How do you expect them to win the battle......if they can't even fit in the truck

Hey everyone...sorry I haven't been doing too much lately I have worked my way deep into routine of family time, gym, basketball, and classes. I have not been doing anything too exciting but its nice to have some time like this to learn the language and make some friends at school. I decided since nothing too cool is going on I'll take the next couple days to fill you in on some of the differences, surprising similarities, and fun facts about the beautiful country of Chile.

First I will cover the really cool thing I went to last weekend. The airshow they had here in Chile. It is the biggest airshow in South America, and the war didn't stop the USA from showing off the biggest and fastest toys at the demo. Francisco hasn't missed this airshow since he was 2 years old...and it is an important tradition to him. That's why we got up early and left around 7:30am to beat the crowd. We also beat the airshow because no planes were open or flying for the first two hours, but Francisco was happy so we were all happy.

The airshow turned out to be really cool, and I was proud that my country represented with some multi-billion dollar bombers and a bilingual crew to explain to the Chileans. It was also nice to be able to talk to some American guys for the first time in over two months (even if it was only the Airforce!) But I did gain a lot more respect for the Airforce guys they had some really cool equipment. Some guys I talked to had a big transport plane that could hold hundreds of troops, helicopters, tanks, a few humvees, you name it. Their motto was "You call it, we haul it...any one, any time, any where." Pretty B.A

We got lunch at the show, and went back out to watch the plane demos. It was very busy and full of people but it was really cool to see the planes flying around overhead. Here is a link to a Youtube video of the Halcones. The Halcones are Chile's special trick group of the airforce. They were really good. This is a link to just a short video but if you search for more there are some videos of their better tricks they were really amazing.

A quick sidenote. I forgot my camera and these are all Judith's pictures. While I was creeping around on her memory card I found some others that I randomly threw in of some people that stayed with us. Another sidenote....Chileans LOVE to take pictures. I was actually irritated at people and their picture taking...not sure why. I searched through about 1200 of Judith's pictures of the airshow to find some good ones, and in one of the pictures there is actually a kid...taking a picture with his cellphone. And I can guarantee you that he was capturing the left tail section of the model truck, because he already had the front, back, upper right, and birds eye view of it. People would take pictures of everything and anything. I don't think Judith missed one of the 900 model planes they had on display in the hangers, but I guess a picture is worth a thousand words (86 million words and counting).

We stayed at the airshow for a veeeeery long time. We saw each plane about three times, and I got sunburn for being out so long, but Francisco had a good time and it was his kinda thing. At the end the Halcones did a cool thing where they spelled "FUERZA CHILE" (reference video below)...I was impressed.

We waited to leave in the congested parking lot for 2 hours...yes 2 hours, but I took a nap so it was all good. Other than the airshow nothing too crazy has been going on in Chile, but I am learning a lot. I will dedicate the next few posts to cool things I've come across that I hope everyone finds equally as interesting. Thanks again for your support I hope you are enjoying my entries I'll keep em coming.

Besitos

we cheer for them to make them play bad

So life has been pretty normal around here lately. Other than the 4 year old kid driving a car stopped at a stop sign, my third encounter with a transsexual prostitute, and the police chase/tackle I saw on my block, life has been routine. I am enjoying my routine of class/gym/basketball but I will always try to mix it up throughout the week and definitely on the weekends. This week on Wednesday we went to a soccer game. La Universidad Catolica (of Chile) versus a Venezuelan team. It was a lot of fun. The fans cheer with a lot of enthusiasm, and they cheer very crude and inappropriate things. There are six year old kids that will yell things they should definitely know nothing about, but that is the culture down here in Chile. Curse words are used in front of children and because of that I think people are a little numb to them and they are often less degrading and more casual.

The two teams tied, and it got very exciting and fun toward the end of the game. Players fought on the field a little bit, and they do a very good job of acting when there are "fouls". They had about 50 riot police there in full gear with shields...and they must have learned their lesson because the sale of alcoholic beverages is nationally prohibited. I had a really good time and on the bus ride home I was again solicited by a deep voiced "woman" and I scurried past her/it with a polite "no gracias!". I always seem to have some kind of shady encounter on my ride and walk home.

Another man was walking in the opposite direction of me on the opposite side of the street, and he stared at me the whole time we passed each other. About five steps after we passed, he pulled the ol' switcheroo and started following me in the street. I let him know I was an aware/sober gringo and kept eye contact looking over my shoulder as I walked, and he gave up his pursuit a half block later and sat on a bench watching me make my way home safely.

