Winter Camp

(to the tune of ¨In the Jungle¨)
··In the town of Vallenar there was an English Camp x2··

After roughing it for a week in overpriced SP de Atacama, we were ecstatic to find a loving family-run hostel with daily cleaning services, delicious meals and even toilet paper awaiting us in Vallenar. Before even beginning Winter Camp we were whisked away to the coast town of Huasco in a minibus with the hostel family of 10 we´d never seen before. They wanted to give us a taste of the Atacama region, so we got to dig into a medley of octopus, squid, mussels, scallops and other miscellaneous crustaceons.

··We-e-e-e learn and sing and play x2··

Monday morning we were awakened by a most unexpected sound. For the first time in 5 years it was raining in Vallenar. Despite the fact that when it rains in Northern Chile no one seems to go on with their day, 17 eager English campers trooped in to be dubbed their English camp names. To our dismay no one chose Jebediah or Lashonda from the list, however we did end up with a Jennifer, Keith, Martin, David, John and Harry.

··We listen and speak and write in English everyday,
We compete for victory in games we love to play··

The point of camp was to immerse the kids in English. The ministry provided a suggested schedule resembling a school day, but we took the liberty to modify it, making it more of a camp experience. We were perfectly matched with out team leader from the Ministry, Petra, who was all for revisions and added even more energy to the team.

··We-e-e-e learn and sing and play x2··

The theme of the week was Olympics, with Liza and Steph leading team Canada and Vianna and Kelsey leading team Australia. It didn´t take long for us to spread our excitement, getting them painted up and pumped up. While Steph and Liza taught them traditional Canadian red and white cheers, Vianna and Kelsey took it to a whole new level. The ongoing personal battle of meat-eaters versus vegetarians soon became patriotic. Having a troop of Spanish students chant ¨blue and yellow, veggies eat jello... MEAT MEAT MEAT¨would never lose its entertainment value.

··We are countries from far and near in the Olympic games,
The strongest country, the greatest country, will soon bring home the flame··

Each day began with an icebreaker such as Darling if you Love Me, Two truths and a lie or Octopus. One moment that deserves special mention is the time that Martin, a favourite camper of ours, split his pants while playing Steal the Bacon. To fully understand the hilarity of this picture an oversized Napolean Dynamite who splits his pants and then walks over chanting ¨We´re Canada we´re red and white, me rompí mis pantalones¨(I split my pants). He never could remember the whole cheer.

Vianna and Martin at the stock market game

··We-e-e-e learn and sing and play x2··

Each team also had a week long project to create an identity for their country. We saw a lot of their artistic talent and enjoyed the team bonding time. Afternoon program included camp wide games such as the Stock Market game, cookie baking, sports competitions (frisbee was a huge hit), and a photo scavenger hunt. For us the most amazing part of camp was not only to watch their English improve but also to watch high schoolers totally come out of their shell and gain confidence in interaction with us and each other. An apathetic, cooler-than-school student on Tuesday could be found running up and down the aisle of the bus draped in a Canadian flag cheering in English on Thursday. The bonding between the 23 die-hard students could be seen in their hugs and tears at our Saturday departure. The only complaint was that the 9 hour days, 6 day week was too short. We agree.

The group on a field trip to the coast

-Maria Constanza (Vianna), Makarena (Kelsey) and Valentina (Liza)
(Since they had English names we adopted Spanish ones for the week)

Dry Desert

After five weeks of various teaching experiences we reached the end of first term. As hoards of excited alumnos left the schools on Friday, us teachers embarked on an adventure ourselves.

