June 2013
1 post
May 2013
1 post
March 2013
1 post
November 2012
2 posts
Syracuse Beer Week Calendar of Events
May 2012
1 post
March 2012
7 posts
Gloria Aviles-Rakowsky →
gloriaavilesrakowsky.brandyourself.com
Gloria Aviles-Rakowsky, writer and blogger about all things beer and travel. Check out her Brand Yourself profile here!
I Dream of Finland (Part One)
I’ve always loved travel, from the 30-minute ride to the next county to the three-leg flight to Eastern Europe. To entertain myself as a child, I would spin a globe, close my eyes and point to a destination. I would then go to the library to investigate. My 80 pound frame struggled with the heavy volumes of the New World Encyclopedia, which seemed like big lead bricks. I spent hours in the library, soaking up information on Lichtenstein, Bombay, Montserrat and everywhere in between. In the pre-digital era, entertainment could be had with a good book, a piece of paper, pencils, globes, and pure imagination.
While I can’t say that I extensively traveled as a child, I was fortunate enough to regularly visit my extended family in Mexico. Going there opened my eyes to the reality of a completely foreign existence to my small town American experience. It was during those trips that my unquenchable thirst for exploration began.
In middle school, students were given the opportunity to connect with children of the same age in distant lands. ‘Pen pals’ they called it. This was an exciting prospect, to get a name I couldn’t pronounce with an address that I had to painstakingly write correctly. I would look outside the window and wait for the mailman to arrive everyday. The anticipation of receiving mail was so exciting! Aah, the days of snail mail. My first pen pal was Mervi, a Finnish girl from a town called Kokkola. I ran to the library to find such a place, a land I never knew existed in my 11 years of wisdom. Finland – a land so far away, so remote, so unimaginable. I wanted to make sure I at least knew where this place was on the map, to know its capital, population, official language, currency (the markka, replaced by the euro), and any other interesting tidbits I could gather.
I began my correspondence with Mervi in 1982, a time where “The Safety Dance” was a temporary anthem, where Pac Man was this intoxicatingly cute little fellow, and where I learned all about Suomi. During my tweens and teens, Mervi and I exchanged correspondence, candy, and pop magazine clippings from our countries. Reading the clippings was a dyslexic haze – way too many consonants oddly juxtaposed to form 35 letter words.* We mailed each other mix tapes – the real kind – 90 minute high quality Dolby cassettes. I had no idea what Finnish bands like Hanoi Rocks were singing about, but I liked it. I enjoyed learning about her culture as much as I enjoyed talking about cute boys and summer dreams.
Branching Out
February 2012
2 posts
January 2012
2 posts
Central New York Brewfest! →
youtube.com
Here’s an interview with one of the co-founders of this winter warming event, Mickey Wysochanski. This year’s brewfest is coming up soon!
Chick Beer? Really? →
chickbeer.com
How many ways can I say this is wrong (click above on the word “Really?”) It is my understanding that the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica, N.Y. is the 2nd oldest in America, after Yuengling. I’m not a feminist nor do I side with the misogynists, but this looks like crap. If you like beer, then why does it have to be tailored for a gender? A true beer lover bases his or her choices on preference — hoppy, malty, oaky, heavy, light, etc. If you want a great beer that is low in calories, have a Guinness for G-d’s sake!! Ugh. I’m done. Thank you for letting me vent.
