Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 51

CONGRATS to Sydney Roberts, youngest swimmer ever to swim Bonifacio Strait from Sardinia to Corsica!

[image error] [image error] Sydney Roberts swam FIVE hours from Italy to France: Bonifacio Strait from Sardinia to Corsica Summer 2021–YOUNGEST SWIMMER EVER!! Her advice: “Keep PUSHING yourself!” [image error] LISTEN to Conversations with Coach Pedro with Sydney Roberts talking about swimming! [image error]

Sydney Roberts is an open water swimmer who started her swimming in the San Francisco Bay with Water World Swim when she was only 12 years old. Her goal was always to swim long distances and she set a goal, to swim a challenging swim. Once she started swimming in the cold waters of the bay, she immediately started to become one of the fastest and dedicated to take challenges like swimming from Alcatraz and other long distances swims, either with wetsuit or skin.

When she was only 16 years old she found her goal by becoming interested in a 15 to 16 kilometers swim, like the Bonifacio Channel in Italy, a swim from the Island of Sardinia, Italy  to Corsica, France Unfortunately, her goal came right before the pandemic hit the entire world. She definitely did not give up her dreams and kept her commitment to keep training and not to give up.

With the help of Water World Swim coaches, like Coach Mike and Coach Jake, and others in the coaching team, she kept persevering, just waiting for the opportunity once the countries would reopen. Being a High School senior, came time that she would have to start choosing her School to go to college but at the same time to continue with her training. Even knowing she would swim in warmer waters, she continue training training in open waters, due to the closing of all places like swimming pools, and during the pandemic and winter. She finalize her training in Winter of 2021 swimming four hours and without wetsuit. On this conversation she tell us details of her training and also about her swim across the Bonifacio Channel in 5 hours. She is also a great musician, that plays many instruments, being her favorite, the fidler, that she plays with a musical group. Giving us a demo of her virtuosity at the end of this conversation.

[image error] https://waterworldswim.com/sydney-roberts-15-km-bonifacio-swimmer/Swim: Bonifacio Strait from Sardinia to Corsica![image error] [image error]

Learn about Sydney’s swim from Bridge to Bridge: Swimming in San Francisco to Change the World! and Will You to Swim Bridge to Bridge to Change the World?

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BIPOC Writer Scholarship to UPOD Academy

Upod Academy Scholars Program@josmerijimenezScholarships Available for Upod Academy

MARCH 12-13, 2022 UPOD ACADEMY WORKSHOP FOR FREELANCE WRITERS. LIVE TWO-DAY WEEKEND SESSION VIA ZOOM.

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with

LAUREN N. WILLIAMS
SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE & ‘ AMERICA IN PERSON ’ SECTION
THE ATLANTIC POOH SHAPIRO
HEALTH & SCIENCE EDITOR
THE WASHINGTON POST MICHELLE LEGRO
FEATURES EDITOR
WIRED
(FORMERLY LONGREADS, THE NEW REPUBLIC AND LAPHAM’S QUARTERLY)

SASHA WEISS
SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE DESK
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

DERRIK J. LANG
LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
SHONDALAND

Thanks to the generous contributions of the Upod writers community, several free spots are available at Upod Academy workshops for writers and journalists who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color.

More information about the latest workshop here.

SPONSOR A UPOD SCHOLARSHIP

SUCCESS STORY: June 2020 Upod Scholar Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts:

See what I mean? Wow, right? Keep reading: In April 2021, Tracey got a second book deal! Take a look! Two book contracts in one year:

By the way, Black Joy did incredibly well when it released in 2022. How well? We’re talking NAME IN LIGHTS ON BROADWAY well, with interviews on Good Morning America and other places. Go Tracey, go, go, go, goooooo!

Black Joy by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts!

Here’s another success tale, just from that June session, from longtime Upod member Tre Johnson:

Okay, one more (there are many but I know you’re busy.). Nicole Young pitched an idea—a complex and emotional one—at a Upod session to a Vox editor about collective mourning in New Orleans. Here’s the Vox story that ran in January 2022

That wasn’t it for Nicole in January 2022. On her Upod weekend, she had pitched an Elle editor an idea about dating in the Black “manosphere.” Here’s that beautiful story on the bad Zoom date that led her down a rabbit hole of toxic masculinity.

