Good Times, Good Friends, Sensation, and Japan

The weather likes teasing us here in Santiago.  We've had days that have only gone up to 70 and have seemed like autumn, which are then followed by days with a very strong sun and temperatures of almost 95.  I actually prefer the hot weather to the cold, so if mother nature wants to tease me a bit with a cold day every once in a while but still give us nice summer days I'm ok with that.

Last weekend I went to a barbeque with friends on Cerro San Cristobal.  There were about 7 of us there, and it was nice catching up with them.  None of us could believe an entire year had passed since we arrived, and we talked about our summers and plans for staying in Santiago.  Thanks to our genius planning we didn't bring any plates with us, but we improvised and used plastic bags instead.

This weekend was the pancake breakfast that I went to last October.  They were expecting a big crowd this year and opened an hour early, so I got there right when they opened.  A big crowd came around 10, and I met up with some friends when they arrived around then.  After browsing some books we took a leisurely stroll and got drinks and chorillana.

The big event of the weekend, however was Sensation.  It's basically a huge dance party with electronic and techno music, and in order to get in you have to dress completely in white.  I got my ticket back in December, and it was an amazing event.  The theme was Wicked Wonderland, and so there were things throughout the night related to Alice in Wonderland.  There were videos of her wearing all white and going through various scenes of the story projected on huge screens around the area, white flashes of fire and fireworks, huge butterfly wings opening up after the lyrics of "spread your wings and fly" people dressed up like dolls with white hair, white balloons with lights inside of them, the list goes on and on.  In an outside area there was food and drinks as well as different companies with entertainment booths to promote their products.  I found it ironic that a cigarrette company had a booth which had large signs about the dangers of smoking was giving out lighters which also had a warning on the front of it with the same warning.  El Mercurio (a newspaper here) had a booth set up with Just Dance on the Wii, and after having played it at my brother and sister in law's house when I was home for Christmas I played a round dancing to Walk Like an Egytian.

I would be remiss to not bring up the tragedy in Japan.  I woke up last Friday morning and booted up my laptop while getting breakfast, and I went to cnn.com to see what was happening in the world.  The pictures of the tsunami sweeping over Japan seemed surreal.  The images of houses on fire while being swept along with the tsunami seemed right out of a blockbuster apocolyptic movie, not like something that was happening in real life.  I know a few people that were exchange students from Japan, and luckily they are all ok.  I also have a coworker here in Santiago who lived and taught English in Japan for three years, and he has understandably been deeply affected by it.  As the news gets worse and worse, I find myself torn between wanting to know what is happening but not wanting to since the news is so horrific there.  I also can't help but feel a bit guilty that I am living in a place that experienced an earthquake but did not suffer a fraction of the destruction and mayhem that is currently going on in Japan.  I want to make a donation to the relief efforts, but the cynical side of me fears that scammers use this as the perfect opportunity to make a quick buck.

To end on a positive note, here is the view of the Estadio Nacional from the window of my apartment.

Lots of random stuff....

So I have been meaning to update for the past few days, but things have been pretty busy.

So here are some pictures from the barbeque that Zoe had for her birthday on Saturday:

Sunday I met up with Walker and Erin, as we haven't seen each other in about 3 weeks or so.  It was great getting to catch up with them, and we sat at La Terraza for about 2 and a half hours just talking about random things.  I got a huge hamburger with all types of stuff on it, but didn't think to bring my camera with me.

Later that evening my roommates and I had planned to make dinner together, and so we had beef tacos with salad.  We also had some wine, but I forgot my bottle opener at the asado for Zoe on Saturday night.  Mario tried opening the bottle on his own, but when he had trouble with it 3 of my other roommates started hovering over him and decided to try and help out:

After about 10 minutes they managed to get the bottle of wine open, and this is what our dinner looked like:

This week at school has been a rollercoaster ride in some ways.  I love how I am greeted as if I am a movie star, and I get lots of students coming up to me and asking how I am and shaking my hand.  Dealing with some of the student behavior has been very challenging.  I was incredibly frustrated after working with one class.  It all started when I told a student to sit in a different seat during presentations and he refused to move.  In hindsight, I should have just kicked him out then, but I was told it's better to talk to kids at the end of class here if there are problems.  Then after that, I was dealing with cell phones and kids refusing to turn them over after being told to put them away multiple times, kids banging my desk, talking throughout presentations and simply talking louder in response to my death stare, trying to blame me for them cutting up their papers and demanding new ones, and more.  We talked at the end of class, but there didn't seem to be much resolution.  Let's just say I am not looking forward to working with this class again on Tuesday.

So that left me really frustrated, but then the classes on Wednesday and Thursday were refreshing.  They were eager to learn and speak English, and I have gotten into the habit of bringing out my frisbee at recess to play with the kids.  They seem to really enjoy it, and it's a nice way to get in some movement after being in class for a while.  Talking with some of the kids I've learned that they and their families have connections to the States, and they have gotten to travel there.

