The Circle Game

After sleeping in until 11 o'clock on a classless Friday morning. And after eating a nice hefty bowl of rice with a shortened maté session, I took a look in the mirror and I looked at the calendar. Do you know what the date is? It is November 15, 2013. That is 18 years, 3 months, and 6 days after I was born. More importantly, it's 3 months and 13 days after I arrived here in Chile. If you know me, does it feel like that much time has past in the US (or wherever you are while reading this)? Because for me, it doesn't even feel like half that much time. It's starting to freak me out a little bit. Is this going to be the rest of my life? Dragging my feet to stop the clock? Or am I out of the water after this year because like every cliché I'm living the "you're exchange is going to go by so fast".

As for looking in the mirror, which is something I didn't address in the first paragraph, I am not sure if I should be happy at what I saw. Proud? Sad? I could easily say all three. I could easily say none of the above. To help me come to a conclusion, what did I see? I saw a pitiful excuse for a beard, you think being in another country is going to stop me from participating in No Shave November? It's called sharing cultures, you were sadly mistaken. I saw a buzzed head of no hair, which is a result of my first time traveling with the basketball team. I am noticing that parts of my hair isn't growing as fast as the front. Wait, am I really seeing symptoms of balding? I am praying that it's just early unevenness in my hair due to the fact that I only shaved it two weeks ago. However, it does have me scared. Everything is pointing me in the direction of a bald head, genes and the fact I've had a receding hairline since I popped out of the woom. What else did I saw beside my patchy facial and head of hair? To tell you the truth? I saw a man. I don't know if I need to reiterate what I mentioned in the first paragraph, but I'm 18 years old. I am not a little kid any more. Mom. Dad. When I get home, you aren't going to see or talk to the same person (almost used the word kid here) that you had in your house just three months ago. I will have changed physically but more importantly I will have changed emotionally and mentally. Should I be proud of this? Should the two of you be proud of this? I guess the correct answer would be yes because every adult wants their child to grow up to be a strong, mature, and healthy adult. However, is the answer deep down really no? Because the reality is, no adult wants their child to grow up, it means that they too are getting older, and the train starts moving faster. Mom. Dad. You think this is depressing or reality checking? Hold your thoughts, because if you look at the calendar again you'll see that Taylor is more than halfway done with BBA and that he will be receiving letters from colleges in one year to say whether he got in or not. Woah. 

I've listened to two songs recently that not only sparked this reality check, but also helped me check reality. The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell and Stop This Train by John Mayer. Both of which tell the same story of life passing us by. I am now the person dragging my feet to slow the circle down and asking, no sorry BEGGING to stop the train. But in reality, begging for something that isn't possible is just wasting my breath. My childhood has slipped past me and I have to move on from the fact I'll never see it again. It's time I have to move into adulthood with purpose. I have to understand I'm not a kid and take some initiative. Fortunately, I have 7 months left of this wonderful adventure before that really begins. Who knows though, I may close my eyes to fall asleep tonight and wake up and it'll all be over. When my mom worked at Brown Ledge Camp in Burlington, Vermont, we would always sing this song. As 10 year old Weston sang with 200+ girls at the beautiful girls summer camp he had a smile on his face and had no idea what in the world he was singing about. Whenever, we started singing there was this one girl who was about 7 years old and she would run our of the dining hall crying every single time. I always asked my mom why and she always said I don't know. I just didn't understand, because I was in the stage of the song where "words like when you're older must appease him". That little girl, at age 7, understood getting older when I didn't get until 18. I know my mom knew exactly why she was crying, but I am glad she didn't tell me. I need to pass through the phases of the Circle Game, I mean that's life isn't it?

Take a minute or two and read the lyrics of the two songs if you aren't familiar with them. If you are reading this, take 10 minutes today and just think about this topic. 

The Circle Game : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9VoLCO-d6U

Yesterday, a child came out to wander

Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder

And tearful at the falling of a star

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

Then, the child moved ten times 'round the seasons

Skated over ten clear frozen streams

Words like, "When you're older", must appease him

And promises of someday make his dreams 

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came, 

And go round and round and round 

In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now

Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town

And they tell him, "Take your time. It won't be long now.

