Notice

I just wanted to make sure people could tell that I published TWO posts today.  The osos en acción post, but also the one directly beneath it.

Also, I would like to thank Mrs. Froland and her Spanish IV class at RCW for sending me a goodies package!!  I ate the twinkie bar right away!! haha I was very excited to get it and loved the note that came with!!  Claro que sí yo haré el skype con ustedes otra vez!  Solo necesitamos asegurar que nuestros redes están funcionando al mismo vez!  Nos vemos pronto!!  Que se vaya bien :)

Osos en acción

The 4th of November marked the first of three days of something called osos en acción.  It literally translates to "bears in action", but what it actually is is a group of people (this time never more than 27, most often less than that) from the Adolfo Ibáñez school of business who get together and volunteer for a weekend.

This year they decided to help out in a poverty neighborhood called "mira flores alto".  What we did was build an extension onto a building in the area.  We put in a bathroom as well as some empty space and a window.  On the outside of the building there was a bunch of empty space, so we built a little plaza where the kids of the neighborhood can play.  There wasn't much that we built, a teeter-totter and a one person swing-set, but we only had three days and the vast majority of the work was spent leveling out the ground.

Something about Viña, more so Valparaíso (I have mentioned this before), is that it is incredibly hilly.  Many many of the houses are built on hills.  This meant that almost all of our time was spent by dividing up this area into three stair-like terraces.  In the first we built a couple benches so the parents can sit while watching their kids play.  The second terrace had the swing-set and teeter-totter on it.  Between the first and second terrace there was a drop of about three and a half feet, so we had to build a small wall to reenforce the earth.  Man oh man, I can't even tell you all about how much work we put into building that wall.  It was so difficult because we had to level off an incredible amount of land, as well as dig these pretty decent sized holes in the UNBELIEVABLY tough earth.  We had to use a lot of force and a lot of time to dig those holes.. and it cost me what I believe is turning into a scar on my right hand from where the skin had broken open while using the pics to make the holes.  Those kids better appreciate that wall is all I can say! :)

We were supposed to finish on Sunday around 1:00 in the afternoon, but we didn't end up finishing till 12:15 AM.  I left the scene at 9:30 PM however because I still had homework for the next day.  But it was a great experience and I'm very very glad I did it!

Here are some fun tales about my weekend:

You might or might not know how in Spanish a loving thing to say to your wife would be "mi gordita".  Well what that translates to in english is "my little fatty".  A funny thing happend that weekend... I ended up having a great time with the guys and girls there, so we got to joking around a lot.  How this particular joke came about was because we were exchanging words like "honey" in english, or "gordita" in spanish.  I asked them if they realized what that meant in spanish, and then told them.  One of the guys thought it was hilarious, so he from then on called me his fatty, and he then became mine.  So I now have a "fatty" in Chile :)

Friday night was a little rough for me.  At 5:00 on Friday night the buses loaded from the University to head to the school that we were going to be sleeping in... oh I think I forgot to mention that.  We literally volunteered the whole entire weekend.  We woke up early, started, worked till late, and then slept in a nearby school in two of the classrooms - one room male, one female.  Anyway, Friday night we didn't actually do anything.  It was only a night to start to get to know each other, and to have a good time.  The thing was, most of the Chileans had come with either their friends, or boy/girlfriends... so Friday night was a really fun night for them.  For me, it was something else.  I wouldn't have minded that nobody had told us we wouldn't be doing anything all of Friday, BUT for the fact that I had turned down many other things that Friday night for the opportunity to volunteer.  I was very upset, and panicking slightly when I found out that I could indeed have participated in the basketball 3x3 tournament, and gone to the basketball teams long anticipated carrete (party).  Some of the players on the team who were volunteering as well didn't even show up until Saturday.  So in a fit of desperation I walked about 8 blocks away from the school to find service to call someone, anyone, to see if they could help me get out of there and to the party that I had so been looking forward to for months.
I first tried multiple members of the basketball team, but nobody answered.  I then tried some of my girlfriends who are also on the basketball team, but the first of those didn't answer either!  Finally, my friend Co Co who plays for the women's UAI basketball team answered her phone.  The thing is, she couldn't really do anything what-so-ever. She didn't have a car, and had no way to get me out of there.  But I still vented to her anyway.
Apparently my plea for help was quite entertaining because she had told many of our other friends about it the very next day!  For the record, I would have done the exact same thing, I was freaking out and it must have been hilarious.
As it turned out, a rescue vehicle did NOT show up to take me away for the night, but that was okay.  I got to know the people who were volunteering a bit, which laid good grounds for the next two days to come.

Speaking of that, the great part of the weekend was the friends in general that I gained.  I met a lot of really great people and now when I go to school I can hardly pass in the halls without seeing and saying hi to someone who is either on the basketball team, or was an oso en acción.

Sadly I cannot post the pictures from osos en acción because I didn't take any with my camera.  The rest are on facebook, and unless you guys are friends with my Chilean friends, I don't think you'll be able to see them!

San Pedro de Atacama

My study abroad group and I went to a little town called San Pedro in the Atacama desert (in Chile) from October 29th to November 2nd.  It was a really great time for me, and I really enjoyed my time there.

The first thing you should know about the Atacama desert is that it is the driest desert in the world, and the second thing is that it's a very big tourist area, so everything is expensive!!  I spend a good haul on food and on water as well - because the water from the taps was not safe for people who are not used to it.
Now getting into more of what I actually did while I was there.

