My life

Un Cuento Chileano

2007-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Undisclosed people doing undisclosed things in an undisclosed location.

Well here we go, finally I am gonna begin to recount the 6 months that I spent in South America, just bear with me as this will probably take some time. But I am gonna start with Chile, after Chile I will recap my month of kayaking with Xavier and Brad in Peru then I will fill you in on the nitty gritty details of doing school and living in Cusco, Peru.

PHASE ONE: CHILE

Some typical boat loading scenery: Put-in, Upper Pelguin.Adam from England strapping em down.

Chile was all in all meant to be just a pleasurable kayaking trip on the way to Argentina. I went to Chile after I had hurt my leg in Peru, which was still soar, so I knew I would be able to kayak some but wasn't sure exactly how much. After living in Peru for five months and learning everything I knew up to that point about the Latino culture in Peru, I went to Chile. This is important because I had grown to be comfortable with a foreign setting in Peru and had really fallen in love with it, my blood was rich with Peru and I guess that I didn't realize that I wold have to change my South American eye ball a little bit so I could fully appreciate Chile. My first impression was, to damn expensive. In Peru the currency is 3.2 to 1 on the American Dollar and in Chile it is 2 to 1 on the dollar and the culture is noticeably more involved in technology and material possessions. That was my first shock. My second shock was, holy shit this place is beautiful and awesome. Here's how it went down. I rolled in to town after four wonderful days of bus riding through Peru and Chile, which by the way most of the bus ride passes through the driest, meanest, most uninhabitable desert in the world, the Atacama desert.
http://www.extremescience.com/DriestPlace.htm
So after riding in the bus four long hot days I finally landed in Pucon, Chile. I had heard much about Pucon from other kayakers and was basically told it is a wonderland of beauty and waterfalls, oh and how true that was. When driving into Pucon you are driving next to the lake that Pucon sits at one corner of and you are also driving progressively closer and closer to a very large Volcano and then when you finally get to Pucon you realize that the Volcano sits right above town. It makes for nice scenery when swimming in the lake.

http://www.chile-travel.com/pucon.htm

Ok so back to the story, so there I am arriving into a town that all I know about is what I have been told, with only a couple e-mail addresses in my pocket for contacts in the area I was feeling kinda lonely or alone that is. My first mission was to find kayakers and a place to sleep and I was hoping those things would go hand in hand. The first thing that I found was a raft guiding office that was willing to watch my things for a couple hours while I went out on the town and shot out e-mails and called some folk. I wasn't really successful with e-mails or phone calls but I did finally find out where a guy that I had met in Peru lived. I was taken to his house by some other locals in town that I started talking with because I saw them looking at my boat and that was basically it, I quickly met a lot of great nice people and kayaked a lot. The first week I got a hostel which I ended up staying in very little because I met Ben and Scott; two gringos that live and have businesses in Pucon Chile and they were very nice to me in terms of letting me stay in their houses.
This is Carlos, a Peruvian kayaker, taking a piss in my hostel's room.
The Photo above is just to show how small my hostel was. I walked around for quite some time trying to find a hostel that would fit into my budget and I finally did. It was with a very nice family that had some rooms out back of their house. They were very good to me and pretty reasonable with their prices, they even fed me a couple times. After a week of keeping my stuff their and sleeping there some I went to stay with Ben from Britain, who owns the kayaking business in Pucon, Kayak Chile.
http://www.kayakchile.net/
Ben was extremely good to me. At this point in my trip my money situation was very low and I knew that in order to leave and go to Buenos Aires I would have to sell a lot of my kayaking gear. This turned out to be very easy and I actually got myself in a little trouble because so many people there are in need of kayaking gear that it was very hard to decide who I would sell my gear to and it ended up being some what of a confusing process. All in all though I was able to sell all my gear and ended up with a pretty good amount of money although now I will have to buy all new gear and it will cost me a lot of money, but so it goes. I ended up really just tagging along with Ben, he had a car and a business and was very nice to me. I also let him know that I really enjoyed working with wood and so I ended up building some trails and bridges for him along side of the upper Pelguin where he happened to own quite a bit of land. This was really awesome because in exchange for my work he took me kayaking, fed me, and kept me in his house, all in all it turned out really well. Getting a lot of work done there in Chile was very hard because of people constantly going kayaking, partying, and basically just having a good time . Another really great thing that happened was that I got to really get in with some Chilean locals, because Ben's house was under construction and I became descent friends with the carpenters there. I enjoyed this immensely because I got to really see what the Culture and people are all about. One thing that I found out and very fast was that Chileans love meat and they love cooking it in huge amounts over fires. I got to partake in a number of different parties and meat cook outs while I was there.

Here is the lamb party that I went to. The guy sitting in between the legs of the slaughtered lamb is porky, that was his name, and he was the slaughterer as well as the foreman of Ben's house which is in the background.
These gatherings were always very fun and seemed to always include a very nice mix of local Chileans and gringo kayakers. I feel like I really got very deeply immersed in many sides of the culture in the two weeks I was there and I am very glad for that, because now I have an appreciation for many parts of South America. Sort of off subject but relevant to the next picture is that Chile has many very beautiful trees and forests and within these forests there is a lot of bamboo, but this bamboo is special because it is solid not hollow. That means it is strong as hell and can be used for many different things.
Here the strong ass bamboo is being used to cook the giant hunks of lamb.
Chile continued with this nature; kayaking, meeting nice people, hanging out, and working a little for the entire time I was there. It has put a very big respect for Chile in my heart and makes me want to go back there and kayak a lot, which I will definitely do. Like I said I really got to hang out with the locals quite a bit and during this process I experienced a lot of things that only a local would get to see and I felt very privileged. So for the first time in my life I got to go to a drag strip style horse race.

Tom from Minnesota fisting up for the horse that he placed his bets on, the horse that lost. I didn't bet.
The horse race kind of turned out to be just a bunch of people chilling out and having fun waiting for the race, and on this day there was only one race which lasted for about 15 seconds, I guess a lot time is spent chilling out and drinking beer at these types of events, it was still a very good time.

That very same night after the horse race we went back to Scott's house the other local gringo I stayed with some and had a big bar-b-q, it was fun, but the best part about the night was a comet that appeared in the sky and streaked across for several hours. I was able to get a very nice picture of it, it was my first comet sighting. I enjoyed it immensely.
Chile was really unbelievable. As far as culture goes Peru was definitely the superior, but that's also because I spent so much time in Peru and got to travel a lot and meet and see many things and people. Overall Chile was really unbelievable and ridiculous, I loved every minute of it. I hope that everyone who gets a chance can go to Chile and kayak or just vacation, it is very impressive. Well I guess that it is a pretty good description of what the Living was like down there, now we are gonna move ourselves on to the kayaking, the beautiful waterfall ridden rivers nestled in sweet little volcanic mountains.

KAYAKING CHILE:
Anybody that gets themselves into the town of Pucon, Chile and also enjoys kayaking will surely start or at least finish their endeavors on the pelguin. The Pelguin is really a run for everyone, it has the ability to make kayakers of all ability levels happy. There is an upper upper which is in the class 3 range, an upper which is the one that I have talked about so much and put pictures of up before, a middle which is full of some really gnarly stuff, and a lower which will bring you back to the land of boulder gardens and small boofs. All in all the Pelguin is remarkable, but that can be said about any of the rivers their, although the pelguin does seem to offer something special. Well here it is the break down of the pelguin. After driving about 20 minutes outside of Pucon you reach the Pelguin and immediately get to descend your way down the steep river banks. The very first rapid before the white water is figuring out how to do the seal launch without landing on your head.
Juan the local and Christian the German finding the right launching pad.
The Peruvian Carlos sticking the landing softly with his song.

That's the thing about the Pelguin, even the put-in is really exciting. Your standing there on that beautiful natural bridge with a beautiful 80+ foot waterfall in the background (not in these pics) and then you seal launch off into crystal clear cold blue water, it really is ideal kayaking. Within about 100 yards you are greeted by the 1st rapid and it is oh so soft.
Carlos popping up after going very deep off the 1st one.
Another great thing about the Pelguin is it really doesn't matter to much what happens at the bottom of these drops, for the most part, because they all end in nice pools. Off course the preferable line of this drop is to boof the side curler on the river left wall, but plugging here deep is sometimes fun as well. The Pelguin drops are all very close together especially on the upper, which is itself a very short run, but it makes for fun quick aggressive paddling if you know the run. The second drop follows quickly after some little class 3 boogie and for the most part it isn't really scoutable and doesn't really need to be anyways. It is very direct and requires a nice boof so you don't get slapped in the hole.

Not the perfect line by Carlos but it will work well enough.

After successfully cheering and whooping everyone through the 2nd drop you quickly work your way onto the 3rd, which waits only 20 or so paddle strokes below. The 3rd drop is really quite unbelievable because it has two sides and both are very fun. The left side with more flow usually results in rolling up at the bottom where as the right side is almost always a soaring boof landing in the frothing boil lines below.
Adam from England coming of the left side in beautiful boof form.
The right side is also much more of a spout and kinda feels like you are being shot from a cannon where as the left side usually immerses you in its flow.

Carlos shooting out of the right side line.

Once reunited in the swirly pool below a small little gorge and a couple little class 3 rapids wait for you above the last significant drop in this section.

Adam running through the boogie drops above the fourth drop.

The boogie rapids between the third and fourth drops are very nice because they offer you a small break before the crappiest freuqentley run drop on the run, numero cuatro. The fourth drop is very quirky and actually once figured out can be kayaked without even making any contact with any rocks, but what happens alot for most people is they role to the right slapping their paddle on the rocks.

Carlos doing what most people do, coming down on his right side.