I am also figuring out where to pick my battles.  In a class today the teacher was checking assignments that the students did by having them come up indiviudally to her, and with a class of 36 that takes a while.  I walked around and helped the class complete a list of irregular verbs as well as an interest inventory for me, but there was still a lot of chaos.  I encouraged the kids to work on the two assignments, but there were kids that already had everything done and had nothing to do.  So if I saw their Ipods out and they had everything done, I told them they had to be listening to songs in English.  I told the students with Uno cards out that they had to play in English, and I played a round with them to be sure that they knew all of the words they would need to do so.  I encouraged the boy that was throwing a paper airplane across the room to say "Catch the airplane!  Are you ready?" and "Throw me the airplane!"  And I think that was the first time I heard him actually speaking English in the class besides his presentation in front of the class.

I just had to laugh as one student decided to make a tip jar, put a coin in it, and walked around the room tyring to solicit tips from his classmates.  Others were drawing in their notebooks, and others were walking around the class to talk with their friends.  I started up a game of Hangman on the board, and some students came over to me to play.  This is simply the way the classrooms tend to be here, and I'm thinking perhaps I need to be less strict with the class I had such trouble with on Tuesday.

Today Claudia (one of the teachers at my school) invited Erin and me out to lunch with her husband and 5 year old daughter.  We went to an Italian restaurant named Basta Pasta in Las Condes, and afterwards we enjoyed the nice weather at the park.  They are such nice people and offered to help us find free or low cost things to do in the area, and her husband offered to help me find a kickboxing gym and also gave tips on biking in Santiago.  Their daughter is adorable and a bundle of energy, and after stopping at their home for a short while she decided to give Erin her chocolate bunny from Easter and to stuff my pockets with her chocolate eggs.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me to capture the delicious food or good weather or get a picture of us together, but hopefully next time.

Tonight I decided to experiment with cooking some churrasco (for you Jersey people it is like steak in a steak sandwich) with potatoes along with some salad, and it turned out pretty good:

This might come across as a morbid topic, but despite that it is an interesting one with different cultures.  My roommate told me that she was taking the metro home but she was delayed because someone committed suicide by jumping onto the tracks.  Apparently in Chile they have a system set up where if that happens they have a crew set up that turns off the lights down by the tracks and they have 8 minutes to clean it up.  Once they complete the job of cleaning and taking the body away, they have a mandatory paid month off so that they can recover and cope with what they just had to deal with.

Furthermore, she continued to tell me that if a person tries to commit suicide in Chile but does not succeed that they go to prison for 15 years.  This stems from the fact that Chile is a deeply Catholic country, and taking your own life is considered a sin.  The only other alternative to this sentence would be to go to a mental institution, but she said that going to prison is more likely to happen.

This weekend I am hoping to catch up with friends over dinner and buy a bike.  We'll see how that all goes....

2 months (and a day)

Yesterday marked 2 months since I left the States, and I am feeling good.

I have gotten used to the difference in discipline in the classroom,  and I have been able to get kids to make nameplates out of index cards and fill out an interest inventory for me.  With close to 350 kids it will be a challenge to get to know the kids personally let alone know all of their names. but I am up for the challenge.  Pretty much the only thing I will do discipline wise is if I see them with a cell phone or Ipod I tell them to turn it out and put it away, and if I see it again I will take it.  Even though I have to repeat it every single class for some kids, they comply and then pay attention.  It is quite a change, as that would never happen in the States.

I am starting to get to see some of the kid's personalities also.  A few are really funny, as I had one kid tell me "My name is Bon."  And I asked him "You are Bon?"  Then he smiled at me and said, "Yeah, James Bond."  Other kids are like US kids in that they have the hard work ethic and really want to learn, while others just like to talk to their friends and don't take the class seriously at all.  In general, it seems like Chilean kids are less serious and more easygoing than kids back home.

With the exception of a barbeque this weekend has been uneventful.  Zoe's birthday was on Wednesday, and she organized a barbeque up on Cerro San Cristobal to celebrate.  I brought some wine and some meat to grill, and it was nice catching up with her and also meeting some Chileans. 

This was also my month of trying to branch out.  I emailed a bassist in the Santiago area to see about playing with some type of music group, and it turns out he is back in Spain until August.  He can't do much to help me until then, but at least I tried.  I also brought my Magic cards with me, and I found a few Facebook groups: one for all of Chile (but with people in Santiago) and another in El Bosque (which is on the outskirts of Santiago).  I have posted to both groups asking about get togethers, but haven't gotten any response yet.  Maybe I need to contact people individually, so we'll see. 

I feel like I have started becoming more outgoing since I have been here.  While traveling I have struck up conversations with other travelers, whereas beforehand I might have kept to myself.  I'm learning to cook a bit more and have also gotten used to switching out the huge gas tanks for hot water and cooking.  All in all, I am satisfied with my experiences so far.