On my last day in Argentina I lucked out and scored a ticket to the World Cup qualifying match for the national team to move on to S. Africa next year. The team was facing elimination, if they did not manage to beat rival country Peru.

I went to the stadium alone and, by the end of the night - which ended in a last minute goal by Argentina to win the whole thing - I was being kissed by random women and jumping with my band of brothers! There was something damn near spiritual and euphoric in the air. I danced in the streets and bonded with complete strangers.

Never mind that I was soaked to my socks and had to walk a mile and a half back to the bus. Never mind the bus driver drove with the windows down and the AC on. Never mind my Rick Steve's Spanish guide had turned into a wet napkin!

I was Argentinian for a night.

Sometimes you don't have to travel far to experience something new. In the Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, New York neighborhood near where I live, I passed a store that I had not seen before, named Sacred Vibes Apothecary. The exterior reminded me of the quaint stores I had always seen while growing up in London, England. The exterior is painted black, with contrasting gold lettering on the glass window. Through the window I could see stacks of shelves lining the walls with large glass jars filled with products in them.

I entered the store to inquire about what they were selling exactly. The owner, Karen Rose, explained the meaning of the word apothecary (apoth·e·cary person who prepares and sells drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes) which is in the name of the store. Karen explained that she sells a variety of teas and herbal products for the wellness of the body and spirit, a practice with a long history in various cultures. I was intrigued by the variety of teas that she sells. There were green, black, white and various herbal teas all different and used for a variety reasons. A few weeks later on a bleak …

New York: Broadway, fine dining, hot nightspots and shopping, lots of shopping; some of the best in the world. But there’s more to the Big Apple than the good life...this city is full of sites that highlight the Black experience in America.

The African Burial Ground stretches more than five blocks in lower Manhattan. It is the largest known intact colonial African cemetery in the country. Found in 1991 when workers were clearing the land to make way for an office building, the burial ground contains the remains of more than 400 slaves. The six acre site has since been declared a historic landmark and a section of the block where the remains were found now serves as a memorial.

At the Northeast corner of Central Park in Manhattan is Duke Ellington Circle. Here, you’ll find a 25 foot tall statue of Ellington, standing next to a piano and on the heads of nine nude “muses”.

The Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, located in Brooklyn, is a multi-ethnic, multi-denominational church that once served as a stop on the …