By Sally Rong, Staff Writer
As a traveling enthusiast, Spanish teacher Mr. Gomez often brings his two cats, Mr. Willoughby (6 years old) a tonkinese cat, and Paquita (15-16 years) a long haired gray cat, traveling to places, especially in England and in France. Mr. Gomez has a particular fondness for these 2 countries as he has lived in each country for 1 year each uninterrupted & has gone back to visit countless times.
Mr. Gomez tries to immerse himself in both English & French culture during these vacations, in particular, traditional cuisine. However, Mr. Gomez remarked that in America, there are more authentic French restaurants than English restaurants because Americans seem to think that English cuisine is only limited to fish and chips.
Another aspect of England Mr. Gomez enjoys is listening to English music. He likes it so much that when he was younger he decided that it was a must to buy a plane ticket to the UK to see some of his favorite bands. He had such an amazing time at the music festival that he kept going back.
Mr. Gomez’s love of music isn’t limited to English bands. He doesn’t discriminate between genres of music. He owns a large LP collection, thousands of CDs, and a piano at home. No particular genre is his favorite as what it counts all depends on the mood.
Outside of his love for traveling & music, Mr. Gomez’s interests also include gardening. Although gardening wasn’t something that he initially enjoyed, he feels differently about it now. He says,”Now that I’m older and grey, I really enjoy gardening. My dad grew up in the part of Mexico that was largely agricultural and he tried to do that to our place in Riverside when we were growing up. And growing up he taught us a lot about gardening and I resisted it because it seems like a chore but now I enjoy it.”
