Teachers' Day dinner

[Clearing out some backlog. I wrote this on October 14, 2010.]

The faculty all went out for the Teachers' Day dinner, at a charming little banquet hall. I sat with the same people I always sit with: Oscar, Ximena, Sara, Gladys, Pamela, Jorge, José.

We eventually developed an extremely heated discussion, mostly between Oscar and Jorge, about the Chilean educational system--universal agreement that it's broken, but there's lots to discuss about why, and how to fix it. After joining in for a while, I broke it up with a toast:

"I'd like to offer a toast: the thing that strikes me, is that you all care. This all matters to all of you, and that's what's important."

That started the toasts, including this gem:

Que nunca nos enamoremos; si enamoramos, que nunca se casemos; si nos casamos, que nunca nos engañemos; si nos engañamos, que no nos importa.

May we never fall in love; if we fall in love, may we never marry; if we marry, may we never cheat on each other; if we cheat, may we not care.

After another one, I said that I had an Irish (I think) toast, which of course I had to translate (into Chilean--other dialects won't use pololas):

A nuestras esposas y pololas: que nunca se conozcan.

To our wives and girlfriends: may they never meet.

They collapsed, laughing.