tsunami drills and tacos (jueves, 23 septiembre)

Yesterday school was pretty uneventful except for the tsunami drill we had. Seeing that my school is right across the street from the ocean, it would be a miracle if anyone from the school actually survived. When the sirens started going off, the kids all got underneath their desks, counted to twenty (apparently there is a lot of shaking when the tsunami first comes), and then bolted out the door. Because my classroom is upstairs, there was the whole bottleneck effect as everyone tried to rush down the stairs. Then everyone lined up in the courtyard while the teacher in charge of the drill picked up his megaphone and started telling us that we´d taken too long and if the tsunami had come, it would have been too late. He also said that if there was a real tsunami that we were supposed to leave the school grounds. He pointed to a large sand dune / hill behind the school and said that if there was a real tsunami to run that direction toward higher ground and for everyone to meet up at some building close to it. To me, the whole drill didn´t make much sense, especially since what we did during the drill was nothing like what we were supposed to do if there was actually a tsunami.

Today I finally got to teach the kids in my own classroom. The fifth graders have a test on Monday, so I reviewed vocab words (parts of the body) with them. It was pretty fun. The sixth graders were working on verbs in the past simple tense, so we did guided conversations. We finished early with that so we gathered in a circle on the floor to take turns reading.

After school I went to Santa Isabel, a supermarket, where I bought ingredients to make tacos and guacamole. Finding the ingredients in the store was interesting. Where they put things doesn´t make much sense, and they didn´t have any taco chips. I figured we could just put the guacamole in the tacos though. When I was checking out, the guy was talking to me. ´So you´re having Mexican night? Who´s bringing the tequila?´and so forth. I felt like a bit of an idiot getting on the bus to go home because I was awkwardly trying to carry my grocery bags as well as a somewhat big cardboard box one of the librarians had given me earlier today. I needed the box in order to send Kyle´s birthday present home to him (his birthday is tomorrow...I was busy all week and hadn´t meant to procrastinate, but I figured better late than never). When I was getting up to get off the bus, the bus jerked to a stop and I went flying into another passenger with all my stuff.

At home I made tacos and guacamole and Eric, another volunteer, came over to eat. Caroline was sick so she didn´t come, and Elisabeth backed out on the plans last minute. The soy protein here is different than in the States, so it was a bit of an experiment preparing it, but I think it turned out mostly well. I got Eric to try the soy protein and I think he liked it. Then we went on a walk, and then Eric went home. It was kind of nice hanging out with another volunteer. At times I feel kind of lonely here, even though I have met a lot of people and generally like Iquique. At the same time, I don´t have any close friends down here, and a lot of times when I get home from school, there´s really nothing to do besides running, studying Spanish, writing, or reading. My host brothers are studying, and my host mom works until midnight every day except Sundays. Sometimes I feel like things get a little boring, especially since I live so far away from the downtown area where there are actually more things to do.

But on the bright side, today was good, and I have the next three days off. Yay for weekends! I´m happy I can actually stay up late tonight since I don´t have class tomorrow...

written by

Sara Florecita on September 23, 2010 from Iquique, Chile

from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)

Send a Compliment

comment on this...