Crossin the border, homes

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Macarena left a few days ago, and we all went to the airport to see her off as a family. It was really nice and of course Judith took about 300 pictures so it was well documented. Life settled down again back into the normal routine of quiet lunches and the Chilean version of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" at night.

Classes and basketball filled my week, I hung out with Esteban Friday night, played basketball Saturday night, but then early Sunday morning I left with Judith for a little trip.

We went with her brother Freddie to his newly opened business headquarters up in the Andes mountains on the border of Argentina. It was really really cool. We drove about two and a half hours weaving through the dirt roads to get to his building right on the border of Argentina in Eastern Chile. The building is really nice. Freddie has a security/safety company and he is based out of the building. It was built in 2009 and it is very modern and impressive.

We arrived to meet the two workers who live in the building to maintain it, Alejandro and Irene. I could tell they were happy to have visitors because they talked a lot, but I don't blame them it must be very lonely up there all alone in the mountains all year. red rum!

We had a little something to eat in the kitchen. We spent most of our time in there because it was efficient to heat...and we eat a all the time so it worked out perfectly. Alejandro gave me a tour of the building. It was really cool...my dad and Jake would have loved it. They are almost entirely self sufficient and off the grid. Every few months someone comes with gasoline, and they have to go into the closest village to get the essentials; sacks of potatoes, nuts, and cigarettes...but for the most part they take care of everything else. They have a big John Deere generator in the basement (vented to the outside obviously), and they tap their running water directly from the mountain. They have two sources of water. One from a running stream down the mountain, and the other is a well. The well water is drinkable but it has a yellowish color from all the minerals, they used that source for toilet water and shower water. The other source was used for drinking and washing dishes. You can see in one of the pictures how the water leaves a yellow tint on the rocks.

After we got settled in and I received my tour, Alejandro took me down to the natural hot springs at the bottom of the mountain. Someone constructed baths to trap the bubbling water from the earth, but it did not look very tempting to me. It was covered with an orange and yellow film of sediment and minerals...and it wasn't even that warm...but it was still cool nonetheless. After we ate (what else is new) Freddie took Judith and I out for a border crossing excursion. The border police go home mid April before winter because the roads become unusable, so we had free run of Argentina for a little bit. The border was marked with a metal sign and a statue of Jesus on the cross.

We had gone almost three hours without eating so it was time to head back to Freddie's building. We sat at the table and talked a lot with tea and chicken soup to "matar el frio" or kill the cold. Someone stopped outside the building and it turns out they had some vehicle problems. There were two vehicles, one had a flat tire, the other was leaking radiator fluid. We went out to help them change the tire, but their spare tire had a leak too. Freddie lent them a small electric compressor so they could stop along the way to fill the tire...they promised to come back and return it. Freddie told me that people from that area are good people, and he trusted them. Sure enough they returned it the next day.

I got ready for bed and read a little bit of "Las Cronicas de Narnia". I had some trouble sleeping, I think I had too much tea. The next day I woke up and decided I was going to climb one of the mountains. I set off for a mountain behind the house and started my ascent. It was very steep, and at an altitude of around 9000 feet above sea level, I had to stop and take a break every 50ft or so. After a healthy trek I made it to my goal over looking our valley. You can see in my pictures that I was pretty high up, looking down you can see the green roof of our building and a truck next to it for perspective. I was happy I did it, even though I didn't get to wrestle a puma while I was up there.

I came back down for some food before we headed back out for Santiago in time for my basketball practice. It was a really cool place and I hope I can go back again in the winter sometime in June to see it covered in snow. Apparently the pumas come down into the valleys for food in the winter when it is more scarce at the higher altitudes, I have a chance!

El primer partido-Relationships

Hey everyone. I just got back from my first basketball game. Since my Chilean sister Macarena came down to Chile from Miami, I have been in full on baskeball/family mode. Nothing too interesting but I'll talk about some things that have been going on in my life.

We had our first basketball game today as a team. They took some pictures I will try to get a hold of them ASAP to let you see what we're working with! The game didn't go so hot. I was able to start with some other good players on the team, and we were full of energy and got up early. At one point late in the 2nd quarter we were up 7 points, a comfortable lead we would have liked to keep going into half time. We started to get a little tired and our coach made some subs. I guess he decided to put all the slowest players on the team in at the same time becuase in those 6 minutes or so we lost a 14 point swing and were down 7 at half time.

We never corrected our ways and since we got down we felt pressured into taking some dumb shots. I only took two shots the second half but I think the team felt rushed and hurried since we were down and things just got out of control. We need to practice a lot more and hopefully we will be able to correct our mistakes and improve in the future.

Well this is pretty much the only thing going on in my life. I play University basketball (I love saying that even though I doubt you'll see me on ESPN anytime soon) I also play on a side league with my coach and another ex-player, so I am playing at least 4 times a week, I go to the gym every other day, I have 4 classes, and I just started my community service! Its a full plate but its tough to write a good story about running suicides in practice or lifting tiny weights at the gym!

