Rio - Final edition of Brasil!

We are backtracking a bit now, but we can't go past mentioning the amazing time we had in Rio! After arriving at our awesome accomodation at Pousada Favela Cantagalo (in a safe zone of favela right between Ipanema and Copacobana), we nailed some great burgers at a local cafe and waited for the arrival of my parents!

They traveled around 20 hours from Aus, via Chile to meet us in Rio and boy was I happy to see them!
Together we spent the next 5 days exploring Rio, relaxing on the beach and generally sucking up Brazilian culture.

Beaches - because it was "winter" the beaches were relatively chilled and not as crowded as the crazy summer postcard shots that I was expecting (in reality it was still packed), so we spent each morning hanging, people watching, swimming and relaxing on the beach. Ipanema seemed to be a little nicer and vibier, so we tended to chill there.

Football - We booked a tour to go and see Vasco Da Gama vs Botafogo, which was wicked! The company was called 'Viator' and we would recommend it highly. We rarely do tours, but felt it would be safer to do so in Brasil. They picked us up (along with about 20 other tourists) and took us to the stadium, whilst giving plenty of stats and info about the game and the players etc. The game was actually pretty bland, apart from the appearance of Dutch legend Clarence Seedorf, who dominted the game with European style passing and flair. Most of the Brasilian players just booted the ball up the field, sprinted like maniacs and then fell over all the time. So, we decided to liven things up a little by imagining what it would be like to sit in a pulsating crazy Brasilian football game (note the "excited" faces in the background!)

The Big Jesus - After getting some advice from some young backpackers, we fanged it up to 'The Big Jesus' (as we liked to call it) at 10am in the morning to beat a LOT of the crowds! It was a great tip.
Instead of waiting for a train, we took a dodgy taxi up to the top and got short lines and great views. Mum was particularly stoked as this was a 'bucket list' item for her.
After our minds had been well and truly blown by the stunning views and a couple of hugs, it was time to head back to the beach!

Sugarloaf Mountain - Again, a cheeky backpacker conversation helped us to time our run up to the top of Sugarloaf perfectly. We were told to aim for sunset (5:15pm in Winter) for the most breathtaking views and not only did we get the time spot on, but also we chose the perfect day. I think for all four of us...it was one of the most spectacular sunsets we had ever seen! We were mesmerised and stayed up there snapping photos for a good hour or two. Wow!

Overall, Rio was an amazing end to our Brasilian adventure. It was safer, cleaner and more modern than we all expected and we could really see the booming economy seeping through all aspects of life in Rio. It is a place we think we could easily live! After all, who wouldn't want summer all year round :) The people were friendly, the transport was smooth and the vibe was great!

A cool city that all should check out when in South America. For us, it is just a short flight north...and that is one thing we love about Life in Argentina. :)

Chau,
Chris

May, Machu Picchu and Musicals

It's hard to begin writing this blog because we have to go back along way to where the M's began:

Machu Picchu - At the beginning of May we had a week off school and set off for Cusco City in Peru, to take on the Inca Trail on our way to the restored ruins of Machu Picchu. It was an incredible experience and an adventure jammed with culture, history, food, fun and serious trekking. We arrived in Cusco for a couple of days of acclimatization and we did some exploring of the this beautiful city as well as a trip on the local bus to the ancient city of Pisac. Tip: Getting to Pisac early on a local bus meant we beat the tourists and enjoyed a lot of the stalls without much hassle!

We loved hanging out in Cusco! Staying at Hospedaje Recoleta meant a 10 minute walk through local back streets to the amazing town square. Hanging out at Greens Restaurant helped the acclimatizing process and trips to the Choco Museo were fun and filling!