The first day - Saturday we didn't leave Viña till 3:30 I believe it was.  We drove to Santiago where we got checked into the airport and ready to leave a whopping 20 minutes before the plane boarded.  I'm very glad that none of us actually knew when the flight was scheduled to leave because I'm sure there would have been some people in our group really freaking out with how close we cut the time.

The flight was only a couple of hours long, but since it left so late once we got to San Pedro there was only enough time to get to our hostels and then do a tiny bit of exploring.

The Hostel.

There's actually an interesting story there.  Because our group of 21 students, plus our directors and their families, is so big, we couldn't all fit in one hostel even though we had reserved spots much in advance.  That meant that six of us had to stay in a separate hostel.  I, not by choice (you don't get much choice when you're one of two men surrounded by 19 women) was to stay in the second hostel - which actually ended up being a very nice place.  BUT, I'm getting ahead of myself.  The first night when we rolled into the hostel we were sadly informed that our reservations no longer had stood apparently because of how long in advance we had had them (WOW that makes a lot of sense). However, the owner of the hostel had felt bad, so she offered up her house for us six students to stay.

We were a little leery of staying in her actual house, and had many mixed feelings about it!  But when it was all said and done, it was a very very nice place to stay.  Her "house" was almost exactly like another hostel... we each had our own separate "room" which was actually more like a two room (bedroom/bathroom) building.  I stayed with Gabe - the other male on the trip - and the four girls stayed in the other "room".  It was very nice!  So that was an adventure, but only for the first night.

The next day, Sunday, we had the morning free but we didn't sleep in so we could eat breakfast.  That afternoon I went sand boarding with five others.  We had a great time, it was super fun.  Something i realized however... I am really bad at sandboarding. If I can find the video of myself biffing it I will post it, but till that time you will just have to trust me!
That same night we went to valle de la luna I believe it was called where we saw an amazing view of the desert.  I got kinda board, however, after being there for about an hour..... so I started climbing down this small cliff that we weren't actually supposed to go near.  It was super cool because I climbed all the way down and then out towards the sites that before we were all looking at from afar, but then I had become a part of it.  After some pretty awesome pictures, there was nothing left to do besides wait for the next day to come, or I should say morning...

The following morning at 3:30 my alarm rang.  We as a group were heading way way up the mountains to see the boiling geysers and a few other sites.  We had been warned many many times that where we were going was very very high up, and we were never to move faster than a regular paced walk, nor were we too get too excited at any point... if we did we could experience altitude sickness.  They were right about the altitude sickness and how easy it can sit in.  More than half of my group was affected, and I think it was six of them had to go down early because of it.  One fainted, and the others all of a sudden found themselves on the ground, their bodies having taken them there to steady themselves. As funny as that may sound that is how a friend described it to me, as if she didn't have any control over it.  It got a little freaky for me at one point.  There was a moment when one of the girls fainted, but then also two more went down at the same time - both still conscious.  The guide then turned to me (I'm assuming because I was one of the two guys there) as he was taking his oxygen tank off of his back and applying it my recently fainted friend, and then he said to me "Go find Pablo right now and tell him to come here immediately!"  I right away went and very quickly walked to find him.  I walked as such because I had been feeling fine, and the way he said for me to go get help made me think there was something more wrong.  After quickly finding Pablo I was very relieved because I had no idea where he would actually be, we both quickly walked back.  When I got back was when my effort of getting Pablo sunk in.  I wasn't affected in my head, but my legs were like jello.  I had only walked fast and at one point skipped across a small stream, but my legs were as unsteady as if I had just ran a 400 meter dash.  Luckily that was all that came of it!  And my friends all were fine after using the oxygen mast.  I got some great pictures of the geysers, as well some of my favorite pictures of an amazing mountain sunrise.  That following afternoon was left open for us and we filled it with a bit of nappy and a good chunk of relaxation time.  When the sunset came I decided I really must have pictures of it, so I set off running for it and ended up getting a few nice very last minute shots (more about my chase for the sunset expressed in my essay downbelow.  PS Google translate :)

One of the photos I ran to capture in San Pedro

 Tuesday was an entirely free day which I spent biking with five others.  It was actually pretty difficult because we started out (8:30) on the wrong road.  We biked for a somewhere around three hours before turning around for about an hour, which was when we turned on to an off road path.... which is when it got very difficult!  We actually ended up ditching our bikes (hid them behind nearby sand dunes) and waling because the sand was too much to bike through.  As that turned out, that was not the smartest idea because after the sand cleared up we still had to walk for another couple of hours.

We finally reached our destination - la laguna cejar - which is a small lake in the middle of this desert.  The thing about this very touristic lake that it has an incredible amount of salt in it... so much in fact, that any person can very easily float without effort :)  It was greeeatt and a well welcomed treat after many hours of trying to get there in the blazing hot sun.

The way back was quite a test as we were all very tired!  We ended up being gone for 11 hours, or in distance: 55 miles.  It was a full day filled with sun and more sun!

Even though I was very exhausted and was much looking forward to my hostel bed I was very excited for the next activity that I was going to do.  I went with four others in my group to this star gazing thing... haha I apologize for my lack of knowledge on what things are called!  But anyway we went to this star gazing seminar and it was very much a highlight of my trip.  I personally, like my mom, love astronomy.  I learned tons about the sky, it's history, and how it has helped people ever since we thought that the earth was the center of the universe.  I also got a great picture with my new DSLR camera... the guide offered to take pictures for people through a certain telescope that was powered too high for human eyes but great for pictures.  As it turned out, besides stars a hobby of his was photography!  He put my camera on full manual and took a great shot of the moon for me.

The next morning I slept in, ate breakfast/lunch, and then got on the plane heading back for Santiago and then Viña.  It was a great trip, but also good to be back "home" again.

