My little multi-colored book.

So I carry this little pocket-sized notebook that was originally bought so I could write down spanish vocabulary as I learn along my trip.  We couldn’t find anything for a while and finally picked up what is a small pocket-sized address book with little tabs for every letter of the alphabet.  The outside cover is straight from the 70s.   I write down spanish, but it has also become the place of Cody’s thoughts along my journeys, because he would forget them if he doesn’t write them down in the little multi colored book.

Here are some of my small written down blurbs of the last week or so.

1.  Hamburgers are giant here. ive ordered 2 hamburger completas on this trip and 2 have come out the size of my head, with egg, avocado, and everything else.  So Giant food is not just in the US, just mostly.

2.  In central Chile, they put avocado on everything, and I love it.

3. After traveling with 2 girls for a month, and somehow when we add people to our group during specific towns, it’s usually girls also, I’m finding that guy time is absolutely necessary.  I didn’t realize this until I spent a good chunk of time with 4 guys in the Torres Del Paine National Park.  It was like life juice.

4. Speaking of our trekking experience.  I ate 2 full pizzas and some salad they day we got back. I was hungry

5. If I were to rob someone, id be less inclined to rob someone who smoked for multiple reasons.  One, they smell bad, and their stuff smells bad.  Two, for some reason in my wierd thoughts, people who smoke tend to be a little more badass.  I realize this is completely not true, but it’s how my brain works.

6. Always put the arm rest in between the seats on a bus.  This will help you avoid sharing have your seat with an old mans hip for 8 hours.

7.  What is with water with gas (also known as tonic water I think) in the rest of the world.  It’s almost more popular than normal bottled water. Is the US missing something?  Why do people like little gas bubbles in a flavorless drink…

8.  Just when you though Normal Kenny G was bad, Spanish Kenny G makes an appearance.  What is spanish Kenny G?…well its the same as Normal Kenny G…..Thats the problem.

9. Lindsey spit on her hand on accident, while trying to spit like a boy.  This was hilarious.

10.  There is a couple of miles or more between the border crossings of Argentina and Chile.
- Who owns this?
- Who is in charge of maintainance of the roads?
- Can I claim this land of in-between and start my own really really skinny country?

11. Food is weird in other countries.  But you still develop comfort foods.  Mine are empanadas and waffle cookies.

12. There is an industry of american movies I never knew existed. They are inexplicably horrible.  Apparently the south american bus industry keeps this genre afloat, cause they play them all.  If this genre had a name it would be “Horribly bad movies.” It’s sad when the best movie ive seen by a long shot is Rush Hour in over 70 hours of bus rides.

13.  Yeah thats right.  74 hours of bus rides in the Month of January.  The girls..they have 100.  I was on a boat.

14. 80s Music thrives here.

15. I will never complain about there being “a lot of wind” after being in the Patagonia.

16. Lindsey also shocked herself after our converter broke in the socket.  She thought it would be a good idea to grab the metal prongs still stuck in the socket.  This is also hilarious.

17. Michelle has the smallest bladder of all time and has to pee every 20 minutes.

18.  We were referring to personality types and who had type A versus Type B, etc.  Then Lindsey said something like… ” You have some type A-ness.” This is hilarious and still a running joke for the past three weeks.

19.  A very happy golden lab was also the drug smelling dog that searched my bus.  That dog loved looking for drugs.

Off to Mendoza.  Land of wine and hot weather.

Cheers.

Cody

Some light reading and poor grammar

Well hello there outside world…nice to see you again.  Tomorrow is officially one month of traveling.  One Month.  One sixth complete, and so many experiences already to share, document, and yet again…no photos because computers suck in South America.  (I´ve taken over 1800 photos already…)  Where to start with my update.  I´m going to go from my present circumstances backwards through my last couple weeks…because why not…

Currently I´m sitting in a dirty stinky run down port town called Puerto Monte, Chile.  You can look for it on a map and you might find a trash can in place of the little dot that normally represents a city or town. I´m sitting in a small internet Cafe waiting for a bus to go meet Lindsey and Michelle in Bariloche, a beautiful area in Western central Argentina known as the lake district.  If you´ve ever seen ¨The Motorcyle Diaries,¨ its the part where he is taking ferries through rolling green mountains on a foggy lake. Don´t get me wrong about Chile.  Puerto Monte is the stink hole hub that is surrounded by 3 volcanoes and lush fjords and a famous island called Chiloe.  Why am I away from the girls you ask?  Well…I went on a boat.  (insert the overplayed I´m on a boat reference here)  Why was I on a boat?  So we completed the infamous ¨W¨route in the Torres Del Payne National park…and the town you start and end the Trek in is Puerto Natales. (I´ll get to the 5 Day trek of the W in a minute…)  It just so happens advertisements with silly pictures on walls of hostels work…at least on a sucker like me, and there was an advertisment of a boat ride from Puerto Natales (very south) up to Puerto Monte (southern part..of the middle of Chile) and it ended up close to where we wanted to go next. 

