... and Gerty makes 5

So sorry for the big gap between posts. I know you were all waiting quite impatiently.

Mi madre chilano, Gerty.

I think I have hit my capacity... I have 4 parents, plus a Chilean mom, Gerty. Gerty is 61, born and raised in Chile by 2 German parents. She speaks fluent German, Spanish, and English... good for our relationship, bad for my spanish. She is very cool and when she does decide to cook, it's a pretty good meal. When she doesn't cook, she makes sure to always have ingredients for palta and queso sandwiches on pan integral (that's avocado and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread)....what could be bad about that? She lived in NJ for about 10 years and with Dad's brief stint in Hackensack, we have a lot to bond over.

Pictures of my room are below. This is my bedroom, closet, and my private patio area. (Mom, Margot, I make my bed everyday! Yes, I'm serious. No, I don't know why I won't do that when I am at home, that is just the way it is.)





This is the front of the house.



DuocUC

I am officially a teacher. Here is how it works: Universidad de Chile is one of the top 3 schools in the country. DuocUC is the middle tier trade-like school that they run. This is where I teach. They have several locations in Santiago and each specializes in a few trades. No two schools are alike. I teach in Providencia where there is an electrical and mechanical engineering school, and a school of health. 80% of my classes are made up of men. I have 4 all male classes (2 with a female or two) and then one all girls class. I like to think I am their hot exotic teacher from the states, but who knows. I could also be their dumb teacher from the states who doesn't understand a lick of what they are saying when they are talking in front of me about things that should be behind my back.

How it's going so far....

I have 2 basic classes and 3 intermediate classes. The basic class is challenging in that no one understands ANYTHING that I am saying. But, last week I did an activity for pronouncing all the letters in the alphabet (yes, it is different enough that it requires going over) and saying our numbers that was a big hit. The Basic class text book isn't so bad and I can get some ideas for activities and we already have the quiz schedule. This makes planning for the basic class easier than the intermediate. How much they are absorbing with my teaching style.... that's another story we will learn more about after the first quiz.

Intermediate is easier because I can have more of a conversation with those students which is really fun. Some of my students love to chat, even if we aren't talking about anything of value, just having them speaking in English is great practice for them and it still feels like a class because I will correct them as we digress.

The difficulty in intermediate is two-fold. 1. While some intermediate students speak very good english, there are still some who cannot put a sentence together. This makes preparing for a class with such a wide range of skills tough. 2. The "text book" for intermediate looks much more like a Princeton Review book for the SATs. How do you take a workbook meant for individual use and integrate it into a class for an entire semester! This is something that will be further explained to me later. For now, I just review the material from last year with those students.

My schedule.

I have Mondays off, and I teach Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-5:30 and 7-8:30. Wednesdays and Fridays, 4-5:30, 5:30-7, 7-8:30. It's late, but I never have a class before 4 and I never have to be traveling during rush hour. My schedule is pretty sweet.

Those are the logistics of home and work life.... now onto the fun stuff. Not all of you would consider this fun though. Let's call it social life.

Friday night I went to synagogue! It was a little weird at first. In the states, I only go to services for high holidays and that's about it. While I can read hebrew, I have no idea what I am saying. To go to a service where half is in hebrew as it should be and half is in Spanish which is completely foreign, is pretty amusing. I was sitting cracking up at myself. I had no idea what was happening. I did however, understand what page we were supposed to be on, so I was able to follow along a little.

Then I met a nice couple my age at the end of the service and they introduced me to another couple who happened to be the daughter and son-in-law of the rabbi. They all spoke english so I told them about myself, what I was doing, etc.... They immediately invited me to the rabbi's home for shabbat dinner. I was so excited!! I have never felt more jewish in my life! Sadly, since I never do Shabbas dinner, the songs you sing at the dinner table were even more foreign. Never heard of them even once. So, I just hummed along a little. The rabbi asked if I went to synagogue at home, and I blushed and said no, but I planned to go to Saturday morning services while I am in Santiago. My schedule doesn't allow me to attend on Fridays, but I had this past Friday off for Easter. He understood the predicament and was happy to hear I plan to attend somewhat regularly.

