An Embarrassing Video, Working Out in the Cold and Saying Goodbye

This week we said good by to our friend Eva, from Chile. We went up to Sandy for the second time, two Saturdays ago, and Becca made paella for everyone. Eva has really gotten into playing Jenga and so after we went to the temple we played a few rounds of that game and 5 Crowns so Becca got another chance to trounce us all. There are some new members of our congregation at Church who are from Viña del Mar (Chile) and last Sunday, I had a webcam conversation with some friends of mine who live in Temuco (also Chile). I think that it would be wonderful to spend a week in Chile this December. Who knows what the future will bring.
It hasn't been this cold in Utah Valley since I moved here in 2003. We went most of the week with our record high of the day being somewhere in the upper 20's. That means that I have to bundle up before I go jogging on the icy sidewalks of south Orem in the miserably cold weather. Becca is very happy about getting a Golds GYM membership and, to her credit, she went both days after receiving it, she took Sunday off. Go Becca!

How would you like it if your absolute worst day at work was on live TV, recorded, edited to show the worst parts and then put up on youtube? Well, that's what happened to my friend Ziad Fazah. Ziad has been to almost half a dozen countries to be interviewed and kind of show off his language skills. They bring on six to ten people whose native languages are languages that he also speaks and then they ask him questions and he responds and interprets for the audience. He has done very well for himself every time but one.

After doing one of these shows in Argentina, a Chilean TV producer approached him and invited to fly him out to be interviewed in Chile. Ziad accepted and a couple of months later flew from Brazil to Chile. He arrived on a Saturday to go on TV the next day. The TV producer then told Ziad that there had been a change. He was going to do a language test in ten languages including Russian, Farsi, Finnish, Greek and Mandarin Chinese. Ziad learned a lot of his languages decades ago and then, when he moved to Brazil, had little occasion to speak many of them. How much Cambodian, Finnish or Bhutanese does a guy need to speak in Brazil? Before he does a language test on TV, he asks only to be told what the languages will be and what they will be talking about so he can review and get ready. After a week or two of preparation, he says that he is completely conversant in any of his 59 languages.

He really should have just said, Sorry I need to review some of those languages before I feel comfortable going on TV and speaking them but here is a list of 30 languages that I can speak well at the drop of a hat. The fact is that he didn't. He was so nervous that he slept only two hours before going on live television the next day. They started him with an Egyptian, which you'd think would be good since Ziad's native language is Arabic, but the guy was a snob and said to the camera, Well, he speaks Arabic but he doesn't speak the Egyptian dialect. Ziad felt attacked and responded that the Christian Lebanese were the most advanced Middle Easterners, even more so than the Egyptians. Things went down hill from there and he responded incorrectly to the Finnish, Chinese, Greek and Russian representatives. He did fine with the other six languages but guess what made it's way onto youtube? That's right, the Finnish, Chinese, Greek and Russian questions.

I saw that video linked to three different websites (including wikipedia) where people said that Ziad was a complete fraud. I defended my friend but the edited video did look really bad and it was hard to refute it. I finally called Ziad and he told me what had happened. I then found out who uploaded the video onto youtube (which was easier than you'd think) and sent him an email explaining the situation and how it was affecting Ziad's career as a language teacher. The next day the guy sent me an email saying that he meant no harm and that he'd be willing to take the video down. It was a big victory and Ziad was very happy.

I've got to take off now and go interpret at a fireside. We enjoyed the letters that you've been sending, updating us on your lives, as well as the blogs, phone calls and other such methods of communication. Have a good week!

SALT LAKE, EMPANADAS AND A VIRUS

This week I got a funny instant message from a friend of mine who is a paramedic up in the Andean Mountains. It was a zip file that said La nariz es muy grande ¿no? (Big nose, eh?) He likes to send me pictures of his family every now and again so I figured it was a zip file with pictures of his big-nosed uncle or something like that. I later found that it was a very nasty computer virus that made me lose at least four gigabytes of music files and a couple days of work. It would wait until I was idle, freeze the computer and send the virus to all of my friends that were on MSN Messenger. The virus spread to my friend in Beijing who has been having a horrible time trying to get that virus off his computer. It really amazes me that that virus went from South America to North America and then to Asia in about an hour.

