Month.

As of today, October 3rd, I have been away from Ashland for a month and two days. I left Ashland on the first of September, F.Y.I. ;) I have been in Portugal since the 5th of September and with my family since the 7th. This is by 10 days the longest I´ve been away from Ashland. An interesting thing that happened to me today that reminded me of home happened when I was reading a book/atlas with my cousin and I wanted to show him my state. We flipped to the Western United States page and I went to put my finger on the general area of Ashland. Then stopped. Now realize this is a childs atlas and has every country in the world in it, along with little facts about each one. Well why I stopped my finger was because right at the spot I was about to put my finger was a dot, and that dot was labeled Ashland. Medford was next to it, and it even had Crescent City, Yreka and other small obscure towns that I was suprised to find in this childrens book. By the way, this picture is in my blog because I am experimenting with a new way to upload photos/videos and it is a good example of a very cool portuguese practice. No one here uses dryers. On nearly every building, minus offices, there are clothlines stretching all over them. School was fine today. I went walking through the old part of Viseu yesterday and got some pictures and had an amazing time. I´ll put them up soon.

Pictures.

Here are some pictures (finally) of my adventures to and in portugal. Most of them were taken within two minutes walking distance of my house in Viseu. The rest are from Lisbon and New York.
Epic Mount Shasta.

The One and Only Famous Ray´s.

Crazy Times Square.

Afsers going to Portugal from the U.S. The oldest person in the picture was our counselor for the departure orientation. He was really cool and helpful.

Lisboa.





My neighborhood. Marzovelos.

A street near my house.




Me and my roommates at our orientation in Lisbon.

A building on my street.

My street.

A spot near my house.

Stuff.

So I´ve been sick for two days. It´s nothing much, just a sore throat, runny nose, stuffiness and aches. Today I had tennis lessons and felt fine most of the time. Louis is sick too. For lunch today we went to a really good italian restaurant, probably some of the best pizza I´ve ever had. One thing that I think is cool but haven´t written about is that there are a lot of roundabouts here, of course this is europe and that is the norm, but a really cool thing about a particular roundabout here in Viseu is that there is a parking garage under it. All surface traffic flows as it would normally but there are these holes in the ground that you can drive down into right under the road and down the circle is the parking garage. It is all lit naturally because the cieling is the roundabout and has windows. I thought this was really smart, A: because even in this size of a city and with all these cars on these tiny roads there is no traffic, I think this is due to the roundabouts, and B: The garage litterally takes up no area like traditional parking garages in cities in the states allowing a bunch of people to park their cars in the center of the city. A funny thing that happened to me this week was in Geometry class; a student was late and knocked on the door to be let in. Since I sit next to the door I simply turned the handle and the student came in. Well when my teacher saw this he wasn´t happy. He grabbed the student (somewhat gently) by the arm and led him out of the classroom, closed the door on him then turned to me. I was really confused at this point and just stared blankly at the door. My teacher leans with both hands on my desk and says in broken english ``Who is the boss.´´ Well I knew what he ment and responded ``Tu, claro.(You, of course)´´ to be polite and not get chewed out in portuguese in front of the rest of the class. Then he turned and opened the door for the tardy student. Who came in looking just as confused as I had. Well, I can´t think of anything else for now but If I do I´ll write later. Questions comments? Até Já.

School.

So school has started and it´s going great. I can´t say I´m the best student I´ve ever been; in relationship to the states that is. I frequently don´t understand everything and find it hard to participate in portuguese. I still do my best and on occasion can formulate an answer and give my two cents. My success in school, however, lies not in tests and grades but in my relationship with my peers and the non-academic, yet equally as important, aspects and lessons I´m learning in school. This success is due greatly in part to all my peers in my term who have helped me and welcomed me as part of their class. But, there are two people who I feel have really been most selfless and generous in their support to me; and they are Dennis and Zita. These two have put up with many ´´Huh?´´s and ``What does that mean?´´s. They have worked tirelessly and been the most patient people with me in school thus far, and I would just like to publicly thank them for their efforts. Thanks, I really appreciate it. Anyways school is great, it is a place to be social and experience life in portugal. It occupies most of my time and really all my enegy is diverted towards school, but without it I fear I would find myself with little to do. Well thats all for now, I would really appreciate any questions or comments that you have or if you want or if you have the time!

