Disfrutando vida en Chile

I've been hanging out in the city trying to soak it all in. My morning classes ended so I get to sleep in I usually eat a light breakfast at the hostel then run off to my first class. In between classes I grab a coffee or eat lunch in the nice part of town. Today I had some really good miso soup and sushi. Last week I bought a ticket from Lima, Peru to San Jose, Costa Rica. I'm counting down the days till I get to enjoy warm weather. Until then I'll chill and enjoy Santiago.

Man its COLD down here!

Not too much has happened this month. I've been working a lot and saving money to travel and see South America. Below are a couple pictures of my students and a going away dinner that we made for some friends that left.

The first picture is of a lady named Francisca. When we started class she was getting married and moving to Brazil in three weeks. She wanted to brush up on her already fluent English because she was going to be forced to speak Portuguese in Brazil. She hired me through an institute to give her lessons 3 hours every morning (I had to get up at 6AM to go out to her office outside of the city) for three weeks! I want to see you try to plan a three hour class for a person who can already speak English just fine. So I taught her for two weeks until she decided that she was "too busy" to have class.



The second group of students are from Carrier, the multinational air conditioning company. They are forced to speak English with their counterparts in other countries and the owner hired me to teach the whole office English. I teach the beginners Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The intermediate and advanced (pictured) classes I teach on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch and after office hours. It has been fun because I have gotten to know everyone in the office.



I am well acquainted with the Santiago public transportation, to say the least, and I have made it a habit to bring a book with me everywhere I go. I read on the subway, on the bus and when I'm waiting for my students to show up. I just finished a book called A Sever Mercy. It wouldn't have been my first choice of a read but it was sent to me from my friend Heather in L.A. and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book that will spark some deep thinking.



I just started a book by C.S. Lewis called The Screwtape letters.



Here is a picture of the Andes mountains that border Santiago. I have a perfect view of the reflection of the sunset against the mountains on my way to my evening classes.



It has been getting colder and colder down here. A few weeks back we had a week and a half of straight rain. After it stopped the moisture brought a bunch of bright green moss all over the city.



The last few pictures are of a dinner we prepared as a going away party for two of the staff leaving for Sweden. Johan and Ursula are a Swedish and Peruvian couple who have been working with us for the last month. Ursula made this super good Peruvian meal for us all.

The full experience

My South American experience wouldn't have been complete without a football match. Right? We were told before the game that Chileans and South Americans were football fanatics but I think we underestimated them. We showed up an hour early to the stadium and left before the game was over because we were told multiple times that it was dangerous going in and out. The video above was taken while the players came out of the locker room and onto the field.

The police were in full riot gear and lined the metro stops before the game and were waiting in full force after the game outside of the stadium. They wouldn't let us take pictures and it would have been stupid of us to pull out an expensive camera while we were out so we had to sneak some pictures. Click on them and check out the militant Chilean police.

Just another day in Santiago

This week students all over the country of Chile took to the streets to protest a governmental bid to privatize all universities in the country. I was warned to stay away from downtown as well as all of the universities in town. Here are some pictures that I grabbed off of the internet showing some of what went down. How come we don't get this fired up in the States about educational reform?