End Up September....Yey

Alright, so in 10 minutes it will be October and I have to post this before then! LoL Actually I’m going to cheat a little I hope you all don't mind! Time has been flying. My life is flying by but I’m faster! Next month I’ll be 24 years old! That is crazy to think.....Just the other day I remember when I got my driving learns permit in Morgantown, WV because my sister was in a hospital! And that was 9 years ago. :( I have so much more I want to do with my life that I don't think I will get it all in with just one lifetime. But heck I’m going to try.

Chile has been amazing. I really love every moment down here and I'm already sad about having to go home. But maybe I can find some kind of excuse to come back. If I do not get to come back to Chile I at least want to go somewhere else in South America. After that I need to make it across the ocean. I was reading up on the situation in the Philippines and I think in December or January I’m going to try to go over there and volunteer for a month. I've always wanted to go do relief work for a place that was hit by a natural disaster. I know that’s a horrible thing to want to do but then again there is always natural disaster. And right now I’m scared of natural disasters for some reason so I need to confront my fears.

I just noticed I never went back and corrected some of my other blog post. I should get my dad to do that. He's really good at proof reading and stuff like that. I certainly didn't get that skill from him and it's defiantly one that I am not going to work on. With things like spell check and F7 I am set for life. However, you don't ever want to get something from me that was hand written. You wouldn't be able to decipher that jumble of letters I like to call writing. I've decided I’m going to start playing music more/again. I use to play a lot in high school and I wasn't good but I wasn't terrible! (Like the way I worded that) I have some of the best teachers and people to learn from in my life and I really need to take advantage of that. I love music and the always have so now it’s time..... (ahhhh got to post this)

See look cheating! I posted before midnight and now this post is in the month of September! But I did just notice that the time that the post says it was posted is like 3 hours off. That is retarded and makes me sad.

Most things in Chile I find I can accept. I'm in a different country. The culture is different. Their norms are different. People are different. Bluh Bluh Bluh right! But today I had to go to a bank to deposit money into an account that is setup for a road race this coming weekend. After that I then had to go online to register for the race and hope that registration was still open. Talk about being a pain....do they not have paypal? That was fine; I was able to deal with that. What really got me flustered was the bank! Now I’ve walked by a few banks and always noticed that the lines are usually kind of long but never really thought much of it. I just figured a lot of people banking today. No! I would never bank in Chile!

It went like this. I walk in and get stopped by the security officer that was an extreme prick. I think mainly because I was American. Next there were 3 lines and 4 windows! One line was for the general public with one window. One line was for clients of the bank with two windows. And another line was for professional transactions with the last window. At first I was like wow what a good idea. Then 45 minutes later when I was still standing in line I felt like cursing! At Everyone! In the 55 minutes I spent inside only 3 people were helped by the professional transaction window. Around 10 minutes into wait a lady in the general public line thought she should open a bank account. General public window helped her until I left. The first window for clients of the bank window started taking general public people after 35 minutes. Maybe some of you don't see my complaint... Why are they dividing up the incoming clients? The people who had to wait the longest were the ones that were actual clients of the bank. In general most people that don't have an account with them won't actually come to that bank to do a transaction. Why are the people doing professional transactions more important and can just waltz right up to a window that hasn't helped anyone in the last ten minutes. It might be convenient for that client but you are wasting your money with that employee. Stupid! And when can someone open a bank account at a teller window? WTF There was 4 side offices with people in them doing only god knows what. Two of the offices look like they were meeting with customers. One was on the phone a lot and talked loud enough for us to hear him. And the last one stood by his office door talking with the jerk ball security officer.

How I would fix this! First I would have only one line! All teller windows are equal. If you’re opening an account you go to the office that has the moron talking to the security officer. If you need "professional transactions" you go to the person that talked too much on his phone. I am sure he can help you! First in is First out. Maybe I'm wrong but it was extremely annoying. Cuando en Chile! Viva Chile!

One more thing I cannot come to stand is that the Micro buses pull up as close as possible to the Micro bus in front of them to let someone off. But then when they want to get around the bus in front they honk their horn constantly. While not stop five feet from the Micro in front. And then when you want to pull around you don't have to honk your horn like a complete lunatic. Just Saying....Think About It!

Ok that is my end of the month rant! This coming Friday I’m going wine tasting for my friend’s birthday. I'll be drunk! I am going to try to make a video but it might turn out bad. October has a lot of birthdays... If you do a little subtraction we all know what our parents were doing for February! Yeah February! LoL Thanks Dad! Thanks Mom!

I'm off to bed. In the morning I have to go to a volunteer thing for little kids! Yey But before that I want to get a run in. So I'll be talking to you all in two days.

Hope you have a good rest of the week.

Check this Video Out!

She's either cute or a good singer! Maybe both!

Stra10

60 Second List of Things I Like!

Running
Music
Social Media
Computers
Cell Phones
Taylor Swift
Reading
Guitar
Taking Pictures
Making Videos
Traveling
Cats
Pizza
Spanish
Venice Italy
Little Kids
Nice People
Good Conversation
Pointless Conversation
Michael Hardbarger
Challenges
Sleeping In
Waking Up Early
Fall
Snowboarding
Lasagna
Volunteering

That is all I could come up with in 60 seconds!.... I feel like I should have gotten more! Let me know how many things you can come up with that you like in 60 seconds!

