Our good friend Maria Fratucello, who helped us a lot on our short “Diva”, invited us to school with her yesterday and today. She’s an English teacher so I guess she wanted to show her students what bona fide English speakers look and sound like.
So we followed her to the school with her son little Germán (pronounced Her-mon) in the back seat donning some nice shades.
We arrived at the school and me and Tim were assigned tables to sit at to have a discussion with the students. Our discussion topic - the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States. I was supposed to tell the students some good things about the Democratic party… Maria wanted us to use Spanish, this didn’t make things easier. I think I thoroughly confused the students and convinced them that they never want to come to the US.
Then the students gave presentations about events in US History. Some boys got up armed with a paper rocket ship labeled “Revolución” and proceeded to tell the story of the American Revolution. I must say this is the first time I’ve heard this in Spanish.
At the end of the class they told us that they wanted us to come back the next day for a game. Little did we know…
The game ended up being a pirate-themed scavenger hunt. I was assigned team captain which meant I had to wear an eye patch and get my face painted blue (not sure what this had to do with being a pirate). Maybe it was a native indian/pirate-themed scavenger hunt.
The game consisted of hopping around the school on one foot to find clues. One time I had to dip my head into a bowl of flour to get a clue. I got some pretty strange looks from teachers. It’s not every day that they see an American guy hopping around on one foot wearing an eye patch with his face painted blue (I can’t say that’s something I’m used to myself).
It was a pretty embarrassing/fun experience and for a pirate’s treasure I received some candy. Now I know what they mean when they say “game”.