Now for you Spanish speakers I have a little treat.  I'm going to attach the essay that I had to write about the trip for my art class.  I realize that it is not grammatically perfect, and for that Mrs. Froland I apologize!  I haven't gotten the grade back yet so I don't know just how bad it actually is.  It also is very short because instead of writing a few long essays, we have written many short ones (front and back hand-written).  Anyway, I hope you enjoy hearing about my trip in the language in which it was meant to be expressed.

Daniel Knapper

Arte

Ensayo de San Pedro de Atacama

            “¡No corras, está prohibido!”  Yo seguía corriendo como el conductor del auto rojo manejó en sentido contrario, casi con toda seguridad murmurando como loco era el gringo que corría en el desierto de Atacama.  El conductor tenía razón.  San Pedro de Atacama es un pueblo pequeño, 2.407 metros sobre el nivel del mar, y el más seco del mundo.  Es muy peligroso correr en un clima así, y lo sabía, pero necesitaba llegar al borde de San Pedro tan rápido que posible.  Cinco minutos más tarde cuando alcancé el borde, me di cuenta que lo acababa de perder.  Fue en este momento cuando yo vi que mi destino podría estar sobre los cerros que esperaban tan cerca. 

            Yo corrí al cerro más cercano y lo subí hasta llegar a la cima.  Fue obvio que solo tenía una oportunidad.  Hay que hacerlo bien.  ¡Clic! sonó mi cámara quién capturó una foto perfecta de la puesta del sol en la cima del cerro a las afueras del San Pedro de Atacama. 

            Yo hice mucho en el viaje.  Conocí los géiseres en la madrugada, asistí a un evento sobre las estrellas en el cielo, practiqué en las arenas del desierto el sandbording, y gasté una montaña de plata en la comida en el pueblo, pero la aventura más interesante fue andar en bicicleta con mis amigas. 

            Empezamos a las 8:30 de la mañana.  Lo que queremos hacer fue andar en las bicicletas por unas horas hasta llegar a la laguna cejar, y después de esta andar más, explorando las tierras.  Cuando terminamos, estábamos pensando que sería cerca de las cuatro en la tarde.  En realidad, no terminamos hasta las siete.  Lo que pasó fue andamos en la manera equivocado de inmediatamente.  Pensábamos que seguíamos las direcciones que tenemos por la persona que nos arrendó las bicicletas, pero en actualidad, estábamos equivocados.  Estábamos bajo del sol, en el desierto más seco del mundo, con mucho calor.  Superábamos mucho.

            Al fin, estábamos muy felices de lo que hicimos y no vamos a olvidarlo.  En general el viaje a San Pedro fue muy especial para mí porque no importó lo que hice, me disfruté todo.  Aprendí una lección muy importante.  Se puede disfrutarse mucho con actividades como sandboarding, andar en las bicicletas, o mirar las estrellas con telescopios... pero también se puede disfrutarse simplemente con unas ganas de lograr algo, como sacar una foto de la puesta del sol.  Yo aprendí que si corre un poco, aunque tal vez está peligroso, y si no para cuando hay cerros en tu manera, se puede lograr algo mucho más que simplemente una foto para su libro de memorias.  Se puede lograr lo que quiera... si solo tiene ganas.

Taken through the lens of a telescope set to such high power that if the naked eye were to gaze into the eye piece it wouldn't be able to see  anything for the next 10-15 minutes.

Valle de la luna

Valle de la luna

Geysers waaay up the mountains

One of my favorite shots near the geysers

Some good, lots of bad.

A lot has happened since my last post, both good and bad.  

I'll start out with music.  There was a talent show at my university and I participated with my violin.  It was very interesting because I only found out about the talent show two days before it was held, and I didn't start planning for it till the day before.  I was unsure of what song to do.  After some thought it came down to two choices.  I could either do a coagulation of fiddle songs, or my own rendition of Love the Way You Lie by Eminem.  I have been working on a rendition of Love the Way You Lie for a couple months now, and am almost finished with it.  Because of that, I thought the audience would really enjoy it if I played a much more simplified version... live.  So I put together a track that would be do-able live, practiced it, and played it for my host family.  They loved it.... but I was unconvinced.  When I made the violin cover of the song, I was not expecting to play it live, therefore, it did not sound like it was meant to be played live.... simply put, it was missing the other parts that I could not play at the same time.  

So I started working on the fiddle songs.  After I was satisfied with a collection of varying styles, I also played that for my host family.  When I asked them what they liked better it took a lot of discussing and arguments to come to the conclusion that in their opinion I should play the pop song.  I took their advice and went to bed with the assumption I would play Love the Way You Lie for the talent show the following day.

As you might have guessed that wasn't how it turned out.  I didn't end up changing my mind till after I had already reported to the organizer what song I would be playing, and if I needed any electronic hook-ups.  Me changing my mind was mostly due to three of my closer friends here studying abroad.  When I was waiting for the first act of the show to start (I was scheduled at second to last) they came up to me and explained how as cool as the pop song would sound, it would be something everybody knew, something not as original, and quite frankly not nearly as impressive.  The things they were saying were things I had already been thinking, but just had been unsure how how impressive a violin cover of a pop song (primarily a rap song) would be.  My final thoughts on the matter are that it isn't meant to be played as a live song - since I need the background parts to make it full and complete.  

So I played the collection of fiddle songs.  When I got on the stage I was right away singled out as a foreigner, and the MC's had a fun time teasing me!  I was going to attatch a video so you could see for yourselves, but I am experiencing difficulties.   

