Queen Liz, part 2
And I shall conclude this entry with the best booze ad I have ever seen: 
(All Uganda and Rwanda entries here.)
Eating Vegan in Uganda and Rwanda
When we travel we always pack a lot of nuts, dried fruit, and other protein-rich snacks (like wasabi peas and sesame sticks—bless you, Trader Joe!) Fortunately, Ugandan cuisine is rich in beans, rice, and root vegetables, and there is always fresh fruit available. 
Queen Liz, part 1
En route to Queen Elizabeth National Park, we saw a mini-bus with these words decal'd on the back window:
IF GOD SAY YES
WHO CAN SAY NO?
It made me happy. On the way into the park, we saw a pair of lions lounging in the long grass. (Holy crap, we really are in Africa!)We arrived at Mweya later than anticipated, around nightfall, and some of us (who shall remain nameless) panicked when faced with the prospect of spending the night at a wide open, unguarded campsite. We realized that if the park rangers aren't expecting anyone—or if you don't arrive early enough—there won't be anyone there in the evening to light a fire and keep the animals away. Jill offered to spring for a night at the fancy-pants lodge up the road, but we nixed that idea as soon as we realized how much it would cost. (Take your biggest estimate and double it! Sheesh!) Fortunately there was a good hostel-restaurant nearby, so we had a cute and very reasonably priced little cottage to ourselves for the next two nights. You should have seen the stars.
(If you are wondering if I got enough to eat as a vegan, it was all good. I ate so much hearty tasty food in Uganda and Rwanda that I'm devoting an entire post to it!)
In the morning we got up before dawn, and saw many beautiful animals and landscapes:
Next time: WE WERE THISCLOSE TO A LEOPARD AND IT WAS GORGEOUS!(All Uganda and Rwanda entries here.)
Vegan Eats on Either Coast
I feel like I've been bopping all over the place since I got back from Uganda. The Monday before last I went down to New York for my Yaddo pal John Searles's book launch (more about Help for the Haunted soon), and had an exquisite tapas dinner at Sacred Chow with Steve beforehand. (We hadn't seen each other since London at the end of 2010, so it took me awhile to get used to seeing him with no dreads!)
Smoky home fries, BBQ'd ginger seitan, Dijon marinated raw kale, grilled black olive seitan, root vegetable latkes, (those waffley things—they came with a delicious sour-creamish sauce), and sunflower lentil pâté with jicama. I could hardly pick a favorite.
Turns out Steve is a vegetarian now. I used to think of him whenever anybody mentioned chicken quesadillas, so it feels good to see him eating healthier foods.
Banana pound cake and a macaroon with blueberry compote. Not the sort of macaroon I was expecting, but it was still pretty tasty.Then last weekend I went to San Francisco for Aravinda and Nevin's wedding (more on that soon, too), and the day before I met up with Spencer for lunch at Herbivore on Valencia Street. His "meatballs" were really delicious, and my grilled corn-cake platter was a welcome change from the tofu scrambles I usually order for brunch (mostly at Trident).
Black beans, salsa, guacamole, home fries, and grilled corn cakes with vegan sour cream.
Minnie Minster promised a vegetarian Indian buffet after the wedding, and HOLY MOLY was it ever good. That's a masala dosa.
On Monday I wandered around the Ferry Building before meeting up with a new friend to watch America's Cup, and found a juice bar and vegan doughnut stand right next to each other. I guess they kinda cancel each other out, but don't know that I've ever had a vegan doughnut before, so I couldn't resist. It was insanely delicious. (Blueberry frosting!)
(Random sign that made me smile. Probably not vegan though...)
Hello Kampala!
Before we left for Uganda I got to spend a couple of nights in D.C. with the fam. Kate and Elliot bought a house earlier this year, and it was so much fun to see it for the first time and ooh and ahh over all the improvements they've already made. We had a little happy-new-house pre-trip root beer toast (nice root beer, no high fructose corn syrup!), and I found this fortune inside the cap. It was a little bit disconcerting, actually, because taking myself less seriously is something I have to work at on a daily basis.
Laid over in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
First things first: we set up our tents at Kampala Backpackers Hostel. I expected to feel disoriented—seeing as this was my first time in Africa—but everything felt new and fresh and exciting, even something as simple as sucking on sugar cane from a street vendor:
After wandering around our neighborhood for a bit, we met up with Spencer's friend Ambrose (from his first trip to Africa in 2007), and experienced mall food Uganda style:
This photo doesn't actually capture how intense it was. A waiter from each restaurant in the mall hurries to your table and tries to get you interested in their menu over everyone else's. It was a relief when we all finally decided on what to order!The next morning Colin met us at the hostel, and after a brief trip to the travel agency to iron out the details and pay our balance, we drove down to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We had to stop for fruit, of course:
SO CUTE!
Jackfruit. I loved it in India—I remember it tasting like a cross between pineapple and mango—but we never got around to buying any this time. I did snack rather compulsively on passionfruit though, haha. Next time: Queen Liz, part 1!(All Uganda and Rwanda entries here.)
Home from Uganda!
We're home from Uganda and Rwanda! I couldn't have asked for a better first trip to Africa. So many magical moments and feelings of peace and connectedness with my dear sister and friends--peace and connectedness with most of the people we met, come to think of it. Colin drove us everywhere we wanted to go, and by the end of the trip we considered him a true friend. What a lovely man.
Joyful dancing, singing, and drumming at Rushaga. (I also took video, coming in a future post.)
Sunrise at Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Kate and Elliot celebrated their tenth anniversary (!!!) on this trip.
Gorgeous landscapes nearly everywhere we went. This one en route to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park.
We camped in (or just outside) three national parks and in the backyards of two city hostels.
Jill, me, Spencer, Kate and Elliot, camping on our own little terrace overlooking Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Zebras at Lake Mburo.
