Kids, Thieves, and Snowboarding

I can't believe it is already August! Time is flying by.

Last week after putting an ad on Craig's LIst, I had the opportunity to schedule a private lesson.  We will meet twice per week from 7:30-9:00p.m. at his office and at a coffee shop. I'm excited to start teaching privates because it is a great opportunity to make extra money. My student is an engineer and needs to learn business English. I also have a private lesson with a couple that one of my students I teach for Bridge hooked me up with.  A lot of my students I have with Bridge know friends that also want English lessons, so this is very helpful for finding private students. Finally, one of my American friends, Dan, gave my information to a family who wants English lessons for their first grade son. I will look forward to hearing from them soon. As of now, all of my evenings are very full with classes from Bridge and private lessons.

Last week, I visited a private, K-12 Catholic school called San Nicolas. My American friend Noah, introduced me to their school because he told me their English coordinator,  Alicia, was looking for a native English teacher. After expressing interest to Noah he told me that Alicia wanted me, "like a fat kid wants cake!" I really liked the school, but the only problem was the commute. I road with Noah and another teacher in his car, which took about 30-40 minutes. After my meeting with Alicia that day, it took me almost two hours by a bus and a metro to get home. After careful deliberation, and assessing working with Bridge Vs. working at San Nicolas, I decided to meet with Alicia again to discuss more details about the job. I learned that I would indeed have a ride every morning and every afternoon with the pre-school teacher in her car. I would teach from 8-12:30a.m. every day with kindergarten through second grade students and I would even have my own classroom! I'll be focusing on listening and speaking activities. I also got to observe a few classrooms. I observed two of the pre-school rooms and the kids were so adorable! We sang songs in English like "Old MacDonald" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and danced. Now that I know I have a ride and pay secured, I have made my choice to teach there. I was a little nervous about telling the institute, Bridge, that I would not longer be able to teach my morning classes. I have to keep my evening classes, because Bridge is helping me get a Visa and I signed a contract.  Working at San Nicolas is a great opportunity that just fell in my lap! I will be able to improve my Spanish, and most importantly, work with kids. I talked to a few of my adult students about this new job, and they were all so supportive and sweet. One said he hoped the institute would get him a teacher that was just like me. He said,"I will miss you very much. But, you must be selfish since you are only here a sort time." I too will miss my students I teach in the mornings. They have been nothing but helpful and fun. My students have taken me out for coffee to practice my Spanish after class, and one student gave me a day-pass for skiing! Eventually, I would like to stop teaching classes at Bridge all together, and teach more privates at night because I make twice as much money. So, for the next few weeks I will be busy with a new schedule, but I am excited to start teaching kids. As soon as my morning classes are covered, I can start paid training at San Nicolas.  I told Bridge today about my plans, and they weren't very happy. I told them I would be very flexible and would work as long as they need me too.

Last Thursday, I had my first private lesson with the couple one of my students introduced me too. They live in Nunoa, a community next to mine, Providencia. I google-mapped directions, and took a thirty minute bus ride there. (I later found out I looked up the wrong address.)  When I arrived, I walked around for about thirty minutes of so. Finally I went into a Cruz Verde, which is a common pharmacy to ask for directions. A guy about my age asked if I needed help. In Spanish I asked him if he knew where the address was. I showed him on the map I had saved as a picture on my phone. He said, "Yes, I know where that is, I'll help you." He clarified with the pharmacy workers and then I followed him outside. He said, "You need a taxi." I looked at my phone and told him, "No, no necesito" (No, I don't.) He insisted. When a taxi pulled up, I felt a little unsure, but I followed him to the cab. He then grabbed my phone and showed the cab drive the map with the directions. Before I could say anything, the guy jumped into the cab and it sped away. At first, I thought they were just puling around the corner to wait for me...when they didn't stop, I sprinted after them while I realized I just got tricked and robbed. After sprinting several blocks after the cab, it turned a corner and I lost it. I couldn't believe I just had my phone stolen. Angry and crying I ran back to the pharmacy and tried to explain the the pharmacy ladies what just happened. They took me to the police and I filed a report, but I'm sure I'll never see it again. My phone had a passcode and only works with wifi, so I hope the thief cannot use it at least. Over all, I feel sad and ashamed. Everyone I have met here in Chile has been incredibly nice and helpful. I am always careful of my purse and phone wherever I go. I thought this guy was like everyone else I had met-so nice and helpful. Unfortunately, I was tricked and I learned a hard lesson-you can't trust everyone and I need to be more careful and cautious. I can no longer message friends and family during the day, but I'm thankful that at least I have my iPad (which I am not taking ANYWHERE!) at home so I can Facebook and Skype. My roomies were really sweet and tired to cheer me up by putting sticky-notes with sweet messages, like "Today will be a great day" and "We can share my phone!" around the apartment.

Despite Thursday being a bad night, the rest of the weekend was fun. Friday night was our friend Dave's (who we went to Valparaiso with) birthday.  We went to his apartment in a new pat of the city we hadn't been to yet, and had a typical asado (BBQ) with his Chilean roommates and friends. Saturday was spent trying to contact our landlady about our washer. It had been almost one month without one...(Finally someone came yesterday to replace it and install a new one, whew!) and we have had no hot water for a week. It is complicated trying to translate what we need and coordinating with someone to come to fix things with our weird teaching schedules.

Sunday, our Chilean friend Simon picked Erin, Emy and I up to go skiing! We all rented and borrowed gear and drove about two hours to the mountains. The drive was very curvy, but beautiful. It felt amazing to be out of the smog and in clean, mountain air. Simon, Erin, and I snowboarded, and Emy skied. During the morning, we skied the front side of the mountain. The front was mostly bunny hills, so we practiced riding the T-Bar, and Erin got good at carving her turns. I went through their "mini-mini" park a few times and hit a couple boxes and jumps. For lunch we met up wit Noah (the same guy who helped me with the job at San Nicolas) who was in a snowboard race that morning with friends. We ate our sack lunches and then Noah took us to the back of the mountain. The whole mountain only had three of four small lifts and the rest were T-Bars. T-Bars in my opinion are very difficult to stay on and in control, so Erin and Emy were troopers and did awesome. Noah and I took some quick laps and the snow was pretty good compared to the Colorado Rockies! To get back to the front of the mountains, we had to take an intense T-bar pretty much straight up. Erin and Emy did awesome, I was worried that I wouldn't make it myself! I'm pretty sore still from holding on so tight so as not to fall off and tumble down the mountain. By 4:30p.m., we were all pooped so we headed back to the city into a smogy, but gorgeous sunset. To celebrate none of us dying or getting hurt, we all went out to a popular Irish pub for beer, burgers and their famous potato wedges, mmm. It was the perfect way to end the day.

This week I'll be making some tough choices and scheduling my calendar to start work at San Nicolas. Be thinking of me. 41 days until Bill arrives to visit, yay! Miss you all.