Friday, July 27, 2007
Traveling without Reservations
So on our two weeks traveling in Argentina with only a vague outline of what we would do, I came up with the idea of a show on the travel channel called Traveling without Reservations, in which we would go from town to town trying to figure out where we could sleep, eat, explore without previously researching the area and mainly using tourist offices to find out what to do. With this premise in mind, me and my friend Olivia set out by plane to Santiago, Chile and hopefully over the border to Argentina.
Mi Escuela's Aniversario
So I'm home sick today. I guess I've been pushing myself a little too hard and my body rejected me. But don't worry mom I have excellent care here and I'll be ready to go by this afternoon. Also, Javier is in Calama so I thought now would be a great time to do a little catching up on my blog.
I don't really have a whole lot of exciting news from the last couple of months, as school and life in Antofagasta became rather routine. I had good days and bad days at school and had plenty of time to play basketball and spend time with the gringos in the local establishments. Since we have every modern amenity, I saw some movies in the mall and played some basketball by the beach. The weather was unseasonably cold because of La Nina, which pushes the warm fronts more to the north and since the houses here aren't heated, nights in the high 30's low 40's felt unusually cold. We also had several volunteers return home as one volunteer became violently ill and landed in the hospital and eventually home, another's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a third quit the program for several reasons including contracting a bad case of fleas in her house. Fortunately, for me, life has been pretty smooth sailing.
However, the week before I left for winter vacation was pretty action packed as it was the anniversary of my school. In Chile, every school celebrates their anniversary with a flair unrivaled in the states. Our school had no class the last block of classes for the week in order to have soccer competitions for the boys and dodgeball competitions for the girls. Also, we didn't have class second period to have a karaoke competition one day and an act the other day.
So anyways, earlier in the year, the director asked me to organize some of the students to play an English song for the anniversary. Every Thursday afternoon up until the anniversary, we would listen to and learn different English songs. Ultimately we decided on playing the song Beautiful by James Blunt, since it had the right amount of simplicity in the lyrics as well as an easy guitar part I could teach the students wanting to learn guitar.
On Wednesday, I was informed that we would be performing during the second block on Thursday instead of at night like I was previously told. Needless to say I panicked a little, since I had only 5 students definitely singing. Luckily, I was allowed to practice during first block and I recruited a group of approximately 12 students to sing as well as one other guitar player who really is just learning and didn't know the chord changes very well.
So the time came near and we were really disorganized. Several of the students had other dances to do, so they weren't really focused on the singing and our practice attempts weren't sounding very good. But, after an hour of practice, it was our time to perform. I gave my camera to one of the students to record a video which turned out terribly, so there is very little record of the performance other than what I am writing.
We all marched up on stage with a couple of chairs for the guitar players to sit on and a single microphone. I had been unable to find a pick in the morning so I used a coin to play my guitar. Having one microphone made it difficult for the school to hear, but by having one of the students point the mic at the guitars for the solo and then holding it between the singers and the guitars for the rest of the song helped evenly distribute the sound slightly better. From what the other teachers and students said, it sounded good but was difficult to hear do to the limitations of our equipment. I was really proud of my kids as they sounded great, but I wished they could have been heard a bit more clearly by the audience. Ultimately, I was relieved it was over and could prepare for my vacation, or so I thought.
The next day was the karaoke contest for interested students. I thought I could sit in back and take pictures and be innocuous, but the director of the school had a different plans in mind. He summoned me to the front and told me I was going to be a judge. I was fine with this and sat down, a seat over from the director. The MC, our resident music teacher introduced everyone and gave the requisite, "Gringo. What are you doing here" joke, to which I replied "I'm lost", and the contest began. Each grade was represented by a group of varying talent and organization.
For example, one 5th grade section did a reggaeton song (Reggaeton is very popular in Chile and is basically a mix of Reggae with hip hop type beats.) including some very seductive dancing, which looked more goofy than anything. The main male student was dressed in black leather and sunglasses. He brought a rose to one of the girls and proceeded to dance awkwardly with her. I couldn't help but laugh.
