Ben Traveling around the World: Trade in your striped shirts for plaid flannels

Warning: This entry contains many hyperlinks.
After the Super Bowl weekend in Chicago and Madison hanging out at bars and restaurants frequented by young professionals, I traveled up to Camp Manito-wish located in the beautiful Northern Wisconsin. The short ~seven hour drive brought about a completely different culture. In Chicago, we had a “striped shirt count” poking fun at the over abundance of striped shirts at one bar and stopped keeping track when we got into the thirties. On the contrary, when I got up to Minocqua, WI, I didn’t see any striped shirts, but instead was greeted with flannels and arctic cat jackets. I knew I arrived to the Northwoods when I had to wait at the filling station for snowmobiles to gas up before I could fill my car. I am a member of both cultures owning both striped shirts and flannels. I’m not sure I’ll be picking up any arctic cat jackets in the near future, but you never know.
Back in Manitowoc. Yesterday I drove back home after spending the week at Camp Manito-wish with Jay and Brooke. Wednesday and Thursday Brooke’s family came up and I got a chance to know them better, and put faces and personalities to the names that I’ve been hearing for years. It was really fun playing with Mika (Jay and Brook’s puppy) throughout the week. I finally got some good use out of my cross country skis I purchased at the Ski and Snowboard Resale, going out for a couple hours every day. Friday night we opened up the climbing wall and most of the Vater family scaled the wall, even “Grandpa” (Brooke’s dad).
Last night I went to Chewy’s (I guess you could call it a sport’s bar) in Manitowoc to watch the Badger basketball game. Even though we lost the game all was not lost. There was also a NASCAR race concluding during the Badger game and one estactic patron made my night. When Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Budweiser Shootout, this guy who had been intently watching the series of left turns on the NASCAR TV was thrilled. During the climatic last series of left turns he shouted, “Come own! Hug that liine!” and when he crossed the finish line in front of the other cars, he proclaimed “Ain’t dat sweet!!” as he smacked his palm on the bar, turned to his girlfriend as asked her, “Honey, does get any better than that?!” Quite possibly the best part was that he went in for the high five and she completely ignored his request for the high five. He then went on to call his friends and repeat the above lines. Every time I got to a bar in Manitowoc, I feel as if people are trying to entertain me.
As far as my Chilean visa progress goes, I could be doing better. On Friday after talking with both the FBI offices and the Chilean consulate office I realized I applied for the wrong kind of FBI Background check, and am now going to be doing some last second preparations. For those of you keeping track, I have been going through the visa application process since December 4th when I got my HIV test completed in Madison. Overall it has been frustrating not only because of my mistakes, but because I thought I had everything taken care of, twice now, and it looks like I will schedule an appointment to go to the Chilean Consulate office in Chicago for February 22, and depart from Chicago O’Hare February 24th. Let’s hope I get my (correct) FBI background check in time for my appointment. Otherwise it’s plan B, which is still being formulated.
Another great story: When I was packing before my visit up to Camp, my new macbook(purchased for travel and teaching) slipped off the corner of my bed with my passport external hard drive resting on the keyboard and when the screen closed on itself, the screen suffered. It got two cracks on the screen and my computer is currently being shipped to get repaired, hopefully with some kind of warranty coverage. Not to be outdone by Jay and Brooke’s blog, I’ll post some pictures of Mika.