Inside the minaret at the national mosque in Kampala.
We watched a pair of lionesses sleeping in a fig tree at Ishasha (at Queen Liz).
We are so ready for Broadway.
Everywhere we went, children waved and smiled and called out to us (these little girls were until the moment I took out my camera). Friendliest kids ever!
Spotted on the drive from Kigali (in Rwanda) to Mbarara (back in Uganda).
We saw lots of baby animals on our safari drives. This one is a vervet monkey at Lake Mburo. AGGHHHHH SO CUTE.
An elephant and her wee one, spotted at Queen Liz.
In this (accidental) shot Elliot looks like he is four years old and has just gotten away with something naughty.More photos coming next week, hopefully. (I'm building my new website on Wednesday, and I'm not sure how long the blog will be on hiatus while I make all the necessary tweaks. More on this tomorrow!)
Gone Swimmin'
We're off to Uganda and Rwanda tomorrow! ("We" being me, Kate, Elliot, Jill and Spencer--the whole Peru crew.)
You have to strategize when planning your trip reading and knitting; the reading must be enjoyable but not so much of a page-turner that you blow through it and have nothing to occupy you afterward, and the knitting must be very portable and relatively mindless. Socks are ideal, but I haven't felt like knitting socks for a good while now, so I'm going to start on this cardigan in happy yellow Hempathy yarn (made of hemp, cotton, and modal). I need more yellow in my life. As for reading material, The Uses of Enchantment is easier than it looks. Fairy tales + psychology!Catch you on the flip side—two more entries after this one in September, and then I get a brand-new website!
Ajanta & Ellora
I never did finish blogging about India! My last stop (after Hampi and Hyderabad to see Golconda) was Aurangabad, the best base for visiting the marvelous caves at Ajanta and Ellora. I'd misunderstood my sister when she told me about these Buddhist monuments; I thought she'd visited them herself, but she hadn't been able to venture that far south when she was doing a law school program in Delhi (and elsewhere) in 2009; so I went down the walkways between the caves happily thinking I was walking in her footsteps. We've said we can't really do India together, since I did the southern half and she did the northern half. Each of us has already seen what the other one would like to. (Good thing there are plenty of other places in the world...like, say, Uganda!)Anyway, this is going to be more of a photo dump than a proper entry. Ajanta and Ellora are each a series of rock-cut temples, both within easy reach of Aurangabad. The "caves" at Ajanta were built between the second and fifth century CE, Ellora's between the fifth and tenth centuries. As I toured each of these sites I kept thinking about what life must have been like for the Buddhist monks who painted the walls and carved the arches and columns and sculptures of all sizes—to toil in what must have been dangerous conditions for an end result they wouldn't live to see. It would have been a life very much like those who built the great cathedrals of Europe, I imagine. Fascinating and awe-inspiring and exquisite.
Our guide told us the artist-monks made those hollows in the floor to mix and contain their pigments.
I was blessed to find a new friend from Switzerland on the bus ride to Ajanta. Julien and I got lunch at the site, and it was delicious. (I just skipped that yogurty-looking stuff on the right.)The next day we hired a rickshaw to take us to Ellora—which, true to reputation, was even more awe-inspiring than Ajanta:
(I love this shot—a simple but powerful gesture of awe and humility and gratitude.)
(Ha! Not likely!)
The Lost Religion of Jesus
Rosslyn Chapel.And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
(Genesis 1:30)
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, then you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
—St. Francis of Assisi
Within Christianity there is not a real consciousness about diet. But someday the Church will wake up and realize that an ethical diet is necessary to a moral way of life.
—Brother Ron Pickarski, OFM
While I was at Hawthornden back in January, I went with a few of my fellow writers to the Sunday service at the 15th-century Rosslyn Chapel. We'd come mostly to soak up the medieval atmosphere; it's been a long time since I set foot in a church hoping to emerge again with any sort of insight or answer.The second time I attended this Church of Scotland service, the minister—a jovial middle-aged man—opened his sermon with a joke about the Findus horse meat scandal. I stared at him in disbelief. As he segued into a second joke about Little Bo Peep finding her sheep on the shelf at Tesco, I took a white-knuckled grip on my seat in the pew, quivering with indignation (and if you know me, you know I'm not exaggerating).I didn't hear another word he said. All I could think was, How can I look to this person for spiritual guidance?Until that moment, I might have made a casual assertion now and then that Jesus was a vegetarian. But when I heard the minister make those jokes about the slaughter of innocent animals, I knew it was true. How could the man who preached "do unto others," a man we sometimes refer to as "the prince of peace," actually sit down to dine on animal flesh?Turns out there's a wealth of evidence to support this intuition, and a trove of interesting books to interpret it. I recently finished The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity by Keith Akers, and right now I'm reading Rynn Berry's Food for the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World's Religions. You'll recall that Professor Berry gave us an excellent talk on the history of veganism on our last morning at Main Street Vegan Academy; and before we go any further, I should underline the rich historical precedent for vegetarianism. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, whom you remember as the guy who came up with a2 + b2 = c2, was also an ethical vegetarian; his many followers (and all who came after) were known as "Pythagoreans" up until the mid 19th century, when the word "vegetarian" was coined.In Food for the Gods, Berry writes:
Evidence for Jesus's vegetarianism in the canonical gospels is circumstantial, but nonetheless compelling. Ethical vegetarians find it inconceivable that such a potent religious figure and moral teacher could have slit the throat of an animal, or have eaten the cooked body parts of an animal. Apart from the moral impropriety of such a diet, flesh (not excluding the flesh of fish) was an extremely scarce commodity in the ancient world and would have been considered a luxurious food; it would have been out of character for a man who stressed simplicity and frugality in living to be eating such opulent food.
