Thanksgiving Chickens

Hi everybody!

It’s been a while, sorry about that. I’m starting to wonder if a blog update about once a month would be best. As time passes, I’m finding less and less new information to add to my posts. I don’t want to post just because it’s time for another update, I want my posts to actually have substance to them. So without further ado...

Can you believe it’s already December? 2017 was literally a blur, it went by so fast!

Since we last spoke, I celebrated Thanksgiving with some Gringo friends and it was so lovely. My friend Colm invited me to join their annual Thanksgiving meal at Saint George’s where him and all of his friends have worked. The chefs were Chilean but tried so hard to make our meal as authentic and American as possible. It was beyond sweet. After the dinner, the chef asked a few of us, “Was it alright? Did I get the spices right?” My heart melted at his concern. And they did a wonderful job, let me tell you! I prepared a cheesecake and was quite proud of the results as I’d never made one before. It was quite tasty!

We also had our annual Last Chapel Ceremony which is a very important ceremony to Santiago College. It’s when the first graders present a flower bouquet or flag to the graduating seniors. This ceremony is a tremendous amount of pressure as the first grade teachers are in charge of everything. And nothing can go wrong –that’s how it goes when you work at a prestigious private school. We are in charge of getting the flowers, staying after school for about 4 hours to make the individual bouquets, make the centerpieces, order the first grade level by height and make sure brother’s and sisters wind up giving the flower/flag to their sibling. It’s nuts.

Yet again, we pulled off another year. The worst part is making sure the first graders' uniforms are all impeccable. If their shoes are not white, we literally have to scramble around in the morning and paint their shoes white. After painting one of my student's shoes, he sat down to put it back on and sat on the wet shoe. As he was leaving for the ceremony, he had a HUGE white circle on his butt, like a rabbit! Luckily I caught him and found an unlucky second grader to switch pants with him.

I also had my first taste of a concert in Chile. I went to go see Bruno Mars with a friend and it was incredible! We were in the pit basically, where there are no chairs and everyone is on top of you. This, I didn’t like so much and I decided I’ll never do that again. Latino closeness is way different from American closeness. People were literally using my back and butt as a shelf to rest their hands. I felt like they were inside my skin. There was no space too small for someone to squeeze into and no part of your body people were unwilling to touch. I felt violated and squished after the concert.

The concert itself was magical! Bruno Mars is such a talented guy. He sings exactly how he sounds on the radio, even better, I’d say! He sang all of his hits like “Uptown Funk” and “24k Magic”. Not to mention his dancing is incredible! He even joked with the audience by attempting to speak in Spanish and say Chilean slang words. The whole show was so much fun. DNCE opened for him and were also great. I love them so I was thrilled to see them. Their guitarist was psycho but was playing with the crowd by saying Chilean slang words and was even wearing a cooking apron he bought from one of the gift shops downtown.

School is wrapping up now that it’s December! The kids have officially begun their half-day schedules. Their last day is on December 13. The teachers’ last day is on January 5th. So no, I won’t be going home for Christmas again this year. For me it’s not worth it. I’d rather spend a significant amount of time with my loved ones rather than a rushed 4 days, not to mention it’s very expensive to fly home. So I’ll be home mid-January and all of February. I cannot wait to see everyone!!

^^ The school psychologist showed me this. One of my students has been having a rough time. She labeled the planets according to her own life. Usually they just put their friends. But she put me as the moon. So so sweet!

^^ My artwork

Laughable Moments:

While learning about poetry, we were learning how to write about everyday objects but while wearing our "poet glasses". So a ring, isn't a ring, but maybe an ant's hula hoop. We were brainstorming what we could call a ring in a poetic way and someone raised their hand and said "a husband reminder!"
I took León to the park and while I was sitting down, this guy started rubbing my back, the way a boyfriend does to a girlfriend. I was very confused, and then he saw my look and realized I wasn't his girlfriend...
One of my students likes to ask me nonstop questions about my life. The other day she asked "Do you have a boyfriend? Are you going to get married next year since you'll be 26" I told her no, and that you don't need to have a boyfriend. She then said, "When you do get one, make sure he's cute okay?"
We were reading the short stories published by the fourth graders. Each story had an "About the Author Page" it was clear that they were supposed to write where they were born, meaning what city. All of the stories wrote the name of the hospitals they were born in.
My Chilean friend who went to the concert with me thought that Bruno Mars' song "Versace on the Floor" was actually saying "statue on the floor" and she asked me why would there be a statue on the floor?
One night I was walking León when we heard a bunch of chanting and honking. We turned around and 100 people on bikes were closing in on us. We tried to walk fast, but they were faster. It was like that scene in The Lion King with the stampede. Luckily we dodged them, it was literally a bike strike -I have no idea what they were protesting but they had several stray dogs all excited that were leading the pack
In Chile when you say hello to someone, you're supposed to saludar -give one kiss on the cheek. I've decided I don't like to saludar because I don't like to put my face on other people's faces, thats just me... Then there are instances that I like to call "gray areas". I've learned that you do saludar your boss, you do saludar the parents of your students, you don't saludar your doctor. On more than one instance, I've said hello to parents and gotten their lotion on my face. EW!
More on that topic... everyone remembers if you already did it to them that day. So if you do it again, they literally say "We already did this" How do they remember every single person and then reset each day?! I'm clearly not paying enough attention
Since everyone is exhausted, the kids are acting out even more at school. During recess, the boys were fighting over the ball. One of my students decided he would bite the face of the other boy to get the ball. Now the poor boy has a huge bruise and bite mark on his cheek!