Sorry for the long delay between blogs but life here has really taken over and I'm way beyond busy these days...not that, that is any different than when I'm living in the states! My life has finally settled into somewhat of a routine and I'm so accustomed to living here that I feel as if I've been here for a year or more.
School is going well. Spanish class is moving along slowly but nicely...with the help of some of my native speaking friends. Business classes are good as well. I got a B+ on my first operations management exam and have another exam coming up in just a couple of weeks. Management models is by far the most boring class I have here. The problem is that the material is so easy and presented in such a simplistic manner that I can't stay interested in it. I have to give a presentation for the class in 1 month. Guess that means I should probably start reading the material! I definitely put the 'pro' in procrastination! lol
Work is going better than I could have ever imagined. I've become very close with one of the girls there, Susana. I go to her house once or twice a week to hang out and chat and spend some time with her family. She's a native from Concepcion but went to Australia and learned English
. She's studying to be a translator and teaching English with me. We're also good friends with Ryan & Salvador who are our co-workers as well. Ryan and I trained together and have remained friends ever since. He's from TN and moved to Ecuador to start a business to help clean up the city. Now he moved here for a few months while his company is developing. Salvador is Chilean by descent but grew up near Vancouver Canada. He's been in Chile for 5 years and teaches English at Berlitz and in Coronel. We're a pretty close group and recently had a couple of bbq's at Salvadors' house (which is where Ryan is living too), with some of our students...always a good time!!I'm teaching a lot these days. I have a regular class Mon-Fri 8am-9:30am with 2 students from a biz called Price-Waterhouse where they work in the audit department. They are beginners and some days are a real struggle to get things across to them. But I welcome the challenge and have to say it's the most rewarding feeling to watch them learn and grow with a new language! I have another class Mon & Wed nights from 7:15-9:30 with 3 students, all guys (Felipe, Raul & Carlos). They are level 4 and a lot of fun! Felipe & Raul are thru a government program here called 'sense' where the gov't pays for their lessons. Carlos is a university student studying IT. They are very creative and do such a great job with role plays and make me laugh all the time!! And my other class is the one I've had from the beginning, the husband and wife couple (Marcela & Gabriel). I recently learned that they are both doctors (psychology & gynecology). They are still a blast and I have such a great time with them!!
This job has actually put a new career idea in my head!! This happens when I travel abroad...when I moved to Spain it made me realize I wanted a masters degree. Now I'm debating on getting my doctorate!! lol I've really been trying to weigh my options. When I return home I will only have 7 classes to take to graduate...that's just about a year left. At that point I can either find a job with a company and move out of Ohio while trying to start my design firm; I can start looking for grant money for small businesses when I return and try and build a client base by the time I graduate; or I can pursue a doctorate and work on getting a position teaching
in a university while working on my design business!! Oh the decisions I will have to make!So that is basically it for this update! I have no complaints and am loving life as usual. The weather is getting colder but we've been lucky because there hasn't been a whole lot of rain yet...although I hear it's coming soon. The aftershocks have been plentiful over the last couple of weeks but they've been small, so no worries. Ximena & my host family is still spoiling me as usual!! Being an English teacher has opened a lot doors to some new friends through Ximena and I'm actually helping one of her clients, Juan Pablo, practice his English. We got to hang out and meet a bunch of his friends on Saturday night and then we all went salsa dancing together at a club called Bonita...I forgot how much fun that was!! Sindy (my classmate) and I still try and get together once a week for a dinner or lunch but it's hard sometimes with our schedules.
I'm dropping in a few albums in this blog. The one above is of a bbq at Salvadors house and then some pics of the pizza I made for Sindy & her roomie a couple weeks ago. The next album is some old photos from my trip to Pucon and Parque Rio with Ximena. These were the photos from her camera. And lastly is an album of pics from just this past Friday. It was a beautiful sunny day out and I called Ryan to do some museum hopping with me. The museum of Natural History is super close to my house, complete with an outdoor dinosaur park. So we did it 'American tourist' style and took some silly photos there and then headed to the university & a small art museum!
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