'Til your drag your feet to slow the circles down" 

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty

Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true

There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty

Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return, we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and 'round and 'round

In the circle game

And go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game.

Stop This Train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BTzNX5OMN4

No I'm not color blind

I know the world is black and white

Try to keep an open mind but...

I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly won't someone stop this train

Don't know how else to say it, don't want to see my parents go

One generation's length away

From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train

I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't but honestly won't someone stop this train

So scared of getting older

I'm only good at being young

So I play the numbers game to find away to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man

Said help me understand

He said turn 68, you'll renegotiate

Don't stop this train

Don't for a minute change the place you're in

Don't think I couldn't ever understand

I tried my hand

John, honestly we'll never stop this train

See once in a while when it's good

It'll feel like it should

And they're all still around

And you're still safe and sound

And you don't miss a thing

'til you cry when you're driving away in the dark.

Singing stop this train I want to get off and go home again

I can't take this speed it's moving in

I know I can't

Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

(think I got 'em now)

Basketball Tournament

After two months of planning and waiting, my basketball team loaded up on the bus to the airport to head to Temuco for a basketball tournament. If you read about my previous tournament, we ended up winning a nail biter (quite literally I think I was biting my nails) against a team from Temuco. After the game they invited us to their 5 day, 8 team tournament October 30-November 2. I was quite groggy the morning of the 29th when we uploaded our transfer bus in front of our school. I hadn't really been thinking about basketball that much lately because the reality is we didn't practice or prepare much for the tournament. High school sports work differently down here. If you want to play a lot you have to go out and make regional selection or club teams. Because the high school teams only practice about 2-3 times a week. In our case, 4-5 times a month from September-November. I am going to skip this part of the story and head right into the tourney. 

I was pretty groggy in the morning and didn't talk much through the bus ride and into the plane ride. We landed after a 50 minute flight in Puerto Montt and pretty shortly after that we hopped onto a bus that I thought was the bus to Temuco. I fell asleep on the bus and when we got to the bus station I was very surprised to see signs for Puerto Montt around the station. I asked my teammate why we were still in Puerto Montt if we took a bus for an hour from the airport. This made my team laugh because apparently I fell asleep for 10 minutes and we drove from one side of the city to the other. That made for a good joke for the rest of the week. We put our luggage, in a storage area and all headed for the mall as we had several hours waiting for hour bus to Temuco. It was about a 20 minute walk there and back, and like classic chileans we were running incredibly tardy and ended up sprinting back full speed after eating lunch at the mall to catch the bus, we made it. 

Getting ready for Game 6!

Waiting with out luggage. 

On the bus we got really lucky and there was a hot water dispenser in the back. I brought all my stuff for maté and we drank maté the entire bus ride while enjoying 5 hours of pure laughs. This included a lot of improvising in Spanish. Which I found out is very difficult when you don't speak Spanish… There are two kids on my team on the other hand are quite talented. Although I don't understand every word that's being said, it is still fun to listen and laugh at the parts that I understand (or know should be laughed at). It was the best five hour bus ride that I've ever taken. 

When we arrived in Temuco a classic Weston, at the time very frustrating, thing happened. So we got off the bus, I was last as usual. Everyone was ready, I wasn't as usual. Just as I had all my carryon fixated and started to pick my head up to get my carryons out from the bottom of the bus, the bus started driving away, and my team was gone. I didn't know what to do so I turned down the street and saw my team driving away without me. I yelled to my coach to stop and then screamed if he had my bags, which we didn't. Then I ran after the bus and caught up with it at the next stop light, leaving my backpack with my computer, passport, and wallet on the ground. When I ran onto the bus the driver said that we couldn't take the bags out now (which I still don't know why) and that we had to wait and he drove away about 6 blocks. Then he let me out and gave me my bags. At this point I had no phone, no team, all my important belongings on the curb an unknown distance due north, and I was alone in an unfamiliar city. I was quite nervous. Luckily my team chased after the bus in the car and found me. Unfortunately they didn't know that I left my bags back at the stop. Two team mates and I sprinted full speed and found the bag next to the tree where I left it. Huge Phew. 

Our Hostel for the week. 