Then came the performance, and over-all I was very pleased with how it went.  I had actually planned to play part of "Danny Boy" right before moving on to Orange Blossom Special (the last song) but while I was playing on stage I got the feeling that that would have been slightly too long - and also that the audience wouldn't have been able to follow the change of paces very well.  Anyway, I'm ranting now.  I was going to attach the performance of the video but again, problems with the upload.  I'll attach a link for it some other time, for now... moving on.

A couple of weeks after the talent show was over, I was at the university, walking to the bus stop, when someone stopped me and asked if I had a minute.  He introduced himself as one of the judges from the talent show that I played violin in.  He said that he'd been looking for me ever since that Wednesday, but didn't know how to find me.  He then introduced himself as a DJ who fills his weekends with gigs, and that he would be interested in having me work with him.  He expressed interest in making music together - some club and house music - possibly recording some, and then performing with him at his gigs.  Needless to say I was very excited about this opportunity and gladly gave him my phone number!  

So that was the good of the last few weeks!  Now comes some of the bad.

Wednesday the 19th my basketball team had a game.  We played at our usual spot in Valparaíso, a home game.  This particular game was unusually intense for our team, and the reason for that is that we lost our last game to a team that we definitely should not have lost to.  That loss raised a lot of passion within the coach and players alike, and it made us pumped and ready to go against whichever team we may cross.  

The game was a close one.  Our players walked the walk after talking the talk... meaning they did what they said they were going to do, and raised the intensity level.  On the other team there was a guy who throughout the whole game was causing problems - with the refs, and the players on the UAI (my university) team.  At the very end of the third quarter he got a little too hot headed and swung his elbows trying to secure a rebound.  I was too close when he did this, and paid for it.  His swing took me to the ground with a mouth full of blood.  It wasn't till after we finished (AND WON) the game that I got to realize the extend of the damage.  I knew right away that not all of my teeth would be there, but I didn't know how bad it was.  My top right big tooth was badly chipped, and completely fractured, from the top to bottom, and especially on the right side.  My top left big tooth was not chipped, but also badly fractured - from the top to bottom, and again, on the right side.  My bottom left big tooth and the tooth directly the left of that one are also chipped, though not as badly... but those teeth, unlike the two on the top, are badly loose.  The top two teeth are causing me very little pain, only from things like breathing with my mouth open, and drinking hot or cold liquids.  The two on the bottom, however, are causing much pain as they try to settle back in their correct positions.  

I went to the dentist on Thursday - a day after it happened.  She capped both of my top big teeth, and did a very good job.  It feels different to me, and they are slightly longer, but I have been told that the damage is unnoticeable.  Judging by all the damage done to my top two teeth, and by how much my two bottom teeth were loose, my dentist told me I was very lucky to have not lost all four of them on the court.  I am not, however, lucky to have to live with the results.  Short term diagnosis - Only soft foods for the next ten days, and no sports.  Long term diagnosis: Because of that one pissed off basketball player, I now will have to wear a mouthguard whenever playing any physical sport, or run the risk of getting hit again, and have all my front teeth fly out of my mouth.  They are very weak, and I will always have to be careful.  

It is now Saturday night, the 22nd of October when I am writing this.  This whole incident with the teeth happend on Tuesday the 18th.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I ate virtually no food.  Friday was for sure the worst day I have had in Chile, and probably one of the toughest days I have ever faced.  The pain in my mouth was nothing, I could have lived with that - and maybe even made it go away by taking a strong pain pill... but the pain in my stomach from not having eaten for three days straight was unbearable.  It wasn't just my stomach, it was my whole body.  I couldn't think of anything else, I couldn't concentrate on anything.  My hands were shaking, and I was very weak.  I had hardly eaten anything on Wednesday cause it was just one of those days, and then Thursday nothing because of the pain, but Friday I wasn't allowed to eat anything because of the caps they had put on my teeth for fear of coloring them.  It was one of the toughest days of my life and I won't be easily forgetting it.  

I would like to thank Kylie Stanfield, Courtney Jenderny, and Sophie Kem for making me a care package filled with the best of what I am allowed to eat.  It is really great knowing that I have friends here in Chile that will do that for me.  Thanks girls!!

It is now Friday, the 28th, and I am just editing this document one last time before I post it.  It has been a week and two days since the smack in the face.  I went to the dentist today and she re-covered my teeth for the final time, making sure everything was set, strong, and ready to eat food again.  The top two teeth, as battered up as they are, only need a few more days of recouping... but my bottom two teeth are still quite loose.  Basically, because of that I am still on the bland food diet  - although now it is better because I can for the most part eat normal foods if I choose to, but only if I cut them up into small pieces and chew them without any of my front teeth.  

I hope this post wasn't wasn't as boring as it is long!  I am doing much better now than I was last week, so no need to worry people back home :)  I'm being careful!  Bye bye now.

Pucon

My trip to Pucon didn't go quite as expected.

I went to Pucon, Chile (southern Chile) a couple of weeks ago with two of my good friends Emily, and Jamie.  Since Pucon is so far south, it took us 10 hours in a bus to get there... and since we took the ride over night we arrived at about 9:00 AM on Friday morning, the 30th of September.  We stayed at what is called a hostel, which is like a hotel but much much cheaper.  The differences from a hotel are as so: the rooms are not private.  They are usually bigger, and if you are only traveling with three people but staying in a five person bed room, you will get to meet two other people, and sleep in the same room as then - male and female alike.  Each hostel is different, but the one my friends and I stayed at was very very good.  The beds were super comfortable, there was a great breakfast included in the morning (an unusually feature) of fruit, eggs, bread, and a fruitshake.  The best part (and point of staying in a hostel) is that it only cost 14 dollars per day/night... including showers.

