A Let Down You Can Count On

Yesterday I went to this event called Edcamp Santiago. It was quite interesting for me to go to, as I had never been to something like it. They called it an “unconference”. So basically anyone who arrives in the morning can say- ok I will do a presentation.

I did my presentation on some ideas I have about sports and language, which is something I want to develop a lot more here in Chile.

During the week I will write some more developed notes on what I presented about, as really I just made it up on the spot. My basic ideas were about using games and sports to learn to count, identify parts of the body, and also that people really identify with their favourite players- as in, they know EVERYTHING about them.

So what I am hoping is that I can build up on that a bit more and power on from there. In my masters, which begins at the end of next month, the next subject is about Practice Led Research. That is something that I still don’t really understand, but these ideas on sport and language are going to form the backbone of my studies, and hopefully that will be acceptable.

I was talking to a footbag pal in Colombia, though I have not actually met him yet, and was telling him about some of my ideas, he was saying, these are really great etc, and I told him, this year I want to change these ideas to more than just up in the air plans, I want to make them reality.

Oh yeah, from next month I am going to be one of the editors on the I Love Chile website. The biggest benefit of that is I will be earning some money. Unfortunately salaries are low in Chile, and the fact is I could earn three times as much back home in Australia on the dole, but I really believe in this project a lot, and I think it has a big future.

The other project I am going to do is this Streets of Santiago project, that’s just a personal kind of mission, and it does kind of fit in with the I Love Chile, but it’s a project I thought of just a couple of days after arriving, and that one is going to be my baby. I bought a domain name for it the other day, though I have not yet prepared my site. I just bought the domain because I was telling a fair few people my ideas and I didn’t want them to steal it.

Also I am going to keep doing my weekly Footbag interview, although I would like it to be more than once per week. So I have started getting in touch with a few more players, and will continue to build up some more throughout the week.

I finished the year (ie on the new years night) in a really negative mindframe, so I have tried lately to just be really positive, and I think it’s going well. Francisca also has a cool project of her own which she is developing.

Speaking of positive things, lunch is ready.