Mission Accomplished

  After an interesting spat with the printer, I had almost everything I needed for appointment with immigrations. The checklist from the school had one blank: proof of registration at the University of Belgrano. I had everything else.  I marked the checklist, filled my backpack, and checked my imaginary sidearm, and went to bed feeling like some kind of international spy.  I was so psyched about being a spy that I couldn't sleep.  I was thinking about top secret missions in France that were so secret that I didn't even know what they were about.
  About the time that I drifted off to sleep, the alarm clock went off.  Fifteen minutes later, I was awake and going.  I got to school about the time that I wanted to, got my document, and kept moving.  Two subways and a wrong turn later, I got the the immigrations office about half an hour after my appointment time.  But, I still got in the incredibly long line.  Very soon, the idea of being a spy disintegrated.  Superspies don't stand in long lines.  While in the line, I realized the other reason why I couldn't be a spy: spies aren't supposed to stand out.  Looking at my reflection, I noticed that the 8 closest people to me didn't even come up to my shoulder (most of them were men).  Well, if you need a spy to infiltrate the NBA, let me know...
 After an hour, I reached the front.  The process was fairly slick, if you don't mind being told to go back and forth across the room and squeezing onto a crowded bench about 4 times.  But I was glad to sit. I have no idea how many times that I signed my name, but I think that I'm got my signature down.  So, the guys finally hands me a paper, and says, "Come back in 20 days." "Thank you."
  Then, I got on a train, and came home. Mission. Accomplished.

Tetris

  I was playing Tetris today, and I realized that this little game has a lot of real life applications, as do must things that aren't real life.  Think about it, it starts of slow and you think, "Ok, really? I think that I could go eat dinner before the next piece gets here." Then, "Hehe, this is challenging, just fast enough to be fun." And before you know it, "Holy cow, what's going on!?"  And there's that horrible feeling of helplessness, that you just can't do it!  
  Tetris makes me think of life in light of decision making.  You don't realize how awful that decision was til 0.5 seconds after the point of no return.  Then, you try to switch white horses in the middle of the river, and things just get messy.  You think, "If only I could see the future..." Hey, buddy, that little box in the corner shows you what's coming next!   "Oh."
  Also, tetris teaches patience, if you mess up, you can't fix it in one move.  You have to carefully handle the pieces that the game throws at you to fix your mistakes.  Sound familiar?  


  I'm sure that this post portrays me as a man full of regrets peering into the mirror of a simple game.  That's not really the case.  These are just the things that come to mind as I play tetris. The great thing about the game is that once you lose, you can always start over.  In that respect, it's not like life. 

Streetwise

   Most of you who know me, know how I get to knew places.  For me, every place is like island of Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean. If I haven't been there before, I can't find it.  In the past week, I've had two adventures trying to get to knew places.
  Last Thursday, I was going to a concert at the Christian Book Fair.  My friend's band Remake was playing.  I couldn't decide how I was going to get there.  I didn't want to take two busses, so I figured I'd just walk a little bit.  My impatient walking turned into almost 4 miles.  I still ended up taking two busses, and I was gonna be late.  I was starting to relax because I was getting close, but as the bus was turning, we all heard a SCRAAAAPE!! Ah darn, you know what that means... The little pickup that was also turning had scraped the inside edge of the bus.  So, after the yelling, insulting, and information swapping, we moved on.  I arrived about an hour late and saw the band play to songs, then they were done.  I was disappointed until they told me that they had only played four songs.
  Then yesterday, I was going to play basketball and was faced with the same situation.  Well, I decided to take two busses, but I ended up walking the wrong direction while switching busses.  Oh, and did I mention that it was pouring down rain?  After a few more direction changes and frustration. So, by the time I got to the place, they were almost done playing.  On top of that the lady at the front desk said that that wasn't the right place, so I wandered around in the rain, asking until I finally was directed back to where I went first. So, I got to play basketball for 20 minutes instead  of for an hour and a half...

   There are times that I think to myself, "I hate this city..."  But, that's not true.  What I hate is trying to find my way to unknown places.  The streets here don't run north and south, and I often don't know which direction I'm walking.  But, all's well that ends.

 

I don't often get lost, but I do have trouble getting from point A to point B...

