I love the beach...even in winter :)

HELLO!!!

Ok serious update time :) Well...

The end of the semester party for my Junior class was tons of fun of course and I had a blast with the students as well as practiced my Spanish. Good times all around I´d say! The next day, Saturday, I headed off with my family, Amy and Sam to my parents house on a beach in Aduao! It´s only right considering half of my family is on the Jersey Shore right now soaking up the sun!! The trip was about 2 hours and totally worth it. I loved the ride there because I feel like I got to see true Chilean countryside :) Lots of vineyards involved which I hope I will get to see upclose and personal one of these days!

So we arrived in Aduao around 7ish and took a little strole to the beach. Now it wasn´t really your sunny day white sand kind of beach :) There was actually black sand which I found really interesting and it was rainy lol. But I still can´t tell you how good it felt to get out of Curico and to see the ocean! I feel totally rejuvinated! We spent our time frolicking with umbrellas and eating good sea food :) It was a cute little town with a little (and I mean little) port. The port was actually called a Caleta. We played games into the night and slept all of our stresses away :) It was a nice start to our 2 weeks of vacation! Now I am back in Curico and off to Winter Camp!

Hope all is well!

Licanten and other goodies:)

Lets see..

Monday at school they had a break in the morning where the older kids did some sort of fair where they made healthy treats for the younger kids and pretty much tried to promote good health. It was a nice break from the school day, not to mention really delicious!

Thursday a few of the kids from the school and I went to Licanten which is a town about an hour away from here. They have experienced an intense amount of rain this year and had major problems with flooding!! The school was about knee deep in water for a while. One of my friends is working there so it was great to see her! We brought the younger kids balloons, candy, etc. We played games and pretty much just tried to lift their spirits! It was a total blast and I was even able to dress up like a clown, now I’d say that is a pretty sweet deal! The bus there and back was also great experience with the kids from my school because we were able to talk and sing lots of songs. They found out I like Juanes, the singer, and so most of the ride was filled with his sweet tunes. I thought it was a ncie gesture since most kids under 18 would not name Juanes as one of their favorite singers! Lol

Today was the last day of school before their two week break from school. I feel a little silly because I came to school in the morning totally forgetting it was Friday and that I never start classes on Friday’s until third period lol. But that’s ok because I was able to help in Juan Carlos’s class instead which was nice because there are really good kids in that class. that is a really good course. However, you could totally tell that it was the countdown until break because all the kids were getting really antsy, as was I :) After third period I went to my sisters classroom because I’m closest to that class and we had an end of the semester party. There was food and games and it was pretty sweet. We got out at 12 today which was a definite plus! One of the girls from the Junior class is having a get together tonight and they all invited me which I thought was a really nice gesture. I’m not sure I’ll go but maybe at least for a little while. It so hard to believe I only have one month left!! I better make the most of it! This next week I have to work at the English winter camp during the day from 9 until 6pm so that will take up most of my time. It should be a really good experience actually and since my sister will be attending that should make it even more fun. I think we are going bowling the first day, wish me luck! :) For the second week of vacation we are planning to do some sort trip to the beach and to the mountains. I’m so excited to explore more of the country!

PS I have taught a song in a few of my classes and the students really seem to get into it. I brought candy one day for a reward and they go so excited! Today one of the boys brought me the lyrics written out to his favorite Lincoln park song that said thanks for the candy at the bottom. I thought that was so sweet and lets you know a little about how blessed I am with the group of kids I am able to teach :)

I love the weekend!

Hey everyone!

Well Friday I was able to talk to lots of cousins and other family members through skype so that pretty much made my month! :) It was SO good to see everyone and be a part of the birthday celebrations. Later on Friday I also got to meet the host family of my friend Sam so it was a really fun night. Amy and I went over there and they were sooo nice to us. We just chatted it up. His sister was videoing us all night though so I hope I don´t end up on myspace or something! lol There was definitely a lot of singing to Spanish songs involved Friday night :)

Yesterday was also really fun. It rained most of the day so we thought a movie would be a good idea! We went to see Super Agent 86, and get this, it was all in spanish! No joke, usually its in English with Spanish subtitles but no sir! I understood about 5% of the words but you can pretty much get the gist of whats going on just by watching since it has a lot of action. After the movie we went back to my house and hung out there with my family for a while. Then we went to somewhere called Casavieja. There was lots of dancing done by all members of my family which pretty much made my night. My parents can really boogie down! :) I was definitely impressed :) We got home at about 330am so I slept in today for sure :)

It is a beautiful day so I´m trying to get outside and live it up as much as possible! Tomorrow starts my last week of school before I work at the winter camp for a week. I really can´t believe how fast time is flying! I´m having so much fun and I am just so grateful for this experience! I hope everyone is doing well!! Ciao!