While I was at the pelguin the flows were pretty nice the whole time, but I was told that at higher water this drop, number 4, is not run because the flow becomes more vertical and likes to piton you on a hidden rock in the landing. After this drop there are a couple options. You can either continue on down to the bridge having to deal with a jump portage or you can hike out just above the portage. On the day that I took all the photos that are posted above we actually did the full run, upper, middle , and lower.

Carlos below the jump-portage.

Paddling on down to the bridge, the standard take-out for the upper, we quickly paddled on bye and into the middle. The middle has always beeen known to be a bit of a beast and while I was there a lot of people were telling me that the middle was no longer any good. Not to long ago the main two drops in the middle suffered a bit of a natural phenomenon and the pool between the two main drops fell down. The result was the 1st drop, a 10 fotter into a 30 footer combined with the 2nd drop, a fourty footer, creating a drop somewhere in the realms of seventy to eighty feet. While people do run drops that big frequently this newly formed drop was being questioned for its depth and stability, and it also had a very stout 10 footer lead-in. Just above these newly changed drops there is another drop that has not changed and is still fairly challenging and fun, but I think that people were writing the middle off because they weren't willing to go in there and run one marginally good rapid, when it used to be three very nice but hard rapids.
A small speak of yellow on the center-right side of the picture, that is me coming into the lead-in for the "good drop" above the newly formed very large drop.
For me kayaking is about getting out there and seing new things, so to do this drop and then have to do a good size portage around the newly formed big falls was well worth it.
Here I am making the crux move of the drop. I ended up going really deep in the hole, losing my paddle, and having to do my first ever combat creek boat hands role.
After running this drop I quickly got out, because the monster drop was merking just below. I went and stood on the lip of this drop, the drop formed bye a natural phenomen, and I said to myself, "wow this is super large and very technical and will probably never ever be run". I said this because of how dificult the lead-in makes it to set up for the long 70-80 foot falls. But I was wrong, several weeks later once I had gotten back to the states I was surfing around online and found photos of people doing the 1st descent just a week or so after I left Chile.
http://samedeepwater.blogspot.com/2007/02/middle-palguin.html
http://clasecinco.blogspot.com/2007/02/el-nuevo-salto-de-palguin-medio.html
Kayaking is amazing and it is really cool how different people can see different things in the same river. Well lets see if we can finish this thing up. Just below that massive waterfall is the put-in for the lower. The lower starts of with four very nice class four rapids back to back to back to back. After that initial warm up it goes through a couple more boogie ledge drops and then finally the end is a nice little gorge and a super auto boof.

A photo of the boogie in the middle part of the lower.

The bottom of the lower is made up by a couple little gorges. The part that is run the most is called triple drop, below triple drop there is a very technical little gorge that is portaged because of some serious consequences. While I was there I only paddled the 1st two of the three drops that reside in triple drop although many people told me that the third one was also very good, I just didn't like the way it looked.

Carlos sitting pretty on the 1st of three.

The 1st and second part are separated by the slack water you see in the photo but it actually comes at you a lot quicker than you expect.
The 2nd drop being run with precision by our model, carlos.
Only running the 1st two we eddied out very fast and then began our walk around all the mank below triple drop to the final auto boof drop. I actually enjoyed the portage around the mank below triple drop very much because we went out into a field and crossed some fences, it was very beautiful and full of sun, that is it was sunny.

Adam going nicely into the auto-boof.

Putting back in above this last drop is very beautiful and there is a waterfall that is the last drop of the mank, there is also a lot of moss and greenness, as there always is in Chile.

The beauty above the Auto-Boof.

The last drop, auto-boof is very easy and fun, it takes you down a perfect ramp into a side curler that always launches you perfectly.

Carlos becomes one with the side-curler.

Well that is it for the Pelguin, hopefully you can see that it is an incredibly fun and beautiful river with many diversified types of rapids. Everyone go and go soon, the drops are falling down, just kidding.

This photo was taken from the take-out bridge.

RIO LLANCAHUE:
Lucky enough for me I was able to do a couple of the local classic runs while I was there. The ideal time for kayaking in Chile is Novemeber, that is when the most creeks are running although there is lots of kayaking there almost all the time. Another claasic run that I got to do was the LLancahue. As a bird flies the Llancahue is very close to Pucon, just on the other side of the Volcano, but driving it takes 2-3 hours to reach. It is a much smaller run than the Pelguin, but like most chilean rivers still has those classic clean boofs and waterfalls.

Ben dropping in on the 1st drop.

After getting there and seal-launching in below the bridge the 1st drop comes up very quickly. Although in this photo it looks pretty good it is not that good at this flow. The drop is more or less formed by a log that fell across the whole river, but it is still fun. Directly after that there is a quite large waterfall that was to low to run when we paddled this creek, but it does still have a hard move in it even if your not running it.
Ben demonstrating just how scary and hard the seal launch for this waterfall can be.

Most kayakers have fantasies about the perfect type of river and most of these ideas that they have usually originate from features that they have kayaked on different rivers. So if I had my ideal river this perfect waterfall on the LLancahue would defineley be part of it.

Ben Jamin right off the lip of the perfect waterfall.

When taking pictures of any river feature it is alwasy best to diversify your view as much as possible so that the audience can really understand the point you are trying to make. I hope its clear, this waterfall is awesome.

Praise the world this thing is fun, adam doing it up.

Well what else would you want on your little dream creek, that is if you were designing it, I'll take mini gorge for 800. That's right a little pushy mini-gorge with a crux move in it, don't you love Chile.

Ben In the lead adam following, all mini-gorged up.

Those two rapids;the mini-gorge and the falls were really my two favorite on the run but there was really quite a few other nice little rapids as well, a few that had a little push.

Ben leading down one of the punchy ones.

The Photo above was the entrance and what followed was a nice boofer off of a smacking side curler that wanted to throw you into some rocks.
Adam coming down el segundo parte, getting swallered up whole.
Those were really some of the main features of this river, there was definetley a few other nice ones but these photos give you a good idea of what was happening out there. As I said before the Llancahue is on the back side of the Volcano and can be reached by two ways. The day that I went there we drove both of the ways, the easy one there and the hard one back. There's another river for you, the LLancahue, it is delectable.

Driving back the hard way.

I just have a little tiny more and then I will be done. Right in the town of Pucon, well five minutes outside, is the river Trancora. The Trancora is very well known by everyone because it is the local raft run. I got to do the Trancora twice and both times were very fun. It is a pretty large river so it allows for a few options in terms of line choices. One Alternate line that I ran on my second time down was one that sets you in perfect line for a beautiful photo of the Volcano.

RIO TRANCORA:
The beautiful Volcano and if you look close there is a kayaker there as well.
Like most Chilean rivers there is one rapid that is most frequentley portaged by everyone, but run occasionally. I did not run it but we did get to run the stuff just below it which I think is called The Last Laugh.

Nice little boof set-up for the crux of the rapid.

There it is, those are the photos and stories I wanted to share about Chili, hope y'all enjoyed. I also wanna say thanks to all the people in Chili that helped make my time there easy and fun; Ben, Adam, Tom, Scott, Sergio, Jordan, The Germans, Jason, and many others.

Noticias, yo regrese

2007-02-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

I am now back in the states, that's right I am here in NC hanging out and passing time with my family. I may have not told everyone this but as a result of the little kayaking accident I had a couple months back in Peru, read the story here if you want http://bigwaternate.blogspot.com/2007/01/nada-nadie-tampoco.html, I am probably gonna be getting some surgery. I am still finding out exactly what happened and have a MRI scheduled for later this week and then I will know exactly what the deal is. I have mixed feelings about my knee right now, my whole life it has been a very good nice healthy and happy knee and it is funny that I would choose to hurt it right before I am coming home, which in effect is making me sit around a lot more, which is the opposite of what I had envisioned doing when I got home. Anyways I will figure it out I guess and all should be good. Hey folk hopefully I will see a lot of you soon. Aslo I wanna share another blog with everyone, it is a great kayaking blog but also a bit of an environmental blog that is , that is a environmentally conscious kayaker's blog it's real good, http://www.therangelife.blogspot.com/, check it out and enjoy. Bye Bye

Vida dulce

2007-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

Man oh man, what a rich experience this has been. Closing down now I will be returning home in about two weeks and I have no idea how I feel about that or anything else for that matter. I am super relaxed and with my brother and mom now in Buenes Aires(Good air) and man is it ever nice here. It is a super trendy European type city with lots of style and sensuality. Yesterday, in an effort to better fit in, I went and bought some super nice lenin pants and a shirt, it was quite fun. The guy in the store was trying to hook me up with the full get up right down to those funny looking European/Golf type shoes and a leather jacket as well, I just stuck with a belt, shirt, and some pants. Anyways I arrived here a couple days ago via a two day bus ride from Pucon, Chile, got to see some nice country. Bye now you probably know my opinion about Peru but damn oh damn Chile, Argentina little more expensive but good and fun in a different way. Nothing here or anywhere in the world should be nay-sayed or compared. It is not possible to say one experience or place is better than another, but it is possible to just let your self be and experience all, and probably accumulating preferences along the way, in this way you can share with people your experince giving them stories and knowledge without bias and allowing them to go do their own exploring. Open aired and open minded this city Buenes Aires is one of the most impressive cities I have ever visited, and I usually don´t like cities that much. Tonight me and my brother are gonna go out on the town with a couple of his friends, that is after we go eat at the best steak house in town, the steaks here are said to be the best in the world. Should be a good time.
Since I have left Peru I have not stopped talking about it although I am still in South America I miss Peru greatly, I chat Peru up with any person that´s willing. Well to my surprise I am also doing the same about Chile now. It was such a calm tranquil place with some of the nicest people I have ever met. When I was in Chile I ended up staying with Ben, a gringo that owns a small kayak shop and guide service in Pucon Chile,http://www.kayakchile.net/ , he was a super nice guy and took me kayaking a lot and even gave me work. He just recently brought property not far outside of pucon along side the palguen river, that is the river featured in all the pictures below this entry, the one with the nice waterfalls. Well he bought the land on the river right side from from the 1st waterfall down to the 3rd waterfall and this allows him to put-in on one of the most fun runs in chile from his back yard, pretty damn sick. Well the point of this story is that he hired me, because of my love of working with and carving wood, to build a super natural low damage to the environment trail along side the waterfalls, it was some of the funnest and most beautiful work I have ever done. It involved little bridges and staircases all made from natrual materials found on the site, excluding nails, it was awesome. More pictures of my travels will be coming soon, and when I get back to the states I will do a full trip recap with a bunch of pics. I guess that´s what I got for now look forward to seeing y´all and talking soon.
chou, nate

Chile is different and expensive, but as you can see there is reason enough to be happy

2007-01-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

Ok so here I am, I arrived in Chile. Chile is extremely different and much more expensive, but after kayaking here I have decided I like it for obvious reasons. I hope to get a couple days of boating in and then I will go to Buenes Aires, where my brother is currently at. So far I have done two rivers here, both phenomenol.