Amazing Day.

Today was so sick! I woke up around nine and went to watch an Urban Downhill Mountain Bike Race with my host father Louis. We watched practice runs for a while until we learned that the competition didn´t start until after two. This worked out perfectly as we had to attend a luncheon with my Grandma around one. We headed home to get ready and pick up the rest of the family and headed literally across the street to a five-star hotel-spa-restaurant. There they had the best buffet I have ever seen and we indulged ourselves until we could hardly walk. After that it was back to the racecourse for me and Louis. We watched the race until it ended at around six. This Urban Downhill business is some of the craziest, gnarliest riding I have ever seen. And some of the most poetic. The riders started in a church courtyard older than the United States, dropped down massive stairsets and wove through closely-nit granite buildings and skidded over rough cobble stone pathways. I didn´t have my camera and am very bummed I couldn´t document it. Louis had his phone and we got some videos and pictures. I´m sure if you wanted you could google it and find some info/pictures. Just type in Viseu Urban Downhill or something. Oh, and the hotel we had lunch at is called Hotel Monebelo and it is litterally across the street from our house.

More on life.

Today I recieved my school schedule. The school system here in Portugal is very different from ours in the U.S. in many ways. First one must pick a study area, these include but are not limited to Visual Art, Social Economics, Sciences, Languages etc. I chose Art becuase I think that would be the area in which I would exceed the most without a full grasp of the language. Within the chosen study area there are still recquired classes; i.e. P.E. , Portuguese, philosophy, etc. and elected classes; Languages, mathematics etc. I chose English for my elected class because I still need English credit in the States. My schedule is very much, I imagine, like a college schedule; I have classes some days, some classes are longer than others, I get out of school at various times in the week and have a two hour long lunch. School will start at 8:25 every day, lucky for me because if I had to get up earlier or later on certain days I would surely find myself in a splendid state of dissaray and perpetual confusion. One thing that I find difficult and particularly annoying about this college-esque schedule is that every other day I´m not let out until after 6:30 in the evening! Not so lucky for my brother Afonso. Some days he has classes in the mornings only, other days he starts after noon. And too what time he gets out on those days I haven´t the foggiest. Another interesting thing about life around school here is that the local convenience stores carry the textbooks needed for classes. I´m not sure if they only stock them this time of year or what, but after recieving my schedule Afonso, Sofia and I went accross the street to this small hole-in-the-wall shop to look for schoolbooks. Another snippit about life here in Portugal that caught my eye is the energy efficiency of everything. It has nothing to do with school but there are no rules to my blog. It´s not that the Portuguese are specifically attentive to Global climate change or anything; it´s just that life doesn´t require them to have the biggest cars or what have you. My frequent drives and walks arond town are always under the constant looming presence of electricity generating windmills in the hills around Viseu. The toilets here even have two flushes, one for small loads and a bigger one for... Well you guessed it. There is also no central heating or air conditioning, each room has it´s own small thermostat used only when need be. All this makes life no less luxurious at all and now in fact I can´t imagine it any other way. I also helped my sister Kika paint her new desk today. We painted it pink. My Portuguese is no longer non-existent but it still has a long way to go before becoming very useful. I also bought a sweet new pair of shoes, sort of like indoor soccer shoes, very euro and stylish. Eating is a pleasant activity here in more ways than one. The food is of course delicious and most meals are eaten as a family. If you´ve read or seen the Lord of The Rings trilogy you can picture our diet here like that. Bread and cheese, chocolate milk and fruit for breakfast. A full meal for lunch with soup and salad. Snack and coffee sometime mid-afternoon. And a big meal for dinner at around eight. We also have a little dog here named Lisa. I like her even though she is about the size of Rocket´s head. I will also be playing tennis, rather learning to play tennis, while I´m here. Every Saturday from ten till noon Afonso, Kika and I will have lessons. Thats all for now. Questions, comments jsut leave me a note.

