The Wonderful Thing about Argentina, is Argentina's a Wonderful Thing.

So, my friend Olivia and I decided to see what the other side of the Andes looked like and take a gander at Argentina for our two week vacation from my little monsters at school and at home. Before, I describe our vacation I should note that I have recently made the realization that I spend a good 8-10 hours a day with kids who haven't hit puberty yet and many of them are more mature than me, but anyways...

I guess I should say a little bit about my traveling companion, Olivia. She's a loud, opinionated liberal from Texas (I know it sounds like an oxymoron) who went to college at LSU and incidently is the perfect traveling companion.

So Olivia and I departed on the first Monday of vacation after having a rather festive weekend with our amigos in Antofagasta. Considering our penchants for planning vacations, we bought a plane flight to Santiago and thought we'd see what would happen.(Somewhere along the trip, we came up with the idea for a travel channel show called "Traveling without Reservations" in which a couple of crazy gringos would travel the world without planning anything and see what happens along the way. Oh and by the way, if anyone steals my idea I may be a lawyer some day so know you've been warned. Oh and if this show already exists they stole my idea).

I've definitely decided I like flying as a two and a half plane ride is much easier than an 18 hour bus ride and we would never have the level of comfort traveling as we did on the trip to Santiago. Anyways, upon arrival we met up with our friend James at the airport. James would be hanging out with us for the first five days of our vacation before he headed to the exotic beaches of Columbia and on to training to become an Antarctic tour guide. James is an Aussie who is about the closest thing to Crocodile Dundee I have ever met. A world class adventurer who makes my travels seem like a trip to the mailbox.

Our first night was a jovial but quiet night as we set our plans to embark across the Andes and into Argentina. Originally, we planned on staying in Santiago for a couple of days and meeting up with some friends, but upon arrival at the bus station to plan our trip we were confronted with the real possibility that the mountain pass to Argentina would be closed in a couple of days and decided to take a last minute bus across the border to Mendoza, Argentina.

After a seven hour ride through some fairly precarious switchbacks, which would be shut down a couple of days later, we arrived in Mendoza unscathed. The next couple of days, we would hear the stories of the other gringos as we enjoyed our wonderful vacation and appreciate how well we have it in Antofagasta.

"The volunteers and I in Antofagasta are spoiled with our malls, modern- ish groceries, our beaches and our movie theaters. There is also not a week that goes by without me having contact with the other gringos. I know that this is one of the reasons I dont feel my spanish improving rapidly, but we all agree that we would not have made it in Chile without each other. Perhaps, this is part of the problem in other regions as many of the volunteers from other regions have since quit or changed locations due to various extranjero problems with families, schools, chilean situation in general. I am very thankful for the gringos that are a part of my chilean experience. Some truly amazing souls. We are already discussing the sorrow we will experience come December. Ok, live in the moment... anyway." (Excerpt from Olivia Cosby's blog. Ocosby1.blogspot.com.) [I am such a wanna be lawyer, citing sources and all.]

Our first few days in Mendoza were ethereal. We lived like kings because of the extremely favorable exchange rate as we ate huge amounts of food. Although, slightly overrated we ate gigantic steaks at the famed Argentinian steak houses, consumed bottles of vino and stayed in a fairly dilapidated but centrally located hostel that became a home to us for our stay.

Mendoza is famous for its vineyards so Olivia and I decided to take a winery tour one day. Although I've decided I have the delicate palette of a cardboard box, I learned a bit about wine production and thoroughly enjoyed my wine samples. We bought bottles of wine at one of the vineyards as gifts for our chilean host families. We carried these bottles with us for the length of the trip, losing one to a bitter baggage handler who promised to take care of it and (we think) purposely broke when we turned our backs.

A highlight of our vacation was snowboarding in the Andes. After some deliberation due to concerns about inclimate weather closing the pass to the resort, we decided to snowboard at the Penitentes resort, which is about two hours outside of Mendoza. Luckily, the roads leading to Penitentes had been cleared the night before we disembarked and a fresh 12 inches of powder fell the day before.

Anyways, snowboarding in the Andes was really quite crazy. Only the lower passes were open in the morning, so we stayed in the lower runs. But anyways, the slope of mountains was at about a fifty or fifty-five degree angle and the mountain really wasn't snowboard friendly. They only had one chairlift on the lower portion and the only way up the hill was on a tow rope that you put between your legs which is nearly impossible to use on a snowboard. So anyways, I wound up tumbling down the hill a couple of times before I got my balance and took advantage of the great snow. But all in all, it was a great day and I just wish we had the time to stay longer.

Traveling without Reservations

So on our two weeks traveling in Argentina with only a vague outline of what we would do, I came up with the idea of a show on the travel channel called Traveling without Reservations, in which we would go from town to town trying to figure out where we could sleep, eat, explore without previously researching the area and mainly using tourist offices to find out what to do. With this premise in mind, me and my friend Olivia set out by plane to Santiago, Chile and hopefully over the border to Argentina.

Mi Escuela's Aniversario

So I'm home sick today. I guess I've been pushing myself a little too hard and my body rejected me. But don't worry mom I have excellent care here and I'll be ready to go by this afternoon. Also, Javier is in Calama so I thought now would be a great time to do a little catching up on my blog.

