Ms. Falabella in Chile!

Talent and Travel!

2010-11-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hola Amigos!

Yesterday in Antofagasta we had an English talent show. 18 different schools participated in the show. Students sang songs, danced, performed plays, and recited poetry...all in English! It was a fun day and I was very proud of all the kids. One of my second grade classes sang some songs and two students sang a quick Mickey and Minnie song. Below are two videos of their performances.

Talent Show

Minnie and Mickey

Another one of my students, Nicolas, was the announcer for the show. He announced which acts would be coming next and did a fantastic job!

Nicolas and I

At school, I taught my students all about Halloween fun in the United States. We talked about costumes, candy, jack-o-lanterns, and scary things like haunted houses, ghosts, and spiders. We also practiced Halloween tongue twisters which was really fun! We are also working on pen pal letters for Mrs. Hovey and Mrs. Ackerman's classes.

Last weekend, I took a trip to a town called La Serena. My friends and I went on a tour of an island called Isla Damas. We saw all sorts of great animals like dolphins Video of the dolphins!, sea lions, and penguins! The penguins that live on this island are the smallest type of penguin in the world. Can you research and find out what they are called?

Lobos del Mar!

Delfines!

Pinguinos!

We also visited a valley called Elqui Valle where farmers grow lots of things like grapes, avacados, strawberries, papayas, mangoes, and potatoes. The valley was very beautiful and sunny!

Elqui Valley

I am almost finished teaching here in Chile. I have about 3 weeks left at my school. After that, I am traveling to Southern Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. I will be back in New Hampshire in December and will be sure to come in and visit Bicentennial before winter break :) See you soon!

Abrazos,

Ms. Falabella :)

Chiquillos de Chile

2010-10-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here is video of my students!

Chiquillos de Chile

Peru!

2010-10-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hola Amigos,

This past week I visited the country of Peru. I went to a lake called Laka Titicaca. It is on the border of Peru and Bolivia. This lake is very famous because it is the highest navigable lake in the world. The water at the deepest point of this lake is 900 feet deep! We took a boat out to visit some of the islands on the lake. There are floating islands made of reeds that people live on. There are about 50 floating islands in Lake Titicaca. The people here fish, eat, sleep, and even go to school on the islands! The children row boats made of reeds to get to get to school. Pretty neat! We also visited a larger island called Taquile Island. We hiked to the top and ate lunch with a local family. We had trout, rice, potatoes, and soup. All the food we ate came from the lake or from farms on the island. It was delicious! The people on the islands collect small amounts of electricity using solar panels. They do not have heat, running water, cars, televisions, computers, cell phones, or video games.

Woman and her baby selling hand made crafts on the floating islands

Women of the floating islands singing to us as we left!

A little school girl I met on Taquile Island

Video of women singing :)

Back in Antofagasta on Friday it was "Dia de profesor" (Teacher's day). The students put on a presentation for all the teachers. They danced and gave speeches about how much they appreciate their teachers. Each teacher was given a gift and we had a nice breakfast together. It was a fun day. The students all gave me hugs and said "feliz dia, miss!" (happy day, miss!). It was very sweet.

I hope you are all getting ready for Halloween! I am getting my costume ready and we are having a Halloween party next week. Please send me more questions, I love hearing from you!

Abrazos,
Ms. Falabella

Answers to student questions :)

2010-10-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hi class! Thanks so much for leaving me some questions. Here are the answers:

1. The food I like most here is called an empanada. Empanadas are a pastry-type of bread either fried or baked. The bread is stuffed with all kinds of different ingredients like cheese, meat, sea food and vegetables. Yum!

2. The most popular types of food in Chile are meat and rice. There is always lots of meat (chicken, pork, or beef) at every meal! They also always have some sort of rice and bread. Chileans also eat a lot of tomatoes and lettuce! In the city I live in we also eat a lot of seafood because we live right on the ocean. The fishermen catch fresh fish every day and sell it in the markets.

3. I live in the desert so you're right, there isn't a lot of water! The tap water is not good to drink (it will make me sick) so I don't drink it. Instead I need to buy lots of bottled water, and it is very expensive. Every day I walk to the market and buy a big bottle of water! I also drink a lot of tea and juice.

4. There is phone service here. People use cell phones just like at home. I do have a cell phone here but it only works to call Chile :) To talk with my friends and family at home, I use Skype to call them from my computer.

5. Great research! Yes, there are a lot of volcanoes here. I have seen many of them and luckily none of them have erupted! That would be very scary!

Here is a picture of one volcanoe I've seen!

Thanks so much for the great questions! On Friday, October 8th, I am traveling to the country of Peru. I am going to a town called Puno. It is on a very famous lake called Lake Titicaca. This lake has a very silly name but it is very important. An ancient tribe of people used to live on this lake. See if you can find out who they were!

Abrazos,
Ms. Falabella :)

Valle de la Luna y Bicentenerio

2010-09-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend my Chilean family and I celebrated el Bicentenerio (the Bicentennial). We traveled to a place called Valle de la Luna. This is the driest place on Earth and is also very hot! It is a big desert that is very beautiful. The sky is the brightest color blue I have ever seen! Can you find out what "luna" means in Spanish? I will give you a hint...NASA has tested gear used for landing in Valle de la Luna.

I also went to an asado (Chilean bbq) with some friends. We ate lots of delicious food! We danced and played the trompo, which is a traditional game of Chile. The picture below is of me playing the trompo. It is a wooden top that you spin and do tricks with. It is very fun!

