A lot of people have been asking: "How was your first Christmas in Chile?" The answer? Lovely. Relaxing. Delicious. Hot. Bittersweet. New. Different. Fun. December 24 I "got to" begin Christmas Eve Day by going to school...hooray? I was a bit less than thrilled, but some of the teachers put together a convivencia (little party) together for everyone and then we got to go home around noon. I then spent the afternoon getting my house ready for our party that evening and I even had time to squeeze in a nap! And I would also like to take this opportunity to debut my back patio set-up and decorations I have been working on...what do you think so far?! Later that afternoon I headed to church for our outdoor Christmas Eve Service/Pageant. We read the story of Jesus' birth and sang song after song remembering our Savior's coming to this world to save us! "Goooooo tell it in Linares! Over the hills and everywhere! Go tell it in Linares that Jesus Christ is born!" After the church service, a few fellow immigrants found their way to my house and we had a "Gringo Navidad"! Jon's sister and a friend have come to visit for a few weeks (and so lovingly brought down a few gifts from our families...thanks again, ladies!) We were very excited to have Pastor Tim & Ellen here in Linares to celebrate with us as well! We feasted on lots of meat, played a game, exchanged some gifts, listened to Christmas music, watched the dogs chase each other, and enjoyed some homemade cookies sent from the states! As my guests walked out the gate around 2am...some Chilean friends pulled up in a taxi and we stayed up chatting until about 4:30am...have I mentioned that there are a lot of night-owls in Chile? December 25 After a nice morning of sleeping in with NO alarm clock set (best gift ever!), we drove out to Lago Colbún with the visitors and ended the day eating homemade ice cream in the plaza of Panimávida. Did I mention that it got up to 90 degrees? Not bad, Christmas in Chile, not bad... (I think the dogs had the most fun though!) If you're looking to be warm next Christmas, now you know where to come!
One more week of school work for me and then it is time for Summer Vacation!!!! Bring on 2016!
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Pictures are worth a thousand words...you can CLICK HERE to access my full album of photos!
(Which will also fill you in on a few more details...because I know you are curious about those giant swans...) Since the Summer Solstice is just a few days around the corner here in Chile, I figured I better write something about Spring before it is gone! Remember these beautiful blooming trees in September? Here is what they look like now in December...I love seeing God's creativity at work in nature! (or neature for those Lennny Pepperbottom fans out there..."That's pretty neat!") And for good measure, some beautiful flowers: Coming soon...a blog post about my trip to southern Chile! A few weeks ago our entire school had a “muestra” in the plaza. Each subject area showed off work done by the students relating to their studies. For part of the English department's area, I taught a class two children’s songs and showed the videos: “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” & “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes”. If you read my previous post about school, you may remember that “3D” {pronounced in Spanish: ter-ser-oh-day} is a “párvula” class that is studying specifically to be nursery school workers, so children’s songs were something fun and interesting for them to sing! They also shared with me a few typical children’s songs so that I could share them with you! Warning: Only watch these videos if you are ready for uber cuteness. Araña Arañita
Al son del cocodrilo
Yo tengo una casita
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