My good friend Dan Taylor, a technician who works for Dell, came over and spent more than fifteen hours on my computer trying to get the virus off but there was no use. We had to copy all of the information on my computer onto jump drives and CD's, wipe the computer clean like a black board and then put all of the information back on it. Not all of my music files got backed up for some reason and so I've been trying to find the music and put it back on. It's been tedious to say the least.
This weekend we have been quite social. We went over to our friend the Taylor's house on Friday night, made sushi, watched Ghost Busters and played 5 Crowns; Becca soundly beat everyone again. Yesterday was very special. A lady who was very kind to me during my first assignment in Chile, some seven years ago, came Utah to visit her daughter who just recently had a little girl. I've kept in touch with this family over the years but I hadn't seen any of them since I left Osorno for the last time in October of 2002. This last Saturday they invited Becca and me to come see them all at the house of Barbara and Steven, Eva's daughter and son-in-law, in Sandy.
I almost felt like I was back at Eva's house in Osorno. It was kind of funny to be able to give Eva and Barbara hugs this time. Becca outdid herself and made a beautiful and delicious layered chocolate cake and Eva, wanting to bring a little of Chile to me, made us all empanadas, an egg noodle soup that's typical in Southern Chile and maté. This was the second time that I had tried maté and this time I must admit that I really liked it. I guess it DOES depend on who prepares it.
I had only ever heard about Steven and it was nice to actually get to know him. I suppose I can't imagine Barbara, the daughter, marrying anyone who isn't great, but all the same it was nice to find that out for myself. Steven and Barbara's little girl was born prematurely and while I was holding her last night he told me that she was actually supposed to be two days old just then. She's cute, petite and instantly endearing. Eva isn't going back to Chile for another week and a half so next Saturday we'll be getting together with all of them again.
Today we're playing hosts to our friends the Kingsley's who lived across the street from us when we were in the basement apartment closer to BYU campus. They invited us over to their place for dinner months ago and we've been meaning to return the favor. Plus, they haven't seen our new place yet.

CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR IN CALIFORNIA

We were very excited for Christmas this year. Perhaps part of this was due to the fact that a really warm day in Orem got up to about 37 degrees, which were the low temperatures of the day in the San Joaquin Valley. I've been back and forth between Modesto and Orem so many times that I've got the trip down pat. If we go 80 mph through Nevada, and as fast as we can everywhere else, and only gas up in Elko and Reno, we can make the trip in 10.5 hours. The pretty scenery, listening to long playlists on our Ipods, eating tasty snacks and playing 20 Questions makes the first eight hours go by pretty quickly. Those last two hours or so are almost always horrible but we're that much happier when we reach our destination.

This year we didn't leave until the 23rd to be able to celebrate our third year anniversary by ourselves in Utah and because I had to stay and sing in the church choir. I had made romantic plans which fell through and we just ended up going to dinner and eating at our favorite sushi bar. Even though it was simple we ended up having a really good time.

Christmas Eve was spent in Atwater at my dad's parents house. Garit and Grant played what was to be the first of at least four games of Risk during the holidays. Several days later they finally talked me into playing with them. Garit is far too good at that game and I think that it will take more than two opponents to beat him. Maybe he and my brother-in-law Rick can play sometime since I've heard that Rick is supposed to be pretty good.
The food and company were wonderful but the best part to me was the singing. For several years of my high school experience I sang millions of Christmas songs in many places and many, many times over the holidays; I sang so much that I eventually lost all desire to ever sing or listen to Christmas music. These past few years I've found myself looking forward to it.
Christmas morning was spent at my mother's home. This year she asked us to write five love notes to each other and put them in our stockings. With Garit, Garit's girlfriend Raquel, Mom, Becca and me, we all had to write twenty love notes a piece! The task was a bit daunting but I think that it was a very good idea on Mom's part. It's a shame that we those closest to us don't always know how much we admire them so the notes were a very positive change.