Good things. But you need to apply. See the form down yonder. Or if you’d like to sponsor a scholarship, click here. Please and since thank yous.

A portion of each scholarship goes to support The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which increases the ranks, retention and profile of reporters and editors of color in the field of investigative reporting.

Major gratitude to Upodder and freelancer Jennifer Chen for the initial inspiration and her ongoing donations, as well as to the following generous sponsors and contributors:

Andrea King Collier
Marie Condron
Tara J. Ellison
Alexis Garcia
Dr. Cynthia Greenlee
Marc Hertz
Daniel Higgins
Pamela K. Johnson
Eric Messinger
Rachel Ng
Kristin Ohlson
Nicola Pulling
Jessica Ritz
Connie Sommer
Esther Tseng
Paul Tullis
Several anonymous donors

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@lisaniver Lisa in PRINT: #Thankyou #JewishJournal 10/22...

@lisaniver

Lisa in PRINT: #Thankyou #JewishJournal 10/22/2021 article: https://bit.ly/3H2qN8o #video #bears alaska: https://youtu.be/8KcV0ST_ws0 #writer #fyp #foryou #thanks #greenscreen #princesscruises #majesticPrincess #cruise #cruising #ketchikan #travel #traveling @jewishjournal @Princess Cruises

♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) – Danilo Stankovic

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@lisaniver Lisa in #PRINT #PUERTORICO frutosdelguacabo: ...

@lisaniver

Lisa in #PRINT #PUERTORICO frutosdelguacabo: #Thankyou #JewishJournal 10/1/2021 #issue article: https://bit.ly/JJPuertoRico #WATCH my #VIDEO : https://youtu.be/HNXkEmZfRao #farm #videos #puertorico #writer #thanks #grateful #greenscreen #news #magazine @jewishjournal @discoverpuertorico

♬ Soft company background (60 seconds) – TimTaj

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Niver In PRINT: Blog Bytes October 2021 Jewish Journal

[image error] Thank you to the Jewish Journal for publishing me online for over a decade. Since they resumed print publication in Fall 2021, I have been in the Blog Bytes section more than fourteen times! [image error] Here are the four issues that I was in during October 2021: Jewish Journal Oct 1, 2021: p.26From my article about Frutos del Guacabo: Frutos del Guacabo is teaching farming and changing the food economy of Puerto Rico!

I went to Frutos Del Guacabo on Aug 14, 2021. I loved our tour with Efrén Robles. He and his family work with 200 chefs and restaurants providing food from 50 farmers. They work as a hub for distribution and teach techniques like hydroponic farming so that more people can grow food. In Puerto Rico, 80 to 90% of food is imported.

Frutos del Guacabo is a family business that began in 2010 as a small farm for the development of hydroponic products, now they also focus on the sustainability of products and processes. Their innovation includes the production and development of edible flowers, micro-sprouts, breeding-handling of animals especially goats to make cheese, and its certification as an agro-tourism farm so they can give tours and share their educational mission.

At Frutos del Guacabo, culinary agriculture is promoted through a “Farm to Table” experience. Chefs, waiters, diners, and students exchange their knowledge and experiences to continue developing the gastronomy of the island. On your tour, you can see their goats, rabbits and horses as well as taste the edible flowers, micro-greens and the goat cheese among many other tasty treats. We had a lovely lunch and tour. I highly recommend you visit and milk a goat like I did!

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@lisaniver

Lisa in #PRINT #PUERTORICO frutosdelguacabo: #Thankyou #JewishJournal 10/1/2021 #issue article: https://bit.ly/JJPuertoRico #WATCH my #VIDEO : https://youtu.be/HNXkEmZfRao #farm #videos #puertorico #writer #thanks #grateful #greenscreen #news #magazine @jewishjournal @discoverpuertorico

♬ Soft company background (60 seconds) – TimTaj

Learn more about Frutos del Guacabo: See all of my adventures in Puerto RicoJewish Journal Oct 8, 2021: p.28

From my Sept news:

My fortune cookies said:“If you wish to see the best in others, show the best in yourself.”“Happiness isn’t an outside job, it’s an inside job!” [image error] [image error] [image error] Jewish Journal Oct 15, 2021: p.26From my article about my trip to Seattle:

“I love to explore a city by foot. I feel like I understand a place better. I was thrilled when my friend, Mia, offered to guide me around her hometown and show me the sights. I hope you get to visit Seattle soon because there is so much to see and do.”