The boat ride.
1.  Although a bit pricey, I thought to myself when will I ever get a chance to take a trip in a boat through the Southern Fjords and channels of Chile.  And for $350…i don´t have to be on a cramped bus for 40 hours to Bariloche.   And the Boat must be nice right…
2.  The boat was not nice…just a modified freight ship so the freight company can earn some extra cash.  Think of a Washington ferry…with small rooms with 4 beds.  Not horrible…but definilty nothing to do
3.  The boat ride was supposed to be 3 full days…it ended up being 4 due to bad weather. So we couldn´t pass through a gulf notorious for its rough seas.  This of course caused me to sit here in this shitty town for another day.  During the 3rd day..the day we passed through the Gulf…the entire boat disappeared to their rooms.  I´ve never gotten seasick in my life, so i thought i´d kick in the cafeteria.  Well that lasted about an hour or so…i went and hurled my lunch up, and joined the rest of the boat population in my cama for the rest of the day. 
4.  So…my vision of the trip was me taking 100´s of pictures of beautiful fjords on sunny days.  It reality…it was grey…you couldn´t see anything most the time..and it rained the first three days, so the outside decks were miserable and wet and bad for the camera. 
5.  This bring me to what I did for 4 days. I ate…(the meals were gigantic…always had a piece of meat, some form of carbo´s in the   rice or mashed potatoes, and some flavorless soup) I slept.. (a lot) and I enjoyed the company of the people having the same experience as i did.  Point #5 allows me to finish what I wanted to say in my last post. I think after a month of travel,  the relationships I encounter on this trip seem to leave a lasting influence on me.  The 100 people on this boat bonded over our circumstances.  When can I ever say, that for four nights i played a Rummy ( one of the three new card games i learned on the trip) with an incredible Painter from northern Chile,  (Pedro was hilarious, talented, middle-aged nomad, and just a really odd character.  He  knew almost no english, but asked me to teach him what ¨baby doll¨ was after raising his eye brows and a girl from Ireland as she walked by.  Priceless memory..also..a bit creepy. I realize this) Michelle was an amazing women in her mid 60´s from france that was incredibly talented in her earlier years  as a scuba diver, business women and countless other things.  She actually reminded me a lot of my passed away Grandma Jean.  And then there was Christina, my W trekking buddy who joined me after our trek in the mountain for the boat trip.  She is a 25-year-old pharmacist traveling for a while and just a genuine, hilarious, super charismatic woman …who loved penguins.  Between trekking the W and our boat ride, I knew her longer than anyone else i´ve met on this trip, and it was nice to have a familiar face around longer than the typical 4 days.    Best Rummy nights ever. (only rummy nights n my life also..but..still..amazing)  I also had amazing conversations with a couple from Montana and a bubbly super sweet Swiss girl.  After we got off the boat we actually went to this small town outside of this sewer of a city and had amazing sushi last night.  Thanks Rob, Kali and Gabriella for a great night.
5b.  The last night on the boat we had a ¨party¨.  Basically the crew through us a BINGO night. * note to friends back home…lets go play bingo…nothing is more exciting than some Bingo right…*   Every time somebody won, they had to go dance in front of the bar for about 30 seconds, and it just so happen to be that a middle aged man won every time.   I thought it was just the USA, but its apparently true that Middle aged men from all over the world are hilariously horrible at dancing.  After Bingo there was a dance party.  Imagine a wedding…with 20 different nationalities, 10 different languages, alcohol, some latin music and other bad music you´d hear at a wedding (think YMCA, Elvis, Etc.)  a flashing strobe light thingy and one of the mirror balls spinning in the center of the modified washington Ferry bar.  Amazing.  I loved every minute of it. 
6.  Overall I loved the trip.  It was different in every way possible that I imagined.  the last day on the boat was amazingly sunny and warm.  Everyone was comfortable and friends with each other.  I got some great photos.  AND…I was in the Middle of the Freaking FJORDS of Chile… I had to keep reminding myself this.   Oh…saw a sweet glacier, a pod (is that what you call it?) of 50 or more dolphins, and sailed through a channel only 83 meters wide. 

