- We have been very busy! The seniors have finished all their classes and grades, so they are in the thralls of graduation prep (for a week from Saturday). I wrote letters to some of my favorites, and I am very sad to see them go! The school already seems emptier without them in class.
- My head teacher Karen and I were also working with other schools in our town to put together an English Day, which was yesterday. Students from 6 different schools each performed something on stage, and we brought our best English students to sit in the audience (and sing karaoke between acts!). This was the first time the teachers' network put this together, and it went really well so hopefully they will be able to continue it and build on it next year! The other gringo, Todd, and I were the hosts, and we had a lot of fun. For our school's presentation, my host brother, Franco, and his classmate, Camila (both of whom were rockstars last semester in our English debates) sang a medley of songs while some of our other students danced. They did a fantastic job; it was so beautiful, and by far the best performance of the day. Luckily for everybody I had given my camera to the students in the audience and they got it on video : )
- Now that we have English Day behind us, Karen and I are kicking into high gear to prepare for our own school's English Festival next week. Every year the high school classes compete in an English festival, doing some sort of performances according to that year's theme. This year the theme is U.S. states, and each class has to represent their state in a booth (like at a job fair), and with a song and group dance to music by artists from their state. We will have represented: New York, California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and Indiana (aw yeah Hoosiers!). The students started working on this a long time ago, since there was so much to do. The freshman and sophomores had to create travel brochures, which I supervised and graded. They had to include some famous people from their state, and I was giddy to see my own face smiling up at me from the back of an Indiana brochure! Additionally, the classes had to split up to work on choreography and props/background. The idea is that there is something for everybody to do, so we have been supervising their progress to make sure everyone is involved. From what I've seen, the festival is going to be really great, and I cannot wait! It's going to be next Thursday night, so they've got exactly a week left to pull everything together.
2. in Chilean politics
- You may or may not be aware (I'm guessing not) that the Chilean presidential election is just a week and a half away. It has been verrrry interesting to get to observe another country's political process, especially in a country with such great political activity. The average Chilean seems many times more politically conscious than the average American, probably because of their relatively recent national history. In 1973, a coup deposed Chile's socialist President, and installed a conservative dictatorship. Then in 1991, in an amazingly peaceful process, the nation voted "no" to extending the conservative government, so the head of state stepped down. Now Chile's political process is, quite refreshingly, multipartisan. The hottest competition is still between just two (or three) parties, but other candidates don't drop out of the race just because they don't have a chance of winning. There are lots of different perspectives included in the political conversation, best demonstrated by the campaign advertising on national tv. Rather than having to buy air time, each and every candidate is given the exact same amount of time to present themselves in commercials, which are all shown sequentially at the same time every night on the news channels. Obviously some are better produced, with better visual quality, etc., but they are all given an equal chance to put their ideas on the table. Signage is another story, and it is quiiiite abundant, but that doesn't have the same impact as a video spot. It is so reassuring to see a system work where all sides are given equal standing, regardless of who can raise the most money. And I have yet to see any negative campaigning, because of course when you only have 30 seconds to present yourself, you can't waste it tearing down your opponent(s!).
- Education seems to be one of the biggest campaign issues, which I find inspiring. I also learned recently, upon seeing an ad specifically calling for a new constitution, that there is a political party based solely on that platform, and that it is in fact a very popular sentiment, because Chile's current constitution was drafted under the dictatorship.
- Contributing to the political fervor are a large number of nation-wide strikes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, public school teachers were striking. The civil servants have been on strike for almost 3 weeks now, and are taking to the streets in Santiago, so mob/watercannon footage has been playing on a loop on the news.
- Interesting for a society that I would say is pretty gender-segregated, the two frontrunners in the presidential election are both women! One of them is actually the former President Bachelet, coming back for more. It's nice to see : )
3. with me
- Some of you may have known that I was entertaining the thought of coming back to Chile after the holidays, to look for work in Santiago. Instead I will be working at home and starting the grad school hunt. I love being in Chile so much; there will probably be a bit of an adjustment period needed. Please bear with me. But I will be eager to move on to my next adventure in a new city, wherever I end up for school!
- BUT I will still have a piece of Chile with me in the states for a while; my host brother Franco is coming back to spend Christmas with the Boots family! As of today his visa was approved, so he will be joining me on the tedious journey back to Indy and spending a month with us to practice his English and see what the U.S. is all about. I'm so so so very excited for him to meet everyone and see everything! Gotta start making a list of things to show him- your suggestions are welcome : )
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