Pictures

Ok, some pictures. Top left, me and Brian in our new chile soccer jerseys that we both got for christmas. Next three are from the BBQ with our families. The first is me with the girls and the gift my family gave us, the next is my family minus the 6 year old boy, and then we have me with my little 4 year old sister.
2nd row: us at christmas dinner we made for ourselves, me in the outhouse at the beach house with stayed at in matanzas with matias's friend, me and brian getting ready to kayak in the freezing ocean, campfire at the beach house.
3rd row: standing on the porch at the beach house the holy cross priests let us use in El quisco, sunset from the porch, the marathon runners, and the marathon runners preparing at 5:30 in the morning.
4th row: me and katy caressing our 5 litre baby and then some repeats

HAPPY NEW YEAR

More Updates and Schedule

I forgot to mention in the previous post that me, Brian and Molly went with a friend of ours to see Fernando Gonzalez, the chilean tennis player ranked in the top ten in the world, play an exhibition tennis match at the stadium here. it was an exhibition to raise money for a local school here that he supports.



The day after christmas, we had all of our families over for a BBQ. I was orignially dreading it as it seemed like just one more thing on our list of things to do. I know, you dont feel bad for me at all as i seem to be just on one long vacation, but we are all rather tired and finding days where there is nothin to do are hard to come by. However, the BBQ was great, no chilean men kicked me or brian off the grill, all our families showed up and seemed to have a good time, and my family gave me a birthday gift and a nice set of olive oil stuff for our house. Jose, my brother, made up stories about me the whole night that he told molly and katy, and i played with my little sister Josefina.



For my brithday, we all went to a restaurant that has these sandwiches which are about as close as you can come to a philly cheese steak down here. they are actually really good. then we went out to an irish bar for beers and saw a U2 cover band play there.



Oh, and we had to go to work the day after christmas. really sucked. Christmas is not as big a deal as it is in the states.



Now to make you jealous...my schedule for January and February:

January 2 - 14 - Chiloé - it is an island 15 hours by bus south of us. We are all going there on what is called misiones. we go there with about 40 students to basically do mission work there. the island is extremely isolated and is apparently amazing. the culture is completely unique to all of chile, and it is in the beautiful lakes region.



January 15 - 21 - Philadelphia for Luke´s wedding.



January 22 - 26 - Buenos Aires



January 27 - 30 - Montevideo



January 31 - February 6 - Rio de Janiero for Carnaval. It is rediculously expensive for us because it is during carnaval, but who can resist the largest party in the world?



February 7 - 10 - Foz de Iguazu - one of the 7 natural wonders of the world

February 11 - Buenos Aires again to fly back to santiago

February 12 - 13 - Santiago to regroup and prepare for the next leg of the trip

February 14 - 26 - Hiking and Camping in Patagonia. We are going to hike the W at Torres del Paine and then head up to these glacier parks on teh argentina side.

Tomorrow we leave for Valparaiso for new years to see what is supposed to be the largest fireworks display in south america. the entire city is already booked in all the hotels and hostels, so we are just planning on winging it and maybe just not sleeping that night...

The Beach

Sorry, dont have any photos for this entry. I will put up some in a few days, i just wanted to get this post in because it has been a while.




So what have i been doing the past three weekends while most of the states has been hit with ice, snow, or just plane old cold...laying out on the beach. Yup, literally we have all been chilling at the beaches northwest of santiago every weekend since december began.


the first weekend, we went with two Holy Cross volunteers, Natalie and Michelle, to a beach house they arranged in El Quisco.It was actually the beach house that the holy cross priests own down here, and it was awesome. literally right on the beach. they spared no expenses. we got a van and ten of us piled in and made our way there. The weekend was filled with paddle ball, 30 seconds of swimming in arctic water, wine, games, lying on the beach, wine, food, celebrating molly's birthday, little bit of training for the marathon, wine, and campfire on the beach.


the second weekend was the marathon weekend. we went to Maitencillo and Vina de Mar. Now for the past two months i have been dreading the idea of running a half marathon. i was in decent enough shape to do it, at least i thought so, but the week before the marathon, my left leg was bothering me. it was a strange pain (my dr. jon halbach can confirm that i was worried about it) so i took the week off from running. however on Friday, i couldnt resist joining in a game of capture the flag with all the students preparing for misiones (i can explain misiones later). my leg actually felt fine while i was running around, and i was dominating that game, until...my right ankle gave out. not only could i no longer dominate, my chances of running the half marathon were shot (although, honestly i couldnt care that much less). so for the weekend, we stayed at Molly's family's house in Maitencillo, got to drive for the first time in 5 months dropping the runners off at their starting points, and then i cheered them on. i was a bit jealous at first watching the good runners finish, then i saw the looks on the slow runners faces and i was glad i skipped out. Brian posted a half marathon time of something like 1 hour 40 something minutes and molly ran the full marathon in about 3 and a half hours. they did awesome.