Speaking of frugality and simple living, I'll give you just one reason why I feel so uneasy in the religion I inherited, and why I avoid my hometown parish: the pastor built himself a three-car garage to house his Lexus (and two other cars, perhaps?) I'm certainly not saying the man should be living in a hovel and walking two miles to work, but a fancy car and a three-car garage built with parish funds don't qualify as "simple living" by any stretch of the imagination. People like to think of themselves as "good Christians," but how many of them actually live by the principles Jesus espoused?But I'm getting ahead of myself here. How do we know what Jesus really said—and what he actually ate? We must re-examine everything we think we know about him, teasing out the underlying motives of early church leaders. The Bible, as any rational Christian will admit, was written by human beings, each of whom had their own agenda. Nor does the Bible contain every worthy piece of scripture; many documents written by early followers and contemporaries of Jesus were jettisoned (or perhaps "suppressed" is a more accurate term) by Church "fathers." The discovery of the Nag Hammadi gospels in Egypt in 1945 yielded alternative accounts of Jesus's life and message, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of Philip, and the Apocalypse of James. Keith Akers also draws on contemporary sources (like Epiphanius of Salamis), not all of whom were sympathetic toward those Jewish sects who lived by the teachings of Jesus (and if someone who obviously doesn't like or agree with you says nice things about you, we can feel that much more confident that those nice things are true).Akers makes the distinction, first and foremost, between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. The first group was comprised of several similar sects, many of whom were considered heretical by the Jewish establishment; the Jewish Christians believed that Jesus was the prophet of whom Moses spoke, and that he had come not to establish his own religion, but to correct the false and adulterated parts of their scriptures (directions for animal sacrifice being but one example). Jewish Christian sects like the Ebionites (from the Hebrew ebionim, "the poor") lived in pacifist communities, pooling their resources and eating a vegetarian diet. It is very likely that Jesus lived and preached within just such a community; the apocryphal scriptures indicate that he overturned the money-changers' tables in the temple because he was opposed to the needless slaughter of oxen, sheep, goats, pigeons, and doves—that there was nothing "holy" about it! The priests, who lived on these offerings, were none too pleased of course—and if all this is true, it follows that Jesus would be arrested and crucified on the priests' instigation. (So many things about my religion just didn't make sense to me until I read these books.)As for gentile Christianity, Akers makes a fascinating point: that pacifism was a highly inconvenient principle vis-à-vis Constantine and his army, who converted en masse after the emperor, prompted by a vision, bade his army mark their shields with crosses before a military triumph. It is this faction, of course, which took over the "Christian" message and its dissemination, diluting or overlooking the most basic tenets of nonviolence and simple living. The Jewish Christians remembered and lived by these principles, but they weren't accepted by either orthodox Judaism or gentile Christianity, and as pacifists they suffered tremendously through a series of Jewish revolts against Rome in 66-70, 117, and 132-135 CE. Though contemporary sources tell us they regrouped at Pella after the first revolt around 70 CE, and through geographical description Matthew pinpoints his own location in that vicinity (thus bolstering the case that the Ebionites' version of the gospel was the original), Jewish Christianity was destined to remain on the fringes of this new world religion. Akers writes, "When the larger gentile Christian church drove out Jewish Christianity...it also lost the core of Jesus' teachings." Hugely influential Church fathers like St. Paul, who introduced the concept of "original sin," were instrumental in this adulteration process; contemporary sources tell us that the Jewish Christians were ardently opposed to Paul's methods, believing that he corrupted Jesus's teachings to suit his own ends. Those who came out on top politically were those who established the doctrine—a belief system Jesus himself would not recognize.
While the church rejected the requirement for vegetarianism, it is indisputable that there were very large numbers of vegetarians in early Christianity. In fact, there are hardly any references to any early Christians eating meat. The view that Jesus ate meat creates a paradox: vegetarianism was practiced by the apostles and numerous early followers of Jesus, including Jesus' own brother, but not by Jesus himself! It is as if everyone in the early church understood the message except the messenger. The much more likely explanation is that the original tradition was vegetarian, but that under the pressure of expediency and the popularity of Paul's writings in the second century, vegetarianism was first dropped as a requirement and finally even as a desideratum.
—Keith Akers, The Lost Religion of Jesus
* * *
Regarding Jesus's possible vegetarianism, the first problem that comes to mind is that classic story of the loaves and the fishes. In Food for the Gods, Professor Berry points out that we must revisit the original Greek to find out if there actually were fishes served at that wedding feast:
Now, most translators render opsaria as sardines or little fish, but opsaria which comes from the Greek opson (relish) also meant "relish"; so it's possible to translate it as five loaves and two "relishes," "dainties," or "tidbits."
Professor Berry mentioned in his lecture that "relish" is the primary meaning of the original word used, and "little fish" only the tertiary meaning. Furthermore, bread with some sort of relish was a commonplace meal in first-century Palestine:
In Jesus's time, they dipped their loaf in relish or they tore off pieces of bread from the loaf and dipped it in the opsarion, or relish, which might have consisted of finely chopped olives with spices or ground sesame paste.
