So life has taken an interesting turn here in Chile. A bump in the road so to speak. Yesterday I woke up with a place to live, and went to bed in a new place, not knowing where I would be the next day. As I write this now I just want to pause for a moment to reflect on how strange life can be sometimes. You never know what strange thing is going to happen or how you will meet it when it does.
I woke up yesterday morning, business as usual. Shaved, took a shower, got dressed and readied myself to go to school. It was just as I was finishing that Estela came to the door. I opened it and she told me she needed to talk to me.
Now, a bit of back story. Because of my own lack of foresight and banks being a pain in the ass I am currently broke. I’ve been waiting for the bank to transfer money into my account for several days now. Since I have had no money I haven’t been able to pay Estela my rent money. I didn’t know this was a problem until yesterday. She had mentioned it in passing a couple of times. Something to the effect of, Do you have money in the bank yet? I would reply that I didn’t, but was expecting it anytime now. That was it. I thought that these questions were out of concern for my well being. It turns out they weren’t. Instead they were questions more to the tune of, where’s my money. While I was unaware that this was an issue, she was apparently harboring some resentment.
So when she came to the door and said that we had to talk I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Then she told me that she wanted me to give her my keys and that she wanted me out of the cabana by the end of the afternoon. I was, to say the least, surprised by this. In fact, I was completely blind sided. I didn’t expect this and I really didn’t see it coming. She then went on to tell me that she didn’t want to talk about it because I already knew the reason. Since, in fact, I didn’t know the reason I asked her why. She told me it was because I hadn’t paid her and that this was a problem and she wanted me out. So I apologized, and told her that I would go to class, then come back after and pack my things. I didn’t know where I would go, but I knew I couldn’t, and didn’t want to be there anymore.
I left and went to the campus for my class. Then I was very fortunate. On my way to class I ran into Marjorie. We talked for a moment and then I told her about my situation. She told me that she had some extra space at her house and that if I needed to I could stay there for a couple days while I figured everything out. So we made plans to meet later that day and we both went to our respective classes.
After class I went back to my office to try and figure things out. I wrote Estela a letter explaining things. I figured that as long as I’m here I might as well so my best to keep things civil. Then I went back to the cabana and started packing. It took me about an hour to get everything put together. I had no idea how I was going to get all my things to the campus. I was pretty sure that no colectivo would stop for me with all of my stuff, especially during the lunch hour rush. But Fortunately Estela decided to be civil and offered to take my things to campus for me. So I caught a colectivo and went downtown. While I was walking to campus I happened to run into Victor and Rocio. I told them about my new situation and not only did they offer me a place to stay, but they also offered to help me find a new place. I told them that I already had another offer, but that if that didn’t work out I would call them. I left them with my faith in Chileans restored.
I got to my office and tried to do some lesson planning, but I found it rather difficult to concentrate. Marjorie called me and told me that she, Dayanne and Roxan would come to my office at 5:30. Of course, in typical Chilean fashion, they were thirty minutes late. If someone from Chile tells you a certain meeting time, always add at least fifteen minutes, thirty is more common though. They showed up at my office at 6 and we talked about what had happened. It was agreed upon that Marjorie’s house was the best/only option, and that I could stay there provided I 1. Didn’t mind kids (she has a two year old) 2. Didn’t mind not having internet, and 3. Could live without hot water. I explained that 1. That sounded great. And 2. My only other option was sleeping under a bridge. This of course got a lot of laughs as they imagined me under a bridge. Thank God for friends.
It turns out that Marjorie lives a very close fifteen minute walk from campus, on Isla Teja. This was good because I had all of my stuff in my backpack, and it was pretty damn heavy. On the way we stopped and had a lady take some pictures of us. Then we went to Marjorie’s. Marjorie lives in, what they described as, the poor part of the island. I certainly wouldn’t call it modern, or well kempt, but this part of town certainly has some character to it. Naturally I loved it immediately. After I got my stuff into the house Marjorie showed me where I would be sleeping. Way nicer than what I had hoped for. I actually had a bed in a private room. I had expected a nice slab of floor. So this was going to be good living. After I got settled in Dayanne and Roxan left. Then Marjorie went to get her daughter Fran.
As it turns out Fran is ridiculously cute, and she has a ton of energy. So as soon as she got home she started running around, and basically doing everything possible to drive her mother crazy. The best part of it all, though, is that she calls me ‘Tio’. For those of you who don’t know Spanish, Tio means uncle. So picture an adorable little Chilean girl running around the house, terrorizing her mother, screaming ‘tio, tio, tio’ and laughing hysterically.
When Marjorie had taken care of Fran we all went to the store to buy some food for ‘once’. I tried to pay but Marjorie refused, telling me that I could buy the food tonight. I reluctantly agreed and we made our way home to eat. After we ate we hung out for a bit until Dayanne came back to visit. While Marjorie put Fran to bed, Dayanne and I went to the store and bought some beer. When we got back we sat around, drank some beer, and they practiced their English while I tried to explain English grammar in Spanish. I think Dayanne came over around 10:30, and didn’t leave until 2am. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being able to speak with them in our nice mixture of Spanish and English. More importantly, I have already noticed a marked improvement in their speaking and listening skills. So I couldn’t be happier about that.
All in all it was a very interesting day. However, I’m actually kind of happy it has all worked out this way. The cabana was starting to get a little boring anyway. And this way I get to see another side of Chile. While finding a new place is going to be a pain in the ass, overall I am perfectly happy. I have to go now because Roxan’s birthday is tomorrow so we are going to go buy some things for her party. I will update the blog tomorrow. Hasta luego.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Why my Chilean Friends are Awesome
So two days ago Victor finally got fed up with his inability to contact me whenever he wanted. Apparently my like of a phone number wasn't acceptable. Up to this point the only way we had been able to communicate had been email, or if I called him using skype. So on Wednesday Victor and Rocio came to my office and told me that they had a present for me. Apparently Victor had found an old cellphone that no one was using and decided to let me borrow it for the rest of the time that I'm here. All I would have to do is buy a prepaid simcard for it, then recharge it whenever necessary. So we went to a store and bought one, and now I have a phone. Awesome. This will simplify my life somewhat. It has been difficult trying to get together with people. You don't realize how dependent you are on your cellphone until you are standing outside of McDonalds at midnight hoping that your friends are actually on their way, with no way to contact them to make sure.
After that I had to go and work with Marcos, so we made plans to meet up in front of McDonalds (it's always our meeting spot) at 7:30. Not only were they nice enough to get a phone for me, but they also wanted to have me over for dinner/to help them study for a quiz they had on Thursday. So I met up with Victor t 7:30, Rocio was working till 10, then we got on a bus to go to Rocio's house. On the way there Victor asked me if I wanted to see his house and meet his family. Naturally I said yes, so we went to his house where I met his two younger brothers, 10 and 4, his grandmother, and his mom. It was great. Very friendly people, welcomed me into their home without hesitation. I talked to his mom for a bit, then we walked over to Rocio's house to wait for her to get off work. We talked for awhile and studied some English, then when Rocio got home we had some food. Really good bread with mashed avocado (I've been assured that this is different from guacamole because there are no other ingredients), Aji (hot chilly peppers), ham and cheese. Incredibly good. While we ate I helped them study. I ended up staying until 1:30am. It was a lot of fun. I am continually impressed by how nice, warm and welcoming chileans are. Very friendly and always willing to offer help when and where needed.