This most recent weekend, we went with Matias, my trainer, to his friends beach house in Matanzas. The town can hardly even be called that as there were so few people that lived there. we drove matias's car literally right on to the beach, pulled off his two-man ocean kayak and spent the day at the beach. nearly all of us went out in teh ocean (covered in gear to keep us warm in the water) with the kayak. and pretty much all of had some major wipe-outs with the waves; they were huge-some of the biggest i have seen. we also had a 3 on 3 volleyball game - the chilenos vs the americans. we won the first game, felt really confident.........then lost the next three. was rather devastating. Matias's friends house was more like a cabin. there was electricity, but no running water, a hole in teh ground for a bathroom, a small kitchen and enough room for 7 beds. the place was great though, and perfect for all of us. we brought a bunch of food with us including a 5 liter bottle of wine. yup, 5 liters, and we had not trouble finishing it. however, i dont recommend it if you want to avoid drama...




Ok, Mom, dont worry about this next part...Last Monday at about 7:00 in the morning, i was awoken by a temblor (a small earthquake). It registered like a 4.6 on the ricter (sp?) scale and was about 60 miles from santiago. I definitely felt it (i think being high in my attack helped that). wasnt really much of anything just rattled the house a little bit but absolutely nothin close to damaged. was the first in my life, kind of exciting, then i went right back to sleep.





If anyone is thinking about going to visit brazil, be prepared to hand over $140 and have to apply for a travelers visa. they kind of like sticking it to us americans because apparently we do the same to them. so i can thank the US government for me having to cough up that money.



It is christmas season down here, although it hardly feels like it. every day it is at least 80 degrees, sometimes flirting with 90. the city and houses are not nearly as decorated as they are in the states, and their are no real christmas trees. it is rather difficult getting the in christmas mood. My plan is to spend christmas eve with my family down here at their grandparents house. all the kids apparently put on a show at midnight and they are trying to rope me into participating cause they are short actors. I think i might get stuck playing a tree...Christmas day all us gringos are going to spend together exchanging gifts, eating cookies, making a nice dinner and watching christmas movies.

finally, as i write this i am packing my stuff to move out of my family's house and into the apartment with the molly, brian, katy, and lauren for the next year. I am definitely ready to make the change. I loved my time with my family and they treated my great. I felt like a college student in their house who could come and go as i pleased, get fed a ton of food, and have no responsibility. i was telling my host parents that this was the first time i have really lived with a family for such an extended period of time since i went off to college. however, i am looking forward to the change, the added independence, not living in an attic and crawling through a 2 x 2 hole, not having kids looking for my attention, and not worrying about losing wash amongst the other 6 people living here.

Mountains and two dates

Ok, I'll get the boring stuff out of the way first. I was told the classes that i will have next year. My normal class load will be 4 classes a day and 3 preps but for about the first two months, i will have 6 classes a day as i will be covering the classes for one teacher that is due to give birth in about a month. Down here is Chile, women are given one months leave prior to the due date and nearly 2 months after without the risk of losing their job for at least one year after the birth. This teacher, she actually left one week ago so i have been covering her classes lately. The first class i covered for her was in a rather large room and all the students were seated in the back of the class when i walked in. I said to them, "what's wrong? do i smell or something?" then i pointed at all the empty seats in front of me. Immediately, nearly ten girls jumped up and occupied those seats closest to me. Teaching down here will be easy...which leads me into my next update...

A date. Yup, i was talking to this woman named Consuelo, yes she was a woman not a girl, at out halloween party for about 25 minutes and that was it. Her friend, who happens to work on my school, saw me about a week later and told me that her friend wanted me to call her (yes, those are the mad skills that i have...25 minute conversation, in spanish, and i get a number). On the phone, she offered to pick me up from my family's house, but i quickly threw that idea aside to avoid the awkwardness that surely would have ensued. We met up at some plaza and got dinner and talked for over 2 hours all in spanish. She asked me how old i was, and i told her, but obviously i refrained from asking her, even though i am dying to know because the running bet is that she is 32 years old. We are actually meeting up tomorrow for sushi but i am completely not interested in anything more than friends. She is really nice, and seems eager to show me around santiago so i feel bad not hanging out every so often (i am such a nice guy).

Two weekends ago, we hiked up the "mountain" Monquehue which the chileans really consider only a hill. we did it on saturday. we made it up these in about 5-6 hours to a view overlooking most of santiago. it was very beautiful but some of the girls struggled with getting up to the peak and climbing back down it. But that was really only practice for this past weekends hike...