[image error] [image error] [image error] What to DO in SEATTLE? Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass & the Underground City TourJewish Journal Oct 22, 2021: p.28

Quote is from my article: Cruising Alaska’s Inner Passage with Princess Cruises #WeAreBack 2021

In Ketchikan, Alaska, I went on the Black Bear, Wildlife & Nature Walk – An Animal Planet Exclusive at the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary from from my cruise on the Majestic Princess on Sept 3, 2021 which I LOVED!! It was INCREDIBLE to be so close to so many bears! We saw 8 or 9 bears and a mother with cubs. The cubs were climbing up a tree. I loved every minute of watching these black bears catch salmon and walk in the river. I would definitely go again. 20 years ago when I worked onboard for Princess Cruises, I walked with bears with a naturalist. This was awesome to be almost next to them but be on the wooden platform above them.

This article is about my cruise to Alaska on Majestic Princess: An Awesome Alaskan Summer Cruise on the Marvelous Majestic Princess!

@lisaniver

Lisa in PRINT: #Thankyou #JewishJournal 10/22/2021 article: https://bit.ly/3H2qN8o #video #bears alaska: https://youtu.be/8KcV0ST_ws0 #writer #fyp #foryou #thanks #greenscreen #princesscruises #majesticPrincess #cruise #cruising #ketchikan #travel #traveling @jewishjournal @Princess Cruises

♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) – Danilo Stankovic

[image error] [image error] [image error] THANK YOU TO THE JEWISH JOURNALSee my stories that were in the September print issues here!

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Me and Mr. Li: A Reflection on Chinese New Year

For four years of my early life, I was what they called a “third culture kid.” For those who have yet to live abroad, a “third culture kid,” or “TCK,” is a kid who has the opportunity to grow up in a completely different place than their parents. My mom was born in Long Island, New York, and my dad’s from Kansas City, Kansas, and I’m American going back at least two generations. The TCK aspect came in when my dad moved our family to Beijing, China at the end of fifth grade.

This had all sorts of cultural and social implications for me; nothing like you’d see in the Karate Kid (something to which I was frequently compared when I returned to Los Angeles after four years). Instead, I was introduced to an international school, the Western Academy of Beijing, which boasted a student body from over 70 countries. I was suddenly friends with kids from all over the world, and this meant an influx of new cultures to learn about. I had friends from Australia and New Zealand, with whom I’d celebrate ANZAC Day, and friends from South Africa, with whom I’d celebrate Freedom Day. However, one of the key privileges we all had was enriching ourselves in the local culture, and taking part in festivities related to the holidays.

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to revisit a memory. Another privilege, albeit an odd one, of living in China was that my dad’s company paid for our own personal car and driver. From the moment we arrived at the airport in Beijing, we were blessed with a beaming, wonderful man who introduced himself to us as Mr. Li. For three of the four years we were there, Mr. Li was always the first face I saw after school, and always had our Buick minivan stocked with popular local snacks and energy drinks, ice cold in a cooler in the trunk for us on hot days.

[image error] L to R: myself, our housekeeper (“ayi”), my dad, my sister, Mr. Jiancheng Li. 2012

Mr. Li’s job was simply to get us from one place to another, and he did it with style, waiting for us and smoking with other drivers in parking lots while we did whatever us “expats” (short for expatriates, a slang term for people living abroad) did. In his free time, he would sit in the car listening to Chinese-to-English translation tapes, training himself to speak better conversational English so he could talk to us.

Mr. Li took me to and from some of my first concerts and gigs, many of which were heavy metal-related, and would grin ear-to-ear as my 6’4” Norwegian buddies blasted death metal through his car radio. I remember him driving me to the Water Cube, the former Olympic water sports arena-turned-water park, and laughing when I emerged from the exit sopping wet. Almost once a week, he’d show up early with a bag full of fresh produce and groceries he’d picked up at a local market and paid for out of his own pocket, wanting to make sure we had enough to eat. He was a truly lovely man, whom we lost far too early to a heart attack at the approximate time of my sister’s Bat Mitzvah, which we’d flown back home to Los Angeles to have.