The next day they came to my office again, and with another present. This time it was a book of chilean slang. Under each others tutelage I am starting to get a hang of chilenismo, and Victor is becoming quite proficient in swearing in English. He has all the basics down now, it's pretty hillarious.
Victor and Rocio have been great. they took me out for my birthday, took me out for halloween, gave me a cellphone, introduced me to family, had me over for dinner, and they gave me book to help me understand their language better. Talk about friends. I can already tell that I will be staying in contact with them for a long time after I leave Chile.
After that I had to go and work with Marcos, so we made plans to meet up in front of McDonalds (it's always our meeting spot) at 7:30. Not only were they nice enough to get a phone for me, but they also wanted to have me over for dinner/to help them study for a quiz they had on Thursday. So I met up with Victor t 7:30, Rocio was working till 10, then we got on a bus to go to Rocio's house. On the way there Victor asked me if I wanted to see his house and meet his family. Naturally I said yes, so we went to his house where I met his two younger brothers, 10 and 4, his grandmother, and his mom. It was great. Very friendly people, welcomed me into their home without hesitation. I talked to his mom for a bit, then we walked over to Rocio's house to wait for her to get off work. We talked for awhile and studied some English, then when Rocio got home we had some food. Really good bread with mashed avocado (I've been assured that this is different from guacamole because there are no other ingredients), Aji (hot chilly peppers), ham and cheese. Incredibly good. While we ate I helped them study. I ended up staying until 1:30am. It was a lot of fun. I am continually impressed by how nice, warm and welcoming chileans are. Very friendly and always willing to offer help when and where needed.
The next day they came to my office again, and with another present. This time it was a book of chilean slang. Under each others tutelage I am starting to get a hang of chilenismo, and Victor is becoming quite proficient in swearing in English. He has all the basics down now, it's pretty hillarious.
Victor and Rocio have been great. they took me out for my birthday, took me out for halloween, gave me a cellphone, introduced me to family, had me over for dinner, and they gave me book to help me understand their language better. Talk about friends. I can already tell that I will be staying in contact with them for a long time after I leave Chile.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Graffiti and Halloween
This past weekend was a good one, full of friends and beer, all the things you really need in a weekend. It all started on Friday when I decided I was bored, and that if I spent another Friday in my Cabaña by myself I would go crazy. So I decided to give Victor a call. Victor's the guy who took me out on my birthday, gave me a tour of the city, then took me to a party where I proceeded to drink an unpleasant mixture of beer and pisco, which led directly to one of the more massive hangovers I've had in recent memory. So he's a good guy, and him, his girlfriend Rocio, and myself are becoming friends. So I put to use the wonderful creation that is Skype and gave him a call. That's how I found out that talking on the phone in another language sucks. I can understand someone just fine when we are talking face to face, but over the phone... not so much. Through some trial and error we were able to decide that he and Rocio would come by my office later that afternoon. 
So around 5 they showed up at my office and we went downtown to the mall where they both work. On the way they showed me the street where all the good bars are. As it turned out, that night a local band called Graffiti was playing at one of the bars. They decided that we should go, so I agreed, then we went to the mall. They both had to work at 6:30, so we got to hang and talk for a bit. Then they had to work so I went back home. The plan was that I would call Victor around 11 when he got off work so we could make plans. So I went home and hung out, ate some food, took a shower, all that good stuff. Then at 11 I called Victor and we agreed to meet in front of the mall at 11:30. So I went out and caught a colectivo downtown then walked over to the mall and met them.
Then we walked down the street to the bar. It was everything you could want in a bar. Chill atmosphere, smoky, lots of tables, and good old fashion calssic rock coming out of the speakers. I was pretty damn happy. And randomly enough, the asian exchange students I had previously gone on a tour with were there too. That's when they told me that Graffiti is a band of older gentlemen who cover classic rock songs. As soon as they started playing I knew I was going to be happy. The beatles got the most play, but there were also classics like Piano Man, Rolling on the River, and House of the Rising Sun. It was awesome. And the guys were great performers. They got the whole bar in to it. Picture a bar full of Chileans, four asian exchange students, and me, the lone American, all singing the chorus to Hey Jude. Amazing. So much fun. Then, during an intermission, the lead singer came over to our table and to talk with us. As it turned out he didn't just sing songs in English, but also spoke English very well. So we had a nice conversation during which he told me all about how they had started, and why they played at that particular bar. It was pretty cool. So we hung out there until around 3am, listening to good music and talking. Then, Rocio was hungry, so we went and got completos, which are basically big hot dogs with all kinds of crazy stuff on them. After that it was time to head home to get some sleep.
Then we walked down the street to the bar. It was everything you could want in a bar. Chill atmosphere, smoky, lots of tables, and good old fashion calssic rock coming out of the speakers. I was pretty damn happy. And randomly enough, the asian exchange students I had previously gone on a tour with were there too. That's when they told me that Graffiti is a band of older gentlemen who cover classic rock songs. As soon as they started playing I knew I was going to be happy. The beatles got the most play, but there were also classics like Piano Man, Rolling on the River, and House of the Rising Sun. It was awesome. And the guys were great performers. They got the whole bar in to it. Picture a bar full of Chileans, four asian exchange students, and me, the lone American, all singing the chorus to Hey Jude. Amazing. So much fun. Then, during an intermission, the lead singer came over to our table and to talk with us. As it turned out he didn't just sing songs in English, but also spoke English very well. So we had a nice conversation during which he told me all about how they had started, and why they played at that particular bar. It was pretty cool. So we hung out there until around 3am, listening to good music and talking. Then, Rocio was hungry, so we went and got completos, which are basically big hot dogs with all kinds of crazy stuff on them. After that it was time to head home to get some sleep.
Victor and Rocio
Me
Graffiti
Me and the Lead Singer
Singing and Dancing on a Table, now that's a good time.
Saturday was Halloween. Victor had to work again that night, but he got done at 9:30, so we made plans to go grab some beers. I went downtown and met up with him around 10. While we were walking to a bar we ran into his best friend Claudio, so we changed our plans and went with Claudio to a different bar. I can't remember its name, but it was really chill and relaxed, even more so than the one the night before. The beer was cheap, so we drank a lot of it. It was a lot of fun. They started teaching me Chilean slang, of which there is a lot, and of which I can't repeat here due to its inapprorpiate nature. Chilean Spanish is its own thing all together. They have so much slang, and such wierd pronunciation that I have a hard time keeping up a lot of the time. So hanging out with Victor and others has been great. I'm finally starting to get to the point where I can actually understand what they are saying most of the time. But it's still really hard and takes a lot of concentration on my part.
