Slacking...the first few weeks!

Ok, so it is only my second post...I am already slacking on the blog here, and I apologize. I´m now going to try and..."briefly"....recap the last few weeks here in Chile.

The orientation week went pretty smoothly but was long. Classes were useful...but long. On the final Friday we had a program fiesta in the evening which was filled with Chilean food, Reggaeton music, and dancing. It was the last time most of the 80 of us in the program would be together until the end of November.

On Sunday August 3rd the 13 of us volunteers who would be teaching in Region III (the Atacama Region) travelled on an 11 hour busride up to Copiapo. When we arrived we were met by our Regional Coordinator, Claudia, and taken to a very nice hotel in the city where we stayed for 2 days while getting acquainted with the area. For those of us who would be teaching in the city of Copiapo it was especially helpful to be able to get our bearings and learn the city a little bit.

On Tuesday the host families of those of us who were teaching here in Copiapo came to the hotel to pick us up, and we were taken to what would be our home for 4 months. My host family consists of two people, my host mother, Gloria, and my little 8-year-old host sister (mi hermanita), whose name is Monserratt. They live up in the neighborhood of Arboleda, which, while it is a collectivo (chilean taxis) or busride to get to the center of the city (el Centro), it is right near the University of Atacama and a bike path that runs along Route 5 (the road that runs the length of the entire country of Chile). While I have no bike here, I have been running a few times a week and the bike path is both a beautiful and safe place to do it.

The day after we moved in was my first day of observation at the school. I am a volunteer teacher at Pedro Leon Gallo, a school for children in pre-kinder through 8th grade, but I´m only working with 5th - 8th graders. My first day was both an incredible and overwhelming experience. After the first classes the entire school (about 1000 kids) assembled in the gymnasium for the Welcome Celebration...which was put on in my honor. They recited poetry, sang songs, gave speeches, and danced the Cueca (the Chilean national dance) for me, and I also got up and gave an impromptu thank you speech. It was so incredible, and made me feel very welcomed and excited.

The first week I "observed" in all the English classes with my co-teacher, Mirna. Although I actually observed very little. Instead, in every class I gave a 15-20 minute speech about myself, my family, the US, and being a volunteer, and then answered questions for about an hour. The questions were pretty funny. The standard ones I got asked about my favorite color, food, music, if I like Chile, if I have a boyfriend, etc. A few people asked me if I had met the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana, to which I had to admit no.

Ever since I started teaching I´ve learned what it must be like to be a very famous actor or musician in the US. Literally, the second day I was sitting watching a school soccer match, and a girl came up to me. She said "hello" and I said "hello". And then she turned to her friend and screamed with excitement. In some ways it is very fun because I can´t walk anywhere the school without having a mob of kids come up and surround me, and others shout from various places "hello miss!" or "Hello, Miss Stephanie!" It is inconvenient at some times, when I´m trying to get to class or lunch :-).

The first weekend I was here I got to go with my host family to La Serena (a popular beach resort city about 4.5 hours South of here). We went on an hour long boat tour and explored the fish market in Coquimbo, and I got to meet a lot of the extended family of Gloria and Monserrat.

Last Wednesday was my first day of teaching on my own. I have a total of (I believe) 28 classes with 15 to 20 students in each. Because, as I learned in my first week here, the students are CRAZY and spend nearly the entire class talking to eachother, being very loud, and some even running around the room, I decided to make the first lesson the same for every class. It is entitled "Respect", and through learning the word we go over the rules of the class, and why it is so important to respect the teacher and the other students. I´m hoping that SOME of it sticks because otherwise I will have no voice, patience, or morale at the end of every day.

While there are many more stories to tell already, I feel like this post is far past long enough, so I´m going to end it here and hopefully update again soon....trying not to slack too much.

I hope everyone back in the US is doing well, and please feel free to email/facebook/skype whenever you want...I check email at least every 2 days unless I´m traveling.

Thanks for all the prayers and support...hasta pronto!