May's bulletin board: Horoscopes. The 7th graders are learning future tense so this was a fun project. Nice job, kids!
I put this together Friday the 17th and shortly thereafter boarded a plane bound for the USA. Anyone that reads this blog probably knows that I surprised my mom and sister in South Bend for Josie's graduation. It was great!
I tapped my mom on the shoulder and asked if the seat next to her was open. At first (after looking right at me) she said yes and started to move. Then she looked again and realized it was me.
Dad was in on it so he was the photographer.
It was a special moment. I love you mom!
This was all happening at Josie's Political Science recognition ceremony so she was down on the floor with her fellow graduates. When she crossed the stage I met her on the other side. Another special moment.
Congrats, Josie! I'm so proud of you and I'm glad I got to share this with you.
Marisa, my ND friend who now works in the admissions department, helped me plan all the logistics. Thanks Reese! I couldn't have pulled this off without you.
Graduation speaker: Cardinal Timothy Dolan. He did a great job talking about Mary, Notre Dame, Our Mother, and her connection to the campus.
On Sunday evening I went with the parents to stay near Chicago where we have a few relatives. It was great to see the Moebius/Bartels clan. This is Brittany, my second cousin once removed (yup).
The new thing this year in coasters is making woodies with inversions. We were driving right past one in the Dells so we stopped to take some pictures. It's still under construction but I look forward to riding it someday!
Lamentably I didn't document the rest of the week so well. It was full of friends and family, lots of good food and good memories. I also renewed my driver's license, got my Bolivian visa, and got an International Driver's Permit. Mom took lots of pictures so if I can get my hands on those I'll share!
Back to the grind this week. 6 full weeks of teaching until winter break!
Hey everyone! Last week was fun. 2 days of class then I went on Octavo Aventura with the 8th graders. Class on Monday and Tuesday was pretty lax so I played musical chairs with my 7th graders. Whoever is out has to conjugate an irregular verb. Good stuff.
My post from last year's Octavo Aventura trip had a lot of details so I'm going to be brief here. It's a spiritual retreat that involves lots of outdoor team building challenges. There is also a lot of singing and dancing which started before we left the school.
The retreat takes place at a YMCA camp on Guayapolis Beach. It's a beautiful place, but it was a little cold this time around.
They split the two classes into 5 tribes named after the tribes of Israel. This year I was in charge of Levi. We had a great time!
My presentation was on the love of God. I recruited 6 members of our high school leadership team to perform a skit to Lifehouse's song called Everything. It was great. If you haven't seen the skit, check it out here.
Partly because the winter is starting, partly because I want to look older, but mostly because I want to sleep an extra 10 minutes in the morning, the beard is back. All the members of the Pastoral Staff at San Nicolás have beards too so I fit right in. Here I am with my bunk mate for the 2 nights at the Beach, Profe Juan.
I want to throw in a shout out to two awesome women in my family. To my mom Mary Jo, a very happy Mother's Day! You're amazing, thank you for everything you've done for me.
And to my sister Josie, who graduates from Notre Dame this coming Sunday. I'm so proud of you, you're going to do such great things out in the world! Give her blog some love.
I wish I could give both of you a hug! Know that I'm thinking of you down here in Chile. Love you both!
Lots of plans in the works for upcoming travel. Snowboarding, Bolivia, Lake Titicaca, Peru, and Machu Picchu are all in the mix! Stay tuned for more.
Hey everyone! The last week was both eventful and normal at the same time. On Saturday, literally within an hour after my last post, I got a call that our apartment was flooding. I ran over and we quickly started mopping, vacuuming, anything we could do to get the water out.
This offers a nice opportunity to show you around my apartment. This is the living room, which was filled with about a 1/2 inch of water.
Here's our dining table which served as a refuge for random stuff around the apartment. The circuit breaker tripped and they shut our water off quickly so there was not a lot of damage, just some buckling in the floor (which will probably have to be replaced).
The kitchen had the most water but thanks to the tile floor there was no damage. Thanks to everyone that helped clean up! We had probably 15 people over at various times to get all the water out. Many hands made light work, it only took about an hour.
The culprit was the washing machine (through the door at the back of this picture). The hose normally drains into a sink, but we had a plumber over in the morning responding to (ironically enough) a water problem in the apartment below us. He left the hose out of the sink, and I later did a load of wash. When the washer drained, it just went all over the floor. Oops.
May 1st is known as Día del Trabajador (day of the worker) in Chile and everything shuts down for the day. It was a Wednesday which made the week a little interesting. I remember having a Wednesday off by itself in 7th grade but haven't had one since. It was a nice way to break up the week. We slept in then went to see Iron Man 3 (theatres and a few restaurants are all you can find open). It was good, lots of action, not a lot of plot.
In the evening we all finished our final papers for our Notre Dame online class which brought this semester to a close. Woohoo! Our summer class will start soon.
Last night we were invited to another asado by one of Elaine's coworkers. It was great, it's always fun to meet more Chileans! We had lots of great food and a great time.
Carolina, on the left, works at St. George in the first unit with Elaine. She helped us out a couple weeks ago with a Chilean-only discount on a TV we bought for the apartment. Thanks Caro!
Laura and I went to lunch today at a great bar/restaurant that has everything. It was a combination of a belated birthday meal I'd promised her and a chance to plan our July travel to Machu Picchu. Plans are coming together nicely--we'll be joined by two of my friends from the states. It will be a good time!
The place has a music theme, I thought the vinyl menu was pretty cool.
No birthday meal is complete without dessert. I ordered a traditional Chilean dessert made with manjar ("Chilean" for dulce de leche (Spanish for caramel) ). Laura just ordered vanilla ice cream but it came with this fantastic raspberry chocolate sauce. Good call, Laura.
Today has been delightfully lazy. This week we have Octavo Aventura which was in October last year. I'm excited, it's always nice to know the students in a spiritual context outside of class. Watch for a post soon!
