Teach your children.

Two weeks of teaching and I'm still unsure of how I'm doing. I feel like the students go from feeling really bored and checking their watches, to having a lot of fun. Along with that feeling, I don't know if they are actually learning anything. Last week I lectured on the Wh-questions, then had them ask each other questions like, "How old are you, where are you from, what's your name...etc. I had them practice with each other before I brought in my real life "friend" who they didn't know. I went to the door and looked down the hallway, and motioned for someone to come in. I then walked into the classroom and pulled up a picture of Snoop Dogg. Everyone laughed, and I had them ask him questions while I answered for Snoop. Then I told the class, "Actually, my girlfriend is out in the hallway too. Let me get her." The picture I showed was of Shakira, and had the students ask about her. For one of my classes that is all male, and fun because they try hard to understand English, I had them get in groups. I then set up a scenario where they were in the club and "Sara Dalton" walked in, and she spoke no Spanish, so they had to come up with questions to ask her in English. I had fun, my students had fun, but I'm not sure if they will remember anything. I guess I'll find out soon. The first quiz is next week.

Last weekend for Easter break, Vinnie and I decided to take it easy and head to the coast again. One of our friends got hit by a car two weekends ago, and Vinnie was having troubles with his bank, and finalizing his contract. My travel buddies were either in cast, or without money/contact and suffering from blisters form walking 4 hours home due to not being able to pay for a bus. It worked out well. Thursday night our friends Kat, Kathleen(fellow ciee teachers) and their roommate Mario had an asado(Chilean barbecue). Then Friday a couple of us rented bikes and biked up the coast to the next city and had a long, relaxing lunch. I had raneka, with rice and tomato and my new favorite Chilean Beer, Cristal red. After that we walked up and down the beach, and read for a little while before biking back home. That night Vinnie and I cooked a spaghetti dinner for Katie, who hosted us for a couple nights. Then we looked and found the perfect bar. It is called Blamo, and underneith the sign it reads, "All Beer." They were not kidding when they said all beer. There were five coolers filled with liters of beer. It was great. Each liter costs 1000 pesos, which is a little over $2. Saturday we visited Steve, our fallen friend in the early afternoon and then walked back to the beach for coffee and ice cream. Everything is within walking distance in Viña and Valparaiso or a short taxi/subway ride. That night we went back over to Kat and Kathleen's place in Valpo and taught Mario some games and then went to a bar in Viña for a birthday party. It was a dance club, where they played a variety of US tunes ranging from Spice Girls, to Shania Twain with other old hits in there as well. Oh and they played some other music that I couldn't understand. When the Spanish songs were played I looked around, and realized that the whole club was at a different level than us. For us, the Spanish songs were simply beats, and for Chileans, the English songs were simply beats. Interesting.
Easter was spent with Vinnie as we bussed it back from Viña to Santiago. We enjoyed a great churrascos from a fast food restaurant in the bus station in Santiago. I picked up some kind of cold, or allergy so I went to bed around 10 last night and woke up at 11 this morning, because I can.
My goals now, are to find the fresh food markets. Kat and Kathleen went to one in Valpo where the three of them spent $16 and have a fridge full of fruits and veggies and a bag full of corn and potatoes. I'd enjoy that. I also want to find day trip destinations and hopefully head out this weekend on one of them, and finish lesson plans a week at a time, instead of day to day.