Preparations...

So I started writing this in Panera Bread in Vorhees, but they have limited their internet access to 30 minutes during the lunch hours.  I didn't get to finish let alone post this when I was there so I'm now awake at 2:40 AM at home, monitoring the weather to be sure I make it out on time due to a few feet of snow in Detroit where my flight originates.  I'm finding it hard to believe that it was a year ago that I started my adventures and that I will once again return to Chile in (hopefully) two days.

Even though I may not show it, it's a stressful time for me as I prepare to return to Santiago.  My time has been busy with saying goodbyes to family and friends, buying anything I would possibly need and not have readily available in Santiago, changing over currency to have Argentinean and Uruguayan pesos, and preparing my dad for his visit.  I've been putting off packing due to laziness and unwillingness to create a detailed packing list of each piece of luggage, but I know that it is the best thing to do to prevent things from getting stolen from my luggage. 

Written on Monday afternoon at Panera:
The weather forecast has had me nervous too, but it looks like it will be fine in the end.  Snow (we're expecting a few inches) is forecast for Tuesday, which will then change over to sleet/freezing rain and then rain on Wednesday.  By the time I fly on Thursday morning everything should be fine, so that's a relief.

I'm also doing research for my trip to Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Iguazu Falls, as I will be traveling there for 9 days before work starts up again in early March.  Wikitravel is a good (and free!) source of information, and after googling "iguazu falls hostel" I was surprised to see that there are hostels there.  I wil be staying with a friend from my exchange year in Germany who lives in Buenos Aires, so it will be great to catch up with him and have a bit of a personal tour guide while I am there.

Written at 2:40 AM Wednesday morning:


My dad woke me up a little after 1 AM, telling me that my flight Thursday morning from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale originates in Detroit, which is currently under a few feet of snow. Basically that flight will inevitably get cancelled, so I've started doing research on changing my ticket. US Airways is awesome in that they waive all change fees in the case of a flight advisory (which this situation is), just like what I had to do last week when coming back from Los Angeles. But the problem is that I got my ticket through cheaptickets.com The US Airways rep on the phone told me I'd have to go through them to make changes. So what does cheaptickets.com charge to change my ticket? 225 bucks. Yeah.
Plan B? Let's call up Avianca, who has the authority to change my ticket since 2 of the 3 flight segments are through them. So how much do they want to get me on a flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale 2 hours earlier that originates in Philadelphia? 843 bucks. Hmmm.

Plan C? Call a friend who works for US Airways. Apparently if I go to the airport in person I might be able to get on the flight originating in Philadelphia a few hours earlier.

Plan D? I could fly out at 8:40 PM tonight (what a way to spend the night of my birthday) and then spend the night in the airport until my flight at 1 PM.

On a happier and less anxious note, I got to see Linkin Park in concert last night.  It was quite a different venue than where I normally see them in a few different ways:

1. It was winter. 
2. It was an inside venue.
3. We had assigned seats.

Prior to this I had always seen them in summer or spring, and with the exception of Las Vegas it was always an outdoor venue.  Dana and I arrived plenty early since we weren't sure what to expect with traffic and parking. 

This was my first time to the Wells Fargo Center, and it was huge.  There were 3 huge tiers of seating and then standing room for VIP ticketholders.  We got Wawa sandwiches to eat in the car and just got funnel cake before the concert started. 

We ended up sitting behind a group of guys speaking Spanish, and after striking up a conversation with them I found out that they were from Peru, with one guy from Mexico City.  It was cool talking with them about areas of Peru I had been to, and the guy from Mexico City knew Tepoztlan (a town outside of Mexico City where I took language classes for 2 weeks back in 2008).  We talked after the concert too, and it was cool getting to talk to them.

The concert was great, as I expected.  I wasn't anywhere near as close to the stage as I was in Santiago or Las Vegas, but I didn't mind.  I didn't even recognize the first cover band and only a few songs of the second one, but when Linkin Park took the stage the place exploded.  They played pretty much all of the same songs that I heard in Santiago.

Now that I can't sleep, I have a good reason to finish my packing and packing lists and finishing up the mundane details I've been putting off.  The weather will certainly make my last 24 hours or so at home(and my birthday) more adventurous than I was expecting.

Hopefully my next update will be from the Fort Lauderdale airport or Santiago.  Everyone reading please wish me luck!

TeachingChile Reunion, American Music, and Linkin Park in January

Saturday was the biannual meeting for TeachingChile participants and alums.  There was delicious Mexican food, beautiful weather, and great company.  I can't fathom that it was May when we were last on Bruce's rooftop, listening to a group of alums playing the guitar and singing classics for us.  They got everyone involved with the singing and even did improv songs about people.  I feel like they're going to be a fixture at the parties from now on.