Through the hostel my friends and I were brought to awareness of plenty of activities that were available to us in Pucon.  We ended up planning on this schedule for the weekend:

Friday: 4 hour horseback riding tour during the afternoon, rest at night.

Saturday: Zip lining in the canopy, and taking a tour of the area.  During the night we'd partake in the asado put on (but paid separately) by the hostel.

Sunday: Climb the active volcano.  7 hours up, 1 and a half down.  Sunday night: HOLY CRAP WE WILL NEED TO REST BECAUSE THAT VOLCANO WAS HUGE.

Monday morning: head back.

So that was our plan... and for the most part it was filled out... by Jamie and Emily.  I, however, was only able to participate in the horseback riding on Friday.  Saturday morning, as Emily, Jamie, and I were exploring the town on foot, I because quite sick.  I didn't really know what it was at first, but I basically my whole body was sore (sore from horseback riding yes, but in a different way as well), my stomach was weak, and I had a headache.  When we finally (what felt like forever to me) got back to the hostel, I right away went for me bed.  I started to get very cold as I broke out with a fever and decided not to go with the girls.  When they left to continue our plans (I guess some people apparently think that was mean of them, but I need to set this straight.  It would have been extremely selfish of me to ask them to stay with me in the hostel on our vacation (and a spendy one at that) so they could be there while I slept for the most part.  I am very glad they did not stay with me, I would have felt terrible.).. so when they left to continue our plans I slept for the most part, watched movies on my computer, and worked on my music on my lap-top a bit.  My fever broke, came back, and broke again... and I spent more of the time in the bathroom.

Sunday came, and I woke up with the girls hoping that I'd feel better enough to climb the volcano with them... sadly I was not feeling better and ended up spending another day in bed.  

Annnnd that was the end of our trip.  It was a big bummer for me, especially since my body waited for my first vacation - and as I said a spendy one - to become sick.  We spent the whole day on the bus, for which luckily I was feeling better for the most part... although I still had no desire to eat any food.  

So in conclusion, even though the weekend didn't go as planned, I still got to see the south of Chile, take some great pictures while horseback riding, and spend some time with two of my newly found good friends here in Chile.  Oh!  And I met some pretty cool people in the hostel all around the world: Denmark, Ireland, Israel, England, and of course Chile :)  The coolest part of it all was that we could all communicate in English whether it was our first, second, or third language.  It's incredible how language studies enables people to connect in a way that would otherwise never be possible.  

Jamie and Emily

Our hostel, called "Nativa"

Real life Oregon Trail! Fording the river.

Amazing views.

Havin' some fun :)

Yes this IS a sign for emergency volcano evacuation.

Just a few pictures

Taken on my first night in Chile

Valparaíso

Night-time view from my apartment

Sweet underwater parking ramp

The flower clock - more or less

The b-e-a-utiful Pacific Ocean

The view from my college

The day-time view from my apartment

My extended family - they are great :)

Our group!

The world's biggest pool - it goes far beyond what one picture can show

One of my personal favorites

WARNING

There seems to be some sort of problem with blogger right now with commenting on posts.  My recommendation is for you to copy everything you wrote before posting it, just in case it doesn't work you will not have written it all for nothing.  If it still refuses to post, you can always post it to my facebook wall.  Thanks!

Daniel

A dog fight in the middle of an education stike

Hello Mrs. Froland's Spanish classes... err, I mean... hello readers.

I just found out about a week ago that my Spanish teacher from high school - Señora Froland - is reading my posts word for word to her Spanish classes.  So no pressure or anything!

The strikes:
I guess I spoke a little too soon in my previous posts about the strikes being stagnant recently.  A couple days ago, on Thursday, there was a big get together for all the strikers in Valparaíso.  That wouldn't have affected me at all, but I had a basketball game that night in Valpo.  I had not heard about the strikes that were happening, so I got on the metro to go to the game as I usually do.  Shortly after getting on the metro one the member's of the basketball team called me and told me to get off at the next stop and wait for him there - he was going to drive me to the game.  When he arrived about 25 minutes later I learned that there were tons of strikes in Valparaíso, and it was very unsafe to be there at that moment... and that included taking public transportation.
Apparently the strikes were so bad that we couldn't even drive through the city with a car, because we went way outside the city to get to our destination.  We ended up being so late for the game they had already started playing when we walked in with our street clothes on.  Oh, and by the way, to not go in the town was all on orders from our coach.
So the education strikes are still active and they are still dangerous.  This is a very unique time to be in Chile, with all these strikes, and it gives us the opportunity to see something that many before us have not seen... but at the same time we have to watch out for ourselves, and our friends with us so we don't get caught up in the mess of what's going on.