A 7am departure from Coquimbo took us to one of the world´s most famous observatories, Tololo. Kelsey´s school was incredibly generous in organising a day at the observatory, followed by an amazing lunch in Vicuña, part of the Elqui Valley. The telescopes were pretty cool but it was the astounding view of the Andes that made the winding roads and dizzying altitude worthwhile. That evening we braved our first overnight semi-cama bus. The fifteen hours into the desert seemed daunting but with the help of Spanish Titanic, a plethora of snacks, and a wonderful guide Jorge (that´s the name we gave him anyway), the trip was surprisingly tolerable.
We arrived in the gringo gathering point of Chile, San Pedro de Atacama and found a place to stay. Per usual we lost no time looking for as many excursions as possible. Our first day we strapped some sandboards to our backs and biked out into the abyss of sand in search of the perfect dune. After following a river bank to a dead end for a while, we finally stumbled upon Death Valley. The cavernous winding roads were worth every wrong turn. It didn´t take long for our 5 hours to go by as we picked up the new sport, marvelled at the view and played some Euchre atop the dune, of course. More than a week later we are all still finding sand...
4am came rather quickly on our second morning as we piled on layers, mitts and hats to head to the Tatio Geysers. After a 2 hour washboard bus-ride, it was amazing to see boiling water shoot from the geysers and freeze instantly in the -12º air. We felt a little bit like cattle as we were coralled about amongst hundreds of tourists to feeding time. By the time we reached the hot springs we had no problem stripping down and jumping in. Climate fluctuations in the desert really are unique. When we were re-herded into the van with some Lion King - singing French tourists we joined them with the English version of In the Jungle. Our next stop was a hamlet that probably shouldn´t be labelled on a map, but the llama shish-kabobs were worth it. Liza was busy taking pictures of the animals while Kelsey and Vianna ate them.
Over lunch we took a look at a map and realized we were a stone´s throw from Bolivia, so why not go? Within 24 hours we had planned and executed a lovely breakfast in Bolivia. The ice-covered lagoons and picturesque hot springs were lovely but it´s the passport stamps we´ll always remember. We have successfully renewed our 90 day tourist visas in Chile. We may or may not be home on August 21st... just joking. Our morning in Bolivia was topped off with a beautiful sunset in Moon Valley. San Pedro was amazing but the tourists and prices made us long for the ¨real¨Chile again.
The next afternoon we got a call from the ministry and our sole male team member Colin volunteered to spend the next week of English Winter Camp on the magical southern island of Chiloé. I bet he misses us. The rest of us hopped on our second overnight bus in transit to Vallenar where we will spend the remainder of our winter vacation running a camp full of wonderful English nerds.

-Vianna, Liza, Kelsey.

Hoolee!!

Its hard to believe that it´s already July (or hoolee according to my students). I´m feeling completely settled into my ever so strange life routine here. Even though my spanish has improved exponentially, it is still impossible to fully communicate with my family. At every four-course gourmet meal I find myself bombareded with rapid spanish stories from Horte sitting across from me. At first, I always attempt to talk through them and figure out what is going on, but after a day of school and once the food has disappeared, focusing becomes much more challenging. Every Sunday, Grandma and I go to lunch with the extended family. Afterwards, we both get tucked into a queen sized bed and she naps while I watch their english TV. We get tea in bed with the rest of the family before we get taken home to Horte. Esta es vida.

Me Mama Chileno, Flora

As I get to know my students and fellow teachers better, I´m enjoying my time at school more and more. We had a small earthquake in class yesterday in class which was definately a new experience. Every time I walk into class the girls stand and say ¨Good Morning Miss!¨ and no matter what I say after that (even if it´s ´why are you late?´), i get ¨I am so-so miss.¨One of my student, Barbara, is always eager to practice her english with me at lunch time, or show me around the city after school..... or walk me home, eat with me, and tuck me in at night. haha. Boundaries here are a whole other matter. I´m also coaching an english debating team here which attracts the strongest English students and is a very different teaching experience.


With any spare daylight hours, La Serena is a beautiful city to explore and I often run into very friendly people who are delighted to show me around. In the small downtown area, people are beginning to recognize me and sometimes even call me by name! I think this may have something to do with the newspaper article I was in:


http://www.diarioeldia.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3271&Itemid=48



Earlier this week I walked into a corner store to buy an egg to make banana breaked and they asked how my stomach was feeling(it had been upset the night before). A little surprised at first, it wasn´t long before I recognized the resemblance of the store contents to those of my cupboard at home and we were chatting about my family.



We recently found out about our winter camp placements which beginning two weeks from now will be two hours north of here in Vallenar. Here are some more photos of some of our weekend adventures in the area:

Who burns chairs???

As i watched the pigeons this morning from my usual park bench, I sat and collected my spanish thoughts before entering the school. My mind wandered to somewhat philisophical thought. How do pigeons not get dizzy walking the way they do, head bobbing and all? I feel as though i borrowed that thought from another, so credit to the creator... but really, how? Preparing oneself to enter a school may seem a little unnecessary, but when your first class on a Monday morning decides to set fire to a few of the chairs in your classroom, any form of thought collection can be vital for survival. Today was also pleasant when i discovered that three of 6 windows had been smashed in over night and the kids thought throwing shards at one another was a good game. Unfortunately I had to stop that one. However, not all classroom behaviour is quite so destructive. Distracting might be a better term as students yell ¨Miss, I love you¨and¨ my personal favourite from Juan Pablo every morning, ¨Miss, you have such beautiful eyes¨. Darlings, really. Over the past week we have been working on basic questions such as ¨how old are you?¨ This may seem incredibly simple, but the level of english that my students possess is minimal to say the least. When i asked ¨When is your birthday¨, I think that my favourite response was ¨I like listening to music¨... Well that´s nice Jorge, but when is your birthday??? Although the students seem crazy and a little hard to control sometimes, I find that containing their energy and using it to enhance the lesson is often more rewarding than a class full of apathetic students. As my teaching was shortened due to the strikes, I have made up for missed time by volunteering at and english lab in downtown Coquimbo, with Kelsey, teaching adults on Wednesday evenings, and kids on thursday afternoons. I have also started teaching with Kelsey at her school on Friday´s, as i have no classes of my own. Sometimes i feel that those classes are more entertaining for us than for the students. Jeopardy last week us doubled over in fits of laughter as translations of days of the week went a little awry.

