Continuation...
Well, after all the fun happenings up to Thursday this happened next:
Friday was brilliant- The weather was fantastic for one thing. Not full on, but rushed between events. Youth group was good times, then I went with Becka, Ashlee and Sebastian to have Chinese for Dinner. Afterwards they were nice enough to let me use their computer for a mammoth 'skype' call to my family (which lasted forever- well into the morning, thanks to the tolerance of my hosts). Skype should get a Nobel prize, how good is it?
Saturday I was going to watch the rugby, but I must've misread the website, because it for sure wasn't on (and of course it was a vintage game of epic proportions- yep I had to miss it) After that disappointment I met up with the Gappies to give them a tour around the city. So we caught a micro, looked around Santa Lucia (this mint castle-like thing) then walked through the city. The city streets were jam-packed with people, streets sellers, buskers and a dude who tried to sell me an MP3 player (but to no avail, it had a label on the back from a store, and the others had seen on the news that some people around there are selling fake copies that don't even work-So it was either hot or a fake). We had a look around the markets, bought some Inca Kola (it's brilliant- like a bubble gum flavoured fizzy drink- i'm gonna buy crates of the stuff when I go to Peru).
Then we went though Bellavista, then back to my place for a quick bit to eat. After that CJ had an appointment to get a tattoo (his first) and we all tagged along to watch.The place he had it done looked real sterile: white walls, chairs like a doctors examination room, and surprisingly no wall with some common designs on it. Cj was in very good hands, The guy was real professional. He had this laptop were he scanned the pic Cj wanted (it was the Spade from a pack of cards to go on his back) printed it to size and let us look at a gallery of some of his work. But we thought that Cj wouldn't like us to hang around while it was getting done (and it would have looked kinda wussy as well). That was my day with the Gappies.
After that I went with Becka, Ashlee, Sebastien and Allison to someone’s karaoke birthday party in Bellavista. I would have show my skills, but the taste of the other singers seemed to be alot more 'danceable' than anything I would do, and people at least need to be able to dance if the singing is bad. Next time maybe!)
Sunday was good times- Church as per usual (if it is as per usual that means brilliant) once again the weather was fantastic (it's been like over twenty degrees the last few days, Bring on summer!) Afterwards I visited the Valenzuela family for lunch. It was good times chatting and seeing some improvement in my understanding and my speaking (Most Sundays seem to be near immersion).
And to my surprise I found out that some of the extended family was coming around. Silvia comes from a family with I think 10 kids all up, mainly sisters. So a sizable portion of the Sobrinas/Primas (Nieces/Cousins) came around with aunties/sisters and grandma. You could call it a pleasant surprise. So it was good times chatting, getting a hard time from everyone, trying to understand what people were saying (I'm used to the craziness of my Mum and two Aunties with the cousins- Times it by 4!) Then we went to one of the family’s place for onces and more madness. Definitely a 'famalia bàcan' (chilean for cool family). Then I eventually got back to my apartment
-It was a pretty full on weekend-I think i'll have a siesta this afternoon maybe (but the weather is so good...)
So, Here are some photos-Yes thery'e not all amazing, red eye disease is epidemic, but they all tell a story:
R to L: Alex, Phil and CJ at Santa Lucia
Me with some of the Moya Family
Cesar and me climbing San Cristobal (The big hill with the Virgin on the top)
Me in the snow, Colorado Ski field
See the grey patch of cloud: I'm breathing that in as I type- Mmmmm mmmmm...
The Valenzuela Family this last Sunday
Me with the primas (cousins) : Not a 'vintage' photo of me, but everyone else is looking good
And the fountain at Santa Lucia (Where the earlier photo was taken)
Good good, those are the photos: Sorry to anyone with a dial up connection.
Chao
Sorry for the wait
oops, sorry for the delay with this, and for penance I'll be posting two blogs in short succesion.
This entry is for up to Thursday last week.
