Missing Classes

Note this was written last week but I have been having trouble with internet so could only post today.

So this week, in case you didn't know this is the week of the children. If you thought that we had already a week of the children you would be wrong, in May there was a day for the children, but in October kids get a whole week. In keeping with on the tradition of finding reasons for students to miss class, there will be activities for the children Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. The students will also be some classes on Friday but that isn't because they are children but rather to celebrate the anniversary of school's priests death. Last Friday, was the day of the teachers. However, this was celebrated not by missing class (because classes honor teachers) but by a late night dinner party where the teachers could let loose. Last week was also when my school celebrated Spanish by hosting all kinds of language activities including Spanish spelling bee and a Spanish debate. Students were also able to miss classes for those.

In all seriousness the dinner was nice … it was at a (the) fancy buffet place in the South of city and it was packed to the gills with teachers. It was also nice that the principal paid for us, while at other schools, the teachers had to pay part.

Had a very successful class today. As homework my students had to bring in the lyrics to song in to either read or sing. One of my students forgot his homework but was able to sing backstreet boys from memory and managed to get the whole class to sing along.

Weekend In Iquique

I spent this past weekend in Iquique. Its a city six hours to the north of Antofagtasta. Its a lot like the city of Antofagasta except prettier, warmer and cheaper. The ride up to Iquique was somewhat monotonous; desert mountains on one side rocky ocean coastline on the other side, greenery nowhere to be seen. It was a really good weekend. I went paragliding and spent a lot of time at the beach. Paragliding was a lot of fun and I got a great view of the city of Iquique. You don't really jump off the cliff to get going .. rather the wind fills up under the parachute and lifts you up and back so its not at all scary.

This past weekend was a big weekend for Chile. Chile beat Columbia in soccer and officially qualified for the 2010 World Cup. We watched the game at a bar and the crowd got real into the game cursing the players out for every missed goal and the refs out for every call that went against them. After the game, everyone went out into the streets, cars drove around honking their horns with people in them waving Chilean flags and at the town square a good size crowd of people gathered chanting and singing the Chilean national anthem. One of the volunteers said that her family all got in their car and drove around for an hour honking their horn with rest of the traffic. At one intersection a man got out of the car and did an impromptu Cueca dance with the Chilean flag playing the role of the handkerchief.

This past weekend daylight savings went into effect for Chile. This now means I'm one hour ahead of those of you in Washington DC. When the United States time change goes into effect I think I'll be two hours ahead.

Debates in Detail

So as I mentioned before… my school debate team won Chile's National English Debate Competition. I am very proud of them and happy for them … they definitely are impressive. Two of my students also won individual awards, my host brother who won best use of the English Language (which we think means student who talked most like a native English speaker) and Leslie who won best female performance for her speech in the second round.

The whole week was been pretty emotional and stressful … I was more nervous at these debate events then I have been in a long time … and I wasn't even speaking. On Tuesday, we arrived in Santiago. On Wednesday, we had the first round of competition where they reduced 18 teams to 10 teams. It was a long long day … we had to perform the proposition side twice … we were the first team to debate for the day and the last one. On Thursday, the 10 teams got whittled down to 2 teams. We performed the opposition case against a team that I feel was a good opponent for us because they were a tad weaker and made some easily rebuttable arguments, thus making us look good. On Friday, the final day of competition, we performed in an auditorium in front of the other schools and many people from the English teaching community in Chile. We once again had the opposition side and despite the other team having been able to watch our performance the other day (and thus hear our arguments) we were the dominant team. In all three days but especially the last day my students were amazing. They weren't just able to speak clearly, but also convey a wide a range of emotions such as sarcasm, shock, amazement, anger, and moral indignation. For winning, my students and co-teacher won a free round trip flight to anywhere in continental Chile (they are probably going to Puntas Arenas in Patagonia … I would love to go with them but they are probably going to go during summer vacation when I'm back in the United States)(the funny thing is they would of preferred the second place prize of a notebook).

