The 2 Week School Anniversary Celebration

Is almost over .... 

This is both good and bad news ... On one hand my will finaly have everybody in them so I can give students assignments and expect all the students to have completed them. Additionally, I won't have my class room disturbed from the noises of students practicing their song and dance routines outside. On the other hand, I will finally have to work a full five day work week and I won't have classes randomly canceled as happened to my first class today and my last class yesterday. 

Tonight, there is a big dinner/party for all of the teachers in which my suit will get its second wearing. Yesterday, was pajama and costume day which ended with a student party at the school. During the pajama and costume day, the students competed in contests such as musical chairs and races that involved students spinning in circles before running and popping a balloon by sitting on it. The two days before that every grade presented a dance ... most of the songs were American songs such as the "boots with the fur" song, swing music from the 50's and "candy shop."

Last friday, was a field day where all the students went to a park and did a number of contests, including soccer, water volleyball, how long can one student lift three other students, egg toss and how many students can we stuff into a tent (the winner had 24 students). The event ended with the longest largest water balloon fight I've ever seen in which I got drenched. 

Other days have included police day where the middle schoolers sang a song about the police, day of culture where students displayed their art projects, and a song competition in which the winner sang smoke over water. 

Nights in Antofagasta

So manage to go out about once every week (usually with the other volunteers here in Antofagasta). Some of these experiences have been pretty ordinary and others have been rather interesting.

My first time out was probably the most exciting because I got lost on my way back to my house. I didn't know the city or my neighborhood very well and since much of Antofagasta looks rather similar to my eyes (one story house with walls and little stores with signs of “hay pan”) when the bus started going up to the top of the hill Antofagasta rests and we hadn't gone to the top of the hill going into the downtown area, I assumed I missed my stop and got off. My plan was to walk down the hill to the coast, get my bearings and then walk back up the hill to my host family's house. I had spent sometime already walking along the beach and thought I could tell where I was when I got there. Unfortunately, when I reached the beach that didn't prove to be the case, but because I had to have passed my stop I started walking back towards downtown figuring I'd recognize a landmark soon enough. It turns out though that my assumptions were all wrong and that the bus actually hadn't passed my house; the buses don't take the exact same routes going north as they do going south. It all ended up working out though. After walking 30 minutes in the wrong direction, I ran into a young couple in an old beat up van parked on the beach eating Chinese food and asked them how to get to my house. After they told me it was a long ways away, I managed to convince them to give me a ride in exchange for some cash. It took them maybe 10 minutes to drive me home, with van motor revving loudly the whole time (particular when we went up the hill).

My next time out, another volunteer and I went to a schloperia, which is basically a dive bar that typically only men go to. They almost solely serve cheap beer (Cristal, Escudo, Brahmia are the big beer brands here … much of Antofagasta income is from mining so the town and the schloperias have a blue collar feel to them). While we were talking, a Chilean man came up to our table and told us he'd buy us a round if he could join our table and talk English with us. We said sure and conversed for awhile. He then bought us another round and we continued talking. On the back from the bathroom (they had a trough just like at UMD) a different man comes up to me and speaks to me in broken English and asks if our table needed more beer. I said no definitely not because we had already drunken too much (a beer here is basically a liter) but he either did not understand or didn't listen because soon enough another round appeared at our table. After mostly finishing that, our new friends asked us if we wanted to find some girls at a discotheque but both me and the other volunteer were tired so we headed home instead.

This past weekend, the volunteers and I went to a nice small discotheque on the third floor of the Antofagasta Mall. Because of the connections of one the schools' secretaries, we didn't have to pay the cover which would have been 15 dollars! The place was very nice and it had an excellent view of Antofagasta (because at 3 stories up it was one of the tallest buildings in town. The city really looked like a carpet of lights spread out along the hill. This time I managed to stay up until 6am which is the time when parties in Chile typically end. I don't know how people here do it … as is my style I took a nap before heading out, however my host mom regularly comes back to the house at 6 am without needing a nap beforehand.

