is it vaca yet?

so every school year, ingles abre puertas (the program hosted by the chilean government who hosts us volunteers) puts together a "public speaking competition" for the public school students. here's the lowdown. each kid has to put a speech together about one of two topics: 1. an english speaking person or 2. an english speaking country. the speech needs to be three minutes in length, and ah ha... small catch. has to be in ENGLISH! now i don't know about you, but when i was in 8th grade, there was no way in heck you'd see me up in front of an audience speaking in spanish for three minutes. especially with the limited vocabulary we are taught in an elementary language class! so, pardon the expression, but it definitely takes balls for these kids to get up and perform a speech in english.

as part of our requirement in this program, we are required to participate in a student's preparation for this competition. this includes choosing an 8th grader to participate, editing their written speech, and practicing pronunciation prior to the competition. i ended up choosing a student named john. he has an awesome understanding of the english language and was eager to participate. low and behold, john ended up winning the provisional competition with a speech about barack obama. i couldn't believe it! what an awesome experience for the students. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places from the provisional competition were then asked to participate in the regional competition in concepcion (2nd largest city in chile, about 2 hours west of us here in los angeles). john did incredibely well in this competition with a speech about jamaica (they have to use the other topic for the 2nd competition) and was asked to participate in the national competition in antofogasta sometime in july! its amazing what these kids can accomplish when they put their mind to it. plus, many of these kids have never even travelled outside of los angeles... just to travel to northern chile is opening such a huge door for them. que bakan!

so overall, class has been good. i will say that teaching would be a lost easier if all of my students had the motivation john has for learning english. the kids often get restless in class (especially while they are learning the material and not playing games!). sometimes its difficult to maintain a fun atmosphere when there are kids in the class who choose to be disruptive, and not follow one of my cardinal classroom rules: respect! but, from what i understand, this happens all over the world, so i just breathe and try not to rip their heads off. during one particularly terrible class, i was co-teaching with the other english teacher, and the kids were just talking to one another, not listening to a lick of anything, and i was about to blow my lid. but instead i gave them a little chit chat about respect, and a lackthereof is unheard of in my classroom. after class, leticia pulled me aside and proceded to tell me that its very difficult to discipline in the classroom in chile, becauase the parents of the children get very upset when we take matters into our own hands. she even brought up that a week ago, a parent was furious because his child had been disciplined in class, and he proceded to hit the teacher while they were talking about the incident. it seems so rediculous to me that we, as teachers, are just supposed to take disrespect in our classrooms. obserd. i don't understand it, and i will continue to teach respect in my classroom. hopefully i have all my teeth by the end of this trip!

so aside from the bumps in the road, i've had an awesome experience teaching... the kids always get amped to say "hi" to me in the street after school, and that alone makes this whole experience worthwhile.

in two weeks, the other volunteers and i will be heading up to northern chile for winter vacation. i'm so stoked to have my friend from the states, becky, come along with us!! who knows where that trip will lead us... but i believe our goal is to hit san pedro de atacama and the bolivian salt flats to name a couple hot spots. i'm just excited to be somewhere where i'm not required to wear 15 layers of clothes everywhere i go!!

speaking of homelife here in los angeles... its freezing. i mean, call me desert rat, but 40s is just a little too "chilly" (hahaha get it??! chilly...chile) for me. in our house (and most houses in los angeles, soley have stufas, which are just little wood burning stoves that warm the house. so i wear many layers at all times. and i think my toes are permanent icycles. they always feel like they're just going to snap off. fun feeling. never thought i'd learn to appreciate the 110 degree weather of good ol' phoenix. but bring it on.

just so you all know, i have squished 4 hormigas (ants) on my computer while writing this posting. the hormigas have recently determined that their refuge from the cold is my room. the other morning, there were ants covering the bristles of my toothbrush. yummy.

i'm fully recovered from my ailment and feeling good as new. i hope you're all having a wonderful warm summer. run around naked in the hot sun for me. but wear sunscreen.

love you all, xoxo