Community Night

Good news. The water shortage did not affect our community night! After evening prayer, we had a game of dominos. I've not played this game too much. It's not very popular where I come from. But down here, dominos is king - and serious. Want proof? Just look at the concentration on the faces of Br. Matthew and Luis, one of our temporarily professed seminarians.

After, we had some great sandwiches at a local restaurant. A very relaxing and fun night. This is one of the best things about religious life - community. It's great to simply relax with your brothers. 

Blog Update

And now for some blog news.

You may have noticed that I changed how my page looks. I like it. Tell me what you think.

Also, I have added a couple of features in the sidebar:

1. My Other Blogs: Yes, as if keeping one wasn't enough. But hey, I'm an overachieving, obsessive type. I encourage you to check out my Daily Mass Reflections. I am also going to try to reflect upon the spiritual life in my 3C Spirituality blog. I hope to have the first real post up this weekend.
2. Twitter: You can even check out what I'm up to during the day by following me on Twitter. If you don't know about Twitter, it's pretty interesting. It's been getting a lot of buzz in the business management world. 
3. Links-My Google Reader Page: Also, check out some of the articles I've read that have caught my attention.

I have a couple of more additions in the works, but that's enough for now. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

The First Snow

This is a picture of the Andes from the street corner. It has been raining here all week. I trudged to school in the rain this morning, only to find that the government had cancelled school for the whole metropolitan area due to flooding. The good news was that by 9:30am the rain had stopped and the air was crystal clear. This is rarely the case in Santiago. Smog is a problem. The rain washed the air. I had never seen the mountains so vividly. This was definitely a great day to be a Santiagueño. I am told that in another couple of weeks, all the mountains will be completely white.

I did take advantage of my trip to school this morning, however. Instead of teaching class, I did some office work and then went to yet one more government office to complete the requirements for my visa permit. All I have to do now is to go back to the office in twelve days to pick up my national identity card. The good news is that as of today I have a RUT number. It's like a Social Security number. Thus, I am legal. When I returned to school, the Director of Human Resources gave me a big hug and photocopied my paper with my number. When she handled it back to me, she said, "Now we can pay you!" I like getting paid.

The only bad thing about the rain is that the city is having water trouble. Santiago has great water. But, with the flooding the city experienced, the sewer system is shot. Thus, we are going to lose water in about 30 minutes. Service will hopefully be restored tomorrow morning. This may hurt my house's plans to go out to dinner tonight. Every Friday night, we have a community activity. Last week, we had hot dogs and then went to the movies. This week, we were planning on a little domino tournament and then to head to a nearby restaurant. But without water, I am not sure the restaurant will be up and running. Here's to hoping the rain didn't rain on our parade. 

Breaking the Silence

Greetings to all my readers. I apologize for the long silence. What happened you asked? The answer is simple - school started.

Yes, the shameless touristing could not go on forever. I had to get down to work. And it has been work. Originally, I was going to teach two classes in theology, in Spanish, of course. Yet, the weekend before school started, the senior level philosophy teacher left the school. I was sitting next to the rector, a Holy Cross priest, at breakfast when he got the call about the situation, and I volunteered on the spot. Thus, I picked up five more classes, two Junior philosophy (logic) and three Senior philosophy (epistemology), in Spanish, of course.

Now, I have made great strides in my Spanish ability, but it is still quite interesting for me and my students at times. Still, we are getting by very well. I am happy to say that we just finished the first grading cycle and my students' grades are really great. My classes are not easy in any language. Students have to do work and demonstrate their understanding. The good news is that I was very satisfied with their level of understanding and their grades reflect this. And while there are the occasional complaints about my accent and/or Spanish ability, what cannot be argued is that the students are learning. 

In other news, I have re-started an old blog - Daily Mass Reflections. I have put a link on the sidebar. Please feel free to visit the blog and add your comments about the mass readings of the day.

I hope to post some pictures from St. George's College this week. I will also a a link to the homepage of school later on too. Until then...