RatSoap

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Watching TV

To start teaching us Spanish, Dad bought a DVD of the American cartoon show called "The Fairly Odd Parents," which in Spanish they call "Los Padrinos Mágicos" ("The Magic Godparents"). So, for our Spanish class, we are watching TV!

Dad plays one or two sentences, RJE and I write them down, and then we talk about what the characters said. Then, after understanding what the words mean, we play it again so we can get used to it. After several sentences, we play the whole thing up until we stopped, and understand it all! After watching the DVD, we go over our notes, learning all the words and verbs and how to say them. It is a fun way to learn.

Dad also wants us to make Chilean friends to help us learn Spanish. At a park we go to almost every day, there are four sisters that go daily too. Two of them are around my age. The other two are twins near RJE's age. But RJE and I are too shy to start talking to them, so we usually just play with each other. Dad says that if we don't talk to someone else, he is going to start taking us separately!

At the park, there is an ice cream man who comes three times a day. We were there once when he arrived, and RJE started begging for ice cream. Mom and Dad said we could have ice cream as long as we bought it ourselves. They gave me 1,000 pesos (the same as two dollars) and I went up to the man and pointed to the ice cream we wanted. He said something and noticed that I didn't understand a word, so he asked, "English?" I said, "Yes," and paid him. My first experience buying in Spanish without using Spanish at all!

We still have not found a school to attend here, and school starts in only six weeks. Last week, we walked across the street to the "Scuola Italiana" (it means "Italian School" in Italian), just to see how it was and because it is so close to where we live. We met the school's principal, and she gave us a tour of the classrooms, the cafeteria (which they call "the casino"), and a large yard where students play during breaks. I liked the school, but unfortunately they teach almost all classes in Italian, so we probably won't go there. There are two other schools farther away that I like. We will go talk to them this week.

Anna Karenina # 8

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