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: