By now, the news about Michael Jackson’s death this afternoon in Los Angeles is official. I think we should all remember MJ by an obligatory watch of “Thriller”:
I am cracking up now remembering the hilariuos dance routine to “Black or White” I had as really young kid with my inner dancing self hehehehe. On reflection, I remember exactly 4 years ago I was sitting in an apartment in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, watching the BBC on the news that Jackson was not convicted of child abuse. Without a doubt, in recent years his bizarre behavior dominated the headlines. Nevertheless, his music is an icon of an era. My conclusion? Let’s have a big party, dance our hearts out to Michael Jackson, and finally put 80′s music to rest since it is 2009 and Jackson is more of a reflection of the MTV Generation/Gen X instead of my own (Millenials? Gen Y?).
After several people, including my Mom, encouraged me to sign up for Twitter, I finally decided to get on the band wagon today. I’m already having fun! Read my posts at: http://twitter.com/mikeinboulder
I think that toilets in general are hilarious. For me it’s part of the experience of going to a new country in finding how the bathroom works. I will admit that I wussed out in Morocco with the Turkish style toilets and just waited until we got back to our nice hotel. Other than that one experience, I’ve found lots of different methods to flushing: using the normal handle (booooring), pushing a button (so fun!), pulling a knob up (hilarious – we have this in my apartment in Santiago), pulling a chain down, and more. The toilets in Chile are just like any other Western country, and come with lots of different flushing mechanisms.
In high school my favorite history teacher, Mr. Sedivy, had a whole portion of his web site devoted to figuring out how to flush the toilets of Europe (pull the chain? use the handle? a pedal on the floor? What an adventure!). Sadly, his web site is no longer active, but I saw one of the most hilarious signs of my life in a bathroom the day after I arrived in Santiago.
I just had to take a picture
I found a funny web site that has some of the best bathroom pictures from around the world. Note: this is probably a PG-13 page. Check it out here.
Chile is a very different animal from Paraguay. I arrived late Saturday night and my Chilean friend Isidora from the international student house in Washington picked me up from the airport! So great! I really enjoyed seeing her, meeting her family, and drinking Chilean wine!
Driving from the airport I felt emotional just at the stark contrast in development from Paraguay compared to cosmopolitan Santiago, especially where we were driving. I arrived to my place in Santiago just fine, and met my 2 Georgetown classmates there. Steve, my roommate to be in DC this year, and I headed out to the shopping mall to try and find cell phones. Instead, we hit the jackpot!!! There was one of the best Star Wars exhibits ever and we were lucky–it was on its last day in Chile and we randomly stumbled upon it!
Geeking out. Steve almost peed his pants from excitement!
There were over 200 pieces from the movies, including Vader and Boba Fett’s costumes, and the thing that the ewoks fly on in Return of the Jedi. Basically it was our destiny to find this place. Let me know if you want to see more pictures.
I found an excellent deal to fly round-trip from Paraguay to Chile for only $175, half the Price of what other airlines charge. But to get that deal required a 5 hour layover in Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, as you probably gathered from my last post. Sadly, I decided not to be adventurous and try to see Montevideo before my next flight. After thinking it through I would have to pay an exit tax, go through customs, get Uruguayan money, and pay for a taxi for something that might not be worth it and cause me to miss my flight. Originally I was pretty set on it since I really wanted that stamp on my passport, and also to see which country—Paraguay or Uruguay—is more “guay”, as John Stewart would say. As we were landing at the airport it was pretty obvious it would likely be a huge waste of my time to journey outside Carrasco airport. There were only farms as far as I could see and escaping would mean certain boredom.
So here I am, ridiculously bored at the airport outside Montevideo. I am seriously, seriously bored!!!! Agh!!!! I think Uruguay may be the Iowa of Latin America. *Yawn*
Look – here is a video of me as the only person in the airport for 2 hours!!! Aggh!!!!!
I did, however, notice right away that it’s more developed than Paraguay. Example: I was at the airport in Asunción (Paraguay) and all of a sudden a nice trickle of rain starts to come through the ceiling next to me. At first I was surprised and then pretty amused. Better yet, a guy ended up walking right through this water coming down and it took all my willpower to not burst out laughing. Lol!!!
I also noticed that there are—get this—three places in the whole airport lounge to plug my laptop in. So here I am chugging away. However, I didn’t want to pay for internet (truthfully, I didn’t even check how much it is) so I’m typing away offline. I was able to get several hours of web site work done for my grandpa’s business, so it was the perfect time to go through lots of HTML and also update the itineraries on the site. Now I only have about 1 hour more before I die of boredom. A group of distinctly Southern “gentlemen” just sat near me. We didn’t make eye contact, so it looks like I can escape without having to talk to them. They’re all decked out in hunting clothes and I think I am becoming even more bored from their conversation. You may be thinking, “what? Mike Coe? Bored? Not wanting to talk to someone?” That’s right – I’d like to be as far away from those Americans that give the rest of us a bad rap abroad. Example: the guy to my right just whistled for the waiter and without asking if anyone spoke English said: “See nyor – kan aye hav uh seer vez uhhh?? Ehh huh huh glug”
Agggh!!!
Oh wait, here’s my CD of Warcraft III! Heck ya Mike from the past! Way to think ahead!
Hi Friends – I’m in need of your help. Tomorrow I have a layover of 5 hours in Montevideo, Uruguay. Is this enough time to leave the airport and see part of the city? Also, will I have to pay a departure tax?
This post’s a short one – big day today: visit to the UN in the morning, visit to rural areas of Paraguay in the afternoon, then a fancy bar with friends. Wow! My head hurts from the extremes I saw today, but I’m still enjoying myself. I’m off to sleep now (1am) before going cross-country tomorrow to visit the UN World Heritage site of the Jesuit ruins.
I just learned today that you can have just about anything delivered to your house in Paraguay (in the city, of course). This includes: Burger King, McDonald’s, groceries, anything from a liquor store, and more. I couldn’t believe it! Although in the US we have pizza and flowers delivery, we don’t have fast food delivery. My friends here were so shocked–”you don’t have fast food delivery?!?!?” They have a point. It makes perfect sense to me to have fast food delivery. So anyways, we ordered Burger King delivery, and here it comes just a little while later. The cost for delivery of a big order – $1! I love this country! Apparently it’s just $1 to have however much food you want delivered, so many people will have all their friends over and order up some Mickey D’s or BK. Wow!
Outside Burger King downtown in Asuncion. Mas sobor, menos precio!
