Graffiti

We made some progress yesterday with Claudio's class, though he still had to have the upperhand and successfully pissed me off yet again. When we walked into his classroom, Ashley walked up and handed him our letter and asked if he could read it. The next five minutes or so seemed to drag on forever as he read it a few times, obviously deciding what he should do. Although he continuously told us he's not upset with us but rather the office that has caused lots of problems in trying to get ahold of the resources, I could tell he was extremely upset that a bunch of gringos would try going against his almighty self. He eventually gave in and said that instead of the 6 page, 3 sources research paper, we only have to read two chapters out of a book of our choosing, then write a 3-4 page summary/response about it. This is extremely great news, though he made a big deal about pointing out all of our points that weren't valid.

First off, concerning us not having resources, he blamed it on us for not sending him an email over the weekend so he could bring us a book, which I did on Sunday evening. I kindly told him this, and he asked me when, and I said around 8 PM, and he responded, "Oh well yeah I'm not up then". How am I supposed to know you wont get it at that time? You told me to email you over the weekend, I did. Don't put the blame on us for not having resources if we're doing exactly what you told us to do.

Second, we have an excursion on Thursday and Friday, our final one for the program. These excursions have been built into the program since day one, and part of the tuition went towards paying for bus and van rentals, the programs themselves, etc. Now after reading that we have this coming up and it will make things difficult for us to get work done, he simply replied "It's your choice to go on the trip, that's not my problem". Um, maybe if you were to check the information the University gave you before teaching the class, you would see that this has been scheduled since day one and that we actually don't have a choice, unless we want to waste a couple hundred bucks by not going. Don't try to make us feel like it's our fault for going on a trip that is included in the trip. If it was our decision, we would still have class on those days. But since we don't, obviously the coordinators feel it's more important than your stupid class.

Finally, just to have the upperhand, he decided to make it due Monday instead of Tuesday. So now instead of being able to relax and enjoy my last Sunday in Chile, I'll be slaving over an essay for his class. Thanks chief, I appreciate it.

No respect. I have absolutely no respect for this man. I cannot stand people who try to place blame on other people for something they can't control. I have managed to stay calm in his class though and haven't actually said anything bad to him, so no worries. I'm not like that, I'll just be sure to leave him a friendly little evaluation before I head off. Man am I stoked for that...

On a happier note, Carlos was finally back! I love his class so much, I literally go from the worst example of a foreign exchange student professor to the best example. He knows how to incorporate hands-on experiences with classroom material, and never makes it overly difficult. It challenges us, but it's not difficult; that's the big difference between his and Claudio's class.

After class, Carlos took all of us on a micro up to the old prison for our final graffiti workshop. It was a really cool place, and we walked through numerous old buildings and passageways before we finally arrived to a back corner of the jail. Graffiti is literally everywhere in the jail, on every wall, bulding, and anything else with a nice surface to paint. Graffiti artists in Valparaíso started out painting the jail, and then from there it spread through the whole city. Charquipunk told us that his plan for us was to have a man holding a camera (drawn by him) and then a long filmstrip would be painted running along the wall and around two different corners. Then, each of us would get to paint whatever we wanted in each of the filmstrip boxes. It was a really cool idea and I stepped right up to paint my background yellow. I initially wanted to paint a monkey, but then I realized the only colors we were using were yellow, blue, green, and white. So instead, I just grabbed a few different shades of blue and green and started painting. I ended up painting something that looks like the sketches I make in my spirals while taking notes. Some people tried reading into it and finding deeper meanings, but I just laughed. I like to keep that stuff to myself =)

After everyone was finished, Charquipunk and Carlos drew the black filmstrip border around all of the boxes and Charquipunk added a few extra touches. The finished product actually looks really sweet, and it was such a cool way to end the workshop. I uploaded photos on my facebook if you want to check them out.

We then headed back down the hill from the prison, and I hopped on a micro and headed home. After eating my once with the family, we watched part of The Simpson's Movie on TV. It's just not the same when it's in Spanish because the voices aren't right...oh well. Afterwards, I went to my room and eventually went to bed.

Today, it's a fairly nice day out and hopefully I'll get my book from Claudio so I can start reading. My goal is to have it read before leaving Thursday so then I can get to work writing it Saturday and Sunday. It's really starting to hit me that I'm leaving soon. I have less than two weeks. It's bittersweet because I of course don't want to leave my family and all of the great friends I've met here. But I'm so ready to get out of Claudio's class and I definitely am so super excited to head to California to be with my Alyssa for a few days. It shall be perfect.

I should get ready to go soon, hope you enjoy your day.

Chao.