I had my computer stolen last week, and I’m pretty down about it.
It was partly my fault. I was eating, and put my bag which, among other things, contained my computer beside me, instead of between my legs. I was concentrating on my phone, and when I looked up it was gone.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been robbed.
I had my climbing shoes and helmet stolen earlier this year. While living in Australia I was mugged by some youths over 6 beers. They destroyed my backpack in the process.
Disclaimer: If you find yourself someplace far from where you’re supposed to be, sick and broke don’t blame me.
Don’t drink the water or eat street food.
If the locals eat it or drink, I’ll give it a shot.
Riding Dual Snowboards
The industries I work in often push the envelope in terms of development of products, and occasionally something is invented in the name of progression that is so bizarre that it really makes people stop and look, and often laugh.
Sometimes these inventions get cult followings, which in turn grow into their own industries, which is how snowboarding became popular.
I had my worst commute ever last night/this morning.
Normally I try to avoid long commutes. I much prefer to live near where I work. There are numerous reasons for this. If you can walk to work you can save money, stay healthy, and save the environment. Often I am blessed with working in some stunning locations, such as remote British Colombia, or rural Patagonia. So why wouldn’t I want to live in beautiful scenery?
Mate (pronounced with an accent on the e, similar to café), for many South Americans, is like a cup of tea for the English. Drunk daily by many, it’s seen as a relaxing social ritual.
Drinking mate involves filling up a cup (called a mate or guampa), with yerba mate, a dried and crushed up plant found in South America, pouring hot water over it, and then sucking the now infused hot water out through a special filtered straw (a bombilla).
Not to everyones taste, it can be a little bitter for some. Here’s my favourite ways of drinking mate.
When I was 17 my parents shipped me off to Paraguay with AFS, an exchange program, to live with a Paraguayan family, to go to a Paraguayan school, and to generally soak up the culture.
Despite having some initial doubts when leaving, I came home sick with the travel bug. Not to be mistaken with the travellers bug which finds you bent over toilets in third world countries, the travel bug is a lot harder to define, and a lot harder to cure.
It seems to me that protests are a regular occurrence in Santiago. In the 2 months I’ve been here, I’ve personally seen four, and I don’t get out much.
I witnessed my first protest walking home early evening. I first heard the chanting, and then I heard the engines. I didn’t even get a chance to figure out what the mob was protesting before a large green fire truck disguised as a tank careened around the corner and blasted this lot with high-pressure water blasters.
Last weekend was the Defile de Antorches in El Colorado, the mountain I’m currently teaching snowboarding at.
Riding with Fire
El Colorado isn’t in Colorado, it’s in Chile. More specifically it’s 34 kilometres, up a steep windy road with 40 switchbacks, from Santiago. I only work there on the weekends, and I usually take the bus up and down each day.
This weekend they had the Torch Parade, and as an instructor, if you were available, it was expected you would participate. So I asked around and found some floor space for Saturday night so I could join in the fun, though to be honest I was more interested in the free cocktail after the parade than the parade itself.
My parents cc me in an email written to their new lawyer not long ago. In it they were talking about the family, and where we all are. At the time my parents were in China, one sister was in Nelson NZ with her family, my other sister was in London, England, with her family, and my brother was also in London, England. I was described as “in South America (not really certain where)”.
So Mum and Dad, and any one else who cares to know, I’m in Santiago, Chile.
I teach English during the week, which is a first for me, and considering my spelling hasn’t improved since intermediate school, pretty surprising. I also teach snowboarding during the weekend in El Colorado. It’s the name of a mountain here, I don’t commute to the States every weekend.
I’m here for the winter, and right now I’m not sure where I’m going for the summer. So best not to ask.
Work'n'travels 