I'm starting to get old--I turned 25 today! I'm not usually one to make a big deal out of birthdays, but somehow I'd let it slip to my morning class (the "nice" class--so called because we had to introduce ourselves on the first day and every single person said "I am nice." I also have my "cat class," but that's another story). Anyway, I really like my morning class, but it can get frustrating because it starts at 8:30 a.m., and hardly anyone ever shows up on time. We don't usually get started into the lesson until almost 9:00!
Which is why I was surprised when I arrived to my classroom around 8:20 Monday morning to find almost half of the class already there! Not only were they in the classroom, they had decorated it with purple balloons (my favorite color--they remembered!). As I walked in, they all yelled "surprise!" And boy, was I surprised! Then, they pulled out a big cake (manjar flavor, of course), and topped it off with candles in the shape of the number "25." When the rest of the class arrived, the lit the candles and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me--in English! After the song, they all started yelling "que lo muerde, que lo muerde!" Apparently, it's a tradition in Chile that before cutting the cake, the birthday-er takes a big bite out of it. I was a bit confused, but they wouldn't stop yelling until I took a bite. It was pretty delicious! And I managed to get frosting all over my face, which they of course found very hilarious. Turns out I was pretty lucky, because the second part of the tradition is that someone comes up behind you and shoves your whole face into the cake. My students were courteous enough to forgo that cultural lesson for the day.
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I had planned a short reading activity for the day, but had already tried it in other classes without much luck, so I decided just to go with the flow and continue with the party. The students had take a survey on the first day where I let them ask me any question they wanted. I took the opportunity to pull out the survey and answer their questions. Since quite a few of the students in this class also took me last semester, a lot of the questions were about Scott and the wedding. Unfortunately, I didn't have much information to give them on that subject, but at least they got some new vocabulary out of it! Some of them also asked about what my life was like in the U.S., so I pulled up some photos of Wisconsin in winter and even let them see some of my baby photos. They really enjoyed that part! They wanted to know what people do for fun in the U.S., so I pulled up a youtube video of some good, old-fashioned Texan line-dancing. Some of the previous students remembered me showing some last semester, and specifically requested that I play "the big belt song." For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is "Cotton-Eyed Joe"--a part of the dance to this song requires that you grab your belt buckle and show it off. Texans understand the importance of this gesture quite well, but I had an interesting time trying to explain it to my Chilean students (by the way, don't try to Google it--"Texas Belt Buckle" can also apparently have another definition that is not classroom-appropriate).
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A few students tried to do some line-dancing with me (I'm so glad I lived in Texas and can show off that type of dancing--it's the only type I can manage!). Then, they showed me the traditional Chilean dance, the cueca. A couple of them were actually really good at it! One girl in particular had some excellent cueca skills, and the rest of the class began to make fun of her. She retorted back that she was the only good Chilean in the class, as it should be a national duty to learn the dance. Surprisingly, this quieted down the heckling, if only temporarily. Of course, after the demonstration, I was expected to attempt the dance as well. As I've mentioned, dancing is not my forté, but I gave it a try anyway. A couple students filmed it on their phones, but luckily no evidence has appeared on the internet as of yet.
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We spent the remainder of the class enjoying the snacks that the students had brought and searching the internet for strange cultural customs to share with one another. I think I won the contest when I showed the picture of the American "walking" his dog from his car (thanks to Scott for finding that one). So, while the day may not have been the most productive in terms of language acquisition, I think I can safely say that there were some good cultural lessons (especially for me!). It was a great start to my birthday--thanks to my amazing students! While that was the only class that threw a full-out party for me, I did get songs from the others. A couple students even gave me chocolate as gifts! One class of boys offered me a striptease, although I did have to politely decline that generous offer. Even the school gave me a present--a coffee mug with the school logo printed on it. All in all, I must say it was definitely one of my more memorable birthdays! Thanks to everyone who contributed--I felt very special that day!
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