Friday, September 3, 2010

Spelling Bee and Ferni's Bday!

A few weeks ago Colegio Andres Bello had it's First Annual Spelling Bee!! The week before and the week during the Spelling Bee were eventful getting ready for the big event. There were two Spelling competitions--one for the Basico students (5th - 8th grade) and one for the Medio students (9th - 12th grade).



The kids were so cute about the Spelling Bee!! Some of the participants had written pronunciation, definition, etc. on their study sheets. Others didn't look at the study sheet once...but it was all good in the end! Everyone had smiles and felt "special" for participating. Also, it was a full house! Many of the other English classes came to watch the event and cheer on their fellow classmates who were competing.

My role in the "Bee" was the "announcer of the words," host, and judge. It was no Mock Rock, but it sure was a lot of fun. :)

The best part: BOTH of my sisters participated. Paula and Ferni are by far the best English students at the school. Paula (13) had a slight mess up with the word "book"...she spelled it with a "c-k," and knew she messed up...but since the Spelling Bee is so hard core, the kids can't correct their mistakes. The events that happened after this reminded me why I loathed middle school as much as I did...

When Paula went back to her classroom after the Spelling Bee, the kids had drawn a huge book on the board and written "B-O-O-C-K." This really upset Paula, of course, and she came home in tears and all the women in the family proceeded to cry in sympathy for her. Kids can be SO mean! However, as we assured Paula, they're just jealous...ugh kids.



As for Ferni, 17, she won the whole thing!! And quite humbly may I add :) I mean, she's basically my walking English-Spanish Dictionary, so I'm not surprised one bit!

The day of the Spelling Bee was also Ferni's 17th birthday!! Just one more year til she can drink...not that it's a big deal for her since she is so "tranquila" (chill), but she is getting old :( We had a DELICIOUS "asado" (bbq) for lunch and some equally delicious desserts at night to celebrate the special day. Her rents gave her a really nice digital camera and Paula gave her nail polish. Both gifts brought tears to eyes immediately! So cute :) I gave her a homemade birthday card...the best this volunteer could do considering I'm still waiting for my first stipend that's over a month late...



On Friday night Ferni had her best friend Nicole over for some karaoke. Needless to say, we sung the night away...and all songs were in English! The family sets up their living area with a projector, speakers, microphones, and all for karaoke. Everyone participates and everyone has a great time. My family patiently watched my rendition of "Always Be My Baby." Within 20 seconds of the song they were able to tell it was my favorite song of all time...so they let me belt out my horrible attempt to sing like Mariah Carey. It wasn't the same without my best friends singing along with me.....

Anyhoo, here is a link to some pictures from the Spelling Bee and Ferni's B-day. Enjoy!

Spelling Bee & Ferni's Bday">Click here for pictures!

1 comment:

  1. Don't forget to tell that I went that night to visit her from Santiago.
    In her B-day!
    :)

    ReplyDelete