Spring Break

Spring Break is here. Huh? I know, I was surprised myself. With moving buildings, finishing the 1st half of the semester, and generally being really busy, I haven't given much thought to the break. So I need to figure something out to do, maybe I'll go bike around Uruguay...

Wednesday chapels

I´m not sure if I´ve said this before or not, but I REALLY like Wednesday chapels. It´s one of my favorite parts about BAICA. In addition to mornings in which I have a bowl of cereal, Wednesday mornings are awesome because:

-we are together as an entire school body
-it's a chance to worship the Lord through music
-it allows for a time to slow down so school's not just all class, learn!, class, learn!
-the speakers have something that is relevant and to the point, like today's speaker who spoke about the importance of patience
-I get to laugh at elementary school kids who are being hilarious even though they don't know it.

I feel very fortunate that I get to work at a place where a great worship service takes place weekly.

I think this is legal

So I found a good music share website that you can't download music from -- you can only set up playlists to play music and have an account, all for free.

It's not like Napster, so you're not pirating, which is stealing. It's like a friend loaning you their CD to listen to. It's just your random friend that you don't really know that is somewhere out there -- I think that's ok, right?

You can view my playlists here:
http://profile.imeem.com/OrtHI1

nothing

Assume that everyone in a society has complete knowledge of sin, and that this society greatly hates and despises sin.

What if each one of us had a display board attached to our bodies (like pegged to our back) that listed all of our current sins and failings?...Public knowledge for everyone to see that you can't hide. For example, mine would have written on it...

So obviously, it's a good thing that's not reality. Scary. If it were, I think it might do a couple of things:
1. We might stumble less. Fear of embarrassment or public ridicule would be an effective incentive to a) be much more aware of the sins we commit and b) hopefully deter us from committing those sins. Societal acceptances and condemnations are powerful motivators -- if not, I think we'd see much more people in public picking their noses.
2. We would be much more ashamed of the broken beings we are, while at the same time having a more realistic sense of our shortcomings.
3. We would all have a greater sense of need for a Saviour.

This blog entry was motivated by a recent personal better understanding of the fact that nothing is hidden before our Lord. Nothing. As much as we justify, sugar things up, hide or deny our shortcomings, the Lord knows.

It's ironic and silly that we try to hide things from Jesus when He is the very one to whom we need to present all of our brokenness.

missed school...NOOOOOOO

We're missing yesterday, today, and tomorrow for the move of school buildings. This doesn't happen often, but still, we're missing valuable days of instruction and learning. I realized today the change that has gone on inside me; it's funny how my attitude about this depends alot on what perspective I have:

As a student, I'd most certainly say:
"missed school, like totally bogus pancakes dude!!! cowabunga!!!" or something like that.

As a teacher I say "shucks. We need to stop missing so many days. We ought to make these days up on three Saturdays..."

football guacamole

Well, I've expressed my strong desires and likings for guacamole before, and to get guacamole, you need avocadoes. It's just a fact.

Well, there's this tall avocado tree in front of the school that has some big green unripe avocadoes, but they were very high up. I got the idea to get out a football, and make a game of it. You have to be accurate with the football throw, good spiral and all, and if you connect with an avocado, the game becomes like baseball, you have to have good quick lateral movement as well as skilled hands to catch the falling avocado. If you miss or are too slow, the missed avocadoes come smashing down into the middle of the street.

It's a high risk sport as well, for the parked cars, pedestrians walking past the school, and the players involved. I connected with one avocado, and it came down and smacked me on the leg. I'm pretty sure I'll get a bruise. That's ok though, I can ice my leg while enjoying a delicious bowl of guacamole....

weekend with bball & reaffirmation

It was a great weekend of rest, bball, and good weather. Thank you so much CBS sportsline for broadcasting the NCAA tournament games over the internet!! Here in BA, it's early Fall type weather, where it's slightly cool and sunny during the day, and then gets cooler at night.

At church on Saturday night, I heard a message that was quite reaffirming. They talked about missions, our call to do so as followers of Christ, and what that means. Essentially, it is doing, taking action. We can talk the talk, but there's a time, which is NOW, that we need to walk the walk. That doesn't necessarily mean travelling to Argentina. There are missions right at home in San Antonio, next door with your neighbors in Spokane, with your office co-workers in Dallas or South Carolina, and millions ba-jillions of other people around the world who NEED to hear (and not necessarily with words) the message of Jesus.

Doing missions may not be, and in fact probably not, easy, nor comfortable, nor familiar, but it is Christ-like. We are called to get off our keisters and do, to trust in faith and go. In doing so, we will receive the utmost comfort.

How I like pi...but not in my eye

Happy World ∏ Day. Yes, my favorite math number: pi or 3.14159... World Pi Day is celebrated on 3-14, for obvious reasons. If you a real enthusiast, you would have gone bonkers at 1:59 this afternoon. Quite fitting, I know.

