So part of the English Opens Doors program is to have your students participate in this English Competition. High School kids have to do a full-on debate. I helped the kids from one of the local high schools and let me tell you, these debates are nothing I could see American High Schoolers doing in Spanish any time soon. All the different rounds of competitions have different subjects in which to debate. The first subject had to do with science and genetics, I’m not really sure. The second was about music and promiscuity. This is the one I helped with and boy do I wish I had a video of me practicing with these kids because I just had to keep repeating the word “dirty” because the “er” sound is very difficult for Chileans to pronounce. So just imagine me in the kitchen with 5 high school kids repeating “dirty” over and over. I couldn’t help but laugh. These situations happen all the time in class when kids pronounce words so that they sound like they are bad. “Chat” always comes out “shat.” Really, it’s just an excuse for me to be immature and laugh, but it makes it so much better that they have no idea why these things are funny.
ANYWAY, now that I have totally gone off-topic, I will tell you about my student Yocelyn. The 8th grade version of the English competition is that they have to speak for 2 minutes about a famous person from an English speaking country or just about an English speaking country in general. So most of the schools chose people like Martin Luther King, Jr. (literally 4 schools spoke about him) or there was a J.K. Rowling (obviously I was a fan), but we decided to let our student choose her own person to speak about. Obviously she chose someone who she knows and likes, Zac Efron. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is famous for his portrayal in the High School Musical films. I can’t tell you how famous he is here in Chile. Seriously, it’s ridiculous. Well, we worked for months on this speech and Yocelyn did very well! She got 3rd place in the competition, and I have a video of it so you can learn about Mr. Efron. I now know more about him than I ever thought possible, and promised Yocelyn that if I ever met him in California (because according to Chileans, all Americans know famous people), I would tell him about my Chilean student who did a speech about him.
Well, after the excitement from the dialogue competition calmed down, it was time for Chilean Independence Day. What this means, is that I had 2 days off from school, and most of my school days approaching the 18th of September were interrupted by dance practices for the program that would take place the day before the holiday. On Wednesday, September 17, the day before Independence Day, we had a giant party at school. I wore a traditional Cueca dress (Cueca is the national dance of Chile) and students ranging from 6th-8th grades each did some sort of traditional Chilean dance. I shamelessly video taped all of them and will happily share them all with you now. The stupid photographers kept getting in my way, but I think I caught the gist of it for you all. Of course there was another poem read by a 3rd grader, and I slowly but surely fell more in love with my students throughout this entire day. In preparation for this day, I watched most of the practices for these dances (especially the 8th graders) and can do the basics of the dances, which my students love to ask me to do on a daily basis. I have decided that people don’t often like to make a fool of themselves here in Chile because every time I make myself look just a little bit stupid (which is far too often), not only students but adults as well think it’s the funniest thing ever (if ever trying to entertain a child in Chile, no matter what age, just stick out your tongue).
After the wonderful celebration that took place at school, came binge eating for the next few days. Starting on Wednesday, when the party was, I ate pretty much every sort of traditional Chilean food possible. I had Empanadas (which I have been eating my whole life) with meat, eggs and an olive (gooo) inside (that is the traditional Chilean empanada). I had humitas, which is very similar to a Cuban tamale wrapped in the corn husk and everything, but Chileans put sugar on it (obviously). For dessert, a very common food from the South, rice with milk (sweetened condensed milk, dad would love it). The traditional drink is Chicha, it’s kind of a mix between Hornsbees cider and Sangria. I don’t really know if that is a good description, but that’s what they drink straight of the barrel for Independence Day. The grand finale meal that I think capped off my Independence Day experience I ate at Jackie’s house. Anticuchos, which in English would be kebabs. However, these are not the everyday kebabs you and I would envision. These are purely meat with maybe one slice of onion (mmm…grilled onions). On one anticucho you get steak, chicken, hot dog, and chorizo. They are each about two feet long and you are expected to eat at least 3. Buf. So full….but they are indeed tasty.