We did our trek with the company simply named Peru Treks and we couldn't recommend them highly enough. The speed, service, food, price and vibe were perfect! We did the 4 day trek and the scenery was nothing more than mind blowing! Beginning at 2800m and climbing up as high as 4200m, we passed through rich farmland, unique rainforest and highland scrub whilst stopping off at numerous ancient remains of Incan civilisation. The weather was awesome and we generally had perfect moderate temperature with only light rainfall at night. We have to make special mention of how amazing the food was...with a group of 16 really chilled and friendly people, we had two guides and 18 porters and a cook to carry tents and food supplies. Obviously, being a trek of such length and difficulty, we didn't expect much in the food department, but what we ate each breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner was incredible. Full 4 course meals were prepared for us in a special food tent and we were stuffed after every meal and ready for the long walks each day.
Waking up at 3:30am on the final day to race to the 'Sungate' (awesome first view of Machu Picchu at sunrise) left us with one last breathtaking walk before finally completing our pilgrimage to this ancient wonder of the world! After a morning guided tour, we headed to the small neighbouring town of Aguas Calientes for lunch, hot spring baths and the final train ride home to Cusco. We feel like we could describe so much more about this trip as it was truly a magical adventure that fulfilled much more than our expectations! (p.s. If you want any more info about our trek, please feel free to ask!)


When we were at uni, we always talked about the 'Mad Month Of May'! Here back in BA, we had a mad month of May...and June! Mika directed the college school musical and it went off! The kids were amazing and the production team worked hard to help the kids put on an awesome show...Chris co-directed the prep school musical and in between there were two other major school productions to organise and produce for us both! It was massive, with lots of extra hours at work, but lots of exciting and fulfilling outcomes.

Final bows of the Secondary School Music Production- Directed by Mik

The first half of the year ended like a bomb. We were so tired but felt really full in the work we had accomplished.
We rewarded all that hard work and long hours with a 3 week trip to Brazil! It was awesome and we will write about that soon!

If any teachers are reading this blog- It is absolutely worth your while to try out for an International teaching position at least once in your life. The experience is invaluable to your professionalism and the travel- oh the travel!!!
It is also amazing to see families who move over to these international schools- it is not just young people who have freedom with no family ties- Whole families make their way to a new country to work full time and experience. It's awesome!

Both of us can't believe the opportunities we are getting- not just in work and travel- but in the simple things like living together. The way we make our space into a home or hanging out or saving money.. life stuff is great together!! So in love and so free to be ourselves! So blessed!

Over and out with big hugs,
Miki & Chris
xo

I think I may have turned into an Argentine!

A blog update will soon arrive regarding our trip to Peru! In a nutshell, it was amazing...photos and a recap to follow.
At present, we are very busy working on big upcoming school productions, including two musicals and a general concert showcasing the vocal talents of the kids from throughout the school. A big month ahead...but at the end of it will be our next trip to Brazil! Can't wait.

Today, I think I officially morphed into an Argentine on the football field. That's right, I let the passion of the game take over me! No more cool headed midfield passing for me...I threw my shirt and shouted curses in Spanish like the best of them! Some hardcore cheating from the opposition exacerbated by some poor decisions by our dubious 82 year old referee meant that our game descended into nothing more than a loud slinging match from both sides for about 15 minutes. I'm putting it down to the aforementioned busy-ness with work and also my uni work on top. But, nonetheless, I won the 'Pajero award' (the weekly prize for the biggest idiot of the game) and after I had to calm down and smile and admit my silly outburst.  Over a few drinks with the opposition, I think I regained a slight level of respect by accepting my award and the ensuing photo with the historic Pajero plaque.

After a nice lunch of Zaatar bread with guacamole and tuna, life returned to normal...maybe? We'll have to wait until next Sunday to find out. :)

Life in Argentina is great. Argentina is now life for us. We are happy, traveling hard and enjoying the challenges!

Chau,

Chris

Seriously...futbol in Argentina!

At the beginning of our time in Argentina I (Chris) promised to report on two things:

1) Music
2) Soccer

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned the music much...and there is a reason for this. Don't get me wrong, the music in Arg is great. So many opportunities to see international artists on the cheap in big stadiums, great jazz and a vibing rock scene. We have been to a few gigs here or there, but we just haven't been that pumped to dig right into it...yet. This has been due to the fact that we are busy doing so many music things at the school, but also because there is a major obstacle in the way for me! And, it starts with F.............Futbol.