I am also proud of myself for having coached the team to first place … for coming up with strong arguments, creating dramatic speeches and for showing the students how to be effective speakers. I was though in a good situation, with a group of very motivated talented students who's goal from the very beginning was to be number one. I'm also glad I was able to effective coach them in my own style which is very relaxed and easy going … indeed the students were almost always harder on themselves and each other then I was on them. I've enjoyed hanging out with them, its been fun and rewarding to hang out, to talk with them and to work with them. They are all very open, funny and willing to share their experiences with me. Now that I'm going to have to teach class full time, I'm going to miss spending so much time with them.

Debate photos are now online

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

Debates Finals

Colegio Santa Emilia (my school) won the National English Debates of Chile.

To watch (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2266985#utm_campaign=www.facebook.com&utm_source=2266985&utm_medium=social)

more details to follow ... I wrote a long blog entry on my laptop but I´m still having trouble with schools internet. The short summary though is that my students are amazing and that I´m very proud of them.

Update from Santiago

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile ... internet problems at my school are still a problem.

I'm currently in Santiago with my school's debate team for the English Debate competition. Tomorrow, 18 teams we be whittled down to only 10. The team is definitely nervous and excited. I think they are ready though.

The September 18th celebration at my school was very enjoyable. The students all performed dances from different places and times of Chile. It was very much ceremony that celebrated all the parts of Chile so while their was a lot of cueca (the national dance of Chile) there was also a lot of other dance included many indigenous dances. The most popular dance were dances of the people from Easter island with 3 or 4 different grades doing it. After the ceremony, the teachers got to enjoy a catered bbq with excellent meat, wine, and chi-cha.

Here are the photos from the ceremony <>

School Silliness

So the computer network at the school has been messed up due to computer viruses and it's having a number of weird effects. The first is that its currently impossible to print anything at the school, except by going to the Principal and asking her to do it for you. Since the principal is often busy or not at the school this means its very difficult to print things. For example, the other day I decided it was easier just to go to an internet cafe and printout my students debate speeches.

Because of the virus, there are now new restrictions of computer use at the school. Some of these make sense and others don't. For example, the computer I would use to print things (if the network could print things) now has a password that I have to ask a secretary to enter in order to use the computer. However, other new restrictions don't make sense. For example, no one is allowed to use the school computers after six and on the weekends. This is because according to the school computer people the computers anti virus protection does not work after 6 or on the weekends. Also, I'm no longer permitted to be in the computer office after 6 or on weekends (usually I go there to surf the internet on my laptop, because the signal is the strongest), because then people will think I'm using the school computers against regulations (even though I don't have the password). Its all very very silly.

In other school news, tomorrow my school is having its September 18th celebration. Its going to be an all day affair with lots of dances and a long lunch. All the different grades are putting on a class dance for which they have been practicing for weeks. All the students are very excited about it. I'll definitely have to take pictures.

Weekend

This weekend was mostly spent writing debate speeches. I managed to get a rough draft completed for all of the speeches! Other notable things that happened this weekend was that I cooked lamb and made Russian bread and played rugby. I've been cooking a lot lately, in part because I've been craving flavors of things that my host family doesn't cook and the only way to get those flavors is to make them myself. Its interesting, that my family (and I'm assuming by extension most Chileans) are very particular with what can be sweet and what can't. Thus the lamb I cooked which was sweet and spicy was only a really big hit with me. But that's ok with me.

My rugby game went well, I played with second stringers and I did really will in our game. So well that I got to lead the team cheer after the game (like getting the game ball in the US). Of course I mispronounced the team's name (saying Vekingos instead of Vikingos) but thats besides the point.

Compulsory Voting Research

So far through my preliminary research on the debate topic I've discovered that Chile has a voting system that seems to combine the worst aspects of a voluntary and compulsory voting systems. The system is as follows: registering to vote is optional ... however once you are registered to vote you are required to vote and you can't unregister yourself. As a result a decent percentage population of Chile is not registered to vote (especially the young)and have no plans on registering because they don't want to have to vote in every election. The voting system raises the cost of registering to vote without increasing any benefits or registering. As a result, people not registered to vote here probably pay less attention to politics here then unregistered people in the United States do.

National Debates

We finally have our debate topic for the National Debates. It is “This house believes that voting should be compulsory”. If anyone sees anything interesting on this topic definitely send it my way.







PS. I'm happy because I think this will be an interesting topic to study and research.