In other words, "The Loaves and the Fishes" might rightfully be retranslated as "The Loaves and the Hummus." Of course, Rynn Berry and his colleagues have pointed out other mistranslations; considering man's place among the animals, for instance, "dominion" is very different from "stewardship." It's the difference between a guardian and a slave driver. As the Rev. Andrew Linzey says in his Food for the Gods interview, "The original author [of Genesis] was seeking to describe a relationship—not of egotistical exploitation—but of care for the earth. It's extraordinary that almost 2,000 years of biblical exegesis should so often have overlooked the radical vegetarian message in Genesis I."As I sat through the rest of the sermon that morning, I knew I had a choice to make. I could behave as I always had—i.e., fuming in silence—or I could push past the nervous twisting in my guts to speak my mind in a calm, rational, mature way. I really didn't want to walk to the back of the church when the service was over, and wait in the vestibule doorway while a mother and her young son spoke to the reverend about some ordinary piece of church business—but I knew I had to if I was going to become the person I'd been saying I wanted to grow into. (I'm reminded of something else Rev. Linzey said in his interview: "At particular moments, almost against oneself, one finds the energy to do seemingly impossible things.")So I waited. And once the parishioners had said goodbye, I stepped forward. "Reverend, may I tell you what's on my mind?" He said yes, of course, and I went on, "I was upset by the Little Bo Peep joke you made at the beginning of your sermon. I believe that if we want to see peace in the world we have to start with our own stomachs"—he laughed when I said this, but not unkindly—"and that's why I'm vegan. I'm not going to try to convince you of anything, I just needed to express this to you."The minister replied in a warm and genuinely concerned attitude, apologizing if he had offended me and remarking that he had several colleagues who were vegan. I thanked him for allowing me to "speak my truth" and rejoined my friends in the pew. But I couldn't focus on their conversation; my whole body thrummed with excited energy. I'd been able to turn that knot of frustrated nervous disappointment in my stomach into something constructive, and there is no way I can adequately describe to you just how wonderful it felt.I guess we'll never know for certain that Jesus was a vegetarian, but there is far too much "circumstantial" evidence to overlook the idea. He taught his followers to love God, and love one another—indeed, the entire religion is based upon this simple principle!—and if we are to conduct our lives in this way, it ultimately makes no sense to practice compassion only for our fellow humans.In this blog post I am truly only scratching the surface of this topic; if you are a devout Christian, I highly encourage you to read these books, and think long and critically about what you believe in. I've put together this (non-exhaustive) reading list for myself (drawn from the extensive bibliographies of Berry and Akers), and it includes titles by veg(etari)an theologians:
Is God a Vegetarian?: Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights by Richard A. Young
The Vegetarianism of Jesus Christ by Charles Vaclavik
The Birth of Christianity: Reality and Myth by Joel Carmichael
Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church by Hans-Joachim Schoeps [this one I'll have to find at a good library!]
The Master: His Life and Teachings by John Todd FerrierThe Other Gospels: The Non-Canonical Gospel Texts, edited by Ron Cameron
Animal Theology and Christianity and the Rights of Animals by Rev. Andrew Linzey
Dominion: the Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully
For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action by Charles Camosy.
I no longer feel comfortable identifying myself as a Christian for reasons outlined above—and yet, as a vegan, I want to follow Jesus's example in a way I never felt inspired to do when I was a card-carrying Catholic.
Villa de Leyva
Sierra and Diana picked me up at the hostel in San Gil, and together we drove down to Villa de Leyva. This was the last stop on my Colombian tour, and it was utterly splendid from start to finish.(More photos of Villa de Leyva in this post.)
(We stopped for a bit in a little town called Oiba to stretch our legs.)
The Plaza Mayor. Villa de Leyva has a very rich colonial history.A few shots from the farmers' market:
This hood ornament is just about the coolest thing EVER.
In lieu of seeing the "dinosaurs," we opted for some actual fossils at a tiny paleontology museum:
We also spotted a fossil in the courtyard of a local winery.
After my friends went back to Buca, I had a day and a half more to potter around town before heading back to the airport in Bogotà. I amused myself with lugubrious religious art at the Carmelite museum...
...went for a walk in the hills outside of town...
...and reconnected with a friend I'd made back in San Gil. I also met this precocious little home-schooler, with whom I played a few coin toss games. (I can't remember what the game is actually called.)I also chatted with a new friend we'd made whose parents own an adorable cafe in town, and he promised to make me a tinto campesino--a traditional style of coffee flavored with cloves and other spices—but when I went back in the morning, the cafe was closed. Wistful sigh!(Thus concludes my Colombia recap.)
A Room with a View
(Mr. Forster, wherever you are...I hope you can forgive me.)I've only ever stayed in New York City hotel rooms for my launch parties, but for the Main Street Vegan Academy mini-reunion last weekend, I booked one thinking two out-of-town friends would be joining me. Alas, their travel plans fell through, but I decided to make the best of the situation by turning it into an all-night writing retreat of sorts. Check out wasn't until noon, after all...(You may have noticed my tweets from one night a couple of weeks ago, when I drank too much coffee at the Starbucks down the street and ended up working 'til 6am.)
Five thirty. Colorless sky. Birds a-chirping. I can hear one of our Muslim students singing his prayers.-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 9, 2013
Yup, the hotel is literally at "Ground Zero" (with a Morton's steakhouse downstairs, no less). I was living in an NYU dorm in Chinatown on September 11th, and saw more that day than I care to describe here. I still think about how many people lost their lives, and I bless them, wherever they are, but I've never felt the need to actually visit the memorial. (Now you see why I was in a rather morbid frame of mind.)
After saying goodbye to my MSVA friends, I stopped at the Trader Joe's near Union Square to pick up some "fuel" for the long night ahead. (I would be so deliciously productive! It would be SO WONDERFUL!!!!!)Not long past midnight, though, my energy began to flag. The coffee I'd brewed in my room was really weak (even the decaf I made in the morning had more caffeine in it!), and I suddenly remembered I'd only gotten five hours of sleep the night before. With a couple of iced coffees I was hoping to ease myself into that elusive "sweet spot," the "theta state" or however you like to label it, but it just wasn't happening. I needed some shut-eye. So I promised myself I'd get a good three hours done in the morning, and climbed into the king-size bed.
