Chile

Well I arrived in Chile just fine. Flight from Chicago into Dallas ran quite late on departure, so I was forced to hammer through the airport Home Alone style to catch my next flight from Dallas into Santiago, but no big and it will count as my workout for the day. Last night I took an overnight bus from Santiago to Puerto Montt. I unfortunately believe that I left my camera uplink cable in Chicago, so picture updates appear unlikely until after I return.

Anyway, some brief news of my travels so far. As I said, I arrived in Santiago yesterday and had time to kill before my over night bus. I had enough time to do a couple things Erin suggested.

The first activity was to hike up the trail to Cerro San Cristobal. Erin told me that there is ¨A big statue of Jesus up there or something.¨ I thought, great, Kuph would love it if I got pictures of a large Jesus statue for him to frame over his bed. Anyway, part way up the trail, (and this trail was a bitch, quite steep and in the Chilean heat, it was rough after being acclimated to the cold and being known as someone who loves the cold anyway) I realize, um, it´s a statue of the Virgin Mary. Way off Erin.... It was a nice hike though, great views overlooking Santiago.

After I finished that activity, I simply walked around town a bit. At one point a man stopped me and asked me some questions. (As much as I try to blend, it´s not too likely to happen. Oh, and I also don´t try, I don´t know how I could that wouldn´t be exceptionally offensive.) We chatted for a bit as he also asked me for help on his english a bit, translating sentences for him, etc etc. Eventually he asked me if I was in a rush or if I wanted to stop in and grab a beer and keep chatting and helping eachother with language. I said sure, why not. Anyway, Javier is 39 and a rather nice fellow, but it´s a weird situation when he doesn´t know much english, and therefore the phrases he wants me to translate come off rather weird when to a beginning speaker, it´s probably (read: hopefully) natural. The particular phrase in question was ´I like you very much.´ So, yea..... Anyway, he gave me a weird beaded necklace thing to remember him, and he also gave me his phone number and invited me to his neices birthday party next. What a guy.

After that, I wandered around some more. Went to a pretty cool market, and really loved some of the paintings artists had on display. That was pretty much it for my first day. I then boarded the overnight bus and fortunately slept most of the time as I didn´t get enough sleep on the flights. Erin and Steph are arriving into Puerto Montt in about an hour so I´m heading to meet up with them now.

Also, Chileans are big on PDA. teenagers are making out everywhere.

"Provocative Text Or Not"

"Provocative Text Or Not"

Continuation....this is the name of the game that Elwood and I payed as I was writing blog plost.

Lyon: Desole pour mon absence (sorry for my absence)

Bonjour, Comment ca va?

I made it. This post is coming to you from Elwood's apartment which has to have been built before America was founded. Thankfully no problems on the flight other than the miserable food which was compounded by the fact the whole meal was about the size of a decks of cards. Good thing I binged on Paul's and Chipotle before I left.

I arrived in Geneve, Switzerland at around 10:30....(fast forward this post restarting at 3:20 AM Lyon time) "Elwood's computer is dying and we are trying to figure out the power converter, "if it doesn't fit don't force it"( thats what she said). Just got back from the bars. Elwood's friends are so funny and have stories galore to tell about Danny.

Lyon is absolutely beautiful and tomorrow we are going to explore some of its sights. I am so exhausted from the long journey but I must say I toughed it out like a champ today and am looking forward to a nice long sleep tonight. Many more details/pictures to come tomorrow.

AU REVOIR

Scott

Deja Vu or A Glitch in the Matrix

Just noticed the following:


Local Weather Alert
Winter Weather Advisory for Chicago, Illinois
From 6:00 PM CST, Thu., Feb 24, 2011 until 9:00 AM CST, Fri., Feb 25, 2011
Issued by The National Weather Service
Chicago, IL
Wed, Feb 23, 2011, 11:00 PM CST

... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 AM CST FRIDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 AM CST FRIDAY.

* TIMING... SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN THIS EVENING.

* ACCUMULATIONS... AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES LIKELY... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. ACCUMULATION RATES MAY EXCEED ONE INCH PER HOUR LATE THIS EVENING.