Profesores

So tonight we had a teacher meeting and at first I wasn´t sure if it would be fun but I´m so glad I went! All the teachers are so nice and I´m glad I had a chance to hang out with them outside of school. We drove to a catholic church where a priest talked to us about somethign (I only understood about 20%) :) But when I told a teacher that they said they didnt´understand much either so I think its ok :) Then we had tea and these treats called calzonrotos or something (soooooooo delicious!) So that was worth the trip right there. It was just nice to have time with the teachers and a chance to practice espanol. They said we should have a bbq sometime so I hope that works out!

Today at school went pretty well, my walls are much less bare now that I had the kids draw future pictures. They are so creative it amazes me! One more day until the weekend!! Woot! My friend Sam invited Amy and myself to his host families house tomorrow night so I´m really excited to see how other volunteers are doing in their new environments (I´m not sure their parents could ever be as nice as mine though:)

Oh boy 2 posts in one day, whats gotten into me :)

Chillin at school

Hola todos!

I'm at school right now in between periods. I have seniors coming in a few minutes. I brought magazines from the states so we are going to take random pictures and come up with mini skits about them. The kids are really really creative so I'm excited to see what they come up with! Then later I have the sophomores and we are going to predict the future which should be fun. Coloring will be involved! (and thats always fun)

It is really nice because a bunch of girls always come in my room at the break to chat with me, today I had the magazines so they were really excited to look at them! Even if they didn't understand what it was saying :) The pictures are always the best part anyway!

Today after school I have debate and then a teachers meeting at 5pm. Not sure what that will be about but I think we are going to a church or something?? It should be a fun experience, the teachers are always so funny and have me laughing all the time! Even when I don't understand their Spanish :)

Thats all for now, I keep posting pictures so check 'em out if you are bored :) Let me know if you can't get to them! Lots of love!! Ciao!

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar!

Hey everyone! Hope you are having a great day! I had a fabulous weekend and just wanted to share a little with ya :)

First, some friends from my program and I headed out to Santiago on Friday in order to go to an orientation on our Winter Camps. It turns out about 5 of us are in charge of the Curico winter camp from July 21st until the 26th. There will be 60 kids and our days pretty much include having fun and speaking English so that shouldn´t be too difficult :) These students are chosen from among many who are really excited about learning English so those are always the most fun to teach! We get to do things like bowling, talent shows, cooking, watching movies and vocabulary lessons/games. I´m really looking forward to it even though I´m a little nervous to be one of the people in charge! At least there are a few of us to handle it :)

After Friday´s meeting I took a bus with my friend Stephanie to Valparaiso. It is a pretty big town along the coast line and about 4 hours north of Curico. The weather was so nice and the views are amazing! I took lots of pictures which you can hopefully see now. We got there around 730 so we just took a short walk to a cafe got some tea and headed back to the hostal before dark. Valparaiso is pretty but kind of dangerous during the night so we were extra careful. Our hostal was called Caracol which means snail so I found that entertaining :) It was really nice and no bed bugs which is always a plus! They provided breakfast the next morning so we definitely took advantage of that!

Throughout Saturday we did things such as hitting up the markets finding little treasures. We also headed to Vina del Mar which is a neighboring city and found a beach which was really beautiful! The first thing we did in Vina was actually find a pharmacy because I burnt my hand a little Saturday morning when I was making toast, not my finest hour lol. But hey another adventure to add to the list! I wish you could have seen me running around trying to explain to people how I hurt my hand and where could I find a pharmacy! But after that we were able to take in the beauty of the beach. The waves were huge and we definitely got soaked!

Later that day we took a little tram up a small mountain to take pictures of the city from above and let me tell you it was a great sight to see! There is only one port open to the public in Valpo and it was really fun to see all the ships. Later we took a small boat with a Chilean named Pablo. There was a lot of Reggaeton music blasting and fun was had for sure. He even let us drive the boat! You can pretty much call me captain Jessica now :) We also saw seals on our little boating adventure so that was pretty sweet.

We got some chow at a cute little restaurant where I got Paella (a traditional spanish dish). It was packed so full of so many different kinds of fish! I never actually knew what I was eating but it was delicious! Later that day we met up with other people from our program at their hostal and we went back to Vina to see the city at night. We had some fantastic Mexican food actually! That night we went out for a little but headed back to the hostal early so we would be ready for the next day.

Sunday morning we headed off to one of Pablo Neruda´s houses called La Sebastian. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and had an amazing view! It was crazy to think he was in the same room that I was at one point. Its also interesting to think that the view used to be nothing but land but now there are houses everywhere! One think I love about it though is how every house seems to be a different color, it adds so much character. We headed back to Santiago shortly after that last excursion and then to Curico. The buses were right on time which is always appreciated :) My family picked me up from the bus station and we had once when I got home and caught up on the events of the weekend.