Stra10

Friday Night Update

This might be super quick! I am waiting on a friend to give me a shout before we head out for some food and a night on the town. I think we are gonna got some Chinese food! LoL I find it funny that the Chinese people here speak Spanish. I always feel like they should speak broken English. But I love the food so I'm not complaining. I've had two productive days of studying! Wooohooo... I mean I should probably be saying i've had two productive months of studying but that just isn't the case.

Right this second I'm drinking this coffee/milk/chocolate thing that my host family loves. And well I absolutely love it but it gives me such a headache it's not funny. I'm not sure if it's because the amount of sugar in it or the chemicals that make it taste so damn good but I think i'm addicted. I'm gonna have to smuggle some of this stuff into the United States. I hope they don't catch me running across the border.

Anyway it looks like the Chinese was scraped and now it's gonna be pizza time! I love that when I chat with people online I imagine that I am actually hearing them talk to me! Is that weird? Let me know!

Stra10

PS: I'll try to make it longer next time! (ha thats what she said)

Two Months Down Under

Well it's been two months since I left the states for Chile and I must say that the time has been flying by. I'm gonna be back home before I know it. :( TEAR! I've started to love this place. The people. The culture. And even the food, sometimes!

Last week I didn't do a Friday Night Update because I was in Rancagua, Chile for the celebration of Fiestas Patrias which roughly means Patriotic Holidays. This is for the celebration of Chile's independence from Spain. I spent four days there with my one Chilean friend Christian and my friend Logan from Wisconsin. Christian took us to his grandmothers pension (spelled wrong) where I think about 14 other people live. The entire weekend/week was a blast. Christian and his friends took us to all kinds of things. We went to the national tennis match between Chile and Austria! Eight hours of tennis in a day is almost a little to much for me. They have these things called Fundas for their Fiestas Patrias which I would compare to a county fair but they have hundreds of them. Last week I went to 6 of them in total. They have food, dancing, rides, games, stores, and drinking! You could buy a triple shoot for 300 pesos. (roughly 60 cents) Talk about being a cheap drunk! Oh and I don't think they close and if they do they close sometime after 6am! In the four days I spent in Rancagua I slept at most 21 hours. The day was spent eating and meeting new people and the night (night = sometime after 1:30am) was spent drinking with them. The food I had over the last four days has been some of the best I've had since I have arrived here. We had steak, pork, chicken, hot dogs, sausage, fish, and other stuff I never got the name of. We also went horse back riding and spent the day in the country. The Andes mountains are amazing! Overall it was amazing and I kind of want to do it again.

I have a lot more I want to write but I have go home and study for a test tomorrow that I will probably fail. Thats me being optimistic too. It's ok though I've not been the most amazing student here. I blame myself! (i was gonna say facebook and the chilean culture....)

This weekend I'll upload photos and try to make some more post.

Chau,

Stra10

Friday Night Update (on Saturday)

Sorry I didn't do this yesterday! But I'm doing it now. Go ahead and enjoy. It has been a good week. I am 4 of 6 for waking up early this week. I consider that a success. I just hope tomorrow I pull it off one more time. The trick to waking up early is having something to do. Even if it's made up. Like on Wednesday I told myself I had to study for a quiz I was having in class. I don't suggest lying to yourself but I couldn't think of anything right so I had to. I should have a youtube video up of me getting up in the mornings tomorrow. Hopefully it's funny.

Right now i'm at a lose for things to write...

Last Monday I had my first day of English Volunteer teaching. It was different. Extremely different. The kids were outrageously loud but wonderful. It's so hard to have a clear thought when you have 20+ kids you questions all at once. I felt so bad for the teacher because she had no control over her two classes. But I did sit in another class and that teacher did have much more control over his class. I'm gonna blame half of it on that there is a foreigner in the class and all the kids want to do is find out more about me. It was fun and i'm looking forward to more of it. I'll do a whole post on it after a few weeks.

Right now i'm on vacation actually. I have a solid 12 days off. Thank you begin a foreign exchange student & Chile's independence. I didn't even know I had off until Thursday afternoon when the teacher was like ok see you all in two weeks and don't die. Ok well he didn't say don't die but I felt like he should have. Since this is a time of celebration is compelete chaos in Chile!

Today the ISA (International Studies Abroad) group went to Pomaire and Isla Negra to see one of Pablo Neruda's houses. Pablo was the man! And a real ladies man. As far as I understood he had three wives and a handful of mistresses. After seeing his last house I would have been one of his mistresses as well. Just plain amazing. They don't let you take pictures of the inside for some reason so I don't have any but I do have some of the amazing view. Check them out Here!

On September 11th I spent the day watching conspiracy theory videos on it. God I really hope we didn't do that to ourselves. I mean I wouldn't doubt it but i'm just gonna believe whatever and I don't even know what is. I mean in general it's terrible so I'll leave it that. A little food for thought is that more Chileans were killed becasue of the US Junta government in Chile that came into power on 9/11/1973. All things 9/11 are crappy....