One of the sixth grade entries was a student who sang with my group and would commonly be referred to as a nono or a nerd in English. (Nono is spelled with the letter enye, which isn't used on our keyboards and shouldn't be confused with my Nonno, Bill Battiston, who definitely was not a nerd, considering his days of bootlegging, painting grass green, and playing golf with Chi Chi Rodriguez). Anyways, he sang a ballad which was actually quite good although his voice cracked several times during the presentation. (Ah puberty).
There were also several dance acts, with an 8th grade act standing out. They actually performed an English song from "High School Musical" a disney movie. They had matching outfits and a choreographed dance routine complete with front handsprings by several boys. Ultimately, they won the contest, but none of these acts could compare to my smooth moves.
In between one of the first acts, I decided to sit next to my favorite secretary, Lydia. Smoothly I went over to say hi and as I athletically dispersed my weight over the chair, I could feel something give. The chair smashed into a million pieces, taking me down with it in front of at least 600 people. Needless to say, I still haven't heard the end of it.
After this brush with death, (Come on. A fragment of the chair could have lodged into my anterior and could have gotten infected and I could have died.) the teachers informed me that I was invited to a dinner that night with acts performed by the parents of the kids.
Since, I really didn't know what was going to happen, I decided to invite my friend Olivia. We arrived at the school at about 8:30 and were fortunate enough to sit at the head table next to the director and some of the teachers. The acts were amazing as the parents performed everything from the Cueca (the national dance of Chile), to the native, Polynesian style dance from Easter Island; as well as the tango and the Argentinian cowboy dance (I don't know the real name of it). The night turned out great as I had a great dinner and shared glasses of wine with my professors. (OK, maybe I had a few too many, but every time I finished a glass, one of my profs would fill it.)
Well, after the craziness of the anniversary I was ready for a vacation, and boy what a vacation.
I don't really have a whole lot of exciting news from the last couple of months, as school and life in Antofagasta became rather routine. I had good days and bad days at school and had plenty of time to play basketball and spend time with the gringos in the local establishments. Since we have every modern amenity, I saw some movies in the mall and played some basketball by the beach. The weather was unseasonably cold because of La Nina, which pushes the warm fronts more to the north and since the houses here aren't heated, nights in the high 30's low 40's felt unusually cold. We also had several volunteers return home as one volunteer became violently ill and landed in the hospital and eventually home, another's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a third quit the program for several reasons including contracting a bad case of fleas in her house. Fortunately, for me, life has been pretty smooth sailing.
However, the week before I left for winter vacation was pretty action packed as it was the anniversary of my school. In Chile, every school celebrates their anniversary with a flair unrivaled in the states. Our school had no class the last block of classes for the week in order to have soccer competitions for the boys and dodgeball competitions for the girls. Also, we didn't have class second period to have a karaoke competition one day and an act the other day.
So anyways, earlier in the year, the director asked me to organize some of the students to play an English song for the anniversary. Every Thursday afternoon up until the anniversary, we would listen to and learn different English songs. Ultimately we decided on playing the song Beautiful by James Blunt, since it had the right amount of simplicity in the lyrics as well as an easy guitar part I could teach the students wanting to learn guitar.
On Wednesday, I was informed that we would be performing during the second block on Thursday instead of at night like I was previously told. Needless to say I panicked a little, since I had only 5 students definitely singing. Luckily, I was allowed to practice during first block and I recruited a group of approximately 12 students to sing as well as one other guitar player who really is just learning and didn't know the chord changes very well.
So the time came near and we were really disorganized. Several of the students had other dances to do, so they weren't really focused on the singing and our practice attempts weren't sounding very good. But, after an hour of practice, it was our time to perform. I gave my camera to one of the students to record a video which turned out terribly, so there is very little record of the performance other than what I am writing.
We all marched up on stage with a couple of chairs for the guitar players to sit on and a single microphone. I had been unable to find a pick in the morning so I used a coin to play my guitar. Having one microphone made it difficult for the school to hear, but by having one of the students point the mic at the guitars for the solo and then holding it between the singers and the guitars for the rest of the song helped evenly distribute the sound slightly better. From what the other teachers and students said, it sounded good but was difficult to hear do to the limitations of our equipment. I was really proud of my kids as they sounded great, but I wished they could have been heard a bit more clearly by the audience. Ultimately, I was relieved it was over and could prepare for my vacation, or so I thought.