This past weekend we hiked up to Punto de Dama. It is named that because there are two peaks shaped liked a woman's...Anyways, 5 of us went, Matias, our guide, myself, tony, jillian and katy. It was a weekend long treck. We all had to carry an overnight hiking backpack with enough food for two days, two tents, warm clothes for the night, sleeping bags, and a few other odds and ends. We hiked up the mountain for nearly 8 hours with breaks almost every hour. We finished much of the water we brought with us and started drinking the water from the streams, which we had planned on doing anyways. We hiked through snow, climbed over rocks and finally made it to the site Matias had aimed for.

The view we had from where we camped was amazing. At night, we could see the entire city of santiago lit up. In the morning we were above the clouds that covered the entire valley below us. However, it was also freezing at night. My sleeping bag was not nearly warm enough, and i was too tall for the tent we used. So my feet we touching the edge of the tent and they froze. I also forgot to bring a hat with me so i wore my underwear on my head to stay warm (and yes they were clean). The next morning we hiked up a bit higher to a point where there was a cross and from there you could see the other mountain ranges around us. Me and Matias also sprinted down the mountain (at least a 45 degree downward slope) to protect our campsite from some other travellers that were passing by it. We literally ran down the mountain in a straight line, meaning not using the trails, using a running strategy where you drag your walking stick behind you and lean all your weight on it while you sprint (kind of like Bear Grills on the Man v. Wild show on the discovery channel). I felt kind of like brave heart running through the mountains...

Afterwards we packed up our stuff, kind of skiied/slid down some snow, took some rediculous picitures, i nailed Katy in the eye with a snow ball, and made it down the mountain by six that sunday evening. Oh and for the most part we only ate tuna mixed with roman noodles, hard-boiled eggs, and some bread. it was awesome.

I went to the Uraguay vs. Chile world cup qualifiying match the other week two. It was electric at the stadium. Chile lost 3-0 on some horrible goals, but the highlight was definitely when the announcer announced the names of the visiting teams line up. After each player's name was announced, the entire stadium, (70,000 people) in unison would shout somethin like "cuncha tu madre" which depending on who you ask, is literally translated as "F___ your mom" or "son of a bitch". it was rediculous.

It has taken me two days to do this post so i should update that i went out with Consuelo again last night for sushi. This one was definitely a date as she was decked out and all. I felt like such a child though because she clearly has several years on me (now the running bet is that she is pushing 34), she picked me up from my house in her car (that was slightly weird for me), her spanish is clearly better than mine so the waiter talked to her and asked her all the questions and passed the bill to her...I am pulling the plug on it. My father down here warned me about those chilean women at that age.

Pictures in the collage: all are from our hike to punto de dama. top left is santiago at night, rediculous pic in the snow, the cross atop the mountain, me and matias making it to the cross, a sunset photo of the hiking group with underwear on my head, our campsite, awesome shot of the girls with santiago in the backgroun, katy about to get hit in the eye with a snowball (you can see the snowball in the photo and she let me throw it at her, she said i could have one free shot as she thinks my aim is bad...silly katy), and us hiking to the cross with santiago in teh background coverd in clouds.

Why didn't I go to ND?

So I got in trouble for the first time at school the other day. Apparently us gringos are too loud in the computer lab at school and the head of the english department gave us a gentle warning of sorts. At least we are living up to the american reputation of being loud and obnoxious.

I have been training much harder for the half marathon. I have recently acquired a trainer. He is one of the track coaches at the school and has been friends with the group that has been here. His name Mateas (sp?). Same age as myself and really cool. He came up to me about two weeks and offered to create a workout plan for me and to kind of be my trainer. Was he implying that I look skinny? Anyways, he is getting me ready for the half marathon right now, and he told me the other day that once that is done, we will change our workout routine and make me mas fuerte. He must really think I need to work out...

Two weekends ago was the Santiago Athletico which is basically the largest track event is Chile for middle and high school students. It was hosted at the national stadium and the main attraction definitely was not the competitors. Every school that was there (roughly 30) was given its own section in the upper levels of the stadium. Each section was completely packed with its students and they all wore their school colors. Stages were set up at the base of each section for each school crowd cheering leaders and they were definitely cheering. The place was nuts and at one point, during the track and field competition, the announcer would come over the loud speaker, announce the name of a school and then that school would break out into some choreographed cheer with props and all. Each school went in turn and then they were judged on their performance. We came in 9th. During the entire day, there were numerous times that the announcer would have to ask the fans (students) to be quiet in order to hear the gun to start the races.

So last weekend was a bit rediculous. It really began on Wednesday of last week which was Halloween. The ND group ahead of us threw a party at the apartment. We all went as characters of Gilligan's island (i was gilligan). We worked in some beer pong and flip cup although the flip cup was a bit dissapointing because these chileans here suck at it. The party didnt even really get started until about 1:00 in the morning with loud music and dancing in the living room and it probably reached its peak at about 4:00. I crashed at about 5:00 and i think everyone left by 6:00ish.

