end of term

Chile lost to Brazil, which everyone expected, though I think people were hoping for better than 3-0. The U.S. lost to Ghana 2-1, which my students try to make fun of me for, and they again have trouble interpreting when I say the U.S. team played really badly.

This week I will have taught exactly one class, which was Tuesday: Monday was a holiday, the first class yesterday was finishing up giving my test, and for the rest of the week, they'll be taking Marcela's test, except for one class tomorrow which has to finish my test. Next week is the week before winter vacation, so I'm guessing concentration won't be high.

It's just as well. I am crabby and irritable from trying to get any kind of aikido training going, and I can use the vacation. The weekend of the 10th I'll be down in

Termas de Chillán with the WorldTeach gang, and then to Easter Island for a couple days, and then to Mendoza, Argentina, to drink coffee and eat steak. (I hear it's pretty, too. And cheap. Did I mention the steak?) The final weekend of break I'll be in Santiago, doing an aikido seminar and drinking with the July WorldTeach volunteers after telling them whatever plausible lies I can think of about the place they've committed to for four months.

• "Yeah, I shake a recluse spider out of my shoes about twice a week."
• "We haven't had a 7.0 earthquake since...what, Monday? Pretty rare."
• "Just be careful about what you say. Chilean host families often expect volunteers to marry their eldest eligible child."

For some reason, I was never on the list to do Admissions tours in college, either.