Here I am with the backpack the friends in my class last year gave me to use on my adventure. It has been very useful over the past two months! I have also included a picture of me and one of my students, Sophia. She is in 3rd grade and loves learning English! This week is the beginning of a new season. In New Hampshire, fall is beginning! What season in beginning in Chile?

Chao Amigos,

Ms. Falabella :)

Las Banderas

2010-09-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends! I have had a very busy week. September is a very important month in Chile. Everyone is getting ready for the big Bicentennial celebration! (Bicentennial is a word that mean 200 year anniversary, and of course, also the name of our school). There is food, music, dancing, and lots and lots of fun with family and friends. There are Chilean flags everywhere! The Chilean flag looks the same as one of the state flags from the United States. Can you figure out which state has the same flag as the country of Chile? Today, I am leaving Antofagasta and going to a town called Iquique. It will be a long bus ride, about 7 hours. But, I am excited to see another new place. Can you look on a map and find out which direction I will be traveling? Look at Iquique's location and see if you can guess what things I might do while I'm there :) At school, some of my students and I are working on writing pen pal letters to Mrs. Hovey's and Mrs. Ackerman's classes. The kiddos here are learning lots of new English words to ask questions about American students. They are very curious about all of you! I hope you are enjoying the beginning of the school year!

-Ms. Falabella :)

El Rey y La Reyna

2010-08-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! The first day of school is already here for all my Bicentennial friends. I hope everyone had a fabulous day :) I heard it was very hot! This week my school crowned the rey y reyna (king and queen) of the school. The girls wore fancy dresses and the boys wore suits. They even ballroom danced! It was very fun to see. Today I taught some of my students the months of the year song and the days of the week song, too! They love to sing (even the 8th graders)!

The weather says that tomorrow it is going to rain here. Antofagasta is in the driest region in the whole world! It hadn't rained in ten years until about 2 weeks ago. They even canceled school because of the rain. I will have to wait and see if it rains again!

On the beaches in Antofagasta there are "lobos del mar." The picture above is of los lobos sunning themselves on a dock. Can you find out what type of animal the "lobos del mar" are? I will give you a clue: they are not wolves!

Chao mis amigos!
Ms. Falabella :)

We love to dance!

2010-08-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

9 more days until the first day of school! I hope you all are getting excited for a new year. I know Mrs. Poloski is ready to meet you and begin the school year :) Here in Chile, I have been working hard teaching the kiddos English. I am teaching them important phrases and also some English slang words like "awesome, cool, sweet, and wicked!" They love these words and think they are very funny to say. Below is a video of some of my students dancing. The dance they are doing is the national dance of Chile. They practiced for many days to prepare for this competition. Can you find out what the national dance of Chile is called? Before the competition began, I taught them how to say "we love to dance!" It was a fun day!

Students dancing Chile's national dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mePWFzQiFu4

Chao amigos,
Ms. Falabella :)

2010-08-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Hola Amigos! I started teaching at my new school in Antofagasta. It is called Escuela Ecuador. I am teaching classes in 3rd-8th grade. Each class has about 40 students in it! The school is very big and has mostly outside hallways. This week, the school is celebrating their anniversario (anniversary) of the school's opening. This means that there is lots of singing, dancing, and assemblies. The students' here are not very well behaved! They are loud and like to interrupt. I miss my lovely students at Bicentennial! The students here are also preparing for the big celebration for Chile's Independence day. Can you research and find out when Chile's Indpendence day is? The picture above is a group of students practicing with their school band on the beach! Enjoy your last few weeks of summer.

-Ms. Falabella :)

2010-07-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

31 de julio 2010

Hola! Here is a picture of the whole group of teachers in Chile with my right now.
Yesterday I found out that I will be living in the city of Antofagasta. The region I will be in is also called Antofagasta. This is the 2nd largest city in Chile and has 300,000 people! I also learned that I will be teaching in an elementary school. I will be living with a husband and wife who are both teachers. I am so excited to live with two teachers who can teach me all about what school is like in Chile! We will leave Santiago on Monday afternoon and travel by bus 20 hours (that's almost a full day!)to Antofagasta. Can you find out what direction (north, south, east, west) we will be traveling? How many miles will we travel? Two of my new friends, Dana and Jordan, will also be living in Antofagasta.

Today, I am leaving Santiago for the day and going to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. These are two very popular cities about 2 hours south of Santiago. They are famous for their beautiful beaches. I miss bagels, iced coffee, vegetables (they don’t have many), and the warm weather. Can you find out what season it is in Chile right now? I also miss my friends, family, and of course Bicentennial!

-Ms. Falabella

Hasta Luego!

2010-07-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

I am off to Chile today! Here I am with my backpack and the Chilean flag, all ready to go :) I am flying into the capital of Chile. Can you find what the capital city is called? I hope you are all enjoying your summer!

-Ms. Falabella

Hola!

2010-07-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hello parents and kiddos! I will be teaching English in Northern Chile from July-December this year. I will be returning to Bicentennial in January, after winter break. I will be updating this blog as much as possible to keep you informed about where I am and what I am doing. I will be adding pictures and stories about my adventures. I hope you are able to check in every once in a while!

The region I will be living in is called Antofagasta. Can you find this city on a map? Look online and see if you can find out more about it!

Ms. Falabella :)