Moving backwards in time to the W route in Torres Del Payne.
1.  Amazing
2.  I have something terribly wrong with my left knee that i found out about mid way through day 4 of the 5 day trek.  Pray that it gets better, cause after a 4 day boat ride of doing nothing..its still not better.
3.  Amazing. 
4. Ok …what is the W. Route.  Read this..it´ll save me some time. HERE  Basically its a 5 day, 4 night trek through some of the beautiful scenery in the world in a mountain range separate from the Andes that has one of the 3 largest Glacial ice fields in the world and is a UN protected natural habitat because of its significance and effect on the world’s climate.  I have pictures.  It´ll do it little justice. 
5.  Again..the experiene was amazing, but even more so because of the company.  Sensing a theme?
6.  Just ask me about it when i get home. Its hard to explain, and i´m tired of paying for internet.  

El Calafate, AR

1. Take a look at the photo…this is all there is here..and its worth every penny.  Thanks Brooke from Australia for joining us in our Car Rental, the sweet jumping photos at the look out and the great white wine we enjoyed with our bread and cheese for lunch..over a freaking glacier!

Other than that…I´m off to Bariloche, and we´re workign out way north. I´ll have some other quick random thoughts on my travels that are more general soon.  Sorry for the book.  Leave a comment…they´re fun to read for me.

Miss you all!

CODY

People and Penguins…equal happyness in Puerto Madryn

After a small hiccup and not catching a bus in Buenos Aires (hence spending another day there, and eating my first delicous Argentine steak) we bused 22 hours south to a small coast town half way down the coast called Puerto Madryn. Here are my discombobulated observations from my days there.

1. The Patagonia is ugly. Its flat, its boring, its windy, and desolate. But there is also something really cool about it. That something is penguins. They have a famous pennisula and nature reserve that has nothing on it…at all…but shrubs, dirt roads…and a ton of sea animals. Its famous for whales, huge sea lions, Elephant seals, and has a plethora of sheep, Gaunacos, Emu´s….AND…Penguins! Flightless birds are hilarious…here is a pic of the thousand I have of these entertaining creatures.

2. This place had 100´s of awesome sea lions lying on the beach, and also Elephant seals chillin.
3. We stayed at the sweetest hostel with the best owner ever and his 4 year old son Ryan. I also had the chance to spend the 4 days I was here with some of the same people the entire time, and I´ll have more on this later, but traveling is really cool when you go see cool sites and landscape and get to learn new cultures, but the people I interact with are going to make this trip. I can already look back on my time thus far and the things i remember most are 70% people and 30% other…
3. I have an annoying french guy standing over my shoulder so a can´t finish this post…more to come …i promise.

Well..its happening.

I figure it’s about time for a post.  I´ve only been gone for a week and a half from the states, but it feels like I´ve been traveling for a lot longer.  There is so much to share, but I´ll save you a novel and just share a few highlights from my time thus far. 

First: Buenos Aires
Michelle, Lindsey and I landed after an atrocious 24 hours straight of flying, layovers, and sitting..and sitting..and sitting some more in stupid airplane seats that are too small for my 6´3¨ frame.  Quick tangent on our journey. LAX is a very poorly designed airport. At thats the understatement of the decade.  This could be a blog post of its own.  Lets just say we had a 2 hour layover..and only waited 15 minutes for our plane, we took one of the many shuttles around the tarmac dodging 777´s and luggage trucks, anyway…end Tangent.    We quickly grabbed a cab and headed downtown Buenos Aires to our Hostel.  At this point in the day…it was a Sunny 85 degrees. This was a perfect welcome, after the leaving the dark, cold rainy winter in Seattle, I found myself thinking I fell asleep and woke up six months later in July.  After reassuring myself that it was in fact still January, the trip had officially begun.  We acquainted ourselves to our rooms, and went straight to our beds to nap for a bit to recharge for the night.  The hostel consisted a mix of Swedes, Americans, Brits, Aussies, South Africans, a varied South Americans.  The night began. The hostel had a sweet rooftop up on the 7th floor of the building and we began to share travel stories, drink beer, sings songs, make toast, watch neighborhood fireworks, and ring in the new year.  The hostel gave us free champagne (and it tasted free…) and we missed the actual countdown because we got distracted, so we had our own personal hostel countdown to ring in the new year.  All around a good time.  Now…here is where South American culture kicks in.  These people eat dinner at midnight.  Grandparents and grandchildren walk the streets.  I signed up to go to some bar/club, but after we rang in the new year…we hung out on the rooftop for another…3 hours before heading out.  Welcome to South America Cody.  After seeing my first sunrise on my first morning in Buenos Aires, and sleeping a total of 2-4 hours in the last 45… I proceeded to sleep….for a long time.