The next day, both ND groups left with our director, Kat, who had flown down from ND, to go on a retreat for four days. We got a large van from the school and drove out about two hours from santiago into the mountains to an area called Cajon del Maipo. We stayed at a refugio there in the valley between several towering mountains. Immediately when we got there we made our way to the hot mineral springs to recover from the previous night's party. The water was amazing and I am pretty sure I gained an extra ten years of life by swimming in it. The food at the refugio was amazing as well.

The next day we had some reflection time in the morning followed by a hike through a picturesk green valley to nearly the base of a glacier. I had my first snow ball fight of the year there, saw wild horses and just soaked in the views. The next day a bunch of us had planned on doing a full day hike into a different mountain but two of the girls didnt want to, nor were they really capable, so we had to accomadate them and all drive (the were either too scared or incapable of driving the stick shift on the rocky roads) to some stupid market about an hour away so they could shop and other stupid stuff. Me and Brian just wandered away to find a soccer game to watch. We were in one of the most beautiful places and we had to leave to go SHOPPING. Anyways, we got a shorter 3 hour hike in up a steep mountain with some difficult, if not dangerous parts. We got up there just in time to see the sunset. That night we had more reflections and sharing around a fire.

So how did we end our retreat? Good question, Kristy. We went to a vineyard. Yup, the last day of our retreat was spent touring a vineyard, drinking some wine, and purchasing a huge 5 liter bottle of wine. The entire retreat, excluding the 5 liter bottle of wine, was payed for by ND. So i feel i am entitled to make the gross generalization that all ND retreats are like that, so I have to wonder, why didnt i go to ND?

To end on a boring note. School has been going well. I am finally receiving some work to do. This past week I had to create a test covering two chapters for all the 10th grade classes and this upcoming week i will be doing some teaching. Last thursday, three of us went to another Holy Cross school to tutuor english. This school serves only poor students and has a great vision. It was amazing to see though the difference in their level of english compared to the english at my normal school, Saint George's. These students hardly knew any english and they were in 8th grade and had been taking it for several years. It is a good school too but I definitely think that this displayed the difference in social classes here. The richer students at Saint George speak exponentially better than these students.

Ok, in the collage, the first two pictures are from the first hike, the third and fourth are views from the refugio, the middle one is from teh mineral baths, the next is from teh second hike, the bottom two on the left are from the vineyard and the last is all of us dressed up for the halloween party.

Beach, Soccer and not Working hard

So, where to begin...my room hasn't gotten any bigger. I still hit my head at least once a day and my right hip has a permanent bruise from sliding on it to exit through my 2 x 2 door.

Two weekends ago, my family here took me to their beach house (really their grandparents beach house). It was in a town named Papudo which is about 2 hours north of Santiago for a three day weekend. The house was a little cottage basically. It was freakin cold there. Every day I walked around in pants and at least a sweatshirt and probably a long-sleeved t-shit underneath. At night we always made a fire and i slept under 5 blankets (they dont really believe in insulation in Chile). Every morning I woke up to some breakfast and then we would walk down to the beach where the fishermen would pull up there boats and we would choose our lunch for the day. Every lunch was amazing and I didnt even know what I was eating half the time.

I watched a couple of the Rugby world cup games with my brother here at a yacht club and he even took me sailing one day on a 'Laiser'. For those that dont know, a Laiser is really small and it can fit two people as long as the second is a midget. So we went sailing out on the freezing water and we lasted no more than 30 minutes and thank God no more. Why? We would have to make these turns out on the water which requires one to move from one side of the boat to the other, duck under the mast that is swinging in your direction and not touch basically anything...all in under 3 seconds. Needless to say, the mast definitely smacked me in head the first time, I definitely did touch the ropes and my brother, Jose, definitely yelled at me numerous times. Nothin like getting yelled at by an 8th grader.

On a different day, my family took me to the town of Zapallar which is one of the most beautiful beach towns I have ever seen. It is basically where all the richest people from Santiago go. There is lots of German architecture as there are lots of German immigrants here, and the water was surrounded by large hills that created rocky coasts and they were covered in huge trees (i only mention that because most of the area north or Santiago is dry with fewer trees).

The father of the house was away all week doing spiritual exercises. His office, which sponsors the Chilean National Soccer team gave him two free tickets to the Chile v. Peru World Cup qualifying match. So with him out of town i got to go in his stead with Jose. Our seats were amazing; ten rows off the field. The experience is hardly like any sporting event in the states, even football,as the crowd was much more into it singing songs and chants without having to be prompted by the loud speakers in the stadium. One of the cheers that broke out was literally 'Stand up and jump, or else you are a f_ckin peruvian (sp?). Needless to say, I stood up and jumped. What Jose explained to me though, was that this match was rather tame compared to the matches between the local club teams. Those are the dangerous ones. For example, the match between Cola Cola and The U. which was played on Sunday, made the news because after the game the fans were going crazy at the local metro stop basically creating a mini riot and jumping ON TOP of the trains. And I tried to go to that game with my friends but we got there late and could not find tickets. Even more, at the end of the games here, the fans of the visiting team, who are already sectioned off in the stadium, are not allowed to leave for at least 20 minutes after the game finishes. This is so that the home team fans can leave and not fight with the visiting team fans. But in reality, the home team fans just wait for the visitors outside the exit of the stadium and fight them.

