a few pics

friends greg and gutty at my favorite bar in madison, "the weary traveler"













an evening climb on arthur's seat














subway car and tree making friends in the santiago metro















directions on how to order in business class...whoa





















wine list in up front.....whoa















me upon landing in santiago......whoa

learning another language is hard

No getting around it. One week ago, exactly, I was sitting in my room thinking maybe I had it wrong all these years. Other languages are easy to pick up. Maybe I should start learning another one while I am still learning Spanish. Cocky thoughts. Fairly insane thoughts....because week 2 of Spanish brought with it something I was not expecting.

Other verb tenses.

I no longer am supposed to talk in the here and now. And it has thrown me for quite a loop. But the more I get into it, the more I think that it is doable, just with time and a lot of work. Right now it is kind of tough. My two favorite Spanish talking related stories to date are (in chronological order):

1. Someone was trying to help me with my Spanish by asking me easy questions, "How are you?" "What are you wearing today?" etc. So they came to the question of "Do you like the outdoors? and why?" What I meant to say was "Yes I do like the outdoors because of the pretty trees" but what came out was "Mountains are well because of tall grandmothers"

I thought this was right, kept saying it, sometimes louder, sometimes enunciated better, but I kept saying it. It was not right. Or really very close.

2. I found myself in a situation where I asked the following question in Spanish to an 88 year old Chilean woman, "Do you enjoy knitting wool hats for 200 yellow canaries?" I thought this was a hilarious turn of events, and she just calmly answered "No." Spanish is hard.

Other than butchering foreign languages, I have spent time getting ready for a conference I am going to in Germany in a month and getting around the city a bit more.

The downtown area of Santiago is very vibrant with a lot of shops, street performers, restaurants and local artisans selling their goods.

More pictures, less words.

Until next time.

first week in santiago de chile

I have been in Santiago for just over a week now. And here is kind of what has gone down, and how I got here.

I referenced in a picture that I got to sit in Business Class on my way from the US to Chile. This came about because my original flight out of St. Louis (connecting in Atlanta) was delayed...so I missed the conection to Santiago...so the airline put me up for the night in a hotel in Atlanta. Some would count this as an inconvenience, but in my case I will point out a few things that put me in a different camp

• I had absolutely nowhere to be
• I like free hotels
• I like free food (the airline gave me meal vouchers
• I love wierd stuff like this
• *I got upgraded to business class.......on a 9.5 hour flight

*denotes the absolute most important point, and one of the cooler things I have ever experienced

I have never flown business class before, and so I didn't really know what to expect other than it was an upgrade from coach. Maybe I am overstating it, but it was really more than I had hoped for. Champagne right when you sit down, more buttons on my chair/recliner/bed/workstation than I knew what to do with, 5 course meal, warm towels, someone trying to give you literally whatever it is you want, free drinks, 8 movie channels, little gifts (slipper socks, lotion, eye masks, ear plugs, some sort of spray thing, etc.) and the list goes on. I know people fly business all the time and people get used to all kinds of luxuries, but my long flight into a new country that was at least a little daunting turned into a real pleasant surprise that, if only a little, helped soften the landing into the unknown. So enough about the flight.

I believe I put that I stayed at a fantastic hostel -- for $18, you stay in a great place...we are talking 20 foot ceilings, a fantastic breakfast, free internet, free pool table, a bar, a tv room with cable, friendly people, etc. I palled around with 3 guys -- Stefan from Germany and Hernando & Raul from Venezuela. We walked the city for a day and all went on a cable car ride at the foot of the mountains to see some great views.

In the meantime, I had secured a place to live and figured out a language school to go to for the month of August. I am staying with a Chilean family composed of Kruskaya and Patricio, both in their early 50's. They have two daughters (who live elsewhere) and they rent out two rooms for extended periods of time. Kruskaya owns her own bakery/coffe shop (today she took me there and we ate empanadas, pizza and drank Coca-Cola) and Patricio runs a tennis club / academy in Santiago. They do not really speak English very much, but that is a little bit what I was looking for because I figure the two footed jump into a language was the quickest way to learn. So far, so good.

During the week, I am going to language school for 4 hours per day. It is a one on one tutor session and it usually leaves my brain fairly worn out. I had heard that it is exhausting to learn another language and, even though I am really just in the very beginning stages, I can see where this would be right.

Santiago is a city of 6 million, and I have not run into too many people that speak English. The city is more modern than I thought it would be. There is a subway (the metro) that is very new, clean, fast and reliable. I am staying in an apartment with heated floors. There are shopping malls with Brooks Brothers stores and TGI Friday's. But, I never walk down the street and forget that I am in a place very different than what I am used to. The hours are much different (see: later) than what I am used to with dinner regularly starting at 10pm or later. There is more poverty than I had previously been exposed to. There are lots and lots of people, period. And many other subtle differences such as customs, food, holidays, bank hours, etc.

I had heard that the hospitality in Latin America was fantastic, and my first week proved that to be true as there were random people off the street, speaking broken English, that could obviously tell I was lost or looking for something and they would try to help out however they could. A few gave me their contact phone numbers or email addresses (complete strangers just trying to be helpful) in case I needed anything since I did not really know anyone else in the city.

This week sees me trying to conjugate more and more verbs (past and present tenses are on their way), try to prepare for a conference coming up in September and see if I can't get to know the city a little bit.

Also, my friend Evan (who is over in Kuwait with the Navy) has started a blog in case anyone knows Evan and wants to check him out, or simply wants to see a man with a really, really bad moustache. It is www.big-iron.blogspot.com.

Until next time.

santiago - pretty big, andes mountains in back, smog in the middle














mi padre













pretty close to the neighborhood where i live in santiago
















santiago centro














ample leg room in BUSINESS CLASS.......story to follow in next post














mi madre y hermana

additions

I forgot to add a few things that I did while back home, and wanted to do so.

I got to see two beautiful, small, wrinkly children while I was home. Derek and Jill Johnson have a new son called Davis Stanley and he was 6 days old when I nervously held him. My friends up in Madison (who also let me stay with them while I was in town) Thomas and Katie Spelsberg have a 3.5 month old young lad called Tommy (aka Tommy Gun). Based on very little scientific fact, I have declared small Tommy pound-for-pound the strongest human on the earth. My hope is that he leverages this power into becoming a professional wrestler.

I also played softball while in KC (1 horrendous throwing error from 2nd base) got to catch up with my friend Matt Shatto -- he of Shatto Milk Company fame, saw a lot of family (both grandmas numerous times, my Aunt and Uncle in KC), got to hang out with my friend Erin from Salem who is now moving down to Dallas and I am sure other stuff.

Just a quick update because here at scottonthego, we run a tight ship and details are our best friends.

By the way, I am in Chile, at a very cool hostel (www.happyhousehostel.cl) and I think I have found the place that I will stay permanently. I will write about that soon -- in the "business", this is called a teaser.

Out.