VA-MOS, VA-MOS LE-ONES!!

Let's go, let's go Lions!!

Tonight I attended my first Latin American football (ok, soccer) match. And what an exciting time it was!! This one pitted the Lions of "La U," which stands for "The University of Chile," but doesn't have ties to the university any longer (the original players, back in the 1920s & 1930s, were students, but they have since relinquished their ties to the University), against cross-Santiago rival Colo Colo (sounds like "Coca Cola" to me, too, but it's different!).

I went with two students from my spanish class, as well as my spanish teacher Sebasitan and several of his friends. Sebastian and his friends are very much fans of "La U", so we sat in their corner of the stadium. I guess this is normal in Latin America, but the police presence leading to the stadium was impressive. Lots and lots of officers: some on horses, many others in full riot gear, and bomb squads at just about every intersection leading to the stadium. Guess this match has a history of violence?

The game was played in Estadio Nacional (the National Stadium), which is old but has character. It is the home field of "La U" (Colo Colo has another stadium somewhere else in Santiago). Even though it was the home field of Uni Chile, the stands were about 50/50 between each set of fans. The "cheap" seats, called Galeria, were in the end zones, and thats where we sat. 6000 Chilean pesos, or US$12, got you into the game and into the end zone seats. The more expensive seats in the middle sections actually didnt fill up, but the end zones did --- so it was kinda strange looking at a half-full stadium and everyone sitting on either end.

But actually this arrangement was the best. The Galeria sections were full-on parties, complete with lots of rowdiness, singing, dancing, smoke-bombing, etc ... you name it, we probably had it! And this was before the game started!

Once the game began, it was clear that two story lines were ongoing. The first, and perhaps most interesting, was the continual battle between the many loud and rowdy youths attempting to scale the fence onto the field and the Carabineros (police in Chile). The police were decked in full riot gear and were pelted with tons of debris from within the stands. Mostly, however, they stayed low-key, only advancing towards the stands when one (or more) of the fans jumped down the fence & started toward the field. The second story line was the football match itself --- which was interconnected with the police, as I'll describe below.

The first half was uneventful: 0-0, with mostly passionate - but still sloppy at times - play from both teams. Colo Colo came out possessing well and got the first few good looks on goal, but didn't connect. And La U finished stronger in the final 10 mins of the half, getting one or two really nice shots that just missed. As we were about to sit down at the halftime, a fight broke out on the field (as the two teams were heading to their locker rooms). One of La U's players was red-carded (a disastrous foul meaning he was kicked out and La U had to play 10 players against Colo Colo's 11 in the 2nd half).

Our fans were enraged and began to literally destroy the stadium and throw it onto the field. I am not kidding. Seriously. Concrete chunks, hand-size, along with the wooden bleacher seats. Once the refs left the field (surrounded by 8 riot-gear police using their plastic shields to protect them from the pelting), we quieted down. But the tranquility was short-lived once the second half began.

La U had a couple of good possessions, and even two good shots on goal, but the red card proved prophetic: on a bad pass into the box, Colo Colo intercepted and quickly advanced down the right side of the field, lobbing a goal over the under-manned back line to go ahead 1-0.

Remember the anger at the referees? Well, only a few mins after this goal was scored (they didnt have a game clock posted, but I would guess the goal came in the 55th minute, ~ 10 mins into the 2nd half), our fans began earnestly pelting the police -- and also the field, by Colo Colo's goal keeper -- with pieces of the stadium. The game was delayed twice, and by the 60th minute, the referee had enough and ended it. So Colo Colo won 1-0 in "suspension".

Not surprisingly, as we exited the stadium (full of sadness!), we were herded completely away from the Colo Colo section --- again a full complement of police in riot gear (and even some tear gas lingering from an earlier use) forced us to move perpendicularly from the stadium.

But regardless of the poor sportsmanship from La U's fans, I still had a great time. The emotion was incredible, the fans were loud and chanted & sang for just about the whole time. I especially liked feeling the stadium rock up & down as 20,000 people bounced and jumped to the tune of one of their songs. Once I figure it out, I have a few movies that I took during the match.

So, VAMOS, VAMOS LEONES!

Disturbing my afternoon nap

So there I was, 3:20 in the afternoon, breaking in my couch for its first afternoon nap. I had just dozed off while watching an episode of Seinfeld (on DVD). And it happened. A good shaking, combined with rumbling. My silverware in the kitchen, which hangs from its holder, started rattling and clinking. I was completely caught off guard, but it didn't take long to realize I was experiencing my first earthquake!

