This week has been jam-packed with papers, studying, finalizing travel plans, packing, doing errands, and taking finals. Last night we had our final banquet complete with sushi, diplomas, teacher/staff presents, superlatives, and Kev's video (sooo sick). Later that night almost everybody in the program went to Kika for one last clubbing experience of the semester and it was a blast. Somehow I got in way before the guys I came with and to top it off, i didn't have to pay...don't know how that happened.
All that craziness is dwarfed by the journey I'm about to embark on. I think im more nervous for this than I was for finals. Its not a bad kind of nervous, just an excited and anticipatory nervousness. Gaaaaah so pumped for this. Movies, books, pictures, and stories that have been accumulated over the years are now reeling through my head like a highlight reel. I'm about to go to places that i thought were merely wild dreams a couple years ago. When i applied to Pepperdine, i knew next to nothing about studying abroad, let alone Argentina. I had read books and seen movies on the adventures to be had on this continent, but as i said before, i thought id always only be a dreamer, not a doer of those things. Now those dreams are being realized.
BA has been great, but the main reason I came down to South America was for this next 6 weeks of crazy travels. I still can't believe the semester went by in the blink of an eye and now I'm approaching the cliff, working up the butterflies, and jumping into a free fall of unknown adventures. God is too good. This isn't real life. Prayers will be appreciated so that I can hopefully continue to be live this life 6 weeks from now.
Here's my rough itinerery (in case you wanted to follow me in your head throughout these next 6 weeks):
dec 15:fly to santiago (with mark travis)
dec 16:fly to easter
spend 9 days on easter island
dec 25:fly back to santiago
immediately start busing up to Cuzco- alone (over 50 hours on connecting buses; i am thankful for my ipod and kindle)
dec 28-31: get to machu picchu through a back door route and then do machu
jan1-4:bus down to lake titicaca and explore what it has in store
jan 5: get to La Paz
jan 5-9:fly into an amazon village and do an amazon adventure
jan 10-12:bus down thru the salt flats of bolivia to get to jujuy,argentina
jan 12:fly back to back
jan 14:fly down to calafate and meet mark and kevin
jan 15-22: roadtrip through torres del paine
jan 22: fly to ushuaia from calafate
jan 22-?: EFT with all of Pepperdine
It'll be funny looking back at this and seeing how it all plays out...no promises. I'll try to update my blog or fb every so often so that people will know that im still alive.
john 10:10
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Ice Cream, Dinner, and Clubs
Yesterday we went to the #5 ice cream parlor in the world and it truely was the best scoop of ice cream i've ever had. Later that night we went out to a super bomb restaurant for matt's last night and i got patagonian lamb. Then at 1am we went out to Crobar and got in free because of christina's connection with nacho menendez (usually it'd be 100 pesos!). It was my first club experience and it was a blast! I walked out as the sun was rising.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Last Night
Last night I was at the dinner table for 5 hours. We ate for 2 hours and then most everybody left and got ready for bed, but my padre and I stayed at the table for the next 3 hours (til 2am). It definitely wasn't the most fluid of conversations but we were able to get our points across. It was one of the deeper conversations I've ever had, and to think that it was in Spanish is unbelievable. While everyone else was out at clubs, bars, and who knows where else, I was at my dinner table and there wasn't a place in the world I would have rather been.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Uruguay
So I set this night apart to be productive, but its 12:06AM and i have not done an once of schoolwork so ima make these recap simple. In a lot of ways it was a simple vacation so this recap should be fitting. As with previous travels God showed up big and everything went picture perfect. It was one of the most chill, relaxing, fun weekends I have ever had. Getting out the the urban jungle was great as well.
Tuesday
went to ferry, met american girls studying abroad in uruguay, chilled on the top deck and watched the BA skyline float by like a blackness light up by a million-jillion little lightning bugs, took a short nap, arrived in Colonia, took a bus to Montevideo, and arrived at 7am- yes we pulled a red-eye.
Wednesday
waited for the info center to open, took a bus to our hostel, walked around Montevideo and went the the famed fisherman's market that was a converted train depot, ate at a parilla that mark saw featured on the travel channel, walked along the ACH (the equivalent of our PCH), took a much needed nap, watched sunset form the highest point in the city, randomly met another group of Pepperdine kids at our hostel, hung out with them on the balcony of our hostel, climbed the jungle gym of buildings that Montevideo offered (unlike BA, they didn't have security guards EVERYWHERE), and chilled on top of the highest building while overlooking the bay and dazzling display of lights all around
Thursday
woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, rented a car, roadtripped up the coast to Casa Pueblo -a San Torini-esque array out white buildings built on a cliff on the edge of the ocean, went cliff jumping below Casa Pueblo, continued on to Punta Del Este, went and saw the famed fingers, chilled on the beach while waiting for the other Pepp group to get to their beach apartment, went for a walk on the beach, went out to eat with eaverybody at Pizza Mundo, hungout in the apartment for the night
Friday
woke up before everybody and read+swam+walked on the beach, left apartment and got groceries, got out at jose ignacio and walked a beach, took a sketch ferry across a delta thing, continued on all the way to Punta Del Diablo, walked around town, cooked dinner, kicked it with the guys at Cero Stress- a cabana restaurant right on the shore, super chill atmosphere, picturesque beach hangout, set up camp in the dunes 100 feet away from the ocean, and fell asleep to the sound of waves and blanket of burning bright stars
Saturday
woke up early and walked to the lighthouse (we were trying to find a flag to take back with us), packed up camp and went into town, bought a mango for supes cheap, read books and chilled at cero stress, hung out on the beach for a couple hours while watching surfers, got some empanadas made with fresh fish from the cove we were chilling on, hung out under a tiki hut, kicked it with the guys, swam in the lagoon, splurged on a super nice fish dinner (also caught that day in the cove), kicked it at cero stress again, and then set up camp in the dunes again
Sunday
woke up early, listened to my ipod on the beach, drove down to cabo polonio, took some rad truck/jeep things over some gnarly territory to get the the national park/small town of cabbo polonio (during the ride our dinner and sunscreen fell off the side of the truck and theres nothing we could do about it except watch it fade into the distance), walked through town, had an amazing nature poop on the coast, had lunch on the point, attempted to slap a sea lions butt but almost got killed by the ones hiding in the cracks around it, watched kite surfers, drove back down towards Punta Del Este and stopped at Rex's in La Barra, watched wind surfers, camped in dunes at Atlantilda
Monday
woke up early and read+swam, returned rental car, cooked lunch in the central plaza, took bus to the bus terminal, caught bus to Colonia, took ferry back to BA and watched the sunset on the top deck, got home around 11:30pm
super. solid. epic. trip.
