Alianzas: No Rules

Hey everyone!  Sorry it's been a couple weeks.  It seems like life has been business as usual but I'm surprised every time I upload my pictures at how much is happening.

The pastoral staff asked me to help lead a retreat for the sophomores that took place at Cerro San Cristobol, a beautiful hill in the city.  The theme was "A Day in the Life of Jesus" so we started with prayer in this awesome stone chapel.

I was a little nervous about the retreat because the administration was skeptical about my involvement.  I had to miss 2 classes, and with Alicia out (her second week of medical leave) the replacement burden was a bit much.  I gave a talk (in Spanish, which added to the nerves) about Jesus' healing of the sick outside the city gate.  It was a huge success--I made a real connection with the kids and everyone said it was the best part of the retreat.  They asked me to come on Octavo Adventura in a couple weeks and I'm stoked.

The next week we had Alianzas, which translates to Alliances, for the anniversary of San Nicolás.  There are 2 Alianzas, Black vs. White, Past vs. Future, based on grade level.  They compete in sports, dancing, singing, and any other competition you can think of for 3 days to determine a winner.  Basically there are no rules for 3 days.  I was with Alianza Negra and had a blast.

Everything started with soccer.  They insisted I play, so play I did.  First organized soccer game for me in 10 years.  It went about how you'd expect.

Later we had an obstacle course that involved the kids searching for a key to unlock me from a chair, then I had to bite a hanging apple (which you can kind of see hanging from the goal on the left) without using my hands, then we wheelbarrowed across the field and a student had to climb up a pole to get a flag.  Typical Alianzas craziness.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of the 100m slip and slide I was asked to traverse the second day.  No rules.

I didn't really understand this part, but they had us come out as princes and princesses and dance 8 bars of a waltz.

Possibly my favorite activity was the dance competition the first day.  I wasn't really planning on participating (honestly, I didn't know what I was getting into with Alianzas) but I was volunteered at the last minute, so why not?

The idea was that you had to dance to whatever style of music they played.  Salsa, merengue, machata, reggaeton, and cueca (pictured here) were all on the menu.  We did the YMCA too, I showed the Chileans the real Village People dance.

They eliminated pairs after each song.  We made it to the finals!  They announced all the student winners, then said they were going to play one more song just for the teachers.  When Gangnam Style started playing, I knew we had it locked down.  Apparently word has traveled from Octavo Adventura last year about my love for this dance and we went all out.  We won the competition!  What a blast.

No one could believe a gringo could dance to Latin music.  All the female teachers from the second unit pushed me into a room and asked me to repeat some of my moves.  No rules.

The students get really into the competitions.  They were working on these dresses for weeks.  The one on the left is all tin foil and on the right is all newspaper.  There were students painted from head to toe as well.  This took place the second morning and it was quite cold.  Props to all these kids.

Here I am gearing up for the hip hop battle between the Alianzas.  Turned out teachers couldn't participate, much to everyone's disappointment, but I still looked pretty gangster.

Everyone in Chile is a fan of Michael Jackson.  I did the original dance to Dangerous with our Alianza (it was awesome) and the teachers did a dance to Thriller that was more about the costumes than the dance.  They looked great!  I played the part of MJ.

This was such a great experience.  It was fun to get to know the kids on another level and express myself through dance and energy instead of Spanish where a lot gets lost in translation.

While we appreciate Chilean food for what it is, every once in a while we get cravings for American food.  Our friend Erin found a burger place that fits the bill.  Their specialty is the Minnesota-born Juicy Lucy and they actually taste like a burger you'd get in the states.  Here is my avocado burger with Gruyere and special sauce.  It was delicious.

Last weekend we went on a hike in a park called Aguas de Ramón.  It's actually the same hike my friends took when they were here a few weeks ago.  It was a nice little hike, and a beautiful park.

We stopped at this waterfall to eat lunch, hiked a little further up the trail, then turned back.  It was perfect for a Saturday afternoon.

This is a great picture of the smog that sets over the city during the winter.  You can't see a thing, but downtown Santiago is out there somewhere.

Today is my dad's 60th birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad!  I celebrated yesterday with cake at school.  They think that giving us cake makes up for 3 hour meetings on Friday afternoons (hence the Bucky Balls to stay awake).  I usually don't eat it but for this special occasion I couldn't pass it up.  Thanks for everything dad, congrats on 60!

We have Wednesday off this week, it's kind of like labor day.  We're hoping to do something fun so watch for a post in the next week or so!