chile and my students go wild

World Cup crazed Chile winning over the heavily favored Switzerland 1-0 on Monday brought about as much mayhem as it sounds.  I watched at school with my students and since the government mandated that they all be able to watch, everyone was in the lunch room where there is a flat screen TV and also that day, a projector set up.  After the game, the kids ran around the school, jumped on chairs, and yelled "Chi chi chi!  Le le le! Viva Chile!" and "Ole ole ole ole Chile Chile!" until the teachers rounded them back up for class.  Outside the school, everyone got in their cars, bikes, buses and drove around the streets of the country beeping their horns and waving the flag for the rest of the day.  In Santiago, mobs rushed the streets and created a bouncing sea of the Chile red, white, and blue.  Should Chile win against powerhouse Spain on Friday, watch out.

The day's festivities at Colegio Fernando Durán Villarreal...

My students go mad after the Chile goal...

Chi chi chi!  Le le le!  Vi-va Chile!

skipping school for...what?

In my couple months of teaching here, I've learned that there are a few unconventional-to-our-standards reasons for students not to go to school.  Sometimes because they just want to sleep.  Sometimes, other activities just sound more fun.  For example, on Monday, my host sister, Ayun, and host mom Charo both didn't go to school or work.  I came home from school and found them just hanging out in the house.  Obviously my first question was if they were sick though they both seemed perfectly healthy.  Turns out they were in perfect health and they had skipped out on daily obligations because they were going shopping at the mall in Viña del Mar.  Right.
But the most interesting reason had to do with weather.  And no, not snow or storms.  My host brother, Amaury, had told me awhile back that when it rains in Quilpué, all the kids stay home from school.  Coming from a place where parents only let their kids stay home if deathly ill or there is a 5-foot layer of snow on the ground, this of course, blew my mind.  He said that they just don't know how to deal with being wet.  To their credit, there are no heaters in the schools and so if they are soaking wet in the winter, there's a pretty good chance of a cold epidemic.  Still, I was curious to see if he was exaggerating or if this was actually true.
Seeing rain when I wake up in the morning usually puts an immediate damper on my mood if I know I have to go out in it.  However, I was interested in seeing how many kids would show up to school with it.  It has hardly rained in Quilpué thus far and never while I was teaching so imagine my excitement when I woke up last Friday and saw that there was a good steady drizzle going with heavier rain to come in the afternoon.  It was probably the first and only time I was excited to go to work in the rain.
When I arrived, I could already tell that the courtyard where all the kids are usually running and screaming before the bell was quieter than normal.  During the first block, one of my 2nd grade classes, I taught 8 kids out of a normal 30.  Only half of my 5th grade class showed up to school and about 13 of my normal 25 1st graders.  Also, my co-teacher changed her lesson plan for the day so that it now focused on rainy days, but we spent most of the time running to the window every time there was a sudden downpour anyway.
So it's true.  When it rains in Quilpué, the kids stay home from school.  I would love to see what would happen if it ever snowed.

Half of a usually full 5th grade class

Muy pocos chiquititos

tienes un pololo?

My school is basica level which means it has grades K-8. Each grade is split in half and so has two classes of about 40 kids each. My co-teacher, Angela, sees each one once a week for 90 minute blocks. The last couple of weeks, I have been meeting all the classes which consisted of me standing up front and the kids asking the same questions over and over from class to class (in Spanish of course because why would you speak anything else in English class?)

"How old are you?"
"Where are you from?...USA?...Not China?"
"What's it like in the USA?"
"Do you have siblings?"
"Do you have pets?"

"Can you speak other languages?"
"What's your favorite color?"
"Who is your favorite singer?"
"How's the food in the USA?"
"Do you know other countries?"
"Were you here for the earthquake?"

And my personal favorites...

"Do you know Obama? In person??"
"Do you know Michael Jackson?" (always accompanied by a quick Jackson dance move)
"Do you know Jackie Chan?" (always accompanied by a karate chop)
"Do you know kung fu?" (also accompanied by karate chop)

School courtyard

I decided to have a little fun with a couple of classes and told them that I was actually friends with the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez (Disney Channel kids). I got a lot of jaw-drops and shrieks from the girls and even more questions about these people I know nothing about. Hey, if it means respect, why not?

