so im too stoked for our EFT(educational field trip) and can't sleep, so i might as well do a entry.
life is going by too fast, as is always the case it seems. midterms are over and the EFT is here. i think about time often. why does it "go too fast"? what would make time slow down? doing less, journaling more, taking pictures, less obligations? i feel like if there ever were a formula it would have been figured out by now. time is time. there is no fast forward or slowing down. we need to accept it for what it is and not complain how the "time flies" through and away from our mortal grasps. every second we waste talking about time, is one second of time that we could have been living.
we were put on this earth with a set amount of seconds to live. whether i have 10 seconds or 10 billion seconds to live, i dont know, but the only thing i can do is make the most of the second that im living in right....now. making the most of each second doesn't mean that every second needs to be filled with activity. some of the most cherish seconds in my life have been spent doing absolutely nothing but simply...being. it feels like our world is running on a rat wheel, getting the most activity and productivity out of every second, only to feel less productive and active at the end of every passing day.
its time to slow down. its time to realize your clock is ticking down, and that thats ok. time doesn't change pace, it doesn't really operate on our schedule, we've just been able to but a numerical gauge on it based on the position of planets, but that doesn't mean we have harnessed it. stop fighting the clock, it will always win, time will always win.
stop doing, stop becoming, and simply start being.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
midterms
never have i valued sleep more than i do now. i thought the abroad life would be a lot more chill and that id get more sleep this year; not the case. things always seem to pile up and take up the precious late hours of the night. hopefully i can act on my realizations.
anyways, more catch up. saturday was soccer, and blowdart gun shopping. sunday was super lazy, reading, podcast, essays, bike ride, skype with elle, and house church. monday was spanish composition, exploration with kev and jake to skatepark to get some schweet footage, studying for religion midterm, working out, and then going out with the guys to for jeff's birthday, inauguration of the pipe, and giant jenga. tuesday was cancelled HUM class, religion midterm, much needed nap, and more essays and studying.
anyways, more catch up. saturday was soccer, and blowdart gun shopping. sunday was super lazy, reading, podcast, essays, bike ride, skype with elle, and house church. monday was spanish composition, exploration with kev and jake to skatepark to get some schweet footage, studying for religion midterm, working out, and then going out with the guys to for jeff's birthday, inauguration of the pipe, and giant jenga. tuesday was cancelled HUM class, religion midterm, much needed nap, and more essays and studying.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
the last full week
its crazy to think that this school week was our last complete week. the rest of the weeks will have at least one weekday off. not sure if this is gunna make things easier or just intensify our class loads. anyways, this tuesday, after small groups us dudes went to a cafe to hangout and celebrate ryan swains birthday. this wednesday we went to azzurra for convo dinner, i sat next to rafa and it was quite an entertaining dinner. (prison story). on thursday alycia, kelsey, liz, jeff, peter and i went to get waffles and planned the spiritual retreat. on friday we went to a synagogue and had a movie night where we watched extreme days.
Monday, October 17, 2011
yuh...