The US Geological Service (USGS) put the initial rating at 5.8 on the Richter Scale, and they located the epicenter near Valparaiso, a coastal city about 75 miles NW of Santiago (where I live). The shaking here lasted for about 15 seconds (give or take, considering I was asleep when it started and took probably five seconds to realize what was happening). We've had probably 5 other noticeable aftershocks, none lasting more than a few seconds, but definitely noticeable.

I don't know how to tell if Valparaiso (or the nearby city of Vina del Mar) had damage ... hopefully a 5.8 earthquake is too weak to cause damage. I don't know the decay rate of earthquake waves as they travel through rock, but I seriously doubt if in Santiago we had even 5.0 shaking... but again, this was my first quake.

Anyway, I'm okay, and tonight am off to celebrate with some friends from spanish class (assuming the Metros are running still). Tomorrow I'm going with my spanish professor to the local football match: La U vs Colo Colo. I have no idea what to expect... both teams are local to Santiago, and the stadium could be filled with crazy Santiagians loudly cheering on their team. Regardless, it should be quite an experience (just like this earthquake!)

** Update **
I found this description of the pre-Richter earthquake scale. I would put what I felt somewhere around IV. Again, ratings on this scale do not correspond to Richter.

The following is an abbreviated description of the 12 levels of Modified Mercalli intensity.

I. Not felt except by a very few under especially favorable conditions.

II. Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings.

III. Felt quite noticeably by persons indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings. Many people do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibrations similar to the passing of a truck. Duration estimated.

IV. Felt indoors by many, outdoors by few during the day. At night, some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably.

V. Felt by nearly everyone; many awakened. Some dishes, windows broken. Unstable objects overturned. Pendulum clocks may stop.

VI. Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight.

VII. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken.

VIII. Damage slight in specially designed structures; considerable damage in ordinary substantial buildings with partial collapse. Damage great in poorly built structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned.

IX. Damage considerable in specially designed structures; well-designed frame structures thrown out of plumb. Damage great in substantial buildings, with partial collapse. Buildings shifted off foundations.

X. Some well-built wooden structures destroyed; most masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundations. Rails bent.

XI. Few, if any (masonry) structures remain standing. Bridges destroyed. Rails bent greatly.

XII. Damage total. Lines of sight and level are distorted. Objects thrown into the air.

Overheard on a balcony near you

So tonight I'm sitting here on my balcony and there are two boys talking nearby. Is it sad that I am happy that they are so loud that I can overhear, and in the process practice my spanish? I actually cant make out most of what they are saying, but somehow it's really funny and it involves "El Metro" and "la escuela" (the subway, and the school). So that's tonight's random story from Santiago!

Mi cuidad! (My city!)

So I've been here in Santiago for 6 days now. This city is beautiful! Below are 4 pictures: The first 2 are looking east at the Andes mountains (in the far distance, upper-left corner, you might be able to pick out the glaciers that are over 4000 m high!) that I took from the balcony of Ricardo, one of the meteorology profs at the university who has graciously opened his apt to me this week. The last 2 are from Google earth locating the apartment I hope to rent next week.




Some random (maybe funny) things have happened thus far, as might be expected.

- I bought groceries 4 times with little incident. Woohoo!
- I attended a meteorology seminar given in spanish (subject: wind flow & turbulence over an isolated active volcano in southern Chile) and understood maybe 50% (helped that the ppt slides were in spanish).

- Two large & ferocious dogs scared the crap out of me on Fri when I was walking to the supermarket. They are kept in a small fenced-in front yard of one of the apts on the way to the supermarket. Sad thing is that I had seen these dogs once before ... but forgot that they might be there.

- Pizza has turned into my favorite (or at least most frequent... 5 times in this week) meal. It's convenient & cheap, and I don't yet have access to a kitchen to make my own food. At "Gino's" (who else but Gino would open a pizza place? I mean, "Carl's" just wouldnt sound right), I thought I was ordering 1 personal-size pizza off menu # 2, but when my order came up, I was the proud owner of 2 personal-sized pizzas off menu #1. Oh well, que es la vida!

