Futbol Mania

The long awaited Mundial has begun and, as predicted, futbol is all my students can think or talk about. Friday was opening day and, as luck would have it, I had a class--my youngest and most rambunctious--at 10, coinciding exactly with the Mexico-South Africa game. My adolescent male students got increasingly fidgetty and distracted as their fellow students, with the luck to be between classes, cheered from the huge viewing tent that Duoc set up in the courtyard. Needless to say, the boys couldn't be less interested in direction prepositions or "there is/there are" sentence construction.

So, in true pushover fashion, I did exactly what our site coordinator told us not to do, and let them out 40 minutes early. I'm a sucker for boys who love their sports. Hearing their pleas of "Missss, it's the inauguraciónnnn" and watching how they craned their necks toward the window to try to hear the announcer, I couldn't help thinking of my brothers, or guys I know back home. And it was a simple thing they wanted really, to be able to be there and take part in what they had been looking forward to for months. "Ok, go, go." And the look on their faces made it totally worth it.

As I crossed the courtyard on my way to the teachers lounge to get some work done, I ran into three of them heading about to head into the tent. Amidst their excitement, they took a moment to give their soccer novice profe a primer on the rounds system and offer their personal predictions and analysis. "Will you watch the game, miss?""How about when Los estados unidos plays tomorrow, miss??" To be sure, they had the entire bracket and schedule memorized.

When Chile plays Honduras next Wednesday at 7 am, I will most definitely be watching the game. And my morning students most definitely will be too...I cancelled class. With Chile in the Mundial for the first time in twelve years, English (and I'm going to bet every other class, job, meeting, etc) takes a way back seat.