I used to write until 4 or 5 almost every night when I was in grad school working on Mary Modern. Twenty-four doesn't feel that far from thirty-two, but I gotta face reality here: I'm not that young anymore. I can pull one of those exhilarated all-nighters every now and again—they are still every bit as fun as they were then!—but it's going to take more planning than it used to. At any rate, in the morning I managed to finish a draft of the outline (or "chapter flow") I'd been working toward, which had been my goal for the night anyway.The other take-away from my experience over the weekend is this: you won't be touched by some divine hand of inspiration every time you sit down to write. Much of the time it's just putting one word down after another, and that's perfectly okay. That's how a book gets written.
Life After Life After Life
(Main Street Vegan Academy, part 4.)I was staying downtown (more on that tomorrow), so on Sunday afternoon I took a wander through the Trinity churchyard.
Every time I see an 18th-century grave marker I'm fascinated, again, by the phrase departed this life. I like to take the words out of their Christian context, and simply consider death as an onward journey. I can almost get excited when you frame it that way--as J.M. Barrie put it, "an awfully big adventure."
One of the doors to Grace Church.On the other hand, don't we "depart this life" and begin another quite frequently throughout our lives? Coming back to New York often feels like peeping in on that version I was living twelve or fourteen years ago. I pass Grace Church on Broadway, and remember how I admired the view over the churchyard from the window of an NYU dorm room when I was visiting as a high school senior. I walk through Washington Square Park, and think back on all the conversations I've had there, all the interesting people who came in and out of my life.
(Some things thread themselves through, joining each chapter together: to the end of my life (the actual end), whenever I see hydrangeas, I will always think of my sister.)
Maybe it's odd that I love graveyards as much as I do. Part of it is the romance and the gothic flavor and all that, but there's a practical reason too. We need every reminder that our lives won't last forever, that we must experience them as fully as we can—the highs and the lows, avoiding none of the messiness. Those colonial New Yorkers have had their turn; now it's ours.
Main Street Vegan Academy, part 4
Sometimes you find good advice where you least expect it (in this case, the ladies' restroom at South Station.)Saturday morning I took the bus down to New York for a Main Street Vegan Academy reunion dinner at the marvelous Peacefood Café (at Union Square). It was so lovely to reconnect with my classmates and meet a few new friends from the earlier sessions (one of whom, J.L., has a brand-new book out called Vegan For Her!)I've gotten to the point that when I'm in a totally vegan-friendly place like New York, a Chipotle burrito isn't going to cut it when I could patronize a cruelty-free business instead. I hadn't looked up a vegan option near the bus stop beforehand, but I decided I would find one without having to try too hard (I think most of you know I don't own a smartphone).And what do you know? A block and a half north of the Megabus stop (7th Avenue at 29th Street), there is a Loving Hut.
The girl behind the counter actually remembered my name, and used it each time she asked if I needed anything and if I was enjoying my food. A seitan sandwich with chipotle mayo and a side salad with carrot ginger dressing were so satisfying after a four-hour bus ride!
Already daydreaming about dinner at @peacefoodnyc with my #mainstreetvegan posse tomorrow. Gingerade & chickpea fries, for sure. #vegan-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 20, 2013
More deliciousness at Peacefood that evening: gingerade, chickpea fries, and a Daiya cheeseburger with sprouts and plenty of pickle and mustard on focaccia.
Part of the Main Street Vegan crew. Oh how I adore these people!!!
Afterward we went to Chloe's for some fruity soft serve. Tali always orders the large.
So much fun tonight!!! RT @victoria_moran: With Main Street #Vegan Academy grads @chloesfruit in Mamhattan. pic.twitter.com/KXeJVXnxpG-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 21, 2013
For brunch the next day I went to Sacred Chow (on Sullivan between West 3rd and Bleecker), which Tali had recommended. Stellar service--I love it when waitstaff don't try to make me feel weird for eating solo and taking up a whole table--and the fresh market greens salad hit the spot (after two faux meat sandwiches the day before, I was really hankering for some roughage).This was my first experience of jicama (that's the white bits), and I wasn't thrilled with it—it doesn't seem to have a taste at all!—but the raw cashew kefir dressing and "almond and sunflower nutmeats" were really delicious.Much more to say about my night in New York, but I'll save it for later this week.
Funtimes in San Gil
From Bucaramanga I took a bus down to San Gil, which has a reputation as a mecca for adventure sport enthusiasts. It's a cool little town with a lively backpackers' scene, and although I did spend more time "out" than I had up until that point (as you do, traveling on your own), I still managed to get some good writing done at a shady picnic table on the hostel patio.It's the easiest thing just to book your rafting, kayaking, rappelling, paragliding, or what have you through your hostel or guesthouse. I stayed at Macondo and it's excellent—helpful staff, very clean, comfortable common spaces, and attracts a friendly crowd. I also loved wandering through the indoor produce market in the center of town--picked up fresh fruit to nosh on, and a lot of the stalls offer juices and smoothies.
I rappelled down that waterfall in the background, and someone took this really awesome shot of me as I was doing it, but she never sent it to me. Oh well, you'll just have to take my word for it.
I played tejo with a bunch of guys from the hostel. Really fun.
The other popular thing to do in the area is El Camino Real, a 200-year-old donkey track linking two quaint little colonial towns, Barichara and Guane. Rene and John and I took the bus from San Gil to Barichara, and walked around town for a bit before starting out on El Camino Real.
The postcard-pretty church on the Barichara town square.
We had no trouble finding the cute little vegetarian café mentioned in the guidebook, and sat down for a lovely meal.
These kids were SO OVERJOYED that school was out, it cracked me up. (You can also see how extremely quaint is Barichara!)
El Camino Real was my favorite part of my time in San Gil. Lovely hills and pastoral scenery and camouflaged butterflies.
This hairy hanging stuff is known as "old man's beard." (I wanted to call it "witches' beard." I think that would be way funnier, especially since the effect as you're standing under it is a little eerie.)
On the outskirts of Guane, a four-legged local came over to greet us.