Dog Fight:
Another interesting thing happened to me that night.  While I was waiting for my friend from the basketball team to pick me up, I witnessed my first street dog fight.  I am actually quite surprised that it took two months of being here to see a dog fight simply because there are SO many dogs that live on the streets.
As I was waiting, I saw two dogs all of a sudden attacking each other.  I was very proud of the Chileans because almost right away there was two guys who were trying very hard to break up the dogs.  I don't know about others, but I have a really hard time watching animals fight.  I was very glad that others apparently were feeling the same.  To get them apart finally took a bucket of water being poured on the dogs..... but that didn't stop it.  They ran across the street and began tackling each other in the middle of traffic - which thankfully was paying attention and didn't run over either of the dogs.  This time a different man on the street took action and ran to the dogs with a stick and tried to separate them.  After he succeeded the dogs ran away again... or I should say the smaller, lighter dog ran away and the bigger, black dog chased, which of course made things all the more sad because the black dog was obviously winning, and the other obviously just wanted to get away.  It was at this moment where I was especially proud of Chileans because I saw two guys, about 15 each, look at each other - exchange some incomprehensible Chilean Spanish, throw down their backpacks, and bolt across the street to continue the struggle to break up the dogs.  Again the boys were successful, but only in giving the weaker dog a chance to run away and be caught again by the black dog.  This time they ran past me to which I tried to help and kick at the bigger dog.  Finally, after many attempts to save the smaller, lighter colored dog, the black dog decided it wasn't worth all the abuse he was getting from the Chilean citizens.  As far as I know, the light colored dog was able to run away to safety.
I was especially shaken after seeing the fight, and it took walking in to the basketball game late to shake me out of it and get into basketball mode.  Living in Chile is great.  It is truly a great place to learn and better a person's Spanish, but I will be very happy if I do not have to watch another dog fight before leaving in December.

Weather:
The temperatures in Viña are steadily getting warmer week by week.  It is almost always warm enough now a days to go outside without a coat, which is great!  At night however, there are drastic changes, so if you don't want to freeze it would be wise to bring a coat with.  However, I am very much enjoying the weather, and looking forward to the day I don't have any homework - cause that day is going to find me on the beach with a book, a couple of McDonald's cheeseburgers, and an incredibly vast and beautiful ocean, right in front of me.

Music:
Yes, I am keeping up with music.  Well, kinda.  I am trying to practice everyday, but that really hasn't been happening.  I live in a relatively small apartment, and all of the rooms are very close to each other. There is not a space to practice my violin (which I DID bring with me) at the University, so that means I have to practice at home.  It is for the curtesy of my family that I do not feel comfortable practicing all the time.  Practice is very repetitive, and and anyone who has heard will tell you, it is not fun listening to a classical musician practice day after day (thank you so much Mom and Dad for doing just that!  Oh and I suppose Lindsey, Teri, and Anna as well :)

In addition to classical music I have been working on a project... what exactly I will not say.  I will say, however, that I am almost done, and soon will post it for all to see.  Keep your eyes open for it! :)

One more musical topic - a couple friends and I have talked about the idea of me playing violin on the streets... about how would be a good experience and very eye opening!  I will not, on the other hand, do it alone - so my friends agreed to be somewhere in the near vicinity when I do it!  I don't know if this will actually happen or not, but if it does, I will surely post the results.


So, I apologize Mrs. Froland's classes, but this post is now over - so that means you will probably be going back to studying vocab, taking tests, or maybe if you're really lucky you'll get to read some of those yellow grammar boxes (no really, they actually help.  READ those!)

In any case, as always - I hope my blog is serving it's purpose and allowing those at home to experience a little bit of Chile in their own way.

Chao ya'll!
Daniel

A Spanish evaluation and a city wide frustration

I don't even know where to start.  So much has been going on since my last post.

Thankfully, I now have some cards to make public transportation a bit cheaper.  Up till now I have spent most of my money on transportation and food, transportation being the biggest one.  I live in a little sector called Chorrillos which is kinda far away from everything.  I purchased a metro card which cut the bill someone around a third as much.  I also was given a student card for the buses to get about half off.  That has been helping a lot.

School has been a lot harder as of late.  We are getting a lot more homework than the beginning of the year.  Tomorrow I am going to give my second presentation in the last couple weeks, but as soon as I get done I will have to prepare another for another class.  So as far as homework goes I'm staying busy there!

The education strikes:
I haven't heard much more about the education situation since the last time I posted.  They are still fighting for what they want of course, but they haven't had a big organized rally since he beginning of the month.

Basketball:
Basketball is going well.  We have played three official games now - with the last one pulling in a win.  I'm having a great time being on the team.  The guys are great, we work hard, and we're not half bad.  This particular week coming up is going to be a bit crazy - we have a game tomorrow (Monday), practice on Wednesday, and games on both Thursday and Friday.  That is a bit odd because up till now we have only had either games or practice on Monday and Wednesday.  It'll be fun to play so many games in one week.  I sprained my ankle during the last game, so wish me luck!

The Spanish:
How has the Spanish been going?  Well.  It's getting better... I think.  It's hard to tell right now, I don't honestly feel like it's getting all that much better.  Okay, I shouldn't say that - I can definitely understand much much better than when I arrived.  I don't have any problems understands my host family anymore, and the only problems in communication we ever have are with words that I simply don't know.  But in general, I don't feel like I can speak much better than when I got here... but apparently my family thinks I talk faster.  Classes are easier to understand as well - which is great because my grade has room for improvement!

As far as the ease of understanding goes... I still have to concentrate a lot to catch any Spanish that is spoken around me.  I do have an exciting accomplishment, however.  I was taking public transportation the other day and was pleasantly surprised by a very nice woman in the colectivo as well as a very nice driver.  I chatted with both of them till we departed, and didn't once have to use the word "what?".  I am very proud to be able to say that because the Spanish here, as I have said before, is the worst Spanish in the world.  It's badly spoken, spoken incredibly fast, and they don't pronounce the whole word in many situations.  To be able to understand a full conversation with strangers is something I was very pleased about.

At the same time, however, like I said I don't feel like I'm improving at extraordinary rates.  It is still incredibly frustrating speaking with someone my own age... it's as if I don't speak the language.  When they say Chilean Spanish is fast... man oh man, it is fast.

