(jueves, 30 septiembre)

My classroom is finally starting to look like an actual classroom. Most of the students brought the signs I asked them to make. A few of them look super cool, thanks to the really artistic kids in my class. One of my sixth graders made me this picture of Cristiano Ronaldo to hang up in the class. He was all excited when he gave it to me because he´d heard me say that I like watching football matches. I didn´t have the heart to tell him I can´t stand Ronaldo, so now I have this picture of him hanging up in my class. A few of my students started making barfing noises when the kid brought me the picture...I kind of wanted to give those kids extra credit, but part of being a volunteer in the program is that I´m not actually allowed to give out grades. I also hung up pictures of my family and Kyle in my classroom, so it feels a lot nicer in there now. I´m planning on making more signs/ decorations for my class this weekend.

Thursdays are my long lunch break days. I don´t have any classes between 1:30 and 3:45, so yesterday I walked along the boardwalk, found a nice bench in the sun, and sat down to draw for a while. Then I walked to the Centro for some maní confitado (candied peanuts) which are sold along Tarapacá by street vendors. They tell you not to eat the street food due to questionable health codes, but the street food here is some of the best stuff I´ve tried. Maní confitado is quickly becoming my new obsession...at least they are WAY cheaper than Starbucks, Cool Beanz, or Theo´s.

After school was the English department meeting, which not only is boring as hell, but it cuts into my choir rehearsal time. The choir rehearses from 4:30 until 6:30, and I´m required to attend English meetings from 4:30 until 5:30. Generally they are a waste of time. Last week Jorge, another teacher, had brought his computer and was making a powerpoint for his class. During the meeting he and I kept goofing around on the computer. Today, we were told that the sixth graders have to put on a fashion show at the next Cultural Night, which will be at the end of October, so we wrote the script for that. I still need to choose the kids to do this. I was also told that I should choose the kids with the worst grades and give them extra credit for it. We shall see how this turns out. Maybe it´ll be fun. I´m more excited about the fifth graders´presentation I get to plan for Cultural Night. I am going to have them dress up in baseball uniforms and teach them to sing ´Take me out to the ball game.´ The object of the fifth grade presentation is to share some aspect of American culture with the teachers and parents who will be attending.

After the meeting got out, I went to choir rehearsal. On the down side, only one of the boys in the choir showed up, but on the plus side, the altos are improving a lot! I´m really excited that they can hold their parts without me having to sing the alto part with them.

Then I wandered around town before going to El Tercer Ojito. I feel like I´m definitely getting more familiar with knowing my directions and way around Iquique, which was really confusing at first. The whole restaurant is in the garden/courtyard area with exotic plants growing there. It is a super nice, classy restaurant and has a good mix of different ethnic dishes (everything from curry to pad thai to tacos, to gnocchi, lasagna, pastas, to sushi, to south american dishes and seafood). I had vegetarian curry, which was awesome. They also give you a basket of bread with butter (which i didn't eat) and olive pesto stuff. I ordered a drink called Coco Tropic, which has rum, banana flavored vodka, orange, mango, and banana, and it is blended up like a margarita. The waiters were also super nice so I left a good tip. After eating there and writing for a bit I went home for the night.

I´m currently working on some drawings. For me, drawing, writing, and music have always come in waves of creativity, and you never know when you´re going to feel inspired to do something expressive and creative. Since coming to Chile, I haven´t been in much of a creative-writing mood (fiction or poetry), I have been writing a lot of emails and keeping my blog updated. I´ve only written two poems since coming to Chile, but that´s okay. I feel strongly that if I´m not deeply moved to write (or draw or play music, for that matter) then I shouldn´t. If I´m not really involved and really feeling it then whatever I create isn´t going to feel right. I´ve felt like singing on and off here, but need to learn som new music in Spanish. Fortunately, I´ve been feeling a lot more like drawing lately, which is a good way to unwind after a busy day. So now I am going to draw more and then go to sleep. Yay for sleeping in tomorrow!

written by  Sara Florecita on September 30, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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