No refunds will be given in the event of an earthquake

Sunday I woke up just in time to go to the amusement park at 1:30! I heated up some leftover noodles from lunch the day before and hopped on the metro to get to the park. It was a lot cheaper than US parks. We all got in for about $9USD each, and I got a large soda and a large ice cream for $3.50...they know how to do it down here in Santiago. The park was really nice and they had a lot of fun rides. Each line took about 20 minutes but we had no problem filling the time with chit chat.

Well I realize there's not too much else to say about the park everything functioned normally without any noticeable earthquake damage. Afterwords I went back home to have dinner with the family and went on the computer for a while for a chilled out Sunday night. Hopefully I can have some more interesting stories this week for you. Nos Vemos

erre con erre ferrocarril

I had a good night sleep before class on Friday. I had Marcelo's class at 1:30...I think his class is my favorite we talk about really cool interesting stuff and everyone has to participate. His class ended at 2:50 and I was planning on going to the gym quick (my plan allows me to go between 9am-4pm) but I needed to print out the readings for his class. I went across the street to the computer lab. On my way over I saw my friend Salvador (from the 2v2 basketball tournament). He walked with me into the lab to help me figure out everything that was going on. I got to printing station and the lady asked for my login information for the school system. I didn't have any of it...but she knew I was a stupid gringo so she took me into her office and used her personal account to print it for me...FO FREE. The only downside was I had to wait an hour and a half! There were so many students in the lab printing syllabi and things like that it seemed the line was never ending.

I got back home with no time to go to the gym. The girls called me and said they were going to a party in Parque O'Higgins by the school. I went back to change and head over but I fell asleep! They said the party was fun but I knew I would meet up with them later. I hung out with the family waiting for a call from the girls. They were at Sebastian's (a kid from our university Alberto Hurtado) house and around midnight I went over. It was someone's birthday party and I had a really good time. I spoke a good amount of Spanish, and I can always count on my peers to teach me all the garabatos (bad words!).

We stayed out pretty late and I slept almost alllll day Saturday. I don't know why I've been so sleepy I guess I am turning Chilean! Judith woke me up for lunch, my autopilot took me in a trance to the table, and afterwords I went right back to sleep. I woke up again in the afternoon to go to the gym. I went for about an hour, and came back just in time to shower and get ready for our next activity.

Judith, Francisco, and I took the metro over to Judith's niece's apartment. It was kinda a house warming party for her new apartment. It was a very very nice place. We went up to the roof on the 26th floor to have dinner. It was really cool being able to see almost all of Santiago. We talked for a long time and ordered pizza. They do pizza a little differently here but I still really like it. They have chopped tomatoes instead of tomato sauce on most pizzas. It's a little messier but you know you are getting the real deal.

I talked with Judith's brother Ricardo a lot. He is a really nice and kind man that helps me out with all my language issues. He makes me feel pretty stupid by knowing perfect English and knowing verbs like "hoist" but it helps me get a good feel for the true meaning of the words in Spanish. I feel like I am learning at a faster pace now because I am more comfortable with the language and I can absorb more when people are talking. I tried to tell Fransisco a riddle today but I am sure it would have made more sense to him coming from a 3 year old...so I still have a lot of work to do! My Chilean sister Macarena (yes Macarena) is coming back to Chile April 8th. She works for Marriott in Miami right now but I am excited to meet her she seems very very nice.

I am taking it easy Saturday night hanging out with the family so I can get some sleep (surprise) because we are planning a busy Sunday. Cuidense!

amor por la-que???

Okay sorry I've been kinda busy the last few days with all my new endeavors. I have been busy with class, going to the gym, basketball, and family activities. On Tuesday I woke up for my first philosophy class. It was very hard to understand the professor. My main problem was focusing. I would find my mind wandering every few minutes off onto tangents. It will be a tough course but I know I will improve as time goes on. Here are the pics I promised of the CARNAGE! I got a little artsy with the PELIGRO (Danger) picture but its hard to see what I'm getting at. On Tuesday we had some more guests over in the house. Judith's brother and his son Christian (I remembered a name). I hung out with them and chatted for a while before I went to the gym. I hung out with the family more and talked a lot that night I've been practicing my Spanish a lot more.