Thursday:
Normal happenings lately, still not many hours, but i'll sort things out. The highlight this week would have to be going to the Andes on tuesday (It was a public holiday for the assumtion or ascension of the virgin, I can't remember for sure. What I can remember is that they gave us a holiday for it)Jessenia told me on Monday she was going to the Mountains to go skiing. So, after finding out the cost, I went up; but only to 'chill' in the snow. So we rushed off in the morning, caught the bus (with more gringo's than locals) So it was good times chatting to the guys on the way up. There is quite a few ski fields mear Santiago, I'm not sure how this one rates but looked pretty cool to me. It's quite a different set up to what I'm used to in NZ. There are all these Chalets/houses very close to the field, and lodges as well to stay at. So, while everyone else hit the slopes, I sat in the sun, read books and played a little in the snow (of course you need to do that, the video is on the way)
On the way back, some oif the guys mentioned that they were going to a football game the next day: Chile Vs. Colombia and invited me to come along. So the next day I met up with them and the crew from their Spanish school thing. But unfourtunatly when I met up with them I found out that the game clashed with Touch rugby, so I just tagged along to get a taste of the atmosphere, and to scout out what the process was of getting to a game. By the time we got mear the ground people were selling all these flags and stuff; Guess what I bought? I first bought a medium sized flag (for $3 NZ) which was the first ones I saw for sale. But down the road I bought a flag nearly the size of a sheet! (for $7.50 NZ approx, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I accidently used a 10,000 ($30 NZ) peso bill instead of a 1,000 one, which wasn't what I was planning!) So I followed them to the gate, lent them my flags and rushed off to touch.
Touch was good times again, but I had real bad cramp, so it wasn't a vintage preformance. But I got to meet some people from the team I will be playing for, and gave the opposition a false sense of my abilities (bruhahahaha...evil laugh). Afterwards I went to CJ and the girl's place again, and some dudes came around later as well. Good times, Yep, another late night.
As well on Sunday I went with Omar and Sussana (the Pastor and his wife) to a church's anniversay service, which was good times. The service was a bit different, but the people had the same love, and I knew quite a few of the worship songs in english, which made it alot easier to sing along. And It was cool being able to understand a bit more, both Omar's sermon and their Pastors. My Spanish seems to be inproving, which is cool. I need to get out there and practice more, but I'm generally happy with my progress.
That's about it really, hopefully there will be another opertunity to go to a football game. I was getting similar vibes to what I get going to a big night rugby game, apart from the number of street vendors (I love them, when I go home I'll have to start making bootleg flags and sell them at the rugby- Don't steal my idea). I'm missing you all: look after yourselves, and each other.
(coming soon...Photos, and this weekends edition)
Not much to report...
Well, it's been a fairly quiet week again, this better not become a habit-I think I could just scrape by earning this amount- and never doing anything! Anyway, It's all good
Last Wednesday (at the last blog time) I went to Touch rugby in the evening. It's pretty casual, just keeping fit until the season starts in September (Which is social as well-But i've heard some teams take it more serious than others) The ground was suprisingly firm despite the rain that had fallen; I'm still going to purchase some 'zapatillas' with studs. I'll spare you the details of each brilliant try I did, but for the record I smoked them on one occasion with a 'run across the field, right to the corner, set up the winger on the corner- then throw a dummy, hit the gap for the try' They seem to play by the book so they were kinda wondering why I would do something unothodox like that. So you could say my confidence for the up coming season is pretty good.I met this English guy on his gap year, and had a bit of a chat. He had played for half of the last season with the winning team. From what he told me it seems that there are two more serious teams- The Griffons and Speed (from what I saw of their players you have to run the 100 metres in under 10 to join their team). Everyone else is in it for more of a laugh. I've also had a few chances to do english-spanish lesson swaps: which hasd been great for my Spanish. But, alas, I still need to practice more. This Wednesday I went to touch, but the security guy said it had been cancelled. I was planning on chilling afterwards with CJ (The English guy) so I gave him a call and he invited me to his place. He 'works'at a school nearby, and his accomodation is on the grounds. But because of the conduct of some of the previous gappies they need to go through this ridiculous proccess to have anyone visit (they need to get permission in the day time) anyway, it kinda reminded me of something/someplace (Inside joke) We would have jumped the fence but they have security guards, cameras and they would have someone checking. -We made it in eventually, I'm sure your not reading this for a description of a schools policy and security- so i'll move on.So we chilled with the other gappies there, Two girls from South Africa. So yeah, it was good to spend so time with them, giving each other a hard time about stuff, things that people from the commenwealth get. And, because I had no classes the next day, it lasted quite awhile. And changed location to Providencia.