- I've seen lots of Santiago: on foot (mostly), via the Metro, and in the cars of my colleagues. My direct supervisor invited me for a very nice meal at his house yesterday (Sat.), and then we and his youngest daughter toured parts of the city and walked up part of the San Cristobal hill to get a nice panorama.
- I visited a church today (Sunday) and enjoyed singing christmas carols in spanish. :) Now if I could only understand the sermon!

- I met a very nice Paraguayan girl in line at the Police office (where I had to register my visa), and she and I went together to the next stop, the Cedula de Identidad office (national ID card office). We enjoyed some pizza and I was able to practice my spanish, which was pretty much all I could do because she did not speak any english.

- I've seen several dozen stray dogs, and perhaps half a dozen men, doing their business at random spots on the street. Guess if you've gotta go, you've gotta go, and it seems that as long as there's a tree...

- Today I randomly scored a jackpot for local shopping! So far all I saw were name-brand dept stores & upper-class-type malls, but today I wandered upon a street market, with probably a hundred booths selling everything! One of my favorite combinations was a store that sold batteries, plug adapters, christmas cards, ice cream, beach towels, & usb cords. A very nice assortment indeed!

- Random people have noticed my gringo-ness (i.e., tall & blond... dead giveaway) and come up to me with random english phrases. Most of these people, however, have been either drunk or impaired, so I'm not sure what that means! Regardless, when you're an extrovert in another culture and starved for interpersonal interactions, you take what you can get! I've enjoyed corresponding, but my spanish is still too horrible to really say anything to them.

- Yesterday and today I went jogging at the park O'Higgins (a very Spanish name, eh?), which is only 5 mins from my apartment. It was nice to get some exercise and be in the company of other joggers, bikers, roller-bladers, dog walkers, soccer players, and even a few playing "street tennis".

Stay tuned for more photos & stories!

Thoughts from the ends of the earth

Welcome to Santiago! My flight arrived safely this morning, and after surviving the customs & immigration, I stepped out into the rest of my life. After declining five or six taxi invitations, I was met by one of my colleagues from the university. He has offered his guest-room for as long as I should need it. So in addition to dreaming about this next season of life, I'm searching for an apartment. Stay tuned for the results ... no promising leads as of yet.

So what are my impressions of Santiago? First, it's sunny here, and the sun doesn't set until 8:30 or 9! (Remember, summer occurs here from Dec - Feb). Second, the streets are laid out in a regular grid, so getting around wasn't too hard. Third, the food has been great! My colleagues treated me to lunch & dinner today, and I ate several typical Chilean dishes: bean soup, tomato & onion salad, and fish. I also bought some items from the supermarket without incident. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks for all of your encouragements!!

Until next time...

A new song

Inspired by my friends over at Piebald Life, I have composed a short verse to the tune of John Denver's "Country Roads."

It goes like this:

Aeroplanes,
take me on,
to my foreign
country home!
Santiago,
mountain vistas,
my new home,
take me on.

Thanksgiving, Greenville style

Dad and I drove east from Norman on Sunday (18 Nov), departing at 8:45 p.m. and arriving in Little Rock, AR at 2:30 a.m. We left the Motel 6 at 7:45 a.m. Monday and arrived in Greenville at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday (20 Nov).
Twenty-two hours in a Penske moving truck is not my best idea of fun! But we had a good trip, good conversation, and no mishaps (accidents or speeding tickets). I also got to visit with Chris & Elaine, friends from OU who currently reside in Asheville. We stopped at the McDonalds on I-40 exit 44 and they met us there.

Tuesday I took care of some errands, bought a few Christmas presents, and rested. Wednesday I took the dogs on a walk, went jogging, and Charles & I unloaded the moving truck into a storage unit near the house. Once he moves into his new house/apartment, he'll take possession of my furniture, pots/pans, bedroom suite, etc., but for now there is no more room in my parents' house (hence the storage unit). Thursday all of Mom's side of the family (minus Dottie and Aunt Edna and girls, who went south to Florida) ate lunch at our house. We had turkey, dressing, gravy, ham, collard greens, green beans, corn, orange jello, pineapple casserole, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, rice & mushrooms, sweet potato fluff, pumpkin (butternut squash) soup, and for dessert, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and carrot cake. It was delicious!! Before eating, we took Penny, Springer, Lambeau, and Maverick on a walk (two separate walks to curb the chaos), and Charles & I went jogging over in Cherry Oaks subdivision.

