"Not to Belabor the Point..."
So I watched the presidential debates and I was quite surprised with all the cold-war type talk. Forming a "league of democracies" that excludes Russia and China? Really? What the FUCK!!! Are we really trying to have another Cold War? Unbelievable. I think the US is going to have a difficult future if we start going back to that mentality. Especially since Russia and China will be economic powerhouses in no time at all. It was very clear in the debate the rhetoric that each candidate was trying to put forth. Obama tried to make the point that McCain is another George Bush, and McCain tried to make the point that he is not, and also that Obama is too naive to understand the concepts at hand. It was actually quite ironic when McCain said naivety because he pronounced it wrong. It was more of a "nigh ehv it tAY." Not important. The candidates had some good arguments but a lot of it seemed to be pretty shallow general stuff that is impossible to prove or disprove. Maybe that's what they wanted. Next week is the vice presidential debate. The republicans in the negotiations for the debate format made it a priority that the response time to questions is as short as possible so that Palin won't be pressed and can stick with the GOP canned answers she will be heavily trained in. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html?hp).
Alright, to Argentina. During Friday's soccer practice I went up for a header. The guy guarding me was really close to me and didn't jump. The result, on my way down he was under me and my elbow smashed his face and his lip exploded into insta-blood. Alright it wasn't that bad. But as soon as I made contact I could see blood, it was pretty gnarly. Luckily it was just on the inside of his lip and didn't make a hole or disconnect anything like I intially feared. As anyone who has played basketball against me knows (especially Kyle Minnie), my elbows are like knives. The gash was on the inside and probably didn't need stiches. Anyway, I'm sorry man and I've got some really bad soccer karma right now so I'll have to be careful for a while. One Saturday I went to a magic show at 2... 2 a.m. that is. So I guess it was Sunday technically. Whatever, the magic was pretty impressive and the show was hilarious. We went with an Argentinean who is an aspiring magician himself (legitamately very good, he did tricks at our party), and he knew the people so we got center seats of this small bar. No cover or anything, we just had to buy drinks. I ended up spending 8 bucks on two beers, and three glasses of wine. Combined with the fact that I watched a magic show and it's a pretty damn good deal. I have my last mid-term on Wednesday so I've been spending some time studying for that (Marketing). I found a pretty cool website that I think I am going to use for a lot of my future travels. It's www.couchsurfing.com It's a huge online community of people who will let you crash on their couches and sometimes beds for free. I've checked it out and it is very extensive with couches in all countries. There are over 5,000 in Argentina alone. I think I'm going to take a trip to Montevideo and Córdoba and couch surf for a few nights so that I can stay with people who actually live in this places and practice some Spanish. Potentially I could couch surf my way back to Seattle going 10 km a day and moving from couch to couch for free. When I get back to UW I was thinking that maybe me and some friends could Road Trip to California and couch surf there and back to save some money and meet some new people. The website has a feedback system so that you can find safe couch surfers and so that couch surfers can find safe travelers. It's cool that things like this exist.
Have you guys ever looked at how hard Chinese is. The word "Ma" when said with different tonations can mean mom, horse, hemp, or swearing. It says that Chinese would take an American about 2200 teaching hours to get "fluent" (whatever that means), whereas it would take an American about 600 hours to master one of the romance languages like French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Nothing earth shatering in Argentina. Spent all today studying for Marketing, tomorrow will be the same and I take it on Wednesday. After that I am free to do as I please for about 5 days. Later.
Alright, if you have some time and an interest in politics watch these two video's, first Palin's interview with Katie Couric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP12aNzocSc
And then the SNL skit of Tina Fey as Palin but skip forward so that there are 3 minutes left and sorry you have to watch that commercial to start.
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/
Alright, to Argentina. During Friday's soccer practice I went up for a header. The guy guarding me was really close to me and didn't jump. The result, on my way down he was under me and my elbow smashed his face and his lip exploded into insta-blood. Alright it wasn't that bad. But as soon as I made contact I could see blood, it was pretty gnarly. Luckily it was just on the inside of his lip and didn't make a hole or disconnect anything like I intially feared. As anyone who has played basketball against me knows (especially Kyle Minnie), my elbows are like knives. The gash was on the inside and probably didn't need stiches. Anyway, I'm sorry man and I've got some really bad soccer karma right now so I'll have to be careful for a while. One Saturday I went to a magic show at 2... 2 a.m. that is. So I guess it was Sunday technically. Whatever, the magic was pretty impressive and the show was hilarious. We went with an Argentinean who is an aspiring magician himself (legitamately very good, he did tricks at our party), and he knew the people so we got center seats of this small bar. No cover or anything, we just had to buy drinks. I ended up spending 8 bucks on two beers, and three glasses of wine. Combined with the fact that I watched a magic show and it's a pretty damn good deal. I have my last mid-term on Wednesday so I've been spending some time studying for that (Marketing). I found a pretty cool website that I think I am going to use for a lot of my future travels. It's www.couchsurfing.com It's a huge online community of people who will let you crash on their couches and sometimes beds for free. I've checked it out and it is very extensive with couches in all countries. There are over 5,000 in Argentina alone. I think I'm going to take a trip to Montevideo and Córdoba and couch surf for a few nights so that I can stay with people who actually live in this places and practice some Spanish. Potentially I could couch surf my way back to Seattle going 10 km a day and moving from couch to couch for free. When I get back to UW I was thinking that maybe me and some friends could Road Trip to California and couch surf there and back to save some money and meet some new people. The website has a feedback system so that you can find safe couch surfers and so that couch surfers can find safe travelers. It's cool that things like this exist.
Have you guys ever looked at how hard Chinese is. The word "Ma" when said with different tonations can mean mom, horse, hemp, or swearing. It says that Chinese would take an American about 2200 teaching hours to get "fluent" (whatever that means), whereas it would take an American about 600 hours to master one of the romance languages like French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Nothing earth shatering in Argentina. Spent all today studying for Marketing, tomorrow will be the same and I take it on Wednesday. After that I am free to do as I please for about 5 days. Later.
Alright, if you have some time and an interest in politics watch these two video's, first Palin's interview with Katie Couric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP12aNzocSc
And then the SNL skit of Tina Fey as Palin but skip forward so that there are 3 minutes left and sorry you have to watch that commercial to start.
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/couric-palin-open/704042/
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