Despite the large quantity of beer I drank the night before, I woke up Sunday feeling pretty damn good. I had thankfully avoided pisco during the course of the weekend, and so I was feeling well. Sunday afternoon I went and met up with Dayanne and Roxan. I had hung out with them the weekend before and we'd had a good time. So I was pretty happy to get to hang out again. Unfortunatly Marjorie was out of town, so she wasn't with us. We went to the botanical garden on campus and sat in the sun for a couple hours and talked. It was a very nice, rare, sunny day, so we took advantage. I really enjoy talking with them, it's a great way to learn the language and the culture. And we all seem to get along really well. Aslo we went and got pizza. Anyone who knows me know how happy that made me. That was pretty much all I did on Sunday, but it was a good day.
Now, ten things I have come to realize about food since coming here. 1. My new favorite apatizer is half an avacado, filled with diced hard boiled egg where the pit used to be. 2. My new favorite dessert is a sliced up banana in yogurt. 3. Pizza is even better after you haven't had it in three weeks. 4. Empanadas are amazing, no matter what they are filled with. 5. Pisco kills. 6. While you would think it was gross, Cochoyuyo (seaweed/kelp something), is actually really good. 7. Maybe I don't hate fruit and vegetables as much I previously thought. 9. Aji makes everything better. 10. Chilean wine is incredibe.
So that's it for now. Things are continuing to go great, but the time is going way to fast. I only have a little over a month left here, and I'm pretty sad about that. I really hope I can come back someday. Amazing country. Hasta luego.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Why I'm Awesome
First off I just want to say that I am awesome and I deserve nothing short of everyones undying love, affection and admiration from this point on. That being said, allow me to tell you about my last couple of days, and in so doing explain the reasons behind my apparent greatness.
First off, I am now having students come to my office for help. Two days ago one of my students came to ask for help translating an article from English to Spanish. It was really cool, and we ended up working on it for about an hour, all the while speaking Spanish. Having the students coming to me for help is great, and I really enjoy being able to help them.
Yesterday was a crazy and wonderful day. I started by sleeping through my alarm for about the third time since I´ve been here. This time it all kind of worked out though, because apparently Estela had trouble getting up that morning also. We both had class at 9:50am and didn't leave the house untill 9:30am. So I was a little worried about being late, since it takes 15 minutes to get from the house the university on a good day. We managed to get there at 9:45 and I had her drop me off at the building where my class is. The day before we had had to cancel class because Ximena was sick, so I wasn't 100% sure if we were actually going to have class that day. As it turned out, Ximena was still sick, and class was cancelled. However, some of the students still wanted to have some sort of class. So I told them that if they wanted to, we could have a mini class. Four of the students decided that they wanted to practice, so we went to the classroom and sat around and talked in English for about 40 minutes. After that, as a treat, I let them speak Spanish with me for the last 20 minutes. I was really happy about all this for two reasons. First, because I wanted to do something other than go back to my office and figure out my fantasy football team. Second, because the students were actively trying to learn. This is a big step in the right direction for a group of students that are behind where they should be. I wish a few more had decided to stay, but I can hardly blame them. If one of my classes was canelled, there would be no way I would stay.
After that class I went to my next class. The first 40 minutes of this class were supposed to me telling the students about the history of halloween, and how it is celebrated in the United States, followed by a discussion of how/if it is celbrated in Chile. After that we were going to do book work. So I stood in front of the class and gave my presentation. Then when it was time for the discussion I was met with silence. No one really wanted to talk, so I tried asking more specific questions and started getting some answers, but only a few students were talking. So Raquel told everyone to take out their books to start doing exercises. There were general groans throughout the class to which Raquel responded 'Well, noone was talking. If you aren't going to talk, then we will do book work.' This seemed to light a fire under their asses, becaus suddenly there were plenty of questions. We started talking about Halloween, which quickly turned into a discussion about parties and drinking. Which led to drinking laws in the US. Which led to drug laws in the US. So my presentation started with the history of Halloween's origin, and ended with me trying to describe what meth was. God I love this country.
When that classes ended it was 1pm. This is the time when I usually meet with Estela to go home and get lunch. However, today she was nowhere to be found. As it turns out, she had to leave the school early that day and had forgotten to tell me. So I just kind of stood around for awhile not knowing what to do. At first I was waiting, but after 20 minutes I figured out that she was gone. So I considered going downtown and taking a colectivo back to the house. But that seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I ended up talking to one of the students from the previous class for about two hours. She had forgotten something in the classroom, but now it was locked, and noone was going to be back until 3. So, we started talking and continued talking until 3:30 when Estela showed back up. It was a very nice conversation, and a wonderful way for me to practice my Spanish. So I was quite content.
I went back to my office and hung out until 5:30. Then it was time to go. Yesterday Estela and I were going start tutoring one of her collegues who wanted to improve his English. Estela had asked me if I would be willing to help last week, and had jumed at the opportunity. All I knew was that he worked at the University. What I didn't know was that he was the director of continuing education at the University. So needless to say, the guy is important. So we leave the University, because the department of continuing studies is on the other side of the river, and next thing I know I'm sitting in this beautiful office, with huge windows looking out onto the river, drinking coffee and eating cookies while I tutor this very important individual in English. This man, Marcos, is sitting there, wearing an impecible suit, very dignified, struggeling through English sentences while I try to provide him with assistance. Pretty intimidating situation. So we continue for the hour that we had set aside for these lessons. When the time was up, he didn't want to stop. But since I hadn't eaten anything so far, Estela said that we had to go get me some food. To this he replied that he wanted to take us out to dinner. So here I am, this lowly students from the States, going out to dinner with Estela, who used to be the director of the language department at the University, and Marcos, the current director of continuing studies. WTF. Two very important people in the university, and me. Wow.
So we go to a restaurant on the other side of the city. First things first, pisco sours. Pisco is the national drink of Chile. It's a liquor made from grapes, tastes a bit like rum, but sweeter. And it's really strong, a fact that was not helped by the half a shot of cognac they added to it after I'd taken a few sips. Then they bring the food. First off is a kind of pastry. I can't remember the name in Spanish, but it is essentially flour and water, deep fried into what I can only describe as a savory doghnut type thing. Amazing, especially with a little aji, minced hot peppers. Then the main course, a giant bowl full of broth, and an entire chicken cut up into sections, and french fries. Once again, I love this country. This was all paired very nicely with a nice bottle of expensive Chilean wine. Estela and Marcos start talking about old friends and such, in Spanish I can barely keep up with, so I give up and go to town on the food. To say I gorged myself would be an understatement. Everything was delicious, and after my pisco sour and a couple classes of wine, I was feeling pretty damn good. And that's when I had a wonderful epiphany. I am sitting down to dinner with two very important people, from one of the most important universities, one of whom I am already very close with, and the other with whom I will be working a lot over the next month, eating delicious food, drinking amazing wine... in Chile. Wow again.