The next day was the karaoke contest for interested students. I thought I could sit in back and take pictures and be innocuous, but the director of the school had a different plans in mind. He summoned me to the front and told me I was going to be a judge. I was fine with this and sat down, a seat over from the director. The MC, our resident music teacher introduced everyone and gave the requisite, "Gringo. What are you doing here" joke, to which I replied "I'm lost", and the contest began. Each grade was represented by a group of varying talent and organization.
For example, one 5th grade section did a reggaeton song (Reggaeton is very popular in Chile and is basically a mix of Reggae with hip hop type beats.) including some very seductive dancing, which looked more goofy than anything. The main male student was dressed in black leather and sunglasses. He brought a rose to one of the girls and proceeded to dance awkwardly with her. I couldn't help but laugh.
One of the sixth grade entries was a student who sang with my group and would commonly be referred to as a nono or a nerd in English. (Nono is spelled with the letter enye, which isn't used on our keyboards and shouldn't be confused with my Nonno, Bill Battiston, who definitely was not a nerd, considering his days of bootlegging, painting grass green, and playing golf with Chi Chi Rodriguez). Anyways, he sang a ballad which was actually quite good although his voice cracked several times during the presentation. (Ah puberty).
There were also several dance acts, with an 8th grade act standing out. They actually performed an English song from "High School Musical" a disney movie. They had matching outfits and a choreographed dance routine complete with front handsprings by several boys. Ultimately, they won the contest, but none of these acts could compare to my smooth moves.
In between one of the first acts, I decided to sit next to my favorite secretary, Lydia. Smoothly I went over to say hi and as I athletically dispersed my weight over the chair, I could feel something give. The chair smashed into a million pieces, taking me down with it in front of at least 600 people. Needless to say, I still haven't heard the end of it.
After this brush with death, (Come on. A fragment of the chair could have lodged into my anterior and could have gotten infected and I could have died.) the teachers informed me that I was invited to a dinner that night with acts performed by the parents of the kids.
Since, I really didn't know what was going to happen, I decided to invite my friend Olivia. We arrived at the school at about 8:30 and were fortunate enough to sit at the head table next to the director and some of the teachers. The acts were amazing as the parents performed everything from the Cueca (the national dance of Chile), to the native, Polynesian style dance from Easter Island; as well as the tango and the Argentinian cowboy dance (I don't know the real name of it). The night turned out great as I had a great dinner and shared glasses of wine with my professors. (OK, maybe I had a few too many, but every time I finished a glass, one of my profs would fill it.)
Well, after the craziness of the anniversary I was ready for a vacation, and boy what a vacation.
Friday, July 20, 2007
OK, So the last couple of months...
I really am a slacker at this blogging thing. But now that no one is reading my blog, I figured I´d quickly write a note with an in depth update in the near future. I´m currently winding down my winter two week vacation in Argentina. Its been action packed and pretty wild. I´ve snowboarded in the Andes, gone wine tasting, white water rafting, canopying, and met up with some old friends in various places as well as made some new ones. But I´m hoping to explain in more depth in the near future.
The last couple of months have been pretty routine in Antofagasta. I went class and came home. Went out on the weekends and played with my little brother in my house. The week before I left was the anniversary of my school and I´ll hopefully detail it a bit more when I get back to the grind in the next few days.
Anyways, to all my faithful readers (or in other words Mom and Dad) sorry I have not been able to enrich your lives with my witty reparte but I will be back soon...
The last couple of months have been pretty routine in Antofagasta. I went class and came home. Went out on the weekends and played with my little brother in my house. The week before I left was the anniversary of my school and I´ll hopefully detail it a bit more when I get back to the grind in the next few days.
Anyways, to all my faithful readers (or in other words Mom and Dad) sorry I have not been able to enrich your lives with my witty reparte but I will be back soon...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)