dog
This is actually a story from a while ago that i keep forgetting to post on here. I was walking down a street with my host mom a while ago when a stray dog walked up to us. As we were walking my host mom started to tell it to go home, that we weren't going to feed it ect. The first thing that entered my mind when she started talking was "doesn't she realize the dog can't understand her? She's speaking in SPANISH to it". Somehow the idea that dogs only speak English had gotten put in my head :) I told my host mom and she thought it was hilarious. Now when dogs come up to me i talk to them in spanish and its kind of fun :)
Insane thermo teacher
The newest chapter in my teachers insanity opened last week. He spent the first 15-20 min of class reviewing what we learned the day before which was fine. Then in the middle of his impassioned introduction to the days material a student opened the door and started to walk in late. The teacher told him to please leave, the student asked why, the teacher said because he was late, the student said why does it matter if i just sit down, the teacher said leave, and the student left. It was a bit of a tense exchange but i thought we were fine after the student backed down and left but i could not have been more wrong. The teacher rounded on us and proceeded to explain the implications of what had just happened. His explanation covered a wide range of topics including education, history, society, respect, family, authority, the use of projectors as instructing tools, the proper use of textbooks and his popularity (or lack thereof) among students. The entire thing lasted just over 20 minutes and there were 5 times when he said "in conclusion"(i got my hopes up each time). I felt really bad for him when he was talking about his unpopularity, he was saying he wished students would smile at him or even hug him in the halls but he sacrifices that popularity to mold us into better students. Some parts of it were a little crazy though like when he attacked the use of textbooks and projectors in the classroom. Anyway by the end of it all he had made himself pretty emotional and he canceled the rest of class. I listened the entire time with rapt attention (as much out of fear as anything else) but when i got out of class and the door had shut i couldn't stop laughing. I could not believe that the entire class had been ruined by a student trying to enter the classroom and talking back the professor once.
Salsa
My salsa class has moved into a new phase. I knew when i signed up for the class that there was a final presentation at the end of the year but i had thought it was a small and optional kind of thing. I didn't really have any interest in dancing salsa on a stage in front of people so i figured i would just opt out at the end. Two weeks ago though we officially ended regular classes of dancing and learning salsa and started choreography for the final presentation. I didn't want to miss out on a full 3.5 weeks of class so i figured i should participate. It has been pretty fun so far, my partner is a mexican girl named gabby and we have a lot of fun in each class. It was only recently that the scale of this production hit me though. We are presenting with a bunch of other classes in a production put on by the whole theater department. It is held in the main auditorium (which is huge) and we do two shows. Apparently we are also getting costumes (i got measured at the last class). All that was pretty intimidating but i figured i could just end up in a corner somewhere and not have to worry about anything. In the last class we set up where everyone would be on stage during the production. When we were told to find places gabby and i meandered over into the corner of the mob (she feels the same as i do) and planned to stay there. The class kept having a problem of sliding sideways as a group during the dance though so the prof decided to fix it. He put a mark on the center of the stage and moved gabby and i to the center front. It is our job to stay centered on the mark and everyone else can space themselves based off of us. I think its still going to be fun but we are both a little uneasy about being in the front. We generally do pretty well but when we start to mess things up its usually a train wreck :) We have decided to just hope for the best and have fun, but i still think i would be happier that corner.
Weather
The weather has just recently moved past perfection and is now on the cold side. Some people here are already complaining but i still love it. This week was the first time i wore a sweater with my shorts and flip flops walking to class. Last night it even got cold enough that i slept under a blanket. In some ways i really like having to wear a sweatshirt again. Often when it is hot outside the air conditioning gets turned up inside and we all end up freezing in the classrooms. Largely because of that there have been people wearing long sleeves and jeans since i got here but i was always more than willing to trade extra cold for less heat. Now though i can spend the whole day perfectly comfortable, outside and in :)
Daylight savings
Daylight savings recently started here so now i am only an hour ahead of all of you on the pacific time zone (at least until your daylight savings). Im not very happy with how it has affected things though. I was really enjoying playing tennis before the sun came up and now it starts getting in our eyes around 8am. I suppose it is good practice but it can be a little annoying. I also don't like that it gets darker earlier now. It is pitch black outside pretty soon after 6 pm. It doesn't bother me that much, but usually i barely notice daylight savings, this is the first time it has bothered me.
Park Visit
Last weekend i went and visited parque chipinque with some friends. It is an ecological park where one can go hiking and look at the scenery. It was a ton of fun and a nice break from being in the city. Along the path there was a big slide made out of smooth concrete that we tried going down a few times and that was a lot of fun too.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is coming up soon and sadly i will not be able to celebrate it with family. It is possible however that i will get to celebrate it twice with friends. My friends at church and my friends that i went hiking with have decided celebrating thanksgiving would be a perfect way to send me off. Its still a little too early to tell if things are actually going to pan out, but if just one works i will be pretty happy :)
Exam week 3
This coming week is the last exam week (not counting finals) and its crazy to think about how fast the time has gone. I've been worried going into each of them but they have all turned out ok so far so i'm going to hope for the best. I think that regardless of what i do my thermo teacher will give me a 70 and in chemistry and society i have good enough grades not to have to stress too much about the tests. The one i'm always worried about is electricity and magnetism. I just need to put in a good amount of time studying this weekend. Typing of studying, i really should get back to doing it.
Thanks for reading everybody and wish me luck! :)
Ben Hamming
