Greetings and welcome back to the Adventures of Captain Red Beard. Since the last time we spoke, quite a bit has changed. My time in Buenos Aires came to a pleasant but abrupt end. I had planned to spend a little more time there but after I came down with the travel flu I realized that I had to take advantage of this incredible opportunity I had been given and see a little more of South America. I contacted Paloma Faizibiaoff, who many of you know as a former exchange student at Millbrook High School a few years back. She told me that I should come for Carnaval and that is something I could not turn down. So after about a month and a half in Buenos Aires, my lasting impression will be that it is a grand city that will not escape my memory any time soon. A truely international metropolis with plenty of things to see and do along with some excellent barbecue.

A smooth sidestep around the hurdle of waiting for two weeks to get my Brasilian visa in B.A. took me to Puerto Iguazu, home to the breathtaking Iguazu Falls, which many say surpasses Niagara. I for one do not know because I never went. At that point I was set on arriving on time for Carnaval and had just been to Niagara Falls, so I did not find the visit necessary. However it is a great place to get a visa overnght. Once in Sao Paulo, where Paloma lives, we set of for the Island, Ilhabela, which literally means beautiful Island, which is a few hours from Sao Paolo. Carnaval was just as great as everyone says. Just one big party with lots of music, parades and dancing. While there, we hung out with a bunch of Paloma's friends. most of them spoke English but there was a few guys who really didn't speak any English and of course I didn't speak any Portuguess. The incredible thing was that during carnaval, we seemed to communicate perfectly. We were laughing, telling jokes, sharing chilhood memories while making new ones of our own. The whole weekend was incredibly fun with parades, new food and friends and of course a few cocktails here and there. After carnaval we went back to Sao Paulo for less beers and more sightseeing. The next weekend rolled around and we went to the birthday celebration of one of my new best friends from Carnaval. When we got to the party, I tried to talk to these gentlemen and ask how they've been since carnaval or tell them what I've done, and I realized that we couldn't communicate at all. There was no common language and without the social lubrication of alcohol, there was absolutely nothing for us to talk about. After some grunting and pointing, we got back on the booze and smoothed the whole thing over. A few beers deep and the language barrier was broken, our bond was reformed, and we began laughing and singing again in our common toungue.

But don't worry Mom, I did plenty besides drink while in Brasil. I even went to two college classes. That's right, I went with Paloma to her college a few nights and decided to attend some of the lessons. I didn't want to go to too many, just enough to see how it compared to the U.S. and it was surprisingly similar. They were marketing classes, one in English and one in Portugues. The whole settup of the campus was almost the same. The only real difference is that students don't live on campus in Brasil like they do in the U.S.

The city of Sao Paulo is a nice and gigantic city. It is one of the largest in the world and bigger than New York city. Of course with a city that size it has plenty of things to do and there is always something interesting going on. Paloma has some great friends and everyone was extremely friendly and very happy to welcome the Gringo to their city. Paloma and her family live in a very nice neighborhood on the outside of the city. Her house is in a quiet community and it was very secure. The community where she lived was pretty cool with a few ponds and even a small section of Jungle.

So after some time with Paloma in Sao Paulo, I decided it was time to move on to my next stop in Rio de Janiero, the River of January. Here I am stayed with Ammi Brandao. He has also graced the halls of Millbrook High School as an exchange student in Millbrook and actually spent some time living in the humble abode of the Meyers family. Ammi is lucky enough to live at the base of Corcovado Mountain, the home of the world famous Christ the Redeemer Statue. I even got to ride up the mountain on a bike with Ammi's dad. Although it was great excersice and a nice ride, I wasn't even able to go to the bottom of the statue. The reason being that midway up the mountain is a parking lot and from there, visitors take a bus the rest of the way up. Well when we got to the top, they said that in order to enter the area where the statue is, that you need to buy the tickets at the parking lot and take the bus up, I know it makes a lot of sense.

For anyone who has not been to Rio de Janeiro, I would more than recommend it. It is one of the nicest cities I have every visited. It is an almost perfect combination of a big city and nature. Everyone knows about the wonderful beaches but there is so much more. Just the other day I went with some friends for a hike in the mountains in the middle of the city. With just a few minutes in the car, we got to a huge mountain that was host to a hangliding launch site. The view there was incredible and we were able to see the city, the beach, and plenty of jungle with the huge JC statue hanging majestically above it all. Along with the hangliding, hiking, and all the beautiful women, it doesn't seem like there was much more that a person could want from a city.

