This article was originally intended to post on September 3, but was unable to due to storage restrictions on my old site.
Fíjense que… class is cancelled! This is something I’ve been hearing a lot lately. So I figured it’s time for Reason Why Class Have Been Cancelled, Round 3.0, 2015 Edition:
- Singing in English Competition
- The Singing in English Competition got postponed (shocker!), so we are going to practice for the Independence Day march
- Jaquelin won the Singing in English Competition, so we are going to talk about it rather than have class
- Retirement party for a teacher
- Christian ethics talks
- School picture day
- Time for teachers to hand in their grades for the quarter
- Profe got stabbed twice in the back of the neck Saturday night (I am seriously unhappy about this one, but he is going to be just fine)
- Kermes
- Cleaning day
- Another cleaning day (they seriously have so many cleaning days if I were a student I would just throw trash everywhere to get cleaning days and not have class)
- Fumigating for mosquitoes
- Sandinista Youth Beauty Pageant
- Marching band practice for Independence Day
- More marching band practice
- Even more marching band practice
- And the list goes on
An explanation of fíjense que:
‘Fíjense que’ or its informal counterpart ‘fíjate que’ are commonly used terms in Nicaraguan Spanish that don’t exactly have a direct translation. It is kind of like starting a sentence with “I think that,” “Look, sorry, but,” or “By the way.” The phrase often precedes bad news, so Volunteers across Nicaragua know that when they arrive to school all sweaty and parched, just in time to see a mass exodus of students, and they find their counterpart who starts his or her sentence with ‘Fíjense que,’ you guessed it, class is cancelled.
Lupita is not impressed
Previous editions of Class is Cancelled:
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