Title translation: The rest of the weekend, and the first day of classes.
Well, I might as well begin where I left off...Saturday. By the way...I'm loving every moment of being here!!! I keep telling everyone how I can't stop smiling :)
As Shelby, Dawn, and I walked back from the centro, the Chilean pride came alive after the fútbol game. Everyone was honking their horns in their cars, flags waving out the windows, and people yelling with happiness and pride. I'm already getting excited for the game on Saturday against Venezuela! After walking back from the centro, we headed to one of the host families homes for the family gathering. All of the students host-moms, a couple host dads, a couple siblings, a sibling that teaching English here from Wales, and all of the students joined in for the little party. They sure do feed us good here! We enjoyed pizza, "birthday" cake-we celebrated the 8 years that the program has been going, and everyone even got to enjoy a maracuya sour-super rico!
A video of us singing Happy Birthday (in Spanish) to our program, CISP for the 8 years it has been around (since there weren't any birthdays to celebrate). Sorry, it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it, but hey, oh well :)
A few pictures of the students having a good ol' time...
The wonderful parents and helpers of the program at the family gathering.
My AWESOME group!
My Chilean mom (Ligia) and me :)
The helpers of the program. They are great!!!! From the left: Hellen, me, Tiare, and Carolina
Heather, me, and Colton enjoying our time at the family gathering.
The pizza is really different here, but it's amazing!
Evan...and Erin attempting to sneak attack him with frosting.
After the family gathering, we all went to the Monesterio, a pub in the centro where there is live music, for the good-bye party of Javier, a good friend of mine from Arica that is going to go to study at University of Northern Iowa for 3 years!! It was so good to see him again and give him a big hug. Each time I see someone I know, I just can't help feel that this whole thing feels like a dream that I'm going to wake up from really soon. It's just so surreal! Javier leaves on Wednesday, and I wish him the best on his amazing journey to come. Can't wait to see him when I return!!! Some photos from the party:
Ignacio, Javier (going to UNI), and me.
Me and Carolinaaa :)
Love this girl! Miss Kristin and me.
Colton and me. Colton will be staying the semester with me here!
Tiare, Shelby, Jack (Kristin's "sibling" who is teaching English here from Wales), and me.
Me and Romina
We have been talking about our trip to Chile for a loooong time every day in class at UNI...finally, we're here together! (Shebly and me)
Kelsey, Erin, me, Tiare, and Shelby enjoying our night at the Monesterio.
A few of us ended up heading to Drake, the dancing club, here after the Monesterio, and the rest went either home or to another club with their primos. We danced the night away-let me tell ya! It was a great time, and we even made it til 4:30 am dancing!! After we went to the beach for a little bit to see the ocean at night. Sooo beautiful! By the time I got to bed, it was 6 am...I sure didn't think I would do that my first weekend back here. I was prepared to return when the students wanted to...but they all wanted to stay out late! I'm proud of them! They are already practically Chileans ;)
The majority of us headed to the beach on Sunday and enjoyed the amazing winter weather Arica has. The sun was shining, and the water wasn't even that bad. We walked on over, so the students could become a little bit more familiar with the city. I then got to talk with Dad and Mom for our Sunday Skype chat :) A couple pictures from our day if you haven't seen them on Facebook...
Megan, Joe, me, Evan, Dawn, Justine, Riley, Coral, Kelsey, Heather, Erin, David, & Shelby...The majority of my AMAZING group.
I LOVE these guys!
As for today, the students began their first day of classes. I helped Pochy with getting some of the materials ready for the upcoming classes, so I didn't get to go to two of their classes, but I was able to see my old professors! I have missed them a lot! After lunch, they had their last class which was Hispanic Literature. I warned them all ahead that this class is pretty difficult, and sometimes it's difficult to understand the professor because she only speaks Spanish. They all seemed to have a great time though, although at times it was difficult for them to understand. As for me, I was pretty excited to be able to understand the majority of everything! It's SO crazy how different this time is from last year with being able to understand people. I love it :) For part of the literature class, two of the students, Joe (theater major) and Coral acted out a little scene of an old married couple. Coral wanted a divorce and Joe was an old stubborn angry man. It was...hilarious! I'm pretty sure all of us had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard. It was a great way to start literature!
And now...here I am, writing this lovely blog. Hope you enjoy the pictures and hearing a little about our adventures.
Besos y abrazos,
Katie
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