I thought I would once again mix things up some random happenings that don't fit anywhere:When I was on the job hunt I went to this Institute with my CV. Well, because I was in chilean mode when the receptionst from the states introduced herself I automaticlly gave her a kiss when greeting her- Which she wasn't planning on, and so I started the application process on the right foot. (The look on her face afterwards was interesting, hahaha). I was then coldly informed that they only teach 'north american english'. So that was a learing experiance and a half- HAHAHAHA, classic. That's one thing you need to be ready for: public humiliation. It's a neccesary part of learning a new language and culture- And it's something I need to subject myself to more often!As well, If anyone wants to pray for me right now, pray that I would not get negative/miss my family/get lazy. I'd apreciate that.Cheers for making it all the way down this illiterate rambling (Did I spell illiterate right- It like 'did I pronounce "Pronunciation" right- makes you look real smart)
Peace and love to you all!
Better late than never...
To all two of the blog regulars; I'm sorry that I haven't posted for over a week. To everyone else read the blog entry below
Anyway, times have been pretty choice lately- In brief this is some of the stuff I've been doing: Chilling, having a Chilean BBQ, visiting people for lunch, and going for a huge tour around town (and stuff like work)
I went to 'la casa ramos' to, of all things, wash some clothes, this last saturday. And I found out on arrival there was a BBQ-Chilean style happening. So I was subsequently invited to stay on (lucky me!). This wasn't some cheap mad butcher sausage sizzle (no offense Peter Leach, your the man)- There was some serious portions of meat. The food was cooked over a charcoal 'barbie'- definitly more exciting than gas.
After church on Sunday I visited the Moya family. Good times definitly- even just getting there (we took a mirco- yes). Lots of Fun, and heaps of Spanish practice! Afterwards I went for a walk with Cesar to a huge mall nearbye for a look around. It had shades of Gringolandia, but not as bad as Parque Aruco (fourtunatly). We were laughing at all the signs that said 'SALE' - porque en ingles? es una oferta! That was good timesOn Tuesday I met up with Cesar to see some other sites. We visited; the Rio Mapocho, Mercardo central, Vega Central, a clothing market and San Cristobal (A big hill/park with activies ranging from the huge statue of Mary to a Zoo)*SMALL WORLD* In Mecardo Central we bumped into this guy who asked the obligitory "where are you from?" question. He then responded in perfect English (he asked in spainish) I know someone there... In Auckland... Do you know Wynton Rufer? My son played Football with him in Germany (for real- quite the bizarre moment).
When we went to San Cristobal we walked from one side to the other (this is a big as hill I'm talking about) And Ignacio and Leslie came with us as well. By this time it was getting dark, so we could see an amazing view of the city. When we reached the 'nearly summit' we didn't proceed to the top, because it's kinda dangerous at that time of night- I'll go some other time in the day. At least the way down was shorter than the way up. Then we had some chilean Fast food, then I went home, Tired as. The markets were so cool,I told Cesar that I prefer "chile real"alot more than the carbon copy mall variety. I wish i had picks of the markets, but it isn't the best idea. We saw this guy running real fast at one place, I asked Cesar what was up, he was a robber. (I just put that in to scare you Dad, but it did happen, the first encounter i've had with that while I've been here) Another highlight was watching the Rugby live at 6 in the Morning (funnily enough I was watching it before my family) Talk about commitment... That reminds me, I'm playing some touch this evening with Jessenia (just some practice game or something- the season starts in September-It's coming soon!)Anyway Sorry for the delay, I post some pics soon.
Chao,
Nathan
PS once again I didn't spell check this or proof read
R to L: Alex, Phil and CJ at Santa Lucia
Me with some of the Moya Family
Cesar and me climbing San Cristobal (The big hill with the Virgin on the top)
Me in the snow, Colorado Ski field
The Valenzuela Family this last Sunday
Me with the primas (cousins) : Not a 'vintage' photo of me, but everyone else is looking good
And the fountain at Santa Lucia (Where the earlier photo was taken)
