Well, I am now feeling 100% better than I was when I first got here. It took me a couple of days to get used to my new temporary lifestyle, but my outlook has changed a great deal. I now have a much clearer idea of what my plan is for the next couple of months, I have contacted a friend in Chile that I am going to go see, I have picked up a couple more of the important phrases in Spanish so I can operate a little easier, I´m much more confident, and I have gotten REALLY good at ¨wasting¨time. In fact, I believe I´ve stumbled upon the European concept of ¨holiday¨.
I sleep in a bit (oh, say, about 9:30 ish), have a leisurely breakfast and a hot cup of tea while watching Simpsons in Spanish (on a side note, this is the perfect way for me to get acquainted with the language because I actually know all of the lines by heart, and so I hear them in Spanish, yet I know what is going on simultaneously... I think I´ve stumbled upon a new teaching method!), I read my book and study Spanish in the parks, saunter about town, make meals, and plan out my trips.
The other night I finally met some nice English speaking peeps from Holland and America and we went out for a few drinks and a few laughs. It was really nice to socialize and I had a really good time.
Tomorrow I am heading to Tierra del Fuego National Park to do some hiking and camping for the weekend. It should be fun, given that it doesn´t rain as it has been for the last couple of days. Whatever, though, because I am going! Then early next week I am going to take a boat (hopefully) up to Puerto Notales, which is on the doorstep of Torres del Paine National Park. This is one of the places I have wanted to see the most, so I am really excited about it. I plan on meeting some non-serial-killer-type people and doing the 7-10 day backpacking circuit around the park, which I have heard is life changing. Radical!
And finally, I have been thinking alot recently about what I want to do with my life upon my triumphant return to the United States, and I think I am going to go back to school and get my masters in Literature and Education and teach. I am on a long trip so this conclusion may seem premature, but I think in the back of my mind I have always pictured myself as an educator, and Literature is my passion... Gotta follow it, right?
In this spirit, two quotes:
¨Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.¨- James Madison
and
¨We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind¨- Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues¨
Oh, what the hell, I like Tom Robbins alot, so one more!
¨All a person can do in this life is to gather about himself his integrity, his imagination, and his individuality - and with these ever with him, out front and in sharp focus, leap into the dance of experience.¨ Hey-oh!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ushuaian Lists
Don´t get me wrong, Ushuaia has a unique and startling natural beauty, but...
- What they have too much of:
1) Gross, scraggily, feral mutts yappin´and sniffin´about town
2) Crumbly old buildings
3) Litter
4) Silly little VW cars with ¨sporty¨mufflers, or no mufflers at all
- What they don´t have enough of:
1) Functional sidewalks
2) Smiley people
My solution:
Use the litter and the carcasses of the stupid, mangy strays to construct beautiful new buildings and coherent sidewalks, thereby making people smiley and happy so they won´t need to compensate with their loud little cars.
I swear, put me in charge of a city, any city, and I will whip it into shape in no time!
Hiked to the glacier today! Awesome!
- What they have too much of:
1) Gross, scraggily, feral mutts yappin´and sniffin´about town
2) Crumbly old buildings
3) Litter
4) Silly little VW cars with ¨sporty¨mufflers, or no mufflers at all
- What they don´t have enough of:
1) Functional sidewalks
2) Smiley people
My solution:
Use the litter and the carcasses of the stupid, mangy strays to construct beautiful new buildings and coherent sidewalks, thereby making people smiley and happy so they won´t need to compensate with their loud little cars.
I swear, put me in charge of a city, any city, and I will whip it into shape in no time!
Hiked to the glacier today! Awesome!
Monday, January 26, 2009
God Bless You, Mr. Internet
I apologize for the corny Vonnegut reference. But, really, I love the internet. I can´t imagine being a world traveller pre-internet. You would really have no refuge from the alien atmosphere you find yourself in. The internet is my friend, my refuge, the wind beneath my wings... I also apologize for the corny Bette Midler reference.
I am aware that if I continue blogging at the current rate, that I will post no less than 75 times, and I am also aware that 75 blog posts from yours truly is a tremendous waste of time for my friends and family. I hope this continuous blogging doesn´t frustrate any of you, and I will keep this brief.
