My Life as a Teacher

And so it begins.... or began, last Tuesday that is.  After meeting my family and moving into my house two Mondays ago, I began my life as a teacher.  On Tuesday (through this Monday) I was introduced to all of my classes and all of my students.  Some of the classes we just had a question and answer session and some of the other classes I actually began to tutor.  So I think I have nearly 350 students: I have 13 classes, as small as 8 and as big as 40!  I co-teach with two classes because they are particularly advanced and the rest of the classes we split in half while I take one half of the class for the first 45 mins and then we switch and I teach the second half for the second 45 mins.  I teach one 3rd grade class, one 5th grade, one 7th grade and the other ten classes are 9th-12th grades.  If you had asked me literally 2 weeks ago which i would rather teach, children or teenagers, hands-down, I would've said kids.  That is NOT the case now.  I am ecstatic that I am teaching teenagers for the following reason: kids are INSANE.  They are so hard to control.  My 3rd grade class this week was actually so difficult that I hate to admit it but afterwards I almost started to cry in the teacher's lounge (which is NOT ok)!!!!  Lunch is the worst part of my day.  I sit in the teacher's lounge and talk to no one b/c I have no idea whatsoever what is being spoken around me.  it's absolutely loco.  and i feel horrible because i want so much to be friends and communicate but not only do i fear sounding like an idiot, i really know so little spanish that every other line would be 'como?'  I find it particularly hard to pay attention also. it's not always the case that i dont understand but i often completely lose interest in trying to understand so i give up and zone out and then everyone assumes i have no idea whats going on. ugh.  i imagine this is what ADD feels like.  anyhoo, i love my HS classes so much. unfortunately, or fortunately, not sure yet, they crack me up! i laugh so much in school but that may make my life more difficult in the future in terms of classroom management?  who knows.
other firsts:
First day of teaching alone was Tuesday, and I taught all week on my own! this week was hello, my name is ____. Nice to meet you.'  Next week is 'How are you'
First Chilean Funeral: yes it's true,  week two I went to the funeral of my principal's mother.  School was cancelled Tuesday after 130pm for the funeral in las ventanas and finishing in the cemetery in puchuncavi.
First Wedding: potentially tonight? I will keep you posted.
First conversation about pololos: ugh, i hate the conversation about boyfriend.  I never understand if they are asking if i have one or if i need one or who they want to set me up with. i just don't understand and i get particularly frustrated about this topic of conversation and then my face gets all flushed... ugh
First Gin and tonic: I missed it so.
First Asado: last friday, the carne was delish but tore me up as you can probably imagine as a veg head for 2 years.
First English Network meeting: intended to encourage Chilean English Teachers to talk in English and improve.  of course the meeting was conducted in Spanish duh
First sleepover: Corrie spent the night last night in my room, ie my bed and i think my parents think im crazy. yeah it's ok, i'm gringa.
First trips to Papudo, La Ligua, Maitencillo, Asienda, Catapilco, Cachagua por micro! go me!

I cannot think of any more updates right now.  i got my spanish book so hopefully here soon i can totally communicate! ugh. mostly im ok with trying to be invisible but when im acknowledged and don't totally understand or how to respond i have difficulty.  i hope everyone is doing well and i'm sending lots of gringa love from chile up north :)

check it: we're on the news!

we are famous!

Estoy en Puchuncavi, or near there rather...

so this was probably the most terrifying day of my life.  we left santiago at 6am after only 4.5 hours of sleep of course, and we arrived in vina del mar at 9am only to meet our families at 930 or 10am.  my mama, principal and host teacher were all there to greet me!  in addition, we shared a van w/ two other of the vols who will be living the closest to me and their host teacher and host mama and papa.  we then drove from vina del mar to quintero along the mar, through renaca and con con. we stopped in quintero to see jeremy's host school where he will be teaching high school. upon entering one student happily announced that there were gringos in the building.  after a little conversation with the principal, of which i understood literally about 5 %, we went to las ventanas to drop off leigh ann and jeremy at their host family's house.  then me and my host teach and mother went to the host teacher's house, across the street from my shcool in downtown puchuncavi. it is the ONLY school in puchuncavi and therefore there is high school and chiquitos in the same place.  it was totally overwhelming.  we visited one of the english teachers and the students were literally hitting each other in the background with notebooks!!!!!  however, the host teachers are awesome and don't want me to have a horrible experience.  i will be working with the best behaved classes apparently. i dont want to filter my classes by behavior, i want everyone to have access to education, but jesus christ, i dont know about that. also, it looks like i might have friday off if not part of monday off as well. like maybe a half day monday.  that way i can travel on the weekends which would be fantastic.  i have to take the bus to school bc im technically not even in puchuncavi so it doesnt look like i'll be getting that far out however tonight we had 12 family members over during/after onces, which is their cena, which consisted of eggs and avocado on bread with nescafe con leche.  i actually found it delish but it will probably be the same meal everyday.  my family is amazing and so nice. they speak no english which is perfect. we live on a ranch with horses and lambs which i will see tomorrow! i live with a mama, a papa, and their 27 year old son and tonight one of their grandchildren sofia is spending the night. i think that is fairly often for them.  in addtion, they have 2 older daughters and another grandson julian who is adorable!  after lunch we went to make some marmalade which my mother, malvina, sells at various markets around the area (ranging from valpo) to the andes which i obviously said i would help her with! hellllllo, the andes!  i really think that i have lucked out. my family is super warm and accepting of my horrible spanish and quietness and my host teacher speaks english and is super sweet! puchuncavi looks small, quaint and cute but i dont even live in the town! but there is a bus stop no more that 30 ft from my front door so i can easily go to horcon, maintencillo, las ventanas, valpo or zapallar where things may get more exciting.  having said that, my family definitely likes a good asado, ie bbq, and we will be having one soon for me i think! im super excited about it all! theyve had vols before, one of which was a vegetarian so this is not a new thing to them!  im feeling very positive about this all.  having said that, im pretty nervous about tomorrow. it was wild at school yesterday but here we go! ahhhh.

An interesting article about Chile/NOLA

Pinera looks to NOLA for recovery tips!

Puchuncavi!

So this is the town that i will be leaving in as of Monday!  It's a small town 4 km from the beach north of Valpo.  Here are some pictures of my town i found online and a map showing where it is located.  We leave on Monday at 6am! AH I am super super super nervous to meet my family and my town and my students etc etc. I can look at these pictures all that i want but i literally have NO clue what it will like.  I'll let y'all know! Also I don't know what my internet connection will be like but hopefully there will be at least one place in the town that i can use! oh right... there's 13000 people in Puchuncavi! This should be interesting... I'm anticipating one main street, dirt roads, being the only gringa, being the tallest person in the town and eventually knowing everyone.  oh yeah, and meeting some cowboys and becoming a rockstar at the cueca! what out!!!

Puchuncavi!

More of Puchuncavi!

MAP

picasa pix!

here's the link to ALL of the pix that I've taken here if such a thing interests you.  I will be updating it periodically :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/115656042588808844618/SantiagoDeChile#