First days in Portugal!

I am officially in Portugal! I live in a town called Viseu, south-east of OPorto in the heart of Portugal . Viseu is very metropolitan and quite intricate. I really like it here and, after only two days, feel right at home. Today I went for a bike ride by myself around town and got a sense of the place. I´m glad to say that I found my way home safely and didn´t get lost at all.
As far as traveling goes my journey here to Portugal was oneiric. From Ashland I drove with my Dad to San-Francisco where we stayed a night with some friends. The next morning we flew to New York where a departure orientation was held. In New York my father and I met David Soo (my uncle) for some pizza at the famous and original ``Ray´s Pizzeria.´´ After a very filling meal of three quarters-inch thick pizza David gave me and my father a tour of New York. Now, normally to see all New York has to offer (I.E. Times-Square, Statue of Liberty, etc.,) you need a professional tour guide or all day; my Dad and I had neither and we still were able to see everything worthwhile with the guidance of David. The next day I said goodbye to my Dad and headed to the orientation. There I met around 120 exchange students to-be, over half of which were going to Italy, and made twice as many friends as I could afford (saying good-bye took almost all day!) After the orientation all of the kids bound to Portugal from the states (There are 11 of us in total of which I am the only boy) were herded onto a bus and shuttled to Newark International Airport. We boarded our direct flight to Lisbon no problem and were off. At least we thought; it so happened all the runways were so busy that we had to taxi for over an hour. The flight itself was fine, we had dinner, snacks and talked about our experiences so far and what is to come. We arrived in Lisbon at 6-ish in the morning (it wasn´t a twelve hour flight but the time change makes it seem so), spent a couple hours in a customs line and finally saw the light of day for the first time in Portugal at 8 o´clock. Some AFS staff were there to meet us and put us on yet another bus. We had the opportunity to drive through much of Lisboa on the way to the hostel where we stayed for the arrival orientation. Lisboa is a very picturesque city, very much like San-Francisco; bridge and all. This orientation was designed to give in-bound students to Portugal from all around the world a chance to meet each other and to learn about Portugal and AFS. Our hostel was located on a hill opposite Lisboa and provided postcard views of the entire bay from every room. The arrival orientation was really cool, I shared a small room with three other boys my age, two from Argentina and one from Switzerland. I became good friends with everyone at the orientation and will hopefully see them while I am here. On the last day of the orientation my Mae Sofia and my Pai Louis came to pick me up. It took about two hours to drive back to Viseu and I got a chance to see more of Lisboa and of the country.

These are truly the last days. (Albeit not the one's I expected)