Today I visited the museums here in Ushuaia, and with the exception of some risqué pics of the aboriginees, they were not much to blog home about. I also napped in the park, took a morning constitutional, watched ¨Scrubs¨in spanish, and read my book. I thought that the 600 page book I brought would last me a month or so, but I am now halfway through it. I decided that, for my trip, I am reading books only by South American writers (in English, of course). I think literarily (is that a word?), so I figure this is a good way for me to connect to the local culture. Right now I am reading ¨The Savage Detectives¨by Roberto Bolaño, who is Chilean. Last night, a couple of Chileans at the hostel noticed the book and we struck up a (very weak and broken English/Spanish) conversation concerning the book. Man, I am so bad at this fucking language, it is incredibly frustrating. I really think people belive I am retarded! Not the first time, but I really am not!!
Tomorrow I am going to hike up to the glacier above town. Just a 7 km day hike, but you don´t have to go far from town for some amazing terrain. Then Wednesday I am going to the national park (Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego). I haven´t decided if I am going to camp or not. It is pretty darn cold here, even in the middle of the summer, and rains frequently. I´m not sure I am up for a cold, rainy camping sesh.
Anyhow, hasta luego, amigos.
PS, there is a restaurant in town called the ¨Mustaccio Café¨. That´s funny to me for a handful of reasons.
PSS, this blog is costing me €7.50 (or about $2), so you better damn well appreciate these pearls of worldly experience that I am handing you.
I am aware that if I continue blogging at the current rate, that I will post no less than 75 times, and I am also aware that 75 blog posts from yours truly is a tremendous waste of time for my friends and family. I hope this continuous blogging doesn´t frustrate any of you, and I will keep this brief.
Today I visited the museums here in Ushuaia, and with the exception of some risqué pics of the aboriginees, they were not much to blog home about. I also napped in the park, took a morning constitutional, watched ¨Scrubs¨in spanish, and read my book. I thought that the 600 page book I brought would last me a month or so, but I am now halfway through it. I decided that, for my trip, I am reading books only by South American writers (in English, of course). I think literarily (is that a word?), so I figure this is a good way for me to connect to the local culture. Right now I am reading ¨The Savage Detectives¨by Roberto Bolaño, who is Chilean. Last night, a couple of Chileans at the hostel noticed the book and we struck up a (very weak and broken English/Spanish) conversation concerning the book. Man, I am so bad at this fucking language, it is incredibly frustrating. I really think people belive I am retarded! Not the first time, but I really am not!!
Tomorrow I am going to hike up to the glacier above town. Just a 7 km day hike, but you don´t have to go far from town for some amazing terrain. Then Wednesday I am going to the national park (Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego). I haven´t decided if I am going to camp or not. It is pretty darn cold here, even in the middle of the summer, and rains frequently. I´m not sure I am up for a cold, rainy camping sesh.
Anyhow, hasta luego, amigos.
PS, there is a restaurant in town called the ¨Mustaccio Café¨. That´s funny to me for a handful of reasons.
PSS, this blog is costing me €7.50 (or about $2), so you better damn well appreciate these pearls of worldly experience that I am handing you.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Ushuaia is just fun to say! Say it with me now: Ooo-shwy-uh
How is everybody?! It´s been an eventful, what, 3 days or something. Allow me to give you the haps on your man, Stefan.
After a hair-raising third-world mega-city experience in Buenos Aires, I damn near missed my bus because of a faulty watch (or possibly a faulty user). Thanks to a helpful but slightly patronizing waitress and my amazing cardio-vascular health, I booked it to the station and caught the bus as it was pulling away. I figure every international trip needs an experience like that to happen at least once (and hopefully only once), but I damn near freaked out. I did NOT want to stay a single day in Buenos Aires. Imagine you´re on your way to Lake Tahoe and you walk into one of the many scary parts of Los Angeles, and you only know how to speak Italian. That´s how I felt there.
The bus ride to Patagonia was long, but surprisingly a good experience. The buses are double decker, they are modern and comfortable, they have reclining seats, they serve (horrible) food, they have a bathroom that you can´t poop in (only pees), and they play movies. I very much enjoyed ¨The Gaurdian¨, featuring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. In Spanish, of course. The middle of Argentina is scary flat. Think Wyoming, but much bigger and with a chapparal look to it. It made me think of a Cormac MacCarthy book (a graceful gloaming, if you will). We would see absolutely nothing for hours. Driving across it was like being hypnotized.
