Three weeks left!

Yikes. Time is flying. Here's some quick updates on the Prince Johansson household.

Theo and Grace finished up with year-end exams with "lenguaje" (grammar and language arts) this Monday and "matemática" this Wednesday. There were 6 or 7 pages of written work for the lenguaje - Gracie's hand hurt afterward and Theo showed me his writing blister. As far as math, they both claim they are part of a small minority that enjoys it. Yay! Really, Dan and I couldn't be prouder of these two - they both worked so hard this year. They've come so far from their first week of school when they could hardly understand anything, to now, when they are doing great in all their classes. Theo even corrects my Spanish from time to time now and they both speak with a Chilean accent.

Theo's soccer team also finished up the year with a great "Championship" game, in which they won. Theo was on fire and had a great game. Grace and Theo have also been caught up the table tennis fever that has swept their school. Sometimes, when the other has an after school class, I'll stay and play ping pong with them for an hour and a half. Theo finally beat me too! Next week, they will finish up school on Wednesday. And Thursday and Friday are all day outings that parents have organized for their respective classrooms.

Dan's work days continue along, although he is bracing himself to give up his 5 step commute to the desk with the ocean view. He also is really enjoying his time with his running group twice a week and the fact that they run along the beach at sunset. I'm not sure it gets more beautiful than that. There's a family fun run Saturday here in town, for which he's hoping to convince the kids and our friends Jenny, Jon, and their girls, to participate.

Jenny, Jon, Solana and Franny, our good friends from Minneapolis, who are living in Mendoza this year, are on their way back for one more visit this weekend. Jenny is running her first marathon, "la maraton costa pacifica 2012". We're all excited to cheer her on and I might even jump in for a very short distance of support running.

I'm wrapping things up with my various projects. I've been at the print shop, spiral-bounding my 60 page organizational analysis to turn in. I've also been making arrangements for our last Chilean trip. We're heading down to Patagonia next Saturday - as far south as we can go, short of Antarctica. We'll be hiking for four days in the Torres del Paine Park. We're thrilled although our hiking plans may include rain, snow, gail force winds and very strong sun (as the hole in the ozone is quite large there). Given that some of us will be in jeans and tennis shoes, we're feeling somewhat ill-equipped, but optimistic nevertheless. We're hoping for more penguin sightings.

Finally, I'm starting to gear up for what's next for me once I arrive back to Minnesota. I am considering going back to graduate school for a mid-career organizational development degree. So, I am spending a lot of time on the internet and on skype, doing research and talking to folks about program options (feel free to send suggestions).

A busy time for us, all with the backdrop that the end of our year is drawing near. We haven't really started to fully process our upcoming transition, but I think we all have a sense of what a wonderful year we've had.

With great appreciation,
Laura

photos: Gracie with her teacher Dorys and friends, the Champion soccer team!, what I think must be a clematis (wow!), some photos Gracie took on a recent walk around our neighborhood.

A Chilean Thanksgiving

On last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we had a party to celebrate. We invited all our Chilean friends as kind of a goodbye party/Thanksgiving gathering.

My mom made tons of traditional food and people brought other Chilean food to share. Unfortunately, we didn't have a full turkey- but instead deli slices of turkey. We also didn't have cranberries or pumpkins, but my Mom made squash pie. You couldn't tell the difference from pumpkin pie (I thought it was the real thing).

People also shared their talents, like singing and playing instruments. Some people had to sit outside because so many people showed up and we didn't have enough room for everyone.

It was kind of disappointing not to have some of the traditional foods or be with our family, but it was still fun to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends here.

Sincerely,
Grace

p.s. Mom says that the reenactment of the first Thanksgiving by us kids was the best part of the evening. See picture of Theo as dead turkey on the floor.

Another "seasonal disorientation"

Just look at these '"damascos" - apricots! (I just have to share that this is about a kilo of apricots, which cost about $1.50!). For goodness sakes - it's strawberry and cherry season here. Surely it can't be Thanksgiving tomorrow. Another seasonal disorientation experience.

No family in sight, no cranberries, no whole turkey, and no pumpkins to be had. No holiday lights to get up or last storm windows to put on. No trip to the North Shore to hike along Cascade Falls. No cold weather or chance of snow. It's in the 70's and gorgeous almost every day now. Really there is no Thanksgiving in Chile - or as its known in Spanish - Día de Acción de Gracias. I guess no marketing money to be made, so Thanksgiving hasn't made the export list.

So we are reconciling our seasonal disorientation and making the best of things. Although Dan has the next two days off, the kids have end of year exams all week. I have a parents' meeting at school tomorrow night (yep, on Thanksgiving). So the kids and I are business as usual tomorrow.