Wednesday was another pretty busy day for me I woke up to go to the gym before lunch at 12:30 then class at 1:30. I had class with Marcelo. I had Marcelo for an Intensive Spanish course in January. He's a really cool guy and he pushes us so we learn a lot. We are going to talk about really interesting things that have to do with Latin America. We talked about precolombino (before Spanish influence) art and culture. It was really cool I look forward to his class Friday.

We had more guests over Wednesday night so I watched the news and talked to them for a while, then went out with some friends to celebrate el dia de San Patricio! We went to the gringo headquarters of Santiago "California". Its a bar in a nice neighborhood and its FULL of Americans. I feel like every American in Chile is there all the time. The party was hoppin real good. It was hard to breathe let alone move. We made our base camp on the second floor where there was enough room to establish personal space. I hung out for a while and took it easy with two drinks anticipating a very action packed Thursday.

On the walk to the bus stop, a Chilean girl (pretty cute) stopped and asked me if I was Chilean. I told her I was a gringo and she said I should come out with them. She was a little barracha (drunk) and she grabbed my arm and started pulling me along with her friends. I am always down for adventures so I went along with it. I asked where we were going but she said it didn't matter! ...Alrighty then! We actually walked back to California, but went into a shady club next door. The "solo mayores de 21 años" sign made me a little nervous (I'm only 20) but they let me slide so I went in. We went deep into the depths of the bar until we found an inconspicuous padded door. When we yanked it open the sound poured out and revealed a dance floor. No one was on it but that soon changed. Our group of about 7 led the way to a dance circle. My friends were aided with plenty of liquid confidence to take the center of the dance floor and I went along with it.

The bar vultures lurked into the dance room to watch as we made our party circle. Before I knew it, it was my turn to take the circle "baila, kevin, baila!"

Now as you all know, "gangsters don't dance...they lean wit it, rock wit it" so I showed them how we do in the states.

I spent about a half hour there but I knew I had a full day so I tried to leave, but they didn't want to let the gringo go! Finally I gave them my phone number and escaped to get some sleep!

Thursday I had a full day. Class 10-11:30, gym until 1:30, lunch until 2:30, Class 3-6, Leave for basketball at 7 get home at 11...full day!

Class was fine, basketball was good, but I am very tired and about to get some well deserved sleep! Gracias por el apoyo a todos!

Feliz cumpleaños Mom!!!!

Howdy ya'll. Today, March 16th, is my mom's birthday! (My USA mom Valerie for those of you who forgot I'm actually from there) So I dedicate this post to her...love you mom!

I woke up Monday morning/afternoon after a reallllly nice sleep to say goodbye to the guests that have been staying with us. I feel ashamed not to know their names. They have been saying with us all this week because their house was damaged/destroyed by the earthquake where they are from in the south. They said their names at the beginning but never came back to them oh well.

Afterwords we went out to lunch for a birthday celebration for one of Judith's relatives. We went to a really nice restaurant and it was very reasonably priced. I got a meat lasagna it was rica! After lunch I stopped back home for a while then went out to run some errands. I went to a gym by my house because I want to sign up for one during class/basketball season. I toured it and it seems pretty nice I will join tomorrow. After I went to a few stores to recharge my cell phone with $10 so we'll see how long that lasts I don't talk much. I went back home and took a nap before basketball tryouts. I woke up at 6:30pm, hopped on the metro, and finally arrived at practice at exactly 8pm. It took me a while to find my way around the neighborhood I had to ask a bunch of people for directions. It's so blatantly obvious that I'm American. I went up to a women and asked "Perdon, sabe donde esta el colegio San Ignacio, esta cerca?" And the old women responded to me in English " I am not sure I think it is in that direction". Everyone knows I am gringo with my first word!

I finally made it to practice and held my own. I made a lot of stupid mistakes but that will get better once I start playing more. The team needs a lot of work but the coach seems like he really knows what he's doing. The language barrier is difficult for me now but I know it will get easier. I am excited to go back for the next round of tryouts on Thursday. Esteban gave me a ride to his house so I could easily catch the metro home. I grabbed a King Sized value meal at Burger King to take the edge off my hunger and made my way home.

donde esta el pio?

I spent almost all of Sunday with the family. We had 16 people over in this tiny apartment for lunch! It was really nice they did a very very good job serving everyone. We had chicken and french fries. Most people are family of Judith and their relatives as well. I also included some pictures of the metro...its a dog eat dog train!

The guests were really nice. The younger people spent a lot of time in Francisco's room. The boy on the right brought over a PlayStation so they spent all day doing that (it seems like a luxury here). If they came to the states with me they could watch me play videogames for 12 hours anytime!