Ben the owner of Kayak Chile, getting a perfect boof on the second drop

This is the first drop on the palguin, you get to it after about 200 feet of paddling, kind of a nice put in.

Nice, nice boof by juan on the second drop, this one isn't scoutable, but good to go.
THE GERMANS ARE COMING-Michael from Germany getting her done on the 3rd drop of the run.
This is a nice photo and a good kayaker. This is 14 year old Franco from Argentina, this was his first time down the Pelguin and he ran everything, this one is the biggest.
This is the fourth drop, just above the portage, its a really wierd slot.
This is the portage, you don't have to jump portage it, but it is more fun.
Well that's about it, I am just chilling out here for a couple days running waterfalls. I have run out of money but have sold a bunch of kayaking gear so now I have enough money. I will return home with no kayaking gear, have to get all new stuff. It is ok though because it is better to leave gear here because it is very hard for the kayakers to get gear here in South AMerica. Allright ya'll take it easy and we will talk soon.
chou, nate

Holy mother+++++++++++++++++++!!!!!!!!!!

2007-01-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

I just completed the longest bus ride of my life, four days. I began this travel in Cusco Peru and finished in Pucon Chile which is about twelve hours south of Santiago. It is strange here. All of the impressions of south america that I have accumulated up to this point are from peru, therefore, I sort of had the idea that the rest of south america would be the same but that is not the case. Chile is like being in the states, it is expensive and I have no money. Anyways right now I am very tired and trying to find somewhere free to sleep. I feel like a pile of shit. The buses for the most part are comfortable but for some reason I am never able to sleep on them, I don´t know. Anyways I guess that will do for now, it was a wild bus ride is the bottom line and lots of fun. I will kayak here for a week and then I wil go to Buenas Aires to see my brother and mom. Ya´ll take care now and I will see you soon.
chou.

Yo ire a chile

2007-01-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will start my 3 day bus journey to santiago chile and south of this as well, I will only be there for a week or two but it should be fun. I have no money, but some how I will get there. El dios pagan. The gods will pay, some how I will make it. Overall things are well now, I have been hanging out in cusco the last two weeks. My kayaking friends have gone home now and I have just been resting my knee and hanging out. I met a pretty cool girl from vermont and have been haning out with her alot so that has been fun, it is really cool how you meet people from everywhere when you are traveling around, it is a small world. My brother is moving to Buenas Aires, Argentina for 5 months and he will arrive there in a couple days, I look forward to meeting my brother there as well as my mom, and after that my trip will be more or less done. I will meet my mom in B.A. and me and my mom will hang out there for awhile and then we will come to cusco and I will show my mom everything that I love here. I will be back in the states on feb. 23, I am not sure if I look forward to this or not. I have become so at home here, I love it. I have some very good friends in cusco now and generally I have a really good knowledge of this place, it is home. I think I am good at being comfortable basically everywhere I go and this is certainly no exception. I miss people in the states and the states but already have plans to come back here a lot. Well that´s all for now.
Hablamos mas tarde
chou nate

Nada, nadie, tampoco

2007-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Well things have been pretty good down here. I passed the ne year and christmas here sucessfully with my friends, what a good time. One of my friends went home today and the other has a couple weeks more, unfortunatley he is bed-ridden sick right now. I myself am also taking a bit of a break, due to a little mishap I had in the river a week ago. Well we had to formulate ourself a big plan that would last us at least a week, so what we came up with after much recomendation and research was a tour into the sacred valley exploring 1st descents and the beautiful scenery. We started in Cusco with a cool entry into the sacred valley, we would make a 1st d down into the sacred valley via the Huarocondo village and river. We arrived in Huarocondo via a hired taxi and saw that the river was not exactly tolerable water quality, so we decided to drive downstream and see what we saw so we would know what was in store. We soon came to some descent whitewater and put in. The Hourocondo turned out to be a good way to enter the sacred valley offering class 4+ rapids at most, but very continous and fun. We arrived in the Urubamba and paddled 7 k´s of flat water to arrive in the town of Ollantaytambo, where I had seen another creek that looked fairly descent quality. We got ourselves a hostal and then the next day set out to hike up to some old ruins and scout the creek, all was good. The game plan was on for the next day to do this creek, we saw a couple pretty nice rapids from the road and it gave us a lot of excitement. We put on the creek which we knew contained a lot of low hanging brush, but surprisingly no real strainers. This turned out to be one of the most amazing creeks I have ever done, this is how it went down. Duck stay low through some brush, while making class 3 moves, then the brush opens up and you are faced with a technical class IV horizon line. Luckily this creek was in all pretty safe but we did end up running some pretty big drops blind like a 12 foot fading waterfall, it was fun. After this we were pumped and excited to do more, due to the level of the urubamba we were not able to further paddle it because it is riddled with class V that at this time of year is amazing just to see.

Here is a nice picture demonstrating the creek type.
After completing this creek we headed to Machu Pichu via the train with our boats on board. We passed two days in Machu Pichu, a truly terrible town due to all the torism and then headed to Santa Teresa was again via the train. Arriving at the end of the train lines we took trucks in the screaming rain to santa teresa. It turned out that the truck that took us was also the owner of a hostal, so we ended up using this truck as our shuttle driver and staying in his hostal. We spent the afternoon scouting this creek and decided we would embark early in the morning. The river was the Sacsahara and to our knowledge would be a 1st descent. This creek turned out to be one of the hardest creeks we had ever done. Unfortunatley I took a bad swin within the 1st 3 k´s and lost all my gear. This wasn´t really a creek, this is how brad described it and I agree. The creek had more of a river flow with creek moves, it was hard. The swim was long and I was all alone, during the swim I took a pretty big scare and encountered a bit of foot entrapment, I was able to get out of it, but am experinecing a lot of knee trouble now. I have gone to the doctor and got a splint and what not and they say I stretched it way out and maybe tore a little stuff in my knee, so now I am just taking it easy. My kayaking in South America might be done for this trip but I will definetley return, and I am still gonna travel to chile, where I might paddle as well. Anyways the sacsahara river turned out to be amazing and truly hard, we also found that in the afternoon the creek virtually doubles in size due to snow melt. I never found my boat and probably won´t. I am not sure what I will do with the rest of my time here but certainly have a bit of traveling left, I am taking it super easy for about fifteen days and hopefully after that my knee will feel about full strength again, we will see. At the begining of feb. I will be in Buenos Aires with my mom and brother and definteley looking forward to that. Right now I am just chilling out and getting my knee back so I can walk normal again. Well I guess that will do for now. Hope everyone is having fun and relaxed, that is one thing that I have learned down here is how to truly enjoy myself and relax.
chou, nate

Muy pronfundo pensando

2006-12-20T11:07:00.000-08:00

What say I, things are good. Life here is relaxed and fun I am really enjoying how relaxed I feel down here. My friends are down here and we are getting some paddling done. We did a cool creek the other day that was recomended to me by a peruvian but also said to be a first descent. So as it turns out we did a first descent of an absolutely amazing creek perhaps one of the best creeks I have ever done. Getting there was a slow half a day affair. First we took a cheap bus to a small town about a hour away, pisaq. From Pisaq we hired a taxi and got a ride down into the neighboring valley, this drive was between two and three hours and at one point took us over a 13,000+ foot pass, it was cool. We landed in our aimed town and spent the night in an old farm, the villagers came around both then and early in the morning as well. They helped us put in at
around 8 in the morning and we paddled out of their beautiful farm valley into the unknown. In about twenty minutes we did come to a couple jumbly rapids, class 3, but this was just a sign of what was to come. After coming through a couple rapids we all made a nice five foot slot boof and that was when things started to get good. From there on out it was continous read and run 3/4 with maybe a five or two. We came down a couple nice boofs around a corner and we got to run a sliding ten foot water fall and then we realized well crap were in a bit of a canyon. I scouted the next rapid and declared it marginal, but of course this rapid was a guard to the canyon. Because there was no good way to portage this rapid and then get back in the river afterwards, the only way was to bail up to a road about five hundred feet up a big hill/cliff. Well this is what we did, it took us about three hours and involved 5.7 rock climbing moves on a 300 foot exposed cliff, but overalll we all got up to the road find with the help of some friendly peruvians. What we saw once we got up is that after that canyon, if we had run that drop and gone further we would have been forced to run a quarter mile long unscoutable box canyon, wow, peru is awesome. This creek was truly amazing and even more so that it was a first descent. Well that is my biggest happenings right now, chou, nate.