This incident put me in a pretty bad mood for a little while. To start I was pretty mad that my team straight up left without even checking if I was there and I was also mad that the bus driver couldn't help me at the red light. I gave myself some space from people and within 20 minutes of arriving at the student hostel where we would be staying I cooled down and was ready for dinner. We were put up in a student hostel with four of the other teams and stayed in the same room together with a bunch of bunk beds. After a late dinner of pasta and meat, we headed to bed and rested for our 10:30 game. We arrived at the gym at 9 o'clock the next day and it was a pretty nice venue. Very international feel with a lot of students watching. I was really nervous before it started and unfortunately I didn't turn those nerves into something productive because we lost the first game. It was a really close game the whole time although I never felt comfortable. We were tied going into the fourth and ended up losing by 20. It was a total collapse in the fourth. I had about 15 points probably but they weren't 15 good ones and I really didn't feel good about how I played afterwards. They had a couple big men (which we don't have) and one kid who was really tore us up. When the game ended I had a bunch of negative thoughts going through my head and needed about an hour to cool off. However, once I cooled down I was ready to enjoy the rest of the day. 

Team picture after game 1.

Skying up for an almost dunk in game 1. 

We spent the rest of the day until 5 at the hostel eating lunch and playing guitar and singing. Then at 5 we had the players ceremony and opening presentation. There were a lot of people and it was well put together despite the fact they spelled the name of my school wrong. There were lots of people taking pictures and it was cool to see all the teams together in one place. 

Our team at the ceremony. 

After the ceremony, we headed to the mall in Temuco with the two girls (students of the home town high school) who volunteered to walk our team to every place during the week. We were also accompanied by two former students of my high school who are now studying in Temuco. It was great to get to know the four of them and have some Chilean fast/mall food. We only had a couple hours at the mall so at 8:30 we found a bus and headed back to the hostel. 

A not so flattering picture of my friend and I
at the mall. 

One of the kids on my basketball team went to Missouri for an exchange year right outside of St. Louis almost two years ago. From this he was a pretty serious Cardinals fan. Well, this was perfect. As you probably know, Wednesday night was Game 6 of the World Series. Maybe the most important baseball game in Red Sox history. To be honest with you, it was one of those moments during my exchange that I really missed home and just wished I was able to enjoy this game with my family. However, I did get to watch it with someone and I didn't watch it solo. That was really important to me, even if he was a Cardinals fan. Unfortunately, dinner was at the same time. To manage this, in between innings we would run to the cafeteria, eat a little, and come back. We did this for about an hour. We missed a total of about 20 pitches in the entire game, which really isn't that bad when you think about it. 

Watching the Sox destroy. 

Our giant flat screen World Series TV. 

Let's skip through the game and enjoy the fact that the Sox one. It was a really cool moment for me. I ran down the hallways and screamed and even explained to someone in the hallway what had happened and he shook my hand and congratulated me. I went to bed incredibly happy and the next day I couldn't stop reading about the game and the series. I read for about 30 minutes, article after article after article. 

We we allowed had another early game on Thursday at 9:30. When we got to our new gym location we were greeted by bright blue floors. However, it was a nice court. About 30 seconds into our warmup they said it was time to start. I couldn't believe it. I literally hadn't touched a basketball yet and it felt like I had just gotten out of bed. The game started it appeared that both sides felt this way. At the start of the game I was a little intimidated by the team we were playing. I honestly thought they were a lot better than us. However, we played them close during the entire first half and it was a one or two point game at halftime. The second half they had a kid face guard me and after getting three fouls early on I ended up guarding there scrub point guard. I looked at this, and then schemed a plan that helped our team beat the other team by about 15 when it was all said and done. On offense I ran the kid guarding me into the ground. Even though I wasn't the best basketball player at the tournament (probably in the top 5) I was easily the fastest and the best at running the floor. I literally just cut back and forth and back and forth across the gym and away from the ball. This meant he wasn't helping on defense so my point guard was getting to the hoop and it also meant that the kid looked like he was about to puke after two minutes. What the other coach should have done was switch who was guarding me every 3 minutes or so to give people rests but they had the same kid guard me the whole time and he never came out…and I never tired. This meant two things while we were playing defense. One, the kid was a zero threat. He had no energy and the little that he had left he spent guarding me. I took him out of the game offensively. Secondly, their point guard didn't want to do anything but dribble the ball up and pass it away at the three point line. So what I ended up doing what I stood in the middle of the paint and help out on the good kids. They played 3 on 5 offensively more or less. It was a really fun game to play and I finished with 22. 