Well i'm done I keep get getting distracted by youtube.... check this out!

Stra10

Friday Night Update

Hola and welcome to this episode of Friday Night Update and the first post of September. Today is September 9th 2009 around 8pm. This week could be given the tag #FAIL. Probably the only successful thing I have done all week is get unsick. Not really sure if that is even a word but I'm using it. I have successfully become unsick! Other than that I really haven't accomplished anything. Quick Run Down!

1. Get Unsick! CHECK
2. Edit New Youtube Video! FAIL
3. New Blog Layout! FAIL
4. Improved My Spanish! FAIL (anything less than fluent is considered a fail)
5. Wake Up Before Noon! FAIL
6. Run! FAIL
7. Compelted all the Mission on CHECK but FAIL (that is a clear waste of time)

So what have I done all week you might ask! Well lets see I went to all but one of my classes. SUCCESS I also crammed in all my homework at the last minute and only failed at turning in one assignment! SUCCESS I spent all of my time with Gringos other than when i'm out at night! SUCCESS I showered 4 out of the last 7 days! SUCCESS I learned 120 new Spanish words that are absolutely useless in everyday conversation! (ex. eclampsia) SUCCESS I'm writing my second Friday Night Update! SUCCESS So yeah i've been super productive.

I was once told don't believe nothing and question everything. And for the most part I try. Now sometimes I feel like most people when given this advice they become that argumentative person that you avoid like the plague. I try not to be that person unless i'm arguing with my mom and then I know all and I'm correct even when it's obvious i'm wrong=correct. TO THE POINT! So as you might have read in the last two post I'm trying to wake up earlier. In the hope that I have a more productive day. This however has proven a tad bit harder than I imagined. I figured hey I need 8 hours of sleep and I want to wake up at 8am so I should go to sleep at midnight. Well according to popular believe that would be correct.

I found that I failed at waking up 7 times in a row. I figured with that success rate either I lack self-discipline or i'm going about this in the wrong way. There are a few contributing factors to this.

1. I was getting over a cold.
2. Sleep cycle right now is 3am to 12pm.
3. I actually lost my alarm clock for 2 days.
4. I lack a little self-discipline at 8am.

But I had a feeling I was going about this wrong. So I dove into the internet world and found a few things that seem to wrong in my approach. My first discovery is that we actually don't need 8 hours of sleep. Why didn't I know this before. I've been told since kindergarten I need 8 hours of sleep a day to be functional. (see believe nothing and question everything) Second that you shouldn't try to go to sleep when your not tired. This was a little harder to figure out. But it comes down to if your not doing something stimulating and you didn't just drink a cup of coffee and it's taking you longer than 15 minutes to fall asleep it's not time for your body to sleep. So get up out of bed and do something productive like read a book, write a blog, study an algorithm, practice some Spanish and then try to fall asleep again. Finally and this goes a lot with my first discovery is that you don't need a bed time just a wake up time. My original goal was to wake up at 8am. (it has changed to 7am because I now have volunteer work at 8:15 on mondays) This means that everyday I should wake up at 7am but it doesn't mean that I have to go to bed at 11pm every night. Actually I could go to sleep between 11:30pm and 1am and be perfectly functional. Also the ultimate sleeping length is 7.5 hrs and not 8. And yeah thats what I found and I'm still searching and still figuring stuff out and I'm really angry that I know there are things I believe that without even thing about are wrong. So yeah the earth isn't round and the universe isn't expanding and i'm not really in South America.

How Much Time I'll Gain From Not Sleeping In!
Currently I sleep a solid 10.5 hrs a day. (yeah i know)
10.5 - 7.5 = 3hrs <- I will gain that a day we will say on average
3hrs * 7days = 21hrs a week
3hrs * 30.4days = 91.2hrs a week
3hrs * 365days = 1095 hrs a year

1095hrs / 24hrs = 45.6 days I will gain a year
1095hrs / 168hrs = 6.5 weeks I will gain a year

Lets turn that into money because time = money! If I could make 10 dollars an hour in those extra 3hrs that would be $10,950. Yeah thats better than any internet get rich quick scam I have ever seen! Now lets see a life time. I plan on living till i'm 120.

120 - 24 = 96yrs
96yrs * $10,950 = $1,051,200 <-now if that isn't motivation to get out of bed! Hell.

Lets be more realistic! I do plan on retiring and letting my money work for me. Lets say for the next 40yrs those 3hrs earn me $10/hr.

40yrs * $10,950 = $438,000

What if those 3hrs earned me $25/hr for 40yrs

40yrs * ($25 * 1095hrs/yr) = $1,095,000

Ok yeah i'm gonna difently start waking up earlier. If just waking up is going to earn me money then so be it! Anyway I don't know where the whole money thing came from but ok. This is unedited and not proof read so there are probably a ton of mistakes but I told myself I had to do this before I ventured out for the night. Hope you enjoyed and I will catch you all later.

I Like This Video/Song


Stra10