I don't really have a whole lot of exciting news from the last couple of months, as school and life in Antofagasta became rather routine. I had good days and bad days at school and had plenty of time to play basketball and spend time with the gringos in the local establishments. Since we have every modern amenity, I saw some movies in the mall and played some basketball by the beach. The weather was unseasonably cold because of La Nina, which pushes the warm fronts more to the north and since the houses here aren't heated, nights in the high 30's low 40's felt unusually cold. We also had several volunteers return home as one volunteer became violently ill and landed in the hospital and eventually home, another's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a third quit the program for several reasons including contracting a bad case of fleas in her house. Fortunately, for me, life has been pretty smooth sailing.

However, the week before I left for winter vacation was pretty action packed as it was the anniversary of my school. In Chile, every school celebrates their anniversary with a flair unrivaled in the states. Our school had no class the last block of classes for the week in order to have soccer competitions for the boys and dodgeball competitions for the girls. Also, we didn't have class second period to have a karaoke competition one day and an act the other day.

So anyways, earlier in the year, the director asked me to organize some of the students to play an English song for the anniversary. Every Thursday afternoon up until the anniversary, we would listen to and learn different English songs. Ultimately we decided on playing the song Beautiful by James Blunt, since it had the right amount of simplicity in the lyrics as well as an easy guitar part I could teach the students wanting to learn guitar.

On Wednesday, I was informed that we would be performing during the second block on Thursday instead of at night like I was previously told. Needless to say I panicked a little, since I had only 5 students definitely singing. Luckily, I was allowed to practice during first block and I recruited a group of approximately 12 students to sing as well as one other guitar player who really is just learning and didn't know the chord changes very well.

So the time came near and we were really disorganized. Several of the students had other dances to do, so they weren't really focused on the singing and our practice attempts weren't sounding very good. But, after an hour of practice, it was our time to perform. I gave my camera to one of the students to record a video which turned out terribly, so there is very little record of the performance other than what I am writing.

We all marched up on stage with a couple of chairs for the guitar players to sit on and a single microphone. I had been unable to find a pick in the morning so I used a coin to play my guitar. Having one microphone made it difficult for the school to hear, but by having one of the students point the mic at the guitars for the solo and then holding it between the singers and the guitars for the rest of the song helped evenly distribute the sound slightly better. From what the other teachers and students said, it sounded good but was difficult to hear do to the limitations of our equipment. I was really proud of my kids as they sounded great, but I wished they could have been heard a bit more clearly by the audience. Ultimately, I was relieved it was over and could prepare for my vacation, or so I thought.

The next day was the karaoke contest for interested students. I thought I could sit in back and take pictures and be innocuous, but the director of the school had a different plans in mind. He summoned me to the front and told me I was going to be a judge. I was fine with this and sat down, a seat over from the director. The MC, our resident music teacher introduced everyone and gave the requisite, "Gringo. What are you doing here" joke, to which I replied "I'm lost", and the contest began. Each grade was represented by a group of varying talent and organization.

For example, one 5th grade section did a reggaeton song (Reggaeton is very popular in Chile and is basically a mix of Reggae with hip hop type beats.) including some very seductive dancing, which looked more goofy than anything. The main male student was dressed in black leather and sunglasses. He brought a rose to one of the girls and proceeded to dance awkwardly with her. I couldn't help but laugh.

One of the sixth grade entries was a student who sang with my group and would commonly be referred to as a nono or a nerd in English. (Nono is spelled with the letter enye, which isn't used on our keyboards and shouldn't be confused with my Nonno, Bill Battiston, who definitely was not a nerd, considering his days of bootlegging, painting grass green, and playing golf with Chi Chi Rodriguez). Anyways, he sang a ballad which was actually quite good although his voice cracked several times during the presentation. (Ah puberty).

There were also several dance acts, with an 8th grade act standing out. They actually performed an English song from "High School Musical" a disney movie. They had matching outfits and a choreographed dance routine complete with front handsprings by several boys. Ultimately, they won the contest, but none of these acts could compare to my smooth moves.

In between one of the first acts, I decided to sit next to my favorite secretary, Lydia. Smoothly I went over to say hi and as I athletically dispersed my weight over the chair, I could feel something give. The chair smashed into a million pieces, taking me down with it in front of at least 600 people. Needless to say, I still haven't heard the end of it.

After this brush with death, (Come on. A fragment of the chair could have lodged into my anterior and could have gotten infected and I could have died.) the teachers informed me that I was invited to a dinner that night with acts performed by the parents of the kids.

Since, I really didn't know what was going to happen, I decided to invite my friend Olivia. We arrived at the school at about 8:30 and were fortunate enough to sit at the head table next to the director and some of the teachers. The acts were amazing as the parents performed everything from the Cueca (the national dance of Chile), to the native, Polynesian style dance from Easter Island; as well as the tango and the Argentinian cowboy dance (I don't know the real name of it). The night turned out great as I had a great dinner and shared glasses of wine with my professors. (OK, maybe I had a few too many, but every time I finished a glass, one of my profs would fill it.)

Well, after the craziness of the anniversary I was ready for a vacation, and boy what a vacation.

OK, So the last couple of months...