School has been extremely easy. For the most part I am still just observing the teachers. A few times I have either led or helped lead discussions but they have been few and far between. However, last Friday, one of the full time teachers asked me to cover all of her classes for her while she lesson planned for the following week. Obviously that is not right for her to do since she is being paid to teach her own classes, but turns out she hardly even worked on lesson planning and instead worked on a project she has for her university classes. Other teachers noticed this, and they were pretty pissed. I didn't really mind though, because it was fun teaching.

This past weekend we all hung out with the other ACE group down here at their, and our future, apartment. We caught up on some Grey's Anatomy, which I used to like but now find it stupid, and the season premier of the Office, which was awesome. We all discovered that I apparently give damn good back masages which I discovered is extremely tiring on the thumbs, and we went to a party for some Holy Cross volunteers that are finishing up their time down here. The party lasted til 4 in the morning which is apparently normal according to Chilean standards. I almost found my Chilean princess there, but she turned out to be crazy...

Finally, I began to re-train for a half marathon yesterday after taking 5 weeks off from running due to traveling, my messed up hand, and lack of desire to run. I have been running in the "hills" as the Chileans call them although they are the same size if not bigger than the App. Mountains, and there are amazing views of the city from them.

In the collage the first two are of the soccer game, the third is from Papudo, and the rest are from Zapallar which include a photo of Jose and another with the mother here, two of the other children and the grandparents. And yes, that is a tsunami escape route sign.

Country #2

So we left Ecuador last Sunday. It was sad to leave our family there. The school basically through a party for us on the Friday before we left and alcohol was served at it. Now I only bring this up because it was technically illegal to drink that day, and the next day and actually the next day...it was illegal to drink that entire weekend. Why? because of the elections. Yup, when there are national elections in Ecuador, no one is allowed to drink for the entire weekend in order to ensure the sobriety of an entire nation. That's democracy for ya.

So we left Ecuador on Sunday. I sat next to a guy on the flight from Ecuador who proceeded to tell me about how he does not like to read but the few books that he did read his favorites were the ones written by and about Hitler. Fortunately he got off in Lima. We arrived in Santiago at 1:30 AM and we greeted by the 3 people already down here in Chile as part of the group before us. They will be here for another 3 months.

My new family picked me up that afternoon. We got to the house and i met the father. A very nice man who can speak some spanish. As we got out of the car at our new house they began to joke with me in spanish about how my new room is on the roof of the house. I played along until they took me up to me room, i saw the mother get down in a crouch, open up a 2 x 2 'door' and crawl through. I turned to the sister with a confused look and she motioned to me to crawl through. And so I entered my new bedroom. That is me in the picture in my room.

Yup, every day I crawl through a 2 x 2 door. I have to walk though my new brother's room to get to it which is a bit awkward when he is sleeping. My room is the attic. And in the daytime it is my new mother's office. There is only a very small section in which I am able to stand up straight. I smacked my head about 5 times on the roof the first day. I am not looking forward to the first night I come home after drinking. A concussion is nearly inevitable. The family is great though. They have an 8th grader, 6th grader, 1st grader and a three year old. The oldest speaks pretty good english as well as the father, but he only speaks to me in spanish as he knows i need the practice. Oh, and the family has a house at a ski resort in the Andes about 30 minutes from here and the father has season tickets to one of the big soccer teams down here.

The school I am now working is called St. George's. 2500 students with over 220 teachers. It is a catholic K-12 school. All we have done the past week, and all we will do for the next month and probably more is watch teachers, help out a bit and kind of just get to know the place...not bad.

Me cai de un cabello

(Following this post is my account of the entire Galapagos trip, this post is just about me falling off a horse)

For those who can't translate that title either because you dont know spanish or because I still dont know it and wrote that completely wrong, it means "i fell from a horse."

