Happy one month anniversary!

K, thats all I wanted to say.










Still here? Fine!

A poem 'bout my feelings toward my blog:

Science time with P-Daddi! Optics and application

Ok, no picture this time, but try this neat little experiment!

First defocus your eyes so that everything is blurry (if you are a fellow contact or glasses wearer, just take out the lens).

Second, make a tiny, tiny hole with your hand so that only a little light can get through and hold it up to your now-unfocused eye.

Notice anything different? You can see clearly. This phenomenon is caused not by the small hole acting as a lens, rather it blocks light out except from one direction. What a lens does is it focuses the light into a single point.

Science time with P-Daddi: Mechanical Advantage

Dan pulls me over as if it were three of him! Three Dans? Amazing! Coolest swiftwater instructor ever!

Ok, so as you can see, there is only one Dan :-( but his strength is amplified through a Mechanical Advantage system.

Owyhee Canyonlands Map 1

Day One begins on a sleepy Monday morning where all of the students--- Hey! I said sleepy!

Dan pops a berry as others make final preperations for the big hike

Ok, so my Day One began as a sleepy Monday morning, but all sleepiness dissapated quickly as we finished divvying up food, fuel, and group gear. Within an hour of waking, we were on the road to adventure!

I'm back!

Yes, that's right! I have been gone for the past couple of days! Where? Why in the rainiest desert ever of course! For the past couple of days I have been backpacking through the Owyhee desert and canyon-lands with my amazing group of Darby, Cameron, Alec, Jacob, and Lily. Our teachers were Dan, Ellie, and Jeff; but I don't want to spoil the rest! I will retell the amazing adventure this upcoming week with amazing pictures as I recharge my GoPro! Have fun and stay dry on this upcoming adventure!

In memory of Gabriel García Márquez who died yesterday

La Siesta Del Martes by and in memory of Gabriel García Márquez 
Translated to English at: http://siempreleer.blogspot.com/2011/04/la-siesta-del-martes.html

The train emerged from the quivering tunnel of sandy rocks, began to cross the symmetrical, interminable banana plantations, and the air be-came humid and they couldn't feel the sea breeze any more. A stifling blast of smoke came in the car window. On the narrow road parallel to the railway there were oxcarts loaded with green bunches of bananas. Beyond the road, in uncultivated spaces set at odd intervals there were offices with electric fans, red-brick buildings, and residences with chairs and little white tables on the terraces among dusty palm trees and rosebushes. It was eleven in the morning, and the heat had not yet begun.

"You'd better close the window," the woman said. "Your hair will get full of soot."

The girl tried to, but the shade wouldn't move because of the rust.

Interview with Owyhee Coordinator, Chris Hansen

Meet Chris Hansen, the Owyhee Coordinator!

Check this guy out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kDNUZECHw where we interviewed him!

Science time with P-Daddi: Static Electricity!

Below is a homemade battery, it's pretty cool and you can get quite a shock 

if you touch the top and bottom with a wire!

You may ask, "How does you make one?"
We will get to that in due time! First though, a basic understanding of static electricity. Static electricity is the electricity that gathers on the surface of an object.

Interview with Andrew Forsthoefl. This guy is real cool.

English Class interview with Andrew Some-guy-who-walked-across-the-US. He also starred on an hour long "This American Life" feature on NPR. Ellie, our English teacher, went to college with him before

Science time with P-Daddi

Below is a picture of the Chilean, Jose, lookin' like a ninja.

What is really happening: It is often a different phenomena between traditional film and electronic cameras. In the electronic camera, the image refreshes at a certain rate. This can be demonstrated by

Now adding: Book reviews!

This IS a blog about what I did during school... So why not add some of the things I have been reading?

First up is an astounding nonfiction book called Into the Wild by Jon Krakaur (crack-hour).

I will be pausing this blog/ project until Monday/Tuesday and this is why (in a poem)

Breakfast ends and teens scurry,

Time to put up the food!

Start the Hobart,

Clean the dishes,

Remember to clean between the cracks!

They are coming,

They are coming to Alzar School!

Not today...

No post today, I am between chapters and I will continue tomorrow!

Jose taught us a cool card game called Carioca!