As much as i seem to mock my students english, my spanish is nothing to be desired. It is improving though. When i fisrt arrived here i often told people that i was married when trying to express that i was tired. For future reference, Casada= married and Cansada= tired. I also give almost everyone a laugh when i explain that my dog here is named Sále. In fact, the dogs name is Flake, and Sále means ¨get out!¨.. which is why it would make perfect sense that they yelled ¨Sále¨everytime the dog came in the house. Smart Liza. Aside from minor confusion my communication skills are increasing and i can now speak, using selective verbs, in past and future.

The past two weekends filled our stomachs and our cameras with good food and great photos, respectivly. Our weekend in Elqui Valley took Vianna, Colin, Kelsey and I to the beautiful valley, the mountains, the home of Pisco, and a magnificent observatory.

Pretty from an Elqui lookout

We visited the observatory on June 21st, which was a perfectly clear evening. It is great to experience all of that on the shortest day of the year! We learned all about globular and closed clusters, nebulas, supernovas, and the 88 constellations. One in particular, the Southern Cross, had until now been hidden to me by the northern horizons back at home. This past weekend showed me my very first gay pride parade, which considering gay pride history in Latin American countries, had a great turn out and proved to be a very entertaining night. In anticipation of Canada Day, we prepared a feast at La Casa de Kelsey.

Food and Friends at Kelsey´s.

Pancakes, banana bread, tuna melts, grilled cheese, microwave bacon and maple syrup made their premier appearance to the Chilean families, and were welcomed by the Canadians with expectant eyes and grumbling stomachs. All was eaten, and all were content. Papa Carlos enjoys every last drop of Maple Syrup

Tempus fugit, as my lessons remain unplanned.
Take care wherever you might be. All love from here to there.

Hasta Luego.

School Life

So I came upon the profound realization that teaching puts you through exactly the same emotions as learning. If I´m bored out of my mind and feel like I´m pulling teeth to get somewhere with an activity, the students probably feel they´re in the dentist chair, whereas if I´m enjoying myself the students are often doing likewise. I´ve therefore tried to step up the creativity and energy to make every class more enjoyable for all. Luckily my amazing (real) family made that so much easier by sending me a package last week, including CDs jam-packed with English tunes. The primeros and segundos really responded to the use of music in the classroom. Some zealously sang along, others were in fits of laughter trying to figure out the meaning of words as I drew pictures and acted out verbs at the front of the room, but all in all it was a success. After too many repetitions of Coldplay I learned to go with the less-generic Page France for the segundos.

Another huge hit was jeopardy, planned and executed with Liza. She has recently started coming to Friday classes conmigo since she has them off at the crazy Diego Portales, and two is always better than one with 25 hyperactive primeros. The jeopardy competition was definitely heated. When we called ¨Miércoles¨ students were jumping out of their seats yelling ¨Westerday¨ or ¨Weedsday,¨ when we asked ¨how many siblings do you have?¨ we got some stellar answers such as ¨I have one brother in tree sister¨or ¨I am from Coquimbo.¨ We were also forcefully told that the verb ¨to olvidate¨ must exist. The daily laughs brought on by our mistakes in Spanish and our students´mistakes in English are enough to cure any winter doldrums.

Coquimbo really feels like home now. We´ve scouted and ranked the local ice cream spots, learned which doorsteps to wave at on our runs to the beach, and I am finally accustomed to the neighbours´ rooster crowing at all hours of the night. It´s nice to run into local acquiantances when walking through the center and feel comfortable in basic Spanish conversation. My Spanish is slowly improving, the verb tenses are coming much more naturally now, it´s just overwhelming to try to absorb all the vocabulary in a language. Poco a pocito estoy aprendiendo.

Photos from Weekend excursions:

Colin, Vianna, Liza on our mini hike in Vicuña, a town of vineyards in the Elqui ValleyA weekend with a guitar, a card deck and English-speaking friends... how lovelyCooking pancakes for the Canada Day feast. The Fam loved Maple Syrup!