2022
Why I am writing this post on the End of the Year? Because is a post about a friend, that lives at the end of the world. Friendship for me is one of the most important value, in Connect and in the Life. The post is about my eight days with Farid Monti, Connect Moderator, at Connect Live '18. Do you want to know more about him?: Conoce a un moderador de Connect/Meet a Connect Moderator: Farid Monti
It was November 25, 2016, when I received the email. It was my first Private Message in Connect, and it was from Farid Monti, a Connect Moderator.
Being a new Local Guide I was quite confused, and for me a Connect and a Google Moderator were more or less the same.
Unable to understand how to reply it took to me 4 days to find the PM in Connect for responding.
Two years later the situation is completely different, and Farid is not only, like me, one of the Moderators of the community. He is a true friend. A friendship built in two year of post, exchanging ideas and opinions. Built in two years in a private chat, talking about life, dreams, family.
Finding an opportunity for meeting him was one of my dreams, for a very long time. A dream becoming true, with Connect Live '18.
Knowing that we both were invited, we started well in advance, together with Karen, to plan our activities. We decided to stay together, sharing our hotel room before and after Connect Live.
So finally we met, in San Francisco. It was Saturday, October 13, late in the evening.
After two years, frequently travelling virtually through Farid's posts, exploring Tierra del Fuego through his eyes, finally, I met him in person.
We spent an hour chatting (we didn't take any photo), for discovering what we already knew.
Have you read some of the traveling post written by Farid? If not, I suggest you to start now, for discovering the "end of the world"
Tierra del Fuego el confín del mundo is probably one of the first post that I read, and the story is going on, after more than two years, with the great series:
Recorriendo la RN40 - Patagonia
We already had a program for Sunday morning: an appointment at Pier 41 with @IlankovanT for a trip to Sausalito
A beautiful, relaxing, quite trip. Three friends chatting together, what else? It doesn't matter if the total distance between the three friends homeplace is 22.000 Km. This is one of the beautiful aspect of Local Guides Connect. Distance doesn't matter, even if Ilankovan Flight was more than 14.000 Km, Farid 11.400, and mine (the shortest one) was 9.700 Km
On Monday morning, the appointment is at 8:00, for a small group of LGs that should be at Google offices at 9:00 am. Waiting for @KarenVChin, our local Local Guide, that is texting "I am on the bridge now". Finally, Karen is here, just the time for a selfie..
After that, the first lunch with Local guides, at Yank Sing (Spear Street). It was interesting and funny, because for many of us it was the first time eating Dim Sum. It seems that @KarenVChin loves to invite her guests at Dim Sum (I had the same experience in 2017) when they arrive in SF for the very first time ? Dim Sum is the traditional Cantonese restaurant, not to be confused with the "Chinese Restaurants" that we have in Italy.
For Farid it was the first time for sure. He enjoyed the lunch, but not the chicken feet. I know that several LGs was asking about the video of Farid eating chicken feet. I got the permission from him to post it so, follow this link
After lunch we had to run, to reach Union Square in time for @PaulPavlinovich 36 Walk. This part of the story is already the subject of another post (Fly me to the moon - my Connect Live short Recap)
It is incredible how fast the time is passing, at Connect Live. It is already Saturday, and we spend the morning in a place that was planned from the first beginning: the AT&T Park, home to the San Francisco Giants
From an Italian point of view, Baseball is a strange planet, and everything that is not "soccer" is simply something "exotic" for most of the people. I have to thank Farid for bring me there. The statues around the stadium, all the signs, everything conveys the passion for sport.
The most beautiful thing was to be there with him. The photos are not showing the smile, in Farid's face, for all the time that we visited the stadium.
Evening was coming too quickly, and Farid had to go, a flight was waiting him, to fly back to "Tierra del Fuego".
We left with a simple "Ciao - see you soon"
See you soon, my friend.
Happy New year, to you, and to every Local guide around the world
Second part of the post is here, by @KarenVChin
Wonderful post @ermest. And I can say I watched and was a part of your “bromance” with @FaridTDF during that week last October!
You two were inseparable 24/7 during that week pre, during, and post Connect Live. It was fun to watch and be a small part of your friendship.
It was both and honor and a joy to finally meet and hangout with Farid and you in real life thanks to Google.
Farid’s love for American sports is real. If he could and had more time he would have watched the Warriors play. He had to settle for just visiting the store instead.
The things I learned from Farid is his joy for life (especially technology)
his love for experiences,
and his passion for Local Guides and being a part of Local Guides Connect as both a Local Guide and as a Connect Moderator.
He has a lot of love for all three! His smile is contagious.
Happy 2019 to you both! Thank you for being my friend and letting me be a part of your lives.
Cheers,
Karen
Queridos amigos, @KarenVChin y @ErmesT, los 8 días que pase junto contigo Ermes, era muy natural, para mi siempre fue la última vez que te veía era el anterior después de charlar en un café de Roma o de Buenos Aires, ese es el grado de relación que tenía cuando te vi cuando llegaste al hotel 🏨, para mí era todo tan nuevo USA, San Francisco, pero poder compartir esos días previos y post CL18 fueron muy ricos en experiencias charlas de amigos, el cincronismo y adaptabilidad que teníamos los dos, es a hoy que me sorprende, generalmente se logra después de muchos años de convivencia con alguien, incluso con tu pareja, pero contigo Ermes, era casi todo tan natural, incluso el desayuno, jajaja tu tomabas tus yogur y el café yo mi café con leche con pan y mantequilla de maní, y luego dos plátanos uno para ti y otro para mi jajaja un poco de las noticias de la TV y salir de raje para hacer nuestras actividades. Por supuesto nunca comenzabamanos antes de las 10:00 de la mañana jajaja creo que es un Carma para mi no arrancar actividades antes de esa hora cuando estoy en plan vacaciones. A ti no te molestaba eso, por suerte jajaja. El día que nos encontramos Llankovan para ir a Sausalito, fue muy lindo, hay que repetirlo, la experiencia es muy linda, por supuesto quede enamorado de los ojos de su hija, un terrón de azúcar, todo el viaje a Sausalito amerita un post aparte.
Y luego ese raid de chat para conocer donde estaba Karen cuando nos estábamos por encontrar, me parecía tan gracioso. Me es casi imposible no seguir escribiendo de cada minuto de todos esos momentos que pasamos juntos, o de cuando fuimos a la tienda de ropa, tanta razón tenían Karen y Ermes, que le lleve una campera mas, jajaja, en fin sólo puedo decir que existen las amistades de adulto, son diferentes, creo que más sólidas y desapasionadas.
Ermes pasar todos esos días contigo fue gran parte de lo bueno del viaje a SF, el poder compartir todas las experiencias y grandes momentos es impagable, por otro lado se dice que la vida está hecha de momentos, que luego atesora o descarta según cómo se sienta con ellos. En mi caso tengo mi alforja tan llena de buenos momentos, cenas, almuerzos, puentes y tiendas, estadios, trenes, subterráneos, etc, etc.
Feliz año nuevo, Farid.
You are right @FaridTDF
We tried to take the life very easy, that's what you have to do when you are in vacation. The funny thing is that we communicated in three different languages: English, Spanish (even if my Spanish is very poor), and Italian, that you understand very well. In 20 minutes here it will be 2019, so Happy New Year from Italy
