Anniversary Week

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long, photo-filled post.  The week before last was the anniversary of the founding of the school where I work, and here in Chile that merits lots of celebration. We're 124! 

the cutest nuns you'll ever see

Every year they have special activities all week, including a full day of contests instead of classes, and it all culminates in a "gala" at the end of the week (a school dance, but lasting until 2:30am--which a student complained to me was "early"--because we're in Chile).  Before we jump into the activities, let's start with mass. It's a Catholic school, after all!  Monday morning we all gathered in the gym for a special mass commemorating the anniversary and the coming national independence holiday.  A group of elementary students put on a little cueca performance (the traditional national dance) for everyone, and it was adorable! 

Before we move on from mass, I would like to draw your attention to the larger-than-life-size portraits that were in the corner of the stage all week.  Here we have San Francisco himself and the nun who founded the school (whose name I should maybe know but I do not).  I am told that a student(s) painted these a while ago and they trot them out each year.  They give me chills, and not in a good awe-inspiring way. I will admit that this is impressive work for your average high school art class, but ohhhh man are they terrifying...

Ok moving on.  Mass accomplished, the students could switch into competition mode.  As I may have mentioned, there are two classes in each grade, so there are 8 high school classes total.  Each one has a color, that stays with them through all four years, that is their team color come competition time. They get class shirts, make banners, pick a mascot, etc. and all compete in various activities to earn points for their team.  At the gala at the end of the week they announce which class won, but the prize is only bragging rights!  That being said, their competitive spirit lit up the school all week.  I have never seen these students get so excited about anything all year!  Bragging rights seem to go a long way...

First of all, the teams had been assigned the week prior to a music video, and they had to turn in on Monday their team parody of that video.  Some of them were a lot more exact than others, but they were all entertaining--even though I hadn't seen the original videos, I laughed my ass off watching these with my head teacher Karen! The winner was to be determined by the highest number of facebook likes, so they were all uploaded and shared a million times. You can watch them all at this public facebook page!

Monday afternoon was the first half of the soccer tournament, and the teams also got their assignments for the Mission Impossible that they had to do the following day.  For the Mission Impossible, they had to partner with another randomly-selected team to recreate a scene in the gym.  They had a set amount of space and a list of things to include in a little skit embodying a circus, a famous Chilean music festival, a fashion show in the future, or a fonda.  A fonda is part of the traditional independence celebrations--essentially a little booth/tent where they serve food and drinks (all the special foods and drinks that are part of Chilean independence festivities) and have music and dance performances.  They had to organize everything for the skits in just one day, and put them together after school on Tuesday.  I got to be one of the judges!  I was incredibly impressed by them all, and I could tell they were just having a blast, so it was very fun.  I unfortunately only have a few pictures of them preparing beforehand, since I was scoring the skits themselves.  

the circus ended up winning the Mission Impossible!

part of the adoring music festival crowd

the spread at the fonda table- we've got empanadas, pajaritos (kind of like sweet rolls)
and ponche (a delicious peachy wine punch drink)

our very elite fashion show attendees

and our runway models straight outta the future

Then Wednesday was the big activity day!  They started at about 9:30 and went until 6 or so, and there was not a dull moment.  The teams were all decked out in their colors, flying their banners, and they had little team sections in the bleachers to function as their headquarters for the day.  First, the soccer tournament!  It was actually "baby fútbol," just 20-minutes games played on the little indoor court in the gym.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you that Chilean high school boys are really good at soccer, but even I had no idea it would be the fastest-paced, most competitive soccer I had ever seen!  There are some seriously fast feet down here; it was very exciting to watch. 

the mascots, including Mr. Ladybug here, had to stay in costume all day-
it was another way to rack up points for their team! 

They had a little snack break, which most of them took as an opportunity to burn off some of their adrenaline goofing around in the gym.

Esteban was reallyyyy gettin' into his job as bannerman

another mascot

perfect example of the little team hubs

Then it was time for the square meter contest.  Literally just taping a square meter on the floor and trying to fit as many people into it as possible.  They did have to be able to hold their position for 3 minutes, so some thought went into their formations!

Can you guess how many people the winning team had in there? Wrong- they had SEVENTEEN. Whaaaaat that's crazy. 

Meanwhile, select members from each team had been backstage preparing contraptions for the egg drop competition (literally backstage- we put them up on the stage and shut the curtains). I mistakenly assumed that they would think an egg drop competition was lame, but no! There's hope out there! They got realllllyyy into it, and the actual drops drew a huge, fiesty crowd.

mid-air, the little egg gets its 15 seconds of fame

There was an argument over technicalities (as seen in the last photo), but only one team even had a crack in their egg! Little geniuses. Then lunch break!  Each team had elected a king and queen, and before lunch each royal pair got their assignment for the kings-and-queens dance.  They had only an hour to prepare a costume and dance according to whatever style they drew out of the bag: disco, colombian cumbia, mexican ranchera, flamenco, rock 'n' roll, sau-sau (from Easter Island), bachata, and salsa.  I got to be a judge again, and our little three-person panel had to take some time to look up all those styles before the competition (I had never even heard of a few of them before!). After lunch they performed them for everybody, and, once again, I was incredibly impressed.  I have no pictures, because I was busy marking down scores, but just believe me: they did an excellent job! 

Next there was a volleyball tournament, giving some of the ladies a chance to show off their skills.  It was the same idea as the soccer games, just 20-minute matches, but unfortunately volleyball is not as fast-paced and the skill level wasn't quite as high (I'm not saying they weren't good, but let's be honest, soccer is always going to be the strength here). Still fun to watch though! 

And finally! The highly anticipated focus of the day: the barra baile, or dance contest.  Each class had to prepare a 6-min dance routine, including at least 90% of their classmates and their head teacher.  The students had been working on these for weeks, staying after school and meeting up on the weekends. I had heard about it long ago, because classes still watch and brag about the routines from years past.  To my great delight, I got to be a judge again! But this time I handed my camera off to some students to take some pictures for me (in between selfies).

the first team to go was one of the freshman classes, and I could tell they were nervous! 

but they kicked it off wonderfully

this was the other freshman class--they got first place!

dance break for da men (the ladies are hiding far in the back)--this group tied for third!

our second-place winners, a sophomore team

And the final team, a senior class who donned masks, gloves, and finger lights! they tied for third

That last team had won the overall anniversary competition all three years running, and they had a very impressive showing and ended up winning the grand total this year as well! A perfect run. They announced the winner at the gala, which was Thursday night.  I missed the gala, though, because I zipped home for a special week with the family! (Related post to come).  Having obviously never experienced anything like anniversary week in my own high school, I was blown away by the whole thing. They poured so much energy into it and had so much fun! You can tell they look forward to this year-round, and I was so glad I got to see it.  The excitement was contagious!