Flag Day!

Wow! I know I just posted yesterday, but I just came home from the Flag Day celebration in the city square. Every year, one of the schools is in charge of it, and this year it was my school! So basically, I just stood there taking pictures with my mouth wide open the whole time. It was great, and I'd love to share some pictures with you!

This is the students of Gabriela Mistral lining up to walk to the parade!

These are the 3rd Grade girls who were chosen to carry the flag. The one on the left is the one that read the poem later.

A better view of all of the students. This is about half of the school actually, because most kids have already left for "La Tirana"

These are their complete uniforms. Typically students will only wear the sweatpants, but on formal days they must wear this. I'd say kids wear this outfit once a week just normally anyway. Not the gloves though. Love the gloves.

Some of the 8th Grade girls that were flag bearers. I shared with them my flag bearing days...

These are 5th and 6th Grade girls that danced the Cueca. That is the most famous dance in Chile. They are my students!

These are 4th Grade girls that danced another dance...I don't know what it was called.

These girls danced a dance that is very traditional in the south. They are in 2nd and 3rd Grade, so I don't actually have them in class, but they always come visit my classroom during the breaks and give me candy or bread. :)

The whole group of 4th Graders that danced the dance with no name.

The two flag-bearers of Gabriela Minstral. The taller one is in 7th Grade, and the shorter is in 8th and very good at sports.

This is the choir, and they come from all ages from 5th-8th. They are all my students.

Haha. These are two of my 8th Graders. The one on the left is Nico, but I don't know the other one's name...Nico is very nice. :) They were begging for me to take a picture of them.

These boys are in 6th Grade. I've actually only had their class once, because we NEVER have class on Fridays. Today is a perfect example...

Haha. These are bossy 7th Graders. I love them. The one in the middle is the Queen of the Class. I'm still not exactly sure what that means, but I will find out in August. These girls are very funny.

4th Grade boys. They were so excited for pictures!

I think these kids are in 2nd Grade, but I'm not sure because I don't teach that young. They are candy deliverers as well. As well as super cute.

7th and 8th Grade boys sitting on the bench before the celebration started.

Then all of the upper-classmen realized that I was taking pictures, so they ran over to get in on it. It caused quite the scene. Oops.

More of the riot in action. Haha. They are funny kids.

The choir getting set-up for their performance.

The flag bearers from all of the other schools in town. Gabriela Mistral students were the stars of the show though.

When the celebration started, this is what it looked like.

Then they unveiled the flag of flowers. Very fancy.


Now for my very professional footage taken by my camera on video mode...

This first video is a girl from 3rd Grade. This poem is about 6 minutes long, but I just gave you the first few minutes. She is amazing, and I have seen her perform this 3 times this week. It was amazing to see how the whole community was so proud of her.



This next clip is the first dance. Some lady walked in front of me, so it is broken up into two sections, but it's cute none the less. These kids are in 4th Grade. They are the youngest ones I teach.





This dance is a traditional one from the South. The little beanies and turtlenecks that the boys are wearing are even traditional garb, except one of the boys is earing a "Colo-Colo" beanie, and that's just a favorite futbol team around these parts...These kids are in 2nd and 3rd Grade, so I don't teach them, but I have gotten to know a lot of them at recess and such.



This is the last dance, and the most popular in Chile. It is called the Cueca, and supposedly I am going to learn it. The girls dancing it are from 5th and 6th Grades. Their dresses were made by some of the parents, and obviously represent the Chilean flag (because it's Flag Day and all).


This is the Choir singing the song of the flag. Only part of it, of course.



This is the actual parade. The first snapshot is the flag-bearers of Gabriela Mistral, but my camera was running low on battery, so I didn't get all of the other schools. The second snapshot is all of the students from my schools and a lot of the teachers. They were all so nervous!

I hope that you have enjoyed this entry. This is just a short view into Chilean culture. The whole town came out to watch this, and I was excited to be a part of it. Happy Flag Day! I'm off to Peru!

Hay Pan

I am currently sitting in my room right now waiting for fresh bread from the bakery next door. There is a line out the door, but I know that the bread maker will save some fresh slices specially just for me. :) That is what I have learned since being here alone. Both of my host parents have gone out of town, and I am leaving this Saturday for my trek up to Macchu Pichu (yay!). My host mom is in Spain for a science conference of some sort, and my host dad has made his way up to "La Tirana" which is a large celebration up in Arica (the most Northern city in Chile). We will be hitting that for a day or so on our journey to Peru.