We hung out with the guests and shared pictures/talked until dinner time. We had tea and bread with various spreads (the infamous egg spread was back). After dinner we went into Francisco's room and watched Indiana Jones...in English! The guests left, but I was focused on the Holy Grail quest until-the power cut out. The power went out in almost all of Chile actually. Emergency generators were running for the hospitals and select traffic lights but nothing else. It was out for almost an hour until we got power back (we are the first ones normally because the president lives about 3 blocks from my apartment). Indiana had evidently found the Grail because they moved on to the next show. While the power was out I brought my laptop into the community room and showed my skydiving video to a few guests...now they know how badass Americans are.

I hung out on the computer for a little and called it a night with a full belly! I had to get a good nights sleep for basketball tryouts the next day

No this place will be fun...

I didn't really feel well on Friday so I stayed in and watched Tommy Boy to lift my spirits. I woke up on Saturday and spent the day with Judith and our guests. We had a nice lunch but dinner didn't really sit well with me. There was an egg salsa type of spread that my stomach didn't really agree with, so I didn't eat much and I was going to stay in again if it weren't for the peer pressure of Christian and Dana.

Christian offered to pick me up from my house and take the gringos back to his house to hang out and play games/watch a movie. I made him a CD for his efforts and Dana, Cynthia, Tara, Corinne and I went back to Christian's place. We played some music but ended up just socializing instead of any other activities. After a while we decided to go out to town.

We caught a bus out to a popular party neighborhood and it was hopping. All eyes were on the American girls and there were a lot of comments and random guys coming up to me and giving me high fives and stuff but I am always on my toes when we go out and I get pretty tense. We made our way down the street and found a discoteca. Christian doesn't normally go out to this area, and doesn't know the clubs. The sign translated to "men:$4, women: $6"...I thought it was very strange but Christian was excited to get in for the cheaper entrance fee. I looked up and read the club name "Prince".

Now at this point most of you have probably caught on to something a little different about this club, but I had not. We went to the door and asked if we could get in free because we had the gringas...but they denied us. First time yet. We had to pay like normal people! Turns out it was not a "normal" club at all. It was a full blown gay club. After we paid and they opened the door I knew exactly what was up. The girls went in first, and I pulled Christian back and told him the bad news. We sat outside for a while and I asked for our money back but it wasn't happening. Christian and I hung outside and called the girls but they didn't pick up. Evidently they were having a good time in there and finally answered after about 15 minutes and came out with us.

We walked around to try to find a less flamboyant club. As we were walking down a red carpet to another club a person passing in a tight V-neck t-shirt squeezed my arm. I yanked my arm away and stared him down...a part of me thought that I should teach him a lesson...but a bigger part of me thought that I was the dumb one who came into their part of town, so I let him live another day.

No other clubs were open, so we called it a night. That was probably a good thing because I was a little weirded out anyway. The girls went back with Christian and I grabbed a bus home. The wrong bus. 501, 502, and 504 take me back home, but apparently 503 does not take the same route. I was riding the bus and had no idea where I was. I was looking around for a familiar sign but we were on back streets and I didn't recognize anything. Finally I thought I would cut my losses, so I pressed the button to call for a bus stop. I stepped out into a dark neighborhood back street and started walking backwards in the direction we came from.

About 15 seconds later, I saw a sign for the metro stop "Santa Ana"...which is about 100 meters from my apartment! I was very relieved and this bus actually took me much closer to my apartment and I only had to walk for about 6 minutes until I was safe en mi casa!

Ensename mas...

I made up for the day before by being pretty active on Thursday. I woke up to a call at 10am from Cynthia asking "where are you?" I heard a bunch of noise in the background then the call dropped because she ran out of minutes. I was very confused but I thought she was maybe out to breakfast or something with friends so I went back to sleep. Turns out she was at class...the one I was supposed to be attending as well. I thought we had a class at 3pm but it turns out I was switched around and we had a 10am not the 3pm...great first impression (or lack thereof).

Luckily we only received a syllabus and were sent on our way so I didn't miss anything. I had a nice lunch with the family from 1pm-3pm. Lunch is a long meal because there are 4 courses. Soup, meal, dessert, tea. It is really the only time where I can practice my Spanish for an extended period of time though so I really like it. I have been very humbled by the language barrier. It seems like 5o percent of adolescent Chileans can speak fluent English, and I've been studying for about 6 years and I still talk like a baby!