It's not only the culturally ingrained madness that comes with the sport that surrounds us (such as 'las inchas' (crazy fans) that pack the streets and let off firecrackers right next to our apartment block every weekend), but also the fact that for the first time in my life I am living only a few hours West of Europe. This means that yesterday, for example, (if I wanted too *clears throat*) I could have woken up and watched live European football from 8am to 6pm, uninterrupted. Ok, that's exactly what I did. I have never had that opportunity before and it was fun! Mika and I needed a day of nothing-ness yesterday, so we blobbed in front of the TV, planned some travel, enjoyed being nerds and had the football on in the background.

Also, I am loving playing football again! Since giving it away a few years ago to focus on music stuff, I have been playing every weekend and often during the week also and am loving it. Our weekend team is playing great and we have won our last 6 games convincingly. I've chucked in a couple of photos 'de la cancha para Uds. ver'. You will also notice some evidence of the TV watching antics in Mikaela's blog below.

Also, my brother Pete sent me a link of a news program in Australia that profiled the football hooliganism in Quilmes, Argentina. In my opinion it is quite inaccurate in a number of ways, but it was kind of bizarre to see an Australian show talking about Quilmes! Click here if you wanna watch: Football hooliganism in Quilmes
P.S. I am loving learning Spanish at the moment...practicing lots at the expense uni study. I've got to finish two essays by mid-Nov for my masters. Nearly one year done which is cool!

Chau,

Chris

Mis padres y otras cosas (My parents and other things)

Well, I just thought I would tag a little footnote to Mikaela's recent posts. It is a Sunday night and I have had a day that I will describe with the following equation:

football mania + reports + uni work + incredible meat pie = good.

As Mikaela wrote, we had such a great time with my parents here. We ate a bucket load of good food, explored B.A. and its' many offerings and had a damn good time hanging out. The Milo that came with them has been getting a work out. Literally, every day I have been watching the little brown capsules of Milo goodness float to the top of my glass of milk. This simple pleasure has been welcomed indeed. We are at the 7 month point and things are getting a little more normal now. Walking down a footpath and watching for major cracks and major craps (dog craps that is), eating steaks that are as tender as the definition of tender itself, speaking and hearing Spanish, live football on from 10am to 10pm on television on Sundays, passionate people, crazy ambulances with 6 different sirens all played at once, horse drawn carts clopping down the street in front of our apartment block and late nights are just some of these normalities. And, I love it.

We have a trip planned for Salta in a couple of weeks. It's a cool place up in the North of the country next to the Andes, that has incredible rock formations, salt plains and indigenous desert communities. Looking forward to this one a lot.

In essence, I just thought I'd throw some words on this page to let you know that I'm still alive and kicking and that Mikaela is doing an awesome job keeping the updates flowing!

Ciao,
Chris

Part 3 - A story of true Argentine football passion: Palermo's retirement.

Well, on Sunday night, Martin Palermo, scorer of 238 goals for Boca Juniors, finally retired after a highly celebrated career. He retired in front of his fans at La Bombanera and I stayed up to watch the celebrations on TV.

He had a good game, should have scored once or twice, but Boca eventually finished with a pleasing 1-1 draw with rivals Banfield. Palermo wore his number 9 jersey, complete with Gold lettering of his name and number on his back and his team mates did everything they could to lay on one final goal for him, but it just didn't happen.

At the end of the game, the scenes were incredible. There were videos on the big screen with tributes from his family, ex-coaches and friends, he received a hand made 'Super-Palermo' cape from his local charity, he gave speeches, he cried, the crowd cried and chanted so loud and after all of that two fork-lifts removed one of the goals and they were presented to him with a gold plaque with 'Martin Palermo - No.9' etched into the crossbar. Maradona was there too and he was loving it.

Today at school, I bumped into Hernan (my friend who runs the sound at La Bombanera) and I asked him how the game was on Sunday night between Boca and Banfield. He just beamed and (totally speechless) he removed a plastic wrapped item from his bag. Sure enough...it was the microphone that Palermo held the whole time during the celebrations. Hernan swore he would never use it again for anyone and was so proud of it! It was absolutely awesome. I held Palermo's (plastic wrapped) microphone proudly and gave Hernan a big Argentinean hug/kiss and the experience was complete.