I really am a slacker at this blogging thing. But now that no one is reading my blog, I figured I´d quickly write a note with an in depth update in the near future. I´m currently winding down my winter two week vacation in Argentina. Its been action packed and pretty wild. I´ve snowboarded in the Andes, gone wine tasting, white water rafting, canopying, and met up with some old friends in various places as well as made some new ones. But I´m hoping to explain in more depth in the near future.

The last couple of months have been pretty routine in Antofagasta. I went class and came home. Went out on the weekends and played with my little brother in my house. The week before I left was the anniversary of my school and I´ll hopefully detail it a bit more when I get back to the grind in the next few days.

Anyways, to all my faithful readers (or in other words Mom and Dad) sorry I have not been able to enrich your lives with my witty reparte but I will be back soon...

San Pedro Continued...

Alright, I have half a class free and since Javier doesn´t go to my school, I have a little peace to continue my San Pedro story.

After the Valley of the Moon, me and Olivia met up with Lisa, who had ust arrived and decided to eat a late dinner where our tour guide suggested. Despite the fact that we were exhausted, me an Olivia decided to tough it out since Lisa had just arrived. Dinner was fantastic, but we were very tired throughout and were ready for bed, but decided to stop in for one drink at the place we were the night before.

We sat down around the fire and Olivia swore she heard a Texas accent and decided to explore. Turns out that two older men were talking with the owner of the bar at a table behind us and invited us to have a drink with them. So we started chatting with these people. who it turns out work for Vertex, an American manufacturer of antennas. Apparently, they were in the process of setting up the first antenna in a series of 24 antennas which will comprise the largest telescope in the world. Furthermore, they had just been interviewed by the discovery channel for some show (Probably Modern Marvels) which will air once the project is complete in five years. The conversation was great and the vino started flowing. Before we knew it, the owner was feeding us and giving us free tee-shirts and offering to take us to the Bolivian border and other non-touristy places. Ultimately, our quiet night turned out to be one heck of a party and the owner (or the foreman from Vertex) picked up the entire tab and we went home thoroughly exhausted to another difficult night of sleep.

The next day, we slept in again and made it out of the room around 11 to book tours and to find some horseback riding (This was the trade off I had to make for going sandboarding). Anyways, it turns out Lisa is allergic to horses so we booked a horseback riding tour with the same person we booked our full day excursion the next day. (If you´re ever in San Pedro book your tours with Fernando, who is close to the central plaza but kind of off the beaten path. He will get you places the other typical gringo tours won´t go.)

Ultimately, we decided on a three hour tour through "The Valley of the Dead" and departed. We met at the agreed upon destination and were met by a cute, petite Chilean woman who helped us into our saddles. After we mounted our horse, she tried a smooth entry move onto her horse and fell flat onto her face. That made me a little nervous, but at least the saddle wasn´t as painful for my manhood as I had made clear I was worried about.

After the initial hiccups, all I can say is that the ride was pure magic. The trails we traversed, went through sandy dunes and rocky trails strangely reminiscent of Mars, Star Trek, and the Planet of the Apes. The reds and browns made me wonder "Why do people consider deserts to be barren wastelands when there is so much inherent beauty in them?" Anyways, the ride was beautiful and the vistas amazing as I can hopefully show once I get my computer and can upload pictures to the blog.

So upon return, we decided to call it an early night, because we had scheduled a 16 hour tour that started at 4 in the morning and would even make my Papa´s tours proud.

4 came too early after another restless night of sleep and Olivia, Lisa and I piled into a small, rundown van with 4 Chileans to make the 2 and a half hour ride to geysers which also were the highest point of our trip at somewhere around 12,000 feet. I really thought by the time we arrived that my body was going to shake apart due to a lack shocks in the van and a lack of padding on the seats. But, the first thing we noticed when we got there was how slowly we were moving due to the altitude and the bitter cold conditions (I think our guide said it was -8 degrees celsuis, which none of us were prepared considering we thought we were going to a desert). Anyways, being from Michigan I´ve been cold before, but this might have been the coldest I´ve ever been other than the first couple of rainy days I spent during my NOLS course in Alaska. Even though we weren´t supposed to get very close to the geysers, we put all of our freezing appendages as close as possible to feel any form of heat we could. (Unlike New Zealand, where the paths around the geysers are clearly fenced off, Chile doesn´t seem to worry about tourists being consumed by superheated water). Meanwhile we could slowly see the sun creeping over the hills to save us from the freezing conditions.

After a scrumptious breakfast of cake and mate (A tea which gives you a little pick me up) we moved on to the natural spring baths next door. Being the adventurous and frozen gringos as we were, we looked for our first opportunity to jump in while the other tourists looked at us like we were crazy. I´ve never felt such relief from the cold as we found the opening where the water came from and warmed our freezing bodies). Interestingly, soon we were surrounded by half of the intrepid tourists who decided the springs were probably a good idea.

Anyways, by the time we finished in the hot springs the weather changed from frigid, to pleasant, and soon would be very hot. Soon we departed and stopped in a small pueblo with only about 15 houses but a precioso church and our first exposure to brochettes de llama. We couldn't get enough of these kabobs made with llama meat as well as probably the sweetest, best tasting cheese empanadas I have ever tasted. Following this diversion, we headed back to town to recover for our afternoon tour.