My Point Guard, Marcello, and I
during the game. 

We headed back to the shack for lunch and then had a two hour play guitar and chillax break until our 5 o clock game. This next game was really important because if we won we advanced to play for the championship and if we lost we were stuck in a 5th place game no matter how we did the next day. After the first half it seemed like it would be a close one till the end. I was playing terrible. I think I had four points in the first half, my attitude was bad, my percentages were terrible, and I just wasn't in the game. Luckily our point guard was putting on a show with about 15 first half points and so we were still in it. The third started and I was still struggling and then with 30 seconds left in the 3rd I got going. I hit a 3 at the top of the key, nothing but net. Then 15 seconds later we had the ball for the last possession and as the clock hit 5 someone past me the ball outside the 3 point line and right in front of my bench I shot. I held my followthrough just like I learned at Muench Camp and even though it went through with 2 seconds left I stood there with my hand up until that horn sounded. I was now in the game. I ended up scoring 20 points in the last 10 minutes of play and we ended up winning by 50. It was a throw down of sorts. 

After the game we had time to enjoy the rest of the day to head to the mall again. All this walking around Temuco was great because we were really getting to know the city and not just the gymnasiums. I have an actual opinion of the city now instead of just saying we won this game and lost this game. It's not the nicest city I have ever been too but not the ugliest ever. It has almost no background or scenery but it has things to do and nice markets along with about 200,000 inhabitants. 

Friday was the big day that all of us had been waiting for. In our hometown tournament we won an incredibly exciting game against the home town team in this tournament. The way the brackets ended up, we faced them in the semifinal. It was a special game for all of us especially because we had the opportunity to become very friendly with the other team off the court. They played me just how I had expected, right on my grill, face to face. Unfortunately I just did not have a good game. I didn't shoot well and couldn't shake my defenders. The thing I did correctly was I cleared the lanes which gave a ton of space to operate for my point guard. He had a great game an scored almost every point for us. I ended up with about 10. We played them tight the whole way until the last 8 minutes. We ended up losing by about 13 but in reality it was an 8 point game. We didn't give the game to them, they took it from us. It was well deserved. 

This game was really hard for me to bounce back from. I was upset for quite an extended period of time and obviously now I see how asking no one to talk to me and brushing off my teammates was foolish but you have to understand that in the moment, I wanted to win that game and I really felt like I let my team down. I had to let myself cool off. 

After I cooled off I enjoyed a Subway sandwich in the mall. It was definitely not as good as American Subway, however it was the first Subway I had eaten in about five months so it was a big moment nonetheless. 

The next day we had the 3rd place game. For us we had lost our big opportunity at the ship. So the night before the third place game we weren't worried about sleep or getting rest. We stayed up late, and had a lot of won. If we won the next day great, if not then we still grabbed a trophy with third. To start the night all the teams ate dinner together and we came up with the idea to have a soccer tournament at 10:30 outside. 

What came after dinner was the most interesting part of the night. In Chile it's tradition with the sports teams that when a person travels with the team for the first time the team shaves their head really strangely. I initially that no way in hell would I be partaking in this because I actually wasn't planning on cutting my hair for a long time. I had long hair for the first time. However, after watching two of my teammates go down the drain and be utterly shamed, I realized that when I got back in the US I would regret this if I didn't do it. So I took my shirt off and told them to have at it as I bit my lip and cried inside. I watched as slowly my hair fell to the ground and my teammates started to laugh. What they did to my hair was absolutely hideous. They shaved sunglasses, a beard, and a mustache in the back of my head, then a mohawk in the front. Although terrible, it was a memory and I am very glad with the decision I made. Now, all I have to do is wait five more months until my hair is where it was!

Before.

After.

The three victims together. 

