South American Itinerary

The ticket is booked. It's really happening. You never quite feel like you are actually going until you receive that e-ticket on your email. It's actually quite an adrenaline rush, I would recommend it to all my adrenaline junkies out there. So first let me explain the route. Now this isn't "The Route" but just the route. I am anticipating it changing, but for now lets roll with it shall we? For the record while looking at the picture the green stands for plane flights and red shows bus routes/hitchiking/walking/riding, and the blue is a bus/hovercraft. Ok so I leave on July 11th and a day later will arrive in Santiago, Chile and will have a stopover there for about a week. Why Santiago Chile? Well to snowboard of course!! Not in Santiago but there is a resort about 1-2 hours away from the city that I will be visiting. Maybe I will stop by the beach towns of Vina del Mar and Valaparaiso and some point during the week. Nothing super big planned that week, just a nice week of adjustment to get my travel legs back under me. Then on the 19th I fly into the beloved city of Buenos Aires, my home for the next 4 months. My orientation for school doesn't start until the 25th so I figure I will travel the city for a couple of days before then. I will probably be staying with a host family of some kind, but not exactly sure who. School starts August 1st and goes until November 14th, I think. Then the real fun begins. I have no set plan really I just want to make it up to Iguazu falls somehow-

Soon after I will make my to Bolivia and visit the famous salt flats there, eat cheap food and wind up in Cochabamba Bolivia sometime in December. Its here that I will be spending 1-2 weeks working with a Christian organization called Hospitals of Hope. "The Bolivian hospital is currently the primary site where Hospitals of Hope
sends volunteers, both medical and non-medical. Hospitals of Hope has sent over 1700 volunteers on short-term missions to Bolivia, who assist the staff in caring for patients, as well as doing construction and community outreach." My hope is to serve in a variety of ministries such as in the hospital, in their community coffee shop, and with there Fire Rescue Squad. I am especially excited to volunteer with their Fire Rescue Squad and use my EMT skills to help in anyway I can. Plus I will be interacting with tons of believers and non-believers from a different culture, how cool is that? Anyways this is my hopeful Christmas destination as well. Here is the website for more info. :)
http://hospitalsofhope.org/bolivia/emergency-response-unit.html

Soooooo then I think I might go to La Paz and wind up in Lake Titicaca,(yes this is a real lake) I still haven't decided where I will spend New Years but it will be epic. For the last tail of my journey I will fly back down to Buenos Aires and then head for the south where I will be going to Patagonia

Yes it is an actual place and yes it is also a clothing company. I have wanted to travel here since I was about 15, so ya to say I am excited to see this place would be an understatement. I will see as much as I can and I will love it. To quote the most overused travel quote of all time(but it is always fitting)
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

"Stay thirsty my friends."
-Dos Equis guy

Question: Where would you go if you had a chance to travel South America? Where have you gone if you have?

Francis Chan speakin the truth.

Supposedly Francis Chan was at the Pacific Amphitheatre this weekend speaking at services.  I was bummed I wasn't able to make it because he is absolutely one of my favorite speakers.  Its his courage to just tell things how it is without sugar coating it.  Whenever I listen to him speak I feel such a strong conviction, a conviction about trying to live life comfortably on cruise control.  I know that naturally I always feel the world pulling on me away from God.  As Chan says in one of his books "The Christian walk is like running up the down escalator ; if you stop striving and running towards Christ, you go backwards.  I wish this were not true.  After all these years, I wish it all just happened “naturally” but this has been my experience too.  I guess we get a rest in heaven."  Not to say that we achieve salvation if we get to the top of the escalator, the bible clearly says we are saved by grace and grace alone, I understand this.  But I do know that when I am not intentionally meditating, reading the word, and spending time in relationship with Christ I am drawn to the worldly things that combat for my attention.  This went on as a rant, but I really just wanted to show you this awesome video, no matter what, this video always has the ability to put things back into perspective for me.  Enjoy.

The application is in!

   My application is in for the Direct Exchange Program to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  There is absolutely nothing I can do now except wait, probably one of the things I am worst at.  I don't think the reality of it has really hit me yet. I am too preoccupied with what are seemingly more important in the moment things, such as midterms, papers, and work. (and an upcoming Grand Canyon trip that will be the bomb.com...yes I just said that) But when I really do think about it that hits me is both daunting and exhilirating.  Dauting because I am leaving my comfortable existence at home to a foreign country where the main language is spanish.  Now I love Spanish, its cool to be able to spit off a couple of sentences with a spanish speaker and then nod your head when they are speaking pretending to be able to understand them.  But after about 20 minutes of this I am pooped and ready to ease my weak english mind.  I will be immersed in the language 24/7 with no way out, no teacher to ask questions to, no friends to bail me out.  It will be difficult but so worth it.  I was just reading one of Donald Miller's blog entrys this week talking about life as a meaningful story and I was intrigued:
   
    "Let me ask you this: What if your own life was so engaging that entertainment seemed boring? I mean what if you were involved in projects that so captivated you that turning on the television would be a distraction from your real life? Can you imagine such a possibility?
The elements of a meaningful story are the same as the elements of a meaningful life:
1. A character.
2. That knows what they want.
3. And is willing to overcome conflict.
4. To get it.
Do you know exactly what you want and why? And do you appreciate or bemoan the conflict you endure? Is your story more interesting to you than television? Is all of life boring or is just your life boring? Do you   believe you can make changes that will make your life more interesting? I do."

Its such a cool perspective to take that our life is a story, and the bigger and more conflict the better the story.  Not to say that we must always be in conflict or always be seeking it, but when it comes to embrace it.