After lunch I got my stuff together and went over to Esteban's to chill and play some basquetbol. I got there and he was playing Fifa (soccer videogame for those of you over the age of 45). I tried my hand at it but got obviously got pwned. Later we popped in Madden (football) and then I showed them how the USofA does it (even though I was the Lions). Then Esteban and I went to the park to play some ball.

The park was absolutely beautiful. Esteban lives in the best part of Santiago, and arguably the best park of Chile. It's a really nice neighborhood. We shot around for a little then found a game to get in on. I didn't play so hot but Esteban and I had pretty nice chemistry and we did pretty well...either way it was a lot of fun I think I am going to go again on Friday.

We played for a long time, swung by a gas station on the way home for a gatorade and went back to his house to get something to eat. We had pitas with tuna and chick peas. We talked about our past, future, and life in general. I tried "tuna"...the name very much confused me becuase we were eating the fish tuna, but in Spanish the word "tuna" is a cactus fruit. It was actually very very good and I would love to find one of them if I was wandering a desert.

After dinner I went over to Cynthia's to celebrate someones birthday. Three new girls just got to Santiago from Loyola MD (the same school as Cynthia, Tara, Kristin, and Dana). Their names are Alexandra, Corrinne, and....someone else haha. It was Corrinne's birthday but we didn't do anything to special. We had about 12 friends over, introduced the new girls to Pisco, but it was a really nice relaxed night. The party ended early at about 3:30am and I caught a bus home without any shady confrontations! Great Success!

con un cuchillo?!?!

First off, I will say I did absolutely nothing today. I am feeling kind of sick and I took it easy and stayed in the apartment. I had a nice lunch and dinner with the family and talked a lot. I also watched a movie-(Running Scared)...it is surprisingly a really good movie even though Paul Walker is in it...

There isn't much to tell about, but my friend Tate asked me about culture and business in Chile because he is doing a presentation in class. I typed up this little thing for him and I decided it was best not to let it go to waste so enjoy!

Tate,

I have a Chilean friend who actually owns a pretty successful software implementation business. (Christian) If you want to get serious about this im sure he would be more than happy to give you a little interview or something hes a real cool guy and he speaks perfect English. Even if you wanted to do it via facebook. Lemme know and i'll hook it up. For now I'll tell you what I know.

As far as South American countries go, Chile is widely accepted as one of the most advanced countries in terms of technology and business practices. About 1/3 of the entire Chilean population lives in the valley of Santiago (6 mil out of 18 mil) and it is their economic and political headquarters. In the last two decades Chile has made tremendous strides in approving it's economy and quality of life. Since the end of the controversial dictatorship of Pinochet in the 70-80's Chile has improved on its poverty rate every year and their successful programs are being studied by neighboring latin american countries with similar issues. That being said, Chile still has a lot of work to do, especially after the latest 30 billion dollar hurdle. There is a large gap between the rich and the poor, even with their socialist government.

Alright I kinda just wrote a formal essay idk why i did that haha but now ill just tell you stuff that i've seen or whatever so you can site me in a paper/presentation

Chilean's are very kind and hospitable. For the most part, small businesses seem to rule the economy. Everywhere you look in the street there are people selling things from slushies to jewelry to electronics to puppies. There is no direct sales tax on items, but the government requires each sale to be recorded on a handwritten receipt (pretty ghetto) and the seller has to take responsibility for the tax (so its a hidden tax). Their currency, the Chilean peso, is hovering a little over 500 CP=$1 USD.

There are a few larger chains that are popular in Chile as well. I don't have any experience with the higher ranks but I heard English is the key. Anyone who can speak English can get a job in the business/banking world because English is the international language of business.

Chileans work pretty weird hours too. The normal work week for a chilean is 45 hours, but the lower class has to work more. My brother leaves for work 8am-7pm Mon-Thur and works 8am-3pm on Fridays. If you do the math, it comes out to 51 hours, but Chileans are really into eating and they take like an hour and a half lunch break every day. Almost all businesses are closed on Sundays. And most businesses are closed for a siesta from about 1-3 every day. Sometimes its frustrating but you learn to get used to it.


The next section is a little intense it may not be good for 7 year old girls! (Coco!)

Workers dont get paid much, especially lower class. I was talking to a kid a few days ago, and his job was to kill sheep. (to eat ? idk I didn't ask) he killed about 200 sheep a day by slitting their throats. Sometimes they would run around afterwords and it would take them around 2 minutes to finally die. Sometimes after you slit their throat if they got violent you would have to stab them in the heart too. Crazy job right? He worked 7am-7pm 5 days a week and got paid around $15 USD a day.


