Futbol Argentina

We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina this morning. We left Lautaro Friday morning, stayed one night in Neuquen, and then made the overnight bus ride to Argentina´s capitol.

I found Mass at the Cathedral in Plaza del Mayo. We walked around with a guy and gal from Holland, and even ended up rooming with them at the hostel.

I went to a professional futbol game across town, then we went to dinner. Now I¨m in the common area trying to figure out this South American keyboard and ignore the TV...

Anyway, Nicole, Gene and I are safe and enjoying the warm weather. We¨ll be going to Uruguay later this week. I¨ll be home in time for Mt. Angel{s Oktoberfest! Take care everyone!

Chao!

Starting my second week

I'm still in Lautaro. Yesterday I sat in on Gene's English classes, and today I went to school with Nicole. I'm sorting through photos and video from my evening in Mexico City, and my few days in Santiago. So far the video has not cooperated, but I have put a few of the photos on facebook. Internet is slow.

I have started thinking in Spanish. Nicole woke me up this morning at 6:40, and the first thing through my head was "Hace FRIO hoy! Quiero dormir..." Then it took me a second to figure out what my mind had said. I decided I was right...

At the end of this week, Nicole, Gene and I are planning a little trip to Argentina. Then it's back to Santiago, a flight to Mexico City, 17-hour layover, and home in time for Mount Angel's Oktoberfest in Oregon.

I hope you all are doing well.

Bienvenidos a Lautaro, Chile!

I'm in Lautaro, living with the los Torres. Hernan and Deisi live with their son Pablo, daughter Nico, a 16-year-old German exchange student, Marje, my sister Nicole and bro-in-law Gene. Pablo's girlfriend, Barbara stays over on the weekends, but lives in Temuco.


Now I'm sleeping on their living room floor.


I arrived by bus at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Lautaro has about 33,000 people, and is about 30 miles north of Temuco, which has about 240,000. The bus stop was a bench along the highway next to a sign that read "Lautaro."

The last time I talked to Nicole and Gene, they were going to meet me there at 11:30, but that was three hours ago, and fog and darkness kept me from seeing anything, so I got out my sleeping bag to settle in for the night. Then I heard someone calling my name in Spanish: "ha-Coab, ha-Coab."



It ended up being Gene and Hernan, so they brought me home.


Lautaro is a nice place. Small town South America, but it has a couple schools, a couple Catholic churches, a river and a small zoo with a cougar and some funny-looking ponies. The Torres' are great people, letting Nicole, Gene and I stay here for free. We joke that all the gringos in Lautaro are in this house, and we outnumber the Chileans in the family. It's not far from the truth... but we speak Spanish in the house, and I'm learning the customs, like greeting women with a kiss on the cheek, and men with a handshake, no matter what else is going on. When you leave, you say "Chao, no mas."


It is definitely still winter in southern Chile. I have been cold most of the time here, but I'm learning how many layers to wear, and what rooms in the house actually stay warm from the wood stove.


Last night Barbara, Nicole, Nico and I played nerts (a card game my family learned from Amelia). I was winning right up until the end, but Nico took the gold. This morning I went to Mass with Hernan and his mother. Chilean Spanish is difficult to understand, but I feel like I'm picking it up. Nicole, Gene, and I are considering spending a week or so in Argentina. We would be leaving as early as Friday, so I will spend most of this week probably hanging out with Nicole in her English classes. She teaches about 6 classes every day, with new students every hour all week long. She and Gene are here so the students can learn the American accent, but with one hour a week, the students don't pick up much, so I hear.


That's all for now. I'm still working on the videos and photos, but they'll be up when they're up.

My 25th Hour

I'm at a hostel in Santiago, Chile. Local time is 9 a.m. That's 6 a.m. in Washington, 5 a.m. in Alaska. It's my 25th hour in South America.

