Boricua en la Lima

In my current job I see a lot of people undergoing job transitions and looking to expand their networks in order to improve their chances of future job placement.  Today I met a very interesting woman who had a very similar profile to mine, minus the international experience.  She wanted to talk to me given my similar profile in Marketing and see how I saw the job market these days. She seemed to think that it's harder and harder to find jobs in Marketing in Peru these days. One of the reasons? It seems that because of the economic downturn and the uncertainty about the election results (sounds just like the US, I know) companies are cutting back on Marketing budgets. Sounds familiar right? DON'T. CUT. BACK. ON. MARKETING. BUDGETS. FOLKS.  Maybe there's some fat that you can trim here and there, maybe you change your marketing vehicles in favor of more cost efficient ones like Digital (and I'm not saying you should), maybe you focus more on Trade Marketing or Pr...

I have always been a big fan of the Chinese Horoscope, especially around Chinese New Year.  However, some of the Tiger predictions for the Year of the Fire Monkey seem pretty crappy for me so I have been hesitant to post them here for fear of making some of those bad predictions come true! However, I did find this one website which for some reason I had never found before, which I found terribly insightful.  Maybe not so much because of the predictions  but more so because of the compatibility analysis and personality analysis . I feel like I learned a lot about myself and others close to me reading this.  Hope you do as well.

Thankful for the Christmas holidays and a wonderful trip to Puerto Rico which allowed me to catch on my reading. On December 21st my good friend German recommended this book  and taking advantage of the fact that Amazon delivers PAPER books to Puerto Rico quickly (vs. Peru) I ordered it right away and got it on the 24th of December. What can I say? I couldn't put it down until I finished it.  Maybe because I identified a little bit too closely with the constant straddling of two worlds and the never knowing where you're really from or where you're really going. Of course I wish I had the talent to describe this bi-cultural life as beautifully as Marie Arana did, but alas, I have to be content with just being able to read such poetic stories. I cannot wait to order her other book, Lima Nights .  But first I am reading the next book of the Millenium series which I just downloaded on the Kindle last night. And I still have to go back to Elon Musk .  I have this th...

I cannot believe I've been a mother for 10 years. I didn't think I would make it past 1 year! In fact, I remember having conversations with friends before getting pregnant about NOT wanting to get pregnant because I was afraid of bringing kids into this messed up world and not being able to protect them from all the evil in the world.  In fact, a couple of weeks after we had brough Gabi home we rented the movie Crash on Netflix and I remember telling my husband while we were watching the movie, "OMG, what have I done? How could I have been so careless? How could I have brought her into this world!?".  That world in the movie was so scary and so messed up and so randomly cruel, I just couldn't believe I was going to have to raise a kid in it (let alone two!). But, ten years later, my kids have shown me how wrong (and selfish) I was to think that way. They have taught me that even in this messed up world they can be smart, caring, considerate, loving, and worr...

Another 13 hours binge-watching a new series on Netflix.  This time, The 100 .  If you are into Hunger Games type of drama, then watch this and prepare with wine, chocolate and whatever else tickles your fancy for a 13-hour binge session! My only wish is that I had read the book before starting Season 1.  I'm sure I would've enjoyed the experience a lot more and for hopefully longer than 13 hours! I also really need to know when Season 2 will be added to Netflix! Anyone know? It's on Hulu but only episodes 12-16 of season 2. :( I'm not even going to talk about who got killed and who survived because: a) I'm still in shock (and frankly a bit incredulous) and b) don't want to spoil in case anyone wants to watch. Now back to reading about Elon Musk ...

Well, not really. But as one of the few people who has stuck with Grey's Anatomy through thick and thin, especially after last season, I struggle to find meaning in spending those 40 minutes catching up with the show on Hulu.  And with last Thursday's episode I found plenty of reasons!  And as usual those lessons came in the form of Webber and Bailey. First Bailey makes a huge mess of her first day as Chief being what I used to call (because I was called that) a STEAMROLLER.  She barked orders and asked for the impossible and didn't bother to listen. And of course things went horribly wrong and people were talking behind her back and hating her. Just like they did with me. And then the A-HA moments start to happen in rapid succession.  First when someone makes her understand she's being doing things all wrong.  And when they make her realize that she has it in her to make things right, she just needs to change perspectives. https://www.facebook.com/Grey...

It's that time of year again! The time where I visit the center of Lima multiple times per week and scream at government workers for not clearly explaining the process to renew my residence yearly.  The time where I scream at my husband every time I walk out of the Immigration Office and tell him I hate this country and that I want to leave! The time of year I make so many excuses for arriving late to work that no one actually believes I'm doing the same thing related to my residence permit. Except it isn't. I went at my allotted time of 8 am this morning and somehow, miraculously, I was out by 8:45 am with residence permit in hand, LEGAL for another year in Peru! Yes of course I had pre-work, some of it which is totally stupid. Like every year I have to go print out a NEW marriage certificate that shows I'm still married.  And every year I need my husband to notarize a letter that says he's responsible for me (so demeaning!), and every year I have to stand i...

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull In between the lull of catching up on Hulu on the last bit of summer shows and the beginning of the Fall line up (alas it came too quick!) I have been catching up on Kindle and iBooks reading.  Last week I finished Creativity Inc ., which is honestly the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time.  As a parent (and Disney and Pixar enthusiast) I loved reading about the creative process that went into all these famous kids' movies. As a business person and marketer I loved the author's perspective about management, leadership and strategy development. Key learning for me was giving people the freedom to excel at what they're really good at in order to achieve excellence.  And finally as a Steve Jobs junkie I loved getting additional glimpses into his life and mind. The chapter specifically dedicated to Steve made me cry, I felt it rang more true than all of Walter Isaacson's biography. If you're looking for a great read I...

Yesterday was a rough day for me. Probably because I'm too sensitive and if there is such a thing, too empathetic.  One of my dear friend´s 20 month old daughter was undergoing planned open heart surgery.  She was born with a heart murmur and they waited all this time to see if it would shrink, which it did, but not enough for her to be able to live a healthy life without the risk of problems later down the road. So they made the tough choice of having the 5-6 hour open heart surgery.  At the same time as I was sending positive vibes her way I start finding out that in one of my previous jobs everyone except for 5 people are getting fired.  So my heart starts breaking little by little. The fact that my friends were getting fired was tough enough, but waiting 5-6 hours without hearing news about my friend's daughter was heart breaking to say the least.  I couldn't even imagine how my friend must have been feeling.  My dear Sebas had surgery when he was ab...

I am spending a lot of time in traffic these days so I take that as an opportunity to catch up on podcasts. What's on my listening queue (which is getting too long by the way thanks to NPR!)? The EntreLeadership podcast (not quite sure I will stick with this one long term) HBR IdeaCast Fresh Air Slice of MIT Hay House Meditations Latino USA (love love love!) This American Life (can I love anymore?!!?) The Moth (ditto) TEDTalks (who doesn't love?) Another Mother Runner (#bamr) Tara Brach Coffee Break French (gotta practice in case I ever move back to Europe!) This one podcast on Pope Francis' policies and how they have changed the Catholic church is soooo interesting. I am really intrigued by the balance he's trying to strike between being a Catholic (and inherently Conservative) and being a "Liberal" in several aspects.  I guess any topic lately which illustrates this struggle to strike a balance between two seemingly opposite themes is rea...