Let me know if you guys have any questions feel free to email me I love to talk Chile!

Moyer48@gmail.com

Chao besos!

si jugamos, ganaria

I woke up, drug myself out of bed and went three blocks down the street to school for the second day of orientation. It was kind of frustrating and very unorganized. I waited over and hour with the rest of the gringos to talk to Isabel about our classes but never got the chance. Then we went to a presentation to learn about the schools network and how students log in to check classes and grades and stuff, but the presentation moved very fast and it was presented by a college student and I'm not very good at understanding my peers yet so I just got the basic ideas.

Afterwords we went back to Isabel's office to try again, and about an hour later I was registered for my classes. I may do a couple last minute switches because I have to get some things cleared up by SJU. But as of now I have class Tuesday morning, Wed afternoon, and Thur afternoon. Four day weekends will be really nice! Isabel even admitted to being really unorganized and inefficient. She said a terremotito (little earthquake) must have disrupted all the schools organization!

Finally it was 2o'clock and time for all the sports. They had about 12 ping pong tables set up, a bunch of chess sets, a type of soccer/volleyball game, and half court basketball. Esteban set me up with a random teammate the day before so I introduced myself and we talked a little bit. His name was Salvador, and he was really hood. He was into the same music as me, but dressed really ghetto and experimented with a lot of mind altering substances. He was actually a little taller than me, and told me that he played all throughout highschool and considered going pro until he had a problem with his knee. I was skeptical but happy to have someone on my team with experience. We made our way over to the gym and started the tournament. There were seven teams, so we had to play a round robin tournament (every team plays against each other one time). It turns out my teammate was no Michael Jordan and he actually only made two baskets the whole tournament!

They play basketball a lot differently here in Chile and I was not used to it, it is much more physical. I was completely exhausted after the first 5 minute game. I thought I was going to pass out! We went into overtime the first game and lost on freethrow shooting. Luckily we won the rest of our games and redeemed ourselves in the championship to take home the gold. It was a lot of fun and once I got a hang of their playing style I was able to play ball. We went back to the school and they had a little award ceremony for the winners/2nd place winners of all the tournaments. We won medals and a really cool Universidad Alberto Hurtado T-shirt.

After the tournament my new hoodrat friends invited me to go out with them for beers (and probably other things) but I was completely exhausted after all those games and they didn't really seem like my type of crowd so I went back home to the apartment, showered, and had a really nice dinner with the family. Dinner is really different here. We ALWAYS have some type of guest over, which is really cool. If you sit down for dinner, you can't expect to get away from the table for at least two hours. There is normally 4 courses for lunch, and 3 for dinner, and then everyone stays and chats for about an hour. I really like it because it helps me practice my Spanish and learn about whats going on. Normally for dinner my family just eats bread, guacamole, ham, and cheese. Sometimes Judith makes me pasta and rice because she knows I can hold my own at the table, but so far I've been really happy with the food.

After dinner I chilled on the computer and called it a night.

besitos!

pobre gatito

I woke up a little late today but got to orientation just fine. On the walk over I noticed a lot more earthquake damage. I'll get some pictures tomorrow I forgot to get some on the way back. We got to orientation and heard a few speakers and some really cool violin players. I am really impressed with my university here. Apparently tuition is about $2000 USD a semester here (a little cheaper than SJU) but they still treat their students very well. We had a nice little ceremony and lunch was provided.

Esteban was there with his basketball propeganda trying to get some players for the team. There is a two on two tournament tomorrow at the school. I signed up with a random partner I'm really looking forward to it! I am going to be playing basketball for the university if I make the team. There are four days of tryouts that start on Monday. I'll be sure to keep you posted! After hanging out and eating lunch, the gringos went to Santa Luciana. Santa Luciana is a place for underprivileged children to go after school. Most of these kids do not have parents and live with older brothers/sisters/relatives. We toured Santa Luciana because it is a possible location for weekly service. After my visit I may choose it! It was really nice and the kids were absolutely great.

When we got there some kids immediately ran over to us and offered hugs and kisses right away, they were very friendly (some of the boys were a little TOO generous with the kisses to the girls). A boy ran over to me with a soccer ball and said something very quickly that I couldn't understand. Old people and kids are the hardest to understand for me but hopefully after I spend some time with them I'll get better. I followed him out into their poor excuse of a soccer field (dust with some metal poles), but evidently they don't need the best equipment to be good! The put a whooping on me. Because you barely need any gear to play soccer, it is very popular especially in the poorer sections of town, and these kids got game!