I've had a log of iconic American music in my head after doing lessons with particular songs with my students, and so I thought I'd share them here so we could all take a stroll down memory lane.

First up is Summer Nights from Grease.  My students told me they had to beg their parents to let them see the movie here in Chile when they were teenagers.  I remember playing the music for Grease in my high school orchestra.

Then we have Help by The Beatles.  The song is universal, and I think everyone can relate to the theme of the song.  My students have all had interesting interpretations of the reason for needing help, ranging from being in the hospital to being an unexpected father.

Another song we've done together was the Do Re Mi song from The Sound of Music.  The lyrics are very simple and catchy (and very easily get annoying), but it's interesting to see that people here don't understand what they mean.  Listen at your own risk.

Another great song is What a Wonderful World by Louie Armstrong.  I actually sang this (badly) with my school chorus when I lived in Germany, and I've liked the song ever since then.

Today I listened to The Voice Within by Cristina Aguilera with one of my students.  This isn't normally the genre of music I listen to, but the lyrics and music was a part of the textbook, so we did it.  It was a really beautiful song, and I'm glad I gave it a try.

Perhaps my favorite is a classic by Bobby McFerrin, Don't Worry, Be Happy.  Chileans love the phrase "Don't worry" in English, and if something ever goes wrong or they are unsure of something, I like to tell them in English, "Don't worry, be happy."  It almost always gets a smile.

All of these songs have words and messages in them, but there is something deeper to teaching with music.  It also shows the target culture (if you are using a video).  You can also learn about slang that you wouldn't typically use in a textbook.  Perhaps the most important part, in my opinion, is that music is memorable and a personal experience for every person that listens to a song.  Not everyone will interpret a song in the same way, and it will not evoke the same emotions or response from the same person.  And the indvidual experience is what I love about it.

In other music news, I found out from a fellow Linkin Park fan from the Las Vegas concert in 2008 that Linkin Park announced their US tour dates.  They'll be in Philadelphia on January 31st, and coincidentally I'll be back home in Jersey during that same time.  I totally want to see them in concert again (I know that I just saw them last month), but the ticket is $80.  I'm contemplating saving the money for traveling, but at this point I'm really on the fence.

Linkin Park in Santiago (with pictures!)

So I got in from the Linkin Park concert about an hour ago.

Words to describe it: awesome, amazing, electric, I could go on and on.

So how did it all play out?

Well, Colby and I bought our tickets back in August.  The ticket told us that the festival started at 12:00, so I was telling him we should get there early to avoid the crowds.  Then Colby told me that he had a Saturday class until 11:30, and so we had to meet at the metro station at 12.  When he first told me this I freaked out a bit, worrying that we would miss part of Linkin Park performing.  But then I realized that there were a lot of other bands playing, and Linkin Park would probably be near the end of the festival.

We arrived to Club Hipico (the location of the concert) around 12:45.  One of my students told me that Club Hipico is a well-known race track in Santiago, and he seemed surprised that they would be having a concert there.  As we got into line, we saw large signs not allowing cameras or outside drinks to be brought in.  I was a bit nervous since Nick lent me his camera to use, but then I saw people with bookbags going in, and they weren't checking them thoroughly at all.  I had the camera in my side pocket, so I knew I was going to be fine, and I was right.

After we got through the checkpoints, it was huge inside.  There were 3 different stages, food tents, a shade area, a hammock area, water tanks, and some artists creating artwork on large canvases.  Here are some pictures of what the area looked like inside:

 Once we got inside, we saw the schedule of the bands.  Linkin Park was only scheduled to go on at 9:30 at night.  We asked if we were able to leave and come back in, but once you're in you're in.  So Colby and I just looked at each other and laughed.  It was not even 1:30 yet, and we still had a loooong time there before Linkin Park would be playing.

We decided to grab some food to eat, and they had a ticket currency thing going on.  Here was my lunch:

We decided we would eat at of peak times to avoid crowds later on, and we also bought more tickets in advance for later on in the day.

One thing was noticably missing from the venue: trash cans.  They had huge trash bags at about 3 random places around the perimeter of the park, which I don't think was the best of planning.  But the Chileans that planned the event had a solution to all of the trash that would result from the lack of trach cans.  And here I present, Lata (can) Girl:

For the concert there were about 30 people in white jumpsuit type things that picked up the trash.  Apparently some of them were given specific assignments as to what they were supposed to clean up.

After that, we spent our time wandering around, spending time sitting in the shade, eating again around 6 PM, and buying Linkin Park shirts.  Colby wanted to see Queens of the Stone Age, so we checked them out at 6:30.  It was pretty good music, and we went around the side and had an amazingly close view of them considering it was general admission.

