Hola! This is my first blog post about my adventures in Chile. Week 1 is completed, and it's been a wild ride!
Upon arriving in Concepcion by plane, I stepped off the plane to see many Chileans waiting for their Louisiana guests to arrive. I felt like a fish in an aquarium with all of these people looking at us to see who was going home with them! I was picked up by Nelda and her son, Felipe, and was brought to our home. I was immediately overwhelmed by the lack of English-speaking people. Felipe is the only one in his family who can speak English, and even speaking to him was different. However, the Fuentealbas are SO INCREDIBLY NICE, so it's been very easy to feel at home even without speaking the native language.
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| Family & friends! |
My family here is made up of Nelda & Cesar (the parents), Felipe & Javi (the kids), and Tati (the sweetest grandmother ever).
On my second day here, another family member was added to the mix...
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| RON! |
I've gotten to see so many wonderful things this week in Chile, including Lenga, Cerro, Dichato, the University of Concepcion, and the museum of San Pedro de la Paz.
Lenga is a small town that is also a peninsula outside of Concepcion. It is an area great for fishing, and is a tourist attraction for many people in Chile. We ate lunch there, and also visited the hilly beach area that I was told is the meeting point for "the river and the ocean." The sand is what was most surprising to me because I had never seen anything like it before --- BLACK SAND!
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| Lenga with Nelda! |
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| Lenga: Me, Felipe, & Cesar... Cesar accidentally closed his eyes in this one. |
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| In the trees! |
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| Javi on the dock |
Cerro - Laguna Grande, is located right behind my family's home! Cesar, Javi, and I hiked this area one day this past week and it was gorgeous! Beautiful landscapes can be seen everywhere. The weather was perfect in the middle of the day for this, and we had a great time climbing trees and seeing the sights!
Dichato was devasted by a tsunami in 2010, and is slowly being rebuilt. Much of this reminded me of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. It's a beautiful beach area that many folks vacation to in the summers, much like Gulf Shores or Destin in the United States.
The school where many of the LSU students are teaching is called Colegio Concepcion San Pedro. My good friend Kelvin and I have gotten the opportunity to teach with the two music teachers here, as well as do some work with an English teacher. We perform with the students a lot in class, and take a lot of time observing how things are done here. Compared to the schools where we've previously taught, this school's music program is extremely different. There is a major focus on the following stringed instruments: guitar, cuatro, and charango. The students also play what we music teachers from the States would call recorders (flutes in Chile), quenas, and flutes that one would typically see in a band setting in the United States. Drum set performance and singing are also an essential part of music classes here.
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| Music class in action |
Also, all of this would be VERY difficult to understand without the help of our lovely translators: Rocio & Alex, who are amazing at what they do! They have cleared up tons of confusion between the teachers and Kelvin & me!
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| Random kids hopped in this photo of Kelvin, me, Alex, & Rocio! Peace! |
Well, this is what I'm doing in Chile so far. I'll be posting again very soon, so stay tuned!
FUN FACT: The word for "cool" in Chile is: FILETE!!!
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