So, my first week on the job is over. Today, which is a Monday, I had off work because of a holiday weekend. The extra time was great, and I used it to look for furniture for my apartment, which was a great success. But I will tell you about that a little later. First I want to mention how my first week of teaching English went.
So, I am teaching the highest level of English classes that the university offers. This is quite an ask – the students are very demanding, and the material we are using is not really up to their level. So, there is a good deal of bridging to do, working around the subject matter from the book and preparing activities for the students. So far, I think I have been doing a pretty good job. I’ve been sticking to the same content area as the book. Then, I’ve been using my grammar book to write a more thorough lesson about that subject. Class has pretty much been one half theory, the other half pure practice. I think things are going well. Actually, there was one day, which really sucked, when I tried to teach straight out of the book. But since then, class has been killer.
Have I mentioned that my students are super smart? Well they are, and unfortunately they are at a very high level of speaking (the only reason I say unfortunately is that it means improvement is harder to observe. And my bonus depends on improvement). They have huge vocabularies – the only problem is that they sometimes mix up the order of words, and need some help on sentence structure. Also, I’m teaching to college age students and to middle aged professionals. They are extremely serious students, and have huge expectations. They are going to keep me on my game.
So, now for the apartment. First of all, our rent is super cheap. It’s probably around half of what most of the people I know are paying. Awesome. Second of all, my roommate and I furnished the place for about 400 dollars a piece. That includes beds, sheets, comforters, kitchen table, 4 chairs, a large refrigerator, light fixtures, lamps, a stereo system, dishes, cutlery, a toaster, a teakettle, bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, and more. Seriously? Unbelievable. We shopped smart but didn’t have to skimp out. I think after this initial investment, we are going to save a lot of money over renting a furnished apartment. Best of all, our landlord said he wants to buy our furniture from us when we leave!
On another note, I have never furnished anything from scratch. All throughout college, I have moved furniture from one place to another, lived in dorms, or used the old furniture of friends or previous renters. It was actually really fun to furnish the place completely from scratch. We got to talk color schemes, layout, and logistics. Logistics? Yep there were plenty of things to talk about. First of all, we decided we don’t need to buy extra chairs for the balcony. When the weather gets better we’ll just drag our chairs out to the balcony to barbecue. Then there are other questions: What happens when one of us has “company” over? Where will our friends sleep when they come visit? Who is going to cook dinner? Ect. Ect. Anyway, the whole thing is pretty exciting. Last, I couldn’t have a better roommate. Even though the two of us were completely sick, we ran all around town all weekend comparing prices and finding epic deals to make our apartment… well basically, the shit.
Last, we live smack in the center of town. This is close to my work, but far from Regina’s. So, we are probably gonna go halfers on a bike that she can ride. I figure, when the weather gets warm, it will be nice to have a bike to ride around anyway. Maybe we can get pegs on the back, and I can haul her around grade school style. Also, if I hit my bonus (and I know this will never happen), I want to get one of these:
This bad boy is awesome. First of all its called a MadAss, which is exactly what I’ll be getting if I am riding around town on this bad boy. Second of all, they are sooo cheap: 1200 US. Yet, apparently, they are really well built. My Chilean friend says that if I actually did buy one (this will not actually happen), he would buy it off me when I leave. I can’t imagine it is really very fast, but if there were some cool roads from here to Valpariso, that would make for a beautiful drive. The real problem though, is that I would definitely want to join up with a scooter gang. But, I really don’t know what the protocol for that is around here. I’m just going to assume right off the bat that there is a pretty hardcore initiation if you want to be in a Chilean scooter gang. Besides my first “pleasure buy,” if you will, has to be a guitar.
Anyway, that’s about it for life here in Chile. Pictures of the apartment due Wednesday, when the last of our furniture gets delivered!
Missing everyone back home.
Sam
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