Throughout the course of yesterday evening I became aware that Marcos is very passionate about education and helping children with disabilities. When I told him about my own families interest in this subject he got excited and invited me to come with him to one of the schools in Valdivia today. I accepted the offer, so earlier today I went to his office and we went to a school for developmentally disabled children. From this experience I have learned two important things. One, Chilean children are adorable. Two, autistic children are cute everywhere in the world. The first group of children we went to see had autism and other developmental problems. There were six of them, all around 5 or 6 years old, and they were all adorable. One of the boys was hopping around the room on his knees (he has trouble standing) while throwing a stuffed animal into the air. Another was pushing a toy car around on the floor, then the wall, then just making it fly through the air. The cutest though, was a little girl, maybe 5 years old. When we first got there she walked up to me, grabbed my finger, shook it, and then ran back to the teacher and hid her face against the teachers leg. It was among the cutest things I have ever seen. After that we visited a group of children who had problems with producing sounds, speach imediments and such. Let me tell you, there isn't much in the world that is cuter than little chilean children singing songs. It was an amazing experience, and I'm very thankfull that Marcos was kind enough to take me.
So, to some everything up, my students are great, I'm making great connections with important people here, and I got to see some of the cutest children in the world. Pretty good last couple of days. Add to that the fact that today Ximena informed that if I ever decided that I wanted to move back to Valdivia, and work in the University, the application process would be a mere formality. Wow again. Apparently I'm making a good impression. So now I just have to get my masters and apparently I could have a job teaching at a University in Chile. Needless to say, life is pretty damn good.
First off, I am now having students come to my office for help. Two days ago one of my students came to ask for help translating an article from English to Spanish. It was really cool, and we ended up working on it for about an hour, all the while speaking Spanish. Having the students coming to me for help is great, and I really enjoy being able to help them.
Yesterday was a crazy and wonderful day. I started by sleeping through my alarm for about the third time since I´ve been here. This time it all kind of worked out though, because apparently Estela had trouble getting up that morning also. We both had class at 9:50am and didn't leave the house untill 9:30am. So I was a little worried about being late, since it takes 15 minutes to get from the house the university on a good day. We managed to get there at 9:45 and I had her drop me off at the building where my class is. The day before we had had to cancel class because Ximena was sick, so I wasn't 100% sure if we were actually going to have class that day. As it turned out, Ximena was still sick, and class was cancelled. However, some of the students still wanted to have some sort of class. So I told them that if they wanted to, we could have a mini class. Four of the students decided that they wanted to practice, so we went to the classroom and sat around and talked in English for about 40 minutes. After that, as a treat, I let them speak Spanish with me for the last 20 minutes. I was really happy about all this for two reasons. First, because I wanted to do something other than go back to my office and figure out my fantasy football team. Second, because the students were actively trying to learn. This is a big step in the right direction for a group of students that are behind where they should be. I wish a few more had decided to stay, but I can hardly blame them. If one of my classes was canelled, there would be no way I would stay.
After that class I went to my next class. The first 40 minutes of this class were supposed to me telling the students about the history of halloween, and how it is celebrated in the United States, followed by a discussion of how/if it is celbrated in Chile. After that we were going to do book work. So I stood in front of the class and gave my presentation. Then when it was time for the discussion I was met with silence. No one really wanted to talk, so I tried asking more specific questions and started getting some answers, but only a few students were talking. So Raquel told everyone to take out their books to start doing exercises. There were general groans throughout the class to which Raquel responded 'Well, noone was talking. If you aren't going to talk, then we will do book work.' This seemed to light a fire under their asses, becaus suddenly there were plenty of questions. We started talking about Halloween, which quickly turned into a discussion about parties and drinking. Which led to drinking laws in the US. Which led to drug laws in the US. So my presentation started with the history of Halloween's origin, and ended with me trying to describe what meth was. God I love this country.
When that classes ended it was 1pm. This is the time when I usually meet with Estela to go home and get lunch. However, today she was nowhere to be found. As it turns out, she had to leave the school early that day and had forgotten to tell me. So I just kind of stood around for awhile not knowing what to do. At first I was waiting, but after 20 minutes I figured out that she was gone. So I considered going downtown and taking a colectivo back to the house. But that seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I ended up talking to one of the students from the previous class for about two hours. She had forgotten something in the classroom, but now it was locked, and noone was going to be back until 3. So, we started talking and continued talking until 3:30 when Estela showed back up. It was a very nice conversation, and a wonderful way for me to practice my Spanish. So I was quite content.
I went back to my office and hung out until 5:30. Then it was time to go. Yesterday Estela and I were going start tutoring one of her collegues who wanted to improve his English. Estela had asked me if I would be willing to help last week, and had jumed at the opportunity. All I knew was that he worked at the University. What I didn't know was that he was the director of continuing education at the University. So needless to say, the guy is important. So we leave the University, because the department of continuing studies is on the other side of the river, and next thing I know I'm sitting in this beautiful office, with huge windows looking out onto the river, drinking coffee and eating cookies while I tutor this very important individual in English. This man, Marcos, is sitting there, wearing an impecible suit, very dignified, struggeling through English sentences while I try to provide him with assistance. Pretty intimidating situation. So we continue for the hour that we had set aside for these lessons. When the time was up, he didn't want to stop. But since I hadn't eaten anything so far, Estela said that we had to go get me some food. To this he replied that he wanted to take us out to dinner. So here I am, this lowly students from the States, going out to dinner with Estela, who used to be the director of the language department at the University, and Marcos, the current director of continuing studies. WTF. Two very important people in the university, and me. Wow.
So we go to a restaurant on the other side of the city. First things first, pisco sours. Pisco is the national drink of Chile. It's a liquor made from grapes, tastes a bit like rum, but sweeter. And it's really strong, a fact that was not helped by the half a shot of cognac they added to it after I'd taken a few sips. Then they bring the food. First off is a kind of pastry. I can't remember the name in Spanish, but it is essentially flour and water, deep fried into what I can only describe as a savory doghnut type thing. Amazing, especially with a little aji, minced hot peppers. Then the main course, a giant bowl full of broth, and an entire chicken cut up into sections, and french fries. Once again, I love this country. This was all paired very nicely with a nice bottle of expensive Chilean wine. Estela and Marcos start talking about old friends and such, in Spanish I can barely keep up with, so I give up and go to town on the food. To say I gorged myself would be an understatement. Everything was delicious, and after my pisco sour and a couple classes of wine, I was feeling pretty damn good. And that's when I had a wonderful epiphany. I am sitting down to dinner with two very important people, from one of the most important universities, one of whom I am already very close with, and the other with whom I will be working a lot over the next month, eating delicious food, drinking amazing wine... in Chile. Wow again.