"Do you have a boyfriend?" ("Tienes un pololo?")

This is usually asked by the boy who is most likely the big shot in class.

If you answer this question with "no," you're met with confused stares and, "well...why not?" because in Chile, it's just expected that you have a significant other. If you don't, there must be something wrong with you.

If you answer this question with "yes," said-boy gets the "too bad for you" punches in the arms by his buddies and he sheepishly smirks while all the girls giggle.

The English level is generally pretty low in all the classes, though some lower than others. For example:

Angela: "Good morning, children."

Class: "Good morning, Miss Angela."

Angela: "How are you?"

Class: "How are you...?" or "Good morning" or "...."

However, my segundo B (2nd grade, B) class welcomed me with this lovely greeting:

my new life in quilpué

After our WorldTeach group split up to our new homes, we each wrote an update to everyone about our placements, families, towns, and schools. This is the email I sent:


Hola! to my wonderful posse,

I am writing from my lovely little house (yay wifi!) in the suburbia of Valpo. I have an awesome family that seems to be pretty influential in this town (the mayor is a close friend who gets drunk and crashes on their couch at their weekly Sunday asados):

-my dad, Norman, works for the Mineduc and also was a former prisoner of Pinochet
-my mom, Charo, is the sweetest woman, a great cook, and her last name is Allende...(relation maybe!?) Neither parent speaks a lick of English save for "beautiful" and "Oh my God!"
-my 17 year old brother, Amaury, has the intelligence and wisdom of someone way beyond his years, speaks really in-depth English, and is a talented musician
-my 12 year old sister, Ayun, also speaks some English and is just adorable
-our german shepard named Laica who is a very "special" dog. Just now I called out at her from my window and watched her get really excited, run in circles, and then proceed to lay down and gnaw on a piece of her own stale poo. Yes, "special."

We live in a little 1-story house about a 10-min walk from the centro of town and also near a metro stop on the Valparaiso line (I think it's 20 min from here to Vina and 30 min to Valpo?) The house reminds
me of Pablo Neruda's in that the rooms are each at different weird levels even though it essentially is just one floor. Some walls are painted in different bright colors, some have murals on them of Valpo that the family painted together and the house is covered in cool paintings, tapestries, and objects from all over the world. It doesn't hurt the Neruda association that they have pictures of him all over the place. The best part is the backyard which is full of fruit/nut trees, has a grape terrace, garden, hammock, BBQ pit and is surrounded by tall walls covered in ivy. I've happily discovered the wifi reaches the hammock. They whole place is decorated with what other people would deem trash but they have turned into works of art.

Quilpué itself is just kind of a big sprawl of homes and I've been warned to stay out of some areas. The centro is a small commercial area but the streets are small, the buildings are short, and there are lots of mom and pop shops and bakeries. The whole town is surrounded by hills. Just over the ones my house faces is Vina.

My school is about a 20-min walk from my house, shorter by bike which I'll have after Amaury fixes his up for me. It's grades 1-8 and I'll be seeing them all. My co-teacher and principal both speak some English, enough to communicate fine and I've met most of the kids already. Some are really sweet, some are terrors naturally, but all
of them are adorable. I'm mostly shocked by the lack of classroom management here and how it's just accepted as "Es lo que hay." My schedule after this week of observation will be M, T, W 8am-3pm and W, Th, F 8am-3pm on alternating weeks. Yes, this means every other weekend for me will be 6-day weekends so get ready to show me around your towns!

The only problem is that I currently don't have my own classroom.  I've been pushing for one this week and will be more firm at the end of it before I actually start teaching. The only prospect is the stage in the courtyard that can close up and is only used a few times a month. Everything else with the school is great, it has projectors and boards in every room and has wifi on the whole property for free.  It's a public school but I've been told that the kids who go there are really under-privileged with tough social backgrounds and so they get a lot of donations and funding from the government. But you wouldn't be able to tell this from their energy and enthusiasm.

Anyway, sorry my little update has turned into a 10-page paper. I loved reading about all your places and I will definitely be seeing you all soon! (The ones on the beach probably sooner :)

Muchos besitos,
Tang