This upcoming weekend I am supposed to attend a Chilean asado (bbq) with my host mom. Details next week.

dogs again

Today, I arrived to my class five minutes before my students arrived. Unfortunately, I found a stray dog inside who had left some nice presents on my class floor. The janitor was able to help me out and after some time at the front office we were able to find an alternative class room for me to use. Definitely unexpected however.

rain

Yesterday we got a light to medium sprinkle of rain yesterday. It caused power outages throughout the city including at the school function I was at. Also my host family let one of the dogs (we seem to have picked up a second dog - basically its a small dog that kept wandering into the school and my host mom felt sorry for it and started feeding it) into the house so that it wouldn´t have to suffer in the rain.

Also yesterday I bought an empanada that I thought would be sausage and cheese and unfortunately turned out to be a hotdog on one side cheese on the other wrapped in bread. They eat a lot of hotdogs down here, with of course maynoisse and avocado.

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/Schoolparadeantofagasata#  -- Photos from school parade and birthday cake celebrations

Happy Birthday School

So for the next two weeks, my school will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. The school's anniversary is traditionally a big celebration in Chile and I feel that this being the 25th it will be even bigger. It will mean lots of school events and lots of canceled classes.

My school actually bought me a gray suit for these two weeks so that I could classily participate. Its actually my first non hand me down second hand suit. Its nothing fancy but looks nice and fits me real well because it was made for me. 

Yesterday, the school had a parade in downtown Antofagasta. They actually closed down the streets by the citys main plaza for the school parade. There was speeches, singing, marching and formal dances including the cueca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueca) the national dance of Chile that is said to imitate a rooster and hen. (Pictures will be posted soon)

Today, I arrived at my classroom and found that all the desks in my classroom were unexpectedly being used for the birthday cake presentation to be held at noon today. So I had to quick come up with an activity for the students that didn't require them to use their desks (we played a game). They warned us we would need to be flexible

press

http://www.mercurioantofagasta.cl/prontus4_noticias/site/extra/pdp/pdp.html?sec=2&ts=20090419000538&fp=20090419&pag=09 - A small article on the English Opens doors volunteers in the Antofagastan newspaper. Unfortunately, another volunteer and I got cut out of the photo.

Nissan-chan

There are three ways to get around town here in Antofagasta ... bus, taxi and collectivo. A collectivo is a hybrid between a taxi and a bus. It follows a set route like a bus but is a car driven by a person. The interesting thing is that almost all the collectivos here (and there are many many collectivos here ... they are more common then taxis or buses) are Nissans ... more specificly Nissan Sentras from the 1990s. So basically everyday I see car that look just like mine except that they have better seats, better paint jobs, mirrors etc.

Side note: I gave my car to my parents to use for my sisters and they spent 800 dollars fixing it up, giving it some new paint, mirrors, fixing the windshield, etc ... So I actually don't know what my car looks like at the moment

mal suerte

So yesterday, I got bitten by a stray dog at the beach. I was just minding my business walking by a dog on the rocks when it bit me. Of course it did bark at me first but I was listening to my Ipod so didn't consciously pay attention. Fortunately I was wearing Jeans so it wasn't to bad.

Teaching

Teaching so far has been good but exhausting ... I seem to be able to maintain control of the classroom but barely for some classes. (the other day I ended up kicking a student out of my class but that was an exceptional circumstance where the kid was consistently disrupting the whole class --- I'm also fortunate because I think I can keep him from returning, it is good to know that the administration has my back.) For the most part the students are just very active and talkative. This, however, does not mean that I can ever get them to speak in English. I'm trying out different ideas to try to get the students to speak more in class … skits, rewarding speaking volunteers with class points, praising people who do speak, calling on people.