Tuesday
went to ferry, met american girls studying abroad in uruguay, chilled on the top deck and watched the BA skyline float by like a blackness light up by a million-jillion little lightning bugs, took a short nap, arrived in Colonia, took a bus to Montevideo, and arrived at 7am- yes we pulled a red-eye.
Wednesday
waited for the info center to open, took a bus to our hostel, walked around Montevideo and went the the famed fisherman's market that was a converted train depot, ate at a parilla that mark saw featured on the travel channel, walked along the ACH (the equivalent of our PCH), took a much needed nap, watched sunset form the highest point in the city, randomly met another group of Pepperdine kids at our hostel, hung out with them on the balcony of our hostel, climbed the jungle gym of buildings that Montevideo offered (unlike BA, they didn't have security guards EVERYWHERE), and chilled on top of the highest building while overlooking the bay and dazzling display of lights all around
Thursday
woke up, had breakfast at the hostel, rented a car, roadtripped up the coast to Casa Pueblo -a San Torini-esque array out white buildings built on a cliff on the edge of the ocean, went cliff jumping below Casa Pueblo, continued on to Punta Del Este, went and saw the famed fingers, chilled on the beach while waiting for the other Pepp group to get to their beach apartment, went for a walk on the beach, went out to eat with eaverybody at Pizza Mundo, hungout in the apartment for the night
Friday
woke up before everybody and read+swam+walked on the beach, left apartment and got groceries, got out at jose ignacio and walked a beach, took a sketch ferry across a delta thing, continued on all the way to Punta Del Diablo, walked around town, cooked dinner, kicked it with the guys at Cero Stress- a cabana restaurant right on the shore, super chill atmosphere, picturesque beach hangout, set up camp in the dunes 100 feet away from the ocean, and fell asleep to the sound of waves and blanket of burning bright stars
Saturday
woke up early and walked to the lighthouse (we were trying to find a flag to take back with us), packed up camp and went into town, bought a mango for supes cheap, read books and chilled at cero stress, hung out on the beach for a couple hours while watching surfers, got some empanadas made with fresh fish from the cove we were chilling on, hung out under a tiki hut, kicked it with the guys, swam in the lagoon, splurged on a super nice fish dinner (also caught that day in the cove), kicked it at cero stress again, and then set up camp in the dunes again
Sunday
woke up early, listened to my ipod on the beach, drove down to cabo polonio, took some rad truck/jeep things over some gnarly territory to get the the national park/small town of cabbo polonio (during the ride our dinner and sunscreen fell off the side of the truck and theres nothing we could do about it except watch it fade into the distance), walked through town, had an amazing nature poop on the coast, had lunch on the point, attempted to slap a sea lions butt but almost got killed by the ones hiding in the cracks around it, watched kite surfers, drove back down towards Punta Del Este and stopped at Rex's in La Barra, watched wind surfers, camped in dunes at Atlantilda
Monday
woke up early and read+swam, returned rental car, cooked lunch in the central plaza, took bus to the bus terminal, caught bus to Colonia, took ferry back to BA and watched the sunset on the top deck, got home around 11:30pm
super. solid. epic. trip.
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| Montevideo sunset |
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| Casa Pueblo |
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| sketch ferry |
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| Punta Del Diablo fishermen |
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| Cero Stress |
Thursday, December 1, 2011
thanksgiving
short recap of the week so far: got back on monday from our long weekend in Uruguay (more on that to come in another post), had school all day tuesday and cooked for you thanksgiving feast (made banana-nut-chocolate chip bread because they didn't have pumpkin stuff down here to make pumpkin bread), wednesday was our thanksgiving feast- so so great, just as good or even better than any thanksgiving meal ive ever had and it was even more special because it was all made by us; my banana bread went quickly and was a huge hit! afterwards we veged like any other post-thanksgivng meal, and then had the last worship sesh of the semester. today was our last asado, i don't know how i could eat more after the night before but i did and i ate a lot. tonight i went on a man-date with jeff.
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