Updating from the last blog:
I officially have my Chilean id...yay for being legal!! Now I don't have to worry about carrying around a copy of my passport all the time. Also on an odd note, I have to use my id whenever I use my credit card. Here, not only do they require your signature but they also require you to write your RUN number on the receipt. Think of it like a drivers license number!
Things with Berlitz are finally moving along and I have officially begun working. I finished up 3 double training shifts last Tuesday, then got called in to cover another teacher and give my first class on Wednesday evening. A lot of you know that I really don't like standing up in front of people and presenting. I mean I've trained many a staffs in restaurants and spoken at wine tastings but it's just not the same as presenting in a classroom. I'm that person that runs out of breath and says "ummm" a lot. I have to say that the thought of me teaching was a little hard to grasp but since I've been down here it seems I just keep challenging one fear after another, so why not add this one to the list?! During training I had to teach my boss a few times and the other new teacher that was hired along with me. I was nervous at first but my boss is pretty awesome so after the first time I was really comfortable. My first class was only 2 students, a husband and wife couple named Marcela & Gabriel. Things started a little slow but within 10 mins I had them giggling and having fun with the material. The class was 2 hr and 15 mins and it really flew by. They were so much fun and eager to learn. I let them get creative with their dialogue and just have fun with it and they loved it. After the class Marcela told me that she really liked my class. I went downstairs to return the lesson book and fill in the ped card (it's the attendance/comment card we fill out after each session) and my boss came in just smiling with a weird look on her face. She asked how my class was and I replied that I thought it went well but with that look on her face, I wasn't so sure. She started laughing and asked how I felt about taking the same class again next Tuesday and of course I said I'd love to. I asked why the funny look and she informed that Marcela approached her and said that she really enjoyed my class a lot. She also requested that I be their teacher because they like me better than the other one! Haha, I couldn't help but laugh from excitement. Of course I don't want to step on anyones toes but my boss said she was proud and not to worry about it. She said way to go for stealing a class from someone on my first day! Now that was a great ending to a long day!!!
So tomorrow I will be teaching Marcela & Gabriel again. I also got a call and should be teaching a private student right after them as well as a couple more days this week! On top of that, we have a client that is a business sending their employees to us for a morning class. They are a level 1 (aka know no english) and I will have 1 of their groups Mon-Fri at 8am for a little over an hour each day. I was so worried I'd never have enough hours to make this job worth while and now I'm finding myself to be the dependable one they call when they're in a jam. I love it!! Before I leave I'm going to talk to my boss and see how difficult it would be for me to try and pick up some classes to teach back home. I think it'd be a great way to make some extra money and it's something I like doing. I never thought I'd say that I enjoy being a teacher!!
My coworkers are great. Last Saturday the owner, Cristian, threw a BBQ at his house for the new teachers, there are 5 of us in total. It was a holiday here, Labor Day. We had tons of food, karaoke and dancing. It was so much fun to be around such great people!!
Classes at the university seem to be going well. I had my first exam in operations management week before last. I was only 4 questions but all essay writing. Wow am I glad I asked to write it in english. I took me every bit of the 2 hour time limit just to write in English, I would have never finished it in time if I had to translate to Spanish!! As for how I did on it, well that's still unknown. I felt pretty good about most of it. I really studied and felt prepared with the material it covered. But we had class last week and no tests were given back. I'm going to ask a friend of mine about it tomorrow...maybe they do things different here and don't hand back exams...who knows!! My other 2 classes are moving right along. I actually need to do some homework tonight for my spanish class.
As promised, this blog is much shorter than previous ones. This is the last part, I promise ;) Yesterday was Mother's Day and I went on a field trip with my host family (they now claim me as their adopted daughter lol). We started up north and stopped in a coastal town called Tome which by some miracle was missed by the tsunami that followed the quake. We had some lunch overlooking the pacific ocean. I had mariscal caliente, it's a seafood soup with a white wine and stock broth with a bunch of different seafood in it topped with an egg. It was super yum!! Here are some pics of Tome!! (click the pic)
The point of this trip was to travel further north to a town called Dichato. This town unfortunately was not missed by the tsunami but rather destroyed by it. The people
were warned to run for the hills right after the quake. But after a half hour the gov't said no worries, nothing happened and you can come back down now. Then the city got rocked by 4 huge waves! The place was demolished. Businesses, homes, people, cars, plant life...everything just gone. The pictures don't do justice to the devastation that you feel by seeing it in person. You can't help but to cry for them. The pics don't have captions on them but you can see where roads just washed away, bridges fell, boats washed up on land, and homes fell apart. I know this isn't the happiest way to leave a blog but the one thing we went to do was honor those who were lost and those who lost so much. In some the final pics you will see a statue of the virgin Mary. It is surrounded by nothing but dirt and slabs of what used to be homes, but yet the statue itself looks untouched. This has become a sign of hope and prayer to the city. Click on my photo to look at the pictures. Remember this is what it looks like after 2 months of clean-up. Click this link to see what it was like before cleaning began: http://media.ft.com/cms/e4And here are a couple links to show you what it was like when it was a live and thriving city: http://image02.webshots.co
http://static.panoramio.co
Love and miss you all!!!
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