English Circle

Hey there Blochachos! Last Tuesday, Antonio, Jordan, and I headed over to this little group meeting called English Circle. We had been invited by one of our friends at school (coincidentally the same cadet who had met us at the airport). We met up with the teacher, a guy from the UK who had been living in Chile for the last 11 years or so. He told us that the students wanted to celebrate the Fourth of July, but he had no idea what it was all about. We agreed to go in and talk to the cadets in English and talk about the Fourth of July.
The teacher pointed out some of the posters the cadets had made for the Fourth of July celebrations. They gave a pretty good insight into what Chileans think about America. One poster displayed a special Fourth of July edition of Marlboro Reds. Another poster had the Hooters logo, complete with a drawing of a bikini clad torso. At least two pictures featured Duff Beer, donuts, and pictures of Bart Simpson. Another poster simply showed the American flag with the word 'America' written across it diagonally in black letters (I thought this would be a pretty cool addition to the actual American flag).
Some cadets got up in front of the group and spoke in English about what we were doing and then I went up and introduced myself (my friends had told me they'd talk alongside me but didn't). After that, people started talking among themselves (in Spanish mind you) and I joined a group and forced them to speak English. While we talked, some guys played a soccer video game (decidedly not an American thing to do). Eventually, the teacher busted out karaoke and some cadets sang songs in English. I kind of wanted to try it out, but figured it would be cheating since I speak English pretty fluently.
After a while, we decided that we all had to work on our auto-biographical presentations and left after taking a picture with the teacher. It was good getting to speak in English and seeing that the Chilean cadets have problems with English just like I have problems with Spanish. Granted, I'm a Spanish major and my entire academic experience revolves around learning Spanish, but I try and look at the bright side.
Well that's all for now, blogaderros. My loud keystrokes are keeping Antonio awake.