TEACHING!

The weekend before teaching began I went with my American crew to Los Molles for the weekend to see the coast, but also on some level to have a crazy adventure and block out the fact that I was about to start teaching at a University knowing absolutely nothing about what I was supposed to teach. At dinner the last night someone proposed we do a toast and Erick blurted out a toast something like, “to the fact that none of us are really here because we want to teach English but just because we want to live in South America.” Although we had never talked about this, it was a moment of hilarity because we all recognized some degree of truth in his statement.

I randomly remembered this a few days ago, and was overwhelmed with this feeling of just how much has happened in life in the last month, if that’s really what I thought about this whole experience because now, I love my job. Really love my job. Really really love my job. Last week on the way to class a friend informed me that we weren’t supposed to teach unit 2, exactly what I had planned for that day. How wonderful! Another instance of my coordinator not informing me of something! I was sitting on the bus thinking crap, what am I gonna do with them today? And then I realized how much better this scenario is than having to cram in a bunch of information. And then I realized that with extra time my goal should just be to get to know my students more. And then I got really excited about class, like, “all I need to do is go and chill with these kids, who frankly are cooler than me, and maybe teach them some random English.” Well, that was the best day I’d had yet and it’s been all uphill from there.

I’m totally loving my students and they grow on me more and more everyday. They all make a big deal when they first see me, kissing my cheek coming in and out of the room. And they call me “miss” or “miss marina” or “profi” (short for professor and pronounced profeeeee). One of my students who I passed to the next level saw me and told me he missed my class---- we know that made my day. And one time I let a beginner class out early but they all stayed in their seats blankly staring at me until someone said “play game?” It was about the cutest thing ever. (I know it sounds like I’m teaching little kids but this really is university level!) And sometimes I’ll see students on the bus or metro… this weekend I even saw one of my students in a restaurant/bar, that was funny.

I took on two extra classes to bring in the travel dough and that’s been a blessing. So now I have 7 classes total, each meeting twice a week for an hour and a half. So I have 5 beginner classes, 2 intermediate and 1 advanced. My intermediate classes are only 4 and 6 people and my advanced class is also only 6 people (and by 6 people what I really mean is 14 on the roster but 6 show up… but not all on the same day. Ever.) And I still have way too much extra time. No classes Friday, Wednesday I don’t start until 4:30, Thursday 2:30. Last Friday went to a Colo-Colo soccer game, the national team here. And wow, I’ve never seen fans so riled up in my entire life. They NEVER stopped cheering. And on Sunday night I went to a regaetone concert, that was also an experience. And this upcoming weekend is Easter Break so I’m taking an overnight bus on Wed night down south to Pucon… next entry about that!

Oh, and this picture was taken in the orange casa last week when I made dinner for some of my roommates. On the right is Ashlie from Scotland (going counter-clockwise) next is Sergio (pronounced Ser-he-o) my red-headed Chilean roommate who likes to tease my accent, Menelike- another American English teacher, Natalia or Nati who is Chilean and lives next to me, and Paulina who is also Chilean and has sortof taken me under her wing.