Throughout the course of yesterday evening I became aware that Marcos is very passionate about education and helping children with disabilities. When I told him about my own families interest in this subject he got excited and invited me to come with him to one of the schools in Valdivia today. I accepted the offer, so earlier today I went to his office and we went to a school for developmentally disabled children. From this experience I have learned two important things. One, Chilean children are adorable. Two, autistic children are cute everywhere in the world. The first group of children we went to see had autism and other developmental problems. There were six of them, all around 5 or 6 years old, and they were all adorable. One of the boys was hopping around the room on his knees (he has trouble standing) while throwing a stuffed animal into the air. Another was pushing a toy car around on the floor, then the wall, then just making it fly through the air. The cutest though, was a little girl, maybe 5 years old. When we first got there she walked up to me, grabbed my finger, shook it, and then ran back to the teacher and hid her face against the teachers leg. It was among the cutest things I have ever seen. After that we visited a group of children who had problems with producing sounds, speach imediments and such. Let me tell you, there isn't much in the world that is cuter than little chilean children singing songs. It was an amazing experience, and I'm very thankfull that Marcos was kind enough to take me.
So, to some everything up, my students are great, I'm making great connections with important people here, and I got to see some of the cutest children in the world. Pretty good last couple of days. Add to that the fact that today Ximena informed that if I ever decided that I wanted to move back to Valdivia, and work in the University, the application process would be a mere formality. Wow again. Apparently I'm making a good impression. So now I just have to get my masters and apparently I could have a job teaching at a University in Chile. Needless to say, life is pretty damn good.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Progress
There have been some very fun and interesting developments here over the past week. Things are going very well and I am very happy. I am starting to get more responsibilities, and I'm starting to do more. This past weekend was very fun, and there was a lot less being hung over, so I'm happy about that. On saturday I got together with the three students who approached me about hanging out and being friends. It was a great, and I had a new experience with my own language learning.
On saturday I went to campus to meet up with the students around 2. The three that I hung out with are named Dayanne (the guy), Marjorie, and Roxana. The three of them are classmates studying accounting. Dayanne and Marjorie are in my English class with Ximena. Roxana is in a more advanced class because she chose to start studying English in her first year rather than her second when it is required. So I met up with them around two and then we took a bus downtown. Usually I just walk downtown because it's just across the bridge from campus, but it was raining and they wanted to take the bus. This was the first time that I'd taken a bus in Valdivia. The buses here are about half the size of the buses in the states and about 30 years older.
When we got downtown we went to a restaurant near La Feria. Since Valdivia is at the junction of the rivers, and only 20 minutes from the pacific, seafood is the staple. And the seafood is very fresh. We started with some empenadas mariscos, empenadas full of shellfish. I don't know what kind of shellfish was in them, but they were really, really good. Extremely fresh and just out of the fryer. These were just the apatizers though, and for the main course I had fried salmon. It was delicious. I ate just about everything, which is saying something because I'd just had lunch with Estela before I left. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple of hours and talked. We spoke a nice mixture of English and Spanish, but mostly Spanish. I tried to get them to speak English, and that would go well until there was a difficult word or concept, then it was back to Spanish. After an hour and half or so Marjorie had to leave, so Dayanne, Roxana and I started walking around the city and talking. We ended up in the mall, where we found a nice place to sit in the food court, and talked for a couple of hours.
This is where things started getting interesting for me. We'd been speaking some English, and a lot of Spanish. My Spanish is better than their English, so Spanish was the fall back language. When we first started hanging out that day they were nice enough to speak slowly for me. But as the day progressed, and I became more comfortable with listening to their Spanish, they started speaking faster. By this point my brain was starting to get tired. Listening to another language for such a long time requires a lot of concentration. So I was feeling a bit worn out. And then it happened, I started asking a question in English. I had to speak very slowly so they could understand me. And all of a sudden I realized that speaking English was way more work than speaking Spanish. Speaking Spanish with them was easier than speaking English. This was the first time that speaking another language was easier than speaking English for me. So it was pretty damn cool. After spending four and half hours with them I got to the point where I was speaking without thinking. There was no translating in my head, no hesitation while I tried to put a sentence together. I was very happy, to say the least.
After we hung out in the mall and talked for a few hours we decided to call it a night. It was about 7:30pm, and my brain was fried. So we made plans to hang out again next sunday and went our seperate ways. The whole experience was great for me, and I really felt like I'd made some progress with my Spanish.
Sunday I stayed in and did school work and checked my fantasy football scores religously. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Yesterday I had one class in the morning. Then in the afternoon I had a meeting with Ximena. She told me she wanted me to plan part of the lesson for today. Through my observations I noticed a common problem in all the classes and levels. The students here seem to be having trouble with the indefinate article, a/an. They don't seem to understand when to use it and when not to use it. For example, you don't use a/an with plural or noncount nouns. It is only used with countable, singular nouns. So I frequently hear things like, I have a long hair, instead of, I have long hair. So I made a nice lesson plan about this that I was going to present to the class, but, unfortunately, Ximena was sick today, so class was cancelled. But I'm hoping to teach the lesson tomorrow, if she is feeling better.
I am really excited to start actually teaching lessons. Up to this point my main use has been to provide the students with the sound of my native english speaker accent. This is all well and good, but I want to do more. I enjoy teaching, and I'd like to actually do it. Tomorrow should be a good day for it though. Hopefully Ximena will feel better so I'll be able to teach my grammar lesson. Then in my other class, I am going to be teaching a mini lesson on halloween. Apparently Chileans have started celebrating halloween in the recent past, so Raquel wants me to talk about its history and how we celebrate in the US.
After class tomorrow I am also going to start tutoring one of the pedagogy professors with Estela. Apparently he wants to learn English, and Estela asked me if I would be willing to help. I said, of course, so now we will be doing that every wednesday at 6pm. So Weds are going to be very busy for me from now on. Also, I am helping in another class now, but only once a week. Language classes here meet twice a week, but I will be meeting with a business class every thursday for the rest of the time I'm here. So I will be working in two and half classes, tutoring a professor, and helping my own students outside of class. I'm quite happy about all this, and very excited to really get started.
The weather here has been terrible over the last week. Tons of wind and pouring rain, so naturally I feel right at home. I think it's going to start clearing up next week, so I'm happy about that. I want to start enjoying the outside world here at least a little bit before I have to leave. I've been here for three and half weeks now, and it feels like a week and a half. Things are going by way too fast. I am really going to miss this country when I have to leave. It's a beautiful place with amazing people. I really hope I get the opportunity to come back someday. Well, that's it for now, hasta luego.
On saturday I went to campus to meet up with the students around 2. The three that I hung out with are named Dayanne (the guy), Marjorie, and Roxana. The three of them are classmates studying accounting. Dayanne and Marjorie are in my English class with Ximena. Roxana is in a more advanced class because she chose to start studying English in her first year rather than her second when it is required. So I met up with them around two and then we took a bus downtown. Usually I just walk downtown because it's just across the bridge from campus, but it was raining and they wanted to take the bus. This was the first time that I'd taken a bus in Valdivia. The buses here are about half the size of the buses in the states and about 30 years older.