Unfortunately my time here in Brazil must come to an end. It has been a marvelous experience getting to know this amazing country and the wonderful people who live here. However, I recently had the realization that I need to do something more than just travel and enjoy myself. As great as it has been reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, it is time that I did something more important. I managed to find a volunteer program in Pisco, Peru that I am going to give four weeks of my time to. The program is called Pisco Sin Fronteras, which means Pisco without borders. This program is helping to rebuild the city of Pisco which was almost completely leveled by an earthquake a few years ago. So the Brasilian leg of my journey is now at an end and I am excited to move on to the next chapter. I will never forget the wild world of Brazil. Now on to my new adventure on the west coast. Wish me luck!!

Welcome to Buenos Aires

Hello all and welcome back to the Adventures of Captain Red Beard. I know that I was a little bit delayed about writing and for this I apologize. I have spent the last few weeks acclimating myself to my new temporary home of Buenos Aires. For those of you who don't know, I decided to spend the next few months in the sprawling metropolis of Buenos Aires, Argentina. How did I come to this conclusion? Well, during my excellent adventure in Spain, I met a beautiful Spanish woman named Diana. We hit it off and even continued our relationship after I left. She came to visit in the U.S. and we actually planned that I would go and live with her in Espana. Pretty wild stuff I know. Things got complicate yadada and plans fell through. Now I know that seems like a little TMI but the point is that I was planning on going for an extended vaca in Europe. Since that didn't work out, there was no sense in staying in Millbrook. I figured I should go some place that speaks Spanish, and since going to Spain might be a little awkward for the aforementioned reason, South America was the next obvious choice. But where in Southe America. The beautiful beaches of Chile, the lush jungles of Ecuador, or a port city on the east coast. Some may know of a mysterious man by the name of Michael Rizzo. Mr. Rizzo is a household name in Buenos Aires and a neighbor to the Meyers family back in the great town of Millbrook. I figured if I was just gonna wing it and go anywhere, it might be better to know someone where I am going. And that is how I chose to come to Buenos Aires. As far as plans, I have none. Just to learn more Spanish and try to survive until June 2 when a plane will carry back to the land where the States are United

I was lucky enough to have landed myself a job in a hostel before I even got down here thanks to the great craigslist. I am currently working the night shift at Circus Hostel in the San Telmo neighborhood. It´s actually a pretty good gig. I split it with a guy named AytunÇ who comes from Turkey. We switch on and off and work either 3 or 4 nights in a row. Its really easy cuz not much goes on between midnight and 8 am and the breakfast is free. Also we get a sweet discount at the restaurant here which is pretty decent. The only negative is that I have to work from midnight to 8 am. Its tough to get used to and I miss a lot of daylight. I have found the best schedule is to work and then stay up after work and enjoy the day and then sleep in the afternoon. This way I get the most sunlight possible. As opposed to sleeping until 4 pm and then only having a few hours before the sun goes down around 8.

Speaking of sun, it is summer here, and yes it is hot. And of course I got burned. Although there is a surplus of heat I cannot complain because I love the sun and I hear it is extra cold back home. Another benefit of working at the hostel is that our apartement on the top floor comes equiped with a huge balcony that gets plenty of sun. Furthermore, there is a pool on the ground floor that is also really nice.

As far as the city of Buenos Aires goes, it is huge and I have not even come close to seeing all of it. Along with all the nice tourist sites, there is also an ecological reserve just outside of the city which is only a fifteen minute walk from my house. It´s pretty nice and it is good to have close by to get away from the noise and pollution of the city. It is important to note that very close to the Ecological Reserve there is a Casino. I went the other night with some other employees from the hostel and ended up winning 400 pesos, it was quite nice.

Of course everyone already knows that the food in Argentina is excellent. Plenty of steaks and other meats cooked on the bbq. Yet another advantage of the hostel is that every Saturday a bbq or Asado is held. This is always delicious with a number of different meats and sausage along with a salad and a beer and of course a nice discount for the staff.

Now I am heading out to see the museum of modern art here is Buenos Aires. We will see how that goes. Hopefully my next post will be a little more lively. Peace out

Drinking on the Job

Right now I would like to discuss the extremely relaxed attitude towards drinking in Spain. Unlike Americans, Spaniards never find it innapropriate to have a drink. In fact, I am currently in the teachers lounge of my school, it is 10:30 in the morning and most of the teachers have already enjoyed a nice drink. Of course they´re not lining up shots looking to get saucy, but since it´s Christmas time, one of the teachers brought in a bottle of holiday liqueur. When I walked into the room, the first guy I saw had a drink poured and said good morning by toasting me.