Yup, i think i have said that phrase about a hundred times in the past 3 days since we returned from a 5 day trip to the galapagos islands (which are amazing by the way, but you can read my blog about that).


one day we went on an excursion up to the top of a volcanoe by horseback. it was about an hour trip to the top and the same back down. each of us was given a horse and for some reason i was given the smallest one. i never learned its name but i referred to it as 'donkey' the entire time as on numberous occasions my feet hit the ground and apparently i looked rediculous atop it.

never did it strike me as a problem that my horse was too small for me, nor the sensations of falling over during our gallops. how was a kid from philly, with only a boy scout merit badge in horseback riding supposed to predict my forthcoming plunge.

the trip to the top of the volcanoe was easy and we were in full gallop numberous times...no problem. The volcanoe was amazing and the sights were rediculous, yada yada yada.

so after lunch we began our trip back down. our guide was apparently impressed with our riding abilities earlier so he instructed us to eat quickly so we could ditch the other people wiht us and gallop the entire way back. 'a great idea, sounds like fun.', i thought

so, on the way down, we galloped, and a lot. in fact my puny little horse had me in the front most of the time. so we were about 3/4's the was down, on a rather wide path at this point and we were in full gallop and i was like, 'oh this is great we are fine, we are fine, we are fine...oh dear god i am falling, i am leaning to the right, now more the right, damn it my horse just made a sharp turn to the left and I am going to the right in mid-air.' BAMN! I hit the ground in some sort of pushup position and as i remember it I made a ninja-like roll and bounced right up to my feet. Lauren, who saw the whole thing said i actually hit the ground and tumbled and rolled all over the ground.

well, after my ninja roll i was on my feet and looked at my right hand which immediately was throbbing and was able to gaize (sp?) INTO my hand. yup, i ripped an inch long gash into the palm of my hand. this was followed by a bit of light-headedness and my guide telling me to get back on my horse. Oh, and i was completely covered in dirt and dust from the ride and ninja roll so i was concerned about any dirt getting into my gash.

So, i got back on that damn donkey of a horse and held on for dear life with my one good hand screaming of few obsenities along the way. I made it back to the trucks, nearly fainted twice, covered my pants in blood and drove back 45 minutes to the little town on the island.

My guide then dropped off my friends who were in the truck with me and we began our search for a doctor. Remember, this is not a city we are in. we are in the galapagos where nature is in charge and there is hardly more than 1500 people in the town. oh, and it was saturday when this happened, which means...the hospital isnt even open!!! so me and my guide drove all over the town searching for one of the 3 doctros there.

Eventually we found one who was this girl, about 30 years old, lying ont he beach in her swimsuit about to go snorkeling...she was on call that day (yes, in ecuador you can go snorkling while you are on call at the hospital). so after washing off she took me into the hospital which was really a clinic. there i found out that she actually was a med-student and not a full fledged doctor. this is not exactly what i was hoping to hear at the time. Well, to compound my fears, i was very aware of the fact that i had basically nothin left in my bank accound, did not have a credit card and wasnt even sure how well my insurance worked.

well, to wrap this up, the 'doctor' did a great job and she was really cool. i ended up with 3 stitches, found out that i barely missed severing a tendon which wouldve required an immediate flight back to the main land for surgery, and only had to pay $14 (the price of stitching, gauze, antibiotics, ibuprofen and cleaning stuff). the service was free, no co-pay, and to top it off, the hotel paid me back because they felt bad for me.

so, today, five days later, my hand is still swollen although it is getting better, the stitches look fine, and this email was a bit difficult to right so dont complain about the grammar mistakes. oh, and the first thing i get to do when i get to chile this monday is go to the hospital to get my stitches removed.

so, i highly recommend anyone to go to the galapagos and even do the horseback riding trip, but if you run into a tannish donkey-horse, please, please kick that thing as hard as you can.

Galapagos Islands and a freakin horse

(this is my account of the entire Galapagos trip)
So after carefully researching the best, and more importantly, cheapest way to do the Galapagos, we were off to what was one of the most amazing places I have ever been to for 5 days. We had chosen to do it through a travel agency that set us up in a hotel for 4 nights, with all the meals included and excursions on the island of Isabella every day. Did we care that we were going to miss 4 days of spanish classes that we already paid for? No! Notre Dame paid for those for us.

So we flew out on Thursday and landed on the island Santa Cruz, the only island fitted for normal sized planes. Turns out, the airport was actually constructed by the US military during WWII and used as a base to detect Japanese movements in the South Pacific and to protect the Panama Canal. The first of the 5 nights we were on our own and had to find a hostal and food ourselves on the island of Santa Cruz. Once we got into the city the girls in our group forced me and Brian to check various Hostals for the best price and best rooms like we were shopping for sweaters or something. As we were checking out one hostal that was $12 per person, a woman began flashing signals at me from around a corner indicating that her hostal was only $10. She literally kept peaking her head around a corner, sticking out both hands and all ten fingers until i finally figured out what she was doing. To make it even better, she was friends with the owner of the hostal she was trying to steal us away from. Anyways, we spent the rest of that day walking along an amazing beach, encountering large lizards, more blue footed boobies, and mantarays in the water.

Day 2 we got up rediculously early because the girls said so (they definitely are in charge of our little group). We went to the Darwin Institute thing where they hatch and grow hundreds of giant tortoises. We also met 'Lonely George.' He is the last giant tortoise of his particular species on the planet and he is 90 years old, which is only half the life span of a tortoise. They have him in little area with two female tortoises of a similar species in order to procreate, but the three of them have been together for 25 years and George has not put any moves on them yet. He just has to have one magical night with a willing female for the sake of his species and yet he wont do it...

