Ben Traveling around the World

Back home, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

2009-09-29T20:59:00.003-04:00

My last few days were spent in Santiago catching up with friends and celebrating various "going away" parties. Yesterday afternoon, Juan Pablo and Stephanie picked me up and we got to the airport with plenty of time to relax. We enjoyed a very typical Chilean dish of cheesecake at a restaurant, and then we went on our way.

(Amigos before I went through customs)

My flights were smooth with plenty of room, and my luggage arrived at the same time as me. Now it's back to life in the USA.

I uploaded my pictures onto a web album for your viewing pleasure. Pictures from September.

Mendoza, Argentina

2009-09-25T14:25:00.013-04:00

After deciding that I really liked hiking around in the mountains, I went to Mendoza, Argentina for my final week of traveling. It´s about 7 hours east of Santiago and has a lot to offer. It´s the main wine region, and has a wonderful park to head up to. I got in Monday evening at Hostel Lao and talked with some folks to see what they have been up do. I gathered that a lot of people do some sort of wine tour so I decided to add some things I like to do and make it a day. I like to bike, enjoy beautiful scenery, meet new people, and sample fine wines.
The view of one of the vineyards.
The wine cellar at Altavista.

Tuesday was spent biking around to vineyards and sampling incredible wines. Then Wednesday I took off at 6:00am to get up to Parque Acongaua. It´s more or less a four hour bus ride.
Enjoying the scenary up in the mountains.

But once I got up there it was wonderful. I was walking around in the valley all by myself for half a day. I got some great views of Mt. Acongaua, the highest peak outside of the Himalayas. Mt. Acongaua´s peak rises 22841 feet into the Argentinian sky. Also, I got a chance to see Puente del Inca, which is a natural bridge which was used by the Incan indians to cross the river.
Puente del Inca

I´m glad I got to see it after hiking all day, because it´s really only a 10 minute trip.
The central plaza in Mendoza in the late afternoon.

I got back to Santiago Friday morning, and have been hanging out with friends since then. Today, Sunday, we had a going away lunch and tomorrow I´m going to take care of some things and get to the airport in the afternoon for my flight back to Milwaukee.

Festias Patrias (September 17th - 20th)

2009-09-24T14:30:00.006-04:00

I timed by arrival to Santiago perfectly with the Fiestas Patrias, or the Chilean Independence Day celebrations. I got in Thursday (9-17) morning, and we went up to Cerro San Cristobal for an asado with some friends of Brooke and Chelsea. Then I went to my old apartment to celebrate. Then on the 18th, I went over to my old place to hang out with them and got a chance to hold Maria José´s 12 day old baby. That night, after "lunch" at 5:30, I went to a Fonda with Juan Pablo.

(Fonda Inés De Suárez on 18-Sept)
Fondas are a traditional part of Fiestas Patrias, where the cueca is danced, food is sold and people go to have a good time.

(Traditional music)
The next day was spent relaxing at Brooke´s house where we made a nice meal and invited some friends over. On Sunday, Juan Pablo, Stephanie, Brooke and I went to Pirque where I went last year with him, and had a huge asado(bbq). Jaun Pablo cooked enough meat that we had lunch, sat around, went for a walk and then had dinner with the same meat.

(Our asado on Sunday. This picture has everything but the steak, lamb and potatoes that went on later)

(The view from the asado place. It was a great place to spend Sunday)

It was a great weekend filled with wine, meat and laughs. It was great to spend a weekend with friends and "family." After that weekend, I was ready to head out and get some exercise and see some new areas again. Monday morning I took off for Mendoza, Argentina.

El Bolsón, Argentina

2009-09-18T13:30:00.012-04:00

I got into El Bolsón around 2:30pm on September 15th and got picked up by the Casa del Viejero hostel owner, and he told me about a hike I could do right from his backyard up to a waterfall, then up around a ridge where you can see the mountains. The city, and surrounding area is gorgeous. It's situated between two steep mountain ranges, and I can see why it was a popular place for people to migrate to in the 70's.

The town is about 18,000 people and is situated right along the Quemquemtreu River.

The waterfalls I got to after climbing around some steep sides of the river.

Views from behind the ridge near the town.

The people in my little cabin were really great and we kind of formed a little family of travelers. There was a Australian teacher who was taking a year off to travel, and a french couple. We all would do are own things during the day and talk about our day's adventures at night.

The next day I woke up to temperatures below freezing, with all my clothing on and still feeling a chill, but happy about the clear skies and anticipation of a good hike. "There was ice on the bird bath" by grandpa would have noted. The Aussie lady who had been in El Bolón for about a week reccomended the hike I was about to do. It was a beautiful day and by far the most enjoyable outdoor expereince I had on my travels so far. I got a taxi out to the "trail head." It was more like a long driveway that went to a shady bridge that led to a trail head. I hiked up for about four hours and stopped by the River Azul for lunch. I waited a few minutes for the sun to come up over the trees to warm me up, and as I sat eating I realized the pool of water next to me still had ice on it from the night before. What a great hike.

Early morning river crossing.

Walking in the woods.

I couldn't complain about the scenery.

Lunch break in the valley, about 600 meters up.

The view on the way back home.

Now I'm back in Santiago, and have been enjoying the celebrations.

Bariloche, Argentina

2009-09-18T12:49:00.012-04:00

I made it to Bariloche, Argentina on September 12th, smoothly after spending a night in Puerto Varas, Chile. The trip across the country was beautiful with snow capped mountains and clear, blue lakes dotting the country side. Then once I got into Bariloche, I found my hostel, 1004, which I later found out is in fact in Lonely Planet, but I still felt lucky to have been recommended to that hostel. The views were great, and the people all seemed to have a similar traveling mindset.

View from my hostel, 1004.

I got along with the other travelers and was relieved to find more people also doing what I was doing. The first afternoon I walked around the town and did the usual; atm, groceries, check out the sunset. Then the next day, I took off early in the morning to do a walk that usually has great vies of the mountains. It was a little foggy/rainy so I didn't get spectacular views, only great ones.

Views from my morning outing.

The forest I walked through.

Then I got back to the hostel a little after lunch time and hung out in the city and in the common room at the hostel.

View looking down at the city from 1004's patio.

Then the next day I couldn't decide whether or not to go to cerro campanario early and then go to El Bolsón because it was kind of cloudy. After talking with some people, I decided I might as well go there while I'm here, and even if it's cloudy, it will be fun to hike up a little mountain. I was told the views are amazing, and everyone was right.

From the cumbre(summit) of Cerro Campanario.

Being a small town boy from a Wisconsin, anytime I get a chance to do some hiking and check out snow capped mountains, I'm happy. I'm really glad I went up and got the advice from another traveler to just hike up instead of taking a chairlift up. I left Bariloche headed to El Bolsón on September 15th.

One last view from the hostel patio.

Chiloé

2009-09-13T13:03:00.012-04:00

This was the view out of my window getting into Chiloé.

Here´s where I stayed in Castro. My hostel was the one on the far right.

Hostel is the one with the orange/tan sidings.

Once in the park I had my buddy "Perrito" exploring with me.

View of Parque Nacional de Chiloé

Early morning fishing. It was quite misty that morning, so this is actually what it looked like.

Use a self timer, a tripod, and a bridge to take a picture. Done.

A nice lake looking out towards the south inside the park.

I got down to Chiloé just fine and found my hostel to be wonderful. The owner was nice and helped me get on my way to Parque Nacional de Chiloé. That´s where I after I spent a night in the hostel. Ends up the only other people using this hostel were on business, but it was still fun because we watched the Brasil-Chile soccer game in the hostel. It was quite the experience getting very excited at the possibility of beating number one Brasil, away, but they prevailed. The next morning, I took off to the park. The park was beautiful, and provided me with some great views, and peace. I was the only person out there, and at times thought I may have been trespassing, but I didn´t get in trouble, so it´s fine.

That night I went out to eat to get some salmon since that is where a large amount of the world´s salmon is harvested. My hostel owner suggested a new restaurant that his friend started up, so I treated myself to a nice meal of Salmon, Chiloé´s potatoes, and a glass of red wine. This started the most exciting time of my travels so far. I met a guy who lived in Santiago who was looking to start a hotel and hostel in Chiloé. We ended up eating together and he invited me to have a co sour.

My weekly nice meal.

Then he offered me a ride to Puerto Montt, which is a 4 hour ride, so I accepted thinking, "why not?" We talked the whole way up and we had some good conversations about everything. Then he dropped me off about 15 km from Puerto Montt because he had to go to the airport. Not two minutes later a guy drove up in a pick-up truck and offered me a ride to the city outskirts. He was an indigenous man who was full of energy and spirit. We laughed and had a good time during our 15 minute ride. From there I caught a local bus to Puerto Varas and was able to finally see the Volcano.
Volcano Orsono peaking out behind the clouds for little while in Puerto Varas.

That night, I finally met another traveler, kind of. His name is Gé (pronounced like a mix of Shay, and Jay). He runs a hostel called Ulaa Patagonia. We talked in the hostel, had some more good seafood and a couple drinks. Once again, this guy had a lot of great stories and experiences. He recommended me to a hostel in Bariloche called 1004. It´s as good as they make it sound on the website. It´s new and isn´t in guide books yet, so I feel lucky to have found in. He also talked up a city two hours south of Bariloche quite a bit, so I think I´m heading that way. I´ll fill you all in about Bariloche in a bit. I´ve been writing for too long. Chau.

A tour around Puerto Varas

2009-09-08T19:44:00.008-04:00

View of Lago Llanquihue on our way up the Volcan. It looks like the weather might hold.

..but, it decided to get cloudy right as we arrived, so we decided against going up the volcan , and I´ve been in misty conditions before.

I found some snow though.

And Frosty, so it was fine. After taking the picture of a couple from Uruguay in front of this snowman that beckoned me to get my picture taken with it, I obliged.

After our volcan experience, we went back down to Laguna Verde (green lagoon). It has a green color to it because there are some hot springs underneath the water. This slightly warmer temperature allows the microscopic organisms to live and gives it this green color.

This wasn´t quite the showstopper like a vocan, or a flood staged waterfall, but it was very interesting to see, and walk around it. The lagoon wasn´t too big and it´s entrance to the bigger lake looked cool, like un-mixed Kool-aid.

Today started off great with sunny skies with only a few clouds to the west. As we drove over towards the Vocan Osorno, our guide/hostel owner satisfied my thirst for whatever question popped into my head. It was great having someone there because there were a lot of questions I had about everything, what is the main product of the area(cheese and meat), any fruit (apples and some berries, who lives in that house(some Americans have a huge house that is a mansion), what happened there(the road washed out, as it does every year when the snow melts on the volcan), why are there so many Germans here(they settled here when Germany´s economy wasn´t too hot in the 1800´s, and they stayed) and many more.

Even though the clouds didn´t lift, I felt like I had a true Lake District experience with the misty rain and clouds, intermixed with some sun.

After our tour, I spent some time planning out my next few days. I´ll be in Chiloé tomorrow, in the town of Castro for two nights, then I´ll head back through Puerto Varas on my way over to Bariloche, Argentina. I´ll spend four nights there, which I´ve heard people have been known to spend longer than they planned, and arrive back in Santiago before the 18-Sept festivities.
That´s all for now, see you later.

Back in Chile

2009-09-07T21:26:00.006-04:00

After a 13 hour bus ride, I arrived in Puerto Varas quite by accident and found the day to be a great day. When I woke up from a long night on an overnight bus, I assumed we were at Puerto Montt where I realized I would have to get back on a bus for another 20 minutes to Puerto Varas. I sheepishly asked the lady at the turbus window when the next bus to Puerto Varas left. She looked at me, trying to decide if she understood this foreigner asking when the next bus to the city he just arrived to left, and said, "you´re in Puerto Varas." So, that worked out well, and could have been a lot worse.

I got to the hostel and explained why I arrived early, and the hostel owner told me I should take advantage of the nice weather and check out some sights. So instead of showering and napping, I took off on an afternoon adventure.

The clouds cleared that had been plaguing my during my time in Santiago, and they finally burned off down here. There had been rain for the last week or so and there was evidence of this on the road to Lago Todos los Santos. There were huge washout spots on the road. But luckily enough for me, the sun shone on Puerto Varas today and I had a nice afternoon hiking around. I arrived at Lago Todos los Santos in the city of Pertohué, and walked up a ways to get a good view of both the volcano and the lake. Then I walked down, caught a bus to "Saltos de Petrohue" where there were some incredible waterfalls to be seen. Then I got home, tired and hungry, and made a reservation to get to the top of Volcan Osorno tomorrow.

The all saints lake (Lago Todos los Santos)

Volcan Osorno, from a distance. That´s what I´m hoping to get to the top of tomorrow. I think I get to use a chairlift though.

Saltos de Petrohue. I already have the "I guess I´ll take a self-pic, this is weird smile down, after only one day traveling solo.

I was thinking going down river left, then eddying out river right.

My time in Santiago was incredible, but now it´s time for another adventure, with ealier nights, less asados(bbqs), chicha(local fermented drink during their Independence Day), smog, and more mountains and lakes. The weather has been very September-y for Chile, with cool/cold days with a lot of misty rain. But I got two nice days so far in the five days I´ve been here. I met a girl from Ireland here and we´re going to get a ride up to the top of the Volcano tomorrow. It should be fun, hopefully it won´t rain/snow.

2009-05-13T19:00:00.007-04:00

It's already half way through May, and I know before I know it, I'll be saying, "it's already September." The last few months flew by. I spent the majority of my weeks on the road doing some sort of recruitment work for camp, and also taking some time to enjoy the spring, as it slowly arrived in northern Wisconsin. I got my Wilderness First Responder certification in March, which supplied some great knowledge of what to do in emergency situations, and minor cuts and bruises, attended a conference in St. Charles, IL called Mid-States Camping Conference, went to Madison for Canoecopia, and made it down to Arizona to visit family. In the last couple weeks I've been to Minneapolis for Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Expo, and have been out paddling on the Wolf River and the Montreal River. Summer and all the responsibility that comes with it begins this weekend as groups start arriving for leadership camps, and Outdoor leader courses.
Since the snow is gone(the last snow melted April 29th), and I can't skate ski any more, I've been running again. We'll see how my running schedule looks come June, but right now, I'm enjoying my morning runs. Every day I see deer, but last week I saw two coyotes, which made me pick up my pace. I think I'm getting everything in line for the summer, and am excited for staff and campers to start arriving.

Jay, Brooke, and I with Grandma Creagh. I was a surprise.

After a warm extended weekend in Arizona, this is what I woke up to April 21st.

Working hard to sell Camp Manito-wish at Midwest Mountaineering.

Surfing a wave on the Montreal River last weekend with Kris.

Kris comes to camp

2009-03-01T20:14:00.005-05:00

A couple weeks ago one of my college roommates came up to camp for a visit. We made sure to show him around the area, so he could get the city grid understood and know what parts of town to stay away from. After 2 minutes we finished the tour and introduced Kris to our friendly bartender Jeff from down the road. Kris fit in just fine.
Being from Gillett, WI, Kris came fully prepared to do some serious ice fishing. This is something I've been wanting to do for some time, but have never wanted to drive to a lake, set up and freeze while starting at a hole in the ice. But, since the lake was about 100 feet from my house, and all the locals told us sunrise/sunset were the only times fish bite, I was set to go ice fishing for about two hours.

Kris and Ben, jigging for some hungry fish

Then just when I was ready to call it a successful day of ice fishing, (meaning we drilled some holes, had a couple beers, talked for a couple hours, started getting cold) the tip up dropped and we had ourselves a Walleye. Now, this is a big deal because it was only the second walleye Kris caught this winter. And, the following week there was an ice fishing contest on Boulder Lake and no walleye were caught.

Kris with our prize

Grabbing the already frozen fish

We cooked it up the following night into a delicious dinner and now I can cross off "ice fishing" from my list of things to do while passing a winter in northern Wisconsin.

Back in Wisconsin

2009-01-24T13:32:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since I last posted anything of substance, but that's because I've been super busy the last month and a half. The flight back was easy and painless. I arrived on time, but my baggage came back about 90 minutes later. My dad met me in Chicago, and I was ushered back to the midwest with some cold weather and about 3-4 inches of snow. 30 hours later, I was driving up to Boulder Junction where I started work at the Staff Recruitment Coordinator/Outpost Director. Now I'm back where I was about a year ago, except this time I have responsibility, and a place to stay besides Jay and Brooke's guest room. It's been a wild turn-around, but fun. I'm still finding things that I learned in Chile coming up in my everyday life, and finally came to realize that I'm not going to go "back" to where I was before, but I will forever keep some of my year down there and it has further shaped who I am. My first week was centered around learning what goes on in the office, and getting acquainted with everything. Last week I was down in Cincinnati, Ohio for the Mid-American Camping Conference which was a blast. It was nice to get some new ideas and talk to some of the other camps from around the midwest. I think there were about 200 other camp directors ranging from Nebraska to Pennsylvania to Missouri and one camp from Florida. So we had a lot of experience at this conference and a wide range of scenarios that were discussed. Also it was nice to see another camp, since I've been at Camp Manito-wish since the mid 90's, and spend some quality(or quantity) time with two co-workers. We drove down to the conference, which translates to about 30 hours in a van with these two other guys.
Today's Saturday, and I just got back from about an hour cross country ski with the weather showing a balmy -3 F, and clear skies.
I don't know how much I'll update this now that I'm back in the US, and doing more of a job than kind of exploring South America, but I'm sure when I get some downtime I'll update it every once in a while.

summer break pictures

2009-01-07T21:19:00.001-05:00

pictures
Here's my summer break pictures.

