Hola again!
With Week #2 in the books, it's time to reflect and appreciate. This past week has brought me new challenges as well as new adventures. I feel like this week was a blur due to how busy I was. I've never performed on the flute as much in my life as I am doing here. It's been very exciting feeling like a celebrity here to a bunch of high school students. Talk about a self-esteem booster! If you ever want to feel amazing about yourself, come to Chile and play an instrument at Colegio Concepcion San Pedro. You'll feel like a million bucks... or for the peso-users (according to my currency converting app on the iPhone) 549,530,000 pesos! It's really been amazing getting to perform on the flute (& piano?!) so much with extremely talented students. It's also been great getting to teach the students recorder and fundamentals of reading sheet music.
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| Performing and teaching music has been wonderful in Chile! |
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| Feeling like a celebrity here! |
Along with getting to know the amazing students and teachers here, I've also had such a great time getting to know fellow LSU educators. The colleagues on this trip have made this adventure totally worth it. I only knew Kelvin before coming to Chile, and while he and I have had a total blast together, it's been really neat meeting and observing all of the others whether they are involved in elementary/secondary/higher education, special education, and even environmental science.
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| Some LSU teachers along with others at a presentation given at the University of San Sebastian. |
Another aspect of the trip that I wasn't wild about in the beginning that ended up being a lot of fun was the planting of trees in Concepcion. We did this on Friday, May 30th along with several students from the middle/high school. I got to meet even more students and see that some students are involved in the Boy Scouts of Chile. All of the students worked incredibly hard to plant several trees along a park that overlooked beautiful scenery. The weather was perfect for the event, and I had an excellent time showing our group of kids what to do (or in my case, goofing off!) with Jaclyn.
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| Planting trees! |
More than anything else, I've absolutely loved being immersed into the culture of Chile by living with my host family. My buddy Kelvin made a great point about this a few days ago, stating that we are getting such a true experience of everyday life here in Concepcion by not living in a hotel over the course of these 3 weeks. I agree with him 100%! I guess I'm also a little biased because my family is awesome. The parents of my household are leaving to go out of town next week, so I will dearly miss Nelda and Cesar in my final week here. The kids of the household have been so much fun too, and I truly feel like they are siblings of mine as I live with them. In many ways, seeing them at school and at home takes me back in time to when I was their age. Of course, there are aspects of the way I act in this house that could more than likely still be looked at as 14-year-old behavior! Hahaha... But in all seriousness, I couldn't have asked to be put with a better family. They're wonderfully amazing and have made it so easy for me to feel comfortable in a home that is several miles from where I live.
Below is a photo from earlier today at another one of Cesar's amazing barbecues.
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| I love these guys! |
Until my next blog post..... Ciao!
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