The day before Christmas Break arrived at last, and to celebrate the school put on a Christmas Festival. It was an hour long skit about how the world had frozen and it made all of the children forget who the Three Wiseman* were and about the holiday spirit. Toys and presents came to life to show the kids about Christmas time. It was a rather dorky storyline, but oh so adorable, because the whole thing was memorized and in English. CUTE!
For the play, each class dressed up and did an English song and dance. And the head of the festival didn't choose the typical holiday songs - oh no... this woman went all out and chose songs from Billboard Top 40 charts. Ah-MAY-zing!! "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha. "Euphoria" by Loreen. "Meet Me Halfway" by the Black Eyed Peas. "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars. "Barbie Girl" by Aqua. I mean, they had it ALL. And it was ALL way beyond adorable!!!
The Christmas Festival opened with the drawing. Parents had been purchasing raffle tickets to win - get this - a pig's leg (of cured ham). Yeah. That was the big prize that everybody wanted. And the weird thing is, it's not just these parents - it's ALL OF SPAIN who goes gaga over a poor pig's appendage. It's the weirdest thing ever. I mean the ham that comes from it is okay... but nothing worth writing home about - and certainly not worth displaying a dead pig's entire leg and hoof in your kitchen over. Eww.
To do the drawing the teachers had dressed up like little lotto balls. It was hilarious. And awkward. Haha. The speaker called out numbers and they would twirl around and come to the front of the stage. When five had been called forward, the number was re-announced and the appropriate mom came up to claim to ham. o_O So strange.
After the raffle, it was time for the teacher's dance (still dressed up in their awkward ball outfit). There was only really one song that the teacher's had to dance to, and that was, of course, Gangnam Style. Bahahaha!!! I brought my camera and was clever enough to record it for you AND upload it to Youtube to forever embarrass the teachers I work with. Tee hee hee. So. Awesome. See for yourself:
The next most memorable skit was by Nacho's 1st Grade class. Last week during our private lessons he'd taught me the girl's part of the song and the dance so I could help him practice. :o) Adorable! But how it all came together in the actual show was beyond precious!! Really, you gotta watch it:
By this point in time my battery was starting to run low, so I took pictures of the 3rd Grade Superheros dance...
And of the kids dressed up as iPods (who made these costumes!?!?) - AWESOME!
And the marionettes...
And - the cutest dance, but apparently the one my camera decided it really WAS out of battery for - "Barbie Girl," as interpreted by the 7th graders. That one guy in the front was soooo awesome at dancing (and he's a really shy, quiet guy in class) - he totally reminded me of Delco in CSI: Miami!! The kids did an adorable little swing dance for part of the song in guy/girl couples and it was just so sweet!!! :oD
But my favorite to listen to and watch the kids dance to was definitely Ke$ha's "Tik Tok"!!!!! At the first part where she sings, "Brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack," the kids literally tipped their heads back and pretended to be drinking. OH. MY. GOD!!!! Like, did the director KNOW what that meant and what the song was about!!?!? And worse - did any of the kids or parents? I hoped not, and watched in bemusement as the rocked out to a song which no American kid in elementary school would ever be allowed to sing and dance to at their semi-religious school's Christmas Pageant - BAHAHA!!! For being a country that was once so strictly Catholic, Spanish society sure is lax. Gotta watch:
I was actually sad when the pageant was over and the kids were back on stage for their bows. :( What WAS super adorable, though, was when the kids left through the audience, waving and blowing kisses to their moms and dads, all excited to find them in the crowd and know that they had been their watching them, as soon as the saw me standing at the back of the cafeteria, they all immediately turned away from their parents and exclaimed, "CHELSEA!! Guys - it's CHELSEA!! HELLO CHELSEA!!!" ^_^ *warm, squishy feeling* Awww!!! <3
After the pageant, it was time to go back to the older kids, who'd been busy having chocolate and churros and singing karaoke. I joined them for a bit, then escaped into the Teacher's Lounge for the rest of the afternoon, researching all that I wanted to do on my trips, creating maps, printing them out, confirming my flights, printing my boarding passes, etc.
Around lunch time a teacher finally roused me and invited me back to the high school kid's room for the Christmas potluck. As it turned out, the food was pretty nasty, but one awesome thing did come of attending: As I walked into the room, music was blasting (the 11th graders were apparently in charge of DJing it, and considering I love their taste in music, doing a pretty great job of it). I liked the beat of whatever they'd just turned on and it sounded vaguely familiar. As I kept listening, I started to realize what it was. "Nah..." I murmered to myself. "Couldn't be." By this point I was literally looking at the ceiling and at the walls trying to find the source of the sound to try to figure out what was going on.
And just at that moment my two favorite 11th graders walked up to me, grinning ear to ear. I started to laugh. "You guys are AWESOME! I was totally freaking out, thinking I was imagining it!" They started giggling, "No! We LOVE this song!!! Thanks for telling us about it!!!"
That's right. These two bad-ass boys were playing my jam. "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore. HELL YES!!!!! I have GOT to be THE coolest English-speaker that has ever happened to some of these people. ;)
We talked about our favorite parts of the song and I told them how the video was actually totally real life in Portland where I'd last lived. They were shocked to hear it wasn't just all a joke. After we talked about hipsters and the song some more, the most fluent guy in the school (the Portuguese guy I like so much) asked me, "Yeah! So, what does 'thrift shop' mean, anyway?!"
Bahahahahaha!!! WHAT?!
Here these two had been jamming out to this song for days, watching the video, learning the lyrics and singing along and they DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT A THRIFT SHOP WAS!?!!? OMG. Too funny. They are the best. :)
After lunchtime I retreated back to the computer to do more trip research in peace and was only interrupted again around 3:30 to be informed it was time for the teacher vs. student soccer games. I refused to participate (I said I'd forgotten to bring tennis shoes, but really I just didn't want to play), but I did go and watch the teachers kick the student's butts. ^_^
Overall, it was a highly productive day for me (got my trip all researched - yay!!). But more than that, it was a super adorable day, watching the students performing and just hanging out, being themselves for a change. :)
XOXO
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