My teaching schedule is interesting: its convenient in that for the most part all of my classes are in the morning (8 to 1); inconvenient in that its very chopped up meaning that I'll have sections of some classes for more time then I will have other sections of the same class. This is compounded by the random holidays and canceled classes which makes planning class somewhat complicated. I find that despite my classes being solely in the morning, I end up staying much later at the school because I often end up taking advantage of the school's free wifi which I can access on my laptop.

I have managed to remain amused at the slight chaos that affects all school activities. For example, last Thursday I gave handouts to the copy person. On Monday, I went to pick up my copies but the copy office was closed for no apparent reason so I had to create a lesson plan from scratch. Today all the classes started and ended 15 minutes late for no apparent reason. This chaos has been most noticeable with selection of students for the English speaking competition. We keep meeting to select the student that will represent the school but one person who is critical to the selection process is perpetually absent from these meetings.

The most interesting thing so far at school has been the reaction of the younger students to me. While I don't teach the younger students, they often play right outside of my classroom. Often when they see me a bunch of them will come over and swarm me asking me questions saying hi etc. A similar thing occurred when I observed classes in seventh and eighth grade. Midway through class, a group of students flocked to where I was sitting and asked me all sorts of questions such as: what is my name?, where am I from? What kind of music do I like? ( radiohead, guns and roses, pink floyd, and my chemical romance are all popular here) Is my eye color real or do I have colored contact lenses (I wasn't sure why I'd have contact lenses and glasses) do I drink?, do I smoke?, what sports do I play?, why did I come to Chile?, do I like Antofagasta?, do I believe in God? Do I believe that the world will end in 2012 when the Mayan calendar stops (it took me a while to fully understand this question) do you like Chilean women?, do you think our teacher is hot? How old are you? Etc ….. In the seventh grade classes some students asked me for my autograph and in eighth grade some students wanted to take my picture with them (in both these cases I made the mistake of giving into the first request only to have 10 more people ask me). Fortunately, the high school students are less excited about me probably because they have had volunteers teach them in the past and because they are high school students and not as excitable. My favorite class so far is a ninth grade class that still isn't used to having a volunteer and thus causes no problems …. I'm betting that will change throughout the school year.

Also it was the younger daughter's birthday this weekend. In Chile they have pinatas but unlike in Mexico you don't hit them with a bat ... instead you pull a cord and the candy falls out

So I just found out that in Chile they use the same word for wife and hancuffs (esposas)

unexpected school events

so before heading to our schools we warned that often ourschools would have events that we wouldn't know about

Today I got to the school at eight expecting to teach six classes for the day. Instead the school had a mass that last for two classes and then everybody ate grapes, hot chocolate and bread which lasted for another class. I was told by somebody that these foods were Catholic symbols. I understand the symbolism of the grapes and bread but the hot chocolate ? God is sweet and warm? I asked around and found out that the hot chocolate was just a school tradition. Originally, the many of the students who went to the school were poor and so the school gave them hot chocolate as a way of getting the students to drink milk. I believe today was also the first time I ever non seedless grapes

Pictures of my ride to Antofagasta and the house I'm staying at

http://picasaweb.google.com/paulspicturesfromabroad/ArrivalAntofagasta#

Last night I was watching a little bit of the Chilean rodeo on tv and they had an event where two men on horses prodded a cow into running himself into a barrier ... the more the cow got knocked off his feet the more points the cowboys scored. 

And of course as always the hispanic announcers were terrific. Cuatro Puntos! Cuatro Puntos! Cuatro Puuuuunnnnntttttttooooooooooooossss!!!!

Host Family

Since I don't have it in me to write one long post, I've decided to it up into a bunch of smaller posts. This post will be on my host family.