That afternoon, after swimming in a beautiful estuary, we took a 3 hour water taxi ride to the Island of Isabella which is where we would spend the next five days. The boat was not much bigger than a taxi on the streets, they managed to cram 20 people into it and I got stuck in a corner for the first hour until they noticed that the 20 foot swells on the ocean had me on the verge of vomiting.

Day 3 was by far the most exciting for many different reasons. We took an excursion to the top of a volcanoe via horseback. The horseback ride on the way up was a lot of fun as we were able to gallop numberous times with our horses. My horse was rather small for me though, and i referred to it as Donkey the entire time. Apparently he didnt like that and he got his revenge later. The volcanoe was amazing - the crater is 6 miles across, the second largest in the world. We hiked through dried lava fields and climbed through lava tunnels. Afterwards we ate lunch and began the rather unfortunate horseback ride back down the volcanoe (I have included a detailed account of what happened on this ride back and my trip to the hospital in the post above this one). To make a long story short though, i was thrown from my horse, and had to get three stitches on the palm of my right hand.

Day 4 and 5 included more hikes around the island, two snorkling trips that were made difficult by the fact that i was not allowed to get my stitched hand wet...hence the picture with the brown plastic bag on my hand. And you can also imagine how difficult it is to snorkle while having to keep one hand out of the water and in the air like a shark.

All in all the islands were amazing with crystal clear water, wild life every where, beautiful beaches, and free medical services (insurance is overrated there).

The Coast

A typical day at the coast...get up at 7:00 and go for a run on the beach, get back in time for breakfast to be served to me, have 4 hours of spanish classes, go to a basically deserted beach with clear water and mountains in the background, get back in time for dinner, and then chill in our private rooms/mini houses where we built a fire everynight. And that is what we basically did for 5 days. I would easily go back to this lodge, it was amazing. Right on the beach, private mini houses, great food, ping pong and billiards, and sleeping with a fire.

On the last day our guide (we had a guide every day that took us to various places) took us to a park with sulfur pools. Me and Brian didn't hesistate at all to try them out despite the stench coming from them. The water was amazing, and we covered ourselves in its mud on the side. We were told we were 10 years younger after it, and our skin felt amazing. The girls stayed away from us afterwards and made us travel back in the back of the pickup as we stunk...then they forced us to shower before our 10 hour busride back to Quito.

I saw a huge beached and dead seal on the beach too, being eaten by about 100 vultures.

We also took a trip to an island nearby where we saw whales on the way and some seaturtles. We hiked the island and encountered Blue Footed Boobies (a type of bird) and snorkled off its coast.

The pictures include some scenic shots of the coast, a whale, a seaturtle, picture from the boatride, some hammerhead sharks, and swimming in the sulfur pool.

The Jungle

So as if things couldn't get more difficult for us, we were able to spend a week in the jungle here in Ecuador all expenses paid. We spent half the week at a lodge/campsite/i dont really know what to call it, that did not have electricity. The first thing we did when we got there was learn about all the medicinal plants which from the limited spanish I was able to understand seem to only make you high, or more sexually active. We also learned that if a certain snake bites you, you need to sleep with the first woman you can find to cure yourself.

Everyday we had class in the morning for about 4 hours and then in the afternoons we would go on excursions. The excursions included hiking to a pool of water beneath a waterfall for swimming, canyoning UP a mountain (canyoning is basically hiking through a running stream with waterfalls that you need to climb up using various climbing techniques and ropes), tubing down a river, visiting an indigenous community, and swinging on vines like Tarzan. I felt like Bear Grills from Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel.

As I mentioned before, there was no electricity at the first site, so every night, when it got dark around 7:00 we had to use candlelight...we all forgot to bring flashlights.

One of the scariest moments occurred at the first site...We were leaving to drive to the second site, but the cars had to park about a quarter mile away, and we had to hike through the jungle to get to them in complete darkness with candles and the glow of our ipods. Well, i had forgotten my boots and realized this about halfway through our hike. So, stupidly, I decided to go back and get them alone and only by candlelight. I could hardly see anything, had a huge backpack on, and had a 10 minutes hike ahead of me through the jungle. If I tripped or a gust of wind blew by, I would have been completely blind. I have never prayed so many hail mary's at one time in my life and been covered in so much sweat. Somehow I managed to get back and I got those damn boots, and I forced the first person I found to hike to the cars with me with their flashlight.

The second site was much of the same except the lodge was amazing. It had electricity, a bar, a rediculous view of the jungle, great food and we didnt need a mosquito net. I would easily go back there even for something like a honey moon.

