birthday and such

Wednesday 18^th 2012

I had a great birthday. On Wednesday I celebrated at school with my students. Everyone gave me hugs and kisses wishing me the best year. The 6^th grade in particular showered me with love and surprised me with a party. We enjoyed chips and juice together. My co-teacher as well surprised me and brought his guitar to class and played us all few songs. He ripped! Everyone here is so musically talented, but not I.

Thursday April 19, 2012

On Thursday (the day which my Birthday fell on) I luckily didn’t have class. This allowed me to enjoy the entire day. I woke up around 12, and just hung out until Hector got back from class. He, my mom and I all ate a delicious almuerzo together, a canzuelo with chicken potato and squash, my fav! After lunch my brother and I packed our bags to go to a “secret’ beach. We hopped on bus 6 and headed north. I had never traveled this far north, it was so beautiful. To your left, agua and waves and to your right tierra and trees.  We past san Sebastian, San Carlos, Las Cruces, Isla Negra and all of a sudden my brother shouted the bus driver “Stop”. We exited the bus, crossed the street and continued walking. I was confused where we were going. It was a small quiet village and not a soul in sight. DAMN was it beautiful. I liked the tranquility of this countryside. We walked for about 15 minutes and there it was….all of a sudden a forest of trees, but past the trees laid a beautiful cove. Where forest met Sea.

I was amazed. I had never seen anything like this before, luxury. We laid out our towels, cracked some beers and just melted. It was a beautiful day.

third one's the charm!!!!!

BIGGEST ONE YET! THANKFULLY WE DIDN'T HAVE TO EVACUATE!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/usgs-65-magnitude-quake-shakes-central-chile-16152929

Everyone at school today was so concerned about me... being a foreigner in Chile. But I was Okay. I have to be extra careful here because I literally live on the beach and I have to be on the lookout for TSUNAMIS
Don't worry though, I know the evacuation route......

NOT THE FIRST NOR THE LAST

for me here, I believe...
They kind of put you in place....

Quieres bailar?

We love this song in my dance class.... and at home. My lil brother goes wild when we play this. soooo cute! che che che che che che

ASADO with the mafia

Last night I was invited to an Asado with a few of my colleagues at the house of Luis. Luis is the religion teacher at CPC, great guy, hilarious! He lives in the countryside of Cartagena in what is called Lo Abraco. My brother used to be the PE teacher at CPC so he was invited to come as well. I guess only a selected few get to go to Luis’ house, and these few call themselves the Mafia. So funny. So around 11 my brother and I were picked up by Genae, another colleague, when we opened the door to her car, 3 other colleagues were in the back and one up front. They looked at Hector and me, laughed and said get in! As we pilled in, face-to-face, Genae says, “Maris, this is Chilean style”. We were dying laughing the whole way there.

The campo was cold, but beautiful, the sky full of stars. My brother was in charge of attending the fire. We all gathered around and drank some wine, beer and pisco sours. We were having costera, my favorite food in chile. Its ribs, but better than any ribs I have eaten in my life. So juicy and tender. Around the fire we told stories and I was in very good company. That’s what I love about here, its such good times and good conversation. No one on their iphone, everyone just engaged in conversation. This would never happen in the states, when I think about iphones and the necessities of “America” it grosses me out. I come here and realize at times that with technology we have become reticent, no me gusta. I love not having a smartfone. The more I travel I begin to realize its the simple things that I prefer. The people here are all so content and have great attitudes. I don’t really know how to explain la gente here, but they are a beautiful kind.

We gathered around the table and ate and ate, sucked every piece of meat off that bone. After dinner Luis whipped out his guitar and started playing. Both him and Pablo (the music teacher) ripped. There’s something about the guitar that makes me weak, but in a good way, it’s amor. They played for hours and all of us joined in singing. Well ….not really I, except when they made me sing a Cat Stevens song. I loved how no one had shame, all singing together in harmony… real stuff. As the night proceeded they started to free style a bit and of course poked fun at me. Around 5am we decided that it was time to drive back to Cartagena. Another wonderful Asado.

LMFAO

Yesterday was a great day. I helped my sophomore class with a skit . They decided to do a dance to LMFAO “ I’m sexy and I know it”. When I heard they were doing this song I was a little confused. They have no idea what LMFAO even means, they just got away doing this song because no one in the school besides myself know what the songs says. This is a direct quote from their act of completion and why the were performing this song.

“The musical group LMFAO, through this song shows us the effects of low self esteem and insecurity that normally affect teenagers who want to run away and hide.

To finally feel safe is apart of a growth process and an achievement. Being normal requires a personal effort and our own acceptance of how we are and what we want to be”

I’m not sure if this is what the songs represents….but I like where there heads up. A for Effort!

RADIO SHOW

Friday I was asked to be on 103.3 FM CPC radio show. I was interview by a fellow teacher asking about my experience here in Cartagena. Its very warming to know how welcomed I am here. 

There is a saying here " pueblo chico, infierno grande"

which means little down, big hell.....and when an american arrived here that is exactly que pasó. charming!

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

So this week has been going good. It was my Dads birthday on Monday, so we celebrated with a cake and my brother and I bought him a gynormous bottle of vino.

AS far as classes… I’m love teaching, the students are so hilarious. CPC is good times. Yesterday I walked into my 5^th grade class and this little boy starred directly into my eyes and said “welcome to the jungle” I about lost it, I was dying laughing. My laughter provoked this student to show off all his English and he began to sing his on rendition of “ my humps”. I couldn’t stop laughing, and then all of a sudden a few more students started singing and dancing and HUMPING! I finally had to tell them to calm down, but really I wanted to ask them what other songs they could sing for me.

Tuesday night I attended my first dance class. Here in Cartagena they have a gimnasio that is open to the public and it offers a Latin influenced dance course. It was so much fun. I made a few new friends and I got to shake my tail feather! Also, this week I started running with my brother. He is a P.E. teacher and is super sporty. It’s been nice to have him around to do activities with.  Last night we went for a run and after I made him do yoga with me in the hallway. We have fun together. 

THE WEEKEND OF SEMANA SANTA

Friday we had the day off school because of Semana Santa. My co-teacher invited me to her house to have lunch with her family. I took her up on her offer and was excited about it. She lives in San Antonio, its like 10 minute in bus from Cartagena. San Antonio is a much bigger city, and is where I will have to go if I need to comprar. My gentleman of a brother escorted me by bus to her house. She lives on a cliff that has the most amazing view of the ocean and of the port. Patty is a very nice lady. We talked in her living room for about an hour and listened to some Cat Stevens. I was loving it. Now every time I hear morning has broken, I’m going to think of this day, so great!

After I got from Patty’s my brother and I met up with some of hi friends and drank some beers on the beach. Because it was Easter weekend the beach was full of people. After our beers they wanted me to check out the laguna. It was closed, but naturally with boys we hopped the fence and entered. It was beautiful, reminded me of home and the back bay. We did some bird watching and had some good laughs.

When I got home to our house, my dad’s sister and family was there. Great group of people. I enjoyed the uncle the most, always handing me glasses of red wine… I was like HELL YEAH! We all over-ate and told stories, it was a good mellow night.

Saturday I woke up late around 12 and chilled with my brothers and primos all day.  During they night however I went to my first Asado in San Antonio for the birthday of my brothers friend. ASADOS are like BBQ’s. I got to meet a lot of his friends from the University and eat some dank food. We drank all night long, it rocked!