Canteen Boy

Match day with the father came and went, and in the end, he squeaked by me 6-2, 6-0. I definitely had him on the ropes in the second set though.

As indicated by the score, I was ruthlessly slaughtered by the 59 year old Chilean. He dominated every aspect of the game (including but not limited to; 1st serve %, fore & backhands, ability to keep the ball in bounds, attire, choice of beverage during breaks, etc.) and methodically ran me around like a cocker spaniel. It was fun though. I like to think of myself as a taller Micheal Chang.

All week I have been preparing for a camping trip in the Southern Part of Chile, near Anartica. I am meeting up with a friend from the states (from my soccer team in Boston) and his buddy from England. (I assume that due to his place of origin, he can play soccer too). It has been an 8 hour a day job trying to buy hiking gear in foreign stores. I analyzed the hell out of what tent to buy. I finally settled on a solo tent and then realized I didn't fit in it, so i had to return it for a two man tent. I have difficulty enough returning things in the States. Here, it took a full morning of preparation, including reviewing some choice vocab and enjoying some cookie crisps cereal. (which, by the way, are amazing. Pedro's fav).

Explaining what items I was looking for proved to be quite challenging. In one store, I wanted to buy a pair of those pantshorts (with the zipper at the knees), so i approached one of the female attendants to ask where they were. The look on her face when I asked for a pair of pants with a zipper at the knees was memorable. This might have been because I didn't know the word for zipper and without thinking it through, pointed at my crotch to signify zipper the best I could. I basically asked; "where are the pants with... (penis' (peni?) around the knees)". Needless to say, they had no pants like that.

Anyway, I will be out of range for until March 26th or so. In the meantime, Me and my 105 lb backpack shall hope I don't get eaten by a puma or mountain lion (they don't have bears here). On that note, I've informed my friends I am camping with, that if i do have a misfortunate accident and they need to eat me for survival-needs only, I am totally cool with that. I further advised them to stay away from my legs, because my mom always told me I had chicken legs. I recommended they go for my Biceps, because I have massive biceps. (And by massive, I mean adolescent girl-like).

ps. the picture of the little boy a few days ago was Shea, my nephew (Beth's son). We have comparably sized biceps.