fuzz is back

After a decent vacation from posting on this blog, I'm back. During the vacation time, much has happened. To recount:

-I went to Chile for Thanksgiving break, and was able to see friends and my host family, do a little work, and climb Cerro La Campana. It's really cool at the top, if you look to one side, the snow-capped Andes are there, and if you look to the other, the Pacific Ocean is there. Here's a picture looking down over the valley:

-Unfortunately, the UT Longhorns were defeated in the annual A&M/UT rivalry game. Uncle Barry, your gloating may begin, and may last for one year. It was really bad because I have a student who is a big A&M fan, and will not shut up about the game. I can't escape Aggies even here in Argentina. I guess there are worse things, he could be a Duke fan.

-Speaking of ACC, how about them DEACS!!! ACC championship game come this Saturday!! First ACC team to go undeafeated on the road for an entire season...and the basketball team is 5-0, the Deacs are making me really proud!

-One last thing, my mullet, Argentine style, is really starting to acquire some good length to it.

it's worth it

So I have to post on Barbara Bush's purse getting stolen in: none other than Buenos Aires, Argentina. The article cites the purse was stolen, "despite her heavy secret service protection."

Are you kidding me? Buenos Aires thieves can't be that good. At least I hope not.

When the Secret Service was asked about the incident, the response: "Uh ya, We don't have any comment on that. We're a bunch of morons" (I added the part in italics)

I'm willing to bet this will be front page news tomorrow in Argentina, a country whose people hate with a passion everything Bush...this actually could turn out to be a unifying event for the two nations, who knows?

Yahoo article

making Jorge famous

not like getting to be on this blog makes you famous, but who knows, maybe it's a start to a long career in famery. Jorge, a really cool guy, un buen amigo, and a co-worker at the school, has a twin, or does he????
ah yes, digital picture power!! (he doesn't have a twin)

Jorge Petrusi -- congratulations, you get the early award (because we're leaving for Thanksgiving vacation) for fuzzinargentina.blogspot.com's MVP-of-the-week, following on the heels of the one and only: Jessie Schimpff for cereal related action (see earlier post).

Argentine mentality ?

So as an observation, and somewhat of a critique, I feel that Argentines (not all of them, but yes, I am generalizing here) have a mentality that everything must be fair, 50-50. Exactly.

If it's in dodgeball, it better be fair. It doesn't matter if you're a guy and you peg a girl in the back with a ball from 5 feet away as hard as you can. It's fair for her to get that cause she decided to play. No remorse either.

If you give out an exam, and you let the other class use a calculator (who is a different level math AND doing different material), it's really unfair not to be able to use a calculator.

If you're about to get on the empty train that starts at the beginning of the line, it don't matter if you are Argentine man or woman, it's a race for that empty seat. Well, it's empty, it's fair to get there first. At least they let pregnant women and noticeably elderly people sit down.

If you are some sort of entity open for commerce, and a potential customer gets there at 7:01, but you close at 7, you turn that customer away, because you close at 7. That's fair, because we wouldn't want one extra ounce of business. It wouldn't be fair.

One of the best lessons I feel my dad has ever taught me: life's not fair sometimes, so deal with it.

best Friday in a while

well maybe except for last Friday when it was Craig's birthday, but anyway that's not the point...

So, how could a Friday that involved a 3 hour roundtrip to the central post office downtown during rush hour be so great? Well, I'll tell you.

So Thursday, I get this letter in the mail from Correos Argentinas that says I have a package waiting for me downtown. I wasn't expecting any packages, and so I couldn't figure out who had sent me a 7.5 pound package. The letter says I have to show up between 10 and 5 M-F, which is a stretch cause school ends at 3:30 and it's about an hour on the train downtown. If you don't get in the doors, you go home. Kind of like football. I also had to bring my passport. Oh, and please label any future packages to me as "school supplies."

So today, as soon as school is done, I jump on my bike and get to the train station, ride the train and make it to the central "post" office about 4:30. When you walk in, you have to take a number from one of the paper ticket machines and wait your turn till they call your number (and make sure it's the right color). So I waited about 30 minutes for that. 2 employees attending the "international package" section for a city of 12 million people, so it goes kind of slow. Luckily, when I got up to the lady, I could tell she really wanted to go home, so she just said sign here and here, and then move on to the next room.

