February 19, 2012 Anti-Procrastination Ice Cream

Maria came up with a great plan to encourage us both to do the reading for one of our classes, Mitos, Íconos y Tradiciones Inventadas - Myths, Icons, and Invented Traditions. The subtitle is "a cultural history of Latin America," and it's a pretty good course so far, though the professor assigns readings that are both long and difficult. The particular one with which we were struggling was an excerpt from a Gabriel García Márquez novel, El general en su laberinto. His works can be difficult in English, but the Spanish is far more complicated, and we were assigned 30 full pages of it.


Anyway, Maria's plan:


We each try to finish the reading by 5:30 pm today.


1) If we both finish by that time, we go out for ice cream.
Reward: ice cream.


2) If one of us does not finish by that time, she treats the other to ice cream whenever she does finish. Continued incentive to finish even after the deadline: ice cream.
Punishment for the lateness: paying for two ice creams.
Reward for finishing by the deadline even if the other does not: free ice cream.


3) If we both finish late, we race, and whoever finishes second has to treat the other to ice cream.
Continued incentive to finish, quickly, even after the deadline: ice cream - possibly free ice cream.
Punishment for the lateness: possibly paying for two ice creams.


I still think the whole thing was brilliant. We both finished by 5:30 and happily arranged to meet for our-deserved helado at this cute little place I pass every day on my way to class. It's called Modena, and I now know it's actually a heladería chain - a really high quality chain, much like my very favorite ice cream provider, Volta.

This is the Modena we went to. As you can see, my route to class is really quite scenic. The city has no shortage of trees, and on that rare occasion when you're dealing with one harmless cyclist instead of a dozen cars intent on running you down from all sides, it can even seem kind of serene.

I could get used to this strategy for procrastination avoidance. It's yummy.

I ordered something other than dulce de leche for once! This is frutas del bosque - fruits of the forest. Basically, mixed berries. And very good, I might add.

Me accidentally making a goofy face.