Today some of the family went shopping to try out the early morning specials, and CG and I went back at 10 a.m. to get a few things. Circuit City has had major difficulties, both in the stores and on the internet. I bought a few things online and went to the store an hour later to pick them up, only to find out the store didn't even have a record of my online purchases. Furthermore, when I came back home to check on my order status, the circuitcity.com website automatically redirected to "http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html", with a fun message saying they were updating their site and asking me to check back later. What a rousing success for their "black Friday" operations?!


Later today we will join the Barrett family for Chinese buffet in Cary. We'll make a weekend out of it, visiting, playing cards, and attending the NCSU-Maryland football game on Saturday.

Below are some photos of my visit with Chris & Elaine in Asheville (where we had to unhook/rehook my Honda from the Penske truck b/c McDonalds didn't give us enough turnaround room) and of the Thanksgiving celebration here yesterday.

Friends at Wildwood Church

Here are some photos from last Sunday's services. It was good to be able to visit with friends & reminisce about the past five and a half years!

Eastward, then southward, bound

So all my things are boxed up and sitting in my living room. The yellow Penske moving truck is parked outside in the lot. Six friends are scheduled to arrive in an hour and help me load. And I'm a bundle of emotions. I had the privilege of sharing today at both services at Wildwood, thanking the church for its investments in college students and for loving and welcoming me. I've learned about who we are as believers (our identity), about hospitality (as an overflow of God's love from our hearts), and about owning my faith. It's taken just about these five and a half years to get to a point where I call Norman & Wildwood home, and now I'm off again, to North Carolina (for 2 weeks) then to Santiago.

Forgive my lack of blog entries in the last eleven days; they've been filled up, brimming over, with people, work, packing, and lots of great quality time. What shall I miss the most about Norman? Hands down, unequivocally, the people, mis amigos. I'll miss Frisbee Friday and our gladiatorial contests. I'll miss the SoM office staff & the laughs they brought to work. I'll miss being the sole boss of my time, able to allocate it as needed. I'll miss Kraettli & our community. I'll miss my colleagues in meteorology and our chats about weather and our random journeys south, west, and/or north in pursuit of the elusive tornado. I'll miss my bible studies with the college guys, investing in their lives and having them return the favor ten-fold.

What do I look forward to in Chile? Living in the latin culture & community, where relationships matter more than tasks. Studying meteorology with a diverse group of scientists with a perspective unique from mine. Celebrating God with the Chilenos. Exploring Chile and other parts of South America. Becoming bilingual. Challenging myself to think and act differently. Experiencing & giving hospitality all over again. Teaching meteorology to the Chilenos.

The next post will come to you from North Carolina, where I'm celebrating thanksgiving (& my portion of Christmas) with my family. Until then, enjoy some photos from my last ten days in Oklahoma!

Eleven days

Greetings from the UCAR MJO workshop in Irvine, CA. Not much to report directly from here (but a crazy amount of thoughts/emotions running thru my head; see below), other than some good ideas about my research and how to write-up my upcoming MJO paper.

In eleven (11) days, I'll have packed up all my things and will be driving eastward to NC. My brother Charles will receive my furniture & car, which is great for the two of us b/c he will move into a new house/apartment in a few weeks and doesn't yet have furnishings.

As I've told a few people recently, my mental/emotional state is a mess. I long to spend quality time with friends I might not see again, but I am somehow reluctant to ask them to hang out (if you read this & live in Norman, please ask me to spend time w/you!!) It's almost as if I'm in denial of my departure, unable to reconcile the thoughts of leaving and therefore just not thinking about them. It also could be that I'm super busy: this week in CA, Thu-Fri in Norman, Sat-Sun in North Carolina for my 10-year high school reunion (D.H. Conley high school in Greenville), then sometime next week in Houston for my visa appointment, then packing & driving east on the 18th. On top of that I'm supposed to meet with my advisor each morning next week for a few hrs and hammer out the final draft of my MJO paper to submit to J. Climate. Wow, Santiago will be a refreshing break!

Those of you who have experience with moving / leaving, what advice do you have for me? I so want to enjoy my final days in Norman. I want to maximize each experience, time with each person, making sure that I get to hang out with the people I care about most. How do I accomplish that? My prayers now are for peace -- and for divine appointments, that I get quality time in spite of my reluctant emotional state.

Thanks for YOUR prayers. And if you're in Norman, ask me to hang out with you. I want to!