So last night Chile experienced a black out.  You might be a little confused that I said "Chile" and not Viña del Mar... but no, I mean Chile had a blackout.  I believe it was 70% of the country (almost 10 million people) that lost power.  Everything went out at the same time, country wide.  I live on the 15th floor of an apartment building that is already on a hill that takes 10 minutes to climb... we could see everything.  We could also see in the distance, Con Con, a neighboring city that appeared to be on fire.  It was over a hill so we couldn't actually see, but there were very obvious flames shooting into the air. That actually turned out to be the reason for the blackout.  There was a certain power plant in that city that was experiencing failures, failures that caused huge streams of fire to shoot out of their exhaust pipes.

The whole ordeal was actually quite frightening.  As I found out later I was pretty much the only person who was worried... but the reason I was worried wasn't for myself obviously, I was in my apartment.  I was worried for my fellow students who could have been on the streets when this happened, or stuck in an elevator somewhere, or even in Con Con where we thought there was a raging fire.  After I made sure my friends who were near me were fine, my family and I just sat on my mom's bed with our laptops for light... looking out at the incredibly dark city.  It was a ghost town - something my family said they had never seen before.

All in all things are still going well.  I'm definitely experiencing some downs as well as highs now.... the downs being mainly caused by transportation speeds, food prices, the level of homework, and issues fitting a gringo (that's me) into Chile as a citizen.  But as I said, I'm in Chile.  I will be back in Minnesota long before I know it so I need to make the best of it.  As long as I leave with a much higher Spanish fluency level I will be happy.  But on that note, I'm missing college at St. John's, missing the buffet everyday, but most of all missing family and friends.... so write me!

Hope you are all doin' well.
Daniel

Education stress, and basketball success

I don't know how many of you have heard about the education strikes that are happening in Chile right now, but it's pretty big news here in Viña.  Basically, a great amount of people in Chile are striking because they want free education on all levels - elementary, middle, high, and college.  They are saying that the people have a right to education and the government should pay for it.  Right now, all schooling besides college is required, but there is no help paying for it.  If your family has money, you will most likely go to a private school to receive a widely known better education.  If you don't have money, you will attend a public school which is probably vastly lacking of the tools necessary to ensure a solid education.  As I said, there is no help paying for even elementary, middle, and high school.  Although they don't even come close to the prices that college does, it can obviously be a problem for some families.  

I agree that something should be done to help people who need help on an educational level less than college, for sure.  I am slightly bothered though by the thought that college should be free to all.  That would cause countless problems that I don't wish to go into now.  I believe there should be help for those who wish to gain a higher education, but there should by no means be free education for all without second thought.  

All opinions aside, there's a lot of "ruckus" going on because of this.  It's actually quite violent at times.  A little more than a week ago, on Wednesday and Thursday there was a very big strike in the streets of Santiago and Viña del Mar (where I am living).  Once the sun set, the trouble makers and die-hards came out... and the students attending colleges or schools that weren't closed went and stayed indoors.  There were people with guns, bats, and all sorts of weapons in the streets. The police had quite a time dealing with it.  They used fire trucks and sprayed the masses with water.  They rounded up the most routy of the strikers with plastic shields and their little bat things, I'm not sure what their proper name is.  But the most stunning of events that occurred was the release of tear gas.  I couldn't believe that it was so serious that they not only hosed people down, but actually threw tear gas grenades.  As one of the girls on my trip said: note to the not to wise:  Tear gas ligers.

On a lesser note, I'd like to talk about basketball.  As some of you may know, I have a really crappy left knee.  I have had two surgeries in just over a year, and until recently I thought I was done with rigorous physical activity for the rest of my life.  While planning last year at college for my stay in Chile, I planned with the other guy on the trip, Gabe, to play basketball.  Those plans changed as my knee situation grew worse.  When I got here, I had accepted that I wouldn't be able to play basketball that I had previously planned.  I decided to watch a practice anyway.  Knowing that it would be hard to watch my favorite sport being played without me, I brought my clothes and gear along so I could shoot on the sidelines.  Basically, I tried playing anyway.  I had stretched my knee out for the past half hour, and it was feeling good, so I gave it a shot.

I couldn't believe it, but I was running and playing with the fast paced Chileans as if I didn't have a knee problem.  I was so good to be playing again!  

Two days later, I decided to come back again for the next game.  To my surprise, the coach announced in the huddle that I would be starting.  Later, to my surprise, he put my in key defensive positions, and taught me a play in the huddle during a timeout which goal was to get me the ball in the post.  This was too good to be true.  Not only am I able to play again, but I am a key player on the University basketball team.  I am proud to tell you all about this and pray that I will continue to experience good health!  

Overview so far

Hello readers,
Today is Friday, August, the 19th and it has been one week since arrival in Chile.  It seems odd to me that I've only been here for one week, it seems like it's been much longer.  I think the reason for that is because in the past week everything I have seen, all the people I've met, and all the stuff I've done has been new.

I am starting to get the hang of things.  I can get around to where I need to go, for the most part, by myself now.  My home is located slightly farther away from the main action of the city, and because of that I need to take public transportation quite often.  I am not too happy about that because it is already costing a lot of money.

There are multiple forms of public transportation.
COLECTIVOS:
This is very much like a taxi except for a few reasons.  There can be up to four different people in the car at the same time... it's not a private ride.  There are certain colectivos for each area of the city, and they stay within their area.  The location of where the Colectivo goes is posted with a small sign on top of the car.  A colectivo usually costs 350 pesos (about 75 cents), but it will cost more if it is later at night or if you are riding alone.  At nights, meaning anywhere from 12 to five in the morning, it will cost at the maximum 1200 (that's what my mamá told me), or about $2.30 USD.   Colectivos are probably the fastest and cheapest form of transportation since there are a lot of them, and they can take you pretty much exactly where you need to go.