We spent a total of 5 days in Buenos and all around highlights and observations are:
1. BA is a big city, and i´m coming to find i´m not a huge big city person. 
2. Choripan is Delicious, especially here.  (Chorizo and bread)
3. I´m going to walk a lot on this trip…thats what you do when you go to places..you walk….a lot..
4. you get what you pay for, no matter where you are in the world.  We went out for some steak (Argentina is famous for its beef), and thought we could get by at this little hole in the wall place…WRONG…not so good…
5.  BA has some really pretty areas, and then some not so pretty.  It’s amazing to me how it was such a cross between amazing architecture and felt almost like European city, but with a slight third world flavor at times. 
6.  We went to a famous cemetary, and there is something to be said about really honoring the dead.  I havn´t processed that much yet…but yeah..cool.

Moving on…but a quick note.  We woke up early to leave our Buenos Aires hostel, and its been absolutely gorgeous the whole time we´ve been here.  They morning we left…it was POURING rain…awesome when you have packs on..and are traveling all day, in wet clothes.

We then proceeded to grab a ferry across a the bay to Colonia, Uruguay, a small historical town 2 hours west of Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay and our final destination for the day.  Observations and lessons learned from Montevideo.
1. there is a large difference in quality of hostel for the same price per night…do you research
2. Don´t eat at McDonald’s ever..but exspecially in foreign countries, where apparently its a luxery item and you pay more than you´ve payed for any meal thus far in South America. Another quick note about McDonald’s here.  They have a McCafe attached and they are like luxury coffee cafes.  They won´t let you bring your food in the café section.  it’s just for the coffee and pastries…
3.  A man with a horse rode by us…i thought this was funny.
4. Every city has its nice parts, and not so nice parts.  And most of the times…these parts are drawn by pretty clear lines of race and class. Sad
5.  I´m going to walk a lot on this trip.
6. Ordering meat or cheese is difficult in kilos…i can barely do it in pounds in english and get the right amount.  Ordering meat in spanish in kilos..was interesting. I went conservative at first..and walked away with enough meat for a small snack and funny look from the butcher.  And then another funny look from the butcher when I proceeded to get back in line and order more 5 minutes later.

After only a day in Montevideo, we pretty much saw everything we wanted to and proceeded a small getaway beach town three hours east called La Paloma.  The beach was beautiful.  The town was small and cute.  The Hostel was 100 yards from the beach.  This is where all the Argentines and Uruguayans go to get away.  Some highlights and lessons are:

1.  Beaches are awesome. 
2. I will never get used to man thigh
3. I´ve finally learned my lesson to just apply sunscreen right away and not wait an hour to get a tan before putting it on.  Thank goodness because getting burned sucks and it would suck even more while sitting on buses.
4. No matter how much free time you have, you can still feel busy.  So whether your out traveling or at home working. If there is something you keep meaning to do…you have to Make it happen.  there will never be a convenient time. 
5.  I absolutely love sunsets.  I think I took 300 photos of two sunsets alone.  The second night when the sun was almost all the way down..half way sitting on the water.  The whole beach starts to clap and cheer until it disapears completly.  I´ll remember that my entire life.
6. It’s easy to not have quiet time when traveling with two friends and living in hostels.  Its going to be very valuable.  I took a walk to a light house by myself and it was a much needed walk.
7.  There are high maintenance girls in Uruguay…I had 3, 20 year old girls from Montevideo in my room on vacation to party.  they were nuts..and got ready in the small room with clothes, and perfume, blow driers, and those flat things that straighten your hair.  They were nice, and would talk slow spanish with me.  They also realized if they just spoke fast, i couldn´t understand. I´m pretty sure they said things about me…hmmm
8.  A late night with drinks, good conversation, and fire pit in universally a great time.

We spent 4 days and 3 nights at La Paloma. I´m back in Colonia, and we´ll explore it a bit tomorrow before hopping a ferry back to BA to catch a bus to Puerto Madryn…the bus ride…is 24 hours…ugh.  Puerto Madryn is the gateway to the Patagonia and it has beach..and penguins…all in one. 

