The Deal

1st Stop: Nicaragua, June 23-July 3.








Really excited to kick my summer off with this trip. My last day of school/work is June 20 and then I am off to Chicago to drop the dog and head south. I'll be spending most of my time trying to translate audio tapes of the Sandinista Literacy Campaign. State formation is the issue I am attempting to uncover. How does power meet with the consent of the governed and form a state? The overwhelming majority of states in the world operate on social contract theory - essentially the state only exists at the will of the people and in this case my questions will be directed at discovering what sort of society the Sandinistas were attempting to create and simultaneously what the Nicaraguan people thought they were receiving. Obviously there will be lots of wandering around checking out cool things in a new culture as well. A few days in Leon, a beautiful colonial city, and then back to the states to hop on a plane to.....


2nd stop: Mae Hong Son, Thailand - July 7-17

ROY!!!! Alright, this is going to be a fun one. Hopefully there will be some motobikes ridden, hot food eaten, thai beer drank and many, many laughs had.
Takes 2 days to get there and negative 1 to get back - time traveling for sure. This will be the one trip that won't be long enough, I blame it on my job making me work too far into the summer.





3rd stop: Bariloche, Argentina - July 20-August 5

I've wanted to get to Patagonia for as long as I can remember and now I'll be living there for two weeks with an Argentine family, studying Spanish, eating delicious gaucho meats. Classes from 9-1 M-F for two weeks, skiing on the weekends and generally living it up the whole time. Mikel Bova Esq. of Colorado/Utah fame will be joining me for some skiing at some point.
There are few things that are better for me than mountains and snow, but one of them is being in a new culture that I get to explore and experience. This one gives me both, pretty damn awesome. Its also my first trip into the southern hemisphere - toilets go the opposite direction I hear...

4th stop: Buenos Aires - August 5-8

That dude is obviously the man, and even though he is not wearing a mustache in the picture, you can be sure there was on on that lip at some point in his life.
A quick trip to a city that I would be remiss for not visiting while in the country. We'll see what this one brings. I've been told of neighborhoods that have completely dropped capitalism and run strictly on the barter system - definitely more on this to come...







5th and final.......August 8-10

Alright, check back in next week and I'll get this thing moving. Good luck out there.