All of my memories of Mr. Li are bright and happy, filled with sunshine and good times. But one of the most fun evenings we had with Mr. Li was during Chinese New Year, a time in which he really should have been home with his family. But there he was, ever so happy to be spending time with us. I think that may have been the first time he accepted our invitation for him to come inside, as this was an almost unthinkable concept to him. We had a lovely dinner, where we laughed and celebrated the Chinese New Year.

The key elements of Chinese New Year have always been food, family, and good fortune going into the new year, and we took part in all of it. The single thing I miss most about living in China is the food. I crave it daily, especially when Chinese New Year rolls around. I can basically smell the hot pot, the plates on plates of dumplings and vegetables, the slow-cooked pork, chicken and duck that falls off the bone when you bite into it; I can feel the crunch of the caramelized sugar crisp on the fatty ends of the meat.

In the background, the streets explode with the cacophony of fireworks, many of which are simply designed to make noise, no light show involved. Nevertheless, the skies are alight with every color of the rainbow, followed immediately by billows of smoke. You could hear music and cheering in the distance, as every individual family had their own celebration.

[image error] Fireworks in the streets of Beijing. 2014

This brings me to my specific memory with Mr. Li. Unlike America, where simply having a firework in your possession could land you in jail, in China they’re sold on the street corner in a giant yellow-and-red hut resembling a circus big top. You’d walk up to the kiosk, and be greeted by hundreds, if not thousands of firework options. They had handheld roman candles that you’d simply point at the sky and shoot like Harry Potter, and sparklers and windmills that you could watch come to life in your own hands. And then, they had the big boys. Perforated cardboard boxes with multicolored logos splattered across them advertising the “BIGGEST BOOM” or “5 minute show!” in Mandarin, of course. These boxes ranged in price from several hundred to several thousand RMB, which is extremely cheap given the quality of shows these boxes put on. Even with some of the smaller boxes, which we bought a smorgasbord of, the pyrotechnic shows could last upwards of 3-4 minutes. And the bigger boxes, which were more expensive so we went a little easier on, lasted 5-10 minutes, shooting rockets upwards of 100 feet upwards and exploding into kaleidoscopic patterns before our very eyes. We lit these with our parent’s help, and with a big group of friends, but Mr. Li was terrified of us getting hurt, and insisted on helping us meticulously light each box, one after another.

[image error] Mr. Li helping my sister (purple jacket) and a friend light a small box of fireworks. 2011

This Lunar New Year is extra special for me, as it’s the Year of the Tiger. The last one was in 2010, the year before we moved to Beijing. The one before that, was 1998, the year that I was born. I can’t help but feel that this means that this year means the precipice of big changes for me; as evidenced by the fact that I’m graduating from college in less than 100 days and transitioning to the real world.

I think there’s something to be said about being Jewish and living in China, and something else to be said about being American and living in China. But I was blessed to be able to celebrate three separate New Years during my four years there. Every year my family would tune in to our local synagogue (Nashuva)’s livestream, which we would watch at night to accommodate the time difference. We are Kohanim, so we’d say the sacred blessings to the TV from the safety of our living room. We’d often travel for actual New Year’s, as flight tickets from Beijing to elsewhere in Asia are relatively cheap, and I was blessed again to spend New Year’s in several different countries, watching the clock count down from midnight in Bali, Bangkok, etc. And I was blessed a third time with being able to celebrate Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, in Beijing, with both my blood family and the family we met along the way. I think Mr. Li felt this same blessing, and I think of him often, hoping he would be proud of the person I’ve turned into.

[image error] Fireworks reflect off the high rise window. 2014

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Click here to support Help Golf Be Accessible to All org...

Click here to support Help Golf Be Accessible to All organized by Ben Hulin https://t.co/3GARO3ZC40 #GoFundMe

— Stand Up and Play Foundation (@standupandplay1) October 21, 2021

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