Peace and quiet

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week so far :)

I'm doing especially well now that I've moved into the apartment with Romi. I am soooo grateful to finally have some privacy. It's crazy to think I was living in a 12-person room in a hostel for a month. I think I learned a lot about patience though. I love being around people, but I really missed my alone time to reflect, chat with friends and family from home, or simply read. I also wasn't sleeping well at the hostel...as you can imagine when there are always people coming and going, all of which were on vacation, except for us teachers. Every night of the week someone was out partying until anywhere between 3 and 6 in the morning, so there were always disruptions during the night. Now I can finally sleep peacefully through the night!

Now for a school update. I officially finished my second full week at the colegio. All in all, it was a very good week. I have 17 classes (or cursos as they call them) total, so unfortunately I only get to spend one or two hours with each of them a week. My contract only allows me to work 30 hours per week, so I had to cut four of the classes down to one hour per week. It kinda stinks, but since there are only two of us native English teachers in the school, we have no choice to but to split up our time like this. My major goal this week was to start learning names. I made charts in my 'Cuaderno del Profesor' (teacher's notebook) for each of my classes and wrote down the students' names based on where they sit in the class. Of course they throw me off when they move to different seats! It's also hard because the majority of the students have dark hair and dark eyes. I think I've only seen a few students with light eyes or blond or red hair. Sometimes I can get lucky by guessing Diego or Felipe or Sebastian or Ignacio for the boys...but I'm still struggling. There are a lot of common girls' names too, like Camila, Javiera, Paulina, Paula (I always remember those girls first...I wonder why?!), Carolina, Catalina, etc. I'll probably learn all 450-500 students my last week of school!

Each time we arrive to class, the students have to stand up at their desks and greet us. First the local teacher says 'Good morning' or 'Good afternoon', then I say it. Then the students reply, 'Good morning, Miss.' They pronounce it 'Mees' though...it's pretty cute. During the class, the Chilean teacher usually introduces the topic and assigns activities, and I'll walk around and help the students with their assignments. I also check their activities as we go through each assignment in class. In lots of classes, we've also had dialogues where the students have to talk about a particular subject in English in front of everyone. They've presented dialogues about what they did last summer, daily routines, and things they enjoy. They are so soft spoken! I usually sit in the back of the class to listen, but can hardly hear anything. I remember how nerve-racking it was to present topics in Spanish, so I know what they're going through. But they still won't speak up when we tell them to! I guess I'm just used to loud Americans? Yes, we do have a reputation of being very loud...everyone tells me that.

The students also have lots of listening comprehension assignments. The textbook comes with a cd that the teacher plays where they have to fill in blanks or answer questions about certain topics. It's hilarious to me because they use a book that was published by some people at Cambridge, so everything is in British English. There was even a lesson on British teenage culture. The Chilean teacher I was working with for that topic studied in the U.S., so she knows more about the U.S. Therefore, neither of us really knew anything about England. She asked me to talk about typical teenage lifestyles in the U.S. after we did the book work on England, so that was fun. The students were amazed by how early we had to get to school in high school, how we could drive by the age of 16, and how much homework we had to do every night! They also couldn't believe how big my high school was since it was only 9th-12th grade and we had almost five times as many students as they do in 'Medio' (9th-12th grade equivalent in a colegio). I also enjoyed asking them about what they do outside of the school day. Most of them go home and take naps and just hang out at home. They have some after-school sports, but not as many as I was used to growing up. A lot of them here told me they go home and are lazy! They hardly have any homework! Must be nice.

Yesterday I had my first experience alone in a classroom. One of the Chilean teachers was sick, and I was supposed to work with her the last two hours of the day with sophomores. However, no one informed me that she was absent, and they don't get substitutes down here! I waited and waited in the classroom, and finally the high school 'inspector' came in telling me that he had their assignment for them to do alone while the head teacher was home sick. I tried to converse with the inspector telling him that I knew the assignment for the day and would be happy to go over it with the students, not realizing that he was just going to leave me there by myself. I wouldn't have minded, but we were told that we're not allowed to have a class by ourselves as 'TIPS'. Needless to say, I was put on the spot and the students were very talkative. I felt like I was waiting most of the two hours for them to quiet down to go over assignments. I think they were taking advantage of their normal teacher not being there, but I let them have it! I made them stay with me after the period was over, so they arrived late to lunch. They're probably going to hate me next week when I show up, hahah. Reflecting back, I could've handled the class better, but that's the way it goes. Now I definitely know what to do when a teacher is absent.

Today was a much better day! I felt like I got to really connect with my classes (today I had freshmen, sophomores and eighth graders). I was even riding the metro in the same direction as one of my students after school, so it was fun practicing Spanish with her. In some ways I think these adolescents have to grow up faster than children in the U.S. By that I mean, I can't believe they are taking public buses and riding the metro to get to and from school every day. But then again, Americans are driving themselves to school when they turn 16, so I guess it just depends on your perspective. The thing that makes me a bit uncomfortable in this setting is how couples are all over each other during the school day and smoking right when they get outside of the school gates. I'm sure this stuff went on a lot in public schools in Chesterfield, so maybe it means I'm getting old when I'm shocked to see it now...hahah. Oh well, I'm glad I'm not a teenager anymore!!

Well I hope y'all enjoy your weekend, and I'll talk to you soon. Send me an email and give me an update on you!

Peace and love,
LG