We were taking the local bus back to San Gil, so once we got to Guane it was time for a relaxing drink in a cafe courtyard.Only one more Colombia post left!
Bucaramanga
After Cartagena I took a bus to Bucaramanga, where Sierra lives, and it was so absurdly late that I didn't get to her house until three o'clock in the morning. She had to get up again in a couple of hours to teach, but that didn't stop her greeting me with a hot meal, cooked on the spot.
(I really do have the awesomest friends in the world.)We spent a very happy week and a half together. Sierra threw a beautiful dinner party with all her friends (from school and elsewhere), I continued to get really good work done on the children's novel, I lounged in the hammock reading Outliers and The Historian, and I even sat in on her classes one day.
Sierra is one of those wonderfully inspired and inspiring teachers. She spends hours decorating her classroom at the beginning of the year.
She took me to the multi-level central market downtown, where fortunately the animal products were located on a separate level from the beautiful fruits, veggies, and herbs:
We picked up ingredients for vegan pesto and roasted garlic and tomato soup.
Delicious hot drinks at Café Con-Verso.
You can tell how much she loves her life. Spending time with people like this makes you even happier than you already are!
Main Street Vegan Academy, part 3
(All Main Street Vegan Academy entries.)Friday morning Victoria offered several very useful lectures on public speaking and the nuts-and-bolts aspects of working with clients. She's so knowledgeable practical and wise. If you ever get the chance to hear her speak (or better yet, attend the vegan academy yourself), you should JUMP on it. And read Main Street Vegan, of course! She presents everything you need to know in such an easy and loving way; I admit that some of us vegans get REALLY impassioned to the point where we might alienate the "veg curious," but in her books and on her podcast, Victoria's approach is always gentle and friendly.
Got public speaking advice from @victoria_moran so awesome I had to bring my notebook into the bathroom so I could keep taking notes. #vegan-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) June 22, 2013
After Victoria's talks, our classmate Ilana gave us an introduction to Ayurveda, which is an ancient Indian tradition of natural healing. (Ayurvedic practitioners generally use milk and ghee, but some vegans are modifying the tradition--see Talya Lutzker's new book The Vegan Ayurvedic Kitchen. Talya was a guest on Victoria's podcast last month.) I'll write more about Ayurveda in a future post. Then we took the subway downtown to Pure Food and Wine for a languid lunch, and by that I mean three courses over three hours, or close enough to it! (I'd been there earlier in the week with Kate and Sara, remember, and while the company was excellent my burger was a little disappointing. This meal more than made up for it!) 
The Mediterranean salad: arugula, kale, kalamata olives, tomatoes, pumpkin seed macadamia parmesan, balsamic vinaigrette. Awesome.
Brazil nut sea vegetable croquettes with a tartare sauce. If I had to pick my very favorite dish out of all the meals at NYC vegan restaurants I've had, this would be it. It's the sort of thing you really want to recreate at home, but you know you won't be able to! Exquisite. (I also ordered a "swan greens" juice--cucumber, spinach, dandelion, pear, grapefruit, tarragon, spearmint, and yuzu...which I now know to be an East Asian citrus fruit, thanks to Dr. Google.)
I was a bit skeptical when this lemon bar showed up—it looked kind of plasticy—but appearances can be deceiving and all that. Really flavorful—a PUNCH of lemon—and a perfect almond coconut crust.
After lunch we walked to an Indian grocery, where I picked up a bunch of interesting powders and oils Ilana recommended on the fly. (This photo with Ilse, Zachary, and Stephanie.) I haven't had a chance to try any of them yet, but when I do I'll let you know how I find them.
Just posted a photo @ MooShoes http://t.co/mcHfr2KGTU -- Zachary Koval (@Zachary_Koval) June 21, 2013
Then it was on to Moo Shoes, which I somehow hadn't visited since 2004. I'm happy to say that vegan footwear has come a LONG way in that time! (By the way, my other favorite place to buy fashionable, quality, breathable shoes is Vegetarian Shoes in the UK.)
Margo gave some love to the Moo Shoes resident kitty.I spent so much time trying on shoes that I missed out on Babycakes (everyone had left by the time I got there, and I didn't feel like eating cupcakes by myself), but I did manage to meet up with my pal Kathy (for whom I used to work back at HarperCollins) for cocktails and some delicious gourmet pizza with Daiya cheese (made of arrowroot and tapioca as opposed to soy, by the by--melts just like dairy cheese) at Pala, which offers a vegan menu. (Sometimes I do wish I still lived in New York...!)
I don't go gaga over shoes, but I'm in love with these dove-gray oxfords I just bought from @mooshoes_nyc. http://t.co/Zqhbvg0I91 #vegan-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) June 22, 2013
Saturday morning we reconvened at the grocery store around the corner from Victoria's apartment to meet her daughter Adair, who was playing our hypothetical client. I picked up several new pieces of knowledge in the course of the "tour," the most scary of which is that tin cans contain BPA unless otherwise noted on the label. You know how water bottles will say "BPA free"? That's because studies have indicated that BPA is a carcinogen. So you have to look for cans of soup or beans or sauce that specifically say "no BPA." Here's a list of seven brands you can trust on Treehugger.com. (If you do a quick Google search on BPA, you'll find that it's the organizations profiting from it who say it's perfectly safe, and it's not like you can actually trust the FDA, due to the influence of said corporate interests.) Afterward we went back to Victoria's for Fran Costigan's talks on food demos and comparing all the different kinds of vegan sweeteners for use in pastries and desserts (coconut sugar, date sugar, rice syrup, Sucanat...) Her new book, Vegan Chocolate, comes out in November, and the confection on the cover looks every bit as decadent as an ordinary chocolate cake. (But like I said, you enjoy your treats way more when you know they're fair trade and cruelty free...)
