Welcome to Santiago

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It's been nearly two weeks since my arrival. Hard to believe it's been that long, yet even harder to believe that this is truly just the beginning. It's been a unique experience so far and I think it will take me a while before I truly feel comfortable here and settle into a new, albeit temporary, life here. I'm optimistic that being here will help to give me the clarity and perspective I need to go home and start yet another new phase in my ever changing life. I know there are still people that think my coming here is a little ridiculous, and in some ways I can certainly agree with them, but on the whole I know why I'm here and have a better idea of what I want to get out of this experience, and I intend to make the most of it so that I feel fulfilled after my time here ends. And I think for right now that's something that I have been thinking about a lot - what comes next? That's one of the main reasons I came here in the first place, to try and answer that unanswerable of questions. What do I want to do next? Where do I want to go? Do I want to start a new career? In a new place? Or do I want to go back to my old career reinvigorated and with a new sense of perspective? Right now, these questions are as unknown to me as they've ever been. But I'm confident that clarity will come in time and I can return home reinvigorated to do whatever it is I set my mind to.

As for the past 2 weeks, what have I been doing? Well my first week or so was kinda like a vacation. Getting thrown into a hostel with 30+ other people in their early-mid 20s who are here for similar yet different reasons than me creates a big college/party atmosphere. So the first couple days was really about making friends, having fun, and exploring a little bit. I took a day with 2 other people here to travel to Valparaiso, a beautiful city on the coast with tons of street art and some cool vendors. We explored for a while and did a tour and I definitely am excited to go back and explore some more. We then had a couple days worth of short orientations to gain some more perspective about what it might be like to work in a classroom here, problems we may encounter, and what to do should we encounter them. We spent hours waiting in line for our carnet (foreign resident ID cards) and this was a good time for me to personally get to know people better and make some good connections. I was able to meet a couple of the teachers I'd be working with to prepare me for my first day of work this past Monday.

On Monday I had my first "real" day of work, although the school closes at 1:10 all week so it's really only been half days this week. I'm working with 3 different teachers teaching grades 7-12 and the kids seem genuinely excited to have me in the class with them. A friend of mine that did this program a couple of years ago also taught at this same school, so the kids know and remember him so it's pretty cool to have them all ask me if I know Sean and ask about how he is doing. I'm glad that I've taught internationally before because, while I knew the kids here would be different than the US, it has helped this to be not as big of an adjustment as it would have been if my only experience were in the states. The kids are all extremely polite and nice, but by the standards of any teacher I know, they are very disruptive and unruly and there's only a marginal amount of classroom management. But despite that, I am a co-teacher with limited Spanish so while we are sharing classroom management duties, the classes I do see I only see twice a week so most of that burden falls on the Chilean teachers I work with and I'm leaving it to their judgement on how to best manage the class.

I'm not entirely happy with what my role in the class is going to be, but it's something I want to embrace and do as best as I can. All the students here eventually take an international English exam that helps them go on to college, work abroad, or really do anything where English could be needed. My main role is to prepare and deliver 1 lesson a week for each of those 2 exams to all of the classes (so I only need to prep 2 lessons a week - that's awesome). But that means I'll be teaching each of those lessons 5 or 6 times each over the course of the week, which will get very boring, yet give me tremendous opportunity to improve it each time I do it. So since I see each class twice a week, one visit will be to deliver the test prep lesson and the other class will be to work with the 7th and 8th graders to prepare for their spelling bee, or to work with small groups of the high schoolers on conversational skills. While this is probably an "easier" job than I might have expected, I think I could get bored with it real fast, but I suppose time will tell! I'm just excited to be back in the classroom and have the opportunity to put my talents to good use once more.

As for all the other things I'm sure people want to know about (food, sightseeing, etc) I've been very cautious with my money so I've been cooking most of my meals, but the produce here is incredible cheap and fresh, it's ridiculous. I've had a couple of Chilean sandwiches and some ceviche, which has been amazing, but not much else besides. Still need to find some restaurants for cheap, authentic Chilean cuisine. The wine here, particularly the reds, are delicious and incredible inexpensive. Seems so far like a midrange bottle of wine could run you anywhere from 5-10, but you can go cheaper. I've done a little exploration around Santiago but the city is enormous so there's still a lot I want to learn and see. The mountains surround the city but unfortunately the smog here is pretty bad, so they're mostly obscured on the majority of days. But there have been a couple of days where you can see the snow capped Andes and they are stunning and incredible close. I really hope to get a chance to do some hiking on weekends while it's still warm, but not having a car makes things difficult. I'm positive I'll find ways to get into the mountains while I'm here. I know I will be incredible upset if I don't!

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Photos

Santiago
View of smoggy Santiago from cerro San Cristobal.

Parque Forestal
Park right by my hostel.

Museo de Bellas Artes
Art museum nearby

Gran Torre Santiago
Tallest building in Latin America

Fruit stand
Right by my hostel. The produce here is incredible!

Valparaiso
Main Navy building

Comments

[Lauren Lew]

Hey!!
Hey! I am glad to hear you are having fun! I am jealous of your 2 lessons a week! I am sure it is a different experience, but I'm sure the students will enjoy learning English from you! I love watching your pictures go up on fb and here! keep them coming!! :) -Laur