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!
Today was the first day of school and, as luck should have it, my freaking alarm didn't go off. So, instead of waking up at seven with plenty of time to cook breakfast and get ready, I woke up at twenty to nine in a state of sheer panic, trying to put my makeup on while simultaneously getting dressed and shoving a piece of fruit in my mouth before running out the door. Luckily my roommate and I were playing it safe by planning to leave at 8:30 and were only a few minutes late when we left closer to 9:40. I got placed in the advanced Spanish class and, since there were only three of us, we got out an hour earlier than the intermediate and beginning classes. The course was challenging and I'm really glad I decided to take it (apparently eight months without Spanish drains your memory of all knowledge regarding verb conjugation...¿Quién lo sabe?)
After class, I went to grab a cup of coffee with the other two students in my group. One of them will be in my TEFL class and the other will be going back to Germany in two weeks and is only here for the Spanish lessons. At 2:30, I went back to the school to meet up with my roommate. She was hanging out with another girl from her class so the three of us decided to wander around the city for a bit and do some exploring. We got some lunch at a little sidewalk cafe and I got the empanaditas y un schop (cerveza). Yummm. Then we walked around looking for a place to buy a pre-paid cell phone but to no avail. However, we did explore a cool park, a gelato shop and a handful of over-priced malls. Luckily we stumbled upon an enclosed ATM where I could finally take out some cash. Victory!
Our expedition ended up lasting about six hours total. We were ready to go around about hour five but the metro was packed with commuters so we just waited it out and got some refreshments to ease our tired bodies and minds (Santiago was in the 90s today and the ozone layer is pretty much non-existent so the sun can getcha good). I got a bottle of water from an "OK! Market" which I didn't notice was carbonated. I also didn't know that it was all shaken up and and, of course, as soon as I paid for it and unscrewed the lid on my way out the door, it exploded all over the place. iAy, la gringa pendeja! Luckily, we ended the day with another victory when we finally found some cheap watches with Layla and Ruby had been keeping an eye out for the whole time. My roommate and I took the metro home and retreated back to our respective caves of relaxation and quietude. Now it's time to clean some things up and get ready to do it all tomorrow. iChau!