(Note; this game is very similar to Jim Rummy)

Players and Cards

Carioca requires two ordinary 52 card decks plus 4 jokers, making 108 cards in all. It is usually played with from 2 to 4 players, but can be played with as many as 5.

Terms:

Trio

Three of a kind - that is, three cards of the same rank, such as three eights. The three cards do not need to be of different suits, so for example 9-9-9 is a valid Trio.

Escalera

Four cards of the same suit in sequence - such as 4-5-6-7 - like a Straight Flush in Poker, but with four cards, not five. The ace can be counted high or low, at the player's choice - so J-Q-K-A and A-2-3-4 are both valid escaleras. Ace cannot be both high and low at once, so K-A-2-3 is not valid.

Chapter One, Day 1.5

The treacherous road to the Torrealbas' house ends with an overwhelmingly beautiful view of the town they live in, Curico. Sean tells me to go get Jose while he hooks up the trailer with the kayaks. As I walk down the steep, pale driveway I notice a group of people, seemingly a family, taking a photo. One boy had 2 large packs on, one on each shoulder, and seemed to be the center of the pictures. He, like most Chileans, has black hair, hazel eyes, tan-but-not-overly-tan skin, and a general laid back attitude surrounding him. As I approached the group, several small (7-10y/o) children charge at me and proudly shout "Hi!" (as I discovered later, Chileans who know a little English LOVE to show off their abilities, so be ready for a fun Spanglish conversation or 2!). As the mother approaches, I manage to spit out an incomprehensible jumble of almost Spanish words. She cocks her head to the side and tells me with a slight accent, but very quickly, that the whole family speaks some level of English. Sean walks up and after brief greetings and extended goodbyes, Jose and I crawl into the cramped back seat and awkwardly say our proper “hellos”.

Chilenismos! Common Chilean Slang

Chilenismo (chee-len-EEZ-moh): Chilean expression or slang term.

Winner of most commonly heard Chilenismo:

Po (poh): Chilean for “pues.” A common interjection that is frequently peppered throughout Chilean speech, as in “Sí po” and “No po.” The former may be shortened to “Sip” and “Nop” meaning “Yep” and “Nope”. May also be pronounced “pu.”

***WARNING*** Do not attempt to use all of these words right away, as their meaning depends so much on the context! You don’t want to offend someone right off. Open your ears and see what you can pick up...

First glances of a wonderful new world!

6:00am Mountain Time:

The flight attendant nudges my drool-drenched shoulder as and asks me if I want breakfast. Several seconds later, after I clear my eyes and regain my memories of the previous night, I nod and proceed to put down my mini-table and wake my Columbian companion. As standard, I found a continental breakfast consisting of 2 pancakes, 1 muffin, 1 undetermined pastry, a side of eggs, and assorted condiments and eggs. I quickly (but not as quickly as my new friend) finish the meal and continue on to my stash of homemade cookies.

Here it is! (Welcome to Choshuenco)

Alright, here it goes...

​For most of our time in Chile, we stayed in Choshuenco, meaning "Yellow Waters" in Mapudungun, a small, valley town between 2 volcanoes and 2 marshes. We stayed in Cabañas, small, cabin-like structures with a kitchen, living room, large loft area, and two bedrooms with two beds each. There are six cabanas lined up south to north, outside of which is the parking lot and the kayaks in their plasticy, colorful glory. Even further away is the restaurant for Ruca Pillion, the house of spirits or the devil. 

Something big approaches!

Something BIG is coming to this blog this Saturday!
Join me for my first real post on this blog about the small Chilean town called Choshuenco. Also, 1+ and share this blog so I know to keep writing.

Thank you all,
Patrick

PS. I found out that yesterday I had my first international viewer, one person from Germany found my blog by accident. How funny!

My youtube channel!

Hey, I have a youtube channel up and running and I upload interesting things I do

please subscribe at: http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCyvwAMq3BnnXfuP67kIdfnw

*will edit the description of the channel as I post stuff...

I am thinking of making this the Icon for the Youtube channel, good or not?

School!

Today went great (thanks Grace), but I don't have any pictures of it. We played a very competitive game of capture the flag... but our strategie ended up similar to my trigonometry homework...

(/\those are figures of flashlight mirrors and how they, in theory, shoot all light forward)

This is going to be a short first post, but first what should I post about the most? Give suggestions in the coments and I will hold a poll in a bit.