Paula, our awesome preschool teacher, is pregnant! On Friday we threw her a surprise baby shower. She was overwhelmed with joy! We had a great lunch and gave her all kinds of fun baby gifts. All the best Paula!
Our English team minus me and Rody. Ciara, on the left, is our newest addition. A gringa from Colorado, I met her in the grocery store one day and after hanging out a few times she asked if I knew of a job where she could work with kids. It turned out we needed a teacher for the first unit so it worked out great! She's heading back to the states in November to finish planning her wedding.
And here are the guys! Everyone at SND has really made me feel at home. It's been a great year (one year at the end of September--gosh time has flown).
On Saturday we had the school-wide celebration to celebrate the 18th of September, Chile's biggest national celebration. While Chilean independence is tough to put a date on (the declaration was signed in 1818, the war ended in 1821, and Spain recognized independence in 1844), the first government meeting was September 18th 1810.
The performances by the students were tied together by a girl asking her grandfather about the history of Chile. Carlos, our teddy bear of a Biology teacher, played the role perfectly.
Every level in the school performed a different dance. These were the littlest kids--too cute.
Here are my 8th graders dancing a form of the Cueca typical in the South. I was very impressed by their organization, I hardly believed they were my students!
Chile's relationship with Easter Island has always been an interesting one. The natives of the island don't really identify with Chile and have issues with the government. Still, their culture is a part of Chile, so two of the classes did Pascuense dances.
After the performance was over we all went outside for food, fellowship, and fun. There were a few live bands and lots more dancing. It was great to chat with my students and their families outside of the academic setting.
The teachers all got a ton of free food and it was all delicious. These kabobs are called anticuchos and they're awesome. There's also half of an empanada here. We got 2 of those each as well as a choripan and a completo (hot dog with avocado, tomato, ketchup, and mayo). Mmmm.
They had lots of games set up for the kids around the perimeter. The only one I got roped into was the potato sack race. It was me and Ciara along with a couple parents who I think had had a little too much cerveza. It wasn't much of a race but tons of fun.
I'll be exploring Buenos Aires with some good friends on the 18th itself but this was a great way to get a little taste of the national pride that runs rampant in Chile all of September.
All year we've been preparing a room specifically for teaching English. The idea is for the kids to associate this room with English. It's great--it has a projector, sliding white boards, tons of books and resources, and it's purely for English use. On Monday we had the official inauguration complete with balloons and confetti. It was a blast! Each group from 2 year olds up to 2nd grade came for 20 minutes. We started each session with the typical preschool English routine.
After some head, shoulders, knees, & toes Ciara and I read them a story. Grandma, what big EYES you have!!
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is probably second favorite behind the wheels on the bus. The kids love trying to figure out how to put their fingers together to make that pesky spider. Here's the video I use, it's a winner. I put on sunglasses for the last "out came the sun", the kids go nuts.
I won't personally be using this room much because I don't teach the little kids very often but it will be a great resource for our Early English program! Great job, everyone.
On Sunday I went one more time to El Colorado. The conditions went from pure ice in the morning to slush (sopa, or "soup" as the Chileans call it) in the afternoon. I met up with some students in the park and we had a great time riding rails.
That big brown patch used to be a great off-trail run. Not so much anymore.
As you can see, the runs have gone a bit patchy in some places. Those mountains all used to be white! Oh well, another season comes to a close. I washed all my gear and was ready to bundle it all up to await transport back to the states but just yesterday I was invited to a freeride competition in Pucon the last weekend in September. It's further south so it holds good snow through October. I'll get to ride on a volcano! Come back for more details on that and to see my pictures from Buenos Aires next week. Hasta pronto!
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