Hot showers, sing-a-longs and sushi

I am alive and well. Just a little behind on the posting. La culpa mia ... lo siento.


I received four new night classes a week, so in addition to teaching all day, I come home and teach more! It makes life considerably busier but also that much more fulfilling and enriching. Being busy makes off-time that much the sweeter. One of my new students, Patricio, is the head economist of the government´s banking and financial institution branch. Twice a week, I head downtown to his office, which is right next to Chile´s "White House" (La Moneda). It´s a refreshing change of pace. I always leave for the class early so I can wander through the downtown paseos drenched with people pouring out of their offices after work.


Life in the new apartment is wonderful. It feels like home, por fin. I never knew how much I took hot showers for granted until they weren't there. The two balconies on our 14th floor apartment look out onto Cerro San Cristobal, Santiago's largest public park that I wrote about earlier. However, the city smog is so bad that the mountain (which is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment) is often a blurry outline. The cool, winter air pushes the pollution down into Santiago Valley and creates a perpetual foggy haze. Not the most desirable living conditions but I can handle it for a year. I don't know how the Chileans deal with it for a lifetime.


I´ve gone to my colegio on Saturday for various musical events and celebrations for the last two weeks. Two Saturdays ago, my favorite senior class hosted El Festival de La Voz. After belting out their favorite songs (some in English!), they handed the microphones over to the middle schoolers for a battle of the bands. My colegio celebrated their 50th anniversary this past Saturday with music, food, dancing and games. The fiesta began at 12 pm and lasted until 3 am... if that gives you any idea of how Latin-American parties at pre-K to 12th grade schools go down.


I've discovered how to make learning English fun...... singing songs. English popular culture saturates Chile; the grand majority of my students listen to songs in English (even though they don't know what most of them mean), watch TV and movies in English with Spanish subtitles and buy food products from the United States (the biggest chain of grocery stores here, Lider, sells Safeway products). Singing songs in our conversation groups is a grand success. If I thought my students were excited about leaving the classroom before, I was wrong. They now practically fall out of their seats when raising their hand to leave the room and then maul each other on the way out the door to be the first to make it to La Sala de Inglés.


It makes sense to teach them English through popular music. Not only are mis alumnos able to practice their pronunciaton while singing along but they also learn everyday slang and modismos (sayings). And it makes me happy to see them so excited about learning English. I can't even count by now the number of times I've sang I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith but I will gladly sing it a million times more just to see my students singing at the top of their lungs and swaying back and forth with their arms around each other's shoulders. I have 3 conversation groups for each of the 22 classes I work with and they often request to listen to the song twice ... so the song is definitely working its way into the 200's for me.

Chileans have quite the sense of humor. They are always joking, often in a sexual context. I enjoy the constant bromas; they keep me on my toes. It's pretty easy to make my students laugh and there's nothing better than having the whole class react to a joke with a simultaneous "OooooOoooooooooooh!", knee-slapping and laughter. They enjoy calling each other out and don't hesitate to dig for the dirty. This is probably a poor teaching move on my part, but maaaan, it is really hard to not laugh at times. As a teacher, you certainly don't want to encourage immaturity nor picking on others but since when did high-schoolers get so witty, quirky and quick!? I often fail at trying to hold my laughter in or keep my amusement to myself.

We also have our "own" restaurant now ... a Peruvian and Japonese culinary delight. An odd combination, you might ask. However, it makes perfect sense. In Chile, sushi and Peruvian ceviche/carne fall a close second to its own national cuisine. By chance, Steph and I stumbled upon Muelle Montt and now make a weekly trek to the discreet, classy and deliciously fresh restaurant located about three blocks from our apartment. The owners often shower our table with free appetizers and profusely express their gratitude at our loyal service. I always order the Menú del Día Japonese, which starts with an appetizer of gyoza and panko-crusted salmon, a pisco sour and finishes with 12 artfully crafted and freshly rolled peices of sushi. Que rico!

There is so much to contar. This is a good start but as its been two action-packed weeks since I've last written, I have many more tales and funny stories. All in good time, my friends. Thanks for your loyal readership. Can't wait to see ya'll back in the States in December (most likely...). Mucho amor!