The important thing is I am learning the language the best I can. Almost every night I talk with my friend Cecilia...she wants to be an English teacher, but she speaks better English than I do Spanish, so we talk in Spanish so I can get better...she is really understanding and a good teacher. She teaches me basic Spanish phrases and I teach her ghetto hood rap terms in English...ya digg?

Well now I will cover one of my more interesting subjects in cultural difference-Relationships.

Relationships are very different down here. First off, kids don't move out of their parent's houses until they are at LEAST 26. It's not uncommon to find 30 year old "kids" living with their parents. So that makes relationships a little bit different...it is not to say that young adults don't have relationships when they live with their parents though. Now you may be thinking...do they have any privacy in the relationship if they live with their parents?-HA!

They have figured out the ultimate secret to privacy...why use it? Everywhere you look there are people hooking up HARD with their significant others. Eyes closed on the metro, lips smacking, tongue swapping serious stuff. Laying down in the grass at a crowded park going at it...no problem. They must be watching too much MTV!

Another interesting thing is marriage here. Marriage is pretty normal, but the idea of divorce was just recently introduced into Chilean culture. Back in the day (maybe 15-20 years ago) divorce was illegal...you got what you signed up for and promised to God. But in the last 2 decades, divorced was legalized, and the Chileans are still kind of figuring it out.

Eduardo and my Chilean mom broke up a few years ago, he has a new woman (wife? not sure) but he still comes over almost every day and my mom makes him lunch. It is a very awkward relationship. They act like best friends, and like he is part of the family...but he only comes over for some family activities and meals! I have heard that a lot of other families are the same way...the culture is a little different!

The abundant wildlife of Santiago

Its been a while, but you aren't missing too much. I am just focusing on learning the language right now. I had a 2.5 hour chat last night with a Chilean just drilling her with questions about different things in Spanish. I am always really discouraged after basketball practice because I don't understand anything my teammates say during practice or in the locker room. I can watch a movie just fine, talk to my family just fine, listen to dinner conversations, but I am still struggling amongst my peers.

School has been good and basketball is always a lot of fun, the teammates are great guys and they have all accepted me onto the team, I just don't talk to much! Since I have been on the grind of school, family, gym, basketball, I have not had too much interesting to write about. This past weekend was Christian's birthday party. He gave the gringos VIP ACCESS. He rented out a large house and we had a nice dance party...I had a lot of fun...but the bus didn't come to pick me up for about 45 minutes and I didn't get home until 6:30am...crazy Chileans. Other than Christian's (Breezy's) party, my life has been routine. So as promised, I will talk less about my boring life and on some cool things about Chile.

The animals/wildlife/organisms. First off I will say that there are no bugs in Santiago. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen a small fly or something here. One time my mom called me into the kitchen and was pointing at the ceiling saying "what is that????" It looked to me just like a normal fruit fly or something of that nature, but she made me kill it just to make sure it wouldn't kill any of us. (And I highly doubt she was worried about food contamination because remember we leave our ground beef our for multiple days)

I think that the absence of bugs creates a crucial kink in the food chain, because there are no other small animals either. In all seriousness, I have seen three species of macroscopic life in Santiago. Humans, stray dogs, and pigeons. I am not sure why this is, maybe all large cities are the same way, but I bet you could find a squirrel in some park in NYC.

Outside of Santiago, Chile is a little more diverse. I've seen vultures, penguins, dolphins, emu, llamas, and many other kinds of animals. Even so, I have traveled almost the entire length of Chile, and I don't remember anywhere that had a "normal" amount of bugs. In Uruguay is where we encountered most of the bugs (including a giant moth the size of my hand-page down a few for pics).

Chile's national animal is the condor. To me it seems to be an undesirable image for a country doesn't it?? An ugly carnivorous bird that picks dead rodents off the road? I think Chile may agree with me because they recently introduced a second national animal. It is some deer type creature that is a little more conservative than a condor.

I also included a picture I found entitled "Degu huddling together for warmth" The Degu is a rodent found only in Chile...I will keep my eyes peeled for one in Santiago but I don't have my hopes up.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my trips I have on the radar:
April 24-25: Isla Negra
May 19-25: Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu Peru
Sometime in June: Mendoza, Argentina
July 1-16: Volunteer work at a wildlife refuge in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador

I'll keep you posted on everything interesting!!

Keeebin....a la mesaaaa-Food

Okay well today I have done nothing except research things to do and ways to travel in Peru. We are going to Peru in May and there is still some questions/drama as to where we're going and what we're doing...but I found some really cool stuff I will keep you informed of our decisions.

Since my life has not been filled with action and I have been settling down into normal Chilean life style (eat, eat, sleep, eat, eat) I wanted to dedicate a few posts to the differences in culture here versus the states. First off, I will quote something I read "Santiago has nothing to envy of any other city on the planet". This is kind of true because Santiago has everything, and is arguably the most advanced city in South America. The cultural difference is not as great as I expected, but there are obviously a lot of differences between Latin America and the US.

