So, I was thinking about it, and if you want to see the videos on YouTube, I think you´d be better off searching jkhouri87 and then selecting the videos...otherwise, you get a bunch of other stuff that has nothing to do with the Hogar. Just a helpful hint :)
Chau!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
So I thought I´d take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
While this amazing American holiday hasn't quite made it to the Southern Hemisphere, I have been getting very warm wishes from my Chilean friends, including a Charlie Brown video on Facebook (which made me smile).
I also thought I'd catch you all up on my activities the last week or so.
On Monday, I took my last History exam (actually, my last exam PERIOD!) and feel I did pretty well...at least, a great deal better than I did on my Education exam a few weeks prior (going to see the grade tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed). Tuesday I finished my poetry project and started my group project in Education. We got about half way through, and should be finishing up on Saturday. I have also started my Education paper which this blog is helping me procrastinate for (haha), but as the topic is really interesting, I feel I should be motivated to finish it some time in the next few days.
Last night, I attended the Hogar del Nino Sirio y Palestino end of the year show. All the girls performed, some by reciting poetry, almost all Arabic dancing as well as some other dancing, and singing. Macarena, the graduating senior, gave a very touching speech on the occasion of her graduation as well (she graduated from a technical high school with a degree in auto-repair, something she greatly enjoys).
The night was full of good food, good entertainment, and good fellowship and it was the greatest feeling watching the girls I've grown so close to perform dances they've been working hard on all year. I think leaving the Hogar is going the be the most difficult part of coming home, and each of the girls has found a way into my heart. (Editor's Advisory: all family and friends be prepared for very long picture/story sessions about each of the girls at the Hogar probably in way more detail than you really want to know...LOL).
For those of you who would like to see a little bit of the show last night, the dances and songs have been posted to YouTube...if you search for "Hogar del Niño, Fin del Año", they should be like the first four or five videos (you will know it's them because it will say "Posted by jkhouri87" - that's me).
Anyway, I wish you all God's blessings on this day, and hope each of you have a marvelous celebration :)
While this amazing American holiday hasn't quite made it to the Southern Hemisphere, I have been getting very warm wishes from my Chilean friends, including a Charlie Brown video on Facebook (which made me smile).
I also thought I'd catch you all up on my activities the last week or so.
On Monday, I took my last History exam (actually, my last exam PERIOD!) and feel I did pretty well...at least, a great deal better than I did on my Education exam a few weeks prior (going to see the grade tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed). Tuesday I finished my poetry project and started my group project in Education. We got about half way through, and should be finishing up on Saturday. I have also started my Education paper which this blog is helping me procrastinate for (haha), but as the topic is really interesting, I feel I should be motivated to finish it some time in the next few days.
Last night, I attended the Hogar del Nino Sirio y Palestino end of the year show. All the girls performed, some by reciting poetry, almost all Arabic dancing as well as some other dancing, and singing. Macarena, the graduating senior, gave a very touching speech on the occasion of her graduation as well (she graduated from a technical high school with a degree in auto-repair, something she greatly enjoys).
The night was full of good food, good entertainment, and good fellowship and it was the greatest feeling watching the girls I've grown so close to perform dances they've been working hard on all year. I think leaving the Hogar is going the be the most difficult part of coming home, and each of the girls has found a way into my heart. (Editor's Advisory: all family and friends be prepared for very long picture/story sessions about each of the girls at the Hogar probably in way more detail than you really want to know...LOL).
For those of you who would like to see a little bit of the show last night, the dances and songs have been posted to YouTube...if you search for "Hogar del Niño, Fin del Año", they should be like the first four or five videos (you will know it's them because it will say "Posted by jkhouri87" - that's me).
Anyway, I wish you all God's blessings on this day, and hope each of you have a marvelous celebration :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Haha, forgot something
Haha, so I forgot the best news of all!! For those of you who don't know, I've been having serious issues both with my senior thesis (my advising professor left the university) and with my ESL endorsement (one class short, not offered again for another whole year). Yesterday, I received an email from another professor who has agreed to advise my thesis and refund any books I purchase here in Chile specifically for research, and today I received an email from the assistant Dean of Education agreeing to approve me for student teaching and offering me various ways out of my class dilemma. So thank you for all your prayers! These emails have reduced my stress load by like 1000x.
Chao for now!
Chao for now!
Updates!!
As the semester is coming to a close, I have been extremely busy with final projects and exams, hence the lack of writing lately. However, I would like to take a few minutes to give you all a quick update on how things have been going these last couple of weeks.
As I said, school is keeping me really busy. I think I have something like 8 evaluations (tests or papers) within the next two weeks...on top of reading. So that'll be keeping me pretty homebound at least until Thanksgiving (which, unfortunately, I think I will be missing this year :( ).
On the church front, Fr. Francisco has asked our choir to record a CD with various church songs in Spanish for the parish to listen to during Christmas Lent. We have been having extra practices, which has been a lot of fun for me to help out with as well, and we are planning to record on Friday (place your orders now if you're interested!).
Also, today I went to the opening of a Russian Cinema Festival, which was unfortunately composed of very strange avante guarde type movies that I don't really understand (we left early); on the upside, I made away with a bunch of free DVD's, including a documentary on a monastery in Russia, so I'm excited to watch those! I'm not sure what language it's in and/or what subtitles are available, but should be fun anyway :)
Teaching is getting a little better, but still very difficult as the nice weather makes students restless. I'm using more English in the classroom (that's a good thing, since it's English class), but it's still very difficult because the students still don't understand very much. Only two or three more weeks of that, however.