Well, I have said it before and I'll say it again, "I am leaving soon!" It has been, for lack of a better word, interesting for me these last couple of days seeing as I am the last of the departing exchange students to leave. There are already at least 4 or 5 inbound exchange students here in Ashland that I know of and they are all doing very well. My friend Alex has been in Ecuador for a week already and is nothing less than explosively ecstatic about his experience (if you know Alex you know what I mean). I can only hope my first week in Portugal will compare to his seemingly flawless time. I am sure it will! It seems as though everyone is gearing up for something now. My friends and brother have been attending the Fresh Start program through the High School. My brother is attending as a first timer (incoming Freshman hence "Fresh Start") and my friends as upstanding role-models/counselors/helpers/friends etc. The rest of my comrades who are not taking part in this program seem to be even more busy with things such as sports, (water polo players and footballers are having two-a-days) end of the summer vacations (Wilderness Charter School Backpacking trip), or summer homework; which should have been finished by now but, as the rule of the stereo-types go, procrastinating teens will always put off summer homework until the last minute. As you may see this lack of companionship/time consuming tasks has/have lead me to feel somewhat abandoned and utterly alone. Save my beloved dog Rocket who lies sleeping at my feet as I stare at screens for hours upon end. Thus I have been filling my spare time with online gaming, t.v. and other brain-numbing anti-everything activities. Of course I am being somewhat facetious but (sadly) I find it difficult to really express myself otherwise. I have been keeping fairly busy with packing, working out itineraries and the likes that deal with my departure/exchange but as the saying goes "If we don't have large time consuming tasks to occupy us, our lives get filled with things that are meaningless, that are momentarily distracting but have no exalting possibilities." I edited that a little! ;)
On a lighter note I have said goodbye to most all my friends and am happily preparing for my time abroad. I am really very excited to be leaving so soon and there is nothing in the world that can crash my soaring spirits. The last few days have been just an end of the summer blues period where saying goodbye and lounging around/lack of motivation and activities have left me feeling frustrated, anxious and a little depressed; it's not how I expected to go out but there's proof of why we should hold no expectations, and I will take it as another life experience. My advice to you if you ever feel this way is to just get out; which I am about to do now. Learn from the past, live in the moment and be mindful of the future. My perception of time right now feels so skewed. The past seems so far away, as does the future and the present seems to drag along. Of course there is nothing and no-one to blame for this, not even myself this time, it is just another mystery that lies deep in the dark depths of human thought, emotion, and above all existence. I am excited to start traveling with my Dad. We leave Ashland on Monday, go to San Fransisco, stay a night there, fly to New York Tuesday, I stay there for Two nights for the departure orientation then fly to Lisbon/Lisboa in Portuguese on Thursday and I won't arrive there until Friday. Then I go to another orientation for inbound students until the 7th when I meet my host family and leave with them to my new home! After that it's school, adventure, experience and fun!

Kayaking Video.

Here is a video of me kayaking on the Keno wave near Klamath Falls. This is also sort of a test to see if I can post videos/photos in my blog.
(the photo that was here was of me in the redwoods, taken by elias opgenorth. That image was hosted on a photobucket account of mine that I deleted and sadly it took the picture with it.)
Ben on Keno Wave

Crazy true story.