Oh, and up until the jungle I had had a cough for the previous 4 weeks. The guide on one of our hikes through the jungle noticed this, so how do you cure? You eat live larva. It tasted like butterscotch actually although it was a but crunchy. More importantly my cough was gone within two days. They need to teach that in med school.

The pictures above include some of the views from the second lodge, hikes through the jungle, eating larva, and pictures of our lodges.

First few weeks in Quito

In the future I won't breeze through everything as quickly as I am about to do, but I need to do some catching up.

Ok, We got to Quito and were picked up by our host mom, Rosa. We spent the first weekend in a rather nice hostal before we officially moved in with our host families. Lauren, Molly and myself all live with Rosa, while Brian and Katy live with another family.

I can sum up our first few weeks in Quito with hitting up a few sites in the Old Town area, riding up the Teleferico which takes you to the top of the mountain next to Quito (the bottom two pictures on the left are from there), seeing two soccer games the first being between Ecuador and Bolivia and the second between two club teams here, hanging out a lot in Mariscol which is the gringo area in Quito, and dancing a lot.

Quito itself is a rather large city, about 2 million people. Surprisingly, it is rather chilly here. It is always between 50 - 70 degrees. I am probably the tallest person here, which has made me consider obtaining a visa so I can join the olympic basketball team.

My spanish is coming along slowly. Me and Katy have class together as we are far behind the others in the group in terms of spanish speaking. We have class for 6 hours a day which is rather draining and has nearly led the two of us to want to kill the other at some points.

I have also spent more time in internet cafes than I can count, fortunately it is somewhat cheap. Oh, and I found a bar that shows NFL games and have already spent two sundays glued to the TV and my computer checking my fantasy football scores.

Chicago

So I left Notre Dame to go back to Chicago for a few days (our flight wasn't until the following Saturday). I arrived in Chicago to the open arms of Jon Halbach who nursed me back to health, kind of, with a chipotle burrito (clearly med school is paying off for him).

My love for Notre Dame grew as we were told by our director that we can purchase two seperate things as a group and just send them the receipt to get reimbursed. So we took full advantage of that and bought the best tickets we could at a 'Wicked' show and also purchased a room at a hotel the night before we flew out of Chicago where racked up pretty much the largest tab we could there as we ordered the most expensive meals at the hotel restaurant. In total, we sent Notre Dame two receipts that combined to be over $900. Oh and the priest that created this Chile program, Fr. Sculley, got us free tickets to a cubs game with box seats (the second picture was our view). In gratitude, every drink we have now we cheers to Fr. Sculley.

Otherwise, the rest of the week in Chicago was spent throwing a football with Jon, seeing other Chicago people like Madl, Anne and Molly, chillin at the beach, and having a reunion of sorts with a few faculty members from Seton for less than fortunate reasons. I really do miss everyone from Seton, and it has been great hearing from a bunch of my students and collegues (sp?).

The first picture is our group. From left to right we have Brian, Molly, Lauren, Katy and the stud of the group.

Notre Dame

So the first two weeks of this adventure were spent at Notre Dame taking classes to learn how to teach English to English language learners...ELL's. Not sure how much I actually learned as I basically spent the entire two weeks either recovering from a stomach flu, a bad reaction to medication, two ear infections, or just the worst hangover of my life.

I probably met nearly 100 different people during my time there, many of them over a few beers and loud music at the Backer (johnny k's of Notre Dame). In fact that is where I met two of my future chilean people for the first time.

I did learn a lot about my future roomates. All of them, outside of Lauren, are accomplished more athletically than a few D-3 intramural championships, they like to run, and they definitely like to dance.

Hands down, my favorite classroom moment was when me and Brian gave a presentation on one of the chapters using Malibu as our inspiration. Did we get an A for it....probably not but the expressions on all the old ladies' faces, especially the nun, made it all worth it. oh yeah, and we incorporated this video into our presentation. I dare anyone to do the same.

I left Notre Dame with some more knowledge of how to teach english considering I had none to begin with, a greater appreciation for ND and the Backer, more hours logged dancing in two weeks than the entire previous 2 years combined, and still some sort of stomach flu.

And so it begins...

"A man practices the art of adventure when he heroically faces up to life; When he has the daring to open doors to new experiences and to step boldly forth to explore strange horizons. When he is unafraid of newideas, new theories and new philosophies. When he has the curiosity to experiment--to test and try new ways of living and thinking. When he has the flexibility to adjust and adapt himself to the changing patterns of life. When he refuses to seek safe places and easy tasks and has, instead, the courage to wrestle with the toughest problems. When he has the moral stamina to be steadfast in the support of those men in whom he has faith and those causes in which he believes. When he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints. When he has the nerve to move out of life's shallows and venture forth into the deep. When he keeps his heart young, his expectations high and never allows his dreams to die. When he concludes that a rut is only another name for the grave and that the only way to stay out of the ruts is by living adventurously and staying vitally alive every day of his life." Wilfred Peterson