Have you ever seen a kid throw another kid out of a classroom window? I have. Paper too, and backpacks and nail polish and anything else that was throwable.
Today was my first day in the history of my life where I was given a class entirely on my own, no other teacher in the room, nothing. 1st day entirely sola. And it was 8th grade. In Spanish. 15 minutes in the projectiles started. This was actually half of the class, as Miss Elena has taken the rest away to finish a test, so I had about 20 kids. I arranged them in a circle, explaining that I like circles beacuse we can all see eachother. This was a good decision, but it did not cease the pandemonium. We alternated reading as I saw fit. They talked over the readers and the readers read quietly. I took a cellphone. I still can´t believe they bring phones to class and use them constantly. Control was lost; I didn´t stand a chance. Then Aaron arrived to save the day, one of the seniors, whose class had been cancelled. He translated and helped me learn what the teacher normally does, because in this setting I really have no idea. Good thing he was there; it gave me hope. I don´t know how to handle this class, not at all. Nevertheless I consider it a good experience, and if nothing else they learned some things about me during our ask English questions to the native speaker time.
When I had made sufficient recovery (three hours of sleep in after lunch) I met Cristian to go to Sebatián´s birthday party in Valpo. Aside from being a fun and relaxed time, I realzed something after a couple of hours. I was sitting in a room with 12 Chileans, speaking Spanish at a normal rate (which is extremely fast for non-native speakers), the way they really talk, with slang. I understood. Not everything, but almost. I understood the Chileans. I UNDERSTOOD THE CHILEANS!! I could not only effectively communitcate, but I could communicate in a way that was not all about me struggling for the words; instead it was all about the subject of the conversation. I meshed into the conversation, did not cause transaltion interruptions. Reflect back to Dani´s birthday party, nearly 3 months ago, when I was in the same situation and understood just about nothing. My mind changed into Spanish faster today. 6 of us opted for dancing after, in the Port. Another excellent evening.
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