Back in Santiago

2008-12-30T20:47:00.001-05:00

Finally, I'm back where it's warm, or some would say hot. I made it back this evening, without any problems. I've been catching up with roommates and will meet up with a Camp friend, who is down for the holidays.
Pictures will eventually make it up.

What a trip: "Cold" Summer Break

2008-12-29T15:07:00.003-05:00

I´m back where I started, in the same hostel in Punta Arenas I was in December 10th. Since then I´ve been here and there. From here we went to Ushuaia, which is the official, End of the World. In fact I got my passport stamped with a stamp that says, "fin del mundo, Ushuaia Arg" So I guess that´s quite official. We did a hike from town up to a glacier, and walked around the coast another day. From what I´ve seen in pictures, the place reminds me of what Alaska could be like. From Ushuaia we basically bussed up to Puerto Natales, which took two days to get there because of bus routes and schedules. From there we headed into Torres del Paine National Park for eight days. This was the main reason for my 20 days in Patagonia, and I loved every minute of it from the freezing nights, snow flurries in the morning, 18 mile days, rainy days, sunny days, windy (every)days, drinking straight from the glacial rivers, relaxing, and just enjoying time away from it all, and enjoying the camping lifestyle. After the hike, we dried off and made some great food in Puerto Natales for Christmas Eve, and on Christmas we took a bus to El Calafate to check out a gigantic glacier. It´s something like 200 feet high and apparently, all of Buenos Aires could fit on top of the glacier. It was actually kind of a let down for us because the weather was rainy and finally broke 20 minutes before we had to leave. Plus in Torres del Paine we walked up and over a mountain pass(3.5 hours up, and 3 down) and had views of the 3rd largest glacier not in Antarctica on the way down from the pass. That, was an amazing view. But nonetheless, it was an impressive glacier and if the weather would have been more agreeable, it probably would have been special. Instead, we all read in the restaurant, and all three of us finished our books that we started the previous day. Since El Calafate, I´ve been traveling solo without Steve and Kaleah because they continued north, and I´ve met plenty of people already, and today, I tried to go visit a penguin colony with an Italian I met here, but with 70 mph winds, the boats were not leaving. So we walked around town and took pictures of all the "penguins" we saw around town. Tomorrow I head back to warm Santiago, and I´m ready. I know this wont sound too crazy to all you northern dwelling residents, but I haven´t worn shorts or a t-shirt since December 9th because it´s been windy, cold, windy, cloudy, windy and drizzly for the last three weeks. I checked what the weather should be like the next ten days, and it doesn´t look too bad, high of 89, low of 56 and sunny. I didn´t check for Boulder Junction, WI, but I´d assume it´s just slightly cooler. I´ll post pictures when I get the chance, and plan to upload all of them into a photo album.
Love to all.

Punta Arenas

2008-12-11T06:07:00.000-05:00

I made it here safe and sound and met up with my two friends in the city without problems. Today we´re taking a 12-14 hour bus trip to Ushuaia. Last night I went to bed at 11:00, and it was still bright out. I´m pretty far down here.

Pucon was amazing

2008-12-09T17:25:00.009-05:00

I got back from Pucón this morning, did laundry, had a class, went grocery shopping for my trek in Patagonia, finished grades, packed for the next twenty days, and am heading out to give my last finals in about a half hour. There's mainly pictures here because I can't focus enough to write anything coherent. Pucón has been the highlight so far, and I know the south will be equally impressive. The mountains, lush green trees and moss covered woods, rivers, waterfalls, natural thermals and a view of volcanoes were impressive.
Tomorrow I have a flight to Punta Arenas that leaves at 9:00am, and the plan is to take an overnight bus to Ushuaia tomorrow night. We'll see how that works. In case I don't get to update this before Christmas, Merry Christmas everyone!

(View of Volcan Villarrrica, which I climbed on Saturday)

(Ojos del Caburgua. Very pretty waterfalls)

(Climbing the Volcano)

(More climbing pictures. We woke up at 3:45 and were hiking at 6:00am)

(2,847 meters up, or in "American" 9,340 feet up, on top of the Volcano)

(Natural thermas which were wonderful after hiking two days straight)

(In Huerquehue National Park, looking at the Volcano, that was climbed a couple day's ealrier)

Finals are wrapping up

2008-12-04T18:29:00.002-05:00

Well, I have a break in my schedule between tonight and Tuesday night, so in order to use my time efficiently, I'm taking an 11 hour bus to Pucón tonight and returning Tuesday morning. Then Tuesday I'll do some laundry and pack for my trip to Patagonia. I leave Wednesday, December 10th, and will be down in the southern most part of Chile. I fly in and out of Punta Arenas. From there, we're heading south to the fin del mundo, or End of the World. The city is called Ushuaia. Then finally, I'm off to Torres del Paine .

It should be a fun and busy last couple weeks down here in Chile.

Playas

2008-11-26T06:26:00.006-05:00

Last weekend I headed to the beach, taking in the great Spring weather here in Chile. There wasn't any real adventures, but I did find out that that I'm done teaching at Duoc December 9th, so I'll be heading down to Punta Arenas December 12th and meeting up with Steve. From there we're hitting up Torre del Paine. Then I'm heading back to Valpo for their New Year's Eve celebration. I've been told behind the September 18th Independence Day celebrations, Valpo NYE is a close second. It feel good to have these plans made, but also it is kind of sad that my last two months are planned.

(Valpo shot. I love the architectural maze they have)

(Fishing boats, resting on Sunday)

(Chilean Flag in Maitencillo)

(Playa Maitencillo)

(A throwback to La Campana. We walked from where this picture was taken to the peak. No easy feat, or happy feet)

Pichilemu

2008-11-17T15:34:00.007-05:00

I finally got to Pichilemu last weekend. It was everything I hoped it'd be and some. It was a relaxed, friendly beach town with wonderful smells and sights. Coming from the frantic hustle and bustle of Santiago, it was quite a relief to only hear the rustling of leaves, birds chirping and the soft drone of waves crashing opposed to buses rumbling by, horns honking, music pumping, doors slamming, or people arguing, which I'm quite accustomed to and helps me fall asleep at night. Saturday we met up for dinner and went to a Spring Festival headlined by Juana Fe. They were another fun, Cumbia band. I'm really liking the Cumbia music that seems to always being played where ever I go.
Sunday we went surfing, and I got to ride some good times for the first time in my life. It was great. I could ride the wave as it broke, and not just survive a dumping wave. After surfing we hit the beach for a little relaxation and a pisco sour. Luckily today, I'm not too sore. I got back to Santiago this afternoon, to a nice 87 degree and sunny day.
(Here we have Juana Fe playing their hit song, "Calegjero Ambulante." As the video shows, the crowd was into it, and the energy was incredible.)

(The beach)

(Goodbye sun)

(The view from the our lodging)

Last weekend

2008-11-14T09:56:00.003-05:00

You may remember that I am an experienced mountain explorer, fending of mountain lions like a pesky mosquito, bounding up unfathomable heights without breaking a sweat, and gallantly exploring vast uncharted caverns, so it may come as no surprise to you that this last weekend, with a team of fellow adventurous souls, we summitted La Campana, known for it's intense, sudden and unpredictable weather, steep pitches, frequent avalanches, rock slides and furious skree fields. The six of us laced up our New Balance's, Pumas, and Nother Face joggers, packed a bag-lunch, applied SPF 50 sunscreen, and charged the mountain. Skin was scathed as we deliriously, stumbled up to the Cumbre(summit), losing feeling in our legs, and being assaulted by a team of vicious blackflies, and an intense sun. Finally after 4 grueling hours of hiking, we reached the top and were delighted to find a warm, calm summit where we were all able to dry off our soaked t-shirts and socks, soak up the sun, and eat the best lunch we've tasted in a long time.
From the top we were able to see the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountain range. It truly was breathtaking. I'm waiting for others to send me their pictures because my battery ran out on the top.
Sunday was spent with the crew relaxing on the beach in Reñaca, which is about 15 minutes north of Viña/Valpo.

This weekend I'm heading to Pichilemu, the surf capital of Chile.

(The wonderful vista from the top)

Santiago Rocks!

2008-11-03T11:32:00.011-05:00

Last weekend I spent my time here in Santiago taking advantage of the multiple cultural activities at my fingertips. Friday was spent at "Santiago Rock." The link is there for all of you who understand Spanish or are curious. True to my prediction it was a mix of Milwaukee's Summerfest, Bonnaroo, and Manitowoc's Riverwalk Festival. Surprisingly absent from this concert was alcohol. This country lives of cheap alcohol, and with the huge Pisco advertisements all over, it only added to my list of things here in Chile that just don't make sense, and there is not logical explanation.

(Notice the huge bottle of Capel Pisco. It was a beautiful set up, from my Santiago)

Saturday was Oktoberfest, or as the direct translation of Fiesta de la Cerveza (Beer Festival), so I gathered up some friends and we made the trek out to the festival grounds.

(It took some commitment, and about 90 minutes of transportation to get out there, but it was so worth it)
It was like Christmas for me. I could hardly sleep the night before and woke up earlier than all my friends and restlessly go back to bed because it was 6:30am.

I had been spoiled living in Madison, WI and having amble access to great beer from various parts of the US. Down here, buying a good beer not only costs about 2-3 times as much as a mass produced beer, but I also need to travel about 20-30 minutes just to buy it. So having 28 of Chile's (probably only) microbreweries in one location was magical. When we arrived there was a German/Chilean polka band singing in German, English and some Spanish making me miss the Essen Haus in Madison.

(Taking in the finer points of this Porter)

(Green Bay Packer Jersey Spotting)

(The German Band singing in Spanish to the full crowd)

(They're glad I (1) found out about the festival, and (2) dragged them out there.)

Swimming

2008-10-27T16:35:00.006-04:00

I couldn't help but notice the contrast between my weekend weather and what I saw back home in Wisconsin. Here's some pictures from my Sunday body-boarding session.

(Riding the waves into the beach)

(Waiting for the next riding back to the beach)

(After eight months in Chile, I'm still amazing at the wires and cables found on the streets. Maybe in five years, Chile will go wireless, but until then, it looks like a game of guess and check)

A friend of mine sent me a message asking if I wanted to go at watch the WS game tonight. I guess I'm even more out of touch with baseball down here in Chile, because it took me a good minute or so to figure out this WS code my friend sent me. Finally I realized WS stood for World Series. Needless to say, I politely declined since after figuring out World Series I was completely at a loss for what two teams were playing.

Busy Times

2008-10-17T10:56:00.011-04:00

Although we didn't do much in Mendoza, Argentina, it was an excellent time. I arrived at 5:30am Friday morning and met up with three friends shortly later who were coming from Viña/Valpo.

(This map shows how close Mendoza is to Santiago. I think it's a six hour journey with about an hour spent at the border)
Friday we spend the day in the parks and eating.

(Big kids in a huge park. Steve, Kat, Andrea, Me)
The quality and price of the food there is amazing. We had steaks, Italian food that our friend from Italy gave his approval to, and stumbled upon a Spanish Cultural Festival Friday night in the main Plaza. This provided us with traditional Spanish dance and music while we ate tapas, paello, and drank some sangria. Of course the Argentinians take their nights seriously, which we saw as we returned to our hostel around 12:30 and saw all of the outdoor cafes filled with people still eating, and drinking before they head out to the dance clubs. We decided you only spend one night in Mendoza on October 10th, 2008, so we might as well go out to one of the clubs. When in Rome, right? It was a fun place that showcased amble beautiful women. We were in heaven, even our girlfriend that we were with was shocked at the difference of the women between Chile and Argentina.
Saturday we signed up to go paragliding and were waiting for the company to pick us up when someone came up in a van telling us it was too windy to do it Saturday. So, we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, checking out the main five plazas, and of course eating.

(I guess we'll eat some food?)
Saturday night, we met up with my friend Dylan's friend who lives in Mendoza. They met in Vail, CO and she was very excited to meet me and my friends, so we had dinner with her and her friends at a very Argentinian time of 11:00pm. Then the eight of us(3 US, 1 Italian, 4 Argentinians) joined tables with some other friends and all of a sudden we had a group of about 16 people and we then wen to a birthday party with all of our new friends.

(The eight of us at dinner. Dinner was a pizza, but the crust was a juicy steak. I know, very healthy)

(Here we have the four of us with our new Argentinian friends. We did some "cultural lessons" at the table, like how to say "slam it" in Chilean, Argentinian, and English)
This birthday party was not at all what I was expecting. I thought there would be 15-20 people sitting around drinking a little, talking, eating some Lay's potato chips, and that it would be awkward when our crew of 16 showed up, but when we arrived to this ranch style house, we discovered that the party was more like a dance club with about 100 people dancing with a dj, lights, food and drinks under a carnival tent. Then when we thought it couldn't get any better, a kiddie blow up slide appeared out of nowhere that delightfully entertained us.
Sunday, we woke up with the intention of getting a bus ticket home for Sunday night and to visit the vineyards, since that is what you typically do in Mendoza. About 70% of Argentina's wine is produced in the Mendoza area. This vineyard plan was thwarted by our lack of planning as almost all the vineyards were closed due to it being Sunday. So what did we do? Yup, ate and walked around, then eventually found a cafe to watch the Chile/Ecuador World Cup Qualification game with other Chileans.
I got in Monday morning, exhausted from a long uneventful weekend, and then Tuesday we had our Duoc 40th Anniversary Dinner at a huge conventional hall. It was like being at the Oscars, there was a live band, cameras on huge booms, and stars form the popular soap operas MC'ed the event. We were served extremely good food for about two hours then a famous Chilean comedian came on stage around 11 and performed for us. His specialty is impressions, which was great for me, because not only did I not understand his Spanish, he was impersonating people I didn't know. But it was a fun event and I got to wear on of my ties that I haven't used in about 4 months.
Wednesday night was filled witnessing History happen live. While I will regrettably admit I wasn't at the "Ice Bowl" and have the unfortunate luck of being born 15 years after man walked on the Moon, I can proudly claim that I was there when Chile finally beat Argentina in an official Soccer Match. Wednesday night marked the first time in the history of the Universe that Chile was victorious against Argentina and it was amazing. The energy in the Stadium was electric. Everyone was filled with optimistic hope, and when Chile scored their goal about 20 minutes into the game, the 80,000+ crowd erupted into cheers, songs, and chants for the next hour and a half.

(Celebrations after the goal. From http://www.santiagotimes.cl)
The game was intense with plenty of shots on goal, and good passing, but once the ref finally blew his whistle signaling the seemingly impossible had just happened, it was like a bomb blew as everyone celebrated. Well, actually there were a few explosions that went off. I think they were some kind of fire works. No one wanted to leave and people started light their newspapers on fire in celebration.

(The celebratory flares after the game was called)
As we left every vehicle joined in a chorus of beeps and honks of Chilean chants and songs. People were walking around proudly waving their Chilean flags and gleefully shouting.
Now, I'm trying to catch up on some work, and figure out what to do this weekend. I'm frustrated with my students' lack of motivation right now. For example, we had our Midterm last night for one of my basic classes, and we had reviewed the previous class, we did a two page review, and they have known about this exam for at least three weeks. Despite all of these preparations, I had student fill in two answers and tell me, "nope, I didn't study" shaking his head. I was shocked. How is that possible? This was my night class as well, the students that should be motivated to learn English to help advance their careers. I guess this was the first time I took a students failure personally. I know it is completely their responsibility, and I did what I could, but it was strange. I still compare my UW-Madison experience to where I'm at and need to realize they have different expectations and experiences shaping who they are. My Duoc students are now UW-Madison students. I mean, I don't think UW-Madison would hire someone who graduated from a Universtiy in China who majored in Chinese literature to teach Chinese without any certification.
I hope all is well back home. The weather is amazing here, we had our daylight savings last weekend, so the sun now sets at 7:50pm giving me the summer feeling that I missed in June/July/August.

Full Marathon 10K

2008-10-08T15:09:00.006-04:00

Last weekend I had a wonderful time on the coast relaxing on the beach, hanging out with friends and running my first 10k race. This 10k was a Chilean experience.