After the were done, I stayed put.  At this time it was 8:00 and Linkin Park would only start at 9:30.  After a few minutes I was able to work my way to the very front of the general area, and I stayed that way until they started playing.

The concert was true to their style: start out mysterious to get everyone interested, use a funky transtion chord progression or pattern to leave everyone wondering what song is next, and lots of audience participation.  This tour is also to help promote their album, which has only been out for a few weeks.

My shots of trying to zoom in did not turn out too well, but luckily they had huge monitors that showed them up close on each side of the stage.  I snapped a lot of my pictures, and here are just some of them:

They played a lot of songs from their new album, but they also sang a lot of their old songs too.  It was amazing to see how many people were there, as this was their first time in Santiago.  It seemed like everyone knew the words to the songs, which was interesting seeing that they don't necessarily understand what the songs are saying.

They played from 9:30 to 11, and I was left in a daze afterwards.  Colby wanted to see Incubus, so we went over to that stage right after Linkin Park finished.  We only stayed for about 30 more minutes, and then we headed out and caught a bus home.

Oh yeah, and how did I take pictures?  Well, the camera my dad sent me hasn't arrived yet, but one of my friends here from the States lent me his camera for the concert.  I feel so lucky that I have such great friends here.

This concert was such an awesome experience.  I've never been to any of their concerts so close to the release of a new album, so it was awesome hearing their new songs live so soon afterwards.  It brought back memories of seeing them in concert with close friends of mine back in California and Las Vegas,  and I just feel so lucky to have gotten to see them in concert here.

Oh, Hello October!

Sunday the 10th will be the 8 month mark of my travels.

I have found myself really busy with the teaching and preparation for my classes, but in a good way.  Maybe it's just me, but I really enjoy figuring out interesting ways to teach new concepts to students and making class entertaining but also useful for them.  I found a really interesting podcast called NPR Planet Money.  They are about 20 minutes each, and they have something to do with the economy or money.  I've created a listening guide for one podcast about the adventures of an economics professor giving his children an allowance, and I'm working on one about the history of Brazil's economy after 50 years of inflation and how it was solved with a new currency.

I now have my schedule worked out so that I have a few hours of free time a few days a week, and with that time I've been going to the store where people meet to play Magic.  Now that I have my binder of cards I find I talk to a lot more people there, and I have been trading and selling some cards.  I feel like I'm becoming more integrated there, and I have become more outgoing by striking up conversations with people even if they don't approach me first there.

It's hard for me to believe, but I will be seeing Linkin Park in concert here in Santiago in less than 48 hours.  I always thought in the back of my head that it would be cool if they came to Chile while I was here, and this time my wishful thinking came true.

To make it even better, they released a new album about 3 weeks ago, titled A Thousand Suns.  It is true to Linkin Park's style in that it pushes the limits as to defining their style of music.  The album has songs that are rough and angry to soft and inspiring.  They even have a few tracks that have a man speaking like he's giving a speech or protesting something, but it's set to music in the background.  One such track seems to me criticizing corporate America and portrays a man that is stuck in a system he knows is corrupt and immoral, but he cannot escape it without major consequences to his reputation and future career opportunities.

My favorite song off of the new album is called Iridescent.  It's about going through tough times and feeling down on yourself, and also holding on to feelings of anger and loneliness.  I know, it sounds pretty pessimistic.  But then it turns around completely, and they sing to remember how difficult and painful that was and to "let it go".  It's such a simple message, but the way that they combine it with piano, guitar, and eventually multiple voices is really inspiring.

I published the lyrics below, but they don't do the song justice.  You can hear it and see the lyrics by following this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpt7RJUGpdE

When you were standing in the wake of devastation

when you were waiting on the edge of the unknown
with the cataclysm raining down, insides crying save me now
you were there and possibly alone.
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
you build up all the failiures all you've known
remember all the sadness and frustration
and let it go, let it go.
And in the burst of light that blinded every angel
as if the sky had blown the heavens into stars
you felt the gravity of temper grace falling into empty space
no one there to catch you in there arms
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
you build up all the failiures all you've known
remember all the sadness and frustration
and let it go, let it go.

Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
you build up all the failiures all you've known
remember all the sadness and frustration
and let it go,
let it go
let it go
let it go
let it go
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation
you build up all the failiures all you've known
remember all the sadness and frustration
and let it go, let it go.

I've been saving up for my plane ticket to come back to Santiago, and I'm really satisfied with what I have so far.  I've basically cut eating out out of my budget for the most part, and now I write out a menu on the weekend for the following week.  That way when I go food shopping I only buy what I need.  If I can keep it up I will have enough for my flight as well as money for gifts for Christmas and spending money for the time I will be back home.

That's all for now.