Pasando tiempo y esperando

2006-12-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

My friends will be arriving here tomorrow so I thought I would say howdy and post a couple more photos before I depart for my kayaking travels. Things have been very well here the rainy season has really started to pick up, which of course I enjoy. Anyways been doing a bit of thinking about my total schooling experience here and just realizing how good it has been . I already miss everyone a lot even though it has only been a week, I think I miss everyone because I am living in a foreign culture and I got custom to moving about this culture with my friends from school and now that's gone. But things are alright overall, ok I guess that's all for now. Enjoy the photos.
This is our last day of work at Mantay and gives you an idea of what was accomplished, nice walls, eh.
This is just a funny picture that I like taken at one of the ruins along the way on the Inca trail. What a beautiful flower.
This is some type of moose looking creature chewing some grass in the false summit of the large pass on the Inca Trail.
This is elizabeth and I hiking along the Inca Trail, climbing up the 13,700 foot pass, it was a lot of work on the lungs.

Random photos of my family in NC and peru fotos.

2006-12-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

I really like this photo so here it is, this is me, my brother, and my dad, more or less all good people.

My semester is done, termino, and some photos.

2006-12-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

This is taken at Moray, the first ruins that we visited. A cool group photo.
A beautiful view from Pacca Huaynacolca, looking down into the Sacred Valley.
Another beautiful photo of mantay, what a cool place, a cool day, and a cool photo.
This is Maritza, my peruvian mother, as you can see she is great.
This is mantay and all the women that live there, this is our final day group photo, a truly good bunch of people.
This is our last day of working at the service project, mantay, it was truly a very fun experience and I may go work there a little bit more because I have some free time before my friends show up from the states.

Mas fotos

2006-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

This is Carol and Mauricio my Peruvian brother and sister. This is in Mauricio's room
This is Christo Blanco, the giant Jesus statue that overlooks Cusco.
The incredible, beautiful, and very deep canyon of the Apurimac River. This is one of the safety boaters running the hardest rapid on this section and as you can see he's taking the beat down. I didn't run this rapid.
Group photo taken in Pisac which. There are some very cool ruins in Pisac as well as one of the best artisan markets around. Pisac is located up the valley from Ollantaytambo.
This is a foto taken in ollantaytambo, these are some very cool ruins, and this is about half of my group sticking their heads out of some windows in the ruins.
This photo is taken in pacca huaynacolcca which is an extremely small village that overlooks the sacred valley. We went here are first weekend and finished up a service project that the group from last semester had started. It was a very beautiful place.

Imaginar Este

2006-11-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

This Is a self-portrait that I took while hiking along the Inca Trail
These are finally the pictures I promised ranging from just about every experience I have written about since down here in Peru and a couple from back home in North Carolina. Enjoy and have fun. This is me resting in front of Mach Picchu, this is one of my favorite pic's.

Que Bueno

2006-11-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well alright then I have been quite busy lately on a side note, I just read my brothers blog, www.zacharyleschhuie.blogspot.com, and it has inspired me to as my peruvian mother would say in her strangled english, speak good. My bro's blog is truly amazing and even contains pictures, the things that I continue to promise I will some day put here in this blog.
Well as far as what has been happening in my life lately, a whole hell of a lot. I just got back from one of the best hikes and experiences in my life, the Inca Trail. This is four days of hiking and on the final day you arrive in machu pichu, one of the most spiritual beautiful and greatest places I have ever been, despite the massive amounts of gringos everywhere and tourists alike. This was an extremely hard hike composed of total ups and downs, up a mountain, down a mountain. The hike was made harder because all the ups and downs are composed of steps, some of which are original Incan steps. Hiking the Inca trail nowadays is estremely regulated and you have to have a guide and porters. In the past there was no regulations and the are and the trail was getting trashed so the government came in and created regulations, which I think is for the better. The porters are only allowed to carry a certain amount and only so many people are allowed to hike it each day and these type of things. Down there in the sacred valley which is where the hike begins is the urubamba river which at this time was extremely flooded and awesome, the normal class 4/5 section was absolutely burly and I got to see the whole thing riding in a train along side it. I am very excited about my friends coming here from the states in a few weeks and then I will begin my kayaking journeys in Peru and Chile. Good stuff.
Well my classes are winding down and I have began writing papers, which eventually are in Spanish. First I do all my research and then I write my papers in Spanish, after that I spend a lot of time converting the paper from english to spanish. I have already written one paper for my development class and it was about the type of ethics, ideas, and philosophies that people have about doing development work in what are usually poorer countries and also about if development work is truly ever helpful. I really enjoyed writing it and giving a presentation about it in class, a very good time.
Tomorrow will be our last day working in Mantay, the house for adolescent mothers, and today we had sort of a good bye party and celebration of our good work there. I really have enjoyed my time there. There is some type of phenomenon that exists here which is that whenever I go into the country or in less touristy type places, I am gawked at, laughed at, and generally have a good time with the locals. I ask them why they are laughing at me and usually present that they are probably laughing at me because I am a very tall gringo, which makes them laugh even more. I really like this dynamic. At mantay all the young mothers there do the same. They are very shy and if I joke with them or try to interact with them they always laugh and shy away, it's quite funny. Today during our little party I eventually built up the courage to dance with one of these girls, after dragging her across the floor and then her having to coax me as well we danced. This was very funny as all the other girls were laughing at us and just generally an embarrassingly good time. I think this new building that we have helped construct for these ladies will be quite helpful. Well I guess that is more or less my present life. I am feeling poopy again, literally, so on monday I am gonna go get a blood test to see if I got anything living in there because this has been going on for while.
Everyone in my program is a little sad because we are realizing how little time we have left I feel very fortunate to be down here traveling for another 2/3 months after my school ends. Well ya'll take it easy and enjoy yourselves.
Love, nate

Realizando el diferencias entre me estilo de vida

2006-11-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I just had a realization that this is the first time I have truly lived with parental type figures since I was 16. That is had people that kept a very close eye over me and care about what I am doing at all times, it is kind of strange. I am very used to doing what I want when I want and I just realized that I have been basically doing that anyways wether my family likes it or not. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am realizing that I would like to in some portion take in their concerns and desires towards my happenings and activities. Knowing that I only have a couple weeks left living with my family I really want them to be ones of good solid communication where we are growing closer rather than apart. I do feel closer with my family now that any time before, that feels good. I really like it down here it is such a relxed culture, and I am so much more calm now than I was before. In the last couple months I have been very uptight and defensive towards the people around me, and resulting to anger quickly, but now I have found my place of peace here. Last night it felt real good because I was able to have a small dispute with a taxi driver and remain calm, I told him everything I knew, he reciprocated and that was that, although eventually I knew I was not gonna pay him anymore so I just got out and closed the door. It was just nice to be calm and able to construct pretty solid thoughts in Spanish, because usually when I get made here I start going off in English which does no help for me and certainly no help for the other person because neither of us can understand eachother. Been having lots of dreams about the states and my friends there I am onviously thinking about it a lot. We are getting right into the rainy season now and it basically rains every day at least for an hour, it is also getting very hot. Well alright then.
Hablamos pronto.
-nate

Descansa, pero mas cosas hacere'

2006-11-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well Lately has been pretty relaxing. I am basically recovered from my career as a modern artist in the form of fecal matters, which is nice. All of my friends from the states except for one have returned home and the one left is just traveling around and seeing the country. I ended up buying a kayak from one of my American friends so I have a kayak to take with me to Chile, which I hope to sell in Chile when I am done kayaking and make my money back. I have been talking alot with my other friends from the states that are going to come down here in December, we have got a pretty good plan of assault for kayaking the rivers of Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
School is in its final stretches and I will be wrting papers for 3 out of 4 of my classes, all of which will be in Spanish and around 5-10 pages, wow. I am really starting to realize how much I like it here and how much I am going to miss my current lifestyle and the people here. I have been going to a lot of birthday parties lately both of people in my school and the Peruvian sisters of other students in the program. It is cool to see the difference in traditions between such ritualistic activities as gift giving and celebrations. I really enjoy different traditions and will incorporate new traditions into my lifestyle.
Last weekend I went on an incredible hike and I got to see some cool looking creeks. The hike started in the last original incan town, that has a big name I cannot pronounce, and headed up a beautiful valley. No one really visits these ruins so it was a really unique quiet and original experience. It was one of my favorite activities thus far and I really enjoyed being up there on this mountain looking eye level at the clouds. There was a little family and a bunch of little kids up there and they kept laughing at me. We had surplus food so I made each of the six kids sandwichs and I kept joking around with them. After I gave them sandwichs I went up into the ruins to check them out, then all the little peruvian kids came up into the ruins and I spent ten minutes chasing them around and laughing and having fun. I love having these experiences with the locals, priceless stuff. Well I guess that's it for now, I am going to hike the Inca Trail this week and am really looking forward to that, it will be a four day hike. Everyone have fun and love life, I love it here but I also miss those familiar places, faces, and friends. Everyone take care
Love, nate

