leaving on a jet plane...

So, the time has come to temporarily shut down blog entries, as I'm going to be adventuring and traveling around for the next 3 weeks or so.

Craig- I did the dishes, swept the floor, and cleaned the toilet, so you should have a clean place to come back to.

Hasta pronto.

Argentina summer sky

tonight's sky

computer dependent

I'm going to come out and say it, flat out. We as a human race are becoming too computer dependent.

For example, I was in the shoe store today getting some new kicks (which by the way are much more expensive here in Argentina, but I did go to a second-hand store, don't worry). Anyways, I'm sitting there looking at discounted socks while I'm listening to a conversation going on with the store manager and a customer. The customer had a store credit, and was trying to purchase some things. His total was short one peso. 33 cents. The manager couldn't complete the transaction.

He kept saying the computer system wouldn't let him use his store credit because he was one peso short. He had to buy something else. Obviously, nothing costs one peso in the shoe store. The customer was in disbelief, as was I. So they went back and forth, the customer questioning, trying to understand the ridonkulousness of this one peso idea, even offering to donate the one peso to the store (multiple times). The manager was saying that it would be his hide from his superiors above if he didn't get one more peso onto the sale to reach the store credit amount.

I turned to the manager, and was like, "couldn't you just say the guys shoes cost 1 more peso, tell the computer that" but I didn't say the "tell the computer that" part, that would've been rude. After I said something, I'm not sure if the manager was offended or maybe finally understood the ridonkulousness of this one peso problem, and was finally like, "Está bien, está bien" and completed the transaction. I was like, ya, of course it's ok, you just earned an extra free peso for your store, you deserve a bonus.

Forgive my sarcasm, but this is another of the many examples I've lived in the not-so-distant past that is revealing society's unhealthy dependency on computers. What if someone decided to use one of those electromagnetic bombs that they used in Ocean's Eleven? They did it in the movie, so of course they could do it in real life. Society would shut down.

this football season

This might just be the best possible football season of my life. And I haven't been in the states to be present for it. Here's why:

1. My high school, the Alamo Heights Mules (here's to our blue and gold....) won the STATE championship for the 1st time EVER!!!
2. Wake Forest made it to the ORANGE BOWL, a BCS bowl people!!! So now more people across the nation will have more to say when referring to Wake Forest. "uh, where Muggsy Bogues played basketball"..."uh, where Arnold Palmer attended college"...uh, where Tim Duncan played in college"..."uh, you know, they've got the amazing football team who is playing in the 2007 ORANGE BOWL"
3. The Longhorns made it to the Alamo Bowl, in San Antonio. Some might view it as a disappointment considering we won the national championship last year, but they still had a good year.

My all-time possible best football season would be the following:
1. Wake Forest plays Texas in the National Championship game, in San Antonio, where they decided to hold the national title game, with Wake Forest winning by 3 on a last second field goal.
2. Alamo Heights winning the Texas state championship, at least for the second time (see above, #1).

As the above might be slightly unrealistic, BUT STILL POSSIBLE, I'm going to go ahead and bask in this season's accomplishments.

time with Mike

Mike is probably leaving on a jet plane by now. I thoroughly enjoyed the time we got to hang out here in Argentina and go exploring in Cordoba. He got to see what life is like for me in BA, play a little of the national sport, and play an extremely long game of basketball against the Argentine Federal Police (hoop there it is), and go to spanish church with me. We also went to Cordoba, and I must say, La Cumbre is a very beautful, green, tranquil and awesome place to chill out. We hiked, swam, read (Mike finished an entire book), ate some good food, and were followed around town by 2 dogs who were from the posada we were staying at.
We saw some interesting things along the way. Apparently they leash cats in Cordoba, iglus are common to build, and toilet designs in this part of the world carry their own design. We were followed around the city by two dogs constantly, they didn't even mind going into restaurants and panaderias when we went in. View of the local golf club in La Cumbre below.Below is a picture taken on the way up to the big Jesus statue overlooking La Cumbre. Great trip overall, a great Christmas present to see Mike and spend time with him...I'm liking this vacation stuff...

basketball and sweat

Today, Mike (who is visiting) and I played basketball with some people I've played with only once before, and we went and played against the Federal Police. We had only 6 players. They wanted to play 3 20 minute periods. Which is long and ridiculous, especially when it is in a very closed gym with little ventilation on a very warm day.

I sweated so much my shorts were so wet with sweat, and thus heavy, that they started falling off as I was running up and down the court. In Craig's words, he would say "that's gross". It was kinda.

It ended up that we lost, but I think in the scheme of things it's better that way, since they're Federal Police and all.

cena con amigos

tonight we had a nice dinner before most people head back, good friends, good food at a great place:

running

So people think I´m crazy sometimes. Hah. You should check out Dean Karnazes:
http://www.runnersworld.com/e50/deantool.html

He finished not too long ago 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. 50 to the third power is equal to 125,000, but that´s not important. He ran 1310 miles people, all marathons, that´s 2100 km !! And now he´s running home from NYC to San Francisco.

