Thursday 19 June 2008

Coffee Granules for Dessert

If my last post didn´t make it clear I need to emphasize how amazing my Chilean Family is. Weekdays I don´t have much contact with my own family because no one except Abuelita (grandmother) is home before 8pm and I´m the only one who eats a dinner-type meal, but on weekends they´re eager to show us Canadians the Chilean way of life. Some highlights have been playing Spanish board games, singing Karaoke in a local pub, celebrating my host father´s birthday, and the events of this past weekend...

Host Father´s 60th


As Liza described, on Saturday we got to experience the true spirit of soccer by going to the tournament final between La Serena and Universidad de Chile. The four cold Canadians huddled together to the amusement of the security guards to take in some top quality soccer and infectiously crazy ´U´ fans. Arriving back to my house FREEZING cold, Liza and I were welcomed by the warmth of empanada baking. We walked in on the preparations for Sunday at the Campo, a farm-type place on the edge of the Elqui Valley. The 50 massive empanadas made us excited for what lay ahead.
The next day the four Canadians, my host family, and an assortment of family friends arrived at a picturesque ¨Camping area,¨ but this was no Algonquin Park. We drove in, plugged in our kettles and the men began to barbeque every kind of meat imagineable on a large stone grill. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the valley with lots of eating, disc tossing and a spirited soccer game.

Notice the pile of meat


On the weekdays I am beginning to get into a routine at the Estado de Israel School. I teach three classes of year 1, 2 and 3, so since they are split into half class groups each that makes 18 groups of students. Each class has such a different dynamic so I find my lesson plans really have to take into account the character of the group. Some classes sit quietly, some are apathetic, and some bounce off the walls. Furthermore, with the unruliest year 1 and 2 classes only the 12 best come to my class, but with all the others I get about 24 each. Moral of the story: various lesson plans are required.
I found some amusement in my second year classes this week when they made menus and presented restaurant skits for their food unit. Orders included rainbow slaw to start, roasted rage with stick for dinner, and instant coffee granules for dessert. Mmm.

I have also been teaching at a lab downtown a few times a week where the eager students can come for free classes. They are a mix of the best behaved from all Coquimbo schools plus some adults so it´s a nice change from the sometimes trying school groups. I made my newspaper debut in ¨La Region¨newspaper this week after a surprise interview in Spanish and have officially experienced the word-twisting habits of journalists. Apparently Canadians have no family values. I don´t care how broken my Spanish is, I did NOT say that!

Early morning photoshoots aren´t my thing

We look forward to a weekend in the heart of the Elqui Valley and hope that Vianna will write about her crazy adventures soon, she is alive and well!

Until next time,
Kelsey.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Kelsey...your mmorning mug shot looks great to me...what does 'carinosos' mean? Loved the kids menu options! We miss you and love the stories!

XXX Mum

Kelsey said...

Cariñosos means affectionate... in the interview I talked about how Chileans have been so warm and seem to really value family, but I also said that that was the case with my family back home in Canada. His twist was that most Canadians aren´t like that, I was a little perturbed, but that´s journalism I guess.

Anonymous said...

the newspaper photo made me laugh so hard!!
i miss you!
char

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Summit of San Cristobal

Summit of San Cristobal

Alpaca Market

Alpaca Market