Greetings to the New Site

Thank you to all my faithful readers who have found the new site of my blog. And welcome to all new readers.

I decided to make the change to WordPress for several reasons. First, I like the layouts a lot better. Also, my Daily Mass Reflection blog is on WordPress. Finally, The Holy Cross Brothers’ blog, at present, is using WordPress. 

I also made the change in hosting because I was thinking of making (yet another) blog. I wanted space to reflect more about religious life and spirituality, as well as other issues that are important to me. The Oh, Brother blog on Blogger was intended to be an information source for my family, friends, community members and others about the events in my life. Frankly, I found such a project to be too prosaic for me – hence the infrequency of the updates. Thus, I wanted to go in a different direction.

What I have decided to do is to transform the old blog. I still want to share what’s going on with me. And I want to share about what I’m thinking. I want a space for more journalist posts, such as a school event I attend or something I experience here in Santiago. Also, I want space to share my ideas out religious life in Holy Cross and the books I’m reading. Basically, I want a catch all.

I plan on maintaining two blogs for present – this blog and the Daily Mass Reflection blog. I hope, dear reader, that you are enjoying the reflections and that you continue to follow O Brother. 

Saint George’s Faculty Retreat

Saint George’s College spent Thursday night and Friday on the beach in retreat. We had great weather and great attendance. I got to talk to many people that I had not had the opportunity to get to know.

The theme of the retreat was on hope. We looked at how Jesus brings us hope, some theological aspects of hope in the Scripture, the Catechism and Aparecida (the 2007 Latin American Bishops’ document), how we bring hope to our students, and how we have experienced hope in our lives.

My favorite activity of the retreat was morning prayer. We gathered on the beach and listened to the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Then, we shared some bread and fish in our small groups and talked about the significance of the symbol for us. 

Here are two pictures.

Another Blog Update

There is a lot happening in my blogging land. I’ve have had several of these projects in my mind for months but have not had the energy, until lately, to realize these projects due to my transition. It’s great to have energy again – and to be writing.

Today, I posted the first entry in my new blog called Minds and Hearts in Action. It is blog about spirituality. This first article is about how I use a 3×5 index card as a prayer aid. Check out the blog and tell me what you think.

Blog Update

Another blog update…

The Daily Mass Reflection blog will now be hosted from WordPress. Please visit the Daily Mass Reflection blog. The link in this post will take you to the new site, as well as the link on the sidebar.

Good Ol’ Saint George’s

It has really been an adventure teaching here at Saint George’s College. This is partly because I am teaching in Spanish. When I arrived in Chile about 6 months ago, my Spanish was very bad. Now, my Spanish is only pretty bad. My goal for year’s end is that my Spanish will only be not so bad. 

And then, there is the question of culture. It is a different world here. The school, in its structure and pedagogical practices are different too. I often feel as if I am not sure what is going on around me – and often I am not. Fortunately, there are other teachers at my school from the United Sates who are doing a year of teaching here. We spend a lot of time commiserating with each other. 

One of the things that is different is the political activism in the country and in the school. For instance, recently, students in all parts of Chile have been protesting about the educational system. The students, especially in the universities, are unhappy with the quality of education. The result is that they go on strike and stage protests. Last Wednesday, the students in the high school section all walked out of class and headed to the gym to discuss the issue. This was unauthorized by the administration and 100% organized by the students. Supposedly, tomorrow, most of the students will go on strike and stage some type of protest outside our school or downtown. It is not that our students have problems with our school in particular. They are attempting to be in solidarity with other students in the country. 

Still, I do like it here in Chile and at the school. This has been a very enriching experience. I only wish I had better language ability and cultural understanding at this time so that I could be a more effective teacher. These abilities will come in time. Here are two pictures from Saint George’s from this past Friday. The first one is from student council campaigns during the morning break. The second is from the electric car competition from the technology class.

 

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… 

The Shameless Tourist Visits the Zoo

This past weekend, I headed out again, accompanied by my friend Natalie, to the Buin Zoo. The word Zoo is pronounced with long “o”s, like the word “so”. This caused me a bit of problems at the ticket window when I was buying my ticket on the Metro Train to Buin. I kept pronouncing “zoo” as I would in English. Of course, this did not work. Finally, Natalie bailed me out. I have the greatest problem with cognates, words that come from the same root and are similar in Spanish and English. They are tricky because they are very similar looking and the meaning is the same (usually, but not always), but the pronunciation is different.

Anyway, about the Metro Train…I have, I believed, discussed the outstanding metro system in the city. The Metro Train is a lot like the city’s metro, but it goes outside the city, as far as an hour and a half away. We caught the train at the Estación Central, which is the old Santiago train station. It is a grand iron and concrete building from which the trains depart. On both sides of the station are shopping centers. It was a busy and exciting place. The Metro Train was very crowded, as we went on a weekend during vacations, and so we stood for the whole trip. But, we arrived in Buin after a short 30 minute ride. It seemed that just about everyone else on the train was heading for the zoo as well, since the train left the Buin Zoo stop rather empty.

The zoo in Buin was well worth the effort. There was plenty of shade and the grounds were well kept. There was a good collection of animals, especially of cats, monkeys and birds. The highlight of the trip was the “Animals in Action” show. The star was Chily Wily, a blind penguin. One lucky child sitting next to me got to feed him a couple of fish. What can I say? My aura not only benefits me, but those around me. Also of note was the seal. They had him do all the seal tricks, playing with the ball, clapping his flippers, barking, the works. A definite crowd pleaser. Three cheers for the Buin Zoo!

And, don’t forget, you can see other pictures I took by clicking on the link to my Picasa photo site on the side bar.