so on saturday we had our first soccer game of our pepperdine league that i set up. everyone had a blast, the soles of my shoes fell off in the first two minutes so i played barefoot- ouch. after that i was totally wiped, took a dip in the pool, and then went grocery shoppin with kevin to make some bomb guacamole. that night i took it easy, got some hw donw, got some reading in, wrote some letters, and got good sleep. on sunday i woke up and listened to a podcast, prepared for my talk at house church, did some work on a religion paper, had dinner with the fam, went to house church and brought david (i talked on calling people out), then we went to cafe forest gump to mini-celebrate ryan swains birthday. today i woke up early, worked out, went to spanish class, ran some errands with ryan and jeff, and cranked on my religion paper. tonight we had speed dating at calcio and it went really well. a lot better than i thought it would. people definitely want to do it again.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Ocupado
so the longer i continue this, the more i realize this will become more of a list of things i do, rather than a blog. so since last time...tuesday was my crazy class day but i got to skype jack for the first time since ive been here so that was great (also got to see cameron, giff and shearer), gave my first spanish oral on wednesday- teacher said it was great, had convo dinner at calcio, followed by worship, followed by hanging out with jeffrey (ended up having to sleep over at his house because i left my keys in the casa), thursday we went to havanna for our hum295 class and had alfajores (chad and mark discussed original since and sinful nature), thursday night i went out to ice cream with liz, friday i had my first real testish thing in that of our in-class essay over the bhagavad gita, and friday night daniel and i went to siga la vaca (all you can eat parilla), went looking in the casino for the dudes, but eventually got around to simply climbing the dock cranes and getting home at 4am
Monday, October 10, 2011
Chill
More catch up work: sunday i took it super easy, slept in, played with my parents' grandkids, napped, listened to a podcast, hung at the casa, read, skyped my grandparents who were visiting my family, and then went out for ice cream with the gang, Monday i read some, went geocaching, read some more, had a big dinner/asado with the fam, and then went exploring/climbing statues/climbing trees with kevin and mark down in recoleta.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Week In Review
This week i was really busy and blogging went to the wayside. So to catch up, im just gunna type out some of the highlights of the week: lunch with Rafa, Rafa and the faculty being concerned about bro-mance, austin and I playing soccer with some locals in a stekch part of town, going to the casino with the guys, Argentina-Chile game, Liz and Wil's marathon, skyping with Elle for a couple hours, biking through recoletta, snooping around the Hyatt and messing around during our first Hum 295 class, the hot sauce guys coming for our asado and more I'll probably think of later...
Monday, October 3, 2011
MenBROza
This weekend was our first long weekend which meant our first adventure outside of the city. It was a daunting choice on where to go, but after much research the winner was Mendoza. Mendoza is a city known as being one of the wine capitals of the world. It's proximity to the Andes also provides many opportunities for adventurous activities. We (me, kevin, taylor, mark, jeffery, and chad) had nothing planned except our bus ticket there and back, the 4 days in between were completely plan-free.
When we got to Mendoza we started asking around for advice and eventually got directed to the main tourist information center in town. We were wanting a good place to camp, fish, and somewhere that was somewhat isolated from the relatively big city of Mendoza. We got directed to a town in the mountains called Potrerillos. Only one bus company made trips there so we had to wait for a few hours. We killed some time in Subway and Plaza Independencia (where we got offered weed several times each time we passed through).
We eventually got on the bus and and hour and a half later were dropped off in what felt like the middle of no where. It was almost pitch black at he time, the only visible sight was the moon glittering of some body of water in the distance. We followed a road that ran parallel to this river of sorts and eventually decided to settle on a flat piece of land in a grove of trees. Setting up camp for the first time posed enough problems, but when combined with the fact that it was pitch black outside it was even more difficult. We eventually got everything up and started cooking dinner. I was able to figure out how to use my new cooking stove pretty easily, and man did it work like a dandy. I was so proud of it. We had a bomb pasta and wine dinner that night. Camp dinners don't get much better than that. After dinner we all chilled by the fire, had some great conversations, and smoked cigars together. Doesn't get much manlier than that.
The next day i woke up early and went fishing with our new best friend- Queso, a random dog. He ran up to us in the middle of the night and ended up sticking with us the entire duration of our time spent in the mountains (over 40 hours). To get to the river i had to wade thru mid-thigh deep mud, only to be told by a friendly local that if i had any chance at catching fish, itd be in the lake which was a ten minute walk down the road. Fishing didn't prove too successful because we were fishing in the wrong part of the lake. Where we were was super muddy (we thought the whole lake would be like that) but later we found out and saw that the other end of the lake was crystal blue. When we tried fishing there a wildlife lady came up and told us we couldn't because it was the time of the year when the fish were breeding. I guess our title of fishermen with have to be earned later.
