A woman from Spain told me about the risk she took in starting her own restaurant decades ago, and how it was so difficult at the beginning because they were worried about money and had to borrow from her parents, but then she succeeded, has a happy family and a wonderful life. She's retired now and planning to see the world.
The topic was "something you have been successful at" and the difficulties overcome.
Then she gave me some life lessons, for example, finding something you didn't even know you were looking for. You can't always achieve everything you attempt, but life often leads you to something even better.
One cannot always plan, but sometimes, one can "make it happen," an expression I was able to teach her.
We began the lesson talking about restaurants, and her most recent food adventure in New York City was a place next to the Cervantes Institute, named after the writer of the "first modern novel." They call it that because it was the long fictional European story that did not celebrate romantic questers, but instead made fun of them. Honestly, I thought it was a boring novel, a few too many centuries old for my taste. I understood the lesson of the windmills though: why turn energy sources moved by necessary invisible forces into monsters and attack them, especially when there are plenty more exciting, rewarding and useful adventures to be lived and enjoyed? Eventually Mr. Quixote learns and teaches that "he who travels much and reads much sees much and learns much." Later, when he explains the necessity of poetry in a man's soul, people realize he's not as stupid as they originally thought he was. I think his spirit was spot on, he just needed to relax when it came to lancing things.
As for first books, Chung Fu is making it happen. The student reminded me, though, that serving the customer and making them feel cared for is the most important ingredient, because that's not only how you stay in business feeding people, but also the whole reason you do anything.
The topic was "something you have been successful at" and the difficulties overcome.
Then she gave me some life lessons, for example, finding something you didn't even know you were looking for. You can't always achieve everything you attempt, but life often leads you to something even better.
One cannot always plan, but sometimes, one can "make it happen," an expression I was able to teach her.
We began the lesson talking about restaurants, and her most recent food adventure in New York City was a place next to the Cervantes Institute, named after the writer of the "first modern novel." They call it that because it was the long fictional European story that did not celebrate romantic questers, but instead made fun of them. Honestly, I thought it was a boring novel, a few too many centuries old for my taste. I understood the lesson of the windmills though: why turn energy sources moved by necessary invisible forces into monsters and attack them, especially when there are plenty more exciting, rewarding and useful adventures to be lived and enjoyed? Eventually Mr. Quixote learns and teaches that "he who travels much and reads much sees much and learns much." Later, when he explains the necessity of poetry in a man's soul, people realize he's not as stupid as they originally thought he was. I think his spirit was spot on, he just needed to relax when it came to lancing things.
As for first books, Chung Fu is making it happen. The student reminded me, though, that serving the customer and making them feel cared for is the most important ingredient, because that's not only how you stay in business feeding people, but also the whole reason you do anything.
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