We had a good time playing until the raggedy ball popped after a goal (while I was goalie). We went back into the classroom to introduce ourselves. The kids were really funny with their questions. I asked them who the most famous American was and most answered Michael Jackson. After introducing ourselves, a little girl suggested we play "pobre gatito", which means, poor little kitty.

We sat in a large circle and Diego started as el gatito (little kitty). He crawled around the room on all fours and sat down right in front of me. The object of the game is for the gatito to get the other person to laugh. The gatito sits down and has to meow three times. After each meow, the person they chose has to pat them on the head gently and say "pobre gatito". The gatito has to do their best to do a cute little meow with puppy dog eyes. Diego got me with the third meow and we all started cracking up.

It was my turn so I crawled over to Cynthia, but instead of the cute little kitty approach, I tried the abandoned disabled street cat look. I crawled over to her crosseyed and let out a soft noise of a tortured dying kitty. It didn't take a second meow and she had to take my place!

The game went on for about a half an hour and we were all laughing. After everyone had a turn the tios (all of us) said our goodbyes and headed back into the city. I really liked the location and I'll keep you guys informed of my decision on where to do community service.

I had a nice night hanging out with the family and I'm about to watch a movie (I found a way to download them down here-Boondock Saints tonight) and continue with my second day of orientation tomorrow!

nos vemos

Now what you've all been waiting for...

o

A note from the author:

Saludos amigos y parientes. For those of you just checking on my blog I wanted to tell you everything would probably be more enjoyable if you start from my first entry because I told about my travels in chronological order. If you are more interested in the earthquake and less about my travels, feel free to check out the pictures on this listing and be on your way!

Starting off...everyone I know is fine from the earthquake. The miracle is my mom Judith and her family. Their town was one of the worst in the country. She has pictures of gigantic boats washed up into buildings and smashed into trees. There were three huge tidal waves over 30 ft. tall that washed everything from sea up into town. Cars were flipped on their roofs, and hundreds of people died. The center of town is almost all completely rubble. I'm sure you've seen pictures on the news. They are predicting 30 billion dollars worth of damage.

Santiago was much more fortunate. Only about 40 died, but that number would have been exponentially greater if it were not for the timing of the earthquake and the construction codes of the country. The airport was actually one of the most damaged structures in the city. Flights were all messed up, and it it weren't for my friend Christian and his demanding ways with airline personnel, I would still be stranded in Punta Arenas for 3 more days. As you can see in the pictures, their temporary terminal is a tent and chairs outside on one of the runways. The baggage claim is a slab of concrete. It was crazy to see something so weird.

On the drive home I saw some silos collapsed, but not TOO much damage. On the walk home I took a picture of a church one block away from my house that crumbled a little bit. I got home to a broken desk because my TV had fallen down and smashed it, but the apartment was in pretty good shape. It is kind of ironic because not even two weeks before I was talking to my Chilean dad Eduardo about the construction of the buildings. He said each building has many different sections that can slide around on each other to avoid damage, and the pillars are built on ball bearings, so the buildings are designed to move with the earthquakes instead of fighting against them. Very cool stuff. The quake here in Chile was over 50 times as powerful as Haiti's, but the Chileans were well prepared.

Judith showed me the clock from our dining room that fell. It is stuck on the time 3:35am-the exact moment of the quake! How dramatic! I heard from a friend the quake lasted 2 minutes...but it was the longest 2 minutes imaginable. Last night when I was lying in bed a felt a little tiny tremor shaking my bed back in forth. Pretty cool. There have been hundreds of tremors since the original 8.8 quake. The metro is back and running and life is almost back to normal in Santiago, but the rest of Chile will need some time.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to comment/email me!

Moyer48@gmail.com

Chao amigos!

Sorry I'm late I was collecting some rocks

t



My alarm went off bright and early at 5:30am to start my hike. I was excited and freezing cold so it was easy to wake up. I went to the bathroom to fill my water bottle, ate two packs of cookies, and was ready to go by 5:45am. I went over to Dana/Kristin's tent and they were still waking up. I sat in my tent to stay warm while they went to the bathroom to get ready. AN HOUR LATER AT 6:45am they were ready to go. I was very mad but I brushed it off to make it a positive experience. Tara and Cynthia were too scared/lazy to go so they stayed and slept. The three of us pushed off a little before 7am. It looked to be about a 2hr hike up, and 2hrs back without any packs if we hustled.

