Halfway by James Kuterbach

It's going by so quickly. I cannot believe I am halfway through.

             We ended up having to move out of the house for the week due to rennovations involving the installation of new wooden floors throughout the home. I spent my Wednesday morning bonding with my host family in moving furniture. We then went to our hotel, the Hotel el Dorado in which we would stay the next four days in the middle of downtown Concepción.

In downtown Concepcion

            The city was fantastic with a lot of events going on each night. Francisco took me to a four hour Beethoven concert performed by the University of Concepcion music students. They were outstanding with each of the pieces. It was great reminiscing of the days that I was a part of a symphony performing the very pieces that they were playing.

The University of Concepcion music students

          I indulged in typical tourist behavior while meandering through the city each day by making sure I have a picture of everything and sampling different foods as much as possible. Their churros are ridiculously tastey compared to the pathetic attempts we make back in the States. I got to celebrate my birthday in the city. My family gave me a new jacket that I absolutely love.

Francisco and I outside the Cathedral of Concepcion

Upon my strolls through downtown, I came across some Carabineros who are the national policy of Chile. You can see them frequently patrolling the streets and many are párked in centralized locations with their vans to assist the public when needed.

A Carabinero posing for a picture outside of his van

               On Friday there was a surprise for the students at my school, the Collegio de Concepcion San Pedro in which candies with words of encouragement that were attached to were thrown down to the students along with balloons. The students had a great time catching, reading, and eating the candies that fell from the sky.

Students gathered outside for the surprise

Balloons and candy being thrown from the school to the students

        I was invited to attend two Universities to talk to professors and students regarding student teacher training and teacher pedogogical views and practices. The first was with the University of Concepcion in which we broke off into our respective fields. I was obviously with the elementary education group in which we discussed with instructors, principals, and professors in Chile about differences between LSU's teacher training program compared to theirs. Our translators assisted tremendously in being there to allow us to communicate between the groups.

Students (and driver) from the University San Sebastian performing traditional Chilean music

        My second trip was to the University San Sebastian in which two english majors, two music doctoral\master students and I attended to talk to a class of english majors and their professor. One of the students in the english, Amanda, is doing her student teaching at the school we are at and introduced us to her fellow classmates. We had a great discussion revolving student teacher training and teacher expectations, hopes, and dreams. After this, we were given the opportunity to experience some traditional Chilean music and dance. Some of the students joined in to add a little bit of Louisiana spice in the mix.

                               

      Today I taught a math lesson over exponents to 8th graders. It was a lot of fun, but also challenging due to the language barrier. Luckily when you start working on the math, it does not matter between english and spanish. It went a lot better than I expected it would, all while having a lot of fun doing it. My translator Barbara was a lot of help at certain times regarding student questions and clarifying anything. I don't know what I would do without her.

My math teacher, Gina and I during our coffee break

       The school is structured in a way that every hour and a half or so there is a small 10-20 minute break where all of the teachers go into the break room and enjoy some hot coffee or tea. It allows for a lot of bonding between teachers and some delicious coffee to be consumed. Overall it has been an amazing week and I am certainly looking forward to this week!