After lunch we had a panel discussion with Gary Gibson, Dianne Wenz, and Jaime Karpovich, all MSVA graduates, who offered more practical info on starting a vegan coaching business. Michael Parrish DuDell gave the next lecture--half was marketing and business-y and the other half presented the case for veganism from an environmental standpoint. Did you know that raising animals for food contributes more to global warming than every mode of transportation in the world combined? It sounds unbelievable, but this is a statistic generated by the U.N. in 2006. No one is making this up; no one would ever want to. You can see why Michael says he initially went vegan for the sake of the environment. That night we went to Blossom for dinner. I've had pretty good meals there in the past, but nothing truly inspired until Friday night: 
Seitan Frites Au Poivre with creamy mushroom peppercorn sauce, shoestring fries, and grilled asparagus with horseradish cream. The chocolate mousse pie was awesome too, and I almost collapsed with ecstasy as I sipped the organic mint chip shake Lindsay ordered.
Another awesome day at #vegan academy, culminating in chocolate mousse cake and impromptu tarot readings at @cafeblossom. (I love my life.) -- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) June 23, 2013
Sunday was our last day. We had lectures from Sharon Nazarian on social media and Rynn Berry on the history of veganism. Professor Berry's talk was absolutely fascinating, and I'll be blogging about his books (Food for the Gods, etc.) in the months ahead. (He even gave me an extremely useful tidbit for my Edinburgh novel! Like I said--collecting the jigsaw pieces...)
A refreshing glass of gingerade and a Mediterranean panini at Peacefood Café on the UWS, where we celebrated our graduation. The chickpea fries (in the background) were INCREDIBLE.
Photo: Grad lunch @peacefoodnyc w/ @Victoria_Moran, @jamsmom, @PettyMagic et al. #MSVA #vegan #NYC #travel... http://t.co/zp2ESxoSGc-- Stephanie Gorchynski (@StephGorchynski) June 26, 2013
After lunch and a round of goodbye hugs, I went to a wine bar with Ilse and Stephanie to continue our conversation, but I didn't order a glass myself since I was heading out to Park Slope for yoga with our classmate Jean. That was another full circle experience for me, since I used to go to that studio when I lived in Brooklyn nine and ten years ago. (More about this when I blog about my pretty-much-daily practice at Back Bay Yoga.)Thus concludes my MSVA recap, although I do feel I ought to take another post for reflection as opposed to "we did this and this and this." It would be impossible to overstate how much I loved and learned from this program—I'm truly only scratching the surface here!
Snapshots from Cartagena
(Scribbling Away in Cartagena; all Colombia entries.)
The café at our hotel.
Colombians make the best graffiti.
We wandered into a random art gallery. Old furniture, a video projection of a woman licking the floor, machetes hanging from the ceiling (as political commentary)...
...And the building itself was part of the installation.
A torture implement (horquilla del hereja, 'heretic's pitchfork') at the Palace of the Inquisition. (It seemed like pretty much everything in that museum is a reproduction though.)
Ventana de la Denuncia outside the Palace of the Inquisition.
Full Circle
With Tali and Margo on Washington Square East, en route to the PETA talk at the Kimmel Center. Photo by Rain.
As you may know, at NYU I was an opinion columnist for the Washington Square News. (If you're interested, here's the best thing I ever wrote for that paper.)One time the animal rights group on campus circulated a pamphlet stating that NYU researchers, funded by our tax dollars, were practicing vivisection on rhesus monkeys, supposedly to discover a cure for lazy eye. I was going to link to the definition of "vivisection," but I think I'd better define it for you here:
viv·i·sec·tion [viv-uh-sek-shuhn]noun1. the action of cutting into or dissecting a living body.2. the practice of subjecting living animals to cutting operations, especially in order to advance physiological and pathological knowledge.
I was so shocked and disgusted that I hastily typed up an opinion piece decrying what was going on in our university research labs. It was an absolutely lazy piece of so-called journalism--I did virtually no outside research--and the next day we published a letter from the NYU spokesman (part of whose job it was to take us pesky kids down a peg on a regular basis) that began, "Camille DeAngelis parroted the contents of a nasty pamphlet..."Funny that he should use the word "parrot," right? Because parrots repeat what's actually been said; they don't obfuscate, as humans are wont to do. The NYU spokesman didn't deny anything about the vivisection itself--he only attempted to rationalize it by saying people would be helped by the "work" they were doing, and that the animal rights activists were just getting in the way of medical progress. As if making use of our first-amendment right was "nasty," and drilling holes into monkeys' heads WASN'T.Yeah, I think the monkeys would have a thing or two to say about that. But we don't speak their language.
"A few polite words, properly placed, can change a life forever." --@IngridNewkirk at @PETA #vegan #govegan-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) June 21, 2013
Does "progress" necessitate the torture of innocent, sentient beings? Scientists like T. Colin Campbell believe this to a certain extent--for without his lab rats we wouldn't have as much scientific evidence that a plant-based diet is THE way to fend off cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and there's no denying that animal testing has saved many human lives through vaccines and other critical medicines. Our technology, however, has advanced to the point where animal testing (for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and so forth) is actually the least effective way of doing things. And yet many companies are still dropping chemicals in rabbits' eyes before sticking them back in their cages.I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a party to unnecessary suffering in any form. I wish I had actually joined People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals back at NYU, and gotten involved. I thought I was doing enough by being a vegetarian, but I know better now.
