Why hello there everybody. As you may have noticed, blog entries are getting fewer and further between. However, I AM still tryyyiinnnggg to keep you all updated with what's going on with me in Chile. Tomorrow (well, I guess TODAY since it's almost one in the morning) is my last official day of my IDELT certification course. After that, begins capítulo dos of my Chilean adventure; finding a job and a place where I want to live here. My plans have changed a little since my last entry and my friends and I are cutting our trip to the North down to just La Serena and the surrounding areas. We will be taking off (hopefully sometime before noon) on Thursday. Our trip to the Valpo/Viña area will be moved to the end of our trip (probably somewhere around the 12th, 13th and 14th) and then back to Santiago for a few days to pack/clean up my friend's house before her lease is up and (if we like it, of course) get ourselves situated to move to La Serena. We're also toying with the idea of going to Bariloche to visit and renew our 90 day tourist visas but we'll see how that ends up working out. We're all a little anxious to get things situated in our new home (wherever that might be) and figure out the housing and job situations before we make any serious travel plans. A lot is still up in the air but I'm really excited for the challenge and adventure. In the meantime, time to celebrate graduation. Parrrr-tayyyy!
Today was my first official day of the IDELT program at Bridge. Maybe on the second day, they'll teach us what the acronym IDELT actually stands for...in the meantime, I'll describe it as a certificate that qualifies me to teach English as a second language (if you haven't picked that up yet, that's why I'm in Chile). Above is a picture of me, Ruby and Gordi (my two roommates, who are also in the program). My third roommate's name is Brett and he just finished the program that we are now starting (stop me if you've heard this before).
Our class is pretty big by Bridge standards, ten students. Everyone seems pretty cool, I think we'll help each other out a lot as the course progresses. It feels weird to be back in school again. I have mixed feelings about it for sure. I definitely have a challenging four weeks ahead of me but I think I'm ready...ish. Hopefully I will gain a lot from this course and feel totally confident in my teaching by the end. Vamos a ver.
As part of today's class, we did a beginning Portuguese lesson. The idea was to put ourselves in the role of a beginning foreign language learner again so we could develop empathy for our future students. After stumbling over "Meu nome é Alicia, e você?" about a hundred times, I think I got the point. I would like to learn Portuguese for real one day, maybe go back to Brazil and live for a while. The thought was kind of lingering with me for the rest of class and afterwards I promptly bought myself a caipirinha to temporarily satiate my Brazil craving. Hopefully I'll go back at some point when I'm in Chile. Tickets from here are only about $300 USD round trip and I DO have a ten year visa...
Anyways, back to Chile and back to homework for now. I have about forty more pages to read before tomorrow and it's already 11:30 PM. I guess my procrastination skills didn´t get rusty during those nine months that I wasn't in school. Whew!
Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday before I collapsed into a pile of sheer exhaustion and knocked out for the night. One day I hope to establish some kind of regular sleeping pattern here in Chile, one day. Yesterday, we visited La Chascona, one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. It was very cool and has an interesting history but we were told, by our tour guide Gonzalo, that the best of the three houses is in Isla Negra (the only one that was not damaged around the time of the Chilean coup d'etat in the early 70's). A few friends and I are thinking about going there this weekend but we haven't decided between Isla Negra, Valparaíso, Pichilemu and Viña del Mar. We were also considering Mendoza, Argentina but after we found out it would be hotter than Santiago, we thought better of it.
The tour cost us about 3.500 pesos (seven dollars) but I think it was worth it. It definitely sparked my interest in Neruda more and our tour guide was pretty cool. We stopped at a little outdoor market in Bella Vista on the way home and I bought a pair of funky earrings for pretty cheap. My roommate and I got home around 6:30, made dinner and spit a bottle of wine. Chilean wine is so cheap and so good.
Today after class, we had an organized school field trip so we just hung out in the teachers' lounge and ate lunch while we were waiting for it to start. We had some empanadas (much like every other day that I've been in Chile...hints the title of this blog) and talked to some of the people that work at Bridge. Everyone from school is extremely nice and helpful. I'm very happy with the program I chose and I would totally recommend BridgeTEFL to anyone thinking about teaching abroad (and yes Bridge, if you'd like to pay me for that shameless plug, I'd be more than happy to accept cash or check).
Marisol, one of the Bridge Spanish teachers, was our guide to El Cerro de San Cristobal. It is a beautiful hill with gorgeous views of Santiago. We hiked up it and wandered around a lot, stopping at a very nice restaurant for a pisco sour on their deck, which overlooked the city. It was such an amazing view. After we reached the summit, we took a trolley car that rides on tracks down the side of the hill and back to the bottom. It was pretty awesome. Pictures coming soon!