Anyhow, I arrived in Rio Gallegos days later, and since there was another bus leaving for Ushuaia 20 minutes after I arrived, I figure what the hell, right? So, what I thought was going to be a morning jaunt to Tierra del Fuego turned into an 15 hour trek across the most remote and forboding place I have ever been. Unpaved roads, scary Chilean boarder crossings where I didn´t understand a word of the official´s demands, 3 hour bus inspections (no joke, we had 4 border stops), and 1 transfer later, we arrived at the end of the world... Ushuaia.
Frankly, I´ve never been to a place like this. Unbelievably dramatic mountains jut out of the blue-green sea, bizarre flora, glaicers, and Antartica staring at you from across the ocean. I think of Alaska when I look around, but it feels even more remote (though I´ve never actually been to Alaska, so this is all just supposition). Also, I don´t think I´ve seen or overheard a single American, and nobody I have attempted to talk to knows English at all, though there are plenty of tourists. I´ve never really felt so on my own as I do here. Honestly, it´s a bit unsettling, but in an appealing way. I´ve got some ¨getting used to¨ on this trip, but that´s really what its all about.
Today I just hung around town and checked the lay of the land, as it is. Right now, I am staying in a crappy frat-house-esque hostel, but I found a better and cheaper one and will be moving tomorrow. When I arrived last night at close to 11:30 (with the sun setting, I will add), there was absolutely nowhere that had an open bed. It was kind of scary, honestly, walking around a strange town so terribly far away, with all your gear and no knowlegde of where to go to sleep after 4 full days of travel, but I resolved myself and ended up meeting some dude from Brazil that helped me out.
I can hear my mother´s heart thumping from half way around the world, so I better stop here.
So, quick review: charming-but-alien people, other worldly landscape, hiking tomorrow, smelly shoes, woke up to a Korean couple (I think) breaking up, and now craving a beer. I really hope to meet some nice English speaking folk soon, because unlike I claimed in my last post, my Spanish in fact sucks!!
After a hair-raising third-world mega-city experience in Buenos Aires, I damn near missed my bus because of a faulty watch (or possibly a faulty user). Thanks to a helpful but slightly patronizing waitress and my amazing cardio-vascular health, I booked it to the station and caught the bus as it was pulling away. I figure every international trip needs an experience like that to happen at least once (and hopefully only once), but I damn near freaked out. I did NOT want to stay a single day in Buenos Aires. Imagine you´re on your way to Lake Tahoe and you walk into one of the many scary parts of Los Angeles, and you only know how to speak Italian. That´s how I felt there.
The bus ride to Patagonia was long, but surprisingly a good experience. The buses are double decker, they are modern and comfortable, they have reclining seats, they serve (horrible) food, they have a bathroom that you can´t poop in (only pees), and they play movies. I very much enjoyed ¨The Gaurdian¨, featuring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. In Spanish, of course. The middle of Argentina is scary flat. Think Wyoming, but much bigger and with a chapparal look to it. It made me think of a Cormac MacCarthy book (a graceful gloaming, if you will). We would see absolutely nothing for hours. Driving across it was like being hypnotized.
Anyhow, I arrived in Rio Gallegos days later, and since there was another bus leaving for Ushuaia 20 minutes after I arrived, I figure what the hell, right? So, what I thought was going to be a morning jaunt to Tierra del Fuego turned into an 15 hour trek across the most remote and forboding place I have ever been. Unpaved roads, scary Chilean boarder crossings where I didn´t understand a word of the official´s demands, 3 hour bus inspections (no joke, we had 4 border stops), and 1 transfer later, we arrived at the end of the world... Ushuaia.
Frankly, I´ve never been to a place like this. Unbelievably dramatic mountains jut out of the blue-green sea, bizarre flora, glaicers, and Antartica staring at you from across the ocean. I think of Alaska when I look around, but it feels even more remote (though I´ve never actually been to Alaska, so this is all just supposition). Also, I don´t think I´ve seen or overheard a single American, and nobody I have attempted to talk to knows English at all, though there are plenty of tourists. I´ve never really felt so on my own as I do here. Honestly, it´s a bit unsettling, but in an appealing way. I´ve got some ¨getting used to¨ on this trip, but that´s really what its all about.
Today I just hung around town and checked the lay of the land, as it is. Right now, I am staying in a crappy frat-house-esque hostel, but I found a better and cheaper one and will be moving tomorrow. When I arrived last night at close to 11:30 (with the sun setting, I will add), there was absolutely nowhere that had an open bed. It was kind of scary, honestly, walking around a strange town so terribly far away, with all your gear and no knowlegde of where to go to sleep after 4 full days of travel, but I resolved myself and ended up meeting some dude from Brazil that helped me out.