Here is a clip to help explain things a little more (the harmonica solo is the Argentinean national anthem...great vibe on the harp):

Chris :)

email to the bro's, dad and mum

This is an email that I sent today to my three brothers: Tim, Pete and Eric, and my Mum and Dad. I think the email says all the needs to be said about yesterdays' experience:


Well boys (and Mum), I just thought I'd report on my experience at La
Bombanera last night, before facebooking it etc.

Oh MY FRIGGEN GOODNESS it was insane! Boca vs. Independiente, 50,000
in the stadium (packed) and I sat on the FIELD behind the goal next to
the photographers pretending to be keeping an eye on the speakers set
up for the crowd behind the goals! I went with a new friend of mine and he is a really awesome guy who speaks about as much English as I speak Spanish. But we've really
clicked and he's an absolute legend. He runs the sound set-up at La
Bombanera (and the Quilmes, Estudiantes and All Boys stadiums as well)
and invited me to come with his sound crew to see the game in a
special way. It was such an honour to be invited. I had to lay low and
pretend that I was a new member of the crew learning the ropes of the
sound system. We got there at 3pm for a 8pm kick off and hung out
drinking Mate (pronounced Ma-tay) and learning 'malo palabras' (dirty
language) with his crew. It was so cool to walk on the immaculate
grass of La Bombanera when it was totally empty.

5 hours later and I was right in the middle of it all...it was nuts.
The Boca fans were psycho, yelling so much abuse and hanging off the
rafters and singing so loud with a full band accompaniment "Dale,
dale, dale BOOOOCCCAA" (Dale is pronounced da-ly).

When Martin Palermo (veteran Boca player...has scored 232 goals for
them, and also starred for Villareal in early 2000's) scored his crazy
goal....see tvgolo.com clip:
http://www.tvgolo.com/football.php?subaction=showfull&id=1304395614&archive=&start_from=&ucat=51&
the crowd went nuts and was one of the loudest things I've heard.

Another cool thing was that the Independiente fans are given this
small section up high behind the goals and they brought in those red
bang-together balloon thingys. However, a lot of them just peed in the
balloons and use them like wee bombs which they threw onto the Boca
supporters below. It was crazy to watch.

Anyway, I didn't bring a camera, however, one of the crew took some
pictures of me and a video, which I will post online. The video is of
me in the stadium looking around while my amigo played St Leonards
'Opened Up My Eyes' during the half time interval and at the end of
the game. The song was absolutely cranking around La Bombanera and it sounded killer!

So, that is a quick description of the experience. I got to bed at
2:30am and had to wake up at 6:30am, so I'm a bit of a zombie at
school right now, but it was totally worth it.
Sorry to rabbit on about it all, but I'm just so excited to tell you
guys!

Love,
Chrissy


Since the email, some photos came through:
Here is one of me at the end of the game, hanging out on La Bombanera campo.

the two benchmarks: the lift guy and football manager

Well, it's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd add some info about the last couple of weeks from my perspective...

All is going great here in Arg. We have been exploring the city plenty and really enjoying the adventures!

As Mik posted last week, a real highlight for me was going to see Quilmes play River Plate. Watching a live game of football here is on a totally different level! The crowds are nuts. A particular image that's stuck in my mind is when River scored their goal I looked over at the 'inchas' (die-hard fans) behind the goal and they literally streamed forward from halfway up the terraced stands and smashed into the fence at the front! It looked like a river of people falling down one part of the stadium! It was bizarre. That section of fans scrambled back up and after about a minute they all seemed to be on their feet and singing and clapping like maniacs again. I seriously thought there would have been injuries...but it appears that it is all in a hard days work being an incha for River!

The music department at St George's is cranking along nicely...Mik is working like crazy, but some great results and fulfilling things happening already. We have to keep reminding ourselves that it's only been two months! So much still to do, but plenty of time to do it. It's great to have goals and vision for this place. I'm really enjoying working with the kids and getting them playing in bands etc. Great fun and kind of like the old days when I was music director at TUC. Loving it!
We are really content living here and excited for Mik and my parents to visit! (Vicki and Jim come in 3 weeks!) We are going to Iguazu falls with them in May, so that will be rad.


