¡Hola people!
I’ve completed my first full week of work, and I am pleasantly exhausted. Man do those kids keep me busy. We are preparing for our Open House –where the parents come in to see the school and what we have been working on. Our Open House is unlike anything I have ever witnessed before –we have been preparing for 3 weeks!! The classroom has been completely transformed and the kids are to practice several times for each center. We have 12 centers that the students will rotate to with their parents.
^^Our class museum -the kids had to bring in 1 artifact from Chile and 1 artifact from another country
This week we got a new student in our class from England! He has a very strong British accent and I am completely okay with it! We can relate to each other by being native English-speakers in a country very foreign to us.
The kids are so entertaining. I enjoy watching them play sneaker-fútbol on recess duty. They have quite the system –half of the boys take off their uniform jacket and the others leave them on. When they don’t have a football they play with someone’s sneaker. The sneaker-less player still runs around sans sneaker.
I’m slowly settling into my new life here. The Spanish is still so difficult but I’m getting better each day.
Examples of Chilean slang:
Por favor is por fa
¿Como estas? is ¿como estai?
Gracias is Gracia
¿Cachai? –a big one here… basically is like ya know?
Po –another big one… it means nothing, just add it to the end of words: sípo, nopo
Now imagine these words mixed into regular Spanish words and spoken double-time… now you’re in Chile!
Laughable Moments of the Week:
I just realized yesterday that I’ve been cleaning my countertops and table with glass cleaner
In most Spanish-speaking countries, people have 2 last names –their father’s last name and their mother’s maiden name. Several students have informed me I’m missing a last name.
I went to a magic show with friends last weekend and was asked to assist the magician on stage!
I was told the cheese is amazing in Chile and was instructed on how to order some cheese at the deli –the only problem? They literally gave me a block of cheese. Guess its time to buy some sharp knives…
Window washing is an art… I watched these brave people wash windows while having my coffee all morning… who needs cable?