Bienvenidos sobrina nueva

I just got word last night that Kathy, Dave and Elliot welcomed little Elli-Kay into their world and am really excited! A little sad that I can’t meet her just yet (and snuggle snuggle snuggle her), but soon enough- as long as she’s not walking or talking before I get back I’ll be ok. Bless her heart; I predict she’s turned Dave into a softy overnight . . . ok maybe not, but in time. Tim reported that Kathy had it “easy” and baby is fine, so seems all is well in the recently-enlarged Willis-Strahl household. The news came in handy for lessons at Duoc as we’re reviewing information about families, so my students got the low down on Kathy’s delivery (well, not ‘the low-down’, but you know what I mean!).
Classes at EscualaBellavista started on Monday but not as smoothly as I would like. Last week, when I happened upon the school, I stayed a bit to take a placement test and expected that it would actually be taken into account when assigning me to a class. No. The focus of my first class was basic introductions . . . “hola, me llamo. . .”. Sheesh, I was asking for cervezas the first day here, so I was definitely beyond all of this. After addressing it to the school director, and specifying EXACTLY what kind of grammar assistance I need/want, he assigned me to another class that would start the next day. Well, then I was stuck trying to understand verb conjugations in the past and future tense (precisely what I told him-the day before- I knew nothing of and needed to learn) and was completely lost since they sound completely different than present tense. A third assignment ended up being pretty near-perfect and the instructors are both really cool, so it was finally a productive day yesterday (just call me Goldie talks). I’m going to try and figure out some kind of compensation for losing two days because they failed to place me more accurately. I only have two schools for reference but my experience is that Chilean schools are pretty unorganized and a little too laid back, but “when in Chile . . .” Cousin Craig gave me some advice for learning Spanish more efficiently and I’ve been trying to hold to it- one bit being to think in Spanish as well as always speak it- with Gringos or Chilenos and to practice speaking while biting down on a pencil/pen placed on molars. The pencil trick I’ve yet to try, but thinking and speaking as much as possible in Spanish yes. I feel like my 12 year old self, walking home from school practicing my German aloud, ignoring weird stares from passersby- only now I’m 29 and the passersby can actually understand what I’m muttering so it’s pretty funny. I tend to tone it down, the closer I get to my building since my neighbors all walk a lot. Don’t want them to think I have turrets or something. I thought that just living here and studying on my own was heavy duty immersion (and it is, actually), but taking classes is really jump-starting something in my brain. Too exciting! Geeky, I know, but you all know how much I like English being optional. Although yesterday being the trying day that it was, coming home to an English speaker would have been better than a cocktail. As I mentioned before, Rafael MUTTERS his Chilean, so I must stay incredibly focused when talking with him. I spent the entire day (minus one and a half hours) speaking Spanish- to my students/ my teachers/ faculty at Duoc, then came home to beers with Rafael and was SO frustrated at not being able to express myself and only understanding about half of what he says. It all worked out and actually was glad to understand that he has co-workers who want private lessons and much to my delight they are willing to pay a lot of money. Hello piggy bank. I had a good long chat with Shannon in Seattle afterward and it got all the English out of my system- we are both excitedly making plans around her pending visit in July during my semester break. Although I will probably pay a visit to Seattle and Utah to see new babies and participate in Samara’s non-bachelorette party, I am staying here until December or longer. Before I left, five months seemed a sufficient amount of time, but in reality I think it will be at that point when I’m actually establishing myself. So, for anyone interested in paying a visit to the deep south, I am here and rearing to host.