Hey there friends!
It’s been a short but eventful week here in Chile. For starters, it was our last week before sending the kiddos off to second grade. I’m a little sad to send off my first graders, we’ve become like a little dysfunctional family :P
I’ve also been running around the city trying to get my visa paperwork in order. I spent the morning on Wednesday waiting 4 hours to register my visa at the International Police Station. It’s always a fun time there, luckily this time I brought a book and some music. Thank the Heavens above that before walking away, I noticed the man spelled my name as Kimberly Tryker, I can’t even imagine the Hell I would have to go through to get that fixed. Afterwards, the SC Driver took me to get my carnet , a little card that all Chileans have that basically you can’t do anything here without it (like have a bank account, a cellphone plan, have a credit card etc.). After waiting for about an hour, it was my turn. The lady quickly informed me that she could not help me because this location was only for Chileans. If I have learned anything in Chile, it is how to be patient. This is how things go here.
^^ This is what my entire day consisted of on Wednesday
The following day we had a going away party for one of my students who is moving to the US (Boca Raton, FL). I mentioned to her that I’ll be going to the US in January (to Connecticut) and she seems to think we are going to run into each other since we’ll be in the same country. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’ll be very far away from each other.
^^ We made her a scrapbook and had the kids each write something to her.
Friday was our last day with the kids, so we had “Fun Day” planned. In the morning we gave each student an award such as “class clown”, “most fashionable” , “silliest friend” etc. Afterwards, the kids changed into their bathing suits and got ready to go to the sprinklers. Grades 1-5 went outside for about 1.5 hours to run around the fields and play in the sprinklers. At one point, I was playing tag with some of my kids and the sprinklers turned on directly on me. My entire backside got soaked and all of my kids couldn’t stop laughing at me –it’s okay because it felt so refreshing on such a hot day.
^^ I did pretty good!
This weekend was pretty low-key. I spent the majority of it buying Christmas gifts and I spent hours finishing report card comments. The students’ last day was on Friday but us teachers have to go to school for another month. We have a lot of work to complete still.
Speaking of celebrations, next weekend I’m very excited to be attending my first Chilean wedding!! I’ll be going to the wedding of my co-worker and friend Javi. Chilean weddings are quite different from American weddings so expect a post dedicated to my experience!
Laughable Moments:
At the International Police, there was this extremely angry Asian man who kept yelling at the man behind the glass window. As he walked away, he un-did all of those little retractable ropes. It was hilarious
On the way to school, my co-worker mentioned that we have “sprinkles” today! She meant sprinklers, but I prefer to refer to them as sprinkles now.
Some of my students also thought the sprinklers were called sprinkles
The amount of children with inside out and/or backwards clothing on after the sprinklers was quite amusing. There were several kids with the Polo symbol on their backs.
^^ This pigeon was hardcore judging me as I was laying out by the pool
^^ Just your average, everyday robot chilling at the mall
^^ I've noticed that these little Gorilla keychains are very popular here and I didn't understand why. Apparently they come on expensive purses and backpacks and each Gorilla has it's own unique name. One of the thank you gifts I got came with a Kipling gorilla. His name is Daniel, Ceci's gorilla is blue and his name is Joel.
^^ I really like this fountain. It lights up at night!
^^ Fun fact, this fountain was designed by a Spaniard -which is probably why I like it so much ;)
^^ The tree in the lobby of my apartment building