In the next room is where you wait to get called to go to the customs room. That was another 30 minute wait. When they finally call your number over this loud speaker that sounds like someone is covering their mouth when they're talking to you, you go into a different room. When I got there, I feel like I had arrived to a mad scientists' convention, because all the Argentine Aduana (customs) officials were all dressed in white lab coats. So I present my number, the lady looks down, finds my corresponding sheet, bunches her eyebrows, gets a really quizzical look, looks up at me, and says 'they sent you cereal?"

Jessie Schimpff, you officially get the MVP-for-the-week award for fuzzinargentina.blogspot.com. It's the first one handed out, so congratulations. Clearly, for a package sent on Nov. 1 from Lubbock, Texas arriving into my hands on Nov. 17 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, you deserve the award. You blew the competition out of the water.

7.5 lbs of cereal!!!! That's so cool!!!!

the sky's on fire!

So a big rain storm came through this evening and left a very pretty sky. I thought I'd share:

Christmas in summer

So because the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are opposite the seasons in the North, December 25th falls right on the 5th day of summer in Argentina. Weird, I know.

What's more, when I go into stores or supermarkets, leaving the 80 or 90 degree heat with relatively strong to very strong humidity (Buenos Aires, next to a very large body of water), I see Christmas decorations and Christmas things for sale. (yes, they started this early too down here)

I guess Santa, or Papa Noel as he's known around these parts, comes riding in on a surfboard dressed up in red beach shorts with Rudolph monogramed on the side, sporting a white wife-beater tank top, and wearing bright red Crox shoes. I'm not really sure how he makes an entrance.

It really struck me today though, thus the blog entry, when the kids in music class were singing "Silent Night" and "Noel". So much for hot apple cider and earmuffs. Christmas in summer for the first time will be a new experience for me.

I'm excited for Argentina

So I feel like not a ton of people know Jesus in Argentina. In a sense, this is a good thing, in the particular way that people don't know Jesus. In my opinion and from my observations, I feel like Argentina is more like the Wild Wild West when it comes to individual's personal salvation and knowing Jesus. I think that people just haven't had the chance to experience Jesus in the first place, thus creating a kind of new frontier.

In the states, I feel like more people have, for some reason or another, turned away from Jesus or have a hindrance in their life blocking their salvation through Christ. Maybe it's publicized high-profile pastor scandals, maybe it's internal church conflict, maybe it's greater affluence that gives more false senses of fulfillment, or maybe because Jesus has been twisted by many for their own personal gain.

My point is that I feel like presenting Jesus to an Argentine, you are starting from ground zero, and can build up from there. In presenting Jesus to an American, more often than not you must first break down walls, and then build up. I'm not saying at all that one is more worthy than the other in terms of who should be sought after. The key for Argentina is to have organizations or worship groups or churches that present the authentic Jesus, right from the beginning. I know it can be done.

I'm excited for Argentina.

BAICA video - make sure your volume is on (it starts silent though, don't worry if you don't hear anything at start)

celebrate...

Celebrate good times, come on!!!
DEACS ARE 8-1 !!
first time since 1944...

BIG WIN OVER BOSTON COLLEGE
I missed the tearing down of goalposts, shucks.

shady flower shop?

So in Argentine Spanish, "porro" is a slang word for weed. Marijuana. Mary Jane. I'll let you figure out why the flower shop next to our apartment makes us laugh:

BAICA Mission's Fair

All of October has been Mission's month at BAICA. The focus has been on missions, so we've had chapel speakers who have spoken on being missionaries or being called into the mission field. We've also had numerous fundraisers that each grade has done, mainly bake sales, to help raise money for a soccer school whose goal is to share the Gospel with kids through soccer. Tomorrow is the culminating event, the Mission's Fair, from 10-2, where each class has a booth and will be selling something. It's basically our school carnival. My Seniors will be selling chorizos, soft drinks, and massages, an interesting combination if you ask me. The kindergarten kids are selling off throwing pies in the faces of various teachers who are willing to get one in the face. Each teacher was able to set his/her amount. I, of course, set my price low. I'm actually looking forward to getting a pie in the face so I can eat some of it. I DO like pie you know. Here are some of the teachers you get a chance to pie (Mr. McRae, Miss Pittman, and Mr. H):

it's big and hasn't moved

For some reason, it's easy to forget that Buenos Aires is next to one of the largest river mouths in the world, the Rio de la Plata. Our apartment is probably a mile or so to the water, but I seem to forget that it's there. Today for example, I went for a long bike ride and found an excellent park on the waterfront. This was at night, so I could see the downtown skyline. It was awesool (awesome + cool).