Around 3 o'clock we piled in the van again and headed out to the salt flats to hopefully see some flamingos. But first we headed to a salt lake. I have never been to the Great Salt Lake, but I would imagine the lake we visited was very similar. We literally floated on the lake with little effort as each paddle stung any open wounds we had acquired through our adventures. After about 15 minutes in the lake, we washed off with some fresh water although the salt would turn our bodies bright white and thoroughly dry our skin for the rest of the day. We stopped at one other salt lake and it was on to the salt flats.

Since our tour guide was not your average, Mercedes driving tour guide, he seemed to have a unique point of the salt flats to take us. Only one other van driven by locals was at this point of the salt flats. When we arrived, he said we're leaving in an hour and a half. Go find flamingos. I'm not really sure this was environmentally sensitive or even legal, but I figured "When in Rome"! So we started out on the salt flats to find us some flamingos. After a fairly easy go at the beginning, I saw something flying in the distance and we decided to brave a little less stable part of the flats in search of these great pink birds. As we continued, I fell through the salt into mud up to my ankles. As the sun began to set in one of the most magnificent sunsets I have ever seen, we came close enough to view several flamingos flying across the lake.

As we sat next to the van eating snacks and sipping on a pisco sour, we watched the sun set on this unique and beautiful corner of the world.

Ah San Pedro...

So I know I´ve been bad about writing in my blog, but what am I going to do. I´ve got other things to do with my time, especially since my little brother Javier Ignacio Araya wants to play with me all the time. (He´s sitting next to me right now, and apparently he wants to kill me in the night with a knife [I don´t know about his crazy sense of humor.])I guess now he really want´s to kill me, because he read this and my door doesn´t lock.

So anyways, last weekend I went to San Pedro de Atacama one of the driest places in the world. Some places in the desert haven´t recorded rain since the Spanish inquisition. Its also at about 8000 ft. above sea level so the air is very thin. During the day it probably anywhere from 80 to 100 degrees and at night can go down to below freezing.

The unique climate of the area made my trip really surreal. (OK enough of a travel log and lets get to the nitty gritty)

Anyways, me and my friend Olivia arrived after a crazy debacle trying to organize a trip for a bunch of gringos. Ultimately, after several people backed out and several others ditched us in San Pedro only three fearless adventurous gringos remained: me, Olivia and Lisa. (Side note: My house brother just jumped through the window and attacked me, kind of like Kato used to). And yes, my ego was feeling pretty good after spending the weekend with such fine companions.

So anyways, we arrived at around 10 o´clock and immediately noticed the difficulty breathing from the thin mountain air. Many times, we were warned that we would be unable to find a place to stay, but the first place we went to had openings and gave us a great room for the duration of our stay.

Once we settled in, we decided to wander the mean streets of San Pedro, which consists of about three blocks of gringo filled streets catering to gringos with restaurants and the most tourists agencies per capita in the world. Since San Pedro is basically a ghost town, most of its money comes from tourism. Since Lisa wouldn´t arrive until the next morning, me and Olivia found a great restaurant with an open roof and a fire in the middle. We enjoyed some of the best food and wine we´ve had in Chile and unbeknownest to us, had a picture taken by the propriator of the restaurant as we would later find out.

After dinner, we decided we would check out the local night life. We went into this night clubish place called adobe (Which by the way has a great lunch, just don´t wear any bracelets with Chile´s best club futbol team, Colo Colo on or the service will be less than stellar.) Basically, this looked like your typical gringo turista horror movie with unjulating gringos dancing around a fire acting like they´ve taken some illicit substances. To complete the ax wielding maniac scenario, we turned around and stood face to face with a man dressed in some sort of white tribal robe and what looked like a white paper mache mask and black matted hair down to his derriere. Needless to say, we jetted to the next establishment post haste.

The next bar invited us in for happy hour at approximately 1:30 and the bars close at 2. (For those interested, happy hour in Chile is usually 2x1) Evidently, the bartender failed to tell us that and we never saw our second drink that night. Anyways, as soon as we sat down, the white guy as we lovingly called him burst into the bar and started dancing with a bunch of people at the table next to us. (Later, we would discover this was some sort of promotion for a tourist agency and is some ancient tribal figure of some sort).

Anyways, after the bar, we decided to call it a night. We were warned about the altitude in San Pedro, but its real teeth didn´t show until we tried to sleep. That first night I barely slept a minute as every time I would fall asleep I would be jossled awake by what seemed like a panic attack but was merely a lack of oxygen in my lungs. So as daylight came around, I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours of awkward sleep. Around noon, Olivia and I decided to find something to do before Lisa arrived.

Walking down the street, we found a sign for sandboarding and decided to give it a try. The best deal we found included a trip to the valley of the moon after the sandboarding so we took it. A couple of hours later, we were greeted by our friendly guide Rodrigo, who could have passed for any gringo but turned out to be from Santiago. We took off in his truck but abruptly stopped next to another truck of gringos who all hopped into ours. We started the usual touristy banter and I asked the girl next to me where she was from and she said you´ve probably never heard of it, but I´m from Alto, Michigan. I just died laughing and it turns out she went to Forest Hills Central a few years behind me. Small world.

