I received the best birthday gift this year – my parents.

They flew in to Santiago on my birthday. It was a bit of a nerve racking wait. They were stopped by the agriculture department for two apples that Mom had forgotten she had her in bag. Dad almost swore that they were originally from Chile, but that didn’t matter.

We had a good few days in Santiago, which was good since one of their pieces of luggage did not make it until the next day. We visited Plaza de Armas, Cerro Santa Lucía, Cerro San Cristobal, Mercado Central, and ate our way through the city. They also had the delight of riding on Transantiago, the public transportation system of bus and metro lines.

Santiago was good but southern Chile was excellent. More on that soon.

Well I’m currently transitioning from Chile to Brazil. I hopped on a bus and rode for 36 hours to Porto Alegre, Brazil. I’ll be staying with the Blumes for a few days and then head to my new home (for six months) of Rio de Janeiro.

Very soon I will be putting something up about my parents’ visit and my trip to Peru with my friend Robert. In the meantime, check out some of the photos on flickr.

Woo! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and originally I was going to post this two weeks ago but I kind of messed up my blog management system. Well all is well now. Thank you Jeff.

Enjoy.

Scribd

So a few friends and family knew that over the past three weeks I have been training for the Nike 10K in Santiago, but most did not. I found out about it through Carlos, a friend I met a month ago working in the kitchen at a youth retreat. I then proceeded to look up training plans and tips for running a 10K and discovered that one should take, at least, double the amount of time I had to prepare for the run. Well I was committed, although I never, disappointingly, officially registered to participate to run. I thought that I was going to reach the finish line crawling but, no, with all the others around me running it made me want to keep going. It didn’t hurt that we were 10,000+ runners.

It started off as any other run I had done, but it sank in that I was in it around the fourth kilometer and by the time I reached the fifth I was already thinking about where I would just start walking but then there was the hydration booths. They were placed right before we were to cross a bridge to double back (the course was a loop along the Mapocho River in downtown Santiago) oh and the boost and confidence those cups of Powerade and water gave me were immense. The kilometer markers seemed to be farther apart, but once I saw the finish line I knew I was going to complete it.

As I said, I did not officially register to run, thus I neither got the official Nike shirt nor the wearable chip to record my exact running time, but I did take a glimpse at the clock as I took off and, obviously, when I finished and my time was about 57 minutes. It was really exciting and makes me want to do it again.

Running along the Mapocho River

Erica, Garrett, and Carlos

The medal

If you are in to running I would highly recommend the site MapMyRun.com. It provides tools for measuring distance, mapping your course, logging your progress, and more. It’s free too.

el setlist

So I saw a poster for an upcoming The Hives concert a few weeks back and I thought to myself, “Oh! I enjoy the music of The Hives. I shall consider attending.” Well the final decision to go was made about 7P last night, two hours before the band hit the stage at a theater across town. So I get some information on how to get there and get home afterwards, run out the door to catch a bus, and arrive at the department store where Ticketmaster has a counter. So I kindly ask a clerk where the ticket counter is and am politely told, “At the end of that line.”

Madonna tickets had just gone on sale. There would be a wait. A long wait.

So I consider just giving up, but then get the idea “Well I can still go down to the venue and see if there are tickets on sale there.” I get there right about the time the band takes the stage and purchase a ticket for lower than what I would pay at Ticketmaster (no fees).

It was a great show. Pure energy from all band members and a superb Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist (pictured above) taking a decent stab at Spanish. It sure blew away the only other concert I have attended while in Chile – Robbie Williams (I accompanied a friend, i.e. FREE).

Absolute great fun.

“Can you teach a class of 10 to 13 year-old boys?”

“Yeah, I think.”

That may or may not be what was exactly said to me about two months back, but what fun has it been. We have covered topics from commitment to friends to decisions and the resources have varied too. You can learn alot about friendships via Shrek.

This past Sunday I had prepared an around-the-world fantasy vacation game, but only FOUR of our six boys showed up. Disappointing, yeah, but like I said, it’s fun. I created the game in hopes that some of the teams of two would overspend and we would be able to lift their mistake in the air and say, “This is why making good decisions is important. You FAILED!” Ha! No, I think the boys have really enjoyed the class. Well I know they have because instead of wanting class to end I’ve been asked by multiple guys if it will continue on.