It has been a good week. Since Claudia has been gone, I have been working with another English teacher. Her name is Angelica and she just finished school about a year ago. She doesn't have a teaching job yet, so she just works as a sub when all of the other English teachers in Tocopilla go on vacation or something. She is great, and we have had a really good time working with the kids. Since the semester ends this week, there is really no point starting new topics with the kids right before their 2 week vacation. So we have gotten the chance to play games with the kids in English and I personally have gotten to know them a lot better.

Chilean kids love "Heads up 7up" and "Telephone." They really want to learn about American culture, so I get to talk about home a lot. They love Disney Channel (High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers), but unfortunately I don't know anything about that. I am quickly learning. Chilean kids don't know very many English words. However, they use the ones they do know in excess. I have been told how beautiful I am more times here than I could have dreamed of in my entire lifetime. 7th grade boys really like that one.

I have gotten to know the actual city of Tocopilla a lot better. I will often just walk around to see the sights. My friend Melissa and I were walking last Sunday and found this neat little swap meet type thing. Then we found my host dad that was working it, and it was a very random experience. Apparently it happens about twice a month. Who knew? I am learning who hangs out where, and which dogs frequent which corners. (I must tell you later about "sweater-dog." It's our new photo journal. I'll tell you about him when I actually have photos)

On the weekends we typically go to the Disco on Friday nights. That is the night when more young people are there (even one of my 7th graders last weekend, hmmm...) Usually, we try to find ourselves an asado to go to before, and go to the disco after. That is basically what my 4th of July was, and it was great. My host dad threw an asado at the house where he made pebre (it's GREAT salsa), chorripan (my FAVORITE), and of course carne. I was too full by the time the carne came out, and actually already gone for the disco seeing as it was about 2am. Ya, the nights start LATE. I thought they started late when I lived in Spain, but here, if you go somewhere before midnight it will be a ghost town. People don't really start showing up places until about 1am or later. I guess this makes sense since the young people really don't do anything during the day when they are not at school, but at the same time, they are just sitting at home waiting to go out for all those hours before. It really baffles me.

We've had 2 earthquakes in the past 2 days. I didn't feel the first one, but it was pretty big in Peru (in the exact city where I am traveling to next week, oops). The second one I was at school for. My entire desk started shaking and we evacuated the school. This is the first time that I have been actually scared by the thought of an earthquake. People are rumoring that these little ones might lead to a big one, but I'm just living optimistically. Eeek.

So anyway, life hasn't been anything really out of the ordinary. I finally got my Chilean ID card, so I'm legit now. We had a birthday party for the gym teacher the other night which included more food then I could really stomach. I want a pet dog, but I settle for the cats that play on my balcony every night. I'm getting hooked to Chilean Novelas, they are terrible. I found the chip section (still without tortilla chips) and where to find water in the grocery store. This is good. People are telling me that I speak better Spanish, which means I can communicate with my landlord to ask him for hot water (phew). I'm really enjoying my life here, and am eager to meet up with volunteers from all over the country this next week for a Peruvian adventure.

Now for some pictures...
Some real Chilean Chili's! These went in our pebre on the 4th. It was very yummy.

This is Che Cho, my host dad (although we have agreed to call each other host friends) cooking the chorripan (!!!) and pan. YUM!

These are three of us volunteers (Jackie in purple and la nina rubia Melissa) with my host mom, Claudia (the one with the glasses) at the pizzeria that my landlord owns as well.

Melissa and I with the boys. These are the people we used to hang out with before the strike ended and they went back to school in Antofagasta. But it is okay because we can stay at their houses in Anto and they come home very often as well. Very nice guys. One of them taught himself English by playing Playstation. He is actually pretty good!

This is who we hung out with on the 4th! Melissa and I at the disco with Che cho (who's real name is Sergio I have learned) and his friends.

These are some new friends that we made last weekend. Rodrigo (the guy in the black shirt with Melissa) is a teacher at Melissa's school and one of our favorite Chileans, and he introduced us to some of his old friends. They were fantastic, and they don't speak any English, so I am forced to get buy with my espanol. jaja (that is haha in Spanish)

The video: This is my 8th grade class doing the electric slide. I taught it to them today because they wanted to learn a "traditional" American dance. They are really nervous about being on camera, but most of them picked it up. They are good kids.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the post for today! Life in Chile is great, and I am looking forward to going to Peru. Now, I must enjoy my once with the freshest bread ever that I just got. Yay!

Chao! (how Chileans say Ciao)