FINALLY!

Hello hello, How are you all? Hope everyone is happy and healthy, as well as enjoying the nice summer weather! I am about to begin my forth winter...I can hardly believe it.

Well, if you didn´t know before, you know now...I am back in Chile. Yep. I came back to visit friends, Santa Cruz, and Chilean life, AND I decided to stay. Am I happy with my decision? Ya, sure you betcha! I haven´t doubted my decision since I have been here. In fact, the other day, while I was walking to work, I was thinking...wow, I am living a dream.

Ok, so what am I doing, some of you may be wondering....well, after I decided to stay here, I started dropping off resumes (or CV´s as they are called here) to schools and businesses. After a long day of running around and waiting, my friend and I stopped at a friend´s resturant to say hello and have a bite to eat. After a late afternoon lunch, the mother of the family we were visiting was reading the paper and said, There is a job available at José Gregorio Argomedo College (aka school). Her son got on the phone and set me up an interview. I went there the next day to talk to the administrator. They didn´t hire me right away because they had other teachers with proper papers who were interested...but, in the end, they called me and said I had a job.

So, I am working at a school, teaching English to a variety of ages, 3rd grade through 12th grade. It is a mixed school, so boys and girls. It is a semi private Christian school, so they work hard to maintain positive connections with students. I love it! We laugh alot, although I must admit I have my moments, like the other day when two little 3rd graders stood up on top of the table and leaped into the air as though they were superman. Yea, there may only be fourteen 3rd graders in this class....but, wow, it is like having 40 kids. Very high energy...but I am learning to work with them! The other grades are good. There are a few sticks in the mud, but that is life. I just try to stay positive and keep laughing, because that is about all I can do.

The school I am working at is in San Fernando, so as of now, I am still commuting. (I live with a friend, her spouse, and two kids. They have been over the top with opening their house to me. I have my own room and can come and go as I want. ) But, my day starts at about 5:30 a.m. when I wake up to take a shower and have a cup of coffee. I try to take my time in the morning and enjoy every moment of silence, because it is the only quiet, solo time i have all day. I walk out the door and catch the bus to San Fernando around 6:30, arriving to San Fernando at about 7:30. I walk to school and sign in. School starts at 8:00. Everyday is a different schedule with different age groups. Most classes I only see once a week for 2 hours. Some of the classes I might see an additional hour at some point during the week, but nothing more than this. At 1:00 (13:00) we have lunch. I stay at school for lunch. Often times, my co-workers that stay for lunch, will offer me food, but usually I just eat a school lunch. At 2:15 (14:15) we start classes again. Then, at 5:25 (17:25) classes are over. We are expected to stay at school until 6:00 (18:00), however, because I am arriving a half hour early to school, I opt to leave whenever I want after school. (They haven´t told me I am not allowed to do it yet...ha ha...and I haven´t bothered to ask if it is ok!). But, I get back on the bus to Santa Cruz and get home around 7-7:30. Thursdays we have a staff meeting that starts at 6:00 (18:00) and ends around 7:00-7:30 (19:00-19:30). Friday´s are half days, thank God, so I am done at 13:00. I usually take my time going home on Friday, just because I can. San Fernando is bigger and has more shops, so if I need something, it is better to buy it there.

I have a second job as well, working at the St. Paul English Institute. Next week, I will start working at NESTLE, teaching english to business professionals. I don´t have to teach the theory, I only have to hold a conversation class. The class will be 1-1 1/2 hours of conversation. So, I will head home around 8pm. Monday´s will be a long day. I have already started working Saturday´s with this institute. I have two students that I converse with for two hours each. Right now I am just getting to know them, so it is easy to hold a two hour conversation, but I will have to work on finding some new topics and building vocabulary and grammar skills with them. But they are both agronomists, working for seed companies... one of them works for Monsanto and the other for a company that is part of Bayer (a german company). It is a nice break to work with adults after a week with school aged students and crowd management. :)

So, as you can see I have been very busy with just work alone. SO, just because I have been TERRIBLE at communicating, I have thought about everyone and send you all a big hug!