The hair incident led right into the soccer tournament. Every team was present except for a Santiago team which would be playing in the championship game the next day, understood. Every team wore their uniform or warmup on the court. It was very funny. I obviously didn't play because I am very incapable of playing soccer but I watched and talked to the other teams that weren't playing on the side lines. What was great about this part of the night was we all bonded and made jokes and when we woke up the next day we all were like one team. 

We took third in the soccer tournament. 

After the soccer tournament, I thought we would be headed to bed but instead my friends told me they wanted to meet a pretty American girl in a Skype. Sorry, Casey. My good friend and diaper amigo Casey Apps was the lucky victim. They were incredibly obnoxious and even though I thought it was funny I'm sure she thought it was quite strange. There is one kid on my team that wants to marry you Casey! It was still great seeing you! Finally, we went to bed pushing 2 o clock. 

Case!

The next morning our 3rd place game started at 10. We were zombies. I almost missed breakfast. I really just didn't want to get up. We got to the gym with only 15 minutes of game time until the start of our game. I was sore, I was tired, I was unmotivated, and I was not ready to play a basketball game. I got ready very slowly and while everyone else was spending their 10 minutes getting warmed up I sat in a chair and watched the game. We had 5 minutes to warm up when it ended. I have never been so not ready for a game in my entire life…

A rare shot of me touching a basketball
before the game started. 

I had my best game of the tournament. I scored 29, had a bunch of assists, and carried the team. I am not sure what happened. In the first half alone I had four 3s, and the three point line here is closer to NBA than it is to USA high school. I was absolutely on fire and I felt great. We won by about 15 even though we were only up 1 at the half. We were just too fast for them. I just ran and ran and ran and ran and they didn't have enough gas to keep up. So we took third, it wasn't what we wanted but honestly it was better than I thought we would do considering we barely practiced leading up to the tournament. 

During the 3rd place victory.

After us Santiago beat the hometown team in a nail biter by 3. Temuco was down 23-9 at the half and just slowly chipped away. I won't go into too much detail about the game because that would just bore you guys…if you are still already reading this thank you. 

The two teams fighting for a rebound in the championship.

We received our medals and trophies in a presentation following the games and then said goodbye to two of the teams. We then went to the mall per usual and made our ways back to the shack for our "Last Supper" at the hostel. There was a Chinese kid on one of the other teams so he said grace and Chinese and I said grace in English. Then, we had a rap battle. He rapped in Chinese and I rapped in English. It was really funny because no one understood us but they reacted like we dissed each other so hard. After dinner the two of us had a rap battle in Spanish and it was absolutely terrible. But we laughed it off. I won somehow and he's been here for 12 years. Go USA!

All the teams together, the trophy in the air
is ours!

Our whole group for the week.

Giving our trophy one big kiss.

The daughter of the head coach of Temuco works for an exchange program named AFS and also went on exchange and speaks English so we had a very good conversation (her in English and me in Spanish) about exchange and it was good for me because now I feel like I have a very good resource. She has a South African accent and I am pretty sure that her English is better than mine. After all the excited we finally said our goodbyes and uploaded the bus to the terminal. During our two hour wait we had the great idea to play guitar for money. We set out the case put some change in it and started singing songs as a team. Some lady gave us the equivalent of a 2 dollar bill and even though nobody else contributed after an hour, we had a TON of fun. I even met a street puppy that I named "Blerst" and he slept on my lap for about half an hour. I am not sure how sanitary that was but he was just too cute.  

Blerst!

Our team playing music. We made 2 bucks!

Me and my Chinese friend. 

We then took an over night bus to Puertto Mont and from Puerto Montt we took our plane back to Coyhaique, which ended our trip. I can't tell you how great this was for my exchange. I got to know so many people from all different parts of Chile. I got to know Temuco. We got very close with our two volunteer tour guides. I got to meet 3 alumni from my school and now we are friends. I got to play basketball against good competition. Most importantly, I am now incredibly close with my team and have hundreds of jokes that we use every day now. I am very grateful for my exchange and the new experiences I get to have daily. 

Thank you so much to these
two girls (our tour guides for the weekend). 

PHOTOS: 

https://www.facebook.com/weston.muench/media_set?set=a.10202597604646518.1073741844.1388974335&type=3