On the weekend we went to La Boca, which was a real cool (but quite touristy) area, which is home to Argentina's most historical football club: Boca Juniors.
We went on Sunday and it just so happened that they were playing a home game against Tigre. The place was buzzing and we walked some back streets to try and get close to La Bombanera, but there was quite an unsafe vibe. People we bustling and looking suss and heaps of police and just all round a bit unsettling. We tried to look for tickets, but it just wasn't happening so we scrapped the idea and headed for touristy Caminito!

Caminito is where the dock workers used to take the paint that they would use for their boats and splash it on their houses too. It resulted in a colourful, vibrant bunch of streets, which are now a touristy hotspot with heaps of shops, a million Argentina 'Messi' shirts and even more Boca 'Roman' (Juan Roman Riquelme) shirts. Some fun tango shows and restaurants and a real wack modern art gallery featuring some confronting works based around the human anatomy...you get my drift? Caminito was a cool place...probably not a place to go and hang on the weekend (unlike Palermo for e.g.), but was definitely worth a visit!


We tried to catch the bus home 3 times from Caminito too! But our in-decision proved to be almost lethal because as while Mik was checking whether one of the buses was in fact the right bus, the driver decided it was time to take off, leaving Mik hanging out the bus door for a couple of seconds, staring wide-eyed back at me in shock!! I freaked and starting calculating how I was going to steal the ext passing car, hi-jack the bus like Keanu Reeves and save everyone! Fortunately, the bus stopped and let her off, but it was all too late, the bus was gone. Man, these buses are in a hurry I tell ya! As soon as the driver sees both your feet in the door-well, he's off! 2 missed buses later and we counted our losses and headed for San Telmo with the rest of the departing Boca fans, to enjoy night markets and pizza. Then a remis (taxi) ride home with an awesome driver called Marcelo and the night was done. We were knackered and happy to be home in our rad apartment.

Now, learning Spanish is really starting to come along. We are learning quickly and getting by understanding quite a bit of what people are saying to us! It is a little harder conversing back to them, however, but bit by bit we are starting to become slightly coherent. We are all over it in the restaurant/food ordering department and we even helped a 'tourist' (yes, you may have noticed I'm trying to differentiate myself from being a tourist...it is amazing how quickly you feel like a place is 'home' - however, the lack of language definitely makes us feel touristy none-the-less) yesterday to order food!

I have developed two benchmarks for my Spanish learning:
1) I have changed the language setting on Football Manager 2011 to Spanish. I tried playing it when we first arrived but pretty much got sacked straight away because I couldn't understanding a thing! Once I can manage a team to world domination in Spanish, I will be able to say that I have succeeded in my language acquisition!

2) Today in the lift I got in on the same lift with a guy a little older than me. His little boy was saying goodbye to him in a really funny way..."Daddy, ciao, ciao, ciao, ciao, ciao etc. He didn't stop until the door of the lift was shut and we had descended about 6 floors. It was super funny and the guy was making a gag of it with me, but I just stood there frozen, kind of half laughing and half looking confused! Man, I wish I could have told him how funny it was and that his kid was real cute etc. but I just froze. I know some words to make the appropriate sentences, but I wanted to be cool with this guy...you know like blokey and stuff. He probably just thought I was a grumpy, mute wierdo who was having a bad night. When I can talk to the cool guy in the lift, I will also know that I've learned Spanish.

So here's to those two benchmarks!

We have a week off for Easter now. Going to muck around and explore locally some more. I met the sound guy for La Bombanera stadium and he invited me to join him in the booth for their next home game! Will keep you posted.
Hope all is well for everyone.

Lots of Love,

Chris K

music, maths, life in Quilmes and uni

It is 8:47am here on Saturday morning and I'm loving it. Slept in after a late night and just chilling on the couch doing some video editing and football result checking. Quilmes is cool, Argentina is cool.

