God Bless America

Before poker/football we went to "La Vega" and only bought food we had never bought before...genius
Igor!!!!!!!!
Me and Jackie > Rorro and Igor (by far)
No bouncing on Jackie's watch!

With the Holidays nearing, it is only natural that many of my friends and I have started missing certain things from home. For starters... it would be nice to enjoy a white Christmas with friends and family. Although, being in 85 degree weather with friends ands beer pong is not a bad alternative. I always say that I don’t get homesick. I miss people and food. I frequently have week-long cravings for deep dish pizza and/or brunch and I am constantly called out for bragging about my friends from home…but I wouldn’t describe it as homesick. Part of this could be because I have an uncanny ability to bring the best America has to offer with me no matter where I go. Turns out my friends down here do too. For the past 2 weeks the boys (Dustin, Zach, and Elias) have been so kind as to allow us to crash their poker nights. I have been nicknamed “balls of steal” (courtesy of Joe)…because I have next to no idea what I’m doing and am always out first. I bet way too much on cards that are way too bad. But at least I sound cool saying things like "big blind" and "pocket Jacks." Fro and Carly, on the other hand, are actually very good. Poker nights usually coincide with football nights and lots of beer. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that I was in good ol’ Champaign Urbana. A personal highlight of mine has been that for the past 2 football/poker nights…whenever anyone does anything at all notable (this can be anything from going to get a round beers out of the fridge to sacrificing the sound of the Jets game in order to listen to the Bears game) …the entire party bursts out into “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow…” Gets me every time.

As if nights of poker, football, beer, and chanting weren’t American enough…last Friday Carly, Jackie, Alia, Fro and I had an all day BBQ and beer pong extravaganza complete with guacomole and IGOR!! (Igor is back for a 3 week long stint in Santiago and I couldn’t be more excited about it) Now this was no small feat. Anyone who has ever tried buying ping pong balls and solo cups in a foreign country can attest to that. Well worth the trouble though. Jackie and I reigned victorious and remained undefeated for a record breaking 8 games. God bless Chileans. They are good at a lot of things but beer pong just isn’t one of them. In true American form, we got kicked out of Carly’s apartment at about 7 pm and were forced to reek havic on Jackie’s apartment as well. Ho ho ho Merry Christmas to Carly’s landlord!

Volcano Climbing, Bike Riding, and Hydrospeeding...Oh My!!

Loving life
Bike ride to the waterfall
Pre Hydrospeeding
Volcano Villarica
Volcano shot

If getting attacked by dogs is cool …consider Elias Miles Davis. Despite Elias’s run-in with a 150 lb Newfoundland dog our weekend was a success. A group of 11 of us (mostly from Bridge) traveled 10 hours south to Pucon this weekend. Pucon is the adventure capital of Chile. In 4 short days we were able to ride bikes to a waterfall, climb an active volcano, go hydrospeeding, relax at the hot springs, and drink coronas by the beach. Not too shabby. The 11 of us arrived to Pucon early Friday morning after a 10-hour night bus. I am proud to say that I slept through the entire ride. This is quite the feat and not everyone in our group was so lucky. We decided to take Friday relatively easy and go on a “leisurely” bike ride. Not so much. The bike ride was 40 kilometers of what seemed like never-ending hills. The bike ride led to a beautiful waterfall where we were able to relax and regroup for a bit. Several injuries, 2 lost shoes, a flat tire and a short hitchhike later we made it back to our hostel just in time to barbeque and watch Elias get mauled by a dog. Our hostel and home for the weekend boasts 2 very large bearlike dogs. Apparently when we checked in the owner forgot to mention that the larger of the 2 doesn’t take kindly to men getting in his face. Elias learned this lesson like he learns most other lessons …the hard way. He made it out of the fight with just a scratch on the nose and in true Elias fashion was back to playing with the dogs (minus the getting in his face) in no time. Saturday morning 6 of us got up bright and early to climb the active Villarica volcano. I’m not going to embarrass myself by saying that I found it extremely difficult and can’t remember my legs ever hurting so bad. So I will just say that it was incredible. Anything that calls for full winter gear and an ice pick is fine by me. The climb took us about 4 hours. Despite the beautiful day on the ground, the winds were treacherous on the volcano. I spent most of my time singing the Rocky theme song to myself because it was that extreme. By far my favorite part of the volcano was sliding down. We were given mini sleds and literally got to sled down the entire volcano. The rest of our Saturday was spent day drinking and going to hot springs with our entire entourage of 11. Dare I say it was the perfect day? Sunday was spent doing next to nothing. We woke up, we drank, we ate …a lot, we drank a bit more, and then we drank on the beach. Just a little something I like to call “Perfect Day Round 2.” 1/2 of our crew went back to Santiago Sunday so we were down to 5. The remaining 5 of us spent our last day in Pucon hydrospeeding. This is like white water rafting in your own styrofoam boat. It’s not exactly street legal in the states…which officially makes us badasses. Nevermind that I practically had to have my own guide because I couldn’t control my “boat.” If a video of us hydrospeeding put to Snoop's “Nothing but a G-Thing” doesn’t scream harcore…I don’t know what does. After hydrospeeding we indulged in a huge dinner before our 10-hour bus ride back to “reality.” I don’t even think I know the meaning of that word anymore.