Buffalo Wrap Up -- Finally!

Okay, so. I guess it has been a long, long time since I’ve last updated. Updating is difficult to remember and just sit down and write. Since the last post, I have left the Buffalo, NY area and have moved on to Kansas. But before I get into what’s happening in Kansas, I first have to finish up with some fun things I did in Buffalo.

Before I departed from the Queen City, I was fortunate enough to have visited the American side of Niagara Falls.  Even though it was dark out, it was still a pretty neat experience.  We walked on trails that were so close to the river that goes over the falls; we were so surprised that no boundary or protection of any sort was there.  After we walked around the falls, we had some Indian food for a late-night dinner. It was delicious and a much needed evening out with some college friends and sorority alumnae.

Something else fun that I had the luxury of doing while in Buffalo was dining at Pizza Junction, as seen on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  My mom saw it on there and immediately told me about it.  Apparently they were featured on the Food Network for their pulled pork pizza, rueben pizza, and beef on weck pizza.  I had none of these; I think I just had a regular pizza with mushrooms and some chicken wings. But it was just as delicious, if not more, than the fancy specialty, loaded-up-on-meat pizzas. My only complaint is that when I ordered, my meal was supposed to cost around $8.00; however, when I received my check, the price was $10.00. When I addressed the waitress, she went to the server's area and compared menus. She then informed me that she must have given me the outdated menu because they raised some prices. But me being myself, I just paid the extra two dollars and didn't put up a fight. But seriously -- not my problem you don't update you entire stock of menus at once and misinform customers of meal prices. It was still a good experience despite this.

The day I left Buffalo, some friends and I stopped and ate at Duff’s.  Duff’s is apparently has the best wings, not the original- but the best. Established in 1969, it has taken over the world of wings – or at least Buffalo and Southern Canada.  The wing flavor selection was mildly disappointing, because they only really had mild, medium mild, medium hot, etc. There were no fun flavors like Cajun, ranch, or parmesan.  And it took a very long time for us to get our checks, so that didn’t impress me much either. But it was good to experience.

On my last night in Buffalo, the women took me out to dinner at El Palenque, the Mexican restaurant we went to on my first night in Buffalo.  It was kind of neat to see it all come full circle. Only with this dining experience, it wasn’t awkward because we had known each other for a month and not just a half-hour. So the conversation was a lot more casual and more relaxed. One of the women studied abroad in Spain in the spring and is fairly fluent in the language. It was delightful to hear her speak to the restaurant waitstaff in Spanish and to see her continue to practice the language.

Now that my first visit is over, I feel like some mistakes have been made on my end and some things have been learned. There are things I would have done differently, but you live and learn. I’m glad my first visit was stationary for a few weeks, rather than on the road constantly. It was a good transition after being so situated and stable in  my itsy-bitsy apartment.

I’m happy to say that when I left the group of women, things were looking good. The visit definitely went quickly—a lot faster than I was expecting.  But I think that I left them with the tools and resources they need to do good things, and I’ll be talking with the president every week, if not more than once a week, and other officers to see how things are progressing.  During my five week visit, we definitely had our ups and downs, but I think it made us all stronger in the end—them as a group and me as a consultant. There were probably times where they wanted to kill me, and I also got frustrated at times, but I hope they learned a lot and that they do good things.