* HAZARDS... SNOW. NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS GUSTING TO AROUND 25 MPH MAY PRODUCE AREAS OF BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. VISIBILITY MAY DROP BELOW ONE-HALF MILE AT TIMES.

* IMPACTS... SNOW COVERED ROADS. RAPID SNOW ACCUMULATION MAY RESULT IN VERY TREACHEROUS ROAD CONDITIONS AND MAKE SNOW REMOVAL DIFFICULT AT TIMES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES... AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

The last two trips I've been on have had significant problems caused by snow. Needless to say, I am not enthused as I fly out of O'Hare at 6:05pm. Many expletives are flowing through my mind right now.

Signing On

Ok, here we go. This is my first ever blog post. I have rarely written for an audience and will preface this adventure by saying that I am nowhere near as witty (although some may say offensive) as Tim. I would also like to say that I am taking an approach totally foreign to me for this trip. Other than buying my ticket to Europe Elwood has essentially planned our entire trip……..no joke.

Brief overview: Like Tim, my trip begins tomorrow (booked mine first by the way). First up is a day-long ski trip to Switzerland. From Lyon we will be traveling to (in order) Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Dublin, and Paris. Like Tim’s trip some of the finer details are yet to be determined but in the words of Elwood, “why are you so worried about plans everything always works out”.

Things I’m most excited about: First, the food. According to Elwood Lyon is the food capital of France. He’s talked a big game and I’m hoping Lyon comes to play. Second, Rome/Vatican City. So much history so much culture. Thirdly, Guinness. If it's as good as everyone says it is in Ireland then Dublin is going to be a good time.

I’m not really worried about a whole lot but if Hollywood has taught us anything about French people it is that some cute guy will try to seduce me and sell me into some sex trafficking network. Lucky for me I’m pretty tight with an army ranger. So if you don’t hear from me for a few days call up Drake so he can go Liam Neeson on some fools.

That’s all for now. I’ll check in from the other side…of the pond that is.

And we're back...

Alright everyone, the time has come, and the revival of this blog is upon us. I may have stated quite some time ago that this blog was dead and buried like JonBenet Ramsey, but apparently I just didn't have much foresight.

Moving on, the blog has new life, which means that I'm heading on a trip soon. I thought about updating this blog to include posts about the trip a group of us took to the Kohlstedt's condo in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Quite frankly, I wasn't sure how interesting those posts would be, although a post or two may have been warranted due to the fact that we were forced to drive because of the early February blizzard in Chicago and Mr and Mrs Kuphall came to drink with us one night. It led to some great times. With that said, I could sum it up pretty quickly and fully by saying we did a lot of skiing, snowboarding, and drinking. I'm sure Rudy posted about it here anyway. This blog will remain about travels outside America.

I have a terrible habit of momentary thoughts driving my writing off on tangents, but I think I might be able to focus on the trips at hand now. Yep, trips. Twist! The blog has doubled it's writing staff. Current authorized writers of this blog has risen to 2 as Scott Liska has been granted author access. I'm hoping Scott can live up to the high journalistic standards this blog prides itself on.

My Trip:

Leave for Santiago, Chile on February 24th and return on March 8th. I'll be traveling around Chile and Argentina.

Liska's Trip:

Liska will be heading to Portugal, France, and Ireland I believe. Not sure if there are other destinations or if those plans have changed, but he can address that later.

That will be the extent of my writing about Liska's trip on this blog as he will hopefully fill in the rest of the details with his own posts. It was Liska's idea to contribute to the blog and, I fully support it and hope there could be days with an update from both, say, Portugal and Argentina. Hopefully Liska follows up and makes some posts. He will be with Elwood at least part of the time though, so all bets are off.

I'm still uncertain of the exact details of my own trip, I just know that I will be arriving in Santiago and then taking a bus to meet Erin and Steph (both recently finished a similar teaching program to Elwood). Potentially destinations include Chiloe, Valdivia, and Santiago in Chile and Bariloche, Argentina.

No post would be complete without some reference to the ramblings of my mother. She has a very real fear that my blond hair will inevitably lead to my murder, and she hates my new pea coat. I'm crossing my fingers she's wrong on both, especially the latter. It would suck if I was wrong about this coat.