When we got downtown we went to a restaurant near La Feria. Since Valdivia is at the junction of the rivers, and only 20 minutes from the pacific, seafood is the staple. And the seafood is very fresh. We started with some empenadas mariscos, empenadas full of shellfish. I don't know what kind of shellfish was in them, but they were really, really good. Extremely fresh and just out of the fryer. These were just the apatizers though, and for the main course I had fried salmon. It was delicious. I ate just about everything, which is saying something because I'd just had lunch with Estela before I left. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple of hours and talked. We spoke a nice mixture of English and Spanish, but mostly Spanish. I tried to get them to speak English, and that would go well until there was a difficult word or concept, then it was back to Spanish. After an hour and half or so Marjorie had to leave, so Dayanne, Roxana and I started walking around the city and talking. We ended up in the mall, where we found a nice place to sit in the food court, and talked for a couple of hours.
This is where things started getting interesting for me. We'd been speaking some English, and a lot of Spanish. My Spanish is better than their English, so Spanish was the fall back language. When we first started hanging out that day they were nice enough to speak slowly for me. But as the day progressed, and I became more comfortable with listening to their Spanish, they started speaking faster. By this point my brain was starting to get tired. Listening to another language for such a long time requires a lot of concentration. So I was feeling a bit worn out. And then it happened, I started asking a question in English. I had to speak very slowly so they could understand me. And all of a sudden I realized that speaking English was way more work than speaking Spanish. Speaking Spanish with them was easier than speaking English. This was the first time that speaking another language was easier than speaking English for me. So it was pretty damn cool. After spending four and half hours with them I got to the point where I was speaking without thinking. There was no translating in my head, no hesitation while I tried to put a sentence together. I was very happy, to say the least.
After we hung out in the mall and talked for a few hours we decided to call it a night. It was about 7:30pm, and my brain was fried. So we made plans to hang out again next sunday and went our seperate ways. The whole experience was great for me, and I really felt like I'd made some progress with my Spanish.
Sunday I stayed in and did school work and checked my fantasy football scores religously. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Yesterday I had one class in the morning. Then in the afternoon I had a meeting with Ximena. She told me she wanted me to plan part of the lesson for today. Through my observations I noticed a common problem in all the classes and levels. The students here seem to be having trouble with the indefinate article, a/an. They don't seem to understand when to use it and when not to use it. For example, you don't use a/an with plural or noncount nouns. It is only used with countable, singular nouns. So I frequently hear things like, I have a long hair, instead of, I have long hair. So I made a nice lesson plan about this that I was going to present to the class, but, unfortunately, Ximena was sick today, so class was cancelled. But I'm hoping to teach the lesson tomorrow, if she is feeling better.
I am really excited to start actually teaching lessons. Up to this point my main use has been to provide the students with the sound of my native english speaker accent. This is all well and good, but I want to do more. I enjoy teaching, and I'd like to actually do it. Tomorrow should be a good day for it though. Hopefully Ximena will feel better so I'll be able to teach my grammar lesson. Then in my other class, I am going to be teaching a mini lesson on halloween. Apparently Chileans have started celebrating halloween in the recent past, so Raquel wants me to talk about its history and how we celebrate in the US.
After class tomorrow I am also going to start tutoring one of the pedagogy professors with Estela. Apparently he wants to learn English, and Estela asked me if I would be willing to help. I said, of course, so now we will be doing that every wednesday at 6pm. So Weds are going to be very busy for me from now on. Also, I am helping in another class now, but only once a week. Language classes here meet twice a week, but I will be meeting with a business class every thursday for the rest of the time I'm here. So I will be working in two and half classes, tutoring a professor, and helping my own students outside of class. I'm quite happy about all this, and very excited to really get started.
The weather here has been terrible over the last week. Tons of wind and pouring rain, so naturally I feel right at home. I think it's going to start clearing up next week, so I'm happy about that. I want to start enjoying the outside world here at least a little bit before I have to leave. I've been here for three and half weeks now, and it feels like a week and a half. Things are going by way too fast. I am really going to miss this country when I have to leave. It's a beautiful place with amazing people. I really hope I get the opportunity to come back someday. Well, that's it for now, hasta luego.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Pictures
So, I finally figured out how to get pictures on here. I´m not going to post very many for right now, but for those of you without facebook here is a quick preview of my life down here.
This first picture is of the outside of my cabaña. I have some pictures of the interior that I'll try to post late.
This is my office in the Centro de Idiomas on the Isla Teja campus of the Universidad Austral de Chile.
This next picture was taken during my boat tour of the rivers around Valdivia. This is La Feria, the open market on the waterfront. Behind it is downtown Valdivia.
Those are the lobos marinos, sea wolves as they call them, but more commonly known as Sealions in the states. There are a few places along the waterfront where they hang out. This place in the picture and La Feria are the most common places, and you can almost always see them here.
This is Los Saltos del Petrohue. Its about three hours drive from Valdivia. I came here with the intensive Spanish students from Asia.
This picture is of Lagos Todos los Santos. In the background you can see the Andes that make up the border, so the other side of those mountains is Argentina.
This is a picture of Valdivia that I took from the boat on my tour.
This first picture is of the outside of my cabaña. I have some pictures of the interior that I'll try to post late.This is my office in the Centro de Idiomas on the Isla Teja campus of the Universidad Austral de Chile.This next picture was taken during my boat tour of the rivers around Valdivia. This is La Feria, the open market on the waterfront. Behind it is downtown Valdivia.Those are the lobos marinos, sea wolves as they call them, but more commonly known as Sealions in the states. There are a few places along the waterfront where they hang out. This place in the picture and La Feria are the most common places, and you can almost always see them here.
This is Los Saltos del Petrohue. Its about three hours drive from Valdivia. I came here with the intensive Spanish students from Asia.
This picture is of Lagos Todos los Santos. In the background you can see the Andes that make up the border, so the other side of those mountains is Argentina.This is a picture of Valdivia that I took from the boat on my tour.So there it is. I´ll try to put some more pictures on here later, but I think this is a good sart. I hope you enjoy. Hasta luego.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
New Friends, New Schedule and My Birthday
So its been awhile since my last blog and a lot has happened in that time. First of all, things have been going great down here. I am having a great time and I still love being in the classroom. The weather down here has been a bit unpredictable, sometimes is goes from beautiful and sunny in the morning, to cold, rainy and windy in the afternoon, and then back again. So it feels just like home. My Spanish is impoving quite a bit, as I'd hoped, but I still have a lot to learn. Chileans speak very very fast and have a lot of slang that doesn´t exist anywhere else in the world. So talking with students has had its difficulties, but they payoff will be great.