Saturday and Sunday I spent the day in Valparaiso. There are two volunteers working there, so they know their way around. What a gorgeous city! It's on the water and built up on the hills, and it has beautiful architecture and everything is painted brightly. I forgot my camera, but since it's so close and easy to get to, I plan on going with some frequency.

Other than that, last weekend all the volunteers met for an asado (thats a BBQ) in one of the parks. Yesterday was Easter so I came home from Valparaiso and one of Gerty's daughters was her with her kids celebrating.

That's it for now. Will update more frequently.

Buenas Noches!
Lauren

One more week living in limbo

This past week was more training, more culture, more orientation stuff. We went on a historical tour with a fomer member of MIR, which translates to Revolutionary Leftist Movement. Basically, they are communists. Our guide, Andre, was in training with the MIR prior to the military coup in 1973 so he was an incredible guide. We went to the Cementerio General which as you guessed, is a cemetery. However, it was a really incredible cemetery. It is MASSIVE and there are tons and tons of mausoleums. They also have recorded all the names of those that disappeared or died during the military regime from 1973 to 1990. I know it sounds odd, but it's sort of a cool place to walk around.

We then went to Villa Grimaldi which was the detention and torture complex that was used by the new government's police, DINA. It's amazing what they have done there. It is now called La Parque por la Paz, Park of Peace. They have a small scale version of what the complex once looked like in the DINA's hay day. From there, you can walk around the complex and see what has been put in each area's place to represent what had happened there. The city takes a lot of pride in this park, they even have a canopied area for cultural events! It sounds odd, but they believe in bringing life to this complex and the more people that come and learn, the more education there is so that something like this never happens again. I put the website below for anyone who is bored at work and curious: http://www.villagrimaldi.cl/eng/index_eng.htm

For those curious about the social scene: well, I've met my first Chilean crush. His name is Franco and he's a Carabinero (he's a cop). He's super cute, but doesn't speak slowly enough for me. He has 2 brothers who both have interests in two of my friends so we all have a good time together. Franco and I are going to try communicating via email because I need time to translate what he says.

Aside from culture and boys, I decided to take my first day trip outside of Santiago with some other volunteers. For those in nyc, get ready to be jealous. I went to a town just south of Valparaiso called Algarrobo. It's a cute little beach town and we had a fabulous time. Every single person got a little burnt, but that's the Chilean sun for you!

Today, I went to the Pablo Neruda museum. Neruda was a famous Chilean poet and he had three wives. He and his third wife shared a beautiful piece of property and that is where 1 of the 3 Neruda museums is. They had incredible artwork, including a Diego Rivera painting and other pieces that he brought back from Asia, Italia, and a few other places. It's definitely a cool place to check out. Unfortunately, I went with 4 volunteers who all speak much better spanish than I do. So we had a tour in Spanish - I tried to follow and my friends would translate the important stuff.

Finally, I hit Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes because it's right next to the hostel and it's free on Sundays. Love that free art!!! I didn't have too much time, but I went with one other volunteer to see an exhibit on Norwegian architecture and a photography exhibit which was awesome. Lots of great photographs including one of Rockefeller Plaza. I got a little home sick for a second when I saw Saks 5th Ave in the background! Aside from the loads of booby shots, there were some beautiful pictures. I'm so glad my friend who came with me could speak spanish. Sometimes the title of a picture really provokes thought and the lack of understanding would have changed my interpretation. Yet, another key reason why I have to learn spanish quickly!

And then I went to the Parque Forestal which is right behind the museum. It's where all the hippies go on Sunday, it's like a circus! It's really crazy... they sell lots of crappy stuff, there are big drum circles, people juggling, people practicing on a tight rope, people playing Capoeira (yes, it's playing, not doing). All sorts of nutty cool stuff.

What's on the agenda for this week? There are other volunteers who are coming to teach at the same university system. We all meet this week in Santiago for our university training (as opposed to our WorldTeach training) and then everyone goes to their sights across Chile on Friday. I'm looking forward to meeting other volunteers and getting a better feel for the university directly from the staff.

And in 5 days, I get to move in with Gerty, my host mom!! As most of you know, I've been living out of a suitcase since January 28, so I'm really really ready to actually unpack and call Santiago my home. I will update you all next week from Lo Barnachea, the suburb of Santiago where I will be living!

Chao!

Lauren