Mas o Menus

2006-10-24T10:51:00.001-07:00

Well in the last month a lot has happened. I have been able to break away in my free time and do a little kayaking, which has been fabulous. I really am not sure what experience to recall over another but they certainly have all been good. Something interesting to note is, about two days ago I got see my first dead person up close and personal. I was riding in a taxi and saw a guy laying aon the sidewalk with a couple people gathered around, I was able to see his eyes very well, and this made it clear that he had moved on. I asked the taxi driver to confirm, ¨Que Piensas de persona, el es muerte¨. The taxt driver calmly replied inbetween conversation with his friend who was riding in the back, ¨si¨. I guess that´s that but it was pretty crazy. The last week I had 8 days of vacation which was fantastic but once I cam back to Cuzco I realized how much I really like it here.
My vacation of course entailed of kayaking. There are some folks I know from Colorado that are down here right now doing a month and a half boating trip so I have been able to hang out with them and paddle with them. It has been very good because they have traveled extensively in SOuth America before so they a few of the local bad-ass peruvian kayakers. The kayaking was awesome, I got to do the rio cotahuasi, which just happens to be the deepest canyon in the world. Getting this done was no small task, the white water was certainly not extremely hard, but what is hard about the rivers in Peru are the ridiculous logistics and the fact that you are totally isolated if anything was to happen.
The trip ran something like this.
Step 1=Take a 12 hour over-night bus ride to Arequipa and meet my friends at a very kayaker friendly hostel.
Step 2= Do all the logistics, get the food, the beta, the shuttle, etc. worked out
Step 3=Get to the river
Step 4=Do the river with fun and safety
Step 5=Come back to Arequipa decompress for 24 hours
step 6=go back to cusco
All went without a hitch. Getting to the river from Arequipa is quite the adventure in itself. 1st we took a 12 hour bus to the town of cotahuasi where we then waited a couple hours till morning and got the local town bus to take us 30 minutes to the river. Once at the river we met our burros and put all our kayaks and gear on them so that we didn´t have to carry 80 lbs. of shit for a five hour walk. It is neccessary to do this walk because you must portage around what they said to be a 100 meter waterfall. It was a beutiful hot walk. One of the greatest parts about this trip is we had a local bad-ass peruvian kayaker with us, so he showed us all the cool sites in the canyon and also allowed to move swiftly down the river. The first day of whitewater was fantastic mostly class 3 and 4 with one rapid that we scouted. That night we camped above a stomping little half mile long class 4 gorge. There was incan terraces constructed all along side of this canyon so we were able to easily walk and check everything out. That night while I awoke and vomited up my meal which would be the begginning of the worse case of dirreaha I have ever experienced. Luckily I was able to have some energy for the next day because this was the day with all the good whitewater. Me and my friend chris peeled out of camp befoe everone else and blasted the canyon real fast got to the bottom walked back up and shot video and made pictures of our buddies coming down the canyon. That day we paddled alot of good whitewater, man it was fun. A couple real nice long rapids with moves to make along the way and then some little puchy rapis with stompy holes. All in all it was beautiful kayaking with ridiculous scenery. Peru is extreme in every way, the landscape is as rough as anything around and being able to be in the heart of some serious history as far as the development of this canyon goes was pretty sweet. That night we finished all the white water came out of the canyon and paddled a couple miles of boogie to get to a nice sandy beach. We camped gorged out and relaxed, happy with what we had done. Right when I was about to fall asleep my buddy milo suddenly appears abut 10 feet from my sleeping bag and starts vomiting, this was probably a sign of what was to come for me except I would be using the other big hole of my body. The next morning I awoke feeling a little poopy and began my shitting spree, painting the earth everywhere I went. I was able to easily make the last hour paddle out where we stopped and waited for our shuttle. After about 2 hours our ride came with cold beers, coke, and sprite. The drive back to Araquipa was 8 hours, 4-5 on the worst road ever where our speed never peeked 20 miles an hour and then 3 hours on a good highway. This was the worst ride of my life. ¨If we don´t stop soon I am gonna shit all over this car¨. It worked out ok in the end it just required a little pacience from my friends while I sat on the side of the road blowing my brains out. A day of rest did me well, it wasn´t long before I was eating again. I came back to Cusco and managed not to shit all over that return bus with the help of a diarrea pill. Well that basically does some justice to how fantastic the trip was, it was awesome.
Now I am here for only about a month more my plans are coming togethor for the months after december, because I will be staying down here until March and kayaking. Various different friends from the states are gonna come down and meet me as well so its looking to be pretty good. I don´t know about the money side of it but I will figure out, maybe I will sale cocaine (just kidding KSC). Well I guess I am satisfied for now. Everyone have fun, keep on keeping on, and ety some pecan pie for me.
chou

2006-10-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

wet sponge

2006-10-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well I haven´t written anything in almost a month, but I have done, experienced and seen the most in this last month. Needless to say I have been having a good time. I will make some big entres soon, but for now I only wanted to leave a couple thoughts. I will also put some photos up soon.
To be able to be here is the best.
To have this experience and to remember this experience.
I said this is what I wanted, I got it, perfect.

But for me what counts most is to allow this experience to have me I am in the grasps of something else here, allowing myself not to judge what I do in the moment but solely reflect on it later, that is to say I am reevaluating my morals and ideas and seeing what I see with clear eyes and nothing else.

Today I laughed more than I have in awhile with total strangers, it felt great, it was honest, it was the best type of communication. Settled with what I have and seeing more.

Quiet Time

2006-09-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

This week has been very reflective. I have had a lot of happenings and realizations about my direction in life and how to establish it or accept it and also about the importance and value that relationships have to me. The other night my friend and I had a conversation about how people use the idea of control to create a false sense of security in their lives, and I basically agree with this concept. I see that we can certainly contribute to how we feel but for the most part if we decide to relax and take in the experience in an accepting manner then our experience will likely be more fun and more peaceful, easier. For me this feeling derived out of feeling like I wanted something that was clear to me and then not exactly getting what I wanted. The want that I had was in regards to a relationship and sharing experiences intimatley with someone. In the past these type of thoughts, that is wanting something from someone else would be farely contradictory for how I say I like to live my life. It has generally been my belief that I am the only one responsible for creating the experience that I want, I still feel that way, but I also see that opening up with others I can create more of me by sharing and talking with them. Esentially I am saying that they contribute to my growth, I am not saying they are resonsible for it, but certainly help me realize it. I am thankful for all my experiences and occurences, new friendships and passions are a blessing.
Every day more and more I like Peru. I feel very established here and generally I move about this foreign environment feeling very comfortable and happy. It is esentially about having fun and experiencing the experience. School is getting better starting to put a little more energy into and also planning for some free time that I have coming up. Certainly My goal is to go kayaking but we will see what happens.
This past weekend we worked more on our project and did a lot of site seeing. The project that we are working on is coming along nicely. On friday we began pouring concrete supports, it is really cool to see. I have always enjoyed and appreciated manual labor but there is something here that feels extremely good about it. Working with local peruvians knowing that they are shaping forming and working with concrete the way they have for hundreds maybe thousands of years, and it still is just as effective as it ever was. The amount of tools these workers have is extremely few and it is really cool to watch the way they use their resources. I really enjoy the project. We visited many Incan sites this weekend my favorite of which would have to be Pisac. The scale of this thing was amazing. It is a series of terraces, storage facilities, holy grounds, watchtowers, and used to be homes. It is really cool. Located in th sacred valley scaling the whole side of a mountain it gives you a vantage point looking up and down the urubamaba river valley. Understanding the incans agricultural practices and religous beliefs is amazing. From what I know about cultures the Incans would be the most sophisticated society out there. They definetley took their time and did things right. Also located in Pisac is a humongous market of mostly handcrafted items. Very fun to walk around and see everything. I always feel a little funny bartering with these peole but I also feel ok about it. My dilemna with it is that I have lots of money and generally I am bartering with a people that don´t have much. At the same time though I understand that this bartering process is part of the economy and I am giving them what it is actually worth. I like to blend in with the culture as much as possible and see what people are doing accepting and experiencing them.
Well that is it for now. I look forward to traveling and kayaking in the near future, exciting stuff.
-nate

see alot, hear alot, experience alot

2006-09-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well this past week has been pretty damn exciting. I started my other classes, which are all focused on Peru and South America. The classes are politics, art and history, and development.
I really enjoy the combination because they are all very closely linked and we get a lot of similiar information which I think is good because I am going to really understand the complete history of Peru. At first the classes were very overwhelming because they are all taught in spanish so the amount that I am absorbing is small but I am still doing a lot of imprtant learning. My Spanish is improving daily by leaps and bounds and I really love the people and the language. My Peruano mom rides me hard and helps me make sure I have the correct pronunciation, I love her.
Overall I feel very content right now, I feel my balance between work and studying is good and just the way I am relating to the people feels very comforting. We have done a lot more work on our project and it is certainly coming along. There are a couple peruvians working on it as well, as they are the skilled laborers. This past weekend we moved probably close to 350 wheel barrol loads of dirt, it is really good work. The mothers of the communitty where we are doing the project made us lunch one day and it was fantabulous. I think these women really respect the work we are doing, and I really respect the work they are doing, which is learning how to raise a child at an extremely young age. The next couple weeks we have different activities on the weekends so we won´t be working on the project but I look forward to going back.
On a lighter note I saw and experienced some pretty wild things this week. Last monday all us students went out for the night, had dinner and went dancing. So at around 2 in the morning I was walking one of my friends home who happened to be extremely drunk and were approached by two men. As we were walking down this very narrow street (alley) I felt these two men´s presence gaining on us so I decided rather than feel uncomfortable with them behind me we would stop and let them pass, so we did. When we stopped they slowly approached us and one of them began to beg for money.(There is a common tactic among pick pockets where one will destract you and the other will steal your money) As the one was asking for money I saw the others hand begin to creep toward my firends purse. I don´t know what happened but I had a total gut fear type reaction. I immediatley pushed the pick pocketer very hard away from us and started yelling at him like crazy and cussing, I then proceeded to chase these two men down the alley yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs. The end result was that I was very riled up and energized other than that nothing happened. My friend had not seen the one mans hand drifiting toward her purse so she probably thought that I had absolutely lost my mind as she saw me screaming and yelling at these two men, non the less it was an experience worth remembering. Generally the people down here are very peaceful people and are not looking to create violence but mereley just to obtain easy money.
Another experience worth noting happened not very far from my house and right next to the office of the program I am in Peru with. The students at the university went on strike and barracaded themselves inside the gates of the college. It all seemed very organized, with marching, chanting, and a list of what they wanted taped to every wall possible. It was very interesting to observe, but was over within 24 hours. My mom said that kind of stuff is pretty common, but usually not always that succesful.
Well I guess for now that is the majority of what I want to say. I really enjoy the people and culture and look forward to living here for several more months.
Hablamos pronto
-nate