It’s also been an opportune opportunity to get to know my friends (and co-teachers) Natalia and Aníbal more. We get together to discuss the class twice a week. What encourages me is the two of them also want to continue working and doing the class. I could take up the class and go at it alone, not that I would want to, but working alongside Chileans and helping develop them as well is part of the excitement. Aníbal and Natalia might never have taken the initiative to put themselves in this position unless someone asked/encouraged/pushed, but it’s worth it.

Watching the boys grow closer as a group of friends is cool too. To have to wrangle them together Sunday mornings on the balcony and to stay in one place is a minor hassle, but to watch them develop relationships between themselves and want to hang with each other is just fun.

Well they’re infrequent, but always give you a strange feeling. A small tremor (not an earthquake) just shook central Chile. I was in the middle of chatting with my friend Abel in Rio on Skype:

[5:03:27 PM] Garrett says: there’s a tremor happening now
[5:03:35 PM] Garrett says: like a small earthquake
[5:03:37 PM] abel says: in Chile?
[5:03:43 PM] Garrett says: yeah it just stopped
[5:03:55 PM] abel says: oh……..
[5:04:03 PM] abel says: are you well?

The floor and windows shook. Just a bit odd and a little of a reality check.

No worries. All is well…I think.

I am now an official resident of Chile. I can freely go in and out of the country; I could before, but now I can pass through the citizens’/residents’ line. Woo hoo! The benefits extend beyond that though. Now I have a RUT (aka RUN) which is a national identification number that allows me access to many services available only to individuals who have one.

I asked a friend what RUN (Rol Único Nacional) means? On the first hand, translated, it means “National Unique Role.” What the heck does that mean? Well it’s the national unique identity number, kind of like a Social Security Number. I was thinking how many in the United States are opposed to such a thing. I understand the privacy and logistics issues, but still have not formed an opinion on the matter. As a military kid having a personal I.D. lifelong (or until the end of one’s studies) is normal.

If we look at the crisis the State Department has been thrown in over the increase in demand for passports, it presents us, on a micro scale, with what a nightmare such a mandate would create. Chile is a different case. With about 16 and a quarter million people, it’s a bit more of a manageable situation.

If you did not catch it, the United States with the REAL ID Act of 2005 has already set in motion a national standardization of state driver’s licenses. It has stirred up some controversy, but honestly, if you ever have applied for a job or to be a member of Blockbuster, you had to show your passport, Social Security card, driver’s license, etc to apply.

But a national ID card to vote? (See Indiana nuns lacking ID denied at poll by fellow sister) I don’t know.

Well today was the first time for me to give blood.

My father has always been a bit faint around needles which does not give me heaps of confidence about the matter. A friend’s mother is having cysts removed from her lungs tomorrow and has made a call to all for blood donations. So I decided to go this morning. Set my nerves and personal comfort aside to do it.

Well as I was saying to my new friend Marcelo an the way out of the clinic, he didn’t take a good look at the needle – I did, it was more like a TUBE with a pointy end. Squeezing my hand in to a fist over and over reminded me of having my wisdom teeth extracted – they tapped and tapped and tapped to find a good vein for the IV, I was about to scream.

It was a good experience though. Except for the bout of upset stomach that caused me to have to go, accompanied no less, to the bathroom very soon after the needle was pulled out. I got a cup of free coffee and had some great conversation with the excellent staff of the blood bank.

The temperature has dropped considerably recently and rain rolled in yesterday. So it’s most definitely fall. I’m glad to see the tops of the mountains that back Santiago dusted with snow again.

Smog puro…

Well if you look to the left you can see Santiago, or Santiasco (“Santiagross”) to some, well, it’s under that blanket of smog. Santiago, unfortunately suffers the effects of thermal inversion (a layer of warm air traps a layer of cold air beneath it) which keeps air pollution low in the city. Chile has made environmental improvements over the years, but, as many nations, could do better. I, in particular, am a fan of the transit system, although horrendously jammed

sometimes, it’s a good alternative for driving. It does not possess as many green spaces as some other South American cities, but has lovely parks and plazas. Most recycling is left in private organizations’ hands as a way of generating revenue, but many have yet to catch on. One of my personal triumphs on a very local level has been setting up a recycle system with Scott Emery’s support in the church building. Many of the local municipalities and grocery stores have pushed changing light bulbs for energy savings. I’m happy to see Chileans on a trajectory for a better and cleaner country. If you have been following the news, you may have seen that Buenos Aires is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. The city has been blanketed with smoke from nearby farmers burning their fields. Check out more here.