After making breakfast, taking naps, bouldering, and messing around camp we packed up and headed up the road several kilometers to another mountain town. "Town" is a very loose term. It was more like a stretch of road with a couple shops here and there. Literally one road. it was hard finding a spot to camp in the narrow valley we were in but we eventually worked out way out on to a plateau that rested at the base of the Andes. The sunset was amazing. God painted with every color he had and the result was breathtaking. That night involved more campfire talk and dinner. There's nothing like a campfire to get guys to open up and have some real talk.
The next day we caught a bus back into Mendoza, walked quite a ways to the nightlife part of town and found a sweet hostel. After getting settled in a bit, we were quickly picked up by a guide i had been in contact with to do some kind of hang-gliding, paragliding, or skydiving. Due to the language barrier we weren't really sure what we were signing up for. It ended up being paragliding at it was seriously one of the most fun and crazier things I've ever done. To take off, you basically run off the side of a cliff and hope that the wind takes you. Some failed launch attempts were halted mere feet from the edge of the cliff. My guide and i got up on our third try and from then on it was smooth sailing-relatively. We climbed the thermals thousands of feet into the air almost effortlessly. God's creation is simply amazing. I'm daily amazed by his creation. To think that a piece of cloth could hold us up at thousands of feet in the air is beyond my comprehension. The way back down was the highlight of the flight. I told my guide to give me the most extreme thing we had. he lived up to it by giving me the most thrilling roller coaster-like ride I've ever had. We were doing all sorts of crazy turns and corkscrews and how we stayed up, i don't know. After we landed us dudes we able to chill for quite some time in their cabana setting, listening to marley, hanging in hammocks, enjoying free drinks.
After a late night out (and a bar fight that i missed out on b/c i was a hard sleeper) we got up a little late the next day and moved out of the hostel. If all the things we had done weren't sketchy, adventurous, or dangerous enough, we decided to rent motorcycles to drive through the city and wine country. The hurdles included guys who had never driven a motorcycle before and not meeting the 21 year old age requirement (I guess they thought we looked old enough). After a couple close calls and scares on the way out of the city, we eventually got on the open road and were cruising through wine country. It was a pretty surreal/comical/stupid thing to be doing, but I totally loved it. God showed up in so many ways and kept us safe when i was almost certain one of us would end up needing medical care by the end of our trip. We came to a bodega (winery) a lady recommended to find that it required reservations and it was closing as we pulled up. They we kind enough to let us in and give us our own personal tour. The building was ridiculous; it was easily one of the nicest buildings i had ever been in. I think maybe 2 or 3 people were working at the time so we essentially had the palace to ourselves. We felt like kings. On the way back, i broke off from the group for a bit and went on my own lil adventure to another gorgeous part of wine country only to find myself getting lost, ending up on a super highway, and eventually finding my way back to downtown Mendoza. I actually ended up beating the rest of the gang back.
The trip was capped off with a feast at a local parilla and a hurried rush to catch our bus. All worked out great and God was so good to us. The weekend couldn't have gone any better or been more fun.
When we got to Mendoza we started asking around for advice and eventually got directed to the main tourist information center in town. We were wanting a good place to camp, fish, and somewhere that was somewhat isolated from the relatively big city of Mendoza. We got directed to a town in the mountains called Potrerillos. Only one bus company made trips there so we had to wait for a few hours. We killed some time in Subway and Plaza Independencia (where we got offered weed several times each time we passed through).
We eventually got on the bus and and hour and a half later were dropped off in what felt like the middle of no where. It was almost pitch black at he time, the only visible sight was the moon glittering of some body of water in the distance. We followed a road that ran parallel to this river of sorts and eventually decided to settle on a flat piece of land in a grove of trees. Setting up camp for the first time posed enough problems, but when combined with the fact that it was pitch black outside it was even more difficult. We eventually got everything up and started cooking dinner. I was able to figure out how to use my new cooking stove pretty easily, and man did it work like a dandy. I was so proud of it. We had a bomb pasta and wine dinner that night. Camp dinners don't get much better than that. After dinner we all chilled by the fire, had some great conversations, and smoked cigars together. Doesn't get much manlier than that.