METRO:
The metro is a favorite form of transportation for some of my friends from the States.  It is very clean, simple, and stress free.  It costs slightly more than a colectivo - somewhere around 400 pesos.  That figure I am currently unsure about, and it also varies with how far you can go.  With the metro you are not limited to a certain spot of the city like a colectivo.  You can take the metro all the way through Viña del Mar all the way into Valparaíso.  Of course, however, the longer you ride the more it will cost.  To ride the metro you need a card with money on it, which is easily filled.

MICRO:
This is basically a bus...although there is something else that would be called a "bus" I'm not sure of the differences quite yet.  There are micros all over the place, and they, like the colectivos, have their own  designated transportation spots.  For example, if I want to go to Valparíso in a micro, I will have to get on one that says "Valparaíso" on the side.  If I want to go to "Alvarez" street (where I live) i need to find one that says such.  Each mirco has more than one spot - a wider range than colectivos - but they still are limited as so.  Costs vary, but are usually between 350-400 pesos.

Taxi:
I have never taken a taxi because they are the most expensive form of transportation.  They operate exactly like the ones in the States.  You can go where ever you want, but you will pay per kilometro, or something like that.

BUS:
As I said before, I'm not exactly sure the differences between a micro and a bus... so right now I'm going to say they are the same.

UAI BUS:
I get to school on a free, college sponsored, bus.  It goes only from the Plaza Viña (about a 20 minute walk from my apartment), and one other spot, to  Universidad Adólfo Ibáñez - the college I am attending.  It also gives rides back to those two locations.

That pretty much covers the forms of public transportation.  My favorite is colectivos because when I take one, I don't have to walk all the way down from the huge hill my apartment is located on, and likewise I don't have to walk up it - which is a work out.  In addition to that, they are pretty cheap if it's not too late at night and there's other people with you, which there always is.

My overall opinion right now of Viña is that I'm going to have a great time here.  I have never had this much free time in my entire life, something I'm getting used to probably a little too easily.  During the week my daily schedule includes a couple classes, working out for about an hour, and practicing violin for about the same amount of time.  Besides that, I eat lunch with my family most days, and hang out with friends most nights.

The weight room here is the best I have ever seen, by far.  The equipment for lifting weights is very advanced and easy to use.  I am very thankful for this as I will be spending about four hours per week lifting.

As for violin, I have only practiced once so far, but I am still getting in the schedule of things.  I am currently working on classical music for school in the States, but also on youtube music.  I am currently working on "love the way you lie - by eminem" as a violin cover.  I will start recording soon.  It is my hope that I don't find video editing very difficult!  If my hopes come true, I should have the video up in less than a week.

I hope you are all enjoying my blog!
Daniel Knapper

Note - many more pics and videos available for viewing on my facebook page.

Notice

I'm having problems uploading pictures to my blog, so if you'd like to see some, go to my facebook site.  I have it linked at the upper right hand side of the page.  There are tons!

Flight to Chile and first day experiences

The flight to Chile went relatively smooth, and without error.  I do have to say though that leaving my family at the Chicago airport to walk into the tunnel/plane with only a fellow classmate, did freak me out a little bit.  It took me a while to gain my bearings back and find myself excited again, but in that little bit of time, I struggled.  Thank you to Mom, Dad, Megan, Aaron, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Rachelle for being there for me and not leaving till the very end!  I appreciate it.

Once I got to Chile.... holy crap.  I had/have pretty high expectations for this trip, but they are already blown out of the water.  As was expected, the host family has the biggest affect on this.  I couldn't be more happy with my host family.  They are GREAT.  They remind me very much of my own family, and although I have only known them for half a day, I feel very comfortable around them, and know that I will spend a semester here with them and truly remember it for the rest of my life.  Judging by some of the pictures we took in our apartment, you can see how we are all taking to each other very quickly :)

My host brother, Gabriel, and another students from CSB - Kylie Stanfield - and I went downtown Viña del Mar today.  We got a lot accomplished but of course had a great time as well!  We both bought a cell phone, figured out where our group is meeting in the near future, and slightly figured out how to use the metro system, and where to go to make it to school.... I'm just going to take this opportunity to say that I hope someone shows us again, cause it all went pretty quick and let me remind you, everything is in Spanish.  I neglected to mention that neither my host brother, sister, or mother speak English (host brother very little).  I am actually very thankful for this because it forces me to use my second language to it's full extent... if I can't say it, it can't be said, and I'm not one to sit in silence, therefore I learn.  

The view from our apartment - on the 16th floor - is out of this world.  Instead of describing it, I will let the terrible interpretation of digital photos do the work for me.  I wish you could all see it for yourself, it's breathtaking.  

Getting ready to leave

I think my parents finally realized that I will be studying, and living in a not only a different country, but on a different continent. While I was packing in my room a few days ago they both randomly came in together, sat on my bed, and fervently explained in detail how I must take care of myself, not walk alone, use common sense, and not leave my camera anywhere besides around my neck.  Prior to this I was beginning to wonder if my parents understood that when I told them Chile, I actually meant the country in South America.  Good to know they care :)

Practice Post

Hey readers!  

This is going to be my blogging site for when I’m in Chile.  If you guys want to follow me (if you can even do that on this site, I don’t even know yet), that would be cool, cause I’m going to be giving updates on how my experience in Chile is going.  I’m not sure yet how often I’m going to blog, but it will be at the very least once a week.

Adios!