It was similar to what you would find in the US, but there were some distinct Chilean moments. To start, the port-a-let followed the Chilean rule of efficiency. There were 5 for the estimated 500 people competing in the race, and there wasn't any tp in them. Then about at about 8:30 a Richard Simmons style guy takes the main stage by the starting line and leads maybe 50-80 people in jazzersize to "warm up." These people were getting into it, practicing some salsa, hip-hop and even country dances to warm up. Then at 9:00, when the race was scheduled to start the director stated that we had to wait 5 more minutes, "Cinco minutos más, solo cinco minutos, no más" Five minutes more, only five minutes, no more. Then he explained the entire course turn by turn, and finished by explaining our numbers needed to be showing to get a time. He also had this direct quote, "For you gringos: No number, no time." At about 9:10 we started and the first 2 or 3 km we had a pack of street dogs barking along the side of the road as they were wondering why hundreds of people are running down their streets. At one point things got a little intense as three dogs ganged up on another, in the middle of the street, almost taking out three runners ahead of me. Then the only thing of interest to me was that the people would run on the sidewalk instead of the six laned road we had. Unfortunately my stomach was feeling a little crappy and at km 7 I had to duck out and frantically use a gas station bathroom. Sometimes you just have to go.

(I finished with a time of 43:44, and I have this flattering picture from the finish line to prove it.)
Also, one of my "students" told me the beginning of the race is on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwxyPQzxLo See if you can find me. I have a look of concentrated focus on my face, and a little bit of confusion.
Overall, it wasn't to bad. I had a goal of 40 minutes, and at 5km had a time of 20:10, so I think I could have clocked in close, but with a potty break, I'm not too disappointed. I also got a free dryfit t-shirt!

Tomorrow night I'm heading to Mendoza, Argentina for vacation. Everyone has told me Mendoza is beautiful and being Spring, I'm sure it will be. I head out Thursday night, and will return Monday morning. I think it's about a 6-7 hour bus ride.

Springing around

2008-10-01T17:45:00.000-04:00

Teaching is still going well. Yesterday our director came in a took some pictures, so I may be on the CIEE Teach in Chile brochure in the near future. I think that's pretty funny. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this semester. I have a good variation of students: some who are in lower level classes than they should, some just at about the right level, and some that can't understand a word I say. Also I have accumulated some private classes which are always fun. The weather has been beautiful here lately, and I just checked today and realized sometime in the last month Wisconsin and Santiago have done a complete flip. We're having low temperatures in the high 40's and low 50's with consistent high temps in the low/mid 70's, as the days continually get longer.

I added the pictures from "Winter Break" from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and Peru.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

September

2008-09-26T18:56:00.000-04:00

Well I've been pretty good about updating my blog, expect for the last few weeks. A lot has been happening, and I've been trying to plan out my future, or at least my next year, or couple months. September 16th, I went to see Medeski Martin & Wood. The show was good, but not fantastic. It was great to see a jazz/funk band from the US in the Chilean environment. Normally at their shows you have the hippy/dancing crowd, but September 16th the norm was sport coats for men, and dress pants/skirts for women. I actually heard someone "shhhhhh" someone else. Definitely a cultural experience.

Then the parties of Chile began. The fiestas patrias are what drive Chileans to live. It is a combination of Thanksgiving, Spring Break, Christmas, the State Fair, and July 4th. This year September 18, their Independence Day, and September 19th, their milatary day happened to fall on Thursday and Friday, so the party got started on Wednesday night. Many schools were closed all week and people left Santiago on the Sunday before. I say it is like our holidays for these reasons
Thanksgiving: It is centered around eating. We had bbq's every day, and ate empanadas every day.
Spring Break: It is getting nice down here so people are antsy to get outside, and the beach towns are flooded with vacationers.
Christmas: We put up decorations, banners, flags, and people just had a general giddiness about them that reminded me of the last day of school before Christmas Vacations. I saw students running up and down the hallway giggling gleefully on the Tuesday before "the parties"
The State Fair: All around Santiago and the country there are huge "Fondas" which are basically huge fairs with games, live music, tons of food and drinks, dance tents and a fair like atmosphere.
July 4th: The whole country shows their patriotism during the entire month of September. In the grocery stores, in the little corner shops, in the pharmacy, there are decorations, banners, flags, and national colors hanging proudly. In the major grocery stores there is Traditional Chilean music playing non-stop. Now I thought people may get sick of these songs, but every time I went in, I'd see fathers singing to their children, couples happily reciting the lyrics and generally loving the music.
I didn't leave Santiago for the vacation but instead hung out with my "family" down here and enjoyed hanging out with them.

(Carne galore. Meat, meat and more meat. I think I ate more meat that week than I had in the previous couple months.)

(The cueca, the traditional dance that is performed during this week, but otherwise sort of forgotten about. There was a show on the street outside my apartment in front of the Municipality Building)

(Military parade outside our apartment. They really take their armed forces seriously down here. The parade started in the center of the city and lasted about 3 hours. Then each section of the military marched back through their communities.)

(José-Tomás continues to entertain me, or I entertain him. I'm not sure, but it is fun to have him around the house. He always walking into my room and trys to pull down everything from my desk and investigate.)

(Teaching Angie how to make cinnamon rolls. My "family" is obsessed with the rolls. They think I should sell them outside of Starbucks for $2 a roll. They swear I'd make a ton of money)

José-Tomás and Me

2008-09-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

(Via my computer camera)

La Roja

2008-09-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

(Craziness for their national anthem)

(The crew, with the funny man in the background, who demanded to see his photo after. It made me feel comfortable that I wouldn't get stabbed during the game, which is a legit fear.

(The opening minute, kick-off, face-off, first pitch, or whatever you call it. The beginning of the game)

(Token cute kid picture. José-Tomás with Angie)

So much for Roll out the Red Carpet

2008-09-08T21:17:00.000-04:00

Let's see this last weekend was spent at home. Sometimes you need a relaxing weekend en la casa. Friday night we had a dinner party. We sat down for dinner at 11:30, and cleared the table around 12:30-1:00am. Then we had some drinks and called it a night at a reasonable 4:00am.

(Rodrigo and Elizabeth with the spread of meats we cooked up Friday night. Notice the clock on the wall. They call me Bencito, which is kind of a joke. Bencito is like saying, Benny or Benny-boo-boo. It's a term of affection. And Oliver wrote it on my food cupboard.)
Saturday was spent playing with José Tomás and then we had some completos and a rocket for dinner. Completos are glorified hot dogs with avocados, tomatoes, red onion, and ketchup(mayo if your Chilean). In essence, they are high blood pressure, sodium, and fat content on a plate. They're good about once every other month. Any more than that and you get burned out.

(Completos and a rocket for dinner, what a classy combination)

Sunday was the big day for the Brasil/Chile soccer match. Brasil is the equivalent of the USA's Dream Team. Watching the players warm up was amazing. When they warmed up I was able to see just how talented each player was. Juan Pablo, Stefenia and I arrived to the crowded stadium 2.5 hours early and we struggled to find a place to sit. By then the Chile/Paraguay woman's game had started and we watched that. The whole time the crowd would spontaneously erupt into songs and chants. One of them roughly translates to, "If you don't jump around for Chile, then you're a bum from Brasil." Then when the Brasil players were announced the entire 80,000 people in attendance would shout, "Screw you." Once again, I am roughly translating the phrase into PG terms. It was quite funny. Then the game started and everyone was focused on the game. We came out and seemed to have control for the first 15 minutes, but then the athleticism, skill, and strength of Brasil outmatched Chile. After the game, the fans for Brasil had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit. I guess it's a common practice to make the away fans wait before they exit for their safety(I don't think Michigan had it that bad). Nonetheless it was fun, and I'm heading back to the stadium in two days for the Chile/Columbia game.

(This was taken 2 and a half hours before the game started, it's a little different from our late arriving students in Madison)
(The Huaso Peregrino leading the cheers in the stadium before the game. This guy goes to every game, home or away to lead this cheer.

Cheee!
Laay!
Chi chi chi, lay, lay lay. Viva Chile!!!)

I signed up to run a 10k in Viña del Mar October 5th. That should make me stay motivated to run around Santiago.

Hiking around

2008-09-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

Teaching is still going well, after I realized that there is only so much I can do to help students learn three weeks of material in one class. I had students who showed up for two or the six classes and well, big surprise, they did terrible on the first quiz. We'll see how my intermediate students fare tomorrow during their first quiz.
Last weekend I headed to Viña del Mar for some hiking at La Campana. It's located roughly between Viña and Santiago and provided us with a healthy challenge as we attempted to summit the peak. Unfortunately it took us longer than expected to navigate taxis, buses, subway, and then another bus, so we had to stop about 2 hours short of the top. But we plan to head back in a couple weeks and do some camping at the bottom so we can head up first thing in the morning. Of course we celebrated with a big bbq Saturday night and had a great time enjoying the food and drinks.

(The hiking crew, senior picture pose)

(This was taken during what may very well been the end of third quarter in Madison for "Jump Around"

(Christmas card 2009)
In domestic news, Angie and José-Tomás moved into the apartment so we now have a 1 year and 3 month year old in the house providing entertainment at all hours of the day. It's really fun. Angie is Oliver's(my "brother") girlfriend, and José-Tomás is their son.
This Sunday I'll be going to the Chile-Brasil soccer match which should be wild. This is a World Cup qualifying game. I know that doesn't mean much to most American's, but in the rest of the world, it's a huge deal. The tickets have been sold out for a couple weeks now, and only about 2,000 $300 tickets are left. The game starts at 9:00 pm as well, which will make it even crazier. Normally the big soccer matches are in the early afternoon to avoid problems with drinking and partying(think Badger football games) but they scheduled this game for late because historically Brasil is not as comfortable playing in cooler temperatures. Talk about home field advantage.
The flowers are out lining the streets, and everyone is getting super excited for the September 18th celebrations. Since day one, I've been told about how amazing that week is, so I'm joining the rest of Chile in building up excitement.

(The clearest I've seen Santiago in six months. This is after a day of rain. August 28th at 8:30am. By 2:00pm the smog was back)

¡Primavera está aquí!

2008-08-24T17:49:00.000-04:00

With the sun shining and the temperature hitting 20(~70F) this afternoon I think Spring is here. I've been told the worst part of winter is over, so I feel that I can comment on winter now without it coming back to haunt me. It really wasn't too bad. Maybe it was because since day one, people were warning me about how cold, rainy, humid, windy, etc it gets in winter, so when I was in it, it didn't seem as bad as I imagined. Don't get me wrong, my room hasn't been warmer than 58 degrees since April, and days strung together when my towel never dried because it was too cold and humid in the house, but overall, it wasn't too shabby. It didn't snow and the nighttime lows got below 32 only a handful of times.
This weekend was another "family weekend." I'm such a family man. Friday, Rodrigo came home with a Schopdog Rocket, so we obviously tested it to make sure it works.

(Oliver, Raul and Me testing the efficiency of the Rocket. It worked)
Then I met up with some CIEE friends and went to a Duoc Professor party in Bellavista. Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Espadeiros, in Las Condes to celebrate the birthday of my Chilean Mamá. We left the house at 9:00 pm, and finished up our buffet style dinner around midnight after some salsa dancing. Around 11:00 a band started playing some Elvis and Sinatra then transitioned to some hot salsa. After dinner we came back to the house and had tea, and some drinks. Once again the ten of us started dancing, and all of a sudden it was 2:30, so I turned on the TV and we watched the USA vs. Spain Olympic final. We won, and then we looked up and it was 6:30am, so we decided it was time to hit the hay. Today was a wonderfully lazy day spent walking around outside and hanging out with the windows open.
Teaching has been going really well. I enjoy my students, and they seem to have an interest in learning English. After having a semester of experience I really feel like I'm a much better teacher.

More pictures from the parent's visit

2008-08-20T11:16:00.001-04:00

(Family picture, minus Jay, Brooke and Mika of course)

(Our favorite mark of wine by far, or perhaps the only one we know)

(Our amazing three hour lunch with Juan Pablo and Stephania)

(A mixture of Spanish and English being spoken, and Mom smiling. Both languages came up with the same conclusion. We don't really know where we are)

(Translates to roughly:
We're colleagues
Companions
Partners
Friends
We're such good friends
Best buddies
Man, I love you guys.
You get the idea)

(Professor Benjamin Creagh)

Mom and Dad in town

2008-08-17T16:06:00.000-04:00

My parents came and went last weekend. Their plane touched down Thursday morning and then they left Monday evening. But in between we filled our time together sight seeing and hanging out. They were able to see my city, my neighborhood, my university, sample Chilean food and drinks, and meet my family and friends.
Thursday we didn't really do too much because my parents had the "we just tried to sleep on an airplane" feeling so we just walked to my apartment and had Churrasco sandwiches.
Friday we did Santiago. We started the day by going to La Chascona(One of Pablo Neruda's three houses). After that tour we took the Bellavista Funicular up to the top, then took the Teleferico down.

(On top of Cerro San Cristobal)
After that we took the metro to Plaza de Armas where we did some people watching and then walked down to the Artesianal shops across the street from Cerro Santa Lucia. Then we walked to Bellavista for a liter of beer, and then dinner at El Tablao. Then we went to the Parque Balmaceda to watch the fountain light show.

(Parque Balmaceda)
After that we sampled some gelato at Bravissimo and then headed home after a long day of walking.
Saturday we traveled to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. We spent the day walking around the hills of Valpo and toured another of Pablo Neruda's houses called La Sebastiana. They we met up with Juan Pablo and his girlfriend Sephania and we had a nice three hour lunch overlooking the ocean. After lunch(which we finished around 5:00) Juan Pablo drove us around and we finished off the night walking down the beach in Viña del Mar.
Sunday we went to the vineyard of Concha y Toro where we became experts about wine. Then we went out to a great pizza place because it was Día del Niño (Children's Day). It was so considerate for my parents to come down to Chile just for Children's Day. That night we walked to my apartment and my parents met my Chilean brothers and mom.
Monday we went out to a great restaurant and then went back to the Chilean shops by Santa Lucia and then my parents left. I sent them to the airport in a taxi and that seemed to get them to the airport and back to Wisconsin.
It really was wonderful to show my parents around and have them meet the important people in my life down here.

(Mamá y su hijo)

Winter Break!

2008-08-06T13:00:00.000-04:00

I'll try to write down most of what I can. I don't want to write too much with the fear of the US population taking too much time read my blog instead of working, thus further hurting our economy. So with that in mind let's begin.

The route: Viña del Mar> San Pedro de Atacama> Arica> Tacna> Puno(Lake Titicaca) >Cusco > Machu Pichhu> Cusco> Arequipa> Arica >Santiago

The Story
"él me robó"
Not twenty minutes into our trip Vinnie and I got on the metro(subway) to head to the bus station and I get pick pocketed. This whole story lasted about 20 seconds We get on the metro and all of a sudden there are five people crowding around us. Here we are two big Americas, speaking English with huge backpacks. When the metro starts to move people are kind of innocently losing and finding their balance, and that is when
I start to feel something in my right pocket. I reach down only to feel a hand in my pocket. I grab for it, but can only get it from outside my pants and his hand is gone. I immediately grab my other pocket that some other guy is heading for, and I tell him to back off. I still have my wallet and cell phone, and after a quick inventory realize my change bag was stolen from my pocket. Meanwhile I yell to Vinnie, "THAT guy robbed me! Right there. Him" But it was so loud, and Vinnie was confused, that he didn't understand until about 5-6 guys left the metro and it was practically empty. Luckily I only lost about 1500 pesos(~$3) because I had just counted it. But, I figured I'd get robbed once down here. I mean a year in a huge South American city, it was bound to happen. So I got that out of the way. The rest of the day was pretty average. We arrived in Viña and hung out with some friends before taking off the next day.
"no creo esto"
We got on the bus at 12:30 pm July 12th, and at 7 arrived in Ovalle for a bus transfer, then were on the bus from 9pm until 11ish am the following day in Calama. Then after a lunch we took at bus from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama and finally got in at 4pm. It was a lot of time spent on a bus, but at the same time fun to talk to people, practice Spanish and read, a lot. We met a guy who invited us to his house in Calama(more on this later). Once settled in Sand Pedro it took us some time to realize where were were, and what happened to the last 28 hours.

(About 20 minutes into the trip)

(Can you find my two trip mates?)
"Que bonita"
San Pedro has some amazing sights.

(San Pedro, just a little town with four times as many beds as residents. This is for the toursits to sleep in)
We did some tours and went to geysers, high alpine lakes, salt flats, and Valle de Luna (Moon valley), and Death Valley

(Salt flats)

(Altiplano)

(High alpine lakes with Vicuñas in the foreground)
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 to get up to the geysers for sunrise. It was very cold, but I fell asleep on the bus ride up there, and woke up to a crazy scene of steaming geysers and mountain mist.

(Me in front of the geyser with six layers on my upper body, and still being cold.)

(And a little later in the morning)

(Why not warm up in the natural thermal pool? I'm giving the thumbs up)
After the geysers we wound out way back down to San Pedro stopping to check out various wildlife and stopping at a few outlooks spots. We saw some foxes, flamingos more llamas, vitcuñas and some kind of squirrel/rabbit called a viscacha that would jump about 3 feet at a time. These guys were probably my favorite.
That night we went to the Valle de Luna for some more incredible geological formations and watched the sun go down.

