Author Archives: Libby Tucker

Hungary has a lot of visitors from Germany. I’ve spoken more German here than I think I have in my entire life including visits to Germany and German class.

I’m learning Hungarian words, and if we can’t speak in English, often times someone will speak German. My German is improving and I’m having a blast.

This week it’s been a mix of Spanish, German, English, Hungarian, and – Euskara (basque country language)! I pop out my iPhone and ask someone to write the word down in my notepad. Little by little I’m building my own Hungarian phrasebook! So many words here however to describe similar concepts. And, if you say ‘How do you say ___ in Hungarian’ nobody seems to understand. I have to say, for example ‘Spaghetti > English… ___ > Hungarian?’ and that seems to work, I must figure out how/why the first one doesn’t work.

Truly international, learning so much, and I enjoy every minute of it. Someday I hope to be like my grandfather and learn to speak several languages fluently. Getting to be here amidst the culture learning how it’s said in context and not just from a book and why people think/act how they do is so much more interesting than learning from afar.

sajtotharum szendvics kerek

You would think that if the package says ‘Three Cheese’ Sandwich, you would probably get a three cheese sandwich. Especially if you ask the lady behind the counter ‘three cheese?’ and she says ‘yes, three cheese’.

After a quick toast in the oven, she delvers a great tasting three cheese sandwich – with, of course, ham and onion. Why didn’t I see that coming?

Not eating meat has been tougher than I thought here in Hungary. At the market the other day, I pointed to and ordered ‘Stuffed Green Peppers’ (it was also in English), to which they gave me two huge meatballs and sauce. Hmm, maybe I got the inside of the stuffed green peppers?

They have so many great sausages, tons of pork and red meat, seafood is questionable, not as much chicken as central america, and I think I saw tofu once. Lots of falafel, however.

I got really sick for about 3 days, could barely eat. I wonder if, other than the Palinka (hungarian traditional liquor), it was my stomach adjusting to meat and uht milk, considering I had a mostly vegetarian soymilk diet before. I just can’t seem to avoid it here, so although I am trying, when in Rome…

Buda pescht

Amazing city!  Not too many stories so far butI love it.  So beautiful, so much history, learned a few words in Hungarian so far. Helped an old lady step up on the sidewalk and learned the word ‘kussenem’ – thank you (might be spelling that wrong).

The food is full of carbs but loving the goulash, the pasta, the potatoes… bring it on.

Speaking of food…  I’m out the door.

Here are some very quick pics from my iphone, no camera yet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/libtuck/Budapest

Szia!

I often refer to the Corporate World as intentional self slavery.

We are taught to go to school and to get a “good job”.  Little boxes on the hillside full of ticky tacky.  What does that mean?  We shrug our shoulders and don’t think of the next step.  Unless someone tells us to do something, we sit still.  One of my favorite movies is Idiocracy.  On the surface, it’s an absurd comedy.  Looking deeper shows a devolved society. The further we ‘advance’ the less we think for ourselves.  Consider the smartphone, which many affectionately call the dumbphone.  When is the last time you asked for directions? How many times have you asked Siri where a dead body is hidden?

Do you wait to cross the street until the little guy turns from red to white, and even animates walking, until you step your foot off the curb?

Never dumb down your dreams, question everything that is around you and why it exists.

One day, one of my last days before freeing myself from the office (to pursue Beer2Buds), I saw a girl’s cubicle.  She had some plants, some decorations, and a huge lamp.  I said “wow, that’s a lot of stuff” to which she replied “yeah, isn’t it great, I got the lamp from my living room.  I figured since I spend so much time here, I might as well make it comfortable.”  

No, it’s not great.  It’s sad.  It’s one thing if you were there because you wanted to be there.  But, unbeknownst to you, you’ve become a victim of willed corporate slavery.  Do you ever get tired of rush hour?  Do you ever ponder why you are intentionally part of the flock of sheep that jams up the freeway or subway at 8 am and 6 pm?

And if you have all of this time to decorate your office, why in the world are  you not creating a LIFE for yourself.  Don’t settle for what is in front of you!  A pet rock is still a rock.  You can decorate a jungle gym and pretend it’s a castle but at the end of the day it’s still a cage.  I’m not saying don’t make the best with what you have.  I’m saying don’t limit yourself because someone else defined you.  YOU define you.  You have the ability to create your life, why choose to decorate your cubicle?  There are pictures of your kids on your cubicle walls because you can’t spend enough time with your family.  You have plants and a giant lamp because you want to feel like you’re in your living room.  We even have casual Fridays so that you can wear jeans.  Feel like you’re at home yet?  It’s a trick!  Humans were not meant to be in cages.  We are free insomuch as we give up all of our freedoms.  Our freedom is an illusion.

We are given the carrot or the stick from which to choose.  It used to be that, as free human beings, we were ruled by the stick.  We were forced into slavery, to serve others, by violent means.  Now, all someone has to do is say – Hey, I’ll give you some money, we’ll give you a health plan for all your stress, we’ll even offer daycare, give you a ping pong table and free soft drinks.  Voila!  That’s not such a bad deal to trade for your daily sacrifice from 8-6, including your long commute, to be away from family, friends, your creativity, your routine – all to fill someone else’s pockets and to help them buy time.  Do you take candy from strangers?  NO.  Slap your hand.

