That Was So Last Year

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Quite behind the times I am. I will keep you in suspense as to where I currently write from but first wanted to share some pictures with you from the end of 2006.

I spent my final week before Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation in the rented apartment of my friends Steve, Theresa, Ben, and Oliver in Viña del Mar. My apologies to a few of you who were tormented by me holding the Skype microphone out the window during our conversations in order that you hear the waves crashing. Living the high life was nice for the week. After leaving Viña I headed back to Santiago to get my things in order for my trip back to the EEUU. I spent the weekend with friends in Santiago, did a small trek on the Cerro, and even managed to get in some Christmas shopping.

On November 22nd, manned with an extremely lighter suitcase (I brought it home empty in order to fill it with warm clothes for the Chilean winter) and a list of food that I wanted to eat while home, I hopped aboard the shuttle and was on my way home. Everything needed to go according to plan as I had a ticket to attend a Wilco show that night in Madison, Wisconsin. I arrived without glitches and made my way home with enough time to shower, empty my suitcase and refill it for a trip to Madison and then up north for Thanksgiving with my family. Julie and I had a blast at the Wilco show and the next morning I met Mark for another long haul to the north woods. I was forced to use the Thanksgiving holiday for some rest and recuperation as I was plagued by some sort of food allergy (I would hate to blame the McDonalds I ate earlier that morning) which kept me from enjoying the traditional feast and home cooking for a few days.

The following week I got into the car and drove back to Denver in order to make some visits and fill my belly with food from some of my favorite restaurants. I had a wonderful reunion with all my friends at Niver Creek while spending a few days in Meg's classroom. I even received a warm welcome back from a few students who forgot how much they did not like me last year. Chad and Melissa shared their spare room with me so I was able to set up a base camp for an entire week and it did not involve an Aerobed! It was wonderful to be back in my latest hometown to see everyone. I left Colorado in time to avoid the first blizzard and was back in Wisconsin to see as many high school friends as possible and spend a wonderful Christmas with my family. It was so nice to see so many of you while I was home! Enjoy the pictures.

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