(Overlooking the valley)
"Tienen que comer todo"
As we headed over to Arica we stopped at our new friend's house in Calama. Our friend, Mauricio picked us up and as this day happened to been a holiday his family was home, so we had a big bbq. First we went to the supermarket and bought a bunch of alcohol(purely a cultural thing). Mauricio's dad then took us on a tour of his work, which happens to be the biggest copper mine in the world. It was so intersting to get a personal tour and hear some personal stories. For more information about this place check out this link. There use to be a town right at the site, but they made everyone leave so that they could put their earth that they removed from the mine there. Mauricio's mom's house is now about 300 feet below rocks. Mauricio's elementry school is abandoned now, and the town, that was of about 30,000 people is now empty, with building still upright.

(You can kind of see here that half of the buildings are under rubble)

(Empty town)
After the tour his dad stopped by the supermarket and picked up an extraordinary amount of meat. So much in fact that I figured some other people were coming over. When we got back to the house, it was just a great time. Steve, Vinnie and I realized that we had to talk in Spanish all day since Mauricio's parents didn't speak English which was fine especially after a few German brews and vino.

(Mauricio at the grill. Note the amount of meat, which was for seven people. Right about this time Mauricio's dad told us kind of half joking, half seriously that if we don't eat all the meat he'll be offended. We decided to take it seriously:)

(Fun around the grill)

(The Wednesday afternoon crew)
We had an amazing lunch, with plenty of beer, wine, and pisco, and then we had even more food around 9pm and then they drove us back to the bus station and we said good bye with plenty of hugs and kisses. Mauricio worked in Jackson Hole, WY for a winter and he had some people take care of him and invite him into their house, so now he and his family always return the favor with other travelers. I must say when I get back I will be one of those people who bend over backwards for foreigners. I've had too many great experiences like this to not.
"somos tan cerca"
From Calama we got to Arica after a restless night on a bus and were greeted to warmer coastal weather. We walked around the city and played on the beach that afternoon. The next morning I went surfing and then hung out with the surf school for their end of the week bbq. I know, more food? It was great to be in the water again. It had been a long time. That night we made preparations to cross into Peru. We were very excited to get there. At the border Vinnie had a problem with his visa. He had the form that said he was legal, but was missing the other sheet with his picture and personal info. So unfortunate he had to return to Santiago about a week earlier than expected without seeing Machu Pichhu.
"te entendemos"
Crossing the border into Peru was like entering a different world. There was more obvious poverty, the prices were cheaper, people spoke much clearer, the food was spicy, and the beer tasted good(always a barometer of a culture, although that doesn't say much for the US with our Bud and Miller Lite).

(The first Peruvian lunch, complete with the local beer)
All of the principal cities in Peru have their own beer. Cusqueña is from Cusco, Cristal is from Lima, Arequipeña is from Arequipa and Pilsen is from Trujillo. Enough about that. We took an overnight bus to Puno which is situated on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca sits at an elevation of 12,500 feet making it the highest navigable lake in the world. We arrived at 5 in the morning and started a two day tour at 8:00 where we toured the islands and stayed with a family on one of the islands. The lake is amazing, and kind of reminded me of Lake Superior.

(Here's the view from our house for the night)

(Apparently the locals aren't over six feet)

(Steve and I with our mother for the night)
"la ciudad de puma"
After an incredibly entertaining bus ride from Puno to Cusco, we crashed at a hostel and started exploring the city. I say the bus ride was entertaining because we paid five dollars to travel a trip that is normally 6 hours, but for us it was 9 hours, and we were the only fair skinned people on the bus. It was filled with indigenous men and women with gigantic bags of clothes, blankets, rice buckets, babies and and snacks. The bus had was filled to capacity meaning there were probably 10-20 more people on the bus than seats. Some ladies gave Steve and I blankets after telling us, "It gets cold at night, you'll need these." And they were correct. It was very cold, and after getting off the bus I looked at the roof and saw we were the bus with about 3-4 feet of luggage strapped on to the top of the bus. While entertaining it was not relaxing.
Cusco was a treat

(Packing a mouthful of coca leaves. It's very common to see people chewing coca leaves to energize themselves and help cope with the altitude. We wanted to see what it was all about. Don't worry it's completely legal)

(The Plaza del Armas in Cusco with the night lights)
We spent a day walking around the city, a day checking out Museums and then a day walking out by the ruins near the city. There are four sites that are within walking distance from the city.
Then we took a tour of the Sacred Valley and then got to Aquas Calientes. This is the town at the base of Machu Picchu. From Cusco to Aquas Calientes we got to the fringe of the jungle. The temperatures were warmer and the vegetation changed.
The valley alone could be a top tourist destination, but there was Machu Picchu waiting for us at the end of the valley. And Machu Picchu is all it's cracked up to be. It's just amazing. It's so calculated. They calculated where the exact spot of the morning sunrise will shine and then constructed structures around that point. Just amazing.

(Sacsahuamán, ruin near Cusco. These stones are over 10 tons and are still intact after the Spanish tried to use the stones for construction in the city)

(In the Sacred Valley)

(At the summit of waynu picchu. Elevation 8,600 feet. After 40 minutes of stairs we spent about 2 hours taking in the views)

(May I present to you, Machu Picchu)

EXTREME (camera work)

(The "I am in Machu Picchu, wow I can't believe it" thinking picture)
After Machu Picchu Steve and I decided to just relax the last week of our trip.

(Hail yeah I liked Cusco. We got a nice hail storm for about 30 minutes one afternoon)
Eat, read, nap, drink some more local brews and pisco, and hang out. I've never traveled like this and it was a good change of pace. We met some great people in our hostel and some fun(ny) Peruvians at the bars. We did this in Arequipa which is a beautiful city with an amazing plaza. It is much like Cusco without the people begging you to buy a hat even when you're already wearing one, or asking if you want a massage "now, later or maybe tomorrow." I actually got one for an hour and a half for $7. It was great. So Arequipa was spent reading in the hammocks and eating delicious food. I can think of worse things to do.

(This is basically where I spent my time in Arequipa)
Then after that we spent two nights in Arica. I went surfing one more day and now I'm back in the big city. My parents come tomorrow morning for five days and I'm excited to show them around my city and have them meet my family and some of my friends.

I'm back in Santiago

2008-08-05T20:45:00.000-04:00

Well I'm back in Santiago, safe and sound. Now I have to unpack and figure out how to explain the last three weeks.
I'll get around to it soon, but just wanted to let you know I'm back and safe.

(A little place called Machu Picchu)

My Perfect Chilean Cocktail

2008-07-08T16:05:00.000-04:00

The Chilean Cocktail:
1/3 Teaching English at Duoc. Make sure it is full of challenges, as well as rewards
1/3 Meeting Chilean people, and feeling part of the culture(best done from a host family)
1/3 Traveling the country. From the north to the south, this country has it all.
Add a steady income to stay afloat, without losing too much money, and enjoy for ten months.

So far I've been able to find the first two ingredients, and come Friday, I'll get to taste the last. This Friday, Vinnie, and I will travel to Viña del Mar to meet up with our other friend Steve. Then, Saturday the three of us will embark on a three week adventure to the north. So far, I can say I am enjoying myself here in Chile, but I'm not going to lie, one of the main reasons to come down here was to travel; and travel I will. We will take a 20 some hour bus ride from Viña del Mar to Calama, and then hop on another bus to San Pedro de Atacama. That will be stop number one. San Pedro has a handful of tours to go on, and we've heard it is very beautiful place. We plan to spend a couple days there, then continue north to either Iquique, or all the way up to Arica(the northern most city in Chile). These places are coastal towns, and I know that at least one of these places will provide me with an opportunity to hit the waves again. I'm sure the water will be freezing, I'll be frustrated, and want to spend the rest of my vacation surfing, but alas, there is more treasure to find on our trip.
From Arica, we'll cross the border, and head into Peru where we plan to spend the bulk of our time. We'll do the whole Machu Picchu thing, Lake Titicaca, and other sights while in Peru. We are lucky to have a decent amount of time to play in Peru. Dylan and Katie, Hannah, and my "sister" and her boyfriend all have done Peru visits, but they all were rushed. This trip will be more relaxed and all the is certain is on August 5th I have a flight back to Santiago from Arica, Chile. From Saturday, July 12th until August 5th, I have Chile, Peru, and maybe Bolivia to explore.
My classes finished up last week, and my students surprised me by passing(or at least the majority of them). This week I have only my private classes, and will administer one oral exam for my basic students. I think for one class, my private students and i will go out for lunch. Life is pretty relaxing this week.
Last weekend was spent shamelessly with gringos as we celebrated the 4th of July. The Fourth started off by getting up early and heading over to the US Embassy for a special flag raising ceremony.

(Marisa and Me being "American" at the US Embassy.)

While cold and foggy, it was still heartwarming to hear people talk about the United States, and I must admit I got a little homesick/proud/nostalgic for home. But distance make the heart grow fonder, and I certainly can't complain about my time here in Chile. After our ceremony we warmed up in a Starbucks(where else in Chile would we go on our country's, and my mom's birthday?). Friday night I went over to the Katie's house, one of my co-workers from my site. She invited me over for a gringo party complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and beer. The "American" way. Long story short, after going home to change, talking with my "brother" and making the 30 minute trip over to her house I was greeted not by a herd of English speaking gringos preparing hamburgers and hot dogs, but by strange Chilean music coming from the radio, a dark apartment, and Katie's host mom. Now my Spanish has improved a lot, but for about 20 seconds I couldn't get a word out because I didn't know if I was in the right apartment, or what was going on. After starting and stumbling over myself, I composed myself and had a pleasant thirty minute conversation with her about my time here in Chile, where I've been, where I'm going, and where she has been. Finally Katie, and my other co-workers showed up and we had a grand old time culminating with a fire-cracker explosion. Illegal, but set off by a Chilean, so we were in the clear :)
Saturday was spent at my CIEE friend's house where we had hot dogs, rice-crispy treats, peanut butter, and of course Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft. This day was filled with the red, white and blue, as well as conversations about...baseball and football.
Sunday, my sister and her boyfriend arrived back from a week in Peru and we had a big lunch together and shared stories. Later we went through their pictures and the big night ended with the screening of a boot-legged copy of the "Sex in the City Movie" I tried to watch it, but it just wasn't doing it for me.
I hope to get a few updates in on my blog while I'm traveling, but my internet usage will be a little more limited than now.

smog in Chile? You be the judge

2008-07-01T12:17:00.000-04:00

I finally figured out why they sell cough drops like candy here. I realized my throat feels scratchy too. NO, it's not because I have been screaming myself horse yelling at my students, but because I went running outside a couple times. I've checked the contamination levels and they seemed ok, but I guess what they say is good, isn't really that good.

The Santiago system for labeling their smog goes like this:
0-100 good
101-200 regular
201-300 bad
301-400 critical
401-500 dangerous

But in our very own Los Angeles, which is probably the most similar to Santiago has a different scale. Today LA has a level of 54. Their scale(and the rest of the world's) looks like this:
0-50 Good
51-100 Moderate
101-150 Unhealthy for sensitive groups
151-200 Unhealthy
200+ Very Unhealthy

Madison, WI is at 12 today.

Here's a visual display of the difference between a good day and a not so good day. But according to the government levels, this is still far from "Regular."

Both are views from my bedroom window.

(Here's the view from May 29th after a couple days of rain)

(Here we see a view from my window from yesterday, after about two weeks without rain, in winter. It's not cloudy outside, just hazy/smoggy. I heard because of the cold Humbolt Current, the cool air from the ocean keeps the pollution from moving around. Also I heard when Pinochet was in rule they wanted to blow up, or remove a mountain south of the city to allow the pollution to escape the urban area, but the dang environmentalists stopped that)

La Serena has better... what?

2008-06-20T14:58:00.000-04:00

A story:
In class the other night we were going over comparisons and I had my students compare a couple cities to help me decide where I should go over winter break. The options they had were La Serena, San Pedro de Atacama, and Lima. Of course everyone had negative things to say about Lima, because they don't like Peru, or Bolivia, or...Argentina. I had the students get in groups and create some sentences to compare the cities, and then they told the entire class. The second to last group delightfully said, "La Serena has better beaches than Lima, Peru." That alone is not a bad statement, in fact it is 100% correct, but imagine the word beaches, said by a Chilean with a Spanish accent and it sounds a little dirty. Needless to say, half the class understood it as "La Serena has better bitches than Lima, Peru," and everyone was dying of laughter while I had to explain the differences in pronunciation, and meaning between the two very different words. This was probably the funniest thing to happen during class so far.
I got my finals schedule yesterday and have four finals July 4th(don't they know it's a national holiday?) and one on July 9th. Then it's Winter Break until August 11th.

Let's get ready to rumble

2008-06-17T11:35:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't really do too much the past week. I just kind of did the living thing: teaching, eating, hanging out with my Chilean family, and friends, experiencing an earthquake. What? Did I just say earthquake? While it was more like a tremor it still confused me and I didn't know what was going on for a good ten seconds. Yesterday I was reading in the living room, soaking in the sun with our dog Pelusa, and dozed off only to be awoken by a shaking. At first I thought it was a bus, but the movement was more intense that a truck or bus, and it continued for about 20 seconds. The dishes and glasses rattled, and I stood up thinking, "Is this the end?" as I looked Pelusa in the eye and tried so hard to understand dog language. I think she told me in broken English, "Don't worry Ben-ha-mean, this happens fairly frequently, and because we are on the fourth floor the vibrations are magnified. Now lets get back to our naps." I felt better after being reassured by my street-wise dog.
Late that night, my "Brother" who used to live in the apartment told me some stories of the windows rattling and dishes falling out of the cupboards. Wild stuff. Well I guess I can cross that off my list of things to do while here in Chile.

Interesting fact. There is a WWE wrestler from Green Bay Wisconsin. This weekend I told someone(Chilean) I was from Wisconsin and he immediately followed with, "From Green Bay, Wisconsiiiin! Mmmmmisteeeeeeeerrrr Kennedyyyyyyy...!" I'm finding out more and more about my home state and country abroad.

Sunday, like I'm sure everyone knows by now marked the first qualifying game for Chile to enter the World Cup. I ended up hanging out with some Chilean family and friends as we pre-gamed and watched the game on our little tv in our kitchen. I kept thinking about how similar it was to Badger games, but extremely different at the same time. We were drinking wine and pisco instead of beer and bloody mary's, and instead of brats we had a dish of fried onions, cheese and egg with rolls. And of course the whole, watching soccer instead of football. We had our chants as well, which were just as uninspiring as "Let's Go Red." "Ch-Ch-Ch, le, le, le, Chile!"

It is winter here, but yesterday it was 68 and sunny, so I'm not really complaining. I guess that's all for this week. I have two more weeks of teaching and then finals. How the time flies.

Snowboarding in June

2008-06-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

It was great to hang out with my UW friends for the last five days. A few days after Hannah took off for Montana, Dylan and Katy made the trip across the Andes to Santiago. They were stuck in Mendoza for a couple days, and made it here Friday night. I introduced them to the hear attack friendly foods of Chile right away with a chorillana for dinner. After dinner we met up with two friends of Dylan for some piscolas. Dylan worked with some Chileans in Vail last winter, so he already knew some guys down here. I thought it was a good introduction to Chile. Chorillana and pisco. Saturday we went down to central part of town to Plaza de Armas and Mercado Centra for some fish. That night we met up with another friend of Dylan´s for a birthday party/ barbecue. After that they took us to some club for some reggaetoned dancing. Sunday was filled walking around Barrio Bellavista and enjoying the views from Cerro San Cristabol. We headed home early Sunday night to rest up for our day of snowboarding. We headed up to the mountains early Monday morning and rode some great, open slopes of El Colorado. For me, it seems natural to be going snowboarding now, because I've been through a month or so of fall and some of winter. The day was spent acting like idiots, taking a ton of pictures, enjoying the view from the outdoor restaurant, laughing, and some good falls. Needless to say, my body is sore today, and I was told by a co-worker that I have a nice skier`s tan on my face. After riding, we went out for sushi, placing my sushi consumption up to maybe 7 times in my life. Monday Dylan and I walked around my neighborhood in the morning, and then I pointed him and Katy in the direction of Santa Lucia while I did some work. Oh yeah, that´s right, I´m working down here. After my first class I met up with Katy, Dylan and one of Dylan´s Chilean friends for a final good-bye. And just like that, three weeks of gringo fun is over. But, I now have some new Chilean friends to hang out with. Today I had lunch with my "family" and they told me that my Spanish has slid a little during the past three weeks in my "gringo party." Oh well, it was well worth it and I have some time to get it back.
That´s all for now.

Now for some snowboarding in June pictures.

