one last get-together

We had the WorldTeach Mid-Service Conference this weekend. There was one of the group almost no one had seen since we left Santiago in early April, so there was a real sense of completeness to have everyone together again. It's amazing to think we're halfway through the experience, and that this is the last formal gathering until our good-bye dinner in Santiago in November.

(For me, it's also amazing to think that I'm planning to go to Tassajara for three months after this. It's a long time away from Anna. Ugh.)

With everyone in the same room, both for formal sessions and not, we discovered that we've all had pretty much the same problems with teaching: we've made many of the same adjustments from what we learned during orientation in March, and to accommodate the realities of Chilean education. For example, Allyson taught us how to write good, simple directions for our activities, to help the kids keep track of what they're doing. But it turns out that having written directions doesn't work for any of us, so we don't do it.

The Spain vs. Netherlands game was technically amazing, though I went and took a nap for about an hour of it, because, well, I was tired, and I'm American and soccer just doesn't get my adrenaline up enough to keep me going. Spain scored the only goal with just a few minutes left in the overtime period.

I eventually decided to go to Valdivia, like Steve and Bennett, but rather than arrive at a new city at 12:45 A.M., I decided to spend the night in Chillan (with Jeremy and Leigh Ann, as it happened) and leave Tuesday morning. We had a nice dinner at the Sociedad de Empleados de Comercio--unions often run restaurants here, like a VFW hall or something--then slept peacefully at Hostal Canada' and had an uneventful departure for our 7-hour bus rides, them back home to Ventanas, and me to Valdivia.