In between the stuffing of my face during Independence Day weekend I actually had some pretty awesome Chilean experiences. On the 18th, which is actual Independence Day, I went fishing with Jackie’s host family. I have gotten to know Jackie’s family pretty well. They are a lot of fun, and have two kids that are college-aged that we hang out with when they are on breaks from school, so like every other week. Fishing was quite the day. We went to this beach that is like 30 minutes North of Tocopilla. 12 people took 2 cars that only seat 5 people, very normal. We didn’t have actual fishing poles, just fishing wire, and I was the only gringa that didn’t catch a fish ☹ unless you count Jackie because I accidentally hooked her (and no mom and dad, I didn’t cry this time afraid for Jackie’s life). When Jackie’s family goes fishing, half of them have wire and are going for fish, the other half is climbing on the rocks getting the sea urchins off so they can crack them open and eat the bright orange tongues that are inside. On the day we went, they filled a bag about the size of a freezer zip-loc full of these tongues that are bright orange and made me eat one right out of the urchin while at the beach. It really wasn’t that bad, just tasted like salt, which I have gotten used to by now. When we got back to their house, they made a sort of salsa out of it all, but I didn’t really eat very much of it…The next day with her family, after we ate thousands of anticuchos and Jackie and I cooked them s’mores that Jackie’s mom sent from the states (mmmm), we watched this DVD of a famous Chilean singer for literally the entire afternoon. There was singing, dancing and both moms and daughters swooning over this guy. It was incredible to see this, because the moms were acting just as 14 year-old girls do for the Jonas Brothers, but then again, so were the daughters. It was very interesting to see this, because I really couldn’t imagine jumping up and down on the bed singing, dancing and swooning over the same person as my mom (no offense mom). It’s these little parts of Chilean culture that I catch that make this experience so interesting to me.
Most recently, I have been a little under the weather. I had my first stint at the Tocopilla hospital yesterday, because my stomach has been queezy well for quite a while now. No need to worry, I will be fine, but it was an interesting experience. The good news is that because I am here sponsored by the government, they are not making me pay for anything. So far, I have been poked by 2 needles and I never screamed, so those of you who know me at all should be impressed. The people at the hospital are especially nice because I am most of their childrens' teacher, so they all call me "Miss Katie" just like their kids. As of now, we think I have a bacteria or infection in my stomach, and it is all being taken care of, so please don't worry.
As my trip is winding down (I leave Chile two months from tomorrow!), I feel like I slowly becoming more and more Chilean. I want to get as much as I can out of these next two months because who knows if and when I’ll ever to return to Chile. It makes me so sad to have to tell my students that no I’m not going to be here next year. It breaks my heart to have to tell the third graders who thought I was going to be their teacher finally next year that they will not get that opportunity, so I just talk to them as much as possible. I have been exchanging e-mails and even facebooks with my students so we can communicate. It’s been quite fun. I am slowly but surely learning Chilean internet slang. It’s not easy. I find myself using a lot of Chilean slang, finally, and even using the same groan as my students. I am finally becoming acclimated to the food (well, my stomach isn’t), and generally just trying to live up my life in Chile. I hope that this has been an entertaining update for those of you back home and will try to get better about this. But then again, I’ll be back home before you know it….crazy. Miss you all!
Here are some pictures to enjoy, the videos will hopefully be added this week!
The gringas hitting up a Chilean costume party. We wore togas (with tights under because it was cold) and I had to pose with the flag of course.
Jackie's host family digging up song orange tongues to eat...yummm.
Jackie's host family digging up song orange tongues to eat...yummm.
THIS is Anticuchos. Kebabs. Pure meat.
So tasty
Jackie's host mom, Monica enjoying some anticuchos as well.
All of us gringas dressed up to go to the costume party.
I did a three-legged race at the gym for the Independence day party. I never actually ran with this woman, but we were indeed tied together at one point.
Melissa and I with Jackie's host family for the 18th!
Enjoying Monica's cooking, and of course Heineken from a can, luke warm of course. It's the Chilean way.
I'm eating one of those orange tongues that are in a picture up above.
We found a crab skeleton on the rocks. Don't worry, I didn't really eat it...
This is Claudia and I at the first feast of the Independence Day celebration at school with all of the teachers. There was another one about 2 hours later. We are wearing traditional Cueca dresses.
These are humitas. Like I said, just like Cuban tamales.
These are all pictures of students in their costumes for the act. The shiny more ridiculous costumes are for the Saya, which was put on by 8th grade.
Melissa came to the act at my school as well, and we felt it necessary to take a picture in front of the giant Chilean flag.
I really think it's necessary that you see the back of these outfits....
Ah yes, back to the feast with the teachers. There was private chef that came and made all the food. It was delicious.
This is one of my 8th graders and me in our traditional outfits.
4th grade dressed in Cueca outfits although they were not dancing, but then again, neither was I...
More 8th grade boys in Saya outfits. I just think these outfits are outrageous so I took as many pictures as possible. I wish I had gotten more of the girls. If you will notice, the boys have bells on their boots. Most of their parents made these outfits just for this one day.
The principles secretary insisted in taking a picture of me in my Cueca dress in front of the Chilean flag.
These are girl versions of Saya outfits. Wonderful.
This is the set for the act. The kids danced in front of this.
These next few are just students in the stands that dressed up for fun. They are great.
For the day, there was artwork decorating the whole school. It is all done by the students and is Chilean themed.
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