First Half of Orientation

Buenos Tardes!!!

I just hit the mid-point for orientation. We have learned more about the culture, we are learning teaching methods, taking Spanish classes, learning about multiple intelligences and how to teach to all of them, learning about tenses and grammar and how to teach them, etc.... Does anyone really want to hear about the orientation in any greater detail?

The rest of the stuff....

We had a scavenger hunt as a morning activity last week which was cool, except my "hunt" was to an area that I have already explored. Other volunteers went to cool spots, so I will certainly follow their paths. I saw the Parque O'Higgins which is Santiago's Central Park. Very pretty, had the paddle boats too. Even have a little rinky dink amusement park called "Fantasilandia". I'm not really into them, but the name is so funny, it might be worth it just to go.

The weather here is hot, sunny, and just gorgeous. Last Saturday afternoon I walked around a bit and then came back to the hostel to lay out. We have a nice roof so a bunch of us just hung out there for the rest of the afternoon.

Two of the volunteers in the group had birthdays last weekend, so we all went out to celebrate. We started at a nicer bar called Catedral (pictured to the right) and had bottles of wine and pisco sours. A bunch of us then went out to a discoteque in Vitacura (a barrio of Santiago) and drank and danced until about 4 am. Needless to say, Sunday was rather uneventful. (Note.... comunas are the equivalent of suburbs and barrios are the equivalent of neighborhoods in the city).

This past week, we did some lesson planning training and then we had the opportunity to go to the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano to teach 1/2 of an english class in pairs. Sean, one of the other WorldTeach volunteers, and I taught a beginner class. We did some cool activities. Some were effective, some were not, but all good experiences! It was great to get some class time mid-orientation and we really liked the students for the two days we worked with them. It gave us a sense for how long an activity we plan actually takes in real time with non-english speakers. And we were able to get our first time teaching nerves out of our systems in a controlled environment before we went up in front of our own classes. All in all, it was great.

I'm just getting over a cold, so no crazy stories for last night... but no worries! I'm sure I'll have one by tomorrow morning!

Chao!

Lauren