The next day i woke up early and went fishing with our new best friend- Queso, a random dog. He ran up to us in the middle of the night and ended up sticking with us the entire duration of our time spent in the mountains (over 40 hours). To get to the river i had to wade thru mid-thigh deep mud, only to be told by a friendly local that if i had any chance at catching fish, itd be in the lake which was a ten minute walk down the road. Fishing didn't prove too successful because we were fishing in the wrong part of the lake. Where we were was super muddy (we thought the whole lake would be like that) but later we found out and saw that the other end of the lake was crystal blue. When we tried fishing there a wildlife lady came up and told us we couldn't because it was the time of the year when the fish were breeding. I guess our title of fishermen with have to be earned later.
After making breakfast, taking naps, bouldering, and messing around camp we packed up and headed up the road several kilometers to another mountain town. "Town" is a very loose term. It was more like a stretch of road with a couple shops here and there. Literally one road. it was hard finding a spot to camp in the narrow valley we were in but we eventually worked out way out on to a plateau that rested at the base of the Andes. The sunset was amazing. God painted with every color he had and the result was breathtaking. That night involved more campfire talk and dinner. There's nothing like a campfire to get guys to open up and have some real talk.
The next day we caught a bus back into Mendoza, walked quite a ways to the nightlife part of town and found a sweet hostel. After getting settled in a bit, we were quickly picked up by a guide i had been in contact with to do some kind of hang-gliding, paragliding, or skydiving. Due to the language barrier we weren't really sure what we were signing up for. It ended up being paragliding at it was seriously one of the most fun and crazier things I've ever done. To take off, you basically run off the side of a cliff and hope that the wind takes you. Some failed launch attempts were halted mere feet from the edge of the cliff. My guide and i got up on our third try and from then on it was smooth sailing-relatively. We climbed the thermals thousands of feet into the air almost effortlessly. God's creation is simply amazing. I'm daily amazed by his creation. To think that a piece of cloth could hold us up at thousands of feet in the air is beyond my comprehension. The way back down was the highlight of the flight. I told my guide to give me the most extreme thing we had. he lived up to it by giving me the most thrilling roller coaster-like ride I've ever had. We were doing all sorts of crazy turns and corkscrews and how we stayed up, i don't know. After we landed us dudes we able to chill for quite some time in their cabana setting, listening to marley, hanging in hammocks, enjoying free drinks.
After a late night out (and a bar fight that i missed out on b/c i was a hard sleeper) we got up a little late the next day and moved out of the hostel. If all the things we had done weren't sketchy, adventurous, or dangerous enough, we decided to rent motorcycles to drive through the city and wine country. The hurdles included guys who had never driven a motorcycle before and not meeting the 21 year old age requirement (I guess they thought we looked old enough). After a couple close calls and scares on the way out of the city, we eventually got on the open road and were cruising through wine country. It was a pretty surreal/comical/stupid thing to be doing, but I totally loved it. God showed up in so many ways and kept us safe when i was almost certain one of us would end up needing medical care by the end of our trip. We came to a bodega (winery) a lady recommended to find that it required reservations and it was closing as we pulled up. They we kind enough to let us in and give us our own personal tour. The building was ridiculous; it was easily one of the nicest buildings i had ever been in. I think maybe 2 or 3 people were working at the time so we essentially had the palace to ourselves. We felt like kings. On the way back, i broke off from the group for a bit and went on my own lil adventure to another gorgeous part of wine country only to find myself getting lost, ending up on a super highway, and eventually finding my way back to downtown Mendoza. I actually ended up beating the rest of the gang back.
The trip was capped off with a feast at a local parilla and a hurried rush to catch our bus. All worked out great and God was so good to us. The weekend couldn't have gone any better or been more fun.
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