This is not the only time that I have experienced something like this. I have gone on a number of field trips with my students which have all been pretty fun and interesting. However, while in the U.S., for the teachers to drink during a field trip would be stongly against the rules, but no one seems to care here. In fact, they more or less encourage it. On one of the trips we were getting lunch and I asked for an iced tea and they brought me out a beer. Not like I was complaining, but just a little taken aback. It also surprised me how unconcerned the teachers were about the kids. We were in Cordoba at the ancient palace of the king and queen, and there was a tall guard tower. Apparently it was too small for all the kids to go up, so they all waited at the bottom while the teachers went up and enjoyed the view. Once again I did not mind this but it was still a bit of a surprise how they didn´t really care about the kids.

Also on the not of teachers drinking, we have a bar in our school. That´s right, there is a bar where we go to drink coffee and eat lunch. It is really just a small cafeteria for the teachers but there is a legitimate bar that serves beer if you want it. I have yet to see someone actually drink a beer while at school, but it is there if you want it.

So for those of you who´s interests include drinking all day and ignoring young children who you are supposed to be responsible for, come to Huarte de San Juan. Where there is always a cold beer waiting for you in the teachers lounge, and kids just asking to be ignored.

9 is German for NO!

I would like to sincerely apologize for not writing a new blog for so long. I wish that I could say the reason for not writing was because I have been very busy and involved with many activities, but the truth is that I just got lazy. Plus there has not been any significantly crazy events that I have been involved in lately. So I will just try to summarize my last few months here.

Since my last excursion with Maria Isabel to the nursing home, I have been on a number of trips throughout Southern Spain. One day me and Gerald went to the beach just for the day. He had to renew his rental car in Granada and we decided to continue on to the beach because it was only about an hour away from Granada. Here we just relaxed and enjoyed a nice day of sun and sand. This was also where I first mentioned David Hasselhoff. I am sure that most of you are aware that David Hasselhoff, for some reason used to be extremely popular in Germany. While Gerald and I were swimming I asked him and he said that he was popular in the 90's but now he is just a severe alcoholic. He also mentioned how he is not a big fan, and this is when my obsession with "The Hoff" truly took form. Ever since then, I like to play David Hasselhoff songs for Gerald before we go out to get him pumped up. It's quite funny because he really does not like him at all. He keeps telling me that no one likes him any more but he was proved terribly wrong one night when we were out. We met up with another girl who is from Germany and two of her friends who were visiting. We were out at a pub when I broke out into a Hoff song as I often do when Gerald is around. I sang the first line of his song "Looking for Freedom" and from across the table, one of the other Germans continued with the second line without missing a beat. It was incredible because he wasn't even involved in our conversation and he just heard it and joined in. It made me so happy and I just turned to Gerald and laughed so hard right in his face. It really made my day because it simply proved that The Hoff was more popular than he made him out to be.

I have also been on a number of trips with the always entertaining Jillian Sakovits. She lives in Valencia which is a city on the east coast about 5 hrs from me. I first visited her a while back and it was a blast. I took a midnight train with a bed which was pretty cool. It was nice to be able to sleep comfortably for the long trip. Also, taking a night train allowed me 3 full days there. We had a great time and went to the beach, visited a castle in a nearby town and spent some time just walking around her city which is very nice. It has lots of old churches and buildings, but also has some very nice modern sites including some pretty cool museums. Her group of friends is also really fun and I got along really well with all of them. Later for Thanksgiving her and her boyfriend, another German named Phil came and visited me. It was nice to have someone from home to be with for the holiday. It was also nice because I was in charge of cooking the mashed potatoes and Jill was all over it which made it easier for me. I would also like to note that Phil and I took over the responsibilty of creating the gravy, which we both had no idea what we were doing, but we bought some random ingredients and mixed them together. While Jill was very skeptical, and will probably still not admit it, it turned out very good and we even got a few compliments at the dinner. We went to another teachers house and had a pretty decent traditional meal. Of course not everything tasted the same as it would have in the states, it was still nice just to be able to eat a semi-traditional Thanksgiving. The next day, Jill, Phil, and I left for Cordoba, a close city where the great KerryLynn Daly lives. We met up with her and although she did not go out because she had to get up early the next day, we went out with her roommates which was a lot of fun. The next day we did some sight seeing around Cordoba and when to La Mezquita which was really cool. It is an ancient Islamic Mosque which was taken over by the Catholics and converted into a Cathedral. It's really interesting because it has both Islamic and Catholic architecture and the whole thing is really beautiful. The next weekend I ended up going to visit Jill again because we had a long weekend I wanted to visit the city and everyone again. This was another nice weekend where we did some quality sightseeing, visited some museums and bought some souvenirs. Another day we played some basketball and I sprained my ankle, but don't worry, I was fouled on the play and still made the shot so it was totally worth it. We also went out one night and for the first time I actually watched a girl break a bottle over a guys head, it was wild. I don't think anyone is quite sure why it happened but I was just sitting eating some pizza in the Plaza and looked over just in time to see it happen, crazy.

