"Neeesholaaas....!!!!"

Okay, so, this post must remain between you and me. Nicholas must never know.... as he'd be completely embarrassed and maybe a bit angry with me for telling you. (But I think this is totally cute, so, here it goes....)

Nick's 12 and still very much a kid, so, the fact that hordes of Chilean girls his age chase him all over the playground at school, during recess, as he if were "Nick Jonas" instead of Nick Skoretz, totally mortifies him.

He told me about this last week, that he'd spent an entire recess running away from half a dozen girls, chasing after him, shouting: "Neeesholaaas....!!!" (There are no silent letters in Spanish so the "ch" is pronounced as in "chocolate" instead of as in "cholera.") He said he'd stopped long enough to correct the girls on the pronunciation of his name, but, he added, they didn't care. They just wanted to get near him, the kid from Canada, the English-speaking one.

Well, today I got a chance to see this "live." I was at the school, waiting to meet with Nick's teacher, Mauricio, when Nick came by, all out of breath, his face completely red from running. He just managed to enter the classroom where I was and close the door behind him, when 5 or 6 little girls squished their faces to the glass window, shouting the funny version of Nick's name. I glanced at a couple of them and they had that adoring look that's usually reserved for pop stars. When Mauricio appeared, Nick had to go out there, to face the girls and I could see him struggling to break free from the pack.

Mauricio -- a really young teacher whom Nick really, really likes -- said the girls had come by his classroom the first or second day of school, and had asked him: "Are YOU the teacher who has that Canadian boy in his class??! He is so....DREAMY.....!" or something along those lines. Mauricio and I laughed... and agreed it's probably a good thing Nick's too young to appreciate any of this!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend of Carmen's told her that "it's not really necessary" for her to go back home to Canada. Today, Mauricio told me the same thing, about Nick. When I reminded the teacher that Nick's only here for a short time, he was quite disappointed. "Too bad... he's a great kid and a really keen student. Are you sure he can't finish off the year?" 

Although it's only been two weeks, both Nick AND Carmen have been working really hard down here, wanting to learn, wanting to do their respective homework assigments every night, wanting to make friends and taking anything and everything that comes their way, very much in stride.

I told Mauricio today that our experiences down here (quake aside) have been everything I'd hoped for and more. I think it's been the same for Carmen and Nick, whom I hope will eventually remember his "fan club" fondly, once we're finally back at home.