(Extreme freestyle moves)

(Extreme front side grab)

(Way up in the Andes)

(Finding a good line)

(The UW Madison, Hoofers Ski and Snowboard club representing South America)

Nothing but blue skies

2008-06-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been quite some time since I’ve blogged which means one of two things: 1) I’m just living such a boring life that there isn’t anything to write about, or 2) I haven’t had any time to sit down and write down my adventures. Well, it’s the latter. Hannah came down to visit me after her Ecuador program and we spent two glorious weeks together exploring my hometown of Santiago, the coastal and valley terrain of La Serena, and the colorfully decorated hills of Valparaiso.
Hannah made it down here safe and sound on Thursday, May 22nd and on Friday we went up to Cerro Santa Lucia
for some sight seeing on one of the most clear days I’ve experienced since my arrival in February. Hannah just couldn’t understand my constant onslaught of, “look at the mountains” comments until her last day when she saw the Santiagan Smog.

(View of the Andes Mountains on a smog free days)
After work on Friday we boarded an overnight bus to La Serena, which is a beach town located 6 hours north of Santiago. We arrived bleary eyed, feeling like we slept uncomfortably on a bus at 6:30am, but safe and with all our belongings. Then after a short nap we toured the city, visited some museums, and checked out the beach.

(not exactly the best beach day)
From what I’d imagine it is a nice beach but it was cold, damp, and visibility was minimal. We decided to call it an early night because of Sunday’s plans and I don’t think La Serena has much of a nightlife this time of year. Sunday we toured the Elqui Valley which included a tour of a pisco distillery,

(Hannah and I at the birth place of many fun nights)
lunch at a restaurant that cooks their food in solar ovens,

(Solar oven restaraunt)
a stop in Gabriel Mistral’s house and schoolhouse, and a stop in some small town plazas. The weather broke for us and the sun accompanied us on our tour. Mistral is one of the two Nobel Prize winners from Chile.

(Hannah with stray dog # 456 and 457 of the week)
All in all it was a great day. Monday we returned to Santiago, and hung out with the family Monday night.
The next week we did some more sight seeing at Cerro San Cristabol

(Taking the teleférico to enjoy the view of Santiago)
, Vega Central, Mercado Central, and Plaza de Armas among others. Hannah got a chance to explore the city on her own while I worked and have some heart to heart talks with my Chilean mother Elizabeth, even invoking a tearful explanation of Elizabeth’s family, and relationship history.
Friday after work we hopped on a bus and got into Valpo late and woke up early to walk the famous hills of Valpo. We toured Pablo Neruda’s Valpo house in the morning, then walked up and down some hills before meeting up with Juan Pablo and Stephanie.

(Hills of Valpo)
They made the trip out to Valpo to meet up with Hannah and me. After meeting and greeting Juan Pablo drove us around to a few spots and then took us out to a great seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean. I swear he’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met. After lunch we drove around in the hills and then we went to the neighboring city Viña del Mar and treated us to some gelato before we strolled up and down the boardwalk on the beach. After our meandering, they dropped us off at our hostel. Right there would have been an amazing birthday, but there’s more. We met up with some of my US teacher friends and we had a good time dancing the night away.
Sunday Hannah and I woke up at an outrageously early time of 9:30 in order to hurry back to Santiago because my family was insistent on us returning in the afternoon. I realize this was a little “American” of me to assume, but I thought when we got back at 2:00 someone would be there to greet us, but of course we waited until 6:00 and when it seemed nothing was materializing, Hannah, MJ(her travel buddy from Ecuador) went to get a chorrillana.

(Very excited for our Chorrillana)
And not two minutes after ordering, I got a call from Raul telling me, “Everyone is here waiting for you” That’s the way it works. The night was eventually filled with wine, Domino’s Pizza, and entertainment from José Tomás as he danced to reggaeton and hip-hop.

(Jose Tomas dancing to Fergie's "Fergalicious")
Monday, was spent wandering the streets of Plaza del Armas one last time and eating some seafood in Mercado Central. Sadly, I saw Hannah off Monday night and then met up with MJ and some other new friends I met through Hannah at the Phone Box Pub, to talk about how much we miss Hannah.
The last two weeks flew by and it’s amazing to think of how much we did and saw.

Two unexpected things

2008-05-18T10:21:00.001-04:00

1. No Mendoza trip:
After prepping like I'll be traveling for the next four days, it looks like I'll be here in Santiago. After walking the wrong direction four blocks, then re-tracing my steps I found the bus terminal and asked for a ticket to Mendoza. The lady told me that the pass was closed and "it's possible" that it will be open tomorrow. Great. I called my friend Steve who was suppose to leave from Viña, through a different bus company and they said the same thing over there. So after sitting in the bus station for about 20 minutes thinking, looking at my guide book, I decided maybe it's a good thing that I'm not going. I really didn't have off from work on Tuesday, I'll save a lot of money, and I got all my planning done for the next couple weeks yesterday. All is not lost. And I know where the bus station is now!
2. What happens at a 1 year old's birthday party:
Last night we went to Oliver's son's birthday party.

(The birthday boy and his madre Angie)

(Marié José and José Tomás)
There were 12 of us in total, mainly family with a couple friends from university. It started off pretty innocent with all 12 of us being entertained by José Tomás, but then turned into quite the carrete(party). We did plenty of "saluds" to José Tomás and in total ended up drinking more than necessary, but hey, it was in honor of a birthday. Who knew a birthday for a one year old would translate into two bottles of wine, two bottles of Johnny Walker, and a bottle of rum? Definitely not me. Life's full of surprises.

Not too much going on

2008-05-17T16:42:00.000-04:00

I realized it's been awhile since I wrote here, and I think it's because I haven't really done anything spectacular. Some highlights from the past couple weeks:
Saturday night: I went out with my family to a "Chilean Rock" concert, then danced, then decided to go to this club that stays open until 9:00am. Little did I anticipate that we would get close to staying out until then. Around 6ish we wanted to leave, but the bouncers said it was dangerous, so we had to wait it out until the sun came out to rescue us and miraculously, when we left around 7:30 all was peaceful outside. We went back to the apartment, made some breakfast and went to bed. Then in the afternoon we had the Chilean afternoon lunch of empanadas and conversation.
Thursday: A co-worker of mine works at an all girls catholic school and asked Marisa and if we would like to judge the "Beauty and Smarts" part of their week long spirit week. I would like to direct your attention to Marisa's blog because we had very similar reactions. I can only emphasize how much thought and deliberation went into the final decision. Here we were, three "Americans" and another panalist, trying to decide if the team with the most correct answers would win, or the team that displayed a stronger vocabulary should win amidst screaming house music, girls dancing on bleachers surrounding us, not being able to hear one another unless we were right next to each other, and then the giant, four legged Nemo waving at us really helped me step it up a notch and make a decision. I thought, "If two girls can create a four footed paper mached fish and walk around, AND wave at me, then I can declare team Green the victors. After listening to the four high schools give their answers in clean, understandable English, I was brought back down to Earth when I went to Duoc later that day to teach my 26 year olds who couldn't understand me when I asked how their weekend was. But, I can't complain.
Friday night: I really wanted to check out some live music so I shined the signal in the clouds and gathered some friends to come with me to Club de Jazz in Ñuñoa. Ñuñoa is the community just south of where I live, so it was about a 5-10 minute bus ride. It's one of the most famous jazz clubs in Santiago, and while the music was ok, the company was nice. For me, I got a chance to meet more English professors from around Santiago, and share stories. The other people I was with were other TIPS(which is what they call me) from the World Teach program.
Saturday: Tonight I'm going to a birthday party for José-Tomás, Oliver's boy. So basically, he's my nephew. Oliver calls me Uncle Ben, Tío Ben.
Sunday 18th -Wednesday 21st. Steve, my friend who teaches in Viña, and I are headed to Mendoza, Argentina for the week since we don't have class on Wednesday. Why not, right? So I should get some good pictures from that weekend(which happens to start on a Sunday)

New Haircut

2008-05-13T14:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I set out to get a new haircut. After looking for a barbershop on Providencia, and 11 de Septiembre with no luck I decided to go to the hairstylist near the apartment. Here's what I got. It's not too shabby. It has a hint of Chilean to it.

End of the World?

2008-05-08T13:32:00.000-04:00

No, the world is not ending, but these are some amazing pictures that were taken around the sputtering volcano down south.
I got these from this site. And in case you've been out of the Chilean news loop, a volcano erupted about 600 miles south of Santiago last Friday and is still causing a ruckus.

Weekend Recap

2008-05-07T13:54:00.000-04:00

After going to Duoc for classes on Friday, where I had 1/18, 2/14, and 15/18 students show up to my three classes, I came went out to dinner with some of my other US English teachers for some pasta. After that, I came home and Marisa, who had dropped her teaching bag off at my house, and I were greeted by the usual suspects, Marie Jose, Rodrigo, Raul, Juan, and Elizabeth. They invited to enjoy a bottle of wine and converse with them. Of course we did. Our pleasant talking led us to the early morning. It was fun to have someone else around who would occasionally get lost in conversation. Then on Saturday I wandered around a little bit, purchases a Chico Trujillo cd, because I really liked them. Chico Trujillo, you will recall is the band we went to see Wednesday night. I also enjoyed the wonderful weather(See previous post). Then Saturday night we all went out for dinner at an all you can eat seafood restaurant. Now I don't necessarily like seafood, but this was pretty good.(Or do I Jay? I can never remember) They had a buffet of cold dishes, and would walk around with hot dishes and put as much as you wanted on your plate.

(Raul and me at dinner)
Once again is was great having Marisa around because as the table was telling jokes, conversing, and singing a little, Marisa and I were at the end of the table, quietly talking, and trying to catch up with the Spanish conversation. When we finally caught up, I realized that everyone was going around and giving a little speech about Elizabeth, or her family. Ha, well imagine a guy who doesn't really know Spanish that well, and normally needs to think each sentence completely through, trying to give a toast, on the spot to him host mom. It probably didn't make sense and I know I ended it by saying, "I love us."

(Everyone trying to drink away their memory of my horrible toast. OR enjoying each other's company. From left to right. Juan, Marie Jose, Me, Elizabeth, Rodrigo with the peace sign, Oliver, Raul, Cata, and Marisa)
Sunday involved taking a bus to Viña del Mar to Steve's house and attending the Everton/Antofagasta soccer game. It was great to say the least. I had no idea what everyone was chanting, but I joined along.

(This is what it looks like under the gigantic flag that gets pulled over the fans in the general admission section after each goal)
We scouted out what colors to wear, so "fit in." I mean, besides being white, and tall, and mullet free, we fit in.

(It might be hard to differentiate us, but Steve, Vinnie and I are the three guys centered in the photo)
After the game Vinnie, Steve and I made some gourmet spaghetti, and then went out to El Journal with a couple other girls from our program.
Since I'm a teacher now, I pick on things that I didn't before, like when one person asks a question others probably have the same question. Since my mom asked me for more updates about teaching, I figured others may be curious. If not, skip ahead to the video clip. Teaching is just like the CIEE guide book said, rewarding, frustrating, time intensive. There are times when I feel my students understand what's going on and are actually enjoying their time in class, and other times I feel like I am the worst teacher in the world. In reality, I probably fall in between the two. My biggest frustration is that my intermediate students are getting tested with standardized tests instead of concentrated materials which means it is really hard to help students who have a weak base succeed. The last quiz had questions that I had to think about, so it's no wonder the average grade for my first two classes is 11/20. It's hard, but hopefully it will get better. My friend Rachel, who I visited in Buenos Aries gave me a link to some of her materials, so hopefully I can get a little more structure to my lessons. Let's hope I can make a few points with my students and get them to understand my language.

(This is where we were standing during the game. Needless to say it was wild. It's close to the way I felt during my first UW-Madison Hockey game)

Saturday, in the park

2008-05-06T17:54:00.000-04:00

Now I know it was May 3rd, but it felt like it was the fourth of July. I decided if this is what a (November 3rd) day feels like, I'm ready for winter.
I'll post more later, but this weekend was filled with family, friends, and a futbol match in Viña del Mar on Sunday.

(Doing a little journaling near the Pedro de Valdivia metro stop, enjoying the sunny afternoon)

It's a holiday

2008-05-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

Labor Day in Chile is May 1st, and since it falls on a Thursday, that's when we, as in Chilean workers are celebrating it. After feeling like I was back on a normal sleep schedule, I gave it another jolt by doing what I do best: tagging along with my "brother", "sister" and her boyfriend. They said they were going to a concert, or club, or bar, or something. I really didn't know exactly where we were going besides that it was in Barrio Brasil, and the last thing I wanted to do was offend my friends by not participating in their culture. I was pleasantly surprised to see I ended up at a concert and was treated to the sounds of Chico Trujillo. They are a type of cumbia music, which is a mix of rock, latin, and ska music. I enjoyed it quite a bit the only problem for me was the incredible amount of smoke that filled the concrete concert hall, and the fact that the headliner, Chico Trujillo started at 2:30.

(This picture was lifted from the internet, but that's what they looked like)
We left shortly after the first set around 3:30, and ended up in Burger King because it was the only place open. After waiting for a little over 30 minutes to order I decided since I waited, I might as well order. After we get to our table we realize we only have four ketchup packets. So, being the nice I guy I am I told my friends I'd go up and ask for some more. This ended up being another time I wish I knew more Spanish because this girl who was waiting right behind us started smarting off to me about how she waited for 30 minutes in the line and I had to wait as well. She also told me because I'm a gringo I think I can do anything. I tried to explain to her that we waited just like everyone else, in front of her, and I just wanted some ketchup for our food. I think the guy behind her was understanding but she was not happy. I think she was just drunk and tired, and probably sick of gringos. Who knows, maybe asking for more than four ketchup packets for four combo meals is totally out of line? Either way, I left the conversation wishing I had a better vocabulary. But, looking back if I did have a bigger vocabulary and handle on the language, she probably would have gotten even more upset.

"How was the weekend?"

2008-04-29T17:25:00.000-04:00

-Mine was pretty good.
Buenos Aires was wonderful. The city is always buzzing, except maybe Sunday morning, and filled with colorful, beautiful architecture. BsAs(Buenos Aires) is one of the most popular places to visit for a reason. It's not coincidence that you can literally be entertained 24 hours a day. Whether it's staying out until 6:30 dancing, or finishing dinner at 2:00am, or walking the streets in the morning and sipping on a wonderful cup of coffee(café)
(Taking some time to record my thoughts and sip on some delectable cafe)

my time was pleasantly filled. I really feel blessed to have such a good friend, Rachel play tour guide this last weekend. We were able to share experiences about traveling, teaching, and living in a south American city. I'll try to recount what we did, and hopefully it doesn't get boring reading about this communidad, or that plaza, or this monument.
Friday afternoon I arrived and after realizing that I had fallen for the taxi driver's ploy of getting tourists in their cabs and then over charging them, Rachel met up with me at the hostel. The taxi driver saw me looking for the bus/shuttle booth and told me he was the driver. He seemed nice,and I was able to understand him, and the next thing I know, I'm talking about Manu Ginobili(who plays for the Spurs and is from Argentina), this and that, and then I realize I'd been scammed. After a quick mental math session, I realized that I ended up paying about $33 for a cab ride. All in all I ended up paying more than I planned, but for a 40 minute taxi ride in a big city, it wasn't that bad.
We took off for La Boca which is where all the "pictures" of Buenos Aires are taken. Ironically, this part of town is sort of dangerous after dark, so we took off once the sun went down.

(Rachel and I in La Boca, the old shipping port, or "mouth" of the river. Here is where everyone takes a picture) That night Rachel, two girls we met at the hostel and one of Rachel's co-workers went out for pizza at an early 9:00pm. It is true what they say about eating late. When we got to the restaurants, there were plenty of tables, but by 10:30-11:00 it was packed. Then we went up to Chris' apartment for some socializing, and beer sampling. I got a chance to talk with other instructors that are friends with Rachel. They all teach private classes, so we had different experiences to share with each other.
(The gringo English teachers) This would be a good time to mention Rachel loves to take pictures, so literally everything from the weekend is documented. It's great. From Chris' apartment we took off to some well known club where we danced, and goofed around until 6ish in the morning.

(I don't think the picture does it justice, but it was incredibly hot, smokey, and loud. But...when in Rome, right?)
The next day(note day, because we didn't really do anything until noon time) we walked past the Plaza Congreso

, and headed to Recoleta Cemetery where extremely rich people are buried, including Evita. So of course Rachel coaxed me into taking a picture in front of it. I was kind of uncomfortable to begin with, and then a tour group rounds the corner right by me as I'm standing by the memorial. After that we wandered around some markets, had lunch and some gelato. That night we ate at a Peruvian restaurant near the hostel and then walked to Café Tortoni which is the oldest café in Buenos Aires, opening in 1858 and still riding the caffeine buzz. This is where we saw an incredible Tango Show.