Last week I continued observing classes and I had the opportunity to work with three new teachers. In one of the classes we ended up spending the entire time just talking about where I was from and what I was doing. So that was really cool. As much fun as that was, the really cool part was that after the class I was approached by two students, Victor and Rosio. Victor and Rosio are a couple and they are studying tourism. They came up to me after class and asked if I wanted to hang out some time outside of class. I of course said yes, that I would love to. I had mentioned in class that my birthday was the next day, so they said that they wanted to do something with me. This was great because up until that point my big plans had been to sit in my cabaña and watch TV. So doing anything would be a big improvement.
Most people who go to a new country for school usually go in groups. Or, if they are there to study a language, they have classes with other foreigners. I, on the other hand, came to Chile alone. So my friend base started at nothing. There are other American students here at UACh, but if I wanted to spend my time hanging out with Americans I would have stayed in the states. So this was a great opportunity for me. We made plans to meet up the next afternoon, so hang out and walk around the city.
The next day, my birthday, I met up with Victor in my office. Then we walked downtown and he gave me a tour of the city. He was very good at this, as would be expected from his major. He mostly spoke English while I mostly spoke Spanish. So it worked out pretty well. We walked arounf for a couple hours until lunch, then we made plans to meet up that evening. After that I went back to Estela's and ate.
The thing about Chile is that the nightlife doesn't really start until around midnight, and things don't really get started until 1am. So I spent some time relaxing at home. We planned to meet up in downtown at midnight. So at 11:30 I left the cabaña, found a colectivo (kind of like a taxi, only shared by others) and went downtown. I met up with Victor, then his girlfriend Rosio, and then one of their friends. So the four of us left downtown and went to the Mira Flores campus of UACh. UACh has two campus in Valdivia, the main campus is Teja, where I work, and the other is Mira Flores, for the engineering students. That night at Mira Flores there was a concert. This was kind of a new concept for me, since we don't frequently have concerts on American campus', and never ones that start at midnight. Nor do they usually take place in the gym, nor do they usually sell alcohol or allow smoking indoors. So there was a lot of new things for me. When we got there things hadn't really started yet. There was music, and some people, but not many. The music for the night was reggae and reggaeton, both of which were very enjoyable. We got some beers, which were terrible, and then started talking to people. I met a lot of new people and got a lot of 'happy birthday's'.
Around 1am things started to pick up. I the states that's usually when the party is winding down, but not in Chile. It got very crowded very quickly, and I'm pretty sure I was the only American there. Then another strange thing occurred. Apparently that night they were crowning Miss Campus Mira Flores. So all of a sudden there were girls on the stage, walking a makeshift runway in their bathing suits and answering questions about why they would be the best to represent the campus. A little strange to me, but oh well, when in Rome. After this was finished the music started again. There was much dancing and talking and drinking and that sort of thing. The band didn't start until around 3 or 3:30AM. They played for about a 45 minutes or an hour. I'm a little fuzzy about the timeline, as I didn't have a watch, and it was so late, and I was a little drunk. After the band played, which was great, we went outside to talk some more.
At around 5, Rosio said she was hungry, so we went back downtown to find food. Food turned out to be giant hotdogs covered with salsa and guacamole. By this time there were a lot of drunk people wandering the street. At one a hilarious point, we came across a very drunk Chilean students who could barely stand. When he heard that I was from America he let fly with some of the things he learned from watching American movies. This mostly consisted of various forms of 'what's up mother f&$%er?!'. In my intoxicated state I thought this was the most hilarious thing I had ever heared. At 5:30am we got into a colectivo and headed home. I wasn't in bed until 6am. It had been a hell of a night, and a damn fine birthday experience. I went to bed with the spins, and woke up with a terrible hang over. Gotta love birthdays.
I haven't seen Victor or Rosio since that night/morning, but they are off on a field trip for their major, so I don't expect to hear from them until next week. This week has been great also, so far. This is the first week that I have my actual schedule, so from now on I'll know where I'll be and when each day. I am going to be working in two classes, both of which meet twice a week. So every week I will go to four classes total. I have class monday morning, tuesday afternoon, and two classes on wednesday. One of the classes is fourth semester accounting class that I knew I'd be working in from the start. The other is a fourth semester tourism class. So the students have all had the same ammount of English, but they are at different levels. The students in the Tourism class are much better at English. I think this is because they can actually see the use in knowing English for their careers. The accounting students weren't very excited about English, and some of them really don't like it. But I think that is all starting to change. I think having a native English speaker in their class is going to help them see the advantages of knowing English. I'm very excited to start actually teaching in these classes.
Yesterday, three of the students came to my office after class. Two of them were from my accounting class, and the third was one of their friends from another major. They came to my office with a letter in English that they had prepared. The letter basically said that they wanted to be friends. That they wanted to practice their English with me and that they wanted to help me with my Spanish. They said that they wanted me to think of them as friends and people I could count on for what I needed. It's difficult for me to say this, because they are all my age and one of them was a guy, but it was really cute. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. So we all talked for a bit about what they wanted to do. When I told them yes, I would love to, they were actually excited and relieved. I think they expected me to say no. One of them even said that she had tried to make friends with some of the American exchange students, but that it hadn't worked. Apparently the exchange students are really clicky and like to stay in their little group of Americans. I on the other hand, was hoping to make some contacts among my Chilean students. So I was very happy and excited about this development. We have plans to meet on Saturday, so we'll see how it goes.
Today was crazy. I have been moving non stop all day. First, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Estela was knocking on my door to leave. So I had to run around and get ready very quickly. Then I had the accounting class first thing in the morning. Today was their oral exam, so I took part in listening and grading them. Then, when that finished, I had another class 10 minutes later. So I had to rush across campus to that class. In that class I taught my first mini lesson. By the time that finished it was 1pm. I was getting ready to go back to Estela's for lunch when Ximena reminded me that I'd promised I would teach the last half of one of her classes because she had a meeting. So instead of going home for lunch, I stayed and prepared for that. it would have taken me half an hour to get to Estela's, and half an hour to get back, so there wasn't really any point in leaving. At 2:45 I went to Ximena's class and spent 45 minutes having a conversation about Easter Island, my life, and how I liked Valdivia. At the end of the class one of the students approached me and told me that he was worried about his English. He told me that this was his last semester of English and that he needed to improve before he stopped taking classes. He said that he understood English fine, but he had trouble speaking, and a lot of problems with grammar. Then he asked me if I'd be willing to help him. I, of course, said that I would love to. He told me that we could go get a beer sometime and talk, if I wanted to. At which point I informed him that I love beer and would never pass on an opportunity to have a beer. So he is coming to my office in about 45 minutes to talk about it.
So things are finally starting to pick up around here. I love working with these students and I love being able to help them. My schedule is about to get a lot busier, and I'm really happy about that. The last thing I want is to have too much free time and get bored. So this is all perfect with me. So that more or less covers the last week. I'll try not to wait so long between posts from now. I hope everybody who is reading this is doing well. Hasta luego.