We have just finished our first full week at St George's. Miss Mika (as she is now known by all the students) has been working hard, still making transformations, little by little, to the Music Dept. On top of teaching, she has been at auditions for an upcoming musical and choir rehearsals in the evening and working with other staff to update furniture and have cleaning done...to be honest, she's killing it.
A number of the teachers and executive staff have commented on the fact that there is a noticeable change in the vibe of the music department already. Not only does the music building look inviting and clean and modern, but the kids are excited to be there and a whole bunch of year 9 students have changed their elective preferences to music! Proud of Miss Mika I am.

I'm teaching Maths and actually really enjoying it! For those who don't know, I taught one class of Maths last year on top of my almost full time Music position at Narara. So, I whacked the fact that I'd taught Maths on my resume when St George's asked me for my CV after Mik got the job. Well, they jumped at the little bit of fine print that said something like: "Yeah, I can kinda teach a little bit of maths?"

So, Mr. Chris, Mr. Koelma or Sir (they call me all three!) has three Maths classes: Year 7 has fifteen little angels that hang of my every word about how cool 'rounding numbers' can be. Year 8 has nine students, 8 girls and one boy...they take a little extra time to complete some things, but they are so fun and I love teaching them. Year 9 has eleven funky boys, who love football and chatting...however, as soon as I put my 'man voice' on, they are quiet and ready to tackle the multiplication of indices questions that I throw at them. It's awesome, fun and so different to teaching at Narara, where I had 30 kids who didn't want to learn anything and they were all chucked in to one maths class.

I'm also teaching I.T., a couple of classes of music and assisting Mik with elective classes. I have also started a band program for the 'boarders' of the school and will pick up a bunch of instrumental tuition soon.
I have always liked school teaching in the past, but have never been overly pumped about it i.e. I love one-on-one tutoring more etc...however, working at this school (so far) is excellent and really quite inspiring.

One really exciting and privileged part of this week was performing for the whole school at the opening assembly. This was it:

Quilmes has recently just got a lot bigger for Mik and I. We bought two 'Olmo' cruiser bikes and we are dominating the streets on them. Heaps of people ride bikes here...and although the drivers can be a bit crazy, we just stick to the back streets and go for it. Fun stuff.

I have also started my Master of Educational Studies (Creative Arts Specialisation) via online learning at Newcastle Uni. I have been thinking about doing this for a while and I sent my application away on the day before we left Aus and got accepted. I'm doing two subjects this semester: Creative Arts Pedagogies and Comparative International Education Systems. Should be cool and will open up some doors for tertiary teaching stuff in the future.

Well, we have our first Argentine national holiday coming up next Tuesday, so we have a four day long weekend (if a public holiday is on a Tuesday the government also gives you the Monday to promote more tourist spending...killer!) We're gonna muck around today, go to see Quilmes play at the stadium on Sunday night and then prob grab a train on Monday up to Tigre, a vibey town on the delta between Uruguay and Arg. We'll stay there the night and cruise back Tues. That's the plan anyway.

Gonna get into the long weekend now and maybe start by buying some fruit from the Bolivian dude across the road...he's a legend.

Keep in the loop and chuck a comment on the bottom if you feel it.

Lot of love from S America.

Chris.

futbol in Argentina

Hola amigos,

Well, it's been about 5 days here in BA and it has been full on to say the least! We have learnt so much about this place, the language and its' vibe, that it already feels like we've been here for weeks. But, as promised my entry today will focus on the futbol in Argentina.

I have just got back via taxi from Palermo, a suburb in the North of BA capital, where I played in an indoor football torneo (tournament) with a bunch of ex-pats and Argentines. I have been researching to find out about the local leagues etc. over the last couple of days and I found the BAFA group (Buenos Aires Futbol Amigos). They are a cool bunch of guys and it just so happens that there was a spare spot in a team for the tournament! I was stoked and started to make plans to see how the hell I was going to get to Palermo.

Mik and I decided to make a day of it and tied in a trip to San Telmo markets as well as some exploration of the city centre, which is absolutely massive. This was real cool. Lots of art, music on the streets and handicrafts + heaps of dodgy Argentina national team shirts with 'Messi' printed on the back. Today was hot (about 35C). Whilst the markets were great, next to nothing was open elsewhere in the city as it was a Sunday. It was like a ghost city. Not many cars, shops locked up and just these massive Victorian-style buildings everywhere. We caught the local train and then the 'subte' (metro underground) to get into the city, so it was probably a good day to get a feel for the public transport system without getting nailed by a million pedestrians and cars.

