the power of the armpit

So to give a little background. At chapel this week, I was the speaker. I spoke to the older grades on fear and how it exists way too much in our world. It's a tool the devil tries to use to seek and destroy our hearts. Taking up Jesus, and abiding in Him, we can conquer the fears we have, for Jesus is perfect love, He will see us through (and there is no fear in perfect love). you can refer to 1 John or email me, and I'd be happy to send you all the notes and outline for the talk.

I thought chapel went well, and I tried to say some humorous things during my talk to keep the kids attentive. One of the things I said at the beginning was that I get really nervous when I get up in front of people to speak. It's one of my fears. Later in the talk, I was talking about what fear does to us, and I said, see for example, my fear causes my armpits to sweat profusely. I even offered for anyone to come and see for themselves the extent to which I leak.

So flash forward to today. I'm sitting in the library after school, and a 6th grader (who is not one of my students, so I don't know him or his name) comes up to me, and starts talking to me, and he asks me,
-"well so how does it happen?"
-I'm kind of distracted by what I'm doing on the computer, so I say, "what do you mean, how does what happen?"
-"the armpit sweating, why does it sweat so much?"
-"uhhh, well, I think it's a psychological response the body has when it is really nervous. there's probably more sweat glands in the armpit, so you know, you just sweat more there." I respond, talking out of my rear end.
-"oh, ok" he responds... "because I'm 13 and I'm starting to grow some hair there, so I just wanted to know."

there you have it. inquisitive minds and the power of the armpit.

modified cats

I'm not sure what to think of this...

http://www.allerca.com/

should I buy a kitten? or open up a franchise?...

I think the site is humorous enough in itself, no explanation needed.

one of my favorite parts is the "cat facts"; they are quite interesting, like:
"cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear!!"
or
"the heaviest cat on record weighed 46 lbs"
or
"cat's urine glows under a black light"

who knew?

all I know is that US$3,950 is way too much for a lab creation

Tang?

"good Tang never goes bad" -my roommate and fellow teacher Craig.

He just extracted some pink tang from the refrigerator, and none of us can remember when it was made. I think it is at least a month old. He drank it. I don't drink that stuff, because I think it has xianine gum in it. That's gross.

that "junk" in your car's trunk

So I was at the gym this morning, and the Argentine radio station played that "junk in your trunk" song. If you don't know it, it goes something like "what are you going to do with all that junk in your trunk?...that junk in your trunk? " and it is unfortunately referring to a woman's bottom.

I was just wondering, if an Argentine tried to translate that into Spanish to figure out what this dumb song was saying, and took it literally: "what am I going to do with all my loose articles and belongings in my car's trunk?" what would he/she think?

"why is this dumb song asking me that? I don't know, I'll put that stuff in my garage I guess..." which then a new song would have to be created "what you gonna do with all that junk in your garage, ya in your garage..."

classroom

so I haven't posted any pictures of my classroom yet. Here it is:

yes, that is a Wake Forest poster in the first picture.

PS...while in Argentina, don't ever go to the supermarket on "15% discount for retired persons" night. It only happens once a month, but you'll wait at least 45 minutes to check out. Don't worry, I left after being in line for 15 minutes.

ravioles I like...

So in another cross language ding-up, I made a brain mistake. Last night, I was hungry, and wanted to order some ravioles from the local fresh ravioles store that's 4 stores away from our apartment.
First point: it's cool that there are ravioles stores around these parts.
Browsing the list, I saw things I recognized, like:

"ricotta y albahaca" ricotta cheese and basil
"tres quesos" three cheeses
"calabaza" squash
"ricotta y nuez" ricotta cheese and walnuts

and one I didn't get completely "seso y espinaca" I knew spinach and something...

more background spanish knowledge floating around in my head: "sesamo" means sesame seeds "lino" means flax seed

so browsing the menu, i'm beginning to think this place is pretty fancy and sophisticated, because they sell squash ravioles and ricotta and basil ravioles, and they're a ravioles store for Pete's sake!! I get on the phone, decide to go with some squash ravioles and the "seso y espinaca" ravioles, because I'm thinking this is spinach with some seed mixed together. Well, they're out of squash ravioles, but no problem on the "seso y espinaca" ravioles. The guy brings them right over in like 3 minutes.
Point #2 Businesses in Argentina deliver anything, even your laundry, so when you're 4 stores away, it doesn't take long.