The week to be awe struck

2006-09-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

This last week has been filled with very vivid images and memories. I have gotten to witness and partake in many eye-opening, fun, and crazy activities. The first one that comes to mind is a dirt-bike(motorcyvle tour) I decided to take leaving from cusco and going down into the sacred valley. It was just me and my guide riding our motorcycles at high rates of speed on very ill maintained dirt roads. We passed through several small villages one at which we were forced to stop and wait because the town was having a march/parade to celebrate the virgin mary, so we just sat there on our bikes and watched the people walk by and look at us funny. We then proceeded on our ride and headed down a very long twisty mountain road into the sacred valley and this is where it got real interesting. We came to a large patch of mud where I decided it would be best to go right through the meat of it. We spent the next two hours getting my bike out of the mud. During this time I got to see my guide strip down to his underpants and come into the mud with me, also many local villagers walking by and laughing and eventually a villager that helped us. We finally got the bike out but to no avail. Water had gotten in the air filter so the end result was that my guides boss came and pulled him all the way back to cusco using another motorcyle and a rope while I rode in back on my guides bike. It was quite the experience and now I have a peruvian friend( my guide) and I am sure neither I nor him will forget that experience very soon.
My family life has been very fun, the last couple days I have been talking wtih my mother about different customs in different countries, such as farting. We have decided that it is not respectful for me to fart in front of people. It seems now it is her goal to turn me into a respectful young gentleman by prompting me to use a napkin and things like that. My family is great.
This past weekend we started our semester long development project. Our project is to build a new workshop at a home for teenage mothers where the mothers are taught how to raise their children. A big part of the income for the home for these mothers comes from their production of hand goods such as bags, purses, and other things. Their workshop is extremely small and really not a good working environment so we are building them a bigger better one, the american way. The atmosphere of this place is amazing I think I officially decided that if I ever want kids I will be adopting because just being around these kids showed me how many kids there are in the world who are craving to be loved by someone, granted the environment these kids are in is very good considering the situation. The mothers age anywhere from 13-15 and some of them have kids that are two years old or older. It is easy to tell that the directors of this program/house have put their heart and soul into every piece of it. It is truly a great place.
Well my spanish learning continues and I start my other classes this week, history of peru, anthropology of peru, and a class focused on the issues of doing development work. I am pretty excited and nervous considering they will be completely in spanish, but this is why I came to be heavily immersed in the culture, the language, and the people all of which I am getting.
All for now
Hablamos pronto
-nate

Experience Peru

2006-08-31T06:39:00.000-07:00

I arrived in cusco peru on sabado the 26 of Agosto after 24 hours of travel. I was extremely tired and was immediatley greeted by johnny one of the coordinators of pro world, the service corps that is essentially hosting me in peru. The organization ProWorld is extremely cool. From all the people I have ever talked to about studying abroad I would say that this is by far the most intensive hands on program out there. Within this first week I have felt every kind of emotion. I am living with a Peruano Familia and they are awesome. I really enjoy living with them, mostly it is great fun, there are times when I don´t really want to speak becasue to really communicate with them I use the spanish dict frequently. My spanish has already vastly improved and I want more. My classes are extremely intensive and probably the most intensive classes I have ever taken in my life. The other volunteers(that´s what us students are called) seem to be all pretty cool, right now we have alternating class schedules but soon we will have classes togethor and I am sure I will get to know them a little better. Usually I don´t consider myself a city person but cusco is amazing and very cheap. I can take a combi(a van packed with people) for approximatley .15 cents any where in the city. The second day I was here we did a little site seeing to very cool incan agricultural site, called Moray. I don´t know exactly how old this place was but pretty darn old. Moray consists of natural sink holes that the incans dicovered, were talking a couple hundred feet deep. SOme how they figured out that there were different temperatures in the seink holes depending on how high or low you were in them. Then they proceeded to build terraces at about 6´ increments all the way up the sink holes. After that they decided they would genetically engineer some corn. The elevation of these sink holes is approximatley 10,000 feet which is to high for corn but because of the extreme temp. change in the sink holes they could start the corn in the bottom where it is hotest and slowly move it up the terraces where it would have time to adjust to the new climate. It has been found that between the bottom and top of the sink holes there is about a 20 degree temp fidderence, crazy stuff. Anyways I will start doing some service work this weekend and I look forward to that. I have made contact with a raft company that says I can basicaaly paddle with them for free if my skills are good, I look forward to doing that my first weekend free of activities. All for now
Talk to you soon.

Week 15

2006-05-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

It is the last week of class and the sun is a shining. I feel very accomplished with this semester and will begin studing for Larry's exam on tuesday. I am quite relaxed about it but that is because of the attitude I have toward learning. I know that I will get everything done as I need to and things that are meant to fall in to place will. To clarify though in this view I also understand that I can have a signifigant effect on my environment and help mold and shape it to meet my wants. I look forward to studying abroad next semester and then coming back and dwelving back into psychology with more of a cultural perspective.

Week 12, 13, and 14

2006-05-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

These last couple weeks of school flowed togethor rather quickly and I felt like we were done. It was funny that Larry saved issues surrounding sex for the last thing to talk about it. What is funny about larry is that he willingly participates himself in all the topics we talk about. He uses examples of his behavior to exemplify disorders that we talk about, for ex. ADD. The class room environment can be very interactive if the students choose to make it so. My learning is signifigantly enhanced in larry's classes because he makes a conserted effort to relate the material to us and intertwines stories about himself. The last couple classes were also quite enjoyable because Larry turned the floor over to us to let us show off our knowledge and demonstrate what we had learned. He was very clear ahead of time with what he expected and gave us good opportunitty and time to be ready to give short presentations to the class. The presentations were extremely amazing because people shared lots of information about themselves, family, and friends in regards to the disorders they were presenting. People really involved themselves in understanding these disorders and for a couple people you could tell it was quite emotional to be talking about it. Also more interesting was that some of the disorders people spoke off were occuring at the present time and in essence them giving a presentation about it may have helped them to be able to better understand it. Something I enjoy watching is the stigmas that people have about themselves and how quickly they come to life when they stand in front of a group of people. For example one presenter when they were done talking made the comment that they were not good at these kinds of things, the funny thing about it was that they gave one of the most comprehensive in-depth presentations. Something that I learned about recently is that when we talk to a group of people we are in essence talking to ourselves, the way we communicate with the group directly reflects the way we communicate with ourselves. So if someone has a low self-esteem that it was they will try to portray. They may not say they are trying to do it but in reality they are because if they didn't they would have to restructure their whole belief system about themselves. Overall this semester I have learned that talking about my beliefs and ideas is critical. In doing this I am able to become familiar with others opinions and better understand my own. That is probably what I have enjoyed most about Larry's class because when I go to his class I am as relaxed as I am when I go hang out at a friends house. I am excited to hear him talk and see how he relates the topic to himself and the students. His teaching exemplifies participatory learning and allows the student to take an active role if they wish.

Abnormal week 11

2006-04-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

Particularly struck this week with depression, that is the study of. We talked much this week about different types of depression and how they can be intertwined and how complex properly diagnosing someone and treating them can be. I found it quite interesting when people may be experiencing dysthymia as well as a major depression and how these two stages overlap. This would be reflected in an individual who has a particularly crappy mood all the time and then every once in awhile has a super crummy mood and feel like total shit. Basically depression and these states are negative thoughts and moods sometimes developing into schemas, or particular attitudes or beliefs about something. What seems to be most affective to me would be to help people integrate these negative thoghts and understand their root but knowing that the present feelings you have are of more relevance than these past behaviors and beliefs. I would say that this approach of cutting off these thoughts before they start would be particularly unhelpful and inaffective because it may eliminate a very big part of that person that they have gotten to know through depression. In fact depression may be the way that they acclimate themselves to an environment. So basically what I am encouraging is helping people understanding the roots of these feelings recognizing there prevalence in the past and then moving on with new ideas and beliefs that reflect new forming schemas. I would support this happening preferably without the use of drugs as I think that can be particularly confusing for some people, and create feelings which may not be true to their own. The power is all ready there its the desire that may sometimes need help to be cultivated.
-nate

abnormal week 9 and 10

2006-03-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well week nine was spring break and that was quite nice and good to take a bit of a break, be away from school and choosing to think about it very little. Well Happy to return though week 10 started out good. Of course larry had interesting things to talk about from his vacation in Hawaii, he does seem to really involve himself in the world and capture some amazing things. He began to talk about the fact that students are bored and what can we do about this? I sort of began to agree with him as well, but viewing boredom as the vessel for behavior not as the motive. My thought was that cultural/ societal expectations play into this heavily because we are all born and immediatley told how to behave if we want to be respected by the ones around us, then we must comply with them, in the beginning, because that is survival. But when we get older it seems that people still are completely invested in this following expectations of family or peers or better yet money. So people remove themselves of their desires and seek what is pointed to as being important, often removing their own importance. So in class they are not there because they want to be, a select few are, but because they are told this is the means to hapiness and this what they must do. I'd say that's partly true for me but also I enjoy learning immensely. I connect further with myself by taking classes that inspire me to ask questions of why and why not. I have enjoyed looking for the creation of things beyond people's beliefs and into the heart of foundation for those beliefs. I am generally a selfish person I do whats best for me rarely moving beyond that unless it somehow benefits me. What I enjoy most though is acting on my behaviors and feeling with love.
-nate

Abnormal week 8

2006-03-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

Another fun week with larry. This week we talked about anxiety disorders and panic attack. Both of these I find particularly interesting because I have not ever chosen to experience either. Even the very idea of them seems very foreign to me because I place a lot of power in my power to think and deconstruct my feelings and I believe that anxiety disorders and panic attacks often come from ones inablity to trust themselves and their feelings. I know that I can organize and express my feelings mostly consciously and that I don't choose attacks or disorders to do this. It seems strange to me that panic attacks would suddenly happpen with no previous signs, because they seem so scripted, the symptoms are so standardized. I bring this up because I feel like one has to learn how to have a panic attack because they are such an elaborate process. Also another thing about a diagnosis is it gives the person permission to have the symptom it becomes an acceptable release. In the beginning it is questioned and maybe even medications are prescribed but the end result is that when they happen regularly they are dealt with and accepted as being "panic attacks", which are seemingly out of the persons control, rather than treated as unconscious emotion and anxieties expressing temselves. This is mostly the issue I take with any kind of diagnosis because they pigeon hole people into categories of feeling and their whole being begins to get structured around this disorder or attacks that they experience.