With our entry into the 'ciudad' (google-translate-it, I dare ya) smoothly completed and the market street walked and viewed, it was time to head to Palermo. After a rather un-eventful lunch at a somewhat snooty little cafe, we headed to the subte and shot off for our station, which was named none-other than 'Aguero' station. Which brings me nicely back to the football:

The level at the torneo was good, but actually not as high as I expected to be honest - probably cause a bunch of the ex-pats were over-the-top Americanos, who were so serious about every pass they played I could've sworn we were playing professionally at times. But there were a few guns in some of the teams and they were cool to watch! My toe was giving me some grief, but I had a good few games and banged in a couple of goals whilst wearing my Aussie 'Cahill' number 4 shirt to represent. I met some nice chicos (guys) and sweated most of my body weight in the heat. I also met an American ex-pat (one of the guns) who plays in a local league and he's going to put me in touch with some guys...so we'll see how that goes! Not sure how I'll go with the 1 hour journey to Palermo on a Wednesday night to play with the guys again, but it's a nice start to my footballing experience in Argentina!

Mik left to make her way home by herself before I started the tournament (her journey back to Quilmes is another story in itself!). After the tournament, I caught a taxi back to Quilmes (about a 40 min drive without traffic - and being a Sunday, there wasn't any traffic). It was killer! The entire taxi ride, the driver and I talked. Well, let's say that he talked and I 'worded'. He was asking me all sorts of questions and I was doing my best to answer in probably the most broken Spanish he's ever heard. But it's amazing how in the 5 days that we've been here we have been able to pick up so much of the language. Talk about the benefits of cultural immersion for language development all you teachers!!

So, I'm sitting here in Torres 1 (remember?) fairly knackered, having eaten a solid dinner and reflecting on a cool day.

Wow...a car just beeped a song the whole way down the street as it drove passed! Oh...by the way, Quilmes lost their opening game of the season in the Clausura Futbol Championship. The town was eerily quiet last night :(

Tomorrow, Mik and I start at the school. It's been a great few days of settling in and exploring some of our surroundings. There's lots more to see...but we've made a start and we like what we're seeing so far. Next on the list of explorative experiences is la musica (MUSIC!).

Ciao ciao amigos y amigas, buenos noches.

Chris.

the 'two' blog. two things lost. two weeks to go.

In two weeks time we will be in BA! And, I have had a fun old time preparing myself by losing two very important things:

1) On Saturday, I was enjoying making a killer smoked trout and salad toasted sandwich with mayo (very fancy). I was so excited about this sandwich that I opened the fridge door (to return the mayo to its' rightful place) without moving my foot out of the way! It wasn't until about 5 seconds after I closed the fridge again,  that I noticed that my big toe nail was lifted out of the nail bed (a couple of millimetres from where it should have been) and that blood was pouring from it. I'd caught the end of the toe nail on the bottom of the fridge door! Pain.

An uncharacteristically short trip to the hospital and a referral to a podiatrist confirmed that there would be no soccer, beach or exercise for a few weeks + no normal toe nail for about 3 months. Fun stuff. But hey, it means more chill time with Mik, more catching up with friends, more bass practice and more football manager 2011 during the next two weeks while we wait to leave.

2) The second thing lost was my hair. Mik and I decided to cut my long locks in preparation for a more formal/corporate line of employment in BA. My hair was the longest I've ever had it, so it was tough to see it go. Mik and I could have made a wig out of the removed hair! Nice to have it out of the eyes and easy to manage though, but my hippy/rock muso status has dropped about 5 points. Ah well, got to embrace changes!

So, a little bit of an informative/whinge centred first-addition to this blog by yours truly, but this should be very much over-shadowed in the coming weeks by the excitement of our impending adventures during our new 'Life In Argentina'.

I look forward to reflecting on the music, futbol and language in my posts!

Ciao,

Chris