Who even knows what pluperfect is anyway?

Yesterday, I visited the Escuela Mexico in Valdivia with the other Otterbein students. This was by far my favorite visit. Like I said before, we never know what to expect with these visits. Sometimes we just answer the students' questions about the United States, sometimes we observe classes, and sometimes we teach. This time, I was placed in a first grade classroom with my friend, Rilley. When we first walked to the front of the classroom, the teacher asked me what we would be doing and how long we would be there. I told her that we had no plan and that we were not sure how long we would be there. Her skeptical eyebrows told me exactly what she was thinking: good luck controlling first graders without a plan. After introducing ourselves, Rilley and I jumped right in. We began an impromptu lesson plan to teach our class basic English (since they did not know more than how to count to 10). To teach them colors, we used different colored markers. To teach them animals, they would draw pictures both on paper and on the board. Then, we would teach them the names of the animals in English. We taught them several parts of the body using the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Finally, we helped them practice right vs. left and colors by playing Twister. Our 3 hour lesson went pretty well considering neither of us is an education major and we were teaching completely in Spanish.

The Escuela Mexico was my favorite for other reasons though. From the moment we walked in the room, our first grade girls (there were no boys in the class) were in love with us. Together, Rilley and I were given over 30 drawings and love notes. They also gave us their snacks, Silly Bands, and endless hugs. During recess, all the children in the school came up to us and asked us for our autographs. It was insane. I felt like Madonna. All I know is that I am incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with these precious children.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the Botanical Garden in Valdivia (pictured right). The name is slightly misleading. The Botanical Garden is actually a large, wooded park along the river. It is the perfect place to go for a walk, steal away from the rest of the world, and enjoy God's creation.

After leaving the Botanical Garden, Fernanda, Natalia, and I went to the hair salon. I only mention this because I was pleasantly surprised by Chilean salons. First of all, they are significantly less expensive. I paid slightly over half of what I would pay in the United States to have my hair highlighted. Secondly, no one leaves tips for the hair stylists in Chile. I know that may seem insignificant, but for some reason it really surprised me.

Today, we had our first upper level Spanish grammar course. I went in excited to work on the complex tenses such as subjunctive and preterite perfect. After about 5 minutes into the class, the teacher told us to stop worry and asking so many questions about those complicated grammatical issues. He told us that in Chile they really don't matter. The only tenses we really need to know are the simple ones we learned in high school Spanish. So much for my 300 and 400 level grammar classes at Otterbein. Our teacher had a point, though. Even if we don't conjugate verbs perfectly or use exactly the right tense, people are going to understand what we mean. The most important thing is just to talk and not let the grammar trip us up. He must have thought we were completely ridiculous. It would be the same as if a foreign student  in the United States asked an English teacher how to properly use the pluperfect tense. Who even knows what pluperfect is anyway?