I left Seattle Tuesday morning, and arrived in Mexico City at about 5 p.m. I bought a map from the airport and walked to the metro. A fairly well-dressed man asked me where I was going, I told him I wasn't sure, and I only had 3 hours until my flight left for Santiago, so he told me which line to take and where to change trains to get to the central part of the city.

I followed his advice, metro tickets were less than $1, and good one-way. So I walked around part of downtown and saw the Catedral Metropolitan and some other shops. It was dark by the time I headed back, but I made it. Even bought some dinner and a little case for my new camera from a few different shops in the market...

***

I'm in Chile to visit my sister, Nicole, and brother-in-law Gene. They have been working in a school north of Temuco for the past few months, and I decided to pay them a visit when I left Alaska, so here I am. Estoy aqui.

The international flight from Mexico had individual TV screens and a selection of movies, music and TV shows in English, Spanish and Portugeuse. I watched Blood Diamond, but then crashed for a few hours.... I mean I went to sleep. Probably bad to say "crashed" as something I did on an airplane...

I forgot to declare a bag of trail mix that I was carrying in my bag when I went through Chilean customs, so it cost me an hour in line, and 36-thousand pesos! Well, it's only about $80 USD, and it was the minimum fine, but still not a good way to enter South America.

I have been getting along fine with the Spanish I know, and picking up some extra words. I'm staying at Hostel Chile, near downtown, so yesterday I walked around, went to a fine arts museum, saw a half-dozen churches, and climbed a hill nearby that has a great view of almost the whole city.

The Andes surround Santiago, and their snowy peaks look like distant clouds at first glance, they're so high. It's pretty foggy/smoggy here, but not that bad unless you're trying to see long distances. From the top of the hill, city seems to just disappear into the mist eventually.

I met two girls from Winnepeg here at the hostel, and we talked last night and watched An Officer and a Gentleman in the common area, then I drank wine with two other girls from Finland. They are visiting two friends from their country who are studying here on exchange, so their friends came over and we talked for a while, then went out dancing at a club a couple blocks away. (come on, I need the 'holistic'view of Santiago, right?) I tried Pisco before we left, which to me tastes something like tequila, but smoother. It mixes great with Coke for a Piscola...

So far my stomach has not failed me. We shall see.

One of the men who works at the hostel in from Ghana. He says he has been working here for one year, and wants to work one more. I'm sleeping in a common room with one other man. He is from Australia, but I forget his name...

I've been concentrating so much on speaking the language and finding my way around, that I have become horrible at remembering names, or anything else for that matter. One girl from Winnepeg is named Megan, but that's all I can recall. The Finnish girls tried to teach me to say "Hello" in their language, but I forgot it 5 times already...

One of the Chilean guys we were with was telling us stories of his trip to Colombia. It seems a little crazy: he said they sell marijuana and cocaine in the liquor stores. I'm not sure what the prices are like in the US, but he said it was about $4/gram for cocaine. (He also assured us that he didn't use cocaine.)

He did use the marijuana, and said that the police stopped him when he was trying to enter a national park. They found the 50 cigarettes he was carrying and insisted that he intended to sell them. There were five cops, and it cost him something like $80 to get through without being arrested... great South American police work, $20 each.

Hostels are interesting places.

On the way to the club I was talking to a guy from France who has been studying here for one year and wants to start working. He said most people get jobs by having a friend at the place they work. I explained the word "nepotism" in English. My Spanish must not be that bad because he was surprised when I told him it was my first day in South America.

***

I have been able to figure out the phones here, after some confusion, so I got ahold of Nicole and told her I'm staying in Santiago one more day before I take the bus down to stay with them. There are still a couple of things I'd like to see.

It's cold here. I'm wearing two sets of fleece at night, and one during the day. I'm shivering now, but it's still nicer than Nome, I have to say. :)

Alright, I've been writing for a half-hour, and this is too much English. It will throw me off, so I'll leave it here and get back to my walking and sightseeing. I bought a new camera before I came, so pictures and video will be forthcoming. Adios, cachay!