United Statesian?

Hola!
Oh where to begin. I don't even know where to begin in this blog post, but I will start by saying that my time in Chile so far has been amazing! I've been here for almost a full week and already have learned and experienced so much. I decided to title my first blog as United Statesian as a tribute to the term American now meaning all of North and South American. I have started to just tell people that I am Louisianais because it makes more sense than United Statesian.
Immediately as soon as we got to Miami I was shocked that the ratio of Spanish and English speakers had changed drastically. I also immediately knew that I would make my best effort to try and learn as much Spanish as possible from this trip. I've always read that the best way to learn another language is to completely submerse yourself into it. I speak English and Cajun French so I figured Spanish would be a very useful thing to learn and not be so difficult. For the first few days I studied lots when returning from school so that I could communicate with the host family.
Speaking of the host family, they are GREAT! The mom and dad are very nice and they have helped me do so much on this trip so far. The language barrier was a bit difficult at first but after a week of studying and listening it is slowly but surely going away. Their children are great too! Barbara is fluent in English so we talk most nights about things in the States and she helps translate things too. Camila is my host sister from the school where we are working at and I'm trying to help her with her English so that she too can become fluent. Agustin is their youngest son and he is so cute! He asks me everyday what new words I learned in Spanish and makes me have a conversation with him so that he can affirm my progress. They also have two cats; Tom and Leona. Also the mom is a great cook and I have been loving the food!
My experiences with the school have been awesome too thus far. The first day was a little hectic because we were just getting acquainted with our teachers and we didn't really know their schedule. However, now that we've made the schedule, things are much less hectic and I look forward to getting to work more with the teachers. I have so enjoyed helping the English teachers and music teachers alike. Whenever there isn't a music class, I go to the English classes or art classes. No matter where we go the kids are always excited to see us.
On the second day we did sort of a speed-dating activity with some of the kids from the school. It was very cool and I enjoyed getting the opportunity to meet with so many of the kids! I also participated in picking the participants for an English song festival that they are going to have towards the end of the trip. There were lots of great voices and I look forward to hearing them live.
The next few days were more or less just observing the teachers and their daily routine. I helped occasionally but I really wanted to get a sense of the territory before trying to step in. However on Friday of the first week, I taught my first class here! I taught some of the first graders a Mexican song called De Colores. At first I was a little nervous because it was my first time teaching in another language (especially one that I've only just learned). It went very well though! The children sang very loud and I really enjoyed teaching the song to them. After this class, I helped the other music teacher teach the Ukulele to her last two classes of the day. We first taught the class the song De colores together and then she and I played it together (her on guitar and me on flute). I loved seeing the look on the kids faces whenever I played the flute because most of them had never heard anything like it before in person.
I look forward to sharing more music with these kids and learning loads from this experience. I also look forward to exploring more Chilean nature and food in the weeks to come! Until next time!