, resulting in several terrific trips. Mexico, Turkey/Denmark, Singapore/Malaysia…it was grand. As the end of the year rolled around, I hankered to experience my first New Year’s Eve in Europe, but also remembered that I hadn’t visited my parents at all that year. My vacation time was wearing thin, so I finagled something brilliant: four days in Memphis, three days of work back in LA where I lived at the time, and then six days in London. Exhausting? Sí, señor.

Continue reading “Holiday Travels – Part Five”

Ten More Holiday Movies (11-20)

I love Christmas. Not the race-yourself-to-be-the-first-in-the-door-at-Best-Buy-on-Black-Friday aspect of the holiday, but the childhood nostalgia of time spent with family – dysfunctional or not – mom’s home cooking, carols, egg nog, and the lot. And to top it all off, people (outside of big box stores, that is) actually make a more concerted effort to be nice to each other, however short-lived their kindness might be.

I found myself watching several holiday movies on late night cable TV of late. And why not? Most of these films only show up on broadcast television once a year in November or December, and sometimes not even then.

The best holiday movies celebrate the virtues I mentioned above. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” and “Miracle on 34th Street” come to mind. Those are just three very re-watchable classics that made my Top Ten Holiday Movies list from last year. A few friends asked me what movies would come next on the list, and I couldn’t readily answer. I have since given the subject some thought.

Continue reading “Ten More Holiday Movies (11-20)”

Where am I #26

Happy birthday Ludwig van Beethoven!!!

The famous – and famously-deaf – composer was born in the year 1770, and though the exact date isn’t known for sure, most historians cite December as the month, as he was baptized on the 17th of that month.

Many music-rich European cities play annual host to Beethoven-themed festivals such as the one photographed here. Where am I? You already know the continent. What is the country and city?

whereami26

Barrios Bravos: Tlatelolco

I recently re-read my September post entitled “Barrios Bravos: Iztapalapa,” about the largest delegación (borough) in Mexico City and the dangerous reputations held by its various barrios (neighborhoods). I am especially proud of that entry, as I think it contains some of the best writing I’ve yet done for this blog. More than that, though, it reminded me that I still have more to say about Mexico City and its “tough neighborhoods.”

Tlatelolco (try saying that three times fast) is a hard word to pronounce and a hard barrio in which to live. Roughly speaking, it sits northwest of the Centro Histórico, between Tepito and Buenavista Train Station. During the heyday of the Aztec empire, Tlatelolco was a separate community from nearby Tenochtitlan, and it is said that Tlatelolco’s residents looked down on those from the larger Tenochtitlan. Vendors from Tepito, the market serving Tenochtitlan, were not allowed to trade with those from Tlatelolco. This segregation exists several centuries later, despite the fact that both “barrios bravos” are part of the same administrative district. The main street separating Tlatelolco from Greater Tepito, Paseo de la Reforma, can be like an invisible wall between two countries, although this divide isn’t necessarily visible to casual wanderers. (More on this rivalry later.)

Around Tlatelolco 2

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The “Lost” Pompeii Pics

I spent a week in Naples in 2012. Greater Naples was, to me, a previously-unexplored corner of Italy. The general plan was to visit Pompeii, climb Mount Vesuvius, check out the city’s National Archaeological Museum, explore its historic port, and maybe drive south along the Amalfi Coast to an idyllic beach town of my choosing.

Alas, things didn’t go as planned. It rained the first four days I was there (I don’t particularly enjoy Mediterranean Europe in the rain), and I caught a debilitating stomach virus that literally had me bedridden for the last three (sunny) days.

Still, I did make it to Pompeii, and also to Herculaneum – a recently-excavated port city that was second in line (after Pompeii) to receive the volcanic wrath of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Upon my return, I somehow “lost” the pics from my time in Greater Naples. When I accidentally stumbled upon them last week, hiding in the wrong folder of an external hard drive, I did something of a happy dance.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite images with you.

Pompeii

Pompeii was a sizable town of 20,000 people, situated at the base of the volcano. When the volcano erupted its residents had no time to escape and were buried alive. A few are “displayed” under glass in a sort of ashen mummy form.

Continue reading “The “Lost” Pompeii Pics”

Thanksgiving Reflections – 2014

It is the day before Thanksgiving as I write this. 2014 has been a tough year. It started out great – bonding with the family dog during an extended winter break, returning last January to my job in Mexico City with eager new students, and enjoying a day trip with a good friend to the former spa town of Tequisquiapan. But I was living in Mexico on borrowed time, and just as I had finally expanded my local friend circle to a satisfying degree, the time came for me to return.

I have spent much of the time since then in a sort of daze. Although I’ve enjoyed scoping out my new surroundings in Eastern Tennessee, I can’t help but feel that I’m not living up to my full potential…whatever that may be. That being said, I know that 2015 will be a better year, and I’m going to do my best to find direction and stability in my life and to take on a more positive general attitude…as of this moment. For starters, I look forward to spending Thanksgiving with my parents for the first time since 1999. I can taste the cranberries already!

Downtown Rogersville 25

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Top Ten Holiday Songs

Can you believe that Christmas is just over a month away? Where did the year go?!?! What makes time fly even faster is the fact that between unseasonably cold temperatures and endless snowfall near the Great Lakes, the calendar has seemingly flipped directly from October to December!

I don’t mean to bypass Thanksgiving by writing that; I am working on a Turkey Day-themed post for sometime next week. It is merely that everywhere I turn, it feels like Christmas. Even the radio is filled with holiday carols. As such, I have decided to embrace the season’s early arrival.

Last year I blogged about my top ten favorite holiday movies. (I even threw in one about Thanksgiving for good measure!) For this year, I toyed with writing a post entitled “Another Top Ten Holiday Movies,” but ultimately decided to share my taste in holiday music with you instead. Here are a few of my seasonal favorites – festive and somber, spiritual and secular, English and otherwise. I selected their best renditions (remakes mostly suck) and put their YouTube links below. I make no promises that the links are ad-free; you have been warned.

Continue reading “Top Ten Holiday Songs”

Germany: A Love Affair

This past November 9th marked 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. That historic day in 1989 saw the reunification of a divided country following three decades of Cold War hostilities. The transition wasn’t perfect, but it was a non-violent and triumphant event for a small corner of Europe that, throughout much of the 20th century, had seen (and often instigated) more than its fair share of violent, non-triumphant happenings.

I was a freshman in high school when the Wall came down. My German I course was the last class of the day, if I remember correctly, and although it was my favorite class, I nevertheless was an ADHD-addled teenager without much interest in actually learning. My German teacher, Frau Francik, entered the classroom, beaming, and said that something very important had happened. She spent the entire hour explaining the history leading up to the day’s monumental event. She shared her memories of leading a class trip to Germany and crossing Checkpoint Charlie, the designated border crossing for Americans between East and West Berlin. We were impressed and not a little bit scared.

It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that our class had the opportunity to visit Germany over Spring Break. Frau Francik decided to focus on just Bavaria this time around, saving a still-in-transition Berlin for another time perhaps. Alas, I didn’t have the money to go, but I promised myself that one day, I would make it to Germany.

It was a promise I kept…many times over.

Continue reading “Germany: A Love Affair”

25 (MORE) Things about Me that You Might Not Know

Roughly one year ago, I authored a post called “25 Things about Me that You Might Not Know.” The initial idea for the post was in response to a silly Facebook challenge going viral at the time. In the spirit of good fun, here are 25 MORE things about me that you might not know. (The key, I think, to a fun and revealing challenge is to answer honestly.)

GSMNP 137 - Chimney Tops summit

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