It also reminds me that the day before we ran into a couple of gringos from Fort Worth, Texas where Olivia is from and discovered there are 35 Americans working at the International School in Antofagasta, whom we had never seen. In contrast to San Pedro, Antofagasta has very few gringos, because it is more of an industrial town with fewer tourist options.

So we arrived at the hills where we were going to sandboard and realized lugging ourselves up and down these hills in the altitude might be more of a chore than we thought. To make a short story long, the boards were interesting. They basically looked like a fraternity paddle out of Animal House with a couple of straps to hold you in place. There really isn´t much support like a snowboard, so it is much more difficult to carve. The other problem I had was that, you really can´t try to use your edges because once that edge hits the sand you sink. Ultimately the only way I could get down the hill was by going straight and getting as much speed as I could for about half the way down the hill, then I could do some wide turns.

After sandboarding, we departed for the valley of the moon, which is one of the most breathtaking sunsets in the world (Apart from those seen from 1669 River Oaks Dr.) Although the cerra or hill gave a great perch to watch the sunset, 100´s of tourists lined the crests to see the purples and mauves which can only be recreated in the desert.

A quick entry...

Well, Im off to San Pedro for the long weekend, but thought Id make a quick entry. The other night I turned around after my buddy Cameron got in a taxi and low and behold I fell into a manhole. You would figure someone would at least put a warning cone somewhere around a hole without a manhole cover. But I guess its really not that important. It brings to mind a quote by the legendary Confucius. Confucius say,

Where there is no manhole cover, watch out fo hole, man.

Bidump, bump. Anyways, for all those worried, I survived unscathed to go out another day.

Other than that, its time for vacation, with my long hours of hard work and all behind me.

I forgot...

Well its nice to know someone is interested enough in my blog to post a comment, so I thought maybe I would write a little update.

Things are going well here. The frantic first month is over and I´m getting accustomed to my school. The kids are little monsters (I guess its retribution for my teenage monster years). For example, its school policy not to allow students to go to the bathroom without approval by the office. So I had this 8th grader today, who just to spite me wrote marker all over her mouth so I would have to let her go to the bathroom. It backfired when I NARCed on her, but I figured that was the kind of thing an infant does. I never thought I would become a disciplinarian, but I´m surprising myself with my ruthless draconian classroom demeanor. In general, the kids still like me, but I think I´m working on the right mixture of fear vs. fun.

Other than that, things are pretty relaxed here. I´m done by one o´clock every day and usually take a ciesta, then go down to the beach for ping pong, basketball or swimming. Ah if only life in the states was this laid back. I still haven´t surfed yet, but hope to in the near future.

This weekend I´m going to San Pedro de Atacama which is about 3 hours from Antofagasta, because we have Monday and Tuesday off for a Federal holiday. I can´t wait to see the famous Valley of the Moon, the flamingo reserve, and the salt flats there. Should be good wholesome fun.

Also, I´m teaching guitar lessons (At least 6th graders don´t know how bad I really am)and basketball to some of the kids at my school on Saturdays, which can be a bit of a struggle after Friday nights but worth every minute.

Today, I played basketball with my house brother (Who´s 10 years old)and my friend Lisa (Who really has no basketball skills). So we played 3 on 3 with these Chilenos, and I´ve never seen three grown men be more satisfied with beating on a child, a woman and an old man with a gut. But, I did show some flashes of the skills that made me legendary on the mean streets of the A-D-A.

Last night I went to a cafe with my house sister and we spoke in Spanish for like four hours. I was pretty proud of myself, but I´m sure my sentences sounded more like ¨Me go beach, ha ha very funny. Sippo Sippo.¨ I guess my new nickname in my family is TJito (It sounds more like TGito) and my house mother has pretty much adopted me as her own.

Last weekend, I also used my increasingly complex and in depth knowledge of the Spanish language at my friend´s family´s party, which was really fun. I talked some smack about my ping pong skills, which I´m going to put on exhibition on Thursday and generally had a swell time.

Let´s see, other than that, I still think Homer Simpson speaking in Spanish is funny and Casado con Hijos (Married with Children) is growing on me. I´m sure I´m forgetting mucho stories, but I´ll try to get back in the swing of writing in this blog and hopefully include these stories soon.

Alright, I think I have the final lowdown on the phone number.

OK, my Papa finally got through to me using these numbers

011-56-9-82909541.

If you use a 10-10 number dial

10-10-834-011-56-9-82909541.

A quick shout out...

to the Michigan State Hockey team for trouncing BC and Maine in the frozen four. Go Sparty.

A quick message concerning my telephone number-

I think you can call me by dialing the following numbers on a telephone:(This is a machine that transfers sound waves from one location to another over a cable designed to carry these signals. You can change the destination based on a series of numbers which are placed on the terminal end of the telephone. For more information please consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone.)

011-056-9-829-095-41

I think this should work. If not, pray that the gods will rain down fire so you can send a smoke signal my way.

Well I´ve done it again...

I failed the bar again. Nuf said.

My First Day of School...