No Draws Allowed

  I had a neat opportunity come my way this last weekend.  I got to see Brazil play Paraguay last Sunday. I went with my Argentine brother, Pablo and a couple American friends from school.

Pablo and the field

Me, Sophia, and Daniel 

   Now, let me explain the significance of this soccer game.  This was a quarter final game between Brazil and Paraguay in the Copa America.  So, this game could not end in a tie.  Someone had to win to advance.  It was bound to be great!
  As you probably know, Brazil is known for its soccer team.  They were definitely the favorite.  We were behind Paraguay's goal (for the first half), and we gave up our seats for standing room closer to the field.  Brazil started somewhat strong with a few early shots on goal.  But, they couldn't seem to put one in.  The first half was mostly Brazil, and it wasn't until the second half that we saw a little bit of offense from Paraguay.  Overall Brazil controlled the first 90 minutes, and the score was 0-0. They had several shots on goal, but he keeper controlled them pretty well.

The other end of the field

  The crowd was pretty good.  The venue holds about 36,000 people, but I don't think that the stadium was quite full. But, 30,000 people yelling all sorts of crazyness is still pretty impressive. It's a nice stadium that was just completed this year.  (It's the only covered soccer arena that's covered)  Imagine, 25 people down on the field and almost all 30,000 chanting obscenities at just one.  Who would that be?  The center referee, of course.  I believe that was after he handed out two red cards, one for each team.  
  So, we went in to overtime.  To use Daniel's words "Thirty minutes of free soccer."  The biggest difference was the pace.  The players were tired, and as the tension mounted, the energy on field dropped.  Brazil possessed the ball most of overtime, but at the end of each 15 minute half, when Paraguay was on a fast break toward the goal, the referee called time.  And the final score: 0-0.
   So, the game would be decided by penalty kicks! The tension in the stadium was incredible.  The PKs (penalty kicks) were taken on the opposite side of the field, and we were disappointed.  Everyone's yelling as Brazil begins.  No one could believe that he kicked it over the top!!  The Paraguay fans thought that they had won the game, until Paraguay missed its first PK!  Two missed PKs, what is going on?

Estadio Único 

  But it didn't stop there.  Brazil went on to miss the second one.  Paraguay made the second.  The Paraguayans felt a little confident.  When the third Brazilian PK was saved by the keeper, I thought that the stadium was going to come down!  The third one from Paraguay was good.  So if Brazil missed the fourth it was game over...lo and behold, the Brazilian missed.  Four missed penalty kicks is unheard of and extremely embarrassing.
  Paraguay had played a less than impressive game and come away with the victory!  And a ticket to the next round.  The MVP went to, of course, the goalie.  Brazil didn't show up for the penalty kicks, and that's all that matters, as far as advancing is concerned.


*Photo credits Sophia Chumpitas

Power of Being Bilingual

  I had a small epiphany yesterday.  Foreigners are held in a somewhat special light when it comes to language.  They are almost revered for their knowledge of their heart language, especially when they speak English.  People want to hear the other language, just to know it sounds like.  Then, they want to know how to say certain phrases in that other language.
   This is where the power comes in.  The bilingual person suddenly holds in his hands the control of what another person says and communicates.  I have friends that have been told to say some pretty interesting things in Spanish.  For example, a friend once told another friend that in Spanish the word for "gay" was the word for "American."  He proceeded to go around telling people that he was gay...
  Translators can be pretty powerful.  They can change the meaning of a diplomat's speech or the message of a missionary.  There is a large amount of responsibility in the changing of languages.  I don't know how many of you are bilingual, but if you've ever had to translate something on the spot, there is an incredible amount of pressure on you, especially when it's in public.  Part of that pressure comes from the responsibility that is on you to communicate correctly.

Power vs. Responsibility, don't make me quote Spiderman. 