Starting with food. I like the food here a lot, but it is much different. Fruit has to be their specialty. The fruit I've had is absolutely amazing. Maybe it is the way Judith prepares it, but the fruit is always very good, and we have a lot of it. The kitchen always has a big bowl of fruit. We eat fruit for desert with every meal, and Judith makes a realllly good juice with it. She mixes all different kinds, a lot are hand picked by her friend and delivered to our apartment. The Juice is made with 100% real fruit and it is really really good. When I first arrived I told her I liked soda better than juice, but since I tried it, we have not bought another Coke.

They don't eat a lot of meat here, and by my theory that's why all the Chileans are little. Judith also says that all the Chileans have very dark hair because of the water. My friend Christian was born in Argentina and had blond hair, but he has lived in Chile for the past 20 years and now has dark brown hair. Judith also claims that Francisco (my Chilean brother) had really light hair and now it is completely black. You guys will have to tell me if my hair has changed I'm not really sure.

The pictures are of; humitas (the corn type thing), porotos granados (the beans), and pasta with an egg on top. I included the pasta because here in Chile they will put an egg on top of anything. If you go to order something at a restaurant, you can always add en egg. My friend Kristin says her mom will even plop an egg into her soup sometimes.

Milk expires in about 6 months, and it is unrefrigerated in little cartons. Maybe it is powder based but you can definitely taste the difference. We don't drink a lot of milk here at all. Milk and burgers has to be the weakness of Chile...the US does it the best. Another weird thing...if my mom cooks ground beef, she will leave it on the counter for DAYS. Literally days. Maybe she is giving it a natural seasoning? I heard the other Chilean moms do the same thing as Judith too. Who knows, but I trust her and I haven't been sick yet!

Bread is also very very good here. I think that's why Chileans are a little gorditos (fat) because they have a course of bread (and normally butter) with every meal...but I can't blame them because it is very fresh and tasty!

Whenever I have a hankerin for some good American food I can always find a McDonalds or Burger King within a few blocks for some safety food, but I have only done that a few times because the Chileans know how to cook!

CORRE RALFITO! TU PAPA!

It has been a pretty normal week except for the uproar at Parque O'Higgins on Thursday. Thousands of young people gather at the park on occasion to have parties and hang out together, but the police weren't really feeling it this time. I was there walking around looking for my Chilean friend Salvador, and there was a group of kids running through the park with a large smoking branch. The riot police didn't like that and told all the students to leave. My friends and I bounced out of there and went to a little park next door too hang out and play some guitar. We looked back into the park, and the riot police were GETTIN REAL with the kids.

The armored vehicles were out and the tear gas was flying. People started screaming and running out of the park, and the tear gas drifted our way. It was chaos for a while as people were running around the streets trying to escape it and I had my first taste of the tear gas. They picked the perfect name for it, because my nose was really itchy and my eyes started watering and a lot of people started sneezing. It was actually pretty cool to experience, but I'm very happy I only had the afterspray and I didn't get hosed in the face!

I laughed for a while when my Chilean friends made a joke. When the police were coming toward us with the tear gas, a Chilean friend yelled "corre ralfito! tu papa viene!" Which means "RUN RALPH YOUR DAD IS COMING!"

The kid's name wasn't ralph...so I asked Cecy about the joke, and she explained that the boy looks just like the character "Ralph" from "The Simpsons". I glanced over, and sure enough, the kid looks very much like Ralph (picture provided) from The Simpsons. And in the show, Ralph's dad is the police chief...I laughed pretty hard while we were all running for our lives.

Things got a little crazy, but it was time for me to go to church with Judith. I walked over to the Parque O'Higgins metro station, but it was closed because of the riot. There were hundreds of people waiting outside, and the bus stations were filled with the people who couldn't get on the metro. Luckily they were letting people off the metro one-by-one, and Judith emerged through the crowd.

She looked at the bus station, and realized there was no way we were getting to church on time if we waited for a bus, so we went to look for a cab down the street. EVERY cab was filled, but luckily, we found a bus down the street stopped at a red light. He must have felt sorry for us because he opened the door and let us on. As we were passing in front of the riot zone, someone threw a large rock at our bus. It crashed through the shatter-proof glass and hit a man sitting down. There was a little panic and everyone ducked down in the bus screaming to avoid other projectiles, but we got out with minimal casualties!

I tried to get a pic of it, but it's hard to see where the rock actually came through...but it was pretty crazy. I went to mass with my mom to calm down the night a little bit, it was very very nice. Afterwords I came back to the house, talked with my family a little bit, and went out to a friend's house-Gabriel. Gabo is a really really nice guy. He speaks perfect english (what else is new) because he spent a year in Australia. He has a really funny accent. I also met a Brazilian guy and another Chilean that I spent some time with to practice my Spanish. They were really cool. They had a guitar, a Ukulele type thing, a small piano, and other handmade instruments and we all jammed for a while Bob Marley style. American music is really big so they knew a lot of songs in English...we had a really good time. At around 4:30am we called it a night and I took a bus home to get asleep by 5...long day!