Well, not much happened this weekend. I pretty much laid low in Antofagasta. It was nice to sit on the beach, play some ping pong and hang out with my house family. I finally got a little time to decompress after all the craziness of the first three weeks. I ate Chilean Chinese food which contains no fried food or preservatives and went to an asada (a Chilean barbecue) at my buddy Cameron´s house parents house. Since we had Friday off, a bunch of us gringos went to a discotheque on Thursday. Me and my buddy Elliott took the bus to the disco and found it a little odd that most of the people on the bus were probably going to be our students. (Well, Elliott´s anyways, because he is teaching high school and I am teaching middle school).

Once we got there, I felt a little out of my element, because even though I am one of the world´s greatest dancers, I know very little about the subtleties of Chilean dancing. Anyways, the lights went out for over an hour and we were ready to leave, when magically (OK I think they intentionally turned the lights off, so I really find no magic in the lights turning back on) the party started anew and continued until 6. Needless to say, my geriatric persona wasn´t able to hang with the young energetic pups from our program.

Anyways, today was my first day of school. The school is pretty close to my house and seems like it should be fun. My house mother rode the bus with methis morning to make sure I made it safe and sound. I felt like I was going to the first day of kindergarten again. The bus was running late this morning, so I was about 5 minutes late to school and I had no idea I would be displayed to the entire school upon arrival. I said a few profound words (Something like "ich ben ein Chileno", but I can´t really remember {Citation Omitted [I´f you want a citation tough luck because I´m not in law school anymore and frankly I don´t really want to cite anything I don´t have to]) Moving on, I guess I´m getting to the age where I have no idea what it is like to have the energy of a 5th grader, because it is certainly manic. I thought the kids would tear me apart.

After my eloquent but tastefully concise soliloquy, I was guided to my profesora´s classroom. I guess I was a little shocked by what I saw. Kids, running all around saying swear words in English and basically partaking in tomfoolery and ballyhoo. Sylvia, my teacher is really old, so I´ll cut her some slack, but she can´t control the kids at all. I basically had to teach the class for her and try my best to keep the kids from killing each other. But I´m not going to complain, because as of right now I have about 17 hours of actual class time a week, so I´m living on easy street. Plus, the kids seemed to respond to my dominating, deep Barry White like voice. We´ll see. I´ve got my ace up my sleeve; (Drum roll please) American Pop Culture. On that note peace.

So I have this host family...

They´re very nice. (I guess my Borat accent doesn´t come through very well over the computer). Anyways, everything is great. I have my own bathroom, a TV and DVD player in my room and privacy for the first time in three weeks. I have a wonderful house mother (Ana), her 20 something years old daughter (Anna Maria or Anita) who´s engaged and works for my program, a 15 year old daughter who seems to be quite the overachiever (Carla) and a 10 year old son (Javier) who plays tennis and dances to ¨Thriller¨ with me (Someone may actually think I´m cool for the first time. I´m sure it won´t last long).

I also met the teacher I am going to be working with. Her name is Sylvia and she is a sweet older lady, but very traditional. The good news is that I have no class on Thursday as of now and two hours in the middle of the day on Friday to lesson plan for the next week. Basically I´m going to be working about 20 hours plus extra curriculars. Maybe I will have time to write the great American novel and surf.

I found a surf shop close to my house that will rent a board and wet suit for about 10 dollars a day, so I´m going to give it a try and hopefully join the professional surf tour shortly after.

I have also been trying to sort out what I would like to do for my breaks. In July I´ve been thinking about doing a couple of weeks in Patagonia with an Aussie buddy from the program who´s teaching down in Patagonia. He´s been an adventure guide for years, which is reassuring since it would be the middle of winter when we went. Anyways, who knows what will happen. I´ve also been thinking I will most likely do Macchu Picchu and Lake Titikaka if possible over the week of September 18th, which would also be the best time for anyone interested to come visit.

Also, I´m going to try and get pictures up, but I need to get a camera cord since I left all my stupid computer stuff at home. Anyways, Ciao.

First impressions of Antofagasta

So the rumors I heard appear to be false. Antofagasta seems to be a very modern city with every amenity you could want and its right along the ocean. The dogs haven´t seemed bad so far and I haven´t felt any itching so I think I´m alright. The water seems unusually warm to me and I´m really getting excited to learn how to surf. (I guess Lake Michigan makes me a little thick skinned) There is so much more around here than I thought. There is a flamingo sanctuary a couple of hours inland from here, the valley of the moon which looks ridiculous, the largest salt flats in the world and so many things I haven´t even learned about yet. They also have a bad futbol team that plays all of the good Chilean teams, so I can catch a game for a couple of bucks and see such great Chilean stars as Aruglea, Baruglea, Avocado, and Oregano.

I also found out that I am teaching fewer grades so my actual class time will be less than other teachers, but I´ll have to suffer through extra times playing basketball and dodgeball, etc. with the kids to make up the hours. Í´m getting a little nervous about the teaching thing, but I bought a guitar the other day, so I can entertain them with my superior guitar playing skills (If you haven´t heard me, think Stevie Ray Vaughn, Muddy Waters, Django Rheinhart, Trey, Paris Hilton, and David Hasselhoff all rolled into one¨{and yes I hear Paris plays a mean guitar}.

So I found out some info about my house family. Evidently, I am going to live with a family of four, up on the hill behind the city, but very close to the central city. They´ve said the cage I´ll be in is very comfortable and they´ll feed me scraps from they´re table. (I was just thinking how nice that is of them). All kidding aside (I´ve always wanted to say that) I´m really excited to meat (I actually just mistyped meet, but decided this spelling is probably appropriate) the family I am going to be living with for the next 8 months.