Abnormal week 7

2006-03-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

well we had our exam this week and a discussion on monday. I am glad to have taken the first exam a good place to get started from. I am focusing up a little more in class and getting involved. I like to ask questions, I also like to joke with larry. I really enjoy our classroom environment. It is quite peaceful and friendly and we basically chat and listen, while larry acts like himself. I find it funny that larry finds our class to be very quite, and seemingly disinvolved. I don't know what to say about that but I think its funny. That'll do it for now, I'm on my way.
-nate

Abnormal week 6

2006-03-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

What I found most interesting this week was a lot of our dicussions about smoking. We talked about ways to quit and how to quit. I found it very interesting that there was all these different methods, diagnosis, and treatments available some of which work better than others. I guess like anything we have created a bunch of solutions to a really simple problem. I certainly view the addictive powers of anything as serious, but I think the real issue lies in the desire's of the individual. For anyone to be succesful at anything I think it takes full allignment and 100% desire, if they do not have that then I think there stopping will not be effective. In retrospect though its also interesting to know that lottery type style treatment have been the most succesful for smokers quitting. This is where they are rewarded money for stopping. This style of quitting may prevoke people to quit, but I would be interested to know the lasting success rate, how many people quit for good. SO with that I take my desire and go about my day
-nate

abnormal psych week 5

2006-02-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

well we didn't have any class this week because larry was out, but I've definetley been doing a lot of thinking about the ideas and roles that I place on myself vs. the roles that society places on me. The idea of sucess and hapiness is very interesting to me, and I realize the background from which I speak to explain it is one of wealth and a very spoiled upbringing. Right now I sort of see all these things and I open myself up to answers in the wind, realizing that everything and anyone I interact with are giving me gifts intentional or unintentional. A driving desireable force. What I see is that people define their hapiness, I define my hapiness, society may view me as unhappy because of the state I live in but ultimatley I know what is true for me, and that's reassuring. Interesting to think that as a society we view our hapiness in terms of wealth and material posessions. This concept baffles me and I believe that people determine their hapiness not poverty level or wealth or society or any of that. Viewing things as balancing out rather than as in contrast and flux.

Abnormal Psych Week 4- The strange incident of the dog in the night book synopsis

2006-02-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

Understanding and appreciating the realness of Autism and Asperger’s, I was happy to read such a deeply involved and insightful book. My mom is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and has worked with Autistic children for a very long time, so I sort of grew up being comfortable with people that displayed such traits although at the same time never really completely understood what it is. The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time, was a very interesting in depth look into the mind and heart of an Autistic individual searching for answers. I enjoyed reading it because I began to understand that it was not only a story about someone trying to write a story but it was also very much about their own personal story and struggle in a world skewed by autism. The actual events that take place in the story seem practical to me although I was unsure at times how much an autistic individual really absorbs arcane facts and information. In this story the main character, Christopher, used arcane information and math figures as a means to have self-confidence and also to calm his mind. What I enjoyed most about this book was that we got to ride along in the mind of the individual and even go on little distracted detours where he would think about math problems or maps that had nothing to do with the actual story other than to show the reader what is actually going on in the Autistic head. The daily life and family situation that was depicted fit very well for an individual who is occupied in their own thoughts and not completely aware of the things that are happening around them, as their were many, and maybe that is why Christopher decided to write a book, to create a sense of involvement in the life that happened around him but not directly inside him.

This book really tries to create a accurate portrayal of an individual confused by Autism and Asperger’s but I think somewhat gets them confused while doing it. In the book Christopher shows an extremely high level of intellect especially in regards to math and even takes A level math classes at his school. These symptoms are more accurate of Asperger’s because of the fairly normal IQ that Christopher demonstrates, because Autism tends to usually fall in the lower IQ range, though not always. Certainly the impairment in social interaction that takes place in both Asperger’s and Autism is a big part of Christopher’s character. Christopher also enjoys doing lots of ritualistic type behaviors where he deeply involves his mind in them and keeps tracks of the specifics of what happens, for example his ability to play minesweeper on his computer very fast and then relate how long it took him to the fastest he had ever done it before. Christopher also appreciates the sameness of things and it isn’t always easy for him to understand when things become different and on a similar note he does not really understand differences between people and how they should be treated but understands really well what makes him comfortable. For instance he demonstrated this behavior when hitting a police officer and also by carrying a knife in his pocket when he was scared and in his mind saying he would stab anyone that touched him. For him these attitudes and behaviors made sense because it is what in fact makes him comfortable and he doesn’t really see the hurt, emotions, or class differences of others. Something I also found very interesting was how he made him self comfortable. When he was arrested for hitting a police officer and brought to jail the first thing he did was figure out in his head the exact dimensions of the cell and that seemingly made him more comfortable and relaxed with his environment.

The other characters in the story and how they correlated to the story made good sense for Christopher and I felt like I understood him and his disorder very well in relationship to the changes and moves that his parents made towards the end of the story. I could see a family engaging an autistic child in what they want and accommodating them as much as possible while also trying to get their individual needs met. The story was very involved on all fronts and offered a full view of these types of disorders and in that manor I found it very helpful and educational. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and liked considering the different realities for Christopher and also knowing that every person’s individual experience is personally real for them, even if it is perceived by the outside world as irrational.

What I appreciated most about this book was the autism that it helped me see in me and everyone. That is that it showed the irrationalities that Christopher experienced but also the irrationalities of his family and how they dealt with pain. The whole family unit demonstrated their own personal idiosyncrasies and really no one was more unusual than the other. Christopher did math problems and detached from his social environment to numb his mind while the father killed dogs and lied to his son that his mom had died. The point that I wish to make is that everyone is extremely unusual, irrational, and autistic in their own right and the thing that I know to do best is to appreciate myself for who I am and what I feel and view my own and everyone else’s experiences as good and meaningful.

Abnormal-week 3 Child behavior and development

2006-02-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

This week was very captivating for me becauese I am often thinking in my mind about how I chose to be affected by the things I encountered as a young child and also how I will communicate with my child. There are so many questions and really deep level thing where as parents they have no idea how drastically kids can be affected. For me this is something that I still sort of choose to feel, akind of quick flash of a feeling then analysis of it and moving on. For a child I think that a feeling can become a part of them and really shape their personality. I would say that was definetley a bit true for me in regards to my parents divorce. My parents divorce slightly shaped my ideas about love and attention, how to get it, and where to get it from. What I am saying is that I think these small little acting out type of behaviors that kids demonstrate so often are in fact very substantial expressions of internal self beliefs or repressed emotions. When larry was talking about the ways in which we handle such things I really began to understand what he was talking about. I really enjoy the learning process and watching children and all people develop, so I choose to be very understanding and patient and really like to give my full attention and honor the experience the other is having, because it is real no matter how rational or irrational. My favorite thing is this reinforcing sort of behaviors and the idea of the list, because I think if followed they can be extremely affective and beneficial to the child.
That is mostly what I feel in regards to this subject all though I have continous feelings about this and I will probably always think about these type of questions because I see myself in this line of work.
-nate

Abnormal Psychology-week 2

2006-01-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

We have been sort of reviewing some of the stuff that we talked about last semester in personality but also looking at it in a diffferent way, which has been beneficial and fun. I used to sort of shun all behaviorism but after reviewing it I think it is really valid and feel that togethor a cognitive/behaviorism approach can be extremely affective in working with people. I really enjoy reflecting on how I do this with myself, and do I tell myself, you know nate this is how it is, or kind of contemplate and move through things slowly. I'd say mostly I really like to absorb the experience and take it into account and apprecite the feelings of which I am choosing, understand them and move on. These days though I am diving into my feelings a bit more and open them up completely for interpretation and disection. Basically I really enjoy critical thinking and understanding regardless of the subject. I appreciate all people and what they do, not to say they are all things that I endorse, but I realize that these things happen and that's ok.
All for now,
Nate

Abnormal Psychology- larry round 2

2006-01-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

Well back for some more education for the spring semester, enjoyed last semesters personality class and now taking abnormal and with Professor larry from last semester. Have had one day of class, seems to be the same old larry I know. I noticed how comfortable I felt talking in front of all my classes this semester so far and it really is good to talk, communicate and share feelings. I'm really glad that I have the opportunitty to take so many thought provoking classes in one semester, really goes quite well with some things that I am choosing to experience in my life and elements of frredom that are bringing me great joy. I'm excited to consider the abnormal, that is to say that there is a normal side of psychology, laugh, laugh, chuckle, chuckle. Well alright then reckon I'll go learn now.
-nate

Personality week 15

2005-12-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

Well this is it for this semester in personality, looking forward to coming back next semester and learning some about abnormal psychology. It seems that I live in my own psychology and I choose to have my thoughts very prevalent, one of the greatest things I've done in the recent past is to create an understanding that my thoughts are outside of me and my individuality and personality are seperate from my mind. Beutiful and interesting, I would say that I have learned a lot about psychology this semester, but I still feel that I have no definitive answers to anything, such an ongoing expanding process. I think having a multitude of theories out there is excellent because it gives a lot of ideas and we can draw a little from each one. ok then I guess that's all for now and this semester. Wonderful and fun seeya next semester larry.

