I kicked it off by speaking at the Interesting New York conference, hosted by Open Intelligence Agency at FIT. It's the first time I've got up to speak in front of a large group about what I'm doing, and the first time I've really put together a series of visuals to accompany the talking. It was great mid-point status report for myself, and a great platform for reaching out to other like-minded folks. I made a number of connections with really interesting (obviously) people that I hope I can stay in contact with. Any chance I have to show people the feasibility of making conscientious consumer choices is great.And then... I went to Italy. I wasn't sure how the project was going to come into play while in a foreign country whose language I speak very (very) little of. I knew I could avoid purchasing anything superfluous, certainly no touristy souvenirs probably made in China, but how could I eat? I reversed the usual strategy of meeting the folks first, and just made the effort to connect with the waitstaff, cooks, grocers, bartenders, espresso makers (oh my God the espresso) as best I could. Luckily, my boyfriend is even chattier than I am, and we managed to make a lot of friends there. We returned to the same restaurants in Rome a few nights in a row and became short-term regulars, chatted with a waitress named Maria who had spent 9 awful years in "a place called Columbus, Ohio", and had amazing one-sided conversations in Italian with an old woman in giant hat who sells produce in a working-class coastal town called Minori. The wines were local, the vegetables grown all around us, and the pasta made by hand. I'm not exaggerating when I say everything tasted better knowing who was making it.
With a little effort, making connections anywhere is so easy and fun. Leaving the stunning ancient "old country", less so.
Labels: The Project