(Here is the kind of dancing I like to do now. After watching it a couple times I think I have the hang of it:)) They had a live band, skilled dancers and Rachel, and a friend from the hostel and I had some more Dulce de Leche ice cream and some wine to accompany the show. After the show we went to an Earth Day celebration where there was live music. At the festival I met another friend from the USA who happened to be studying in BsAs this semester. I met up with Kate Lipinski, a friend from camp, and watched a little of the live music with her. Then we all went went out for a drink and called it a night at a modest 4am.
Sunday led us to San Telmo for the the markets and sights. We had a great Italian lunch, watched some live music, and tango dancers on the streets and then had some coffee with a friend of Rachel's roommate who happened on the Plaza. (China? Nope, just the busy markets on Sundays in San Telmo) That means he has live music all day on Sunday. Then we rented some bicycles and rode around town until it was time for more food. We went out to eat at fondue restaurant in Palermo. To give an idea about prices, four of us had the meat sampler which consisted of steak, chicken, ham, chorizo, mushrooms, potatoes, bread, tomatoes with a cheese fondue, dessert of dulce de leche fondue, and a bottle of wine for about $12. All my friends had to work on Monday, so we headed to our respected homes around 12-1 where I encountered a bunch of travelers like myself who did not have to work, so we hung out in our hostel bar till the wee hours of the morning.
(Here's the view of the bar/terrace from the highest terrace on the roof of the hostel. It was really cool)
Monday I walked around by myself on Lavalle and Florida street making my way to Plaza San Martin. Lavalle and Florida streets are filled with book stores, music stores, t-shirt shops, cafes, restaurants, and some museums. It is very touristy so a lot of of the salesmen knew English, so when they would talk to me, I was respond in Spanish. This would confuse them a little bit because they wouldn't know if I knew Spanish or was just bluffing. Usually they would then ask, in Spanish, if I spoke English/Spanish. I would then tell them I didn't speak English, only Spanish and was from Germany, which explained my limited knowledge. I had fun playing that game.
Last night we went to La Bomba de Tiempo en Konex. It was mix of a Rusted Root drum jam/rave/tribal dance/hippy fest kind of place that was really fun. The show started at 8:00pm, so naturally after it we went out to eat...dinner. I once again I treated myself to a steak dish with a creamy mushroom sauce. I'm not a huge steak lover, but from what I ate in Buenos Aires, I'd imagine a steak connoisseur would live and die in Buenos Aires(Probably from eating too much steak ironically) I got back to the hostel around 1:00 and called it a night because I had to wake at a normal time of 7:45 to make sure I got to the airport on time, without paying more than I should. My flights to and from Santiago were smooth besides some drops over the Andes, and I'd label this weekend as a huge success.

My pictures can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

Ready for some good aire

2008-04-23T11:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since I last wrote in here, so I've either been really busy and haven't had time to write, or not that much has happened. I think it's a mix of the two. Last week Tuesday my family celebrated Rodrigo's birthday, and I made him a cake(from a box) and got a bottle of wine for him.
Everyone was very impressed that A) I created a cake with cappuccino frosting from "scratch" and B) I didn't use a fire and burn down the kitchen. It was fun hanging out with the family and play the game, "Let's see how much Spanish Ben understands tonight" which I play quite a bit. At the end of Tuesday's festivities Rodrigo proclaimed, "continuaremos el viernes" so Friday I got a call from Rodrigo and I met up with him and his friends after work. I shifted from understanding and being understood to being lost. But all in all it was a great night.
Then it seems lately after having my Chilean experience I went back to the comfort of my gringo friends and hung out with Vinnie and Steve Saturday for Vinnie's birthday. We went to Vitacura which is in the "nice" part of Santiago. Or as I thought, the "Phoenix" or "Miami" section of Santiago. The buildings, the American chain restaurants, the car dealerships, the prices put me right back to the US, except the Spanish language part. But as we all know, there are sections of Miami and Phoenix where speaking English will make it difficult to move around.
Monday, Steve, Vinnie and I went to a restaurant called Las Vacas Gordas which translates to The Fat Cows. Lonely Planet has it as one of the top five restaurants in all of Chile, and it was great. I ate so much meat that I was still full around dinner time, and breakfast the next day. I'm not eating a lot of meat down here so the overwhelming amount of steak, chicken and chorizo with mashed potatoes. A great place to visit everyone once in a great while otherwise I will be broke, 10 pounds heavier, and have an assortment of health problems. But I don't see anything wrong with once a month or so.
This week I'm basically planning for my trip to Buenos Aires and day dreaming about my winter break trip which Vinnie Steve and I will undertake July 13th - August 3rd or so. We're going to go north to Peru, hiking, camping, surfing and relaxing. You know, we'll need the vacation from.....oh yeah, we're working down here.
Friday I take off and will be meeting a friend from UW-Madison in Argentina. I'll be staying at Hostel Estoril, which is a couple blocks from Rachel's place, I think. Buenos Aires will be mine from Friday afternoon until Tuesday morning, when I return to Santiago. I've heard the air has cleared up so I will be able to see the sights. Last weekend the city was covered in smoke, I haven't confirmed that the city was renamed Aires Malos last weekend, but I have my suspicion.
That's about all for now, I hope everyone had a great Earth Day by recycling, turning off the light when leaving a room, walking, I enjoyed my day by seeing this picture on the front page. We have some work to do here in Santiago.

Center for ANTS?!

2008-04-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

I walk past this every day as enter the building, and laugh (to myself) every time I see it thinking of the Zoolander scene that has this quote:
What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can't even fit inside the building? The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this!
Cue to 0:55 and you'll see what I'm thinking every day.

Welcome to my world.

Remember the 80's?

2008-04-13T18:54:00.000-04:00

Because I don't. Or at least the punk rock stuff that came from London.
I say this because last night after dinner and drinks, the "kids" all went downtown to Club Blondie.

(The "family." From left to right- Elizabeth, Marie Jose, Juan, Raul, Rodrigo, Gringo)

All I knew was that we were going to a discoteque and figured it would either be reggaeton or classic US hits. But I was wrong once again here in Chile. When I say "kids" I mean my sister Marie Jose, her boyfriend Juan, Raul, the old roommate, and Rodrigo, my "brother." And actually I found out Rodrigo is actually the nephew to Elizabeth, but I still call him my brother. Right when I was doing a little mental math about the difference in taking a taxi home, or getting another drink, Raul beckoned us onto the dance floor where I started talking to some people. Maybe they came up to me because I stuck out. This time I don't think I looked different because of my fair skin and light brown hair, but more because of I had on a polo shirt, and khakais on instead of cut of jean jackets, tight holy jeans or a mohawk. Talking in a bar is hard when speaking English, but in Spanish is even more fun. Who knows if I was making sense, but I think I understood a little hear and there.
Back to dinner: It was a Chilean Mexican fiesta, so it was everything you'd expect minus the spices. We had a kind of chicken fajitas and beef fajitas mix, with guacamole, and a home made salsa, onions, and tortillas. Dinner was fun and I got to meet Raul who is a jolly ball of energy just waiting to explode. I say this as a compliment, he is always ready to laugh and follow with a joke. I think he got up during dinner three times to dance.
(Raul, not being shy about the fajitas. When asked if he wanted chicken or meat, he laughed and said why not both? I knew right there he was a good guy. It reminded me of "taco day" at Camp)
I was the DJ and played Tito Puente, and then Orishas which were the only Latin artists I had on my ipod. We decided to go down to the city center and took off at a normal time of 12:45am, and that's when I found myself at the center of punk, indie rocker's dreams.
Friday night after work I was tired and didn't feel like going out, so I just hung out at the apartment chatting with mi madre until Rodrigo came home and I presented a problem to him. I told him I have two new wine glasses from last weekend, but no wine to fill them with. Being the problem solver he is, we got a bottle and spent the night, along with my mom, and later downstairs neighbor Cata talking about all sorts of things, including where and what I thought about the 9-11 attack. A pleasant night.
Wednesday night I bought a plane ticket to Buenos Aires. I'll be there 4/25-4/29 and will visit a friend from UW-Madison who is teaching English over there. She said she'd be my tour guide because there are things she hasn't seen yet and needs to see before she leaves.
I also gave my first round of tests last week and it was interesting how even though I wasn't taking the quizzes, I still felt nervous going into the room wondering how much my students studied, if they learned anything, how well they'll do, etc. Overall, they did well.

(Rodrigo and Raul making Cata dance)
Thursday is Rodrigo's birthday. He turns 31, and at lunch on Saturday I told Marie Jose and Elizabeth that I could bake a cake for him, that it's not that hard, especially with the cake mixes. They then asked where I learned how to bake and I told them on my camping trips, and tried to explain the concept of the dutch over. I think I did, but then a little while later they thought that was the only way I knew how to bake, so I had to explain that I use an oven when I'm home. It was classic when we all realized what happened. They had this image of their gringo house mate baking a cake with a big fire in their kitchen. That was one of many misunderstandings.

(Perusa wanted in on the action too)

If you will it, it is no dream

2008-04-07T21:46:00.000-04:00

What makes a solid weekend?
Drinking, eating, hiking, and speaking Spanish with Chileans?
-Check(Friday night)
Getting out of the city and going on a 5 hour hike in the Andes?
-Check (Saturday morning)
Going to a BBQ(asado) at your friend's house and sharing stories with other CIEE'ers?
-Check (Saturday night)
Going on a vineyard tour, meeting some super outgoing Georgians who invite us back with their tour van to a wine fest and sample more wine, watch a rodeo, and see apopular Chilean Rock n' Roll concert?
-Check(Sunday afternoon and night)
After doing the math, I figured: pisco+ food+ meat+ white bread+ exercise+ a bit of sun + friends - sleep = an awesome weekend.

It started off after class on Friday chit chatting with mi madre until around 11:00 pm when Juan Pablo, or Jota picked me up and we went to a birthday celebration for the wife of his best friend. I really didn't know what I was getting into, but I was excited because I talked with Jota on the phone totally in Spanish, and felt proud of myself. We got to a bar and I was greeted by about 30-40 friends and family of the birthday girl, a piscola, and chips and guacamole. I talked with one of Jota's friend from college for quite a while(en Español) until the conversation turned towards, her trying to arrange private lessons for free in exchange for Spanish lessons. I really didn't know how to tell her that if I go to a bar, I can speak Spanish, and left to use the bathroom. Luckily when I returned, she had moved on to some other friends. I then talked with a couple, and the guy explained to me, that some people feel that they can learn English by being touched by a native speaker. I spoke with his wife for awhile, and got a huge ego booster, when she told me I spoke good Spanish and was very nice. I felt great then, not only because I was meeting new people, speaking Spanish, but also trying to blend in by drinking piscolas. Then finally Jota and Stephanie(his wife) sat down by me and we talked about what I've been up to the last couple weeks. And then they brought us some sushi and around 2:30, some torta(birthday cake). I left the party to people questioning my early exit at 3:30am, to which I told them I had to wake up in 3 hours and then go on a 5 hour hike in Cajón del Maipo. Then my new friends agreed I should probably go home, and remember these friends are all at the minimum of fives years older than me.
Saturday morning I woke up, and met up with three girls from my program who teach in Valparíso. We got to our destination and went on an incredible hike. Ok, so it wasn't incredible, but it was amazing. The views we got to see were breathtaking. Some of the highlights were taking a break on the edge of a cliff overlooking a huge valley,

(Break by a cliff)
lunch by a water reservoir, almost slipping down the entire trek down from the mountain, and sweating a lot.

(Head geologist Benjamin Creagh examines and explains the differences between the aging process of two different rocks. Action picture!)
After our adventure in the mountains we met each other on the main street, 11 de Septiembre and went to Vinnie's house for un asado. That was fun to see everyone again and share stories, and follies of our teaching experiences.

(Vinnie: head chef, host and Washington Redskin fan from Texas)

Sunday was spent letting things happen. We(the four of us, Kat, Kelly, Kathleen and I) went out to eat at Schopdog where I had your basic Chilean salad of lettuce, an avocado, olives, tomato, corn and some chicken with a lot of mayo, topped with avocado oil, lemon juice and salt. Then we went to Chonca y tor vineyard.

(One of the vineyards, where they put roses on the outside to serve as warnings. The roses will get infected and die before the grade vines, and they use to tell the wine makers what color of wine each grape vine would produce)
Did our tour, sampled three good wines, and enjoyed the views and the cellars. The cellars here in this vineyard were much more complex than the ones I visited in Australia. Here they are humidity controlled and temperature controlled to keep the moisture level consitent. A few intersting things about the cellar. The brand is called Casillero Del Diablo because people use to steal bottles, so the owner spread a rumor about the devil being down in the cellar and he'd dress up like the devil and run around and scare the thieves away. Then no one came back in the night to steal anything. I thought that was great.
And during this tour on of the other guys on the tour told me he's been to Cedarburg to visit a client and ice fished. We got to talking and after the tour he offered to take us to a wine festival happening in the town center. So of course we acceted his offer. It was the Fiesta del Vino en Pirque 2008 and for those of you who don't speak Spanish that translates to "try every wine they have at the festival, make friends with the wine makers and finish the bottles with them when it is time to stop serving." Or "The wine festival in Pirque"

(Here's the tent where everyone sampled various local wines, olive oil and cheeses)
The couple that took us under their wing for the night were from Atlanta and they knew no Spanish and had a guide drive them around showing them where to go. This couple was great. At one point in the night Paige said she wanted more wine, but we didn't have any more tickets, so I took her to the guy who told me I could try every wine his winery had, and explained that Paige was my mom and she came to visit me(I am studying at U Chile) and I thought she'd like the one I had. Paige loved having me as her "son" for the night and was impressed with my Spanish speaking skills. Scott was a character in his own way. I'll simply explain him by telling what he bought at the festival. He bought spurs, cowboy boots, and tried to buy a big cowboy hat, but couldn't find a hat big enough. He said he tried to say he has a big melon by saying, "grande melon-o." Around 8:00, Mario Guerrero took the stage and delighted the Chilean crowd and impressed me with his rock n roll concert. Hector(Scott and Paige's guide) said he was a famous Chilean singer.

(Mario Guerrero, rocking out for all the Backstage Betties)
After talking with Hector for some time, I got complemented for the second time in three days on my Spanish skills. I was on cloud 9, not only had I sampled plenty of wine, but a Chilean told me I was pretty good at Spanish. After sampling all the wine I came to two conclusions: one is that I like Carmenerè. It's a red wine specific to Chile. And two, wine has alcohol in it. Both conclusions will come in handy in the near future. Scott and Paige were amazingly generous and ended up getting us dinner, some beer and a ride back to my apartment. Since this relaxing afternoon jaunt to a winery turned into a late night exhibition, the girls missed the last bus home to Valpo Sunday night and left for home at 5:45 am because Kelly had to teach at 8:00am. Luckily she was just giving a test.
In other news:
After wandering around for awhile, I found an organic market. I met the owner and he said in 10-14 days they're getting their first shipment and will have a fully stocked store of organic and natural products. That will be nice. Currently ,they have coffee, rice cakes, pasta, and of course, creatine? Creatine, of course, when consumed makes you look like this.

Cross walks are multi lengual.

2008-04-01T17:50:00.000-04:00

This crosswalk is at one of the three intersections I pass on my daily commute. Every time I see it I laugh.

More pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

Go Take a Hike...

2008-03-31T22:01:00.000-04:00

What do you do when you don't want to make lesson plans and have been in a city of 6 million inhabitants for over 7 days?
Go take a hike.
Exactly, that's what I did by taking off to the Andes. I decided to explore Cajón del Maipo.
This morning after leaving Marie Jose at her bank, I boarded the Metro and then switched to a collectivo, and finally got dropped off in San Gabriel, where I thought I'd be able to simply walk up a mountain, or find a path. A collectivo is like a taxi, but they have pre-determined routes and cost much less. My ~30 minute ride was about $5. After 30 minutes or so of walking up a dusty dirt road with huge trucks passing me, I decided to turn around and walk down towards Santiago until I found a picnic area to enjoy the day and the rushing river. On the way up I saw a bunch of places, but I guess I forgot I was in a car with a driver going faster than he should, so there I was with no real plan, walking down the road.
But I didn't really care, it was quiet, the flowers smelled sweet, the river was on my right, and the air was clear, free of smog. What more could I want? Maybe a travel companion? Or an idea of where I was or how to find a trail head? Probably, but I was content. I only had one time where I felt my heart race when a large dog jumped at me(luckily there was a fence to protect me) at the same time a double bedded truck zoomed past me about 2 feet away. But after about 20 km, and a little over three hours I was ready to sit down, eat my ham and cheese sandwich, with avocado and peach that I packed in the morning. When I finally found a place to picnic in San Alfonso, I was in heaven. I enjoyed my sandwich and proceeded to take a nap for a little over an hour near the river.

I think I'll try to go back and do the hike the park offers. It looks like a nice hike and there is a cool looking waterfall to find on the other side of the river. By the time I got there, my feet were not ready to pedal me uphill.
All in all, it wasn't what I expected, but it was nice. It was peaceful, especially once I found the relaxing park. Next time I'll either buy and bring a book with hiking routes, or try to coax someone with a car to bring me to the sights. There is a glacier and thermal springs in that area.

Another view from the afternoon hike.

On Sunday I took a walk around the city, and decided to take a picture of my school. So if you were wondering what my school looks like, here is it.