But Friday night, we've invited our Chilean "family" to join us for a night of feasting, giving thanks, music and poetry. I'm currently baking a zapallo (it looks like its in the squash/pumpkin family) with hopes of turning it into something akin to a pumpkin pie and the kids are considering a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving. Should be...fun, hilarious, interesting. We'll keep you posted.

And we really have so much to be thankful for this year. Enjoy your special day tomorrow. We are sending our warm greetings to all.

Love,
Laura

p.s. we'll try to turn skype on in the evening

pps. Yes, those are zucchinis or "zapallo italianos".

You want me to do what?

Surely there was a misunderstanding when I suggested helping with a facilitation workshop (aka; getting signatures, setting up the papers, coordinating the admin, etc.) and Isabel wrote back that I would be co-facilitating a 4 day workshop in Spanish!

I thought I would clear up the misunderstanding and instead I had a great time facilitating.

More than 10 years ago, I trained with folks from the Institute of Cultural Affairs, now they form the Minnesota Technology of Participation or MnTop. I've used the participatory methods over the years in my work and it was a great opportunity to share them as part of a project here with ICA Chile to train disabled folks all over the country.

Isabel de la Maza was my co-facilitator and my mentor for the week. I am so appreciative of the opportunity she gave me and for the wonderful chats each day as we drove about an hour up and then down the coast to the small town of Quintero for the training.

The folks at TAC Cordillera, for whom I recently did the organizational analysis, also had Isabel and me help them with some strategic planning one evening.

It was a long week and probably the most extended time I've been immersed in Spanish this year. It was a pleasure and wonderful for my Spanish skills. The experience also made me realize how much I'm looking forward to working out in the community again.

Cheers,
Laura

StarTechConf in Santiago

Fellow geeks on a coffee break in Santiago (image from here)

One of the advantages of living here this year is that we're only a two-hour bus ride from Santiago, one of the biggest cities in South America.  Big tech conferences don't often come to Minneapolis, but two weeks ago Santiago played host to famous software geeks from all over the world.  I was one of the lucky 1000 people to get a ticket.

There were the usual talks about new techniques and new technologies, and a few interesting forums on Chile-specific projects.  The coolest thing from my perspective was the international flavor of it.  There were 3 series of talks going on simultaneously, with one track mostly in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish.  It was like the United Nations, everyone with an electronic gadget hanging around their neck and an earpiece in their ear.  Other than the delayed reaction of the audience when the speaker told a joke or asked a question, it all went remarkably smoothly.  I met some cool people and learned a lot, including a bunch of new Spanish vocabulary having to do with computers and technology.

Thanks to all the hard-working volunteers who organized the conference!

A weekend of foreign visits - some unexpected!

We had a weekend of foreign visits.

Friday night we invited Eric MacDonald over for dinner. Eric is an electrical engineer on Fulbright from the University in El Paso, Texas. He is teaching at the University of Santa Maria, aka Hogwarts (its a beautiful castle-like university that overlooks the ocean here).

We ran into each other on the long climb up one night and as his family had just returned to the States, we invited him for a family dinner. Here's their family blog: The Year of Three Winters. We had a great time with Eric, although he was feeling perhaps more homesick by the end of the dinner...leaving us to go skype with his six kids.

Then, on Saturday night we stopped to talk to some bikers who were clearly on a long trip - an unusual site in Chile. Turns out they are from Ecuador, doing a tour of South America over the next two years. Mario is a bike enthusiast and somewhat of a photojournalist. They are fundraising by selling stickers and bracelets $2-$3 at a time. Mostly, they are relying on the help of strangers and having all sorts of amazing adventures.

So, Mario and César stayed with us the rest of the weekend and regaled us with their stories. Here's their blog site, check it out ::..:: BICIECUADOR ::..:: .

Opening our doors to strangers was a leap of faith for us, but we are very familiar with getting lots of help in our travels from strangers and so it felt like the right thing to do.

Our best to everyone,
Laura

Start clowning around!

We keep hearing loud cheering crowds far off and late into evenings this week. We're not sure if its related to continuing protests or perhaps the 3rd International Meetings of Clowns! :-)

Yesterday, Theo and I ran over to a public show of Tuga, the mime vs. Chumbeque, the clown. It was fantastic! We sat with the rest of the crowd on the really hot cobblestones in the heat of the late afternoon in the Plaza Anibél Pinto and laughed our heads off. Tuga and Chumbeque are locals and definitely household names in this town. In fact, Chumbeque's son is in Grace's class this year. It's a common site to see a crowd suddenly gathering around a plaza and at the center is Tuga, the mime, doing an "intervention". Chileans love these guys and with reason. Can you imagine a mime being a household name in the States? Perhaps that was possible in another less busy, less cynical era.

¡Upa Chalupa! (I just love how that sounds). :-)
Laura