So I'm excited, and my mouth is watering now that I have the water boiling and I plop in the "seso y espinaca" ravioles to cook. I ask my roommate if he wants some, but he passes on the offer. So when they're done, I eat these ravioles, and they're really, really good, telling my roommate he's an idiot for passing on such great tasting ravioles!! Then I say, "I really need to see what "seso" means, it tasted so good!" So I pull out the Spanish/English translator, and after my roommate shows me how to use it (who's the idiot now), I look up "seso".

seso = cow brains

yep, cow brains and spinach. ravioles.
Point #3 I'm not sure if "seso" is good nourishment for my thoughts.

uh...what earthquake

Here is what Yahoo! News reported tonight as I was browsing their Latin America news:

Strong earthquake rattles Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A strong earthquake sent panicked residents fleeing from their homes Sunday in Argentina, but it caused no injuries or damages, authorities said.

The magnitude 6.1 quake was felt in the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja. Its epicenter was in Pampa de las Salinas, about 745 miles northeast of Buenos Aires and it was the second in less than a week to shake the region.

A magnitude 5.7 quake struck the San Juan province on Tuesday but also caused no injuries or damage.

see for yourself

I didn't feel a thing, all day long. Nor anyone else here in Buenos Aires, but the article leads you to think that tremors were felt in Buenos Aires, which they weren't.

News that gets to us in the states is certainly interesting, and it's good that were informed of the world. However, if the news constantly informs us of quasi-true, misleading world events, is that a good thing? As long as we accept something as news? Gotta sell them newspapers and advertising space.

oh the irony...Jared!!

I took this picture this past Monday. Sorry for the tardiness in posting it. School's been busy.

so for those who might not know, "subte" in Spanish means subway. I'll let the picture explain itself...

Oh Jared, you certainly know how to pick good locations!!

weekends are weekends.

Here in Argentina, I really appreciate the fact that weekends are weekends. In the states, it seems like something is always going on over a weekend. The mentality is to plan to do something on a weekend, or else you've wasted a weekend. You work for the entire week, and then you expend yourself having to do something on a weekend. Not so much here.

People really just take their chill pills and relax. They go to a park with friends or go down by the river and drink some beer. It's nice going outside on a Sunday, and you find hardly anyone on the street, because they're relaxing with family or friends (or sleeping all day recovering from last night's boliche outing). Also, if you wanted to do something on Sunday, you really couldn't anyway, as the only places that are open for business are giant supermarkets or malls. It's like they force you to relax on a weekend. I will point out there's irony in this, in a country as secular as Argentina is, the large extent to which Sunday is a day of rest.

the disgusting influence of the tarheel

so I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Roughly 5400 air miles away from the Tar Heel state, North Carolina. So when I walked into the gym I joined, body builders gym, to build my body, I must say I was quite surprised to see an Argentine wearing a University of North Carolina sweatshirt. This sweatshirt was old for oldschool. I even think it was pre-Jordan era. And so, I was also naturally disgusted. Why wasn't it a Wake Forest sweatshirt?

I approached aformentioned Argentine, and asked, "umm, why are you wearing that sweatshirt? I kind of don't get along with them, they're my rivals." Of all the sweatshirts this guy could be wearing, for the love (as Smash would say) mi amigo! "Oh, it's just a sweatshirt, I don't know" There we have it, an unknowing, innocent Argentinean who had been corrupted by the tar heel influence...where's a demon deacon when you need one?

good 1st weekend

Deacs football was successful 20-10 against Syracuse, and Texas football whomped on North Texas.