.@ingridnewkirk on speciesism: "We think we're sophisticated because we invented Cheetos and the dishwasher." @peta #vegan-- Camille DeAngelis (@comet_party) July 5, 2013
Ingrid Newkirk's lecture included photographs and video footage of animals doing extraordinary things...and animals being treated with extraordinary cruelty.As our vegan academy group walked down to Washington Square for the PETA lecture that Thursday night, I thought back on that ill-executed yet thoroughly righteous editorial I'd once written. I also remembered a brief conversation outside the NYU Main Building I'd had with a really nice girl named Lauren, who was active in the PETA group on campus and was thrilled that I'd written about the vivisection issue. I was sipping a hot chocolate, and I offered her some. She asked if there was milk in it, I said yes, and she politely declined.Why didn't I get it?I wasn't ready, I guess. But I really wish I could have been.
THIS is your milk, your cheese, your butter. Still think dairy doesn't hurt cows? http://t.co/sn0wG2g4px #Dehorning #Reasons2GoVegan-- PETA (@peta) June 21, 2013
(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)
Main Street Vegan Academy, part 2
We kicked off Main Street Vegan Academy Tuesday evening (June 18th) with a delicious chickpea curry, DF Mavens ice cream ("the best dairy-free ice cream in the world" is no exaggeration), and a presentation by Dr. Robert Ostfeld of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Ostfeld did a great job of explaining the mechanics of heart disease in layman's terms. ("Grummus" is something you do NOT want inside your arteries, but it's such a fun word to say!) Dr. Ostfeld and nutritionist Lauren Graf offer a plant-based cardiac wellness program for their patients, many of whom are living on limited incomes. These are awesome people doing awesome work, and I know we all felt very lucky to learn more about it.Wednesday was our most lecture-filled day. First up was Marty Davey, La Diva Dietitian, who offered us a basic course in vegan nutrition, followed by special guidelines for pregnancy and children, athletes, and the elderly. Marty is very wry and witty, making the material way more engaging than it might have been. (She likes to tell teenage boys that if they stick with the standard American diet, "by the time you're 35, Mr. Happy may not be so happy!")After lunch, Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House gave an impassioned and very articulate talk on animal rights and animal law (Mariann is a professor of animal rights law at Columbia and a couple other NYC schools. I really loved it when she said, "What was I thinking before the light bulb went off?", because that's how I've felt every single day since I went vegan.) If you're interested in exploring the philosophy around animal rights, their website is a great place to start. (See also Main Street Vegan Academy Will Change Your Life.)After their talk, Jasmin and Mariann were guests on Victoria's radio show, with our classmate Zachary co-hosting. We got to be the live studio audience.
Truly inspired afternoon with @Victoria_Moran & @ourhenhouse - love this candid pic of the podcast! #mainstreetvegan pic.twitter.com/tLsBIGJfvc-- Stephanie Gorchynski (@CompassionAteTO) June 20, 2013
After the radio show, Joshua Katcher of Brave Gentleman and The Discerning Brute gave an equally powerful presentation on animal cruelty in the fashion industry: fur, leather, wool, silk, and feathers. For a quick intro (no, shearing sheep isn't the same as a haircut!), check out the FAQ on his blog."We must not allow the beauty of an object to blind us to the horror of its origins."Joshua designs vegan business suits, which are manufactured in Italy. Fashion may seem frivolous on the surface, but the work he, Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart, Jill Milan, Jaclyn Sharp, and other designers are doing is so, SO important. An estimated one billion animals annually are killed for their skins, and the undercover footage Joshua showed us almost literally made me sick.(You don't want to watch this, but you really should. This particular footage was taken at a fox farm in Illinois.)People like to think if you're going vegan you can only dress in burlap sacks, but there's absolutely no excuse to wear leather or fur when alternatives exist that are ethical, sustainable, and stylish.Wednesday evening, after a delicious avocado quinoa salad at Candle West (I skipped dessert, though I did have a bite of Marcia's cannoli and it was just as tasty as "the real thing"!) I went down to Union Square for some edible and inedible treats.Thursday morning Jennifer Gannett gave us a very practical presentation on "mixed" families (i.e., not everyone in the family wants to go vegan) and transitioning to veganism in general. That'll be really useful for those of us who will be focusing on private coaching.
Thursday lunch: carrot-pecan-coconut salad; mock tuna salad; Aztec salad with black beans, red onion, red pepper, tomato and cilantro; and a creamy dill dip. Words can't express just how much I enjoyed this meal.Thursday afternoon we took a field trip to a cute little raw food store called High Vibe, followed by Sustainable NYC and Vaute Couture. After dinner at Jivamuktea, we headed down to NYU to hear a talk by Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I'll be blogging about Vaute and the PETA lecture over the next couple of days.
More Main Street vegan fun :) #msva http://t.co/KEQAIY8hHi-- Treehousechatter (@treehousechat) June 20, 2013
(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)
Treat Yo'self!
Thursday night (of vegan academy week), after a delicious dinner at Candle West with my classmates, I went down to Union Square for dessert and some browsing at one of the world's best bookstores.(That "treat yo'self!" episode of "Parks and Recreation" is the only episode I've actually seen, but I do like to quote it.)
Dairy-free dark chocolate YUM in a pretzel cone at Chloe's Soft Serve Fruit Company.People sometimes have this notion that being vegan means giving up all the fun stuff. Not true at all! I enjoy a treat way more now, because I can feel good about where it came from.
As much as I enjoyed that "soft serve," browsing at the Strand was an even bigger treat. (Here's an example of something awesome I found there on a past visit.)
Delicious books! The Decomposition Notebook was a gift for a friend, but isn't that sort of a treat for myself too?(I'm almost finished with Hardcore Zen, which my friend Mike recommended to me years ago. It's a great book. I'll be blogging about it.)
I don't usually spend much time perusing the clearance books outside the store, although I do like to daydream sometimes that the Strand is still around a hundred years from now, and some NYU student finds one of my books on the dollar cart, reads it and loves it....Is that weird?
(And here is a random window shot of a store called Mantiques Modern. Ha! Love it.)(All Main Street Vegan Academy posts here.)