It Begins

 The vacation is over. The last few weeks have been fun - filled with new places, people, and adventures. I’ve explored Santiago and Rancagua, been to clubs, restaurants, and tourists attractions. But yesterday I began my first day of work – my first day settling in to this new life. Today I will sign the lease to my apartment, and I am so excited. I can’t wait to be in a place of my own. I can make my apartment look nice, I can buy groceries, and I can start to create a reasonable budget for the future year. I’ll find out exactly what I need to make my life work here. Let’s face it, the lifestyle I’ve been living so far has been a little unsustainable. Not that I have not been frugal (the most expensive thing I have bought since living here was the 80 dollar cab ride from the airport, when a dishonest cab driver took advantage of my first-day naivety in respects to Chilean currency). But honestly, I have been eating out all the time, for lack of having a kitchen I feel comfortable in. Besides that, taking a cab to get from place to place (which is still very cheap by American standards) has not been the most efficient way to get around. Now, I feel like a master of public transport, and have been bopping around the city in Migras (half-sized busses) and collectivos (little taxis that charge less than a dollar to take you from one general area to another). 

Settling in has other advantages as well. My new apartment is very close to the local market, where local growers bring their produce to sell at unbelievable prices. I look forward to going there on weekdays for groceries, rather than frequenting the giant Walmart-esc Jumbo store I have been using. I can also use the local butchers for meat. All in all, I’m looking forward to settling into a life that is more typical of this area. Oh, and going out less will help too. Beer in bars here is equally expensive to beer in the US. So, I look forward to saving money by sipping a few glasses of wine in the comfort of my own home. But none of this, so far, is probably what you want to hear about.

Yesterday was my first day teaching at my college. Honestly, it was awesome. I was way more prepared than most of the other teachers who I were also teaching English classes, as I discovered in our pre-class meeting. I was also, surprisingly, the only native English speaker. Some of the other teachers English was surprisingly… well, let’s say ‘similar to my Spanish.’ I think they all know something about the English language, but they speak slowly and with a heavy accent that I suppose could be expected. They all, however, were very nice - especially one gentleman who has been a translator for 19 years and was a very jovial character (did I mention that Chileans love to joke around).

So, here I am, on my first day of class. Things begin by bringing everyone from all the classes into a giant auditorium. Our academic coordinator brought all the teachers to the front of the room and introduced us, or rather, we introduced ourselves. I said, “Hello my name is Sam Hodder. I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’m obviously a native English speaker, so I’ll be working with the high-level students. I’m used to working with younger children, but I’m excited for the opportunity to teach adults.” The guy who came next said, “I…am…. obviously… not….a….. native…. English….speaker…” Everyone laughed.

When we got in the classroom nothing seemed to work right for me. Being the first day, I had no idea what I would be supplied with, although I was promised a computer and speakers in my classroom. I got in the class, and none of the aforementioned items were anywhere to be seen. Luckily, my student handed me a laptop, with which I was able to connect to the projector. Within 10 minutes of the desired start time, everything was back on track. It was also lucky I brought plentiful amounts of pens and dry erase markers, because those were MIA also.

The lesson went really well. Students were cold and seemed scared at first, but as class wore on, they really opened up (right in time for our oral practice and mixer). Tensions also seemed to ease the more I made a fool of myself in front of the class. When I tried to blow in my tea, to cool it down, my glasses completely fogged over. I looked around the room sheepishly and everyone laughed. I made bunches of jokes and silly hypotheticals while describing the perfect progressive tense, which also seemed to lighten the mood. Students were all participating, and while some needed more prodding than others (I did not literally poke any students), things went very well. The hard thing is to determine who is shaky in his or her English skills, and who might just be more shy. This will take some time to figure out. Many other students said the class could be a bit more challenging. All in all, students left in good spirits, and I think they are looking forward to the class. 

I’m now going to begin lesson planning for tomorrow. Today will be challenging - students look out. If anything eventful happens, I’ll be sure to let you know.