Other than that, not much else has happened here. I finished my first book in Spanish, The Alchemist or El Alquimista, which is pretty exciting. However I am still a far ways away from being good at Spanish. Also, it snowed today in Linares. This is pretty big news because I guess this is only the second time in like 16 years that it has snowed here. Of course it only lasted for about a half hour and it is already melted.

Teaching in general is a lot of fun. It's not hard and I enjoy it because all the kids have a lot of personality. One particular story involves a boy named Alvaro. He is about 11 years old and hilarious. One day, the teacher called on a kid sitting near Alvaro, this particular student didn't know the answer, but Alvaro certainly did. While the other kid was thinking Alvaro had his hand as high as he could raise it and he kept oohing and ahhing hoping the teacher would call on him which he didn't. Finally Alvaro had had enough and he just starts talking, he also had his arm outstretched like he was singing or something and it was so funny. Then he got so excited that he just stood up and kept reciting the answer until the other students asked him what he was doing and told him to sit down. I couldn't help myself and I just started to laugh.

So once again I would like to apologize for the tardiness of the blog and hope next time I will write sooner. Until then remember, you can't shake the dog of the hand that bit you.

Hangovers, car seats, and alzheimers

Todays topic is hangovers and some unpleasant places that I have ended up during a bad hungover while living in foreign countries. I first thought about writing this particular blog the other week when I was in such a state. We had gone out until about five in the morning and the next day an obvious hangover followed. That day we were planning on going to a fair in the next city that promised to be a good time but required a bus to get there. My landlady Maria Isabell offered us a free ride, but to get it we would have to go to her Aunt and Uncle´s 50 year anniversary for the day and get a ride from her cousin who lived in the city which is called Jaen. The free ride in a car was tempting but it was not departing till about ten at night and the party started at about 2 that afternoon. I had also woken up at about 1 and it was an easy decision to say no and just take the bus later. On top of that, I knew not to get involved in such a situation because it was not long ago that I found myself in a similar pickle while studying in Ecuador.

It was Super Bowl time and I managed to find a bar that was playing the game, in Spanish, but the game was on none the less. I had a few coctails during the broadcast and the next day I had a pretty solid headache. Shortly after I woke up, my host mom told me that everyone was going to the mall and that I should join. I had nothing better to do and figured that it couldn´t be that bad so I tagged along. Wrong decision. The next thing I know, I´m hungover as hell, in Baby Mundo picking out car seats with my host sister. It was the last place in the world that I wanted to be and I thought that that was easily the worst place you could possibly spend a hangover. I was wrong, very wrong. Last night I experienced something that was easily the worst, most awkward, and uncomfortable situation that I would ever want to be in while hungover.

It started on Saturday night at a birthday party for one of the other teachers. I actually had planned to go golfing the following day with one of my neighbors but that did not stop me from having a good time, and I finally tuning in around 4. Golf, which was really just a few hours at the driving range was pretty fun and when it was done I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the couch until my landlady slid a paper under my door. It was the itinerary for an ¨excursion¨. I knew there was no chance of me going on any excursions with her that day but it was dated for the following day. I skimmed it over and all I really noticed was that it started around 7, something about olive cultivation, free dinner, and a return around 10. There was some other stuff but I would figure that out the next day.

7 o´clock roles around and I get a knock on my door. It´s Marie Isabel wondering why I´m not dressed and explaining that the excursion was today, appartently the date on the paper was wrong. Althought I knew better than to get involved in this type of trip, I figured i would tough it out for three hours since I find olive farming moderately interesting. Wrong again.