Today and yesterday I had school. I started a new game dealing with putting sentences back in order. I have them break into three teams and compete. Let me just say these kids are really really competitive! It got pretty feisty! Thursday I´m teaching the English elective class a black eyed peas song which I really think they will enjoy so I´m looking forward to that! I also got interviewed for something today so we will see where that ends up lol. You just never know!

The debate team I´m helping out is going really well, they are starting to form their arguments on whether or not Chileans pay attention to animals rights. Its fun to see what they are coming up with :) The high school kids also put on a play for the younger kids in English today which was super cute! It was a combination of little red riding hood and I´m not sure what else but it was really fun to watch.

I walked home from school today which took about 45 mintues but I really enjoyed being able to explore a little! I´m also kind of excited that I could find my way back by myself! woot! Tonight will be pretty chill. Just getting ready for class tomorrow etc. I wish I could see all of you! feel free to come visit if you ever wanna get away :) And congratulations again to Brian and Nichole! I´m so excited for you guys!

Till next time!

Updates!

So.......... I think it´s about time for an update!

School: School is going so well! I have officially started a regular schedule at San Ramon. I work the mornings from 8:15-9:45 then from 10:05-11:35 then from 11:45-1:15. I also help out with the Debate Team on Mondays and Wednesdays! During my classes I basically do things just to get them talking! So we have done things like introduction games and today I brought in my computer and I taught them ¨respect¨by Aretha Franklin (everyone should know that song!) It was fun because they got into it and even made up a dance as the backup dancers. I have many different levels of students. I have 7th, 8th, Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. It´s a lot sometimes but I can do a lot of repeating of lesson plans during the week so that helps a lot. I really do like it here and the students or ¨alumnos¨are all really sweet. They call me Miss Jessica and always like to tell me any English words they can think of. Today 2 kids came to my room after class to play a Bon Jovi song they had learned. They were actually really good! I was thoroughly impressed. I like the school because every day is a little different than the next.

When I first got to the school the teachers had a little fiesta for me during our first break at school when we all have tea or coffee together. They made a sign and put up balloons so that made me feel really welcome! The junior class also threw me a little fiesta on my first day and there was food, music, dancing and even a little live music where 2 kids played Juanes (my favorite latino singer!) It was really sweet and a great way to start out my time here! My sister danced Cueca for the class which was really fun to see. Cueca is a traditional dance here and I´m really hoping to learn! I have one of the steps down but I´m still working on the turn! I´m trying to learn all the names but I have around 320 students during the work so it is quite the challenge! The teachers names are coming slowely but surely :) And gotta love Johnny, he works at the schools snack stand, always a good person to know :) I have my own room so I have tried to decorate it a little but it is super cold because there are lots of windows!! I´m used to wearing a jacket, scarf and gloves while I teach. I try and do activities where we can move around just to warm up!

My family has been nothing but super nice to me this whole time! My host mother got me some yarn and is helping me to knit a scarf (which is always nice to have here!) My sister Daniela just celebrated her 17th birthday July 1st so it was fun to see how everyone celebrates here. There was of course cake and a birthday song! They made me do a solo of the English version :) My host mother brings me breakfast while I´m getting ready in the morning and drives us to school at 8 everyday. Nice set up!! I have been so blessed with this family and I am so grateful. Dani and I usually come back together from school for lunch and are able to eat together so that is nice. I was able to go to a handball with my host dad one day which was really fun because I have never seen a handball game before! Its kind of a mix of basketball and soccer. They one both games of course :)

One night I was able to get together with four people from my program and we had dinner and shared stories. You can imagine that was a fun time. Everyone is really loving it. After dinner 2 of them came back to my house for a little unexpected bbq and fiesta with my family and some friends. It was fun but I was super stuffed after all the food!! hehe. It was also fun because a soccer player from the Chile team came so I got his autograph and picture for when he gets super famous. It was really crazy because he was only 18! I felt old haha.

This weekend I´m very excited about! Tomorrow Sam and I will take a bus to Santiago to learn about the winter camp we will be a part of. It is a week long event where the best students from all the schools come for a week long English immersion experience. The camp will take place at the end of July but we are going to learn about it tomorrow. After the camp session a few of us are going to Valparaiso for Saturday and Sunday! It is supposed to be really pretty so I´m excited to go and report back :) It will be fun to explore more of the country. I think it is an hour north of Santiago so the travel won´t be bad at all! I should be back Sunday in time to prepare for Monday class no problem :)

That pretty much sums it up for now! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the warm weather for me :)