rep argentina se llama

well well well ~ so i am finally settled in with my host family. they are absolutely wonderful, i have a mom, dad, 16 year old sister, 14 year old brother, and 11 year old brother. also we live in a compound with my mom's three sisters, their families, and my mom's mother. needless to say there is always someone around. it has been super fun so far.  one of the cousin's that lives in our "compound" has been on vacation from university since i arrived so he has been showing me around and he is just a really nice guy - it's def cool to have people around the same age living in close proximity.  i got lucky with my family, they are really really great.  

they prepared a really nice room for me - i actually have internet, tv, d
vd player and a super comfy bed. it's almost nicer than home haha... i got here on tuesday evening and i confessed my dietary habit to my host parents. you see, here in chile red meat and bread are eaten ALL THE TIME. so i admitted to them, what i thought would be my worst secret first - that i don't eat much red meat... they were a lil shocked, but actually took it better than i expected.  they asked if i was a vegetarian and if i ate chicken or fish and when i said, no and yes respectively, they were fine with it.  so then i felt confident enough to say i wasn't much of a bread eater.  oh my word, you would have thought i just admitted to killing their puppy dog.  they just looked at me - and actually we weren't at the house yet, we were somewhere else, and i think the news was so difficult for my dad to understand he stopped the conversation right then and there.  his response was "ok let's not talk about this now, let's wait until we get home" hahaha they were hilarious about it.  not mad, just super super shocked, made me chuckle.

so the very next morning for breakfast was really humorous.  i was last to leave because i didn't have to be in school until 10am.  

my mom left breakfast on the table, and since i don't eat much bread - and thats the breakfast of choice in chile - she left me cereal, yogurt, an orange, a banana, juice, crackers, jelly, bu

tter, hot tea, and milk.  i took a foto of that because i'm not joking half of the table was full of food, for only ME.

of course, everything i do see

ms weird to them, and i laugh a

bout it to myself.  my sister's school is having their anniversary this week and it happens to be a art centered high school, so the entire week has been different dance performances and singing competitions and things like that.  well last night we went, the whole family, to the dance competition.  we left at 7pm and left the school around 11:45pm.  (video of my sister, jareth, to be found at bottom - she is the first girl solo in the dance show - about 3 minutes in)  anyway, my brother, cristian, goes to school in the afternoons and gets home at like 7pm so he did not go to the show with us.  when we called to say we were on our way home, he begged us to stop and get some food for him as he didnt eat anything since lunchtime.  so we stopped and bought "completos", which are huge hot dogs in a hoagie roll with tomato, onion, avocado, mayo all busting out.  so here we are at midnight buying 7 completos.  we got home and everyone was sitting around the table eating - and i thought, omg this is hilarious, this would never happen in my family at home... i had to take a picture, and the family's response "emily you are so weird" hahaha.  so all of a sudden my dad heard the tv from the bedroom

 and a famous person from our town was on the late show, so immediately everyone gets up and runs into my parents' bedroom with their ginormous hot dogs and proceeds to crowd around this tiny tv in their bedroom chomping on our completos.  at that point, i just told them i wanted a picture and had to forego the shot.  but it was a priceless moment.

as for my school, i start teaching on monday.  i will teach each class one time a week and i have 4 grade levels, so i will only have to prepare about 5 different lessons each week.  sounds easy, but it is super difficult because all of the activities are supposed to encourage speaking and as i observed in the past two days, my students either can't or are too shy to speak.  it is going to be a challenge, but i am definitely up for it.  

everyone at the school is sooooo nice and very very accommodating.  it is called "La Escuela Republica Argentina" and it is 2 minute walk from my house, really convenient.  also, my youngest brother, bastian, goes there so i have company walking to school and home everyday.  he's adorable by the way.  love that lil kid.  you all know how affectionate i am, and he starting giving me hugs and kisses the moment we met.   just adorable!!!

anyway, the school ~ when i first arrived they said there was no room for english - but the contract between the government and the school stipulates that there must be a fixed english room available.  well i asked if i could use the library as my place but there wasn't a chalkboard and it obviously is not meant to be a classroom.  they of course told me yes and were really apologetic about it.  well when i went in on thursday, my 2nd day, the director called me into his office to tell me about a possibility.  there is a new computer room for the kindergardeners, but they have class in the afternoons and i teach only in the mornings.  so he thought i could use that instead.  so in less than 24 hours i went form having no classroom and no chalkboard to having a computer room equipped with 2 humongous white boards AND a smart board!!!! im super excited to use that because i think i will be able to work with lots of different media and the kids will really enjoy that.

but you know - there is a very interesting dichotomy here.  you see, in many latin american countries toilet paper is not found in bathrooms.  you either pay for it outside or bring your own.  so imagine - my school bathrooms have no toilet paper, but they have a smart board.  i found that interesting...