I like them a lot, they are better than expected. They have a nice small house about a one and quarter miles from the beach. In this house I have my own room and my own bathroom. The room is maybe a tad smaller then my room at 1406 Webster without the attached sunroom. However, because I have a lot less stuff here, it is pretty spacious for my needs. Like all of the houses here, the house has the slight feel of a fort (or as my host mom put it jail) because they have bars over the windows and thick locks on the door to prevent robberies. (My host mom was happy to declare that her house at never been burglarized) The most interesting part of this security apparatus is the horizontal bars over the open air atrium that attaches my room to the rest of the house. (see related pictures)

My host family consists of a grandma (who's name I don't know but goes by 'buela), a mom (Silvia) and two kids, a nine year old girl and a 15 year old boy (Connie and Alex). The mom speaks alright English, Alex speaks pretty good English and even the grandma speaks a little bit. This has been both a good and bad thing. It has definitely helped me feel comfortable in my new surroundings and when I have asked them questions I have been (mostly) sure that they actually understood what I was asking. On the other hand because the whole family wants to practice their English, I don't have as many chances to hear/practice my Spanish. I've notice though that I can make out a lot more Spanish words when my host family talks to me in Spanish then when other people talk to me in Spanish. I think this is because I sort of am starting to understand their accents/ how they say things but it could also because they speak a tad slower and say things more basically.

Also helpful is that my host family has had volunteers in the past. I feel that makes them more attuned to how Americans act and to volunteers needs. They also tell me what other volunteers did, which lets me know of what activities there are to do. For example the volunteer last year played rugby with the students which I am going to try to do.

My host mom like call herself a witch and says that I will come to dislike her but so far she has been very nice and helpful. She likes to tell jokes, and to talk and jokingly threatens to hit me if I misbehave (despite being just over 5 feet tall she seems to be under the illusion that she can beat me up.) Yesterday she helped me out by taking me shopping (I bought a bunch of small stuff hangers, tape, batteries, cell phone, paper, folders etc.) She is a secretary at the school that I teach at and t on the first day introduced me to everyone.

The son Alex also attends the school, and is in 10^th grade which means that I will be teaching him. He was on the debate team that won the national contest last year. He is a good guy, smart and teaseable, and I get along well with him. The daughter (who the mom says has devil hands) is a typical nine year old. From what I read, compared to American standards, Chileans tend to be indulgent with their kids and this can been seen with the daughter who tends to get into things. However, I enjoy rough housing with her (the pictures of her with the sword were taken after we play fenced … I had a saw to defend myself).

The family is Mormon (except for grandma who is Catholic), but the only signs of this is going to church on Sundays and not drinking alcohol (I made the mistake of bringing a bottle of wine as a house present) .

I have been eating all my meals so far at the house. I've adopted fairly easily into the Chilean eating schedule. This is a light breakfast of bread/toast and coffee, heavy lunch at 2 consisting of a salad (Chilean salads consist mainly of chopped lettuce and tomato and/or cucumber with lime juice on it; however Chileans really like mayonnaise and the other day my host mom put mayonnaise and bbq sauce on her salad) and a main course and then a light dinner at maybe 9 / 9:30 with perhaps a small snack around 5/6. There is always plenty of food and often I'm not able to finish my lunch or dinner. (those at work who have had lunch with me know I regularly tend not to finish my lunch) For example, at lunch yesterday we had eaten a salad and an empanada before the grandma brought out a huge plate of rice and chicken for me. I managed to get half of it removed from my plate and still couldn't finish it.

The food has been pretty good so far, with chicken, lasagna, pizza all being cooked. One day the food was pretty bland with chicken and rice but everybody at the table (including me) put BBQ sauce on it. I've been buying fruit juice at the supermarket to add to my options. I food has been agreeable to my stomach so far with only minor indigestion

So yea, in summary basically a good living situation here.  

Current Address

FYI: My curent adress is 1057 Sargento Manuel Silva, Antofagasta Chile. So if you want to google earth my location or send any care packages now you can. The school I teach at is right across the street and is Colegio Santa Emilia.

UPDATE: At orientation we received a helpful package of information about living in Chile. In it it says the best value for sending things international is the postal services "Priority Mail Flat Rate box" which allows up to 20 lbs for the flat international rate of 38.95.