We pushed off and made really good time without the weight of our packs/human anchors Cynthia and Tara. It was a really nice hike with some cool lakes. There were chunks of glacier floating in the water but at one point I actually took my shirt off to cool down...the temperature changes were pretty dramatic.

We made it to glacier grey and it was really really cool. We were there a little after sunrise and we were the only ones at the lookout point. We were only able to stay about 15 minutes but I will always remember it because it was really magnificent. Once again, pictures don't do it justice but its better than nuthin!

We hiked back to the campsite and literally RAN to catch the ferry outta town. We were the last on and barely it. I grabbed the unpacked tent, hugged it tight, and ran down to the dock with it flapping in my face. We got hot chocolate on the ferry and about a half hour later we were near the bus stop. Tara and Cynthia went for a little mini hike before the bus arrived but Dana Kristin and I had already paid our dues and we chilled in a grassy knoll and reminisced on our adventures. About 15 minutes before our bus came, it started pouring rain. Great timing. Kristin said she was really happy for the rain because it helped us appreciate all the good weather we had for hiking. We were waiting in the covered bus stop and met a Canadian man and a French woman.

We were feeling really good about our accomplishments the past four days in our adventurous hike until we talked to our new friends. They rode bikes down to Patagonia...from Canada. They have been riding around for 20 months and they came down through the Panama Canal and everything. Right when we thought we did something cool they totally showed us up! It was impressive nonetheless.

The bus came and we had a nice ride back to the cheese hostel. We were finally able to contact our families/friends that were worried about us from the earthquake! Dana's parents and Kristin's parents had them in tears quickly. We had no idea the earthquake was so serious. After we contacted everyone we had a huge dinner out at town and called it a night.

Yeah we're just taking a little 2 hour break

The third day of hiking was starting to catch up to us. We were hiking what is known as the "W" in Torres del Paine. The "W" is said to take an average hiker 4-5 days to complete but we only had about 3.25 so we had to skip one part. If you look on the picture of the map, at the start of the third day, we were at the bottom of the 2nd part. We decided to skip the middle section of the W and make our way over to the 1st part to see glacier grey (we were traveling right to left).

We started hiking, and it was a really really nice stroll. Barely any uphill and an all around good day. We were actually ahead of schedule and decided to take a nice long healthy lunch break. Some people hike 20 miles a day and sprint through the "W" circuit but I was actually really happy being able to relax and enjoy the ambiance of the wilderness! We had to leave the next day at 10am, so we had to plan out the rest of our hike. We decided to take it real real easy on the third day and only go from the bottom of the 2nd section to the bottom of the 1st section. Then we would wake up really early on the 4th day to quickly do the last leg of the W then make our way home.

We had a really nice relaxed hike and made it to the beautiful campground at the bottom of the 3rd section around 6pm. Since Patagonia is pretty much the southern most point of the world other than Antarctica, the days are very long right now so we could enjoy the sunlight for quite a while. We took it easy at the campsite, enjoyed the a local specialty beer "Austral" (imported straight from civilization via horse caravan) and went to sleep around 9pm.

Oh great its yellow shirt dude again

We set off for our second day of hiking in good spirits. Everything had dried, but we knew this day would be the first true test because we had all our gear this time...and it was not easy. The beginning of the hike was very nice. It was relatively flat and scenic, but it was so windy you had to shout to get anyone's attention and we did not talk much. The purpose of this hike was to get to travel over to the next scenic location, as opposed to the day before where we were climbing up to see one.

The wind made it tough but other than that 75% of the hike was almost flat and pleasant. We had to fjord some tough rivers of glacier water so that was pretty cool (pun intended). Toward the end of the long day there were some tough 45 degree angle climbs where I had to pause and catch my breath, but I made sure to go fast enough to stay out of earshot of the grumbling whining girls! I'm not gonna lie it was one of the harder physical workouts I had hauling my body and the small cottage on my back up and down the mountains, but I am really happy I did it and I feel good about myself for working hard to see these beautiful sites.

We split up into two groups toward the end because some of the girls had to rest a lot but I would rather get the pain out of the way and enjoy the rest all at the end so some of us arrived at camp an hour before the others. The LAST thing I wanted to do was set up a tent and cook dinner but my body was pleading for nutrients and I cooked up some more ramen noodles and passed out HARD about a half hour later...one of the best sleeps I've ever had!