Last week I continued observing classes and I had the opportunity to work with three new teachers. In one of the classes we ended up spending the entire time just talking about where I was from and what I was doing. So that was really cool. As much fun as that was, the really cool part was that after the class I was approached by two students, Victor and Rosio. Victor and Rosio are a couple and they are studying tourism. They came up to me after class and asked if I wanted to hang out some time outside of class. I of course said yes, that I would love to. I had mentioned in class that my birthday was the next day, so they said that they wanted to do something with me. This was great because up until that point my big plans had been to sit in my cabaña and watch TV. So doing anything would be a big improvement.
Most people who go to a new country for school usually go in groups. Or, if they are there to study a language, they have classes with other foreigners. I, on the other hand, came to Chile alone. So my friend base started at nothing. There are other American students here at UACh, but if I wanted to spend my time hanging out with Americans I would have stayed in the states. So this was a great opportunity for me. We made plans to meet up the next afternoon, so hang out and walk around the city.
The next day, my birthday, I met up with Victor in my office. Then we walked downtown and he gave me a tour of the city. He was very good at this, as would be expected from his major. He mostly spoke English while I mostly spoke Spanish. So it worked out pretty well. We walked arounf for a couple hours until lunch, then we made plans to meet up that evening. After that I went back to Estela's and ate.
The thing about Chile is that the nightlife doesn't really start until around midnight, and things don't really get started until 1am. So I spent some time relaxing at home. We planned to meet up in downtown at midnight. So at 11:30 I left the cabaña, found a colectivo (kind of like a taxi, only shared by others) and went downtown. I met up with Victor, then his girlfriend Rosio, and then one of their friends. So the four of us left downtown and went to the Mira Flores campus of UACh. UACh has two campus in Valdivia, the main campus is Teja, where I work, and the other is Mira Flores, for the engineering students. That night at Mira Flores there was a concert. This was kind of a new concept for me, since we don't frequently have concerts on American campus', and never ones that start at midnight. Nor do they usually take place in the gym, nor do they usually sell alcohol or allow smoking indoors. So there was a lot of new things for me. When we got there things hadn't really started yet. There was music, and some people, but not many. The music for the night was reggae and reggaeton, both of which were very enjoyable. We got some beers, which were terrible, and then started talking to people. I met a lot of new people and got a lot of 'happy birthday's'.
Around 1am things started to pick up. I the states that's usually when the party is winding down, but not in Chile. It got very crowded very quickly, and I'm pretty sure I was the only American there. Then another strange thing occurred. Apparently that night they were crowning Miss Campus Mira Flores. So all of a sudden there were girls on the stage, walking a makeshift runway in their bathing suits and answering questions about why they would be the best to represent the campus. A little strange to me, but oh well, when in Rome. After this was finished the music started again. There was much dancing and talking and drinking and that sort of thing. The band didn't start until around 3 or 3:30AM. They played for about a 45 minutes or an hour. I'm a little fuzzy about the timeline, as I didn't have a watch, and it was so late, and I was a little drunk. After the band played, which was great, we went outside to talk some more.
At around 5, Rosio said she was hungry, so we went back downtown to find food. Food turned out to be giant hotdogs covered with salsa and guacamole. By this time there were a lot of drunk people wandering the street. At one a hilarious point, we came across a very drunk Chilean students who could barely stand. When he heard that I was from America he let fly with some of the things he learned from watching American movies. This mostly consisted of various forms of 'what's up mother f&$%er?!'. In my intoxicated state I thought this was the most hilarious thing I had ever heared. At 5:30am we got into a colectivo and headed home. I wasn't in bed until 6am. It had been a hell of a night, and a damn fine birthday experience. I went to bed with the spins, and woke up with a terrible hang over. Gotta love birthdays.
I haven't seen Victor or Rosio since that night/morning, but they are off on a field trip for their major, so I don't expect to hear from them until next week. This week has been great also, so far. This is the first week that I have my actual schedule, so from now on I'll know where I'll be and when each day. I am going to be working in two classes, both of which meet twice a week. So every week I will go to four classes total. I have class monday morning, tuesday afternoon, and two classes on wednesday. One of the classes is fourth semester accounting class that I knew I'd be working in from the start. The other is a fourth semester tourism class. So the students have all had the same ammount of English, but they are at different levels. The students in the Tourism class are much better at English. I think this is because they can actually see the use in knowing English for their careers. The accounting students weren't very excited about English, and some of them really don't like it. But I think that is all starting to change. I think having a native English speaker in their class is going to help them see the advantages of knowing English. I'm very excited to start actually teaching in these classes.
Yesterday, three of the students came to my office after class. Two of them were from my accounting class, and the third was one of their friends from another major. They came to my office with a letter in English that they had prepared. The letter basically said that they wanted to be friends. That they wanted to practice their English with me and that they wanted to help me with my Spanish. They said that they wanted me to think of them as friends and people I could count on for what I needed. It's difficult for me to say this, because they are all my age and one of them was a guy, but it was really cute. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. So we all talked for a bit about what they wanted to do. When I told them yes, I would love to, they were actually excited and relieved. I think they expected me to say no. One of them even said that she had tried to make friends with some of the American exchange students, but that it hadn't worked. Apparently the exchange students are really clicky and like to stay in their little group of Americans. I on the other hand, was hoping to make some contacts among my Chilean students. So I was very happy and excited about this development. We have plans to meet on Saturday, so we'll see how it goes.
Today was crazy. I have been moving non stop all day. First, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Estela was knocking on my door to leave. So I had to run around and get ready very quickly. Then I had the accounting class first thing in the morning. Today was their oral exam, so I took part in listening and grading them. Then, when that finished, I had another class 10 minutes later. So I had to rush across campus to that class. In that class I taught my first mini lesson. By the time that finished it was 1pm. I was getting ready to go back to Estela's for lunch when Ximena reminded me that I'd promised I would teach the last half of one of her classes because she had a meeting. So instead of going home for lunch, I stayed and prepared for that. it would have taken me half an hour to get to Estela's, and half an hour to get back, so there wasn't really any point in leaving. At 2:45 I went to Ximena's class and spent 45 minutes having a conversation about Easter Island, my life, and how I liked Valdivia. At the end of the class one of the students approached me and told me that he was worried about his English. He told me that this was his last semester of English and that he needed to improve before he stopped taking classes. He said that he understood English fine, but he had trouble speaking, and a lot of problems with grammar. Then he asked me if I'd be willing to help him. I, of course, said that I would love to. He told me that we could go get a beer sometime and talk, if I wanted to. At which point I informed him that I love beer and would never pass on an opportunity to have a beer. So he is coming to my office in about 45 minutes to talk about it.
So things are finally starting to pick up around here. I love working with these students and I love being able to help them. My schedule is about to get a lot busier, and I'm really happy about that. The last thing I want is to have too much free time and get bored. So this is all perfect with me. So that more or less covers the last week. I'll try not to wait so long between posts from now. I hope everybody who is reading this is doing well. Hasta luego.
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