Curious happenings...

Alas, the weekend is here! After my first week of teaching, I am feeling excited for the weeks to come! Again, I thank my lucky stars, as my situation is so great, and I am so blessed. My school is very nice, my class sizes are small, and my kids actually have some working English knowledge! They are so smart, and I was prepared for utter chaos. I know my school is very different from the norm however, and even though my school is super nice...the Chilean education system in general is a very controversial thing. Schools are set up different too....there is no building, there are separate classroom structures, rooms, but the "hallways" etc...is all open air. It is very cold every morning, even already, and most of the morning we are all bundled up in jackets and hats....every hour and a half of class is followed by a 30 minute break for tea and snacks. I feel like half my day is spent drinking tea, talking to kids, and sitting outside because the breaks are so frequent!

Yesterday, I traveled to the city of Valparaiso with two other gringas. The city is very beautiful, and has many many steep hills that you actually have to ride up in these funiculars, in order to get to the top. The houses are many different colors and the views are absolutely amazing! I will be posting pictures soon:) We were able to visit one of Pablo Neruda's houses as well, called "La Sebastiana". It is up on Cerra Bellavista and offered some amazing spectacles of the city, and his house in general was very eclectic. I would definitely go back, as it was very cool to see! 

Hmmm...other events as of late? My cat, "Milliana" is becoming a problem in my life. For those of you who don't know, I really don't like cats. This one I had assessed as "tolerable", but lately has been overstepping its bounds! It comes in my room every night to cuddle with my feet. I swear it only speaks Spanish, because when I yell at it in English it just looks at me, but if i say "Fuera!"of "vaya!" it runs out of the room. Yesterday, I had my cell phone sitting on my bed and the cat was on the bed, and in a matter of ten minutes while I showered, the stupid cat called my friend Monica twice, the ambulance once, texted a number I do not know the letters "dmd", and entered two new contacts into my address book! Talk about talent!!

What else? the bread consumption continues, on a good day I eat less than 6 pieces of bread. This is outrageous! but in Chile, totally normal...eeks!! I am