Since Patti wrote last, I have spent 4 days in West Virginia with Ohio Wesleyan University. You may remember that Patti and I led a backpacking trip to the Red River Gorge for some OWU students earlier in the summer. If you don't remember, just scroll down a little. That trip was for freshman athletes who could not make it to the main Fresh-X trip because they had to start practice for their respective sports. We had a lot of fun on that trip, but it had a much different feel to it than this trip. Backpacking with 5 other people is a great small group experience; car camping with 100 people is on a whole other level.
I must say that this is one of the most well run trips I have ever been a part of, and it was certainly the largest. Feeding all those people for 4 days is a production by itself and the staff and student leaders that we there managed to pull that off and more without incident or serious injury. My job was to lead two days of rock climbing at Seneca Rocks. For those who don't know, Seneca is a major east coast climbing destination and one of my personal favorite places to climb. Although it is very close to "town" it has a very remote feel to it.
I had a great time with the two different groups that I had the opportunity to climb with. The students leaders for both groups were exceptional. One student in particular had some incredible natural giftings in terms of leadership which he put to use on this trip very well. The purpose of Fresh-X is really just to create an opportunity for incoming freshman to meet people through a common experience prior to arriving on campus. The whole idea is to take away those first few awkward trips to the cafeteria because the students already know 75 or 100 faces kinda well, and another 8-10 faces in their small group really well. One brief success story from the trip - There was one student whose had some significant group anxiety issues and was forced by his parents to attend Fresh X and OWU. They told him he was going two days before the trip. Anyway, he really did not want to be there and at times became incredibly overwhelmed because part of the trip involved playing silly games with 100 other people to get to know each other. To make a very long story short, in the end the freshman made some great friendships and overcame some of his anxieties with the help of the aforementioned student leader.
I left West Virginia and met up with Patti in Harrisburg after the trip. From there we headed to my parents house where is was going to relax after the trip and before we left. Sadly, there were a couple things that got in the way of that. First, there was a mountain of mail to open from the two months we had been away; second, we had to sell the car; and third, we had to go through a bunch of boxes to find the things we needed for Argentina. The 5 days there went way too quickly, and my R&R got pushed back until we arrived in Buenos Aires.
My dad gave Patti and I a ride to Newark airport last Tuesday to catch our flight. We made it there in record time, which turned out to be a really good thing since we had to help Ama with her 3 overweight bags, 3 carry on bags, and her 2 boxes. Honestly, getting all that stuff through the airport was not as bad as I thought it would be; but then again I was expecting the worst, so I'm not sure what that means. The whole operation would have gone very smoothly if it wasn't for a not so helpful check in agent, and a very impatient wheelchair guy. Checking in all those bags took some time, which pissed wheelchair guy off. When we headed for security, he took off with Ama because we had spent so much of his time already just checking the bags. That left Patti and I to carry one box, 3 of Ama's carry-on's, our own carry-on's and JP's guitar. We should have checked the box, but Check-in Agent Man said we should just carry it. That save some money, but added headaches.
At the security checkpoint Ama goes straight through with wheelchair guy and he bolts for the gate - Oh, I forgot, first wheelchair guy tried to dump us off on the airtram because he read our tickets wrong. He was going to send us to Terminal E. The only problem with that is that Newark doesn't have a Terminal E. After I convinced him that we were already in the right terminal, he sprints off through security. Patti and I get separated into different lines. Of course, when they x-ray Ama's big carry-on they want to open it, but wheelchair guy has wisked her off somewhere into the unknown. The TSA guy was kind enough not to ask too many questions when I told him that no, I didn't pack that bag and it wasn't mine eventhough I was carrying it. We finally all make it through and meet up again at the gate. One last thing about airport security... as we're sitting at the gate I lean over and pick up something next to Ama. I ask if it's hers, but she says that she didn't drop anything. It's a collection of ID's, and I read the text under the picture on the front - "Federal Air Marshall" I'm fairly certain that those badges could have gotten me into any part of that airport that I wanted to go to. It's nice to know that our nation's top notch homeland security agents are careful not to leave any sensitive materials just laying around at the airport.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful except for the fact that Continental lost every single one of our bags because there wasn't enough time for our connection. That really turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Continental then had to deliver all of those extra bags to our apartment instead of us trying to pack them all into a taxi for the ride into the city.
Since we've arrived, I've caught up on some sleep, joined the gym, and spent a lot of time visiting nieces and nephews with Patti. We've only been here two full days, and already my Spanish has both: improved significantly, and become frustrating beyond belief. I have a new found blinding jealously within me toward bilingual people. I simply cannot learn fast enough.
Last night Jen invited us to watch Obama's acceptance speech at a bar near her apartment. Patti, JP, Jen and I all headed out hear what he had to say. Little did we know that what we were actually going to was a large Obama event sponsored by Democrats Abroad Argentina and ExPat Connection. The place was packed with a surprisingly large number of Americans, and frankly, I didn't like being surrounded by that many English speakers in Buenos Aires. It was a very strange experience to be in the heart of this city and to hear very little Spanish. The Spanish that I did hear was coming mostly from the American event organizers and that jealousy thing showed up again quickly when they would switch back and forth between the two languages. On a positive note, it was fun to be out on the town with everyone and we were able to request our absentee ballots while we were there. Another negative - everything was overpriced.
As for the speech, once again, Obama delivers big. I won't go into too much detail here, but I will note a few things that I really liked.
- Obama pointed out that John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time. He then asks if we want to take a 10% chance on change.
-He made a point to call for reform in the way that we run political campaigns in this country. He said (and I agree) that you should be able to campaign and debate without calling into question your opponent's character or patriotism. I haven't had a TV in several months, so I don't know for sure, but I believe that Obama has not put out and blatant attack ads. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. Even in his speech last night he graciously praised McCain for the war hero and public servant that he has been. That is a rare thing in the politics that I have seen in my lifetime.
-Obama also directly addressed the criticisms put towards him, specifically his character and readiness to be commander-in-chief.
-He spoke at length about "the world as it should be" which plucks at my reformed theology heartstrings. I just don't understand why this country so readily accepts the status quo. In my more cynical moments I point to high level corruption, greed, and mindless capitalism that values the corporation above this country's citizens. When I imagine the most powerful nation in the world I picture a progressive place that truly embraces cradle to grave green technology, healthcare for everyone, elimination of poverty, and good neighbor global citizenship. In Hebrew this is known as shalom or universal flourishing - a time when everything is as it should be. Let me just put one disclaimer on this - I don't believe that all of those things can be achieved through government or are the responsibility of government alone.
Which brings me to my last point -
-Obama gets that goverment can't fix everything eventhough that's what the people often want it to do. My libertarian tendencies love this part - government is only one small part of the equation. The individual, family, church and community all have a role to play.
Here's a shot of the packed house to watch the speech. I don't know exact numbers, but there were several hundred people there to see it.
I'll write more soon as I said before. I'm sure it won't be long before I have some hilarious stories about the ridiculous mistakes I've made trying to order something at a restaurant or tell someone I'm using that treadmill at the gym.
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