Also, I bought a cell phone, so anyone who wants to take the hit and call me from the states is more than welcome. I don´t get charged for incoming calls so call and we can partake in witty reparte on your dime for hours. To call from the states, you dial 056 + 055 + 82909541. If you´re calling from within Chile, just dial the last part.

And sorry I haven´t been sending individual e-mails. I just don´t have much time to send them, so my blog is my communication.

Well, another weekend of fun come and gone.

So I know that I've been a little delinquent in my postings, but life sure is busy. Class from 8 until 6:30 or 7:30, then some activity on some days and going out on other days. But anyways, last week we visited a school and I'm getting excited about the teaching these little overly hyper crazy kids that I can't understand. I think controlled anarchy is the best way to describe the school scene. When we arrived the entire school of 800 sang us a welcome song and we all introduced ourselves to the population. Afterwards, the students were set loose, and I thought I was going to get ripped apart. It might be the closest I'll ever get to being a rock star. Several of the children followed us into class and asked for all of our autographs. Being the benevolent soul that I am, I was happy to oblige them. Ha! Anyways, we all gave presentations and I think I did a pretty good job anchoring our group.

Anyways, I keep hearing crazy things about Antofagasta, most of which aren't so good. Apparently there are no trees, countless wild dogs that like to bite people, and a strong chance of getting flees. Oh and there is no water, so I might be kind of stinky. On the other hand, the beaches are supposed to be gorgeous and the professional surfing tour is coming in July. Maybe I can hang ten with Kelly Slater. But mom don't worry. I'll be careful, and I'm sure its going to be unbelievable.

Anyways, last weekend was pretty crazy. A huge group of us gringos went to the beach in Vina del Mar, a beautiful resort town west of Santiago. It shows off Chile's wealth with towering condos and a huge casino. We partied and laughed and had a great time, and I think that we're all raised to be louder than everyone else. I think it must be something in the genetically modified food we eat. Anyways, we had so much fun and its so strange that you can find such like minded and great people halfway across the world.

On Sunday, we caught a bus to Valparaiso, which is next door to Vina del Mar. We took an ascencor (I think that's how its spelled) up to the top of on of the hills and took a gorgeous 2.5 km walk up to one of Pablo Neruda's houses overlooking the city. It was really quite amazing.
Well, I'm getting kicked off my roommates computer, so I'll leave more for another day. I'm supposed to get my schedule soon, so I can send anyone interested information on what weeks I have off. Tentatively the week of September 18 would be a great week as it is the 200th anniversary of Chile's independence from Spain, and I guess the entire country plans parties for a month beforehand on an average year, so this should be extra crazy. It also looks like I'll have two weeks off in July, but I'm not exactly sure when. Tentatively, I am thinking I might plan this to be a week to go to Peru and possibly to Buenos Aires during the second week. There are also alot of other 3 day weekends in which I'm going to try and go snowboarding and visit friends in the south. Patagonia will probably be out until after the trip, because my breaks will be in the middle of winter. I heard that the wind can get so bad down there in the winter that the towns have ropes set up to pull yourself along inside the town.

Oh and I've had my first casualties of the trip. One of my headphones broke and the LCD on my camera broke, although the camera itself still works.

Anyways, hasta manana.

Soy apprendiendo espanol!

OK, so I know about 12 words now, but you´ve got to start somewhere. We´ve been going all day everyday learning about the culture and visiting schools.

Greetings fromt the Sunny, warm Southern hemisphere

Well, its day number 3 here and this is basically the first time I´ve seen the internet clear, so I thought I´d quick post for my millions of readers worldwide. Anyways, I don´t know how I do it, but somehow I always find the partiers. We´ve been whooping it up (and yes I´ve been careful mom). I might be the worst Spanish speaker of the bunch, but hey, I´ve got 8 months to learn. Santiago is very beautiful, but since it is surrounded by mountains its seems to have a continual smog problem. Overall, the people have been very friendly and the food has been good, but not superb. I had a filete pobre last night, which is basically a steak covered in french fries and an egg on top. Other than that its been a bunch of orientation and getting to know people before we all go to our separate towns (there are about 70 total volunteers of which 14 will be in my city). I have some staunch competition on the ping pong table and have already made some friends who´ll give me opportunties to explore all over the country. Also, the first night I hung out with a Chilean who was obsessed with American blues and jazz until six in the morning and then the next night a bunch of us took a gondola to the top of one of the smaller mountains in town and had a great view of the city. We met an Argentinian who gave us a standing invite to go down to Buenos Aires. I might add, I also had my first pseudo-date with a chilean on the flight over. We shared a movie and I charmed her with my umparalleled wit and charm (as well as good looks). Ciao. P.S. if you read this please put some sort of comment. It would be great to have some input on what I´m writing. Ciao, again.

Editorial Comment

I was recently informed that Dolly Parton originally sang "I Will Always Love You". I would never try to discount the assets she has in the country music community and would like to formally apologize to anyone who could have been insulted by my gross misuse of this timeless classic. I assure you, the reader, that any mistakes I have made have been alleviated without further court action. And by the way, I really would appreciate any comments or requests for revisions you find necessary as I will be alone in a scary place. In fact, in my endless search for knowledge about Chile and life in general, I discovered that the national animal of Chile is the Sasquatch so pray for me.