I´m going to start my own Dean fan club south American style and attempt some km on the Camino Siete Lagos out in Patagonia. It´s only 112 km from San Martín de los Andes to Villa La Angostura. And then I could maybe go back via the Pasó Cordoba. Anyone want to join?

Map

stylish, like always

Last week was the end of reading month (November). We had a pajama day to read during most of the day, so I dressed up in what I would normally wear to sleep (I had to add a few more garments to be appropiate at school). The kids were amazed at my fashion sense and style. I think you´ll agree:Hot huh?

finals

So believe it or not, it's finals time around these parts. Some observations about finals:
1. I didn't like taking them as a student.
2. I don't like writing them as a teacher.
3. I'm not looking forward to grading them all that much.

So in conclusion, I say we make finals like a lottery, a kid gets to pick from a hat numbers 50-100, and that's his or her grade. Leave it up to chance?

Rolling the dice and taking chances is a part of life you know. Duh, you already know that.

Olé olé, olé olé

So Yesterday was my first professional soccer game experience in Argentina. I went to see River Plate "Rrrriver" and Nueva Chicago.
To help you understand, River is like the Yankees, and Boca is like the Red Sox, except they both are from the same city and hate each other more. More than half or River's cheers are cheers dissing Boca or saying bad things about the mothers of Boca. It'd be like the Yankees playing the Rangers, and having all the Yankees fans sitting there saying "you suck Boston, your Red Sox mother is a red sock" but of course alot more foul than that.

So the afternoon started when I got on the train. I was greeted by a train car full of already inebriated soccer fans cheering a bunch of cheers and hitting their hands really hard on the train walls. They were stylishly carrying beer (or some other goldish-yellow substance) in 1 liter coke and water bottles. Of course passing it around sharing and hitting their hands really hard on the train walls.

We got off the train. Oh, hello mister, peeing in the corner are we? Kind of you to turn away and pee in the corner. I guess lots of beer makes you go. So we keep walking to the stadium, I pass another guy peeing, this time on a fence, not in a corner.

As we get to the stadium we get in line, and to go in, must be frisked pretty well. They frisked us alright. My roommate Craig lost his favorite lighter/flashlight. He doesn't smoke though. You need to know Craig.

We get to our seats, and I am pretty dumbfounded at what I am seeing. The true, loyal fans section, where we were not sitting, had this huge, huge flag all on top of them, waving it back and forth, along with shouting all the cheers. This flag is the size of a football field, really. Then I look down, and 6 or 7 rows down from me, a guy takes a fat white object and lights it up. Apparently cannabis helps you cheer better ???

I'm also impressed, and somewhat saddened by all the security measures they have in place. Police in riot gear lined up around the track. Some police with attack dogs on leashes at the ready. At both ends, fire hoses ready to repel any onward charging fan or fans. Barbed wire at the top of the already 8 foot tall wire fence keeping everyone contained in their seats. South American soccer I guess.

So the game starts and River scores seriously on the first possesion. The 1/2 full stadium gets really excited. It was half full because River has no shot of winning the tournament they're playing in. Throughout the whole game, I was dumbfounded by the true fans section and their loyalty. They never stopped cheering. I don't know if it was because they were so drunk or so high, or a combination of both. Even at the end of the game, when it was pretty certain River was going to lose (Nueva Chicago had scored twice), they didn't stop cheering.

Then the game ended, River lost. We had to wait 20 minutes for the visiting fans section to completely empty out so that there hopefully would be less fights. No River fans went anywhere. This 20 minutes actually just gave more time for the Nueva Chicago fans to taunt the River fans while making inappropiate gestures at them. Of course, the River fans countered back with some mother insults, which I'm sure did a whole lot of good. Not.

Then it was time to go home, I made it home in one piece, didn't get in any fights or wasn't part of any riots, willingly or unwillingly, but then again, this wasn't really an important game so tensions, behaviors, and feelings were quite subdued. olé, olé, olé, olé...

9-6 Congratulations!!

Congratulations Demon Deacons, ACC Football Champions!! Picked to finish near last in the conference, the Deacs stormed out to win the ACC, the first time since 1970 (that's 36 years math lovers). A 9-6 victory over Georgia Tech!! Excellent bowl game to come -- the BCS Orange Bowl, go Deacs!

(I can already hear the complaining beginning of such a small school making such a big bowl game, BCS controversery has begun!)

GO DEACS!!!

La cucaracha, la cucaracha...

So take this picture as you may, gross, disgusting, thoughtless slaughter, cute little fellars, could-be-worse, whatever. This killing is just a fraction of what has ocurred at the home of Joanna, Debbie, and Sarah, 3 teachers at the school. When they sprayed the roach hole, apparantly 100s were pouring out of the hole. For enduring such said roaches for quite a while now, I definitely think that this week's fuzzinargentina.blogspot.com MVP award must be shared by Joanna, Debbie, and Sarah. Congratulations.