After we ate a hearty breakfast and picked up my Grandma Barbara, we headed down south to Fresno to spend the rest of the day with our cousins the Lee's. Other than several dogs and cats, the Lees have three little pigs that they keep penned up. My cousin Hunter said that they're good little soccer players. Eric and Gina were excellent hosts, providing wonderful food and entertainment for us all, and it was especially nice to see aunt Gina's folks again after so many years. The only bad thing about having so many wonderful relatives is that we don't get to see all of them for as much time as we'd like. Speaking of which, I really missed seeing Laurey and Murray, the Pattersons, Brittain and Jarit, the Texas Boothes and Tristine and Breanna, even though I did run into the girls at the book store. Maybe we can all make sure that we get together for the Holidays in 2009.

The followingThursday we headed back down to Fresno to do some temple work with my aunts which he puts in when he goes out and about.and grandparents. Grandpa had a root canal recently and has been given a temporary tooth.
Unfortunately, he remembered that he needed to put it in when he was already on his way to the temple. I love to go to the temple and it's even better to go with family. Afterwards, Aunt Debbie treated us to a nice lunch at Macaroni Grill.

The following Sunday was pretty busy. Becca and I went back down to Atwater to attend church at 9:00am so I could sing in a trio with Aunt Merrilyn and Aunt Lorraine. I don't know how the trio sounded but I really enjoyed the talk my grandma gave about faithfulness to God and paying tithing. We also got to say hi to my dad's cousin Jeff who is a really great guy.

After Sacrament Meeting in Atwater we jetted up to to Modesto to attend another Sacrament Meeting in the Spanish Branch. The Mormon Spanish speaking congregation has become so mixed and bilingual, and with so many visitors that may or may not understand Spanish, there are a team of bilingual members who sit on the side and interpret everything into a microphone that people in the audience can hear through individual head-phone sets. Garit was a busy man giving a fine talk in church and then later conducting a baptismal service for a nice married couple that was joining the church.
New Year's Eve was spent at my Grandma Barbara's house with Grant, Aunt Carrie and my cousin Molly. Molly is doing great things in stage make-up and we're all proud of her for that and her other achievements. Grandma prepared a scrumptious roast that I enjoyed a lot. I'm not one for red meat but the next day we came over to her house to help take down her Christmas lights and I couldn't help but make myself a sandwich with the leftovers. We stayed up for the new year playing games. Becca taught everyone how to play Five Crowns and then beat us all at the game.
We ended our trip spending time with our friends the Jiménez' and the Bertinettis and then having dinner at Dad and Penny's house. We drank Mexican hot chocolate and played the Mexican version of Family Feud with my team winning. Dad made us a delicious sea food dish and we enjoyed ourselves chatting afterwards.

The day after we returned home it snowed a TON up in the mountains in between California and Nevada. We were very happy to miss the bad weather and cruise on through with no problems at all. We miss our family and we miss California's warm weather. It snowed most of yesterday and Utah feels like an icebox right now. That said, I'm hoping that Christmas of 2008 in Michigan will be a white one. We love you all and hope that this year brings you much happiness!

SHARING MY SHOWER WITH RATS

For years there was a tall palm tree in my mother's neighbor's back yard that spawned smaller palm trees in her back yard. They eventually got out of hand and one of the palms grew to cover the bathroom window. Since you didn't want anyone looking in on you anyway, this wasn't a big deal until recently.

While on this last visit to my mother's house in Modesto, I noticed something looking at me through the bathroom mirror. Apparently there were three mice that had made a nest right next to the shower window in the bathroom. We saw them warming their bellies on the glass when we took showers.
The next day Garit, Grant and I went out to the back yard and cut down all of the palm trees and other vegetation where the rats could make their nests. The foliage was pretty thick at first and we had to work our way back to where the rats were. One of them came out to watch what I was doing and later on we heard a yelp from my brother Grant who swears that one of the rats charged him from above in one of the palm trees. I don't think that we'll see them up there anytime soon.

LLAIMA VOLCANO ERUPTION

Early in the morning on January 1st the Llaima Volcano in southern Chile erupted and has continued to spew lava. This video was taken by some locals in the small town of Curacautín, which is about forty miles north east of where I lived at one point. I could see the volcano from the city where I lived but I never saw anything like this.