Fun Times and Great food with Chileans

2008-03-30T09:47:00.000-04:00

The last couple of days have been great. Thursday morning my "mama" and I went to Vega Central, which is the huge farmer's market in Santiago. It is huge and my mama and I estimated we bought about 20-24 kg of food. We bought 4 kg of potatoes(patatas), 4 kg of onions(cebollas), lemons(limóns), oranges(naranjas), a couple different lettuces(lechugas), bananas(plátanos), apples(manzanas), avocados(paltas), corn(choclo), carrots(zanahorias), 2 dozen eggs(huevos), broccoli(bróculi), and probably some other things I forgot. Here's a picture of my mama buying some cilantro.

My hands we really sore after we got back, but it was worth it to have tons of fresh food for meals. I've been craving fruits and vegetables since I arrived and had heard about this mythical place were everything is super barato(cheap) and finally I capitalized on it.

Friday night was spent in the house cramped around the tiny kitchen table. There were six of us in the kitchen, and no one mentioned we go into the living room. Oh well. Vinnie came over with a bottle of Pisco after I finished work. We had a little dinner of palta, jamón(ham) and queso. Then my mama, my sister, her pololo(boyfriend), my brother, Vinnie and I hung out till the early morning talking and enjoying our cultural experience of imbibing Chilean drinks and telling stories. It was great. Here's a picture from the that night.

Saturday was the day of eating. I woke up and made a beautiful omelet, then a couple hours later Marie Jose(sister) prepared a wonderful almuerzo(lunch) of humita and veggies, so I couldn't resist the invitation to join her and Juan(her boyfriend). After that feast, I got a text message from one of my Duoc co-workers Veronica, asking if I wanted to come over to her house for an asado(bbq). Of course I'll go to someone's house and probably be the sole gringo. Around 7:00, Vinnie and I took off on the Metro and she picked us up and the next thing we knew we were sipping Heineken with her family and friends. I'm getting comfortable with meeting family members now. Veronica turned 30 on Wednesday, and her husband also had a birthday two weeks ago so it was a big party for them. Strangely enough her husband of 5 years, Casey is from Michigan. We instantly bonded by sharing the same trait of describing our state with our hand. Casey brought two snowboards down and said I can use his old snowboard if I can't figure out how to get mine down here. When we(USA residents) think of BBQ we usually imagine hot dogs/brats/ burgers with chips, maybe a salad and some beer. Here in Chile an asado is an event. We showed up around 7:45 and the charcoal was lit a little after 8:00. When it was all said and done we finished with homemade birthday cake around 12:30am. The order of serving for an asado is the following: appetizers of pretzels, chips, peanuts and beer/wine/or liquor. Then later, the Chilean version of hot dogs are served. After this, you are feeling content only to look at the grill and see the equivalent of a couple chickens, and a sizable portion of a cow sizzling, and then the main dishes are brought outside consisting of a salad, rice/corn dish, tomato dish, and breads. When all the dishes are cleared everyone is full beyond belief and there is usually some food left over. I swear when Chileans plan for an asado, they think, "ok there will be about 15 people at our party, but just to be safe, let's get enough food and alcohol for 30." The guests were a mix of other co-workers, my site coordinator and some family members. Since the majority of the people were Chileans who teach English they were having fun teaching us gringos Spanish verbs, and pronunciation. It was nice because I wasn't the worst Spanish speaker at the party and was able to explain myself when they asked me questions.
One again, my belief that the people here are incredible was reinforced. Good times, food, people, learning. I feel blessed everyday I'm down here, because so far things are working out for me.

(Last night we had our daylight savings, so I believe Chile is now in Eastern Time Zone)

World Class(less) Runner

2008-03-25T18:20:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken last year, when I was a running star at Madison

http://www.crazylegsclassic.com/

Mark it

2008-03-25T11:38:00.001-04:00

For the count, I've been asked by Chileans twice now for directions while walking down the street. At least I look the part.
Today I walked to the Civil Registry and picked up my Cédula de Identidad Extranjeros (ID card for foreigners).

This afternoon my class will be filling in the blanks to Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet it is(to be loved by you)" The words you, my, eyes, Thank you will be obmitted for the beginners, and a few more will be out for the intermediate. I would have used the James Taylor version, but I only have a live version, and didn't want to spend 24 minutes listening per class.

Teach your children.

2008-03-24T19:58:00.000-04:00

Two weeks of teaching and I'm still unsure of how I'm doing. I feel like the students go from feeling really bored and checking their watches, to having a lot of fun. Along with that feeling, I don't know if they are actually learning anything. Last week I lectured on the Wh-questions, then had them ask each other questions like, "How old are you, where are you from, what's your name...etc. I had them practice with each other before I brought in my real life "friend" who they didn't know. I went to the door and looked down the hallway, and motioned for someone to come in. I then walked into the classroom and pulled up a picture of Snoop Dogg. Everyone laughed, and I had them ask him questions while I answered for Snoop. Then I told the class, "Actually, my girlfriend is out in the hallway too. Let me get her." The picture I showed was of Shakira, and had the students ask about her. For one of my classes that is all male, and fun because they try hard to understand English, I had them get in groups. I then set up a scenario where they were in the club and "Sara Dalton" walked in, and she spoke no Spanish, so they had to come up with questions to ask her in English. I had fun, my students had fun, but I'm not sure if they will remember anything. I guess I'll find out soon. The first quiz is next week.

Last weekend for Easter break, Vinnie and I decided to take it easy and head to the coast again. One of our friends got hit by a car two weekends ago, and Vinnie was having troubles with his bank, and finalizing his contract. My travel buddies were either in cast, or without money/contact and suffering from blisters form walking 4 hours home due to not being able to pay for a bus. It worked out well. Thursday night our friends Kat, Kathleen(fellow ciee teachers) and their roommate Mario had an asado(Chilean barbecue). Then Friday a couple of us rented bikes and biked up the coast to the next city and had a long, relaxing lunch. I had raneka, with rice and tomato and my new favorite Chilean Beer, Cristal red. After that we walked up and down the beach, and read for a little while before biking back home. That night Vinnie and I cooked a spaghetti dinner for Katie, who hosted us for a couple nights. Then we looked and found the perfect bar. It is called Blamo, and underneith the sign it reads, "All Beer." They were not kidding when they said all beer. There were five coolers filled with liters of beer. It was great. Each liter costs 1000 pesos, which is a little over $2. Saturday we visited Steve, our fallen friend in the early afternoon and then walked back to the beach for coffee and ice cream. Everything is within walking distance in Viña and Valparaiso or a short taxi/subway ride. That night we went back over to Kat and Kathleen's place in Valpo and taught Mario some games and then went to a bar in Viña for a birthday party. It was a dance club, where they played a variety of US tunes ranging from Spice Girls, to Shania Twain with other old hits in there as well. Oh and they played some other music that I couldn't understand. When the Spanish songs were played I looked around, and realized that the whole club was at a different level than us. For us, the Spanish songs were simply beats, and for Chileans, the English songs were simply beats. Interesting.
Easter was spent with Vinnie as we bussed it back from Viña to Santiago. We enjoyed a great churrascos from a fast food restaurant in the bus station in Santiago. I picked up some kind of cold, or allergy so I went to bed around 10 last night and woke up at 11 this morning, because I can.
My goals now, are to find the fresh food markets. Kat and Kathleen went to one in Valpo where the three of them spent $16 and have a fridge full of fruits and veggies and a bag full of corn and potatoes. I'd enjoy that. I also want to find day trip destinations and hopefully head out this weekend on one of them, and finish lesson plans a week at a time, instead of day to day.

A story or two

2008-03-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, last weekend I went with Juan Pablo and his wife to visit his Grandparent's home about an hour and half south of Santiago. On the way we checked out a house Juan Pablo is helping to build for a friend of his dad. The house is huge and may be done by June. House warming party? Old School style?
Then we made it to the casa, which was basically set up for huge parties and barbecues. They had a huge stone grill set up, and a big table under a canopy of grapevines. There is a little stream nearby, and it is clear, quiet and relaxing. For lunch(served around 3:00) we had chicken, pork, a lettuce based salad, tomato and onion salad, tomato, potato, bread, and a homemade salsa, some wine and coke. It was great. I found myself lost in conversation when the family was having table talk. Giving each other a hard time, making fun, telling stories etc. I mean, that's what I think they were saying. Every once in a while someone would turn to me and ask, "¿entiendas?"(do you understand?) to which I liked to answer, "un poco"(a little) so they will continue to talk and not solely focus on me. Seated with me at the table was JP's Grandma, and Grandpa, Gpa's friend and his wife, and another friend of Gpa, Juan Pablo, his wife Stephanie, and JP's cousin, oh and me. Here's the family, with me. I'm the guy in the back. But after lunch and dessert of freshly picked grapes from above, I talked with some of the old guys. For those one on one conversations, I was able to understand and explain myself. For one they involved simple vocabulary, and the other I've been answering those type of questions for the last three weeks. So after some nescafé we left back to the big city. On the way back we bought some pan(bread) from some street vendors for dinner. The street vendors have huge earthen, fire stoves, and the bread is extremely cheap, and tasty.

Let's see. One week of teaching under my belt. It's a blast. Some classes are more fun than others, but every class has some huge disparates in ability. Some students can't make introductions in my intermediate classes, and some students in my basic classes are able to have conversations with me after classes. Some funny stuff: When asked for their favorite musicians, I got a wide variety, ranging from Phil Collins, Snoop, Reggaeton, to Staind. Also, I brought my ipod player in and played, "It's not unusual" and in each class everyone started snapping fingers and singing along. I couldn't help but laugh, and in one class I was motivated to do the Carton Dance when someone else asked if this was from the Fresh Prince. Well, it wasn't quite like Carlton's.
The coast was beautiful, like expected. My Vinnie and I had sore legs from the hills. I swear all of my friends who work on the coast will have rock solid legs by the end of the year. We visited two of my friends' homes, and both have excellent views of the ocean. The majority of our time was spent relaxing on the beach and sharing stories from week one of teaching. I'll be going back again sometime soon.
Tonight, there was a classical concert outside my house at the municipalidad, so I watched that while the weather is still awesome. I've been here almost a month and it's rained one night. Not too shabby. I'm going to enjoy it because I hear winter is a different story.
This week I only have two days of teaching. We are currently coming up with some travel plans.

Pictures of my new home

2008-03-14T09:31:00.001-04:00

Below are some pictures of my new place. My first week of teaching is almost over. I have three, back to back to back classes of 1.5 hours this afternoon. It's going well, and is pretty intense to come up with lesson plans basically all on my own. The students don't have text books for my basic class, and my intermediate, no one has text books. Neither have arrived yet, which is normal here, I guess. This weekend Vinnie(a friend from CIEE) and I are going to the coast to visit Steve(another guy from CIEE) and see the sights of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar.

^Here's one view of my room, as you walk through the door.

^And my closet, which is on the right when you walk in. Notice how clothes are neatly organized, a spectacle not to be repeated anytime soon.

^And the view of my wall which is on the left as you walk into my room. I think the last person who lived here, or a friend of Elizabeth's son painted that. Sometimes I just nod my head when I don't completely understand things, and it's not important. If I ever have guests I'll probably tell them I painted the wall.

^The living room. Like most living rooms, it is usually empty. We also hang out in the kitchen even though it is tiny. No matter what culture, people also congregate in kitchens.

^From basically the same spot as the previous picture, here's the kitchen.

^From the window's to the wall.. Here's the whole apartment. From the end of the kitchen and the window of my room in the background

Some Maps!

2008-03-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

It will help to click on the pictures so they enlarge, but they're some decent pictures taken from Google Earth.

^Here is a close up view of where I'll be living, and where I'll be teaching. I'm really excited about living so close to everything, in a quiet neighborhood, and close to the Metro(subway).

^And here is where I am situated, looking at the big picture.

On the move

2008-03-07T11:52:00.000-05:00

Great news. I don’t know how, or why, but the cards have really fallen my way in the last week. On Wednesday, Hector, one of the CIEE program coordinators sent out an email asking if anyone who is teaching in Plaza Oeste wanted to switch sites to one in Providencia. The difference between the two are night and day. Plaza Oeste is about an hour and fifteen minute commute from the nice part of town, and the other site, Antonio Varas is in a nice neighborhood, and close to the subway, cafes, and restaurants. Antonio Varas(the campus name) is also where we have been having our orientation, so I kind of know the neighborhood and the area. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to switch and hoped my email was sent before everyone else. The next day, I got a confirmation email from Hector saying I was switched! That afternoon I went to three different places and found a place to live, three blocks from campus with a sweet mother and her daughter. Her son just moved out, I think, and her daughter works at a bank in town. My “madre,” Elizabeth has some basic English knowledge, which is basic nouns and verbs. That day was fun because I had to use and comprehend Spanish at all three places, and by the third visit I was able to speak fairy confidently. It also didn’t hurt that by the third visit I could anticipate what questions they would ask me, and I had been corrected two previous times on my pronunciation, and word choice. I felt really comfortable with the mom and the daughter, we were able to joke around a little and they seemed like great people. The daughter, Maria Jose, who I think is about my age, is excited to practice, and learn English. It is such a weight off my shoulders to know that on Monday I’ll have a home to move into, and finally settle in, start cooking, and get situated with a family.
Also, I emailed Juan Pablo to tell him the good news of my site change, and he replied with encouraging things to say about my neighborhood and asked if I wanted to go with him and Stephanie to visit his grandparents about a half hour outside of Santiago. Of course I couldn’t turn that down, so on Sunday I’m going to meet los abuelos (the grandparents). Why not?
And last night I got my teaching schedule, and it is pretty good. I teach Tue/Thur at 4:00-5:30, and 7:00-8:30, and Wed/Fri 4:00-5:30,5:31-7:00, 7:01-8:30. Yeah my Friday runs a little late, but I don’t teach on Monday, and don’t start again on Tuesday until 4:00, which leaves me with a lot of traveling time, especially holidays, when we have a Friday off. Some of my friends teach 8:00am-2:00pm on Saturdays, or until 10:45pm on the weeknights. One girl has one class at 9:30 on Monday, and then the next is Tuesday night. All in all I’m happy with my schedule. I keep forgetting that people go out to eat around 9:00, 10:00, so teaching until 8:30 isn’t that late. And my school is a five-minute walk from my apartment. I think that just about covers this week. We have to go back for one more class this afternoon, then CIEE is taking us out for a “farewell dinner.” Tomorrow the guys who work on the coast, about half of our group take off.
Then on Tuesday I start teaching after our “intensive” four day training period. It should be interesting.

All my pictures

2008-03-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

Here's all the pictures I've taken so far here in Chile. Enjoy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bjcreagh

Today we went to the Cerro San Cristobal, which is where the pictures of the Santiago skyline were taken.

Mi nuevo casa.

2008-03-01T17:07:00.001-05:00

This afternoon we moved from our "Rent A Home" condos to our temporary housing(or permanent if we don't want to leave) about five blocks down the road. It is a little more realistic here. In our old place we had two tv's, an AC unit, kitchen, I had my own room and bathroom, my two roommates shared a room and had their own bathroom, and two couches. Writing this at 7:30, it is 83 F in my room. It's like the last week I forgot that it is hot in the summer. Here we have basic accommodations. This afternoon a couple guys and I wen to the grocery store and bought some "easy" foods to eat. We don't have culinary or pots and pans, so we are kind of limited with what we can eat. I plan on moving into a apartment with a furnished kitchen so I'm hesitant to buy pots and pans for the next couple weeks.
Yesterday we went to Pomaire, about 65 kilometers southwest of Santiago and ate some enjoyed another huge lunch of traditional food including, pastel de choclo, and huge empanadas. Pastel de choclo is a typical Chilean dish made of ground fresh corn (choclo) with basil served in a earthen style bown. Then we walked around the town for awhile checking out the shops. It was such a nice town, and I think I just really enjoyed it because it was outside of the city. It will interesting to see how much city life I can take, or if I'll come to love the big city.
Last night the ciee group went out and sampled the Santiago nightlife, again. It was fun to hangout with everyone, and see what the Chileans like to dance to. Dr. Dre really made the dance floor bounce.

^Here's looking into my massive room. To the right is my closet, one of the coolest parts of my room.

^And the other view of my room. This view is looking towards the door. As you can see, it's pretty basic, but I don't need anything much more expansive than this.

^Here's the view from the street of Pomaire. It's wild that in Santiago, you rarely can see the Andes because of the smog but out here it is a lot more clear.

^Willy the potter was able to made a bowl, vase, candle holder, piggy band, you name it and he can make it, and in under two minutes. It was amazing watching him take a clump of clay and make a piece of art.

^Those crazy Chilean kids, what are they going to come up with next? The street is meant to read, "Roto Chileno" which translates to broken Chilean, but it now reads, "Poto Chileno." Poto is slang for ass, or butt, so it is proven that the entire world is still laughing at potty jokes.

^Here's a view of the sunset from my third floor room.