History of Chile: Part I

Since I had some time while my laundry is getting clean for the first time in months, I thought I would give all my faithful readers a brief history of the country Chile.

Chile was discovered in 1943 by Senor Santiago who was later immortalized by the classic video game and television show "Where in the World is Carmen Santiago". Ironically, Carmen was not Senor Santiago's name, it was Frank, but a young ingenue he met along his travels through this beautiful country became his inspiration for the first generation of this game "Where are you Carmen? I'm coming to get you." Later he would be arrested on stalking charges and spend the rest of his life in exile on the island of Elba where he would eat, drink and be merry with such television personalities as Napolean, Sammy Davis Jr. and Lauren Conrad from Laguna Beach and The Hills.

Since Sr. Santiago discovered the country he was given the liberty of giving the country its name by the International Nation Naming Council or .INNC for short. Coincidentially .INNC is also credited as being the world's first corporation and advertising agency. You may remember its ad campaign for the first season of American Idol, "If you can't get a golden calf you can get your idolatry fix through the most American democratic of ways, text messaging. Just tune in Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and three times on Sundays to vote." For more about .INNC and its place in history, check out the new documentary ".INNC 2, Rise of Machines" starring Arnold Schwartzeneggar as the indestructible CEO with a heart of gold and Reba McIntyre as the small town country girl who is small on material wealth but rich on quick wit and the legal know how to file Articles of Incorporation.

Now, you may believe that Sr. Santiago would have named Chile after an ancient indigenous word for beautiful scenery or even after a particularly hot chili pepper he ate or even after a particularly cold night he spent out in the wilderness, but in fact he was a much more complicated individual than most historians have given him credit for. He was extremely jovial, which explained his late nights at the local pub where he would sing Chilean favorites until the wee hours. Ironically his favorite song "The Long Song" was later mistranslated into "The Thong Song" in the United States. In the original he would repeat for hours on end the line "Long, long, long, long song." Unfortunately the twisted American version trivialized the gentle, haunting melody created by Frank Santiago.

Eventually the long hours weighed on Sr. Santiago and his health deteriorated while his weight ballooned out of control. At one point he became unable to leave his house, and word of his ill health reached the world's celebrities who in turn organized the world's largest benefit concert just outside of Byron Center, Michigan. During his stirring rendition of "I Will Always Love You", Bono was joined on stage by the song's writer Whitney Houston as well as such iconic figures as Leonard Nemoy, Angelina Jolie and Alf. Considered among the greatest moments in the history of the world, this simple song unified the warring factions of the world and raised $100 billion dollars, which was given directly to Sr. Santiago. Unfortunately bad business decisions (Santiago's Accountant lost half of the money by betting on the Lions of Detroit and the Cubs of Chicago) and the invention on the big mac two weeks later left Sr. Santiago broke and on his death bed. Showing his true spirit and solidifying his place not only in Chilean lore but around the world Sr. Santiago's last words were uttered to his closest confidant, Tom Izzo (Obviously not the coach of Michigan State, because that would be plain stupid) and were "Can't Help It I Like Everyone". Using the brilliance that would later let a similarly named individual make the final four three times in 8 years, Izzo would decide to take this phrase and shorten it to CHIILE. Later the Chilean Enquirer realized it only had one letter "I" in its printing presses and shortened the name to Chile which was widely accepted by the Chilean people and remains to this day.

I love the RIAA.

They just get more evil everyday. Maybe they should hire Ann Coulter to fix their image.

RIAA sues paralyzed stroke victim.

I think gizmodo's boycott is great.

I just realized I can talk about anything and nobody can tell me I'm wrong.

So if the Lions don't take Joe Thomas with their pick or trade down I might have to personally destroy Matt Millen. (Photoshop can do some amazing things, lol). So anyways, here's my favorite scenario. Trade to Atlanta for their number 1 this year and next and Matt Schaub. Then get Gaines Adams, Jamaal Anderson, Patrick Willis or LeRon Landry. Schaub is the nasty QB the Lions need to take us to the Super Bowl in 2008. I also like trading to Arizona for their 2nd and 3rd pick. Here I wouldn't be too pissed if they took Quinn.

Well, I've got one day to go before I leave.

So I've decided to start this blog to let people know what's going on as I embark on this crazy adventure. I'm not sure how easy it is going to be to communicate while I'm down in Chile for the next 8 1/2 months teaching English, so I figured I'd try a blog. I'm not sure how great I'll be about adding entries here since I'm not sure what my computer situation is going to be (And yes, I'm leaving my laptop at home. I feel a little liberated by cutting the wires, but I've got a feeling I'll have a little computer withdrawal when I get down there.) So check in as often as you want (or as little as you want because this could be really boring. I mean how interesting can a blog be when the only Spanish words you know are taco and cerveza.) I think my gringoness is going to be very apparent, since I might be the gringoest of all gringos.

Maybe you'll find keen insights into the inner workings of the global economy through the lens of a foreign national exposed to the Chilean culture but more likely you'll be exposed to my crazy stream of consciousness. So thanks for reading. T.J.