A few last parting thoughts:
1. Six months is a long time
2. I´ve never read all the way through the bible, but am on a plan to do it on this trip.  It’s really refreshing, eye-opening, and surprisingly enjoyable thus far. 
3. There are kind people everywhere in the world.
4. I´m going to walk a lot. 
5.  I have a crap ton of photos, but the good part about having a nice camera is it takes amazing photos.  The bad part..it takes SO long to upload them.  so..here..are 3..of my 700 thus far…

K..its 4:05 in the morning.  Time to sleep.  Good bye friends.  Another update soon after I catch a penguin. 

Ciao.

-Cody

Being a Dork

DSC_0266, originally uploaded by Cody Hassain.

Cheers to good company while traveling

DSC_0349, originally uploaded by Cody Hassain.

A few photos while I come up with something clever to write

Friends

I have to get up in 5 hours to catch a flight on the Journey of a lifetime. But this post is about you. Man, the process of prepping to leave for six months has taught me a lot about community. I think I’ve never really realized the amazingness of my community of coworkers, friends, housemates, small group peeps, bethany peeps, high school friends and everyone else that doesn’t fit in any particular category. I’m a social butterfly. I like making new friends. But as my time began to dwindle, it really became apparent that there were people that I NEEDED to see or talk to. A natural prioritizaing happened inside me and over the last month or so its been a whirlwind of trying to see or talk to all of YOU. I didn’t get all the time I wanted with everyone, but what the point is, is that I feel Extremely blessed by all of you. I know its mushy and sentimental. But thank you for being my community, for challenging me, for laughing, praying, eating, tweedleing, and just being awesome.

I’ll see you all in six months.

The much anticipated…

Well…its almost about that time.  Its Christmas Eve, and I have about 6 days until departure.  I’ve now had to explain my story of my trip abroad so many times, that the answer seems canned and boring.  When people ask WHERE am I going, I simply want to respond with a series of questions. I’m going sojourning… to explore new worlds? to find myself? to speak another language?  to be challenged by the creator of the universe?  to serve?  to be changed by culture? to step outside a paradigm?  eh… to take photos and drink good wine…? sure. those sound good…

But where and why I’m going seem much more complex than the canned elevator speech I’ve found myself giving. I’d much rather explain it like how a symphony can play music anywhere, I too can live life here in Seattle.  But a symphony is also enhanced by the venue it plays in.  While THIS is beautiful and modern and sounds great, I’m sure playing HERE with its rich culture has to change the attitude and feeling of the music being played.  You can’t tell me the Beethoven’s 5th would sound the same or feel the same in these venues.  And while the Seattle venue has help shaped me, I’m excited how a place like here, and here will change the sound of the melody.

I’m excited how the tune of my life will be changed by an unfamiliar and new place.  Thats why I’m going.  South America and its people, culture, and history is the venue.

I happen to be going with two of my best friends, Lindsey and Michelle (and no I wont be dating them or fall in love.) I didn’t know they would be best friends two years ago.  But its amazing what drinking beers at a local pub with some damn good tater tots can do. I’m excited about having a community to experience all this with.

As for the rest of you reading this blog…I have thoughts about you next post. Stay tuned.

One Autumn Eve

One Autumn Eve, originally uploaded by Cody Hassain.

The desire to remember…and share

My time on the bus to and from work seems to be some of my more thought provoking and intellectual times of the day.  I seem to think about life, poverty, justice, God, friends, news, and general social actions all in this short amount of time.  But then I get off and I hustle up the stairs from the bus tunnel and it seems I lose my ability to have concise clear thoughts for a stretch of time. Its rather frustrating really.  Maybe its the busyness of the day and the distractions of how I want to be perceived or whats on ESPN.   This has been a theme that last couple years;  my time in my car, or transportation in general I seem more capable of engaging with my conscious.  The frustration is that I seem to forget these things rather quickly and it almost seems like with no follow-up on these ideas in my times of commute, that I’m missing out on something.  So…I have a plan.  I now carry a small notebook everywhere I go, and am now going to write down these thoughts, and process them here in this space.  I can’t promise it will be good. Part of this experiment is to even see if I can express myself written form in a clear and concise matter. I have a feeling it could just be me babbling.  

I’m curious…

How do you express your inner thoughts?  Do you journal? Do you have a metaphorical organization system in your brain where you can open the “work” file cabinet or the “relationship” drawer?  How do you process your thoughts?

-Cody