Cuando en Roma

2008-02-28T11:51:00.000-05:00

Another day, another adventure. So I met a couple on the airplane when I flew down here, Juan Pablo y Stephania, and Juan Pablo told me to call him when I get a chance. I was going to email him yesterday, and woke up to an email from him, so I emailed him back in Spanish (then wrote out what I meant in English underneath) and sent him a text message saying, "I'm done for the day, want to meet up for a drink, coffee, or dinner?" We were done with CIEE activities for the day around 3:00 and I got a little bored so I walked around the city, got lost for probably 20 minutes, then found my way back to the hotel. On my stroll I bought some peaches and an orange for what I thought would be my dinner. After I got back, around 7:30ish I get a phone call from Juan Pablo, who wanted to know if I wanted a ride to his place because he was having some friends over for drinks. I said sure, ¿Por qué no? (Why not?) Ends up he bought some supplies for his friend when in the USA at PetCo and was giving the ferret food to him last night. We went grocery shopping and picked up supplies for pizzas, and pisco. We get to his house and sat down to make some pizzas and mixed some drinks. Mind you I'm basically Chilean when it comes to meals so putting a home-made pizza in the oven a little after 10:00 didn't bother me. Juan Pablo's best friend from college Rodrigo and his wife were the other guests at his house besides me. I mainly talked with Juan Pablo about 70% Spanish and could accurately describe to the others when they asked me pointed questions, like, "How many other people are in your program, where is everyone teaching, do you like pisco and coke, or pisco and ginger ale better, and why, and some other questions that I don't really remember. Juan Pablo was concerned that I might get ripped off when I go house shopping and he said he'd go with me some afternoon or Saturday to look at places I find. All of us at "dinner" had a good time making fun of US stereotypes and other US things. One funny story Juan Pablo and Rodrigo told was that in Chile, when you're hungry, you eat a pizza becuase that is about the right serving size. The two of them were in the US visiting Juan Pablo's mama and got hungry. They both ordered a pizza. But the pizza was like the size of a pizza from Ian's, or Pizza DeRoma, or where you normally buy one slice. They said they sat down in the pizza shop and each ate the entire pizza. It took them over an hour, and they felt sick afterwards, but they didn't really know what else to do. At the end of the night, I felt a little better with my Spanish, but still I don't feel comfortable because when I was at the grocery store the clerk asked me a question, then repeated, then asked me a question I understood. She asked me if I understand, and that I could reply with a confident, "no, I don't understand you"
The other guys in our group are fun. I think I'll visit them on the weekends because they both have hook-ups with housing on the coast. They're both living in Valpo. The nightlife is different here. People meet up and sit down for dinner around 10:00-11:00 at night. It seems like people sit down and have dinner instead of sitting around and just drinking. I'm not quite sure yet. Also I haven't figured out the meal schedule. Apparently you're suppose to have a light breakfast, a big lunch and a light dinner. But every meal I've had has been large and good. Oh well, I'm still getting it.
This afternoon we start our Chilean Spanish lessons. Should be interesante.

The first days

2008-02-27T13:34:00.000-05:00

The last couple days have been great. I realized that our orientation has been more of a Santiago familiarization more than anything else. Tomorrow we start doing some more Chilean Spanish work, and next week we are trained by the college to do our teaching. I've been told it is very intense, perhaps even too intense.
Yesterday we walked around Barrio Lastarria, a bohemian, cultural part of town and had lunch there. Lunch consisted of pisco sour, then a salad bar, then an entree of spinach stuffed chicken with bacon covering it, and some wonderful creamy sauce on top. Then we had a creamy orange/caramel cheesecake for dessert with coffee after. After it was all said and done it was a 2.5 hour lunch. (So far the food has been fresh and tasty. A couple of us are planning on going to the markets on Sunday and loading up on fresh, inexpensive fruits and foods).

The chicken (pollo) lunch plate.
Then we walked to La Chascona (the home of Pablo Neruda's house). Pablo Neruda was a very important poet in Chile. After the tour a couple of us stopped walked back and had a few liter's of Escudos (Chilean beer). Later six of us had dinner at a Chilean time of 10:00 PM, followed by a little karaoke. I mean, what better way to break the ice than singing songs in front of new friends and strangers. Tom Jones was on the played.
Today we took a trip to the Mapuche Center on the outskirts of the city. It was an eye-opening experience to see what the people have gone through, and it was inspiring to see the younger generation of Mapuche very involved in their culture. I understood most of it, but there were sections were I was completely lost in the Spanish.
Now we're all hanging out for a while until dinner. I think I will wander around the neighborhood in a little bit. We are in a great part of the city and the accommodation's are incredible. I left a pair of pants on my bed on accident and when I got back yesterday, they were folded.
That's all for now. It will be interesting to see what happens when more and more of the instruction is conducted in Spanish. I am going to look for a place to stay next week where I live with some Chileans.

^The view of the Andes from my balcony.^

^Mural outside of Neruda's home.^

^Ceremonial Mapuche dance.^

^Don't run in the metro(subway) or you'll end up like this figure. I obeyed the rules.

Estoy Aqui! y telefono

2008-02-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

Finally I'm here in Chile. My day of travel was very smooth. I slept for about 6 hours last night on the plane, and even woke up to breakfast in bed. The stewardess woke me up to serve me. I met a couple from Santiago, and they gave me their phone number and wanted to take me out, show me around and go snowboarding in the winter. So we'll see how that goes. I've been able to chop my way through communication so far and people more or less understand me. Now it's off to walk around before almuerzo. Hasta luego.

At 5:45 PM
I bought a cell phone. I get free incoming calls and my number is: 011-569-7-874-2928. Easy enough.

My bags are packed I'm ready to go...

2008-02-23T19:29:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I leave for Chile. My dad dropped me off at my friend's house in St. Charles (about an hour west of Chicago) Friday afternoon after I finally got my visa. I've been hanging out here catching up with friends and my friend's family. After the months of work I put into getting my visa, the actual process of getting into the Chilean Consulate and doing the "interview" (do you speak Spanish? Un poco. Can you read it? Un poco) they took my finger prints and I was on my way. A total time in the Hancock Center of about 30 minutes(that includes parking the car and taking the elevators up and down)
Right now I'm feeling a mixture of excitement, nervousness and anticipation brewing in my body, and I'm really excited to get down there and take on the challenges and adventures associated with this job.
I'll try to update this blog as much as possible and find a way to post more pictures. But for now, wish me good luck as I undertake 24 hours of travel. I leave Chicago at 8:55 AM Sunday, then leave Minneapolis at 2:25 PM, then finally leave for Santiago, from Atlanta at 9:10 PM and arrive in Chile at 8:30 Monday morning. Training and orientation starts Monday afternoon!

Camp Manito-wish Pictures

2008-02-17T22:03:00.001-05:00

Mom and Dad on out in the woods.

Brooke and I before our epic ski.

Taking Mika out for a walk and a ski.

Jay was sooo comfortable that he napped with her.

Jay and Brooke also like Mika's new bed.

Mika, posing for the camera.

The Creagh's go to Camp

2008-02-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

This weekend the Creagh's went to Camp Manito-wish to visit Jay and Brooke, oh and apparently they have a puppy too. Jay, Brooke and I showed my parents all of the hotspots of the northwoods. This includes Bent's Camp for Friday fish Fry, Headwaters for a Jeff(Bartenter) drink, and JJ's Friday night. Then on Saturday we all hit the ski trails. At sun set we were all pleasantly tired and eager to share stories of our day. Mom and Dad skied together, Brooke, Jay and I went out in the morning, then in the afternoon Brooke and I went out for a loop and Jay went skate skiing at a ski course nearby. Jay, Brooke and I made a pizza from scratch for my parents and then we met up with some other friends who were working up there/visiting and hung out around a bonfire with clear skies above.
The weekend was great, but too short. We all enjoyed skiing, hanging out with family(and Mika) and checking out the northwoods in the winter, contrasting it from its summer appearance.

Link it up

2008-02-13T10:28:00.000-05:00

I added some links to other friends and family's blogs. Jay and Brooke(mainly pictures of Mika), Amos (teaching English in Hungary), and Laura (Peace Corp volunteer in Samoa, finishing in November) and Hannah (study abroad in Ecuador).
No new updates about my visa application besides that I have a Feingold Representative submitting an expedited request to the FBI, and I have collected all of the background records I can get a hold of(Manitowoc, Madison, Statewide background for the last 7 years from Camp) to maybe make a deal/plea/bargain with the consulate if I don't hear from the FBI.

Trade in your striped shirts for plaid flannels

2008-02-10T13:31:00.000-05:00

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.

Mika in Manitowoc for Chirstmas.

Mika finding it comfortable to play under a chair.

Self picture cross country skiing Thursday morning.

Ice crystals formed on the branches making everything glisten.

Just a beautiful, crisp, Wisconsin winter morning.

Back from the retierment lifestyle...

2008-01-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

... And I started to get used to the daily rhythm and flow in Green Valley

After spending eleven glorious days with my grandma in Green Valley, I am back in Wisconsin. Last night I realized that I was adjusted to Green Valley life because of these reasons.
1. I unconsciously drive five below the speed limit.
2. 9:00pm rolls around and I start to get tired and am thinking about going to bed.
3. It doesn't seem absurd to engage in a conversation about the "wind chill" effect when it is 57 degrees.
4. Driving to the grocery store at 7:00pm and seeing three other cars doesn't surprise me.
5. I wear a jacket when the temperatures dip down into the chilly low 50's

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Green Valley with the warm weather and good company. It was great that I had the freedom to extend my stay and help out my Grandma until she felt more comfortable taking care of everyday tasks by herself.

I now think that I am going to travel down to the friendly confines of Madison on Wednesday and enjoy the talents of Sean Moore as he rips up the comedy circuit performing both Wednesday and Thursday night, and then head down to Chicago for the weekend.

Grandma and I eating dinner one evening.

Carpe Diem

2008-01-22T22:08:00.001-05:00

I awoke to the brutal sonorous ringing of my alarm clock well before the sun was even thinking about showing itself. I dressed for the day's expedition at base camp(1051 W Calle Excelso) where I had been adjusting to the altitude at 3000 feet and acclimating my body to the the rigors of high altitude excursions with the help of my trainer, Ruth Creagh. I hesitantly checked the day's forecast and was uplifted to see that the weather will hold, and the unrelenting winds and snows had past, maybe overnight, maybe earlier. I knew the task I was about to undertake would seem reckless and heedless to some, but I knew deep down in my heart it was something that needed to be done. I was going to do what no other human being had ever done before in the history of the world, I was going to risk my life ad wager my soul to summit the last unknown peak on our planet Earth: Mt. Wrightson. For centuries man has wondered what magical views and spirits lay atop that rocky and rugged terrain, and I, Benjamin James Creagh, son of John Creagh Sr. was about to go up and conquer that mountain once and for all. This summit would not be for personal gratification, or mearly to chart the unknown, but more to celebrate the nature of man-kind in our continual pursuit of exploring the unknown.
At the base of Madera Canyon, I began my assent armed with the bare minimum to allow for a quick assent and to stay light of foot in case of an unruly wild encounter. Within the first hour I was bombarded with tens of birds, ranging from migratory to native to woodpecker species. They continually made dives at my head, trying to keep me away from the secrets their fortress has been able to conceal for so many centuries. I made my way up and made eye contact with a mountain lion, who quickly recognized the viciousness in my eyes and retreated because my stare. Nothing could stop me to find the apex of that mountain, not even the ice and snow that greeted me at 7500 feet, no I was a man on a mission.
The rest of the world depended on me for this. Did Lewis and Clark turn around when they saw snow? Did Christopher Columbus about-face when the Arctic winds blew? Did Ferdinand Magellan head north when it got cold in South America? Did Neal Armstrong give up when gravity ceased to exist? Was Benjamin James Creagh about to let snow, wind, and ice deter him from creating history? no.
On I marched my slow and steady gait leading me up the mountain over downed trees, around frozen waterfalls and head into the fierce, bitterly cold blowing wind. My legs felt as if they were about to fail me on every step, I probably was delirious from the altitude and cold, but all of a sudden, I looked up and realized I was about 1 mile from destiny. The one place that has held the millions of people's thoughts and imagination was soon about to be seen, from an entirely new perspective. Up I went, switching back attempting to negate the steep mountain side. Finally after a little under three hours, I was on top of the world with a view of Mexico, Green Valley, Tucson, and Sierra Vista. Oh the joy I felt looking out over the southern Arizona landscape feeling the complete and euphoric bliss the accompanies such an epic achievement. Standing on top of Mt. Wrightson I knew that the feeling I felt up there could never be translated into archaic words, but needed to be discovered from the soul within.

Correction: Apparently the hike I did was a popular day hike in the national forest reserve. Honest mistake. But seriously it was a fun hike. I hit the trailhead at 7:20 am, and reached the peak around 9:45. I had an early lunch at the peak and nearly froze myself solid. If I were to do it again, I'd bring pants to change into, hat and gloves. I'd guess it was in the high 30's with a nice wind on top. The trail was snow and ice covered for the last 1.5-2 miles of the hike which made the climb down very interesting. I only fell twice coming down. Also in the morning I did see a mountain lion walking up the mountain about 30 minutes below Josephine's saddle when I stopped for some water.

It wasn't exactly warm up there. This was taken near the peak.

I've seen ski resorts with less snow.(Picture from the last 0.9 mile stretch)

Mt. Wrightson is the peak on the left.

Down in Arizona with Grandma

2008-01-17T19:51:00.000-05:00

I got home from Lake Tahoe late Sunday night after another great week of snowboarding and entertainment. I gambled for the first time and ended up winning $44.56 ($20.00 blackjack, $22.50 blackjack, $2.00 slot machines, $0.06 slot machine) The ticket for $0.06 I found at a machine when I was talking on the phone and I had no problem going up to the cashier's window and cashing out six cents. The cashier really didn't know how to handle the exchange because it was such a small number. Also, to play a slot machine you have to put in a dollar, so if someone were to really cash out six cents it would only be after losing $0.94. Either was funny and Tahoe really is a beautiful ski resort. The contrast of lakes and mountains reminded me a little of New Zealand.
After getting home I went down to Madison for a day to finish up some Resale business and run some errands for my Teach Abroad program. I finally sent out the set of poles, boots and skis to the vendors that they belong to(from the December 1st and 2nd sale) and answered a few financial questions in the Hoofer office. Then got my travel shots for Chile. I ended up getting four shots( tetanus, hepatitis A, influenza and Typhoid fever). They were the most expensive shots I've ever taken, and now my shoulders are sore. That night I was able to meet up with some friends that I went to school with at UW-Madison. We went out for dinner at the Great Dane and had some drinks at everyone's favorite Churchkey Bar.
Today I arrived in Green Valley, AZ to visit my Grandma Creagh. It should be a nice, relaxing time down here. My flights went smoothly and I slept for most of the trip out here. I'm going to help my Grandma around the house and she's going to teach me some tricks about my computer(seriously, she knows more about mac's than I do). I think it's an even trade off.

Some pictures from Vail

2008-01-11T19:10:00.001-05:00

Dylan and I as we were snow-shoeing in the valley.
   A little fun doing some jump after snow-shoeing.
         The view from the top of Vail chairlift.
   A cool rainbow showing itself when we were waiting for the bus one    morning
   Vail liked me so much the decided to name a run after me :)

You know me, I can't complain

2008-01-09T01:03:00.000-05:00

On January 1st I left Manitowoc at 4:45am and arrived in Vail, CO to visit Dylan, a good friend from college around 1pm. I had quite possibly the best riding I've ever experienced in Vail(until Tahoe). Right before I got there they got dumped on, and while I was there they got close to two feet of snow. One of the days Dylan and I shoe-shoed up a trail and created a little kicker(jump). After entertaining ourselves and each other on the jump we snowboarded down the path right to his truck, which was stuck in the road. Randomly a tow truck found us and towed us out. Overall I snowboarded 4 days in Vail, and snow-shoed the other day, and had a great time there. Dylan was a great host and has a sweet place about twenty minutes west of the base of the mountain.

From Vail, my ski trip continued. After dodging avalanches and catching some late connecting flights I met up with the Hoofers Ski and Snowboard club in Reno, NV where we caught a bus and checked into our hotel. The Block Hotel looked like it would be amazing, but it is really just a standard hotel, but our initial disappointment was more than made up by the amazing snow here in Heavenly Ski Resort. I'm calling today the best day ever of riding. That is quite the proclamation, but the powder was amazing. All afternoon I rode steep, deep and fresh snow, right from the base. I felt like I was cheating. Aren't you suppose to hike to get amazing powder runs? Apparently not. After that, I took care of some business for my Chile visa application and then my roommates Jake, Brett and I walked around the town and then ventured into the casinos across the road in Nevada(Our hotel is in California) where I had my first experience gambling. We sat down at a blackjack table and I ended up $20 up. Not bad. Jake ended up $150 up and bought Brett and I dinner at the all you can eat buffet. Now we're just waiting for tomorrow so we can ride some more of the fresh powder. We got up to 15 inches again today, to add to the ~9 feet they got here over the last 4 days.

Starting up a blog again.

2007-12-31T11:09:00.000-05:00

Since I graduated from UW-Madison, I decided that I should keep in contact with my family and friends through a blog again, especially since I'll be down in Chile, teaching English come February. I'll do my best to keep this up to date and look forward to keeping in touch with all of you.