Don't let this be you

These things are put in place not so that you have a work-life balance but so that you can stay longer at work.  You can even have a sleeping pod and take a nap.  I hear many people say things like “well, we’re meat eaters, that’s just the way we evolved, so we eat meat” in a Brawndo-style voice “it’s got electrolytes” (Idiocracy reference).  Applying that to freedom – we once used to be free to roam the earth, to find and make our own food, to create businesses, to play when we decided we needed a break.  Have we evolved into cubicleville?

There’s never been a better time to reach deep inside and pull out your creativity.  Look past the cubed wall, question what exists around you, don’t listen to others who are trying to pull you into their world because it’s safe and comfortable, and reach into your knowing soul.  Free yourself from the corporate grind.  What does that mean?  What will you do now?   You were taught to fear so you wouldn’t think for yourself; so that you’d stay.  It will all work out so long as you choose to break out of slavery.  Life is too short to spend in a corporate jail cell.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that things morph.  Just getting out there and doing it is the most important thing.

Sitting and waiting for the perfect time… it will never come.

I love this Chinese proverb:

When is the best time to plant a tree?  20 years ago.  What’s the second best time?  Now.

Losing fear, making a commitment, putting a plan together.  Set the dates, stay committed.

Everything else falls into place.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I just stepped on the scale today and noticed I had lost weight.

Want a diet tip?
1. Go to Central America
2. Drink the water

A video with some pics from Central America. Not quite what I wanted and so much more to show. I’ll keep adding pictures to Picasa, some new ones added today so go look! Enjoy.

Oh, and I just re-added the ‘monkeying around’ video so check it out!

A video with some pics from Central America. Made updates to libbystravels.com.

How could I forget to write about my 8+ days of bowel agony!

The cause? The fish in El Salvador, I thought. It began the day after. But it wouldn’t go away. Dehydration? I drank lots of water. Then I switched to the bread, banana, and dairy diet (Yes! Ice cream!). Still a growling painful stomach ache with frequent trips to the toilet. Being that the walls were paper thin, I’m sure everyone else was also counting the days until I got better.

Now onto country 3, back in Costa Rica, and still on a banana / bread diet. I did get some pills from the pharmacy but those didn’t seem to do the trick either. So, I picked up some pepto bismo. I tripled my dose and STILL! ;You’ve got to be kidding me,’ I thought. What was I doing wrong? I didn’t have the Swine flu, did I?

A Spanish friend reminded me to be careful with the water. ‘But I stopped drinking the water a while ago,’ I said, ‘before I switched to my daily banana batidos (shakes)’ …. then it hit me. I had been drinking bananas with water and/or ice on a daily basis. Immediately I stopped, tripled my pepto bismo dosage, ate nothing but bread and bottled water and within hours I started feeling better.

Whew! No more frequent trips to the bathroom for me. I was filling up too many waste baskets (read below)!

I’m sitting here in Seattle, just after 8:30 pm and the sun is finally setting. I’m used to the sun setting at 5:30 pm like clockwork, and taking about 10-15 minutes to fall beneath the horizon, the weather finally cooling down from the strong heat of the day.

The sun appears again around 5:30 am. The big dipper seems to appear to the left and upside down, the stars are clear and seem so close. The sun sets in different places depending on the time of the year. It’s hot during the day and at night I rarely slept with a sheet. I wanted to, of course, as I knew that lots of funny creature – especially cucarachas – were crawling about. But, the heat made it impossible.

From Finca las Nubes, Chris, the owner, generously gave me some ‘souvenirs’ and I came back with two bags of organic coffee, along with a jar of honey from their bees, and a bag full of moringa leaves, or ‘the miracle tree’ (future home where you’ll be able to find some www.moringapowdersource.com).

Some thoughts –

I realize that we are very fortunate in the States. I also realized that there’s a particular snobbiness about the US, where I didn’t feel as welcome in my own country as I did in other countries. We are so spoiled in so many ways. We don’t realize the effect we have on our environment. We don’t give back in ways that we could/should. People starve in the world not because resources are scarce, but because greed has led to poor access to information and because of the lack of ability to purchase.

Every little bit helps. I’d like to go back and volunteer some time to teaching English, while also starting a business there to employ more people. The unemployment rate in Nicaragua is around 50%. There are so many ways we can volunteer our time or skills to help.

A friend of mine was managing a Subway (before the owner stole money and fled and the store was closed down). An honest guy, hard worker, he made $75 dollars a month to run the
store. I took Gaspar out for Mediterranean food the night before I left. He played baseball outside of the restaurant for years, only entering the restaurant to get his ball back when it went over the barbed wire fence, but never to eat. He couldn’t afford it. Our bill was only $22 dollars – very inexpensive for me, and nearly 1/3 of a month’s wage for him.

Animals are not treated well and it makes me incredibly sad. There’s no such thing as a doggy daycare or spa. If an animal is sick, they suffer through it, or they’ll just be shot. Part of it is cultural but I feel like there’s a lot we can do to influence, first starting by example.

I also noticed that children are loving, respectful to their parents, and well behaved in countries like Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In El Salvador and in the States I noticed just the opposite. Not sure why, but my guess was that it might be related to the overflow of information, flashy things, junk food, sugary foods. Just an observation. But there’s a lot to be said for the simple things in life.