For my math classes today, I assigned an extra credit project that they could either bake a pie or recite the first 20 decimal digits of ∏. The pies were quite good and creative, as you can see:
Well, there was one pie that wasn't so good, the avocado pie forgot to acquire any flavor or any characteristic of being edible.

So my genius math students thought up the idea, that since the school is in the middle of raising money for our new building, why not pie Mr. H in the face if they could raise enough money?? Pi is irrational, so I guess that caused me to make an irrational decision in this case. I told them that they had to raise 314.15 pesos, a logical amount on such a day, by 3:14 PM in the afternoon, and then they could pie me in the face. I didn't think they could do $100 dollars in less than 4 hours.

Well, I underestimated their fundraising abilities. I should have made it dollars. So yes, I got an avocado pie smacked up into my face at the end of school today. Avocado pie stings when it enters your eyes, I can tell you from past experience. So to all who have lived this March 14th....HAPPY PI DAY!!! (just keep it out of your eye)

guacamole pasta and a cricket

Being from San Antonio, I think I have gone through guacamole withdrawals here in Argentina due to the lack of Mexican dishes I consume, which means guacamole. So I'm not sure if I have mentioned this or not yet, but I really like guacamole pasta. I know it sounds kind of odd at the outset, but it is really, really good. Get a fresh avocado and mash it up with some salt, then use that as your "pasta sauce". Nutritious. Economical. Simple. -- the three adjectives I look for most in a food.

I would suggest trying it before passing judgement.

Oh, and somehow in the beejeepers of weird things happening, a cricket wound its way up on our apartment hallway (the 9th floor) and hasn't stopped chirping yet.

a better understanding...

I had the realization recently that being a teacher has helped me get a better understanding, at least so I think, of how God views us, His children.

I very much desire the best for all my students, even the ones that are sometimes jerks or punks -- I want to see them succeed and grow in things that make up their lives -- such as the quadratic formula, being kind and respectful always to their teachers and other human beings, coming to know the Lord, and growing to become mature men and women in Christ. At BAICA camp, I think it hit me very clearly, one evening -- I was getting on some kids again for not following the rules, which are essentially designed to encourage responsible living, respect, and submission to authority. I couldn´t figure out why these kids wanted to make it harder on themselves than it had to be. These kids in particular had ongoing pissy attitudes and were talking back, not wanting to do what I asked, and it felt like a constant fight with them trying to get them to, in the end scheme of things, do these things that arrive to the end goals that I mentioned earlier.

In my role as a teacher, I think He's shown me a much clearer sense of our relationship with the Lord. He lays down His instructions very clearly in Scripture and through Jesus. Yet, I know that my selfish desires and my many times pissy attitude make it harder on myself than it has to be. I can just see God going "Uhhh, you goof balls, you still can´t mind, it´s really not too difficult I tell you, but you want to do it your way."

"Even in all of that, I still love you very much, and I want the absolute best for you."

Sorry for being such a dork God.

BAICA camp

Tomorrow, we leave for and start BAICA camp. BAICA camp is for middle school & high school, and is a three day overnight mini-camp meant for fun and spiritual growth that we do away from school. I think the premise of it is great, and it is a unique thing for a school to have. I am really looking forward to it.

We're going to have a talent show, some speakers, and a wide variety of games and activities -- including a slip and slide. So yes, I will be "working" and "teaching" by enjoying a slip and slide, playing ultimate frisbee, soccer, and getting to spend some time not in a classroom setting with some cool kids. Wow I really like my job.

Uh?

Our door handle, at the bottom, has come unscrewed, and looking at it, one logically figures out on his own that you have to take the door handle off the door to fix it.

Apart from that, our building "super" gets paid basically 1.5 times what my roommate and I make per month, we know because they send out a buildings expense sheet every month and his salary is on it. The only time I see him doing anything for the building is when he is sweeping the lobby in the morning, and then he takes out the trash every 3 days or so. He doesn't smile in any of this. Nor is he that friendly.

Well, the other day, I offered him some plum cobbler that we had left over. He came by to get some, I loaded him up a generous portion on a plate, and then he started leaving. Remembering the door handle, I said "oh, and our door handle came off at the bottom." He mosies on back to the door, looks at it, and then proceeds to explain to me how to fix it, by taking the door handle off the door to fix it.

Thanks. Um, sorry, what do you get a salary for again?

Body builders IDIOTocracy

So at Body Builders gym, you know, where you go to get beefy and build your body, there is an abundance of guys working out, lifting heavy weights, the type that hurt-if-dropped-on-extremities kind, who are wearing sandals. Sandals!!

I am in disbelief nearly every time I go in there, it doesn't seem like a wise choice to clothe your feet. Maybe they grew too much muscle between the ears??