I can hear my mother´s heart thumping from half way around the world, so I better stop here.
So, quick review: charming-but-alien people, other worldly landscape, hiking tomorrow, smelly shoes, woke up to a Korean couple (I think) breaking up, and now craving a beer. I really hope to meet some nice English speaking folk soon, because unlike I claimed in my last post, my Spanish in fact sucks!!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Estoy en Buenos Aires!
Well, I made it here, and since this post is consting me muchos pesos, I will keep it quick
1) it is hot
2) this city is frickin´ huge
3) people don´t
a) throw away their trash, or
b) wait for crosswalks
4) I am pretty excited to be here!
So, my flight was fine, the food was of airplane quality, and the bus ride to the city was 2 hours. I then proceeded to get lost for an additional 2 hours, decided I wanted to spent yet another 2 hours in the bus station arbitrarily figuring out where I wanted to go, and now I am gathering supplies for my 2 day bus trip to Rio Gallegos (on the southern Atlantic coast). Looked like a good launching point for some adventures, and I was terribly confused with the bus station and its 6 billion inhabitants, so I said what the hell!
I most likely will not be posting for a couple more days because I am getting on the bus at 8 30 and arriving god knows when.
This is a little more overwhelming than I anticipated, but its all good. I will be just fine.
Tambien, mi castellano esta muy fantastico!
1) it is hot
2) this city is frickin´ huge
3) people don´t
a) throw away their trash, or
b) wait for crosswalks
4) I am pretty excited to be here!
So, my flight was fine, the food was of airplane quality, and the bus ride to the city was 2 hours. I then proceeded to get lost for an additional 2 hours, decided I wanted to spent yet another 2 hours in the bus station arbitrarily figuring out where I wanted to go, and now I am gathering supplies for my 2 day bus trip to Rio Gallegos (on the southern Atlantic coast). Looked like a good launching point for some adventures, and I was terribly confused with the bus station and its 6 billion inhabitants, so I said what the hell!
I most likely will not be posting for a couple more days because I am getting on the bus at 8 30 and arriving god knows when.
This is a little more overwhelming than I anticipated, but its all good. I will be just fine.
Tambien, mi castellano esta muy fantastico!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Big Day
Well, the day I have been planning for has finally come. I' got all my gear packed, I think I've gotten all the little pieces in order, and I'm excited. Until I head to the airport at about noon, I'm just going to hang out and watch the bizarre spectacle that is Obama's inauguration. Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited for the new president as anybody, but jeezlepeets... I'm not sure that the aggressive marketing campaign and outrageous hype that we are watching is exactly what our founding fathers had in mind for the leader of our executive branch. Obama has become this surreal amalgam of celebrity, legend, icon, and deity.
I can't say that my departure from this country is completely unconnected from what I consider today's glaring example of an unhealthy public-government relationship. If anything, my hope is that a trip abroad will give me a little perspective on my own country.
I can't say that my departure from this country is completely unconnected from what I consider today's glaring example of an unhealthy public-government relationship. If anything, my hope is that a trip abroad will give me a little perspective on my own country.
Monday, January 19, 2009
A Blog is Born
In the beginning, there was nothing... and then there was Stefan.
With a terrifying clap of thunder from above and a guttural rumble from below, my blog steps forth from the primordial mist. I look down upon it and declare, "you are my most wonderous creation!"
I would like to welcome one and all to my very first blog!
I am pretty much just winging this since I have no personal experience creating these things, and rather little experience reading others' blogs (I generally don't read them because I find them uninteresting and self-indulgent, with mine as the exception of course). So sit back, hold on to your asses, and vicariously enjoy my adventures and the natural splendor that Patagonia has to offer.
Thanks to you, diligent reader! You truly make it all worth while.
With a terrifying clap of thunder from above and a guttural rumble from below, my blog steps forth from the primordial mist. I look down upon it and declare, "you are my most wonderous creation!"
I would like to welcome one and all to my very first blog!
I am pretty much just winging this since I have no personal experience creating these things, and rather little experience reading others' blogs (I generally don't read them because I find them uninteresting and self-indulgent, with mine as the exception of course). So sit back, hold on to your asses, and vicariously enjoy my adventures and the natural splendor that Patagonia has to offer.
Thanks to you, diligent reader! You truly make it all worth while.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