The weather has been gorgeous (80s), so I've really been enjoying that, and am not happy about coming home to snow...brrrrrr. Just trying to take as much advantage of the weather as possible.
I think that about covers it for now. Haven't been taking many more pictures, because I haven't really gone anywhere, but please let me know if there's something you want pictures of (I know Frank likes Ferreterías), just let me know.
I love you all and hope to hear from some of you soon!
Besitos a todos!!
As I said, school is keeping me really busy. I think I have something like 8 evaluations (tests or papers) within the next two weeks...on top of reading. So that'll be keeping me pretty homebound at least until Thanksgiving (which, unfortunately, I think I will be missing this year :( ).
On the church front, Fr. Francisco has asked our choir to record a CD with various church songs in Spanish for the parish to listen to during Christmas Lent. We have been having extra practices, which has been a lot of fun for me to help out with as well, and we are planning to record on Friday (place your orders now if you're interested!).
Also, today I went to the opening of a Russian Cinema Festival, which was unfortunately composed of very strange avante guarde type movies that I don't really understand (we left early); on the upside, I made away with a bunch of free DVD's, including a documentary on a monastery in Russia, so I'm excited to watch those! I'm not sure what language it's in and/or what subtitles are available, but should be fun anyway :)
Teaching is getting a little better, but still very difficult as the nice weather makes students restless. I'm using more English in the classroom (that's a good thing, since it's English class), but it's still very difficult because the students still don't understand very much. Only two or three more weeks of that, however.
The weather has been gorgeous (80s), so I've really been enjoying that, and am not happy about coming home to snow...brrrrrr. Just trying to take as much advantage of the weather as possible.
I think that about covers it for now. Haven't been taking many more pictures, because I haven't really gone anywhere, but please let me know if there's something you want pictures of (I know Frank likes Ferreterías), just let me know.
I love you all and hope to hear from some of you soon!
Besitos a todos!!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Arica Photos
So, here's the link to the photos I took from Arica. As my camera petered out (again) part way through, I am going to try to bum some photos from my friends as well, and will add those as I get them. Hope you like them!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/AricaIquique#
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/AricaIquique#
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 4/5
Sunday morning, we took a taxi to the bus station where we caught the first bus to Iquique. 5 hours on a bus is not fun, and we were all very grateful we had flown from Santiago instead of the possibly cheaper option of taking the 28 hour bus ride (that would have been aweful!). We got to Iquique about lunch time, enjoyed the cities specialty (seafood!!), and then went grocery shopping for some home cooked dinner.
We were staying at the Backpacker's Hostel, which is a chain of hostels specifically designed for (go figure) backpackers. We had access to the kitchen, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. After shopping, my friends took a trip paragliding and as I am not quite so brave, I contented myself to reading on the beach and walking through waves - which was plenty of fun for me :)
We all ended up back at the hostel in time to start dinner. In the process, we met a lot of fellow traveler's from around the world, including the US, England, and France. It was fun sharing experiences, as we had all definitely been in Chile longer than most of them, and could share some very helpful tips. For dinner, we cooked some improv Indian food (yay for my friend travelling with Marsala mix) and then made a dessert of chocolate dipped fruit - a big hit with everyone in the hostel!
We spent the evening hanging out and talking, and got to bed late, but happy overall with our trip.
Monday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. As I didn't get home in time for class that day, I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping, which was well needed after our trip.
Anyway, that's the Arica trip. Pictures will be in the next post, so I hope you enjoy them.
We were staying at the Backpacker's Hostel, which is a chain of hostels specifically designed for (go figure) backpackers. We had access to the kitchen, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. After shopping, my friends took a trip paragliding and as I am not quite so brave, I contented myself to reading on the beach and walking through waves - which was plenty of fun for me :)
We all ended up back at the hostel in time to start dinner. In the process, we met a lot of fellow traveler's from around the world, including the US, England, and France. It was fun sharing experiences, as we had all definitely been in Chile longer than most of them, and could share some very helpful tips. For dinner, we cooked some improv Indian food (yay for my friend travelling with Marsala mix) and then made a dessert of chocolate dipped fruit - a big hit with everyone in the hostel!
We spent the evening hanging out and talking, and got to bed late, but happy overall with our trip.
Monday morning, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Santiago. As I didn't get home in time for class that day, I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping, which was well needed after our trip.
Anyway, that's the Arica trip. Pictures will be in the next post, so I hope you enjoy them.
Trip to Arica and Iquique - Day 3
Saturday morning, we ate a very yummy breakfast of qunoa and hot milk (like a cream of wheat type thing), coca tea, and bread/butter. We then continued our trip up to the precordillera. We stopped on various occasions for pictures of the llamas, vacuñas, and alpacas, as well as in a couple smaller towns for a glimpse of atacameñan culture. About late morning, we reached Lake Chungara and the Parinacota volcano. Absolutely gorgeous (pictures coming soon)! Situated at 20, 413 feet, it was DEFINITELY high up! walking from the van to the edge of the lake (about 50 feet) was enough to leave us all breathless and dizzy - but totally worth it! After having our fill of picture taking, we stopped for a leisurely lunch nearby, where we also had a chance to buy various handicrafts made from alpaca wool, and then began the 5 hour descent back to Arica. As we quickly learned, the trip down is definitely harder than the trip up...all of us (including our driver) almost fell asleep on various occasions due to the altitude change. But, we made it safe and sound, bought our bus tickets for Iquique the next day, went out to dinner, and got to go clothes shopping in one of the cheapest cities in Chile for clothes (knock-off skirts for less than $4, for example). As we checked in to our hostel that night (the same as the first night), we were given a significant upgrade in rooms, which definitely made the stay a great deal more enjoyable.
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