A story or two

Ok, last weekend I went with Juan Pablo and his wife to visit his Grandparent's home about an hour and half south of Santiago. On the way we checked out a house Juan Pablo is helping to build for a friend of his dad. The house is huge and may be done by June. House warming party? Old School style?
Then we made it to the casa, which was basically set up for huge parties and barbecues. They had a huge stone grill set up, and a big table under a canopy of grapevines. There is a little stream nearby, and it is clear, quiet and relaxing. For lunch(served around 3:00) we had chicken, pork, a lettuce based salad, tomato and onion salad, tomato, potato, bread, and a homemade salsa, some wine and coke. It was great. I found myself lost in conversation when the family was having table talk. Giving each other a hard time, making fun, telling stories etc. I mean, that's what I think they were saying. Every once in a while someone would turn to me and ask, "¿entiendas?"(do you understand?) to which I liked to answer, "un poco"(a little) so they will continue to talk and not solely focus on me. Seated with me at the table was JP's Grandma, and Grandpa, Gpa's friend and his wife, and another friend of Gpa, Juan Pablo, his wife Stephanie, and JP's cousin, oh and me. Here's the family, with me. I'm the guy in the back. But after lunch and dessert of freshly picked grapes from above, I talked with some of the old guys. For those one on one conversations, I was able to understand and explain myself. For one they involved simple vocabulary, and the other I've been answering those type of questions for the last three weeks. So after some nescafé we left back to the big city. On the way back we bought some pan(bread) from some street vendors for dinner. The street vendors have huge earthen, fire stoves, and the bread is extremely cheap, and tasty.

Let's see. One week of teaching under my belt. It's a blast. Some classes are more fun than others, but every class has some huge disparates in ability. Some students can't make introductions in my intermediate classes, and some students in my basic classes are able to have conversations with me after classes. Some funny stuff: When asked for their favorite musicians, I got a wide variety, ranging from Phil Collins, Snoop, Reggaeton, to Staind. Also, I brought my ipod player in and played, "It's not unusual" and in each class everyone started snapping fingers and singing along. I couldn't help but laugh, and in one class I was motivated to do the Carton Dance when someone else asked if this was from the Fresh Prince. Well, it wasn't quite like Carlton's.
The coast was beautiful, like expected. My Vinnie and I had sore legs from the hills. I swear all of my friends who work on the coast will have rock solid legs by the end of the year. We visited two of my friends' homes, and both have excellent views of the ocean. The majority of our time was spent relaxing on the beach and sharing stories from week one of teaching. I'll be going back again sometime soon.
Tonight, there was a classical concert outside my house at the municipalidad, so I watched that while the weather is still awesome. I've been here almost a month and it's rained one night. Not too shabby. I'm going to enjoy it because I hear winter is a different story.
This week I only have two days of teaching. We are currently coming up with some travel plans.