Possibly of more significance, Wake's B-ball team took a trip to the Bahamas for some intensive Geography immersion learning, and also played two exhibition basketball games, winning them both. I'm not sure of the caliber (or calibre if you want the British English) of the teams that the Deacs played, but 2 wins are 2 wins.

This coming weekend is Texas and Ohio State - college GameDay is in Austin for Pete's sake! I'm planning on finding somewhere in the land of futbol to watch some football.

getting to know Argentina better.

Last night, I went out to dinner for Mariah's birthday, and then the restaurant turned into a boliche (nighclub). Mariah is our 4th grade teacher at the school, and no, I don't go clubbing very often, but I do like to dance, so last night was a great opportunity to let the legs loose.

So the place we went to is uber-trendy, and of course, me being all "hip" and as trendy as I am, I was definitely at home. I felt like Jed Clampett visiting the Beverly Hills country club.
The waitresses had interesting clothes on. The best way to describe it is either: purple 80's spandex workout gear OR the characters from Austin Powers, dressed in purple spandex. Interesting choice for serving food. Which by the way, the food was excellent, and very tasty. After dinner was over, most of our party left, because we finshed dinner at 11:45 (yes, PM) except for myself and Mariah, Caroline, and Nancy. Yes, you are picturing this correctly: 3 lovely ladies and Jed Clampett at one of the trendiest places of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires.

So to move from restaurant atmosphere to nightclub atmosphere (we're at 12:45 AM now), they bring out a belly dancer. This was definitely a first for me. So as the belly dancer was doing her duties, going around to tables, dancing her belly, and having people give her tips for kindly showing her belly, I put my head down on our table and covered my head with a towel. I wasn't too interested in seeing lots of belly after such a wonderful, tasty dinner. So as I'm sitting there, resting my head, the girls are laughing quite hysterically at me. I start feeling a strong tugging at my towel, thinking the girls are just being kidders with me. So I let go of the towel because it was really being pulled with lots of force. Well, it's the belly dancer who has come over and is passing by, yanking the towel off my head. Thank goodness she kept going onto other tables, that time.

So I'm sitting there while the belly dance continues, now looking at the bar and the wavy, neon blue lights that make up such a trendy place, and not putting my head down as to try and draw less attention to myself, all of the sudden, our table has much more light around it now (the spotlight that lights up the belly dancer and follows her around the restaurant), and Mariah starts saying "oh no, don't look, she's coming over here...". And instead of looking at the bar, my line of sight is suddenly interrupted by, none other than: the belly dancer. So she starts shaking around, ya, shaking around. And my hands sink deeper into my pockets, I can't get them any deeper!! To try and not make it too awkward, I say "hello, how are you doing tonight"...and keep repeating that, because my hands are not coming out of my pockets to give her any tips. So after 45 seconds or so, she leaves and goes onto another table, disappointed that I haven't supported her, but what can you expect from Jed Clampett?

So after the belly dancing got people warmed up, they brought out gymnasts. These girls climbed up sheets that were tied from the ceiling, and wrapped themselves in the sheets and did twists and flips in the sheets, and never came falling to the floor. They were really good. Once they were done, they cleared the tables away, and opened up the dance floor (we're at 1:15 AM now). The dancing was very fun, as they played alot of music that you would dance to in a place like this (sorry for a poor description, but my "trendy" vocabulary is still in the works). So we danced around with other Argentines (or Argentinians if you prefer), who by the way, don't really let loose too much on the dance floor. There were of course people making out and getting friendly, but nobody was goofy at all dancing. I'm not sure if it was the music or just their personality, or maybe I'm just that goofy, and there is no place for goofyness in trendyness, but everyone last night, err....early this morning seemed to be holding back some dance moves. Oh well, just an observation.

So, in conclusion, last night was really fun, and I really enjoyed it. I got to go out to dinner with some great people, eat a nice meal, experience some new things, and get to know Argentina and her people better. I'll work on my hip style for next time.