Personality Week 14-Reaction to Podcast

2005-11-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

Collaboration is key to gaining further knowledge about panick attacks and anxiety. The two major factors involved right now are Biology and psychology. These two treatments are represented by cognitive behavior treatment or drugs. It seems that both offer benefits and it is still ultimately up to the client to decide what works for them. I think that it is great that patients are given more of a choice and not immediatley prescribed with a medication. I feel that by undergoing cognitive treatment the patients feel that through their feelings and thoughts they are able to control their anxiety and panick attacks, I think that In the long run this method may proove to be more affective because it allows people to control their own domain. By people being given drugs to treat their anxiety/ panick attacks I think they may undergo some sense of attribution theory becasue they may feel that the actual ingestion of the drug is what is removing the panick attacks. Perhaps what is best is a combination of both becasue the person can maximize the pros and cons of each one.

Personality Week 13

2005-11-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

Started talking about anxiety and the causes. We looked at an Australian feller by the name of Rapee that conducted experiments on anxiety and panick attacks by attaching masks to people so that they inhaled CO2, he then modified the experiment by telling the potential panickers of all the affects that they would experience and amazingly they did not have panick attacks. The fact that they did not panick was a little surprising to me and I don't quite understand why they didn't but it seems that I expected them to panick because I felt like if the person told them what they might experience, that in essence gave them permission to experience it and fulfill that panick need, but I was wrong. Why they didn't panick? Maybe because they were told they might experience those things which aren't neccesarily great things to experience, so knowing they might they choose not to.

Personality Week 12

2005-11-29T16:04:00.000-08:00

I found Tolman to be very funny in this section. His experiments with rats seemed to be extremely innovative and original. I created a mental picture in my mind of little rats riding around on a train and looking at the maze and remembering it. It really does make a lot of sense though, because if were using rats to better understand humans and when you think about how humans work it's not really that different. We ride around with our parents in their cars and come to remember where we live and how to get there. Much of our learning is this latent learning or observational. Also another thing that I found very interesting that ties into this whole thing is Rotter's theory of external and internal locus of control. I found that I relate to this highly because I really like to take responsibility for my actions and also for the way I choose to feel. I think for people to place the power of the world into their hands and take responsibility for what is around them is extremely amazing and is often how major changes in our world take place.

Personality Week 11

2005-11-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Maslow real cool dude, I think. I really chose to start relating very personally to the reading when I started reading about characters such as Maslow. I like the whole self-actualized person thing that Maslow seems to be harping on, something that I find of particular interest is the thing about peak experiences in one's life. I feel personally peak experiences are the things that drive my life and I choose for them to help me understand what I most want in my life. Peak Experiences offer me opportunitties to see my world in a clearer light. I most often expereince my Peak-Experiences by adventurous sports such as White Water Kayaking. Their is some risk involved in this sport but it is all calculated and taken into account. Accompanied with this risk evaluation comes a strong feeling of sucess and completion while engaging in the activity. I think why I choose to have these experiences be so important in my life is because I feel that I can see myself as something while I am participating in them, I can see my whole interns stretched out before me and the linking of my internal and external, it truly is an amazing indescribable feeling and I quite enjoy it.

Personality week 10

2005-11-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

This class is always very fun especially with the active in class participation that the professor helps facilitate. Good participation happened this week when the professor engaged a student in along conversation about blushing in front of groups of people and how to overcome it. The student claimed that often in large groups of people they will blush, but what I found most interesting was that they were able to talk about blushing without even blushing in front of a class of at least 50 students. Was it that they let go of their blushing or that because they were talking about the blushing, which is generally the thing that makes this person even more uncomfortable in front of large groups of people, that they were able to not blush, who knows.

Personality week 9

2005-11-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

Time is a flyin through the semester. What I find most captivating lately is Erikson and his stages of development I feel like he does a lot of clean up work for freud as I found freud to be pretty stale and repetitive. I like that he accompanies an ego-strength and feeling with each stage as I feel for myself that is true and that we aquire different feelings that carry us through the stages of our lives. I feel that Erikson's final stage being represented through wisdom is very inciteful on his part, because regardless of how old we are, I think everyone wants wisdom in their final stage, because with wisdom comes the confidence to be ourselves and live as we best see fit. I also have really enjoyed learning about everyone thus far, they all seem to have a little something different to offer, and I feel lucky that I can choose to take with me what I want and really embrace what makes the most sense in my life, as that is what each one of these people were doing for their lives when they devised these theories.

Personality Week 8-focus

2005-10-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is the week that the professor first showed us a video of errorless modeling in the the use with patients that may have some autism or aspergers. I found this very interesting because it gives someone a complete wholesome reality of what they are capable of, something they might not be able to envision on their own. I think that this errorless modeling could be very effective in every day life, for example I think it could be helpful for me in approaching strangers or people that I would like to get to know, this could be applied to anyone and probably have great success. All for now.

Personality Week 7

2005-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

This week went by very quickly, seemed like a big blur. I don't really remeber a lot of what we talked about. Talked a bit about skinner and how he wanted to make psychology about observable behaviors. I think that if psychology was about only about observable behaviors then it wouldn't really be psychology. The definition of psychology accorrding to dictionary.com is, "The science that deals with mental processes and behavior"(dictionary.com). Well if this is the definition then only observing external things would not even be considered psychology because the whole mental process is completely internal and their are so many ideas and philosophies that are expressed internally that if we did that we would miss a big chunk of what was really going on with someone. Interesting to talk and think about though, as all these theories are.

Personality Week 6

2005-10-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Took first exam, feel good about it haven't gotten back my results yet. It was as good as I thought it would be, and I liked the teachers stlye for exams. He really wants everyone to suceed and will give us opportunitty's to do that. Lately we've been getting out pretty early which has been ok.Our class structure is very well set up. It seems as though we will talk about general stuff first 10-15 minutes then will have full on learning for about 30-45 minutes then some type of group avtivity or discussion at the end, its good. I aslo find it very how he labels everything, quite and loud side of the room, talkative people, earth-friendly people, etc. The class room environment is very open and friendly, fair amount of laughing.

Personality Week 5

2005-10-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

Exam 1 was moved a bit, so that was ok with me. Started thinking about exam and what way would be best to study. Started to get into Eric Andersen. Seems to be a pretty interesting character, a lot of pretty sophisticated ideas and take offs/improvements on some of Freuds ideas. realized that exams are really good and I enjoy demonstrating my knowledge and leaping into the unknown. The first exam I think is the most interesting because I'm curious to see how my learning and studying style will match up with the teachers testing of our knowledge style.

Personality Week 4-In the groove

2005-10-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well things are rolling now, choosing to feel school as being very normal. Established work patterens now and progressing, fluxing, and learning. Talked a lot about adler this week. We did a very interesting activity at the end of one of our classes. Based on Adler's idea of haver's Vs. Be'ers we wrote a little observation about what we thought we were. I feel that I am a person that like's to be and have, sort of 50/50. I identified myself a prepared be'er. That is I may identify a material object that I feel would aid me nicely in my activities and save money until I get it, then once I have it I would be using its resources and exploring life. There are also times where I am very much a be'er, choose to establish patterns and perameters for the way I do things and follow in those and live my life. I experience a lot of moments of instantaneous joy, and I like that. I feel that I am a very fortunate person and I am thankful for all the ideas, experiences, relationships, opportunitties, and beliefs that have culminated to create a space where I choose to be the person I am.

Personality week 3

2005-10-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Haven't chosen to set down and update this for quite some time. As I recall week 3 was a fun week because we really started to dive deeper into some of the theories and finished all the very topical type of introduction stuff. I began to see that I really liked the class, starting to understand the teachers methods and styles of teaching. I really enjoy how he involves the whole class and it feels like there's only 15 or 20 people in the class when there's more like 60 or 70. Started talking about Horney found a fair amount of her thoughts pretty interesting. I see a lot of truth in horney when she's talking about Ideal Vs. Real self. I do believe that I have sometimes in the past had a different view of myself than what was real. It's very cool to have the two alligned and be very aware of what is true with your environment and how you interact with it. Learning more will be fun.

Personality Week 2

2005-09-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

After this week I've officially declared I like this class. It's a very exciting and interesting class where the teacher takes pride in keeping the class involved and entertained. I think its really cool that we have been writing down a lot of personal experiences and then he will share them with the entire class and talk to the person in front of the whole class as well. It seems to be a very open environment and feels like one of my smaller classes but that's because the teacher is actively engaging all of us. Its very interesting and I am getting better at really taking with me the important stuff and leaving behind the fun and entertainment.
I am curious to see what his exams will be like because we talk about a lot of stuff but none of it in extremely great detail.
Seeya, Nate

Psychology week 1

2005-09-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

After a little initial shock to being back at school I adjusted fairly quickly and am really enjoying my schedule and teachers. Personality is the second Psych class I've taken and I am excited to dwelve deeper into the subject. I was kind of surprised by how much I had forgotten since my spring semester Psych 101 class, but thats all right. So far we seem to be covering and talking about a lot of the same ideas and concepts that I covered in 101 but with slightly newer approaches. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about and modifying my behaiors and personality so I am very interested to learn some of the greater scientific information about personality and people in general. So far I really enjoy the class, taking more notes and settling in now.
All for now,
Nate Lesch-Huie