Hola Santiago

After 22 hours of grueling travels, complete with three flights and two long layovers, I arrived in Santiago at about 6:30 AM on the 29th. Much to my disappointment, the sun was not yet up and I didn't get a view of the Andes from the plane. From the hostel, they look just like mountains in SLC, but still I remind myself they are the Andes and hold an appreciation for it since I might not have the view for long.



There are 22 TeachingChile participants here at the hostel and we all spent the last week wandering around trying to familiarize ourselves with the area, looking for the cheapest food and wine (both easily and commonly found). I got lost many times, but it's always good for me and never stressful as long as I have time on my hands. After two days I had the Santiago Centro and a small part of one more barrio down, but then took a little tram ride up to Cerro San Cristobal, which is the highest point in Santiago and from the view, I realized just how little I'd seen all week. So, a whole lot of exploring is in store for this weekend. . .



I was really inhibited with my Spanish the first couple days and was on mute, but that got old really fast. Dad and Dave would've appreciated it - - too bad they weren't here to experience Carol on quiet for themselves! Alejandra and Marcos are the couple who run the hostel Oveja Negro and are super cool. They hang out with all of the gringos eager to learn Spanish, very patiently engaging us in painfully choppy Spanish. It's pretty amazing how quickly things are starting to come together and how many new words I'm picking up everyday. I feel like a 2 year old on show with new vocabulary, only it's all in my head, reciting words for things as I recognize them. Ah geez, what fun.




This last week we were all busy with beaurocratic crappity crap with the school, sitting through training "briefs" for 8 hours a day to learn about the DuocUC way of teaching. Most of it was really helpful but it was difficult to get into a serious mode after being in such an excited, vacation mindset all weekend and only two days to decompress after a month of pure mayhem in preparing to get to Santiago. We had training 4 out of 5 days this week and one "free" day to get all of our legal documents notarized which ended up taking several hours of waiting in lines, messy finger printing and dealing with grumpy old policemen. We did get to visit our campuses and meet the English department crew. They were all really laid back and seeemed to have a strong rapport with each other- - always a good sign.



The weekend is here and full of promise, so I hope to return with a good story or two. Hasta!