For my classmates and teacher

Hi guys, I'm kind of sad at this point of the semester because the it comes to an end. Especially because this is the last level in lincc I know it's going to be hard to see most of you again. I must confess that the first day of class I thought this class was going to be too quiet and bored but now I have to tell you that everyone has put their own grain of sand to make of this class a wonderful one. Each of you with their own personality, customs, culture and language had put my life in a higher level. I feel so rich with the experience that I got only by having the chance to share 20 hours a week with you, damn 20 hours a week is a lot. I'm really going to miss you! I want to wish all of you the best and I hope you succeed as you expect and beyond.

Christmas 2010

Usually Christmas get me so depress for several reasons. First, days are too short, I can't stand the idea that at 4:30 is completely dark. Second, it's the coldest season of the year. In my country, Christmas is during the summer, with long and warm days. And the third and most important is that I'm far from my parents, grandparents and sisters. But this year, My Christmas is going to be so especial. My parents are coming to visit me from Chile. I haven't seen them for 5 years. I think it's going to be especial for them too because it's the first time they come to the states. Also because the last time they saw my son, he was 8 years old and now he's 13, what a change! I'm so excited and happy about it. I wish all of you a happy merry christmas!!!

Thanksgiving

Hi there. In my country, obviously we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I think that's nothing new for any of us in the class right?. We know now very well that it's an American Holiday. But what's new for me about Thanksgiving, besides the date? I was so surprised about this holiday the first time I celebrate it. To be more specific, about the food. I never tried or saw before cranberries, that kind of stuffing and sweet potatoes. This is really new for me. In my country, we use to eat turkey every Christmas, with apple sauce and something similar to ashbrown. By the way, I loved cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes baked with syrup, cinamon and marshmallows. Of course, now wherever I go I bring my chilean contribution for desert, flan :-)

The Chilean Antarctica

Hi guys. I'm presenting to you the georgeous Antartica. It the Earth's southernmost continent in the South Pole. It's the fifth largest continent after Asia, Africa, North America and South America. 98% of Antarctica is covered with ice, that's why it's considered the coldest, driest and windest territory in the world. Chile claims about 9% of this territory and has a military based named "Base O'Higgins" which you can see in the picture with the red building. An average of 130 people live there. These are militaries that are sent there to live for a couple of months with their families. In the picture you can see the Emperor penguin that lives there too. This is a nice scenery to see in pictures because I don't think I'll never go there. It's not easy for me to survive in such a cold weather brrrr.... I'd freeze inmediately.

Ice Skating

Hi everyone. I'm going to talk to you about my experience when I went ice skating. My cousing gave to me and my son a pair of skating shoes two Christmas ago. My son was so excited to learn to ice skate because we never did it before. So one or two days after Christmas my son, my cousin and I went to South Seaport Ice Rink. Oh my God, I was so scared because I saw people falling down in the hard frozen floor, but it wasn't the worst. The most terrible was that they couldn't stand up by themselve again. My cousin already know how to ice skate and she taught it to my son. He learned very fast after one hour or so. What I did was that I didn't go far from the wall that you see in the picture. I was going around the rink of course but all the time was attached to the wall. It was so funny because sometimes there were other people like me attached to the wall to avoid to fall down and some people standing outside the rink was holding my hand to help me to keep going! I can deal with other obstacles but slippery floor no way!

The perfect storm

Hi there, my father is a sailor. He works in a fishing ship. He's in charge of the ship's engine. They catch the best fish in the Pacific Ocean and send it to this country and Canada. This picture was taken when they were crossing a gulf in the south of Chile. Usually the trip takes about 3 days but if there is a storm across the sea they can stay until 2 weeks to get to the shore. The ship is 60 yards long and can be loaded with 1080 tons of yummy fish. I remember when my father took, my mother my sister and I in a trip. I was about 8 years old. Everybody was seasick except me. I enjoyed looking at all the stuff on the table falling down on the floor and going from one side of the room to the other side. My mother had to lie down on the bed and her face turn into a greenish color. It was fun for me, I imagined that I was in a huge swing.

Veterans day

Hi everyone. I just want to share with you guys some feelings that I have about Veterans day. In my country there is not a holiday like this. But when I first heard about it I thought that if people celebrate Veterans day in the US, veterans must have a especial treatment due to the sacrifices they made in wars. However, I've also heard that veterans don't have a good life today. For instance, they don't have access to a good medical plan or health insurance. I guess it must be so terrible because they need to visit doctors very often. Most of them have mutilations and mental disorders such as depression or hallucinations. It would be a shame that veterans would be threatened in this country. I hope that mistreat is not happening in the US and anywhere in the world.

Horseshoe Crab

Hi there! I visited the Brooklyn Aquarium last summer. One of the animals that impressed me the most was the horseshoe crab. They have been in this planet for more than 450 million of years without changes in their body shape. They closely related to the family of scorpions and spiders. And you can see in the picture that under the shell it really looks like a spider! That makes me think that maybe horseshoe crabs were spiders before being horseshoes. Or that some horseshoe crabs became spiders. It very interesting for me how some organism have change along million of years. Did you know that dolphins before being dolphins were an animal that looked like a dog?

I took this picture in Ground Zero the first time I went there. It was February in 2006. As soon as I got there I was in shocked. I felt the bad vibrations coming from the place and from the people. There were so many people walking around from one place to another without having a real destination. The looked hopeless and freaky. Some of them were speaking out loud to somebody that wasn't there. I guess they were talking to someone that died there. Other people just cried without stopping. I could understand a little bit better how terrible is to lose a beloved one in such terrible disaster. You can't really feel these sensations if you see it on tv. I wish it doesn't happen again anywhere in the world.

My home town

Hi everybody, this is the city where I was born. It's the most beautiful city in the world. Chile is a long and narrow piece of land in Southern America. Along my country the Andes Mountain runs from North to South next to Argentina (the East side), in the middle is the Central Valley and in the West side we have 6,500 kilometer of sea. It's our georgeus Pacific Ocean. You'll always see the sunrise over the Andes Mountain and the sunset in the ocean along the whole country. Except in Puerto Montt, the city in the picture above. It's the only one part of the country where you can see The Andes Mountain right next to the sea. In the summer you can see huge cruisers filling the shore coming from different countries around the world. Puerto Montt is located right where continent ends. It's a touristic place. It's famous for the seafood because it's really yummy! I wonder if it misses me in the same way that I miss it????

Halloween

Hi everydoby, today I had to go out with my son trick or treating. Oh my God! I was freezing, then I realized that suddenly the winter arrived. I hate the cold weather because I have to wear a lot of clothes. I feel like an onion, dressed in layers. Don't even mention when it snows, I'm an expert falling down in icy floor. Anyway my son had fun today because he joined a group of friends, but I we were out for only 1 hour. My son wore the mask that he has in the picture. Of course I wasn't dressed like Cleopatra today, otherwise I'd have cought a neumonia! Have a great week.

Friday 29th

Hi everyone! I'm so excited about the blog because this is the first time I write on a blog. I think it will be great to share other things different from what we do in class. I came to the U.S. 4 years ago . It's been hard to me to get adapted to the New York weather because it's much hotter than my country in summer and much colder than my country in winter. Also, here it gets dark sooo early and it turns on my melatonine right away. That's why I'm happy with our new classroom. Since it has 2 big windows it's very sunny, I love that.
Have a good weekend.