Chaco Fiasco

By Ben Small

Once upon a time I went backpacking with my family (Just my Dad and brother, my mom stayed home with the old pooch.) and some friends from the bay area. We decided to meet in a very remote place called the Plumas Nation Forest which, if you didn’t catch my drift, is in the middle of nowhere. We got there late, couldn’t find a campground and decided to spend the first night in our cars. The second day we got on the trail and everything was going fine until... We start to leave the spot where we had lunch and I realize that one of my new Chaco sandals is missing! In case you've never owned Chaco's they are the best shoes money can buy and I hadn't worn anything else since I bought them. They are simply the best. Imagine losing one of your children, your dog or your most beloved pet/possession. So, I ran back on the trail as far as I could remember to the spot where I last took off my pack just in case my baby fell of when doing so. With no luck I decided to leave it forever. On this trip we camped at some beautiful lakes and I would have loved to use my sandals to explore them. Well, we hiked for 3 more days and finally ended up back at the cars. I decided to run back up the trail a second time to try and find my lost sandal, but alas I had no luck and returned to the cars even more exhausted and disheartened. In desperation I left a badly handwritten note scribbled on a torn tuna wrapper at the trailhead with only my cell phone number as a contact, and sadly began the trip home. Before leaving I even went to check the lost and found at some hotels nearby and still no sandal. My feet were very hot in my boots during the 6+ hour car ride back home to Ashland and this only added to my pain as I was grouchy because I was in mourning over my lost sandal. After a day of being home I told my Chaco pals the story of what happened. They sympathized with my dilemma and recommended checking out chacousa.com for help. I did and from reading the FAQ realized you can order one sandal through your local dealer. I checked the FAQ because I came up with this crazy story that I was rafting a gnarly river and pinning mad lines when my Chaco broke (yeah right) and was lost in the carnage. And I just simply wanted to know if Chaco’s warranty covered stuff like that. Well, I guess Chaco is smarter than they look and low and behold one of the FAQ’s was the perfect clone of my story; and of course this was not included as part of the warranty. I also found out that you can make custom designed Chaco's in any color, style or fit you can dream of, irrelevant to my story but it's still cool. The next day I went on down to the one and only outdoor store to place an order for a single right foot blue men's 13 z/2 Chaco sandal. Luckily my bro T-Call was there and said "Dude, you don't want to just order one sandal because it costs like fitty bucks with shipping and handling and the people at Chaco are lazy S.O.B.'s and it will take like 2 weeks to get here." Of course I don't have 2 weeks because I'm leaving for Portugal in 6 days and I need my Chaco's for that. So, he looked around and found a new pair of Chaco's in my size (last years but still fresh and basically the same as this year’s) but in brown. I don't mind the color but I really did love my blue ones. So since they were last years he gave me a whopping 55% off. Thus, I got a new pair of Chaco's for only $49.50 to be exact. (O.K. I’ll do the math for you. That’s $90 new.) BUT THAT"S NOT THE CRAZY PART. A couple of days passed and I liked my new Chaco's a lot. I was just minding my own business when I got a call from some random number with some random area code I had never seen before. I answered and the voice on the other line said, "Have I reached 944-6063" and I'm like yeah??? And then the voice (some dude) says, "I have your lost sandal." BLAM! What!? "I looked for that darn thing for hours" I say, and tell him what I went through. "Well I got it," says the guy, "And boy do I have a story for you." I laugh, how can this guy’s ordeal be any worse than mine? Well, here's what he said: "I was on a long day hike way out in the forest having a good time when suddenly the sole of my right boot just decided to fall off. With no sole my boot was rendered useless and I was S.O.L. I sat down off to the side of the trail to try and repair my boot with duct tape when I saw your sandal. I picked it up and was awestruck that it was the right foot and in my size! I used your sandal the rest of the day and it saved my butt. If I hadn't have found your shoe I would have nearly been stranded in the woods with only a quart of water and would have been forced to walk out with a busted up boot that would have chewed my foot to shreds." "Wow," I said. "I am no fan of blisters." "Me neither," he said. "Your sandal really saved me. I don't know what sort of divine intervention or coincidence created this but boy am I thankful." "Glad I could help," I said. He said he'd ship me back my shoe on him for all the help it was. I am just ecstatic to get my shoe back and since the Outdoor Store doesn’t take returns on discounted items I don't know what I’ll do with the extra pair. I guess I can always be creative.

Only two weeks left in the U.S.A.!

So I'm down to only two weeks left here in the good ol' U.S. of A. and I am feeling restless. All of my friends who are going on exchange have already left and a ton of my friends are leaving in a couple of days on a school backpacking trip. I have a feeling these last couple of weeks in Ashland will sort of drag along. A friend of mine just got an exchange student from Germany. It is interesting seeing someone who just arrived and seeing my friend Alex just leaving. And here I am, Somewhere in the middle of it all. My time will come soon enough. Until then I can just live it up as much as I can here in Ashland!

Leaving Town.

This is the first in a series of posts about my feelings/emotions on leaving Ashland. Now I am in a state like none other I have ever felt. Usually during this time in summer I feel anxious for school to start and this "Dog day's blues" feeling. But this year, knowing that I will be in a different country in effectively in a new world, I'm feeling indescribably uncertain yet optimistic of what is to come.

Trial Post

Just Getting the hang of things. I Will Get things up and running later. I might as well say something thought. I am really excited to be going to Portugal! I leave Ashland on the 1st of September and fly to New York to attend the Pre-Departure Orientation.