We left a little after seven with her mother in the front seat. Then we went and picked up her Aunt and Uncle, this is where the horror story begins. To get to these olive trees we took a very rough road and Maria Isabell is not very smooth with a clutch so it was a bumpy ride. On top of that, three of the people in the car were above the age of 80 and either could not or simply chose not to control their farts and DAMN!!! After a very uncomfortable 20 minute ride, we arrived at her olive farm where she spent about 15 minutes explaining to me how they harvested the olives and howe they were planning on planting new ones. I found this fairly interesting but it was clearly not the main event of this trip. After another unpleasant 20 minutes in the car, we reached our destination, a freakin nursing home. This crazy lady had dragged me along to go visit some old relative who had alzheimers. Not cool at all. It´s great and all that she went to go see him but it is just not fair to bring an unsuspecting foreigner to this kind of family event. I got to spend about 45 minutes waiting for them while they visited with their old Uncle. When it was time to go, we walked the old dude down to the cafeteria where I was about ready to just leave and walk home. If I had to watch a bunch of old people who had no relation to me, spit food on themselves I was gonna hurl. Instead, Maria Isabell handed the guy over to the nurse and when he wasn´t looking she turned to me, said ¨let´s go,¨ and then hustled down the hall, explaining that he´ll get upset if he sees us leaving. I still haven´t decided if this is funny or just messed up.

After that was finally over, we left grandma and her siblings at one of their houses and went to get some food. The food was good and things seemed to be turning up except for the fact that one of her cousins owned the joint so I got to meet about everyone in the place. This was fine except for some reason she also found it necessary for me to exchange information with about 3 people that I knew I would never see again. The evening ended at about 11:30, and hour and a half later than it was supposed to.

In closing, I would like to say that if you are ever in a foreign country try to learn the language well. It really helps. Also if you are ever invited anywhere by a middle aged woman, ask her to repeat herself and make sure she talks very slowly and very clearly because you never know where you could end up.

Also, as a favor to me and to everyone else, please, never ever ever, bring someone who is not closely related or friends of the family to a nursing home when visiting someone. If they don´t know the person you are visiting they simply don´t belong and it´s gonna make them feel very uncomfortable. Thank you.

Ruining Childrens Lives

So the other day was my first day being in the classroom and what an interesting day it was. I didn't actually do any teaching because it was really just meant for me to meet the students and get to know them. It basically involved me telling all the kids what my favorite food and color was. The whole situation is really weird because these teachers are supposed to be teaching the classes in English but only one or two of them seem to know how to actually speak well. One class I'm in is an art class which is a real trip because I don't know anything about art. Also, the teacher knows basically no English and he really doesn't give a crap so the other he taught the class in Spanish and then threw on some video that taught kids how to draw a face but in English.



The craziest thing that happened to me the other day was that I was sitting on one of the computers at school procrastinating when one of the teachers came up to me. He threw three pieces of paper in front of me and the yammered off some really fast Spanish, then walked away. From what I understood he told me to translate the questions on the page and that they were for a test. The funny thing about the whole situation is that I'm not sure who the guy was or if I had even actually met him before. From the papers I understand that he teaches history but I don't think I'm even going to be working with the man. He just said some crap and before I could even translate it in my head and think of a response he was gone and I was left with three tests that I need to translate? I did the best I could to translate the papers but I realize that he is probably going to take my word for the truth. So essentially I am responsible for how these children learn about Prehistoric Art in English so jokes on them haha.

MULLETS BABY!!!

So today I would like touch on some of the cultural differences between the United States and Spain that I have noticed thus far. First and foremost, the mullet. Yes, people in Spain actually rock the mullet. I don't know if people in the U.S. every actually found the mullet attractive, but there was certainly a time when it was fashionably accepted (Uncle Jesse from full house even had trouble making this look good). I haven't researched the history of the mullet in Spain but I would say that it is currently accepted as a common hair style, and no they have not discovered a way to make it look good. I have yet to capture this cultural phenomenon on camera but I assure you that I will do everything in my power to do so.

I also went to my school for the first time today. The school in itself was similar to one in the U.S. It had about 800 kids and all the teachers seemed nice. The bilingual director Miguel showed me around and he was a cool dude. I also found that there is really no dress code for teachers. One of the teachers was actually wearing a Rolling Stones T-Shirt, party on Garth. However, most male teachers wear a regular button down shirt with slacks, which brings me to my next point, chest hair. I have always know that men of Spanish descent love to show off their beautiful chest hair but I thought this was on a more casual basis like at the bar or club. Apparently teachers like to display their flowing locks in school too. One man, who was actually like the dean of students or something important like that, didn't just stop at the chest hair. He also had the bottom of his shirt untucked a little and one of the buttons was undone displaying a beautiful beer belly lol. This was obviously an accident but I couldn't believe it when I saw it and I almost puked a little in my mouth.

In closing, today I discovered that what I thought was a handicapped waterfountain in my bathroom is in fact a bidet, or what our friends in Appalachia might call a butt washer. Enjoy your lunch everybody.