last month

Well, I kind of took a little break from blogging by accident.

But now I am back to chronicle. Unfortunately, my laptop has crashed and I am in the process of getting my data extracted from a fried hard drive....so no pictures just yet.

September and the first part of October saw me do the following

• Go to Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso with my friend Mariela. It is a city about an hour and a half west of Santiago, right on the ocean (first time I have seen the Pacific) and I spent most of the time walking around, looking at sights, hanging out at the sea, visiting a very cool place called LaSebastiana (the house and museum of famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda) and a few other things

• After this, a whirlwind trip to Europe ensued. I traveled to Heidelberg, Germany for 4 days to participate in a conference for Edinburgh University (the Bright Europe Conference). The conference brings together post-graduate students from 12 universities from across Europe, once a year, to discuss different political, economic and social issues that are currently facing the EU member countries. I saw 2 of my friends from Edinburgh at the conference -- Shahed and Anne -- and really enjoyed myself there. My contribution to the conference had to deal with growth problems....I really didn´t have much prior knowledge on this so was excited to learn at least a little bit about the subject. The town was very pretty. The conference was quite fun. All in all, a good time.

• I traveled to Budapest for work for about 11 days after the conference. Budapest is officially the farthest East I have been and the city is very old, very pretty, has an absolute ton of history (I only learned a little, however) and is very, very inexpensive. Quite cool. I spent a lot of my free time walking around (pretty easy to get around) and taking pictures. There is a castle district which is quite cool, and there is no shortage of fantastic looking buildings and enticing little coffee shops.

So now I am back in Chile, where it is officially Spring, and I am getting more into my work at NESsT. I am beginning a few projects, getting ready to start my dissertation and all in all liking the experience. I have played tennis a few times, on red clay nontheless, and that has been a small highlight. One of the people that I am staying with in Chile, Patricio, is the head of a tennis academy in Santiago and he allows me to play on the courts of his academy. It is quite cool. In the background are the snowy Andes mountains. I will post a picture when I get one.

It´s time for the real time job search, and that is what is up next on my plate. I would like to get around in Chile a little bit now that my Spanish is somewhat passable.

Until next time.

smoggy sunset

rearview mirror pic in my first chilean cab

friend stefan, from germany, snapping a shot from a cable car ride overlooking the city

kind of a crazy looking clown/mime about to tell me in spanish not to take pictures

barney loves chilenos, chilenos love barney, ellos son un familia feliz

new & old styles colliding downtown

my neck of the woods - called providencia

These are just a few more pics that I have of the city.

I am about to start my first full week of work tomorrow. Patricio, with whom I am staying, had a birthday this last week and it marked the family coming over, a few friends, much sweet food and a gaggle of mini-pizzas. Also, one of Patrice's friends, who did not speak much English, after about 3 hours at the party asked me if I liked tongue twisters. Who doesn't. He then proceeded to then rattle off the "wood chuck chucking wood" sentence with a fair amount of clarity. You just never know what's going to happen next.

Also, I played tennis today with a kid who Patricio knew (about 16 years old or so) and got it handed to me. But, I played on clay for the first time and that was pretty great. And it made my socks super dirty.

Spanish = slowly but surely.

Job search = begins......now.

Getting ready for conference in Germany = quickly approaching and I'm looking forward to it.

The song "Mushaboom" by Feist = my recent favorite.

All for now.

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.

whoops!!

I did not update this little guy in well over a month. That changes.......now.

So the last two months found me doing a fair bit of traveling, finishing up my school, securing my internship and seeing quite a few friends. It has been a good time. I finished up my last 2 classes, Mergers and Acquisitions and Doing Business in China and Japan, at the very beginning of June. They were my two favorite classes while at CBS and the M & A class got me especially excited about things. So after these were done, I had time to do a bit of traveling.

I started it off with a weeklong visit to Paris to see my friends Jay and Laura. We were talking on Sunday and they said, "I thought you said you were coming to Paris, you ought to come." Well, I called their bluff, and was there by Tuesday afternoon. I had heard of Springtime in Paris being fantastic, and I found out firsthand it really is. I had been to Paris about 5 years ago and for one reason or another I did not find it to be my favorite spot. That opinion changed with this trip. It was beautiful weather, both Jay and Laura speak some French so we could get around, and pretty much all we did was walk around, look at sights, stop in and eat at great places (there are so many outdoor cafes that I can not come up with a good way to describe it.....just think of a number and then add some. That is the only way I can think of right now), go to different bars, shop around and just really take it easy. I really, really enjoyed myself and am happy that I got to catch up with those two as well.

If I can figure out how to post videos, I will do that. I have a couple from Paris.

