New Words

New spanish words for me at this point:

Mamut- Mammoth

Ornitorrinco-Platypus

Thank you to my intrepid fourth grader who forced me to learn them :)

Sweet Moments

I apologize for forgetting about this blog completely for two months. See my "living without internet" post for further explanation as to why. I have been posting sweet moments from my time in Chile on facebook though and I'd like to transfer them here.

Something sweet:
So I{ve been playing "deseos" with my three year old host sister. The game is the simple act of blowing dandelion seeds while making a wish. However, at some point we ran out of flowers. Don´t worry I told her, there are yellow ones over there, more yellow means more deseos to come. And its true. There will always be more deseos. 

Keep wishing :)

Sweet Moment Number 2: I regularly climb the local hill/mountain near my house. The entrance is at the library and often times the only other person there is a security guard at the library entrance. I always greet him and have thought for awhile that he has a kind smile. Low and behold he thought the same about me. Today he told me that I'm one of the nicest people that he sees climbing. I was so shocked and humbled that as I walked away I started to cry. Sweet moment number 2.

Sweet Moment #3: A student gave me a small stuffed lion today. In A LOT of my classes I use a small stuffed monkey. It is probably the most useful teaching aid since the invention of the whiteboard. He must have thought my monkey needed a friend. Tierno x D

Sweet Moment #4: I haven't seen my fourht graders in 3 weeks. THREE weeks. I spent two weeks being a substitute teacher in Pk, K and 1st grades, and then the third week they had state testing. I missed them, and apparently the feeling was mutual. When I left my hour with them the boys rallied together and blocked the door. They blocked the door because they didn't want me to leave. I almost cried I was so touched.

Bureacracy

I have so many compliments to give the schools and my experience in Chile. The students are so sweet. The teachers are so patient and take on very large loads. The administrators are very helpful and attentive. I have a lot of positive things to say. However, I am deeply frustrated by the bureaucracy here. Bureaucracy that has the teachers paying attention to the sacred black books rather than the students. Let me explain: each class has a black book that has attendance and a page for each student to mark behavioral comments. If a teacher marks anything incorrectly, apparently he/she will be fined an absurd amount by the government. However, they are expected to use pen and to mark it correctly the first time. My observation is that this leads to LARGE amounts of class time spent writing in these sacred books rather than teaching. What can a teacher do? It's not their fault and they do the best they can, but this system frustrates me so much. How can they give the students their best and how can the students receive the best when so much time is spent on such folly.

Funny

I just told Nina this and I need to post it. It's the type of funny thing that occurs from mixing languages...

The national liqueur in Chile is Pisco. It is mixed into Pisco Sour, Pisco Mango (my Favorite) and the utterly hilarious Pisscola.

Living without the internet

Even though I now have it! I have learned to:

-read a book
-prewrite emails
-use the telephone
-download any and everything I want to read when I do have it
-draw from time to time
-focus on learning things without wikipedia at my fingertips (although I did download the chile page)

Si se puede. (It can be done)

I feel like a child when I don't understand, or when I'm marveling at new things. I feel like a teenager when I am hanging with the host family, and an adult when teaching. It's a weird mix.

Colegio

• Todos le encantan el mono. El es famoso. Es un juego que tengo para varias juegos. 
• Perdi mi voz
• Todos las clases tienen a lo menos 30 estudiantes
• Tengo clases favoritas que son muy simpaticas
• Algunas hablan ingles buenisima, otras no pueden decir "My name is" Vamos a aprender
• Los Andes es un ciudad super chiquito. Siempre estoy en los mismos lugares donde hay alumnos. Pero muchas veces eso era linda. Todos son muy simpaticas.
• Yo hablo mucho de mi perro grande que se llama Queso, y mi favorito color: orange