Competition Withdraw

  I didn't play soccer on Tuesday, and I can feel it in my bones.  Granted, my knee tells me that I did play soccer...(maybe that was the walking around for an hour...)
  But deep down, I have this urge to fight and compete.  I watched soccer last night, but that didn't cut it.  I'm about ready to find some computer game to fight against.  Something that I can challenge.  Not that I don't do challenging things.  I'm working on learning to play the guitar, and that's not easy.  But, I can't win.  You can't really "win" at guitar.  Well, some people have.  I would say that Van Halen "won" at guitar.  
  But I digress. The point is competition.  I watched Argentina play a miserable soccer game last night, and that didn't take the place of my yearning to compete. At Grace, I had all sorts of outlets to compete in: intramurals sports, Halo, Settles, or miscellaneous pick-up games of anything.  So, I feel the need to beat someone at something... Any volunteers to get pummeled? 
   So the gist of this string of rambles: I think that organized sports help to keep wars at bay.  I mean, think about back in the day before soccer, basketball, or the olympic games.  When a guy had the urge to destroy somebody, well, "There's the neighboring city-state. Knock yourself out, buddy."  Think about 2 Samuel 11:1, "Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle..."   That sounds like hunting season to me!  Then, rest of the chapter describes David's sin because he wasn't out there at war. 
  Nowadays, we have professional sports to entertain that competitive nature: Soccer, basketball, football (maybe..) Not to mention getting out there to play these fun games ourselves. My theory is that without these constructive outlets, we'd have a lot more violence in the streets.  Well, soccer hear causes violence here in the streets... But there'd be more without it! 
  

"Hay tantos cuentos como lectores"-Borges

    Jorge Luis Borges was a famous Argentine author known for his depth of thought.  The quote in the title says this, "There are as many stories as there are readers."  We talked about this quote in class a little bit, and interestingly enough, it has kind of been the teacher's M.O. when looking at literature.
  In just about every Bible class that I've ever taken, the first day is dedicated to the debate of "Who determines the meaning of the text?"  Of course the obvious answer is Jesus, as is every answer in every Bible class... We toss around big terms like "author's intent" and always come to the conclusion, that God determines the meaning of Scripture.  The students are always warned not to add their own ideas to the Bible (at least in the Bible classes that I've taken).
   There are as many stories as there are readers... Borges makes an excellent point.  Each person is going to take whatever they perceive from whatever they read.  It's rare to see a reader who actually delves to see what the author truly meant.  I would hope that Biblical scholars are an exception.  Unfortunately, it's difficult not to read into the Word what you have learned/heard previously.  Checking your bias at the door is much easier said than done.
  What the author says is important, but what do you make of it? Every person can place whatever meaning they want to anything they want. It doesn't necessarily make it the correct interpretation or the intended message.  In a literary sense, I'm not very concerned about how literature is interpreted. One's world view plays a large part in that.  But as far as the Bible is concerned, I pray like David;

     ¹⁷ Deal bountifully with Your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word. ¹⁸ Open my eyes, that I may behold
Wonderful things from Your law. ¹⁹ I am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me. 

Psalm 119:17-9

Perspective

   Over the last week, I have a had a few experiences that have physically changed my perspective. 
  Scene 1: It's break time at school.  Eleven o'clock in the morning and went up to the eleventh floor cafeteria.  I was looking out the window to the street.  At the time, I wrote these words, "Up in the air, things change.  You see different things.  Buildings that were tall now seem small.  The house hidden behind the trees is now a mansion that must have been a treasure when she was built."  The street that I walk on is now one of many, hardly important.  But when I walk to school, it's the only street that I can see or care about. 
  Scene 2: We went to the Teatro Colon on Friday.  It's really a beautiful theatre. Built in 1908, it is considered to be among the top five acoustic concert halls in the world, according to Wikipedia. (The pictures there make up for the ones I didn't take).  Anyway, we watched an all strings musical group perform from the second floor. Our teacher said that she preferred that level over the ground floor.  But, when the show was over, we went up to the fourth balcony (out of 6).  Up high, the stage is smaller, and you couldn't see the beautiful painting on the ceiling.  
   As I was pondering perspective, I began to think about this trip, study abroad, and Grace College.  The purpose of trips like this one is to help to form/change student's perspectives on the world.  Thus, we are required to take a class called Global Perspectives.  Being here has changed my perspective on different things, especially in the realms of church, school, and family.  I have been extremely blessed in my life with the churches I have been a part of, the schools I have attended, and the family that I have been given. I needed to have my eyes opened to other situations on the planet. In conclusion, some things you experience change your perspective on life.  A changed perspective can alter your character and behavior in many aspects, but it depends on how you look at it. 


I realize that this is vague.  If you want specifics on how my perspective has changed, just ask and I'll write you a personal message.