First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you! May the celebration of love really be lovely and may not rain the question “what to present?” and obscure the spirit of Christmas!
I use the opportunity to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008. whatever may be you dreams and expectancies, I hope they become true and each and every one of you finds happiness and balance in daily live. But as even the most marvelous dream is not worth a dime if you cannot live it properly I furthermore wish: GOOD HEALTH FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
After this introduction I will get back to the blogging.
I settled in quite nicely here in Santiago and in the Centro Abierto Los Pinos. Next Wednesday it will be a month since I started working there. So I rekon it is a good moment for a mid-term conclusion. That might go like that: on Thursdays I did workshops with the kids. The item was adornment of the classroom.
It is hard to believe I think (especially for myself): Mike Thanner teaching arts to little kids. Not that I wouldn’t have thought of working with kids, of course I did, but that I would teach them any kind of arts, that is strange. Because of my own (un-)ability of doing handicrafts. Working with glue I would rather stick my hands to the table than fixing one papersheet on another. The result was as I would have expected it to be: the kids´ Christmas stars were way more creative than the stuff I had prepared as a model. But I think that is perfect like that, don’t you think? Same happened with the paperboard Christmas trees. In school I would have got a intermediate mark for it meanwhile the kids would have done way better in most of the cases.
Conclusion I got out of it: you can do whatever you wish. The imagination is the limit.
And: never stop experiencing new things.
That last bit sounded more like a final conclusion rather than an intermediate one. So I will add some background information of my live the last 2 weeks.
After a 10 year break I started doing kickboxing again. Luckily and unluckily I got straight back to my old form. That means that I am still able to kick and box but also that my body is still as vulnerable as when I stopped practicing that martial art. For one week of training I am already the second week without practicing because of an injury (a high flying heel that crashed down on my chest). I decided to go swimming again. It is less cruel and I finally found a decent pool. So once in a while I permit myself the luxury of swimming a few lanes for 4000 pesos (approx. 8 US$).
More new impressions:
Last Monday I was woken up be a slight moving of my bed. Before I was entirely awake I was suspecting my flat mates to keep a party running they had just been to. It was 6:30 am. When I finally opened my eyes I realized that not only the floor was shaking but also my bed and the wardrobe…my first earthquake! My excitement didn’t really decrease when I later that day learnt that this had just been a “temblor”, a shacking, and not a real “terremoto”, a real earthquake. In that occasion I also learnt that when the earth is really quaking I have to hide under a table or the door frame in order not to get parts of the ceiling fall on my head.
After these two week retrospect I will provide a bit of a forecast now:
The time in Santiago is coming to an end. I write these lines from Mendoza, Argentina. For Christmas I decided to come here with a colleague and a neighbor from Santiago who is from Mendoza. The small town is located about 6 hours away from Santiago. For new years I will be leaving Santiago again and heat for the coast. Valparaiso is the place to go I heart. The first week of January is at the same time the last in Santiago and around about the 6th I will be “on the road again”, pulling south.
By then I will give more notice.
Till then, celebrate a lot!!
Yours MIKE
I use the opportunity to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008. whatever may be you dreams and expectancies, I hope they become true and each and every one of you finds happiness and balance in daily live. But as even the most marvelous dream is not worth a dime if you cannot live it properly I furthermore wish: GOOD HEALTH FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!
After this introduction I will get back to the blogging.
I settled in quite nicely here in Santiago and in the Centro Abierto Los Pinos. Next Wednesday it will be a month since I started working there. So I rekon it is a good moment for a mid-term conclusion. That might go like that: on Thursdays I did workshops with the kids. The item was adornment of the classroom.
It is hard to believe I think (especially for myself): Mike Thanner teaching arts to little kids. Not that I wouldn’t have thought of working with kids, of course I did, but that I would teach them any kind of arts, that is strange. Because of my own (un-)ability of doing handicrafts. Working with glue I would rather stick my hands to the table than fixing one papersheet on another. The result was as I would have expected it to be: the kids´ Christmas stars were way more creative than the stuff I had prepared as a model. But I think that is perfect like that, don’t you think? Same happened with the paperboard Christmas trees. In school I would have got a intermediate mark for it meanwhile the kids would have done way better in most of the cases.
Conclusion I got out of it: you can do whatever you wish. The imagination is the limit.
And: never stop experiencing new things.
That last bit sounded more like a final conclusion rather than an intermediate one. So I will add some background information of my live the last 2 weeks.
After a 10 year break I started doing kickboxing again. Luckily and unluckily I got straight back to my old form. That means that I am still able to kick and box but also that my body is still as vulnerable as when I stopped practicing that martial art. For one week of training I am already the second week without practicing because of an injury (a high flying heel that crashed down on my chest). I decided to go swimming again. It is less cruel and I finally found a decent pool. So once in a while I permit myself the luxury of swimming a few lanes for 4000 pesos (approx. 8 US$).
More new impressions:
Last Monday I was woken up be a slight moving of my bed. Before I was entirely awake I was suspecting my flat mates to keep a party running they had just been to. It was 6:30 am. When I finally opened my eyes I realized that not only the floor was shaking but also my bed and the wardrobe…my first earthquake! My excitement didn’t really decrease when I later that day learnt that this had just been a “temblor”, a shacking, and not a real “terremoto”, a real earthquake. In that occasion I also learnt that when the earth is really quaking I have to hide under a table or the door frame in order not to get parts of the ceiling fall on my head.
After these two week retrospect I will provide a bit of a forecast now:
The time in Santiago is coming to an end. I write these lines from Mendoza, Argentina. For Christmas I decided to come here with a colleague and a neighbor from Santiago who is from Mendoza. The small town is located about 6 hours away from Santiago. For new years I will be leaving Santiago again and heat for the coast. Valparaiso is the place to go I heart. The first week of January is at the same time the last in Santiago and around about the 6th I will be “on the road again”, pulling south.
By then I will give more notice.
Till then, celebrate a lot!!
Yours MIKE
ps: i am working on the fotos and videos and stuff - i promise!