After this, I came back to Copenhagen for about a week or so. Since I was done with classes I had plenty of time to walk around the city, go to a few movies (the Squid and the Whale was pretty good) and hang out with a few friends. My friend Shell had some time off as well so we got to hang out which was great. I will now brag on Shell a little bit. She secured an internship where she will be working for a large, thriving company based in Iceland that is looking to expand into China. They have asked her to target 5 - 10 companies to acquire and to have her be a big part of their expansion plans in China. Great job Shell!!

Next starts a small phase where I did a bit of traveling. For my internship, which I will mention a little later, I will be in a Spanish speaking country. So, I decided that I would start the learning process a bit earlier by going to language school in Spain. My friends Justin and Pedro suggested that I go to a school in El Puerto de Santa Maria which is in the Southwest corner of Spain (close to Sevilla and Cadiz). It was quite fun. I flew in on a Sunday and was taken to a local family's house where I would stay for 6 days. Ivan and Anna turned out to be absolutely great. The thinking behind staying with a local family is that you get immersed in the language as they speak it while at home. This was the case most of the time, but because of my very minimal Spanish skills, we also talked in English some. We went to a few bars, to the beach and around town while I was there.

The school was nice as well. Once I stepped foot in the school, English was strictly forbidden so I spent a lot of time making strange gestures and string together caveman-like sentences to get my points across. Rocio and Maria were my teachers and they were great and put up with me so I am very grateful to have had them.

After this was a whirlwind trip up to Oslo, Norway to see my long-time friend from Salem, Ben Sachs. Ben is doing some work up in Oslo and it worked out where I could go and visit him. I really like Oslo. It was clean, pretty, sunny (the sun sets...kind of....at about 2:00 am and then comes up at roughtly 2:26 am) and E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. Burger and a beer = $30 easy. Even though the pocketbook was hit a bit hard, it was well worth it. Ben and I went down to the harbor area (I ended up taking a boat trip around Oslo), watched England beat Ecuador in the World Cup at a huge outdoor TV screen / beer garden place, went to a huge park with sculptures by a famous guy I believe called Munch, and other things. It was good to see hang out there and see Ben.

After Oslo it was Edinburgh for a week to tie up some loose ends around town and to see some friends. I have become adept to paying for housing when not actually living there, and this trait came in handy during my Edinburgh trip because I still had an apartment available to me! It was good to be back to see friends, watch some football, go to a few parties, walk around town and just soak in the city. Hamutal let me crash at her new flat for a few days (as it were, my apartment lease ended during my trip..wierd!) and she lives in a lovely place near Morningside. I did some walking around, movie watching (Thank You For Smoking was great) and then it was back to the US for a month.

July 4th was my arrival date and my family was there to meet me at the airport! From here, it was a few days in St. Louis with Num and Justin, back down to Salem for a float trip !!!!!! on my birthday weekend which saw college friends Todd, Matt and Chrissy come down (along with friends from Salem the Holders, Ben Bradley, Jay Keeney and his girlfriend Shelly, the Gassons and a few others). People poked fun at my choice of beverage on the float trip, a football was thrown around a lot, I tipped 3 times, I lost a pair of sunglasses (they were Chrissy's), Todd fell down in front of a Park Ranger and blamed it on everyone else, and other fun stuff ensued.

The next couple of weeks saw me travel to Jefferson City to see my friend Katie Watts, Kansas City to hang out for a few days with old college friends, St. Louis for longtime friend Amber Gott's wedding, Madison, Wisconsin to check on another dwelling which I pay for but do not live in (my condo, which thankfully is rented out) and to see a few friends, and then back down to Salem to spend the rest of my time with my family. My pal Jody Farthing came down for a weekend also which was filled with golf and much debate on how quickly it takes to go from a 22 handicap to a 6 handicap, from two people that have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Now, I am headed to Santiago, Chile. And I mean right now. I am in a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia as I type because my flight was delayed and I had to spend the night down here. I am headed to Chile to do an internship that will fill my last requirement of my MBA at Edinburgh. I am working for a company called NESsT (www.nesst.org) that is a small consulting firm helping non-profits create a little money for themselves so they don't always have to rely on handouts and grants. That is what I think they do, anyway. It is my first time working with anything related to the non-profit sector so I am excited about the possibility to learn about something absolutely new to me. I got hooked up with the company from an Alum of the Edinburgh MBA program called Gonzalo San Martin. I am headed down for a month of language school (as my espanol es no muy bueno) and then 6 months with the internship. From the internship, I will also write a dissertation (much like a thesis paper) and then I will have my International MBA!!!

I am just hours away from heading to my 3rd continent, 16th country by my count, and a place probably unlike anything I have come across just yet. I do want to document that I really feel do feel fortunate for these neat things that I am getting to do and I'm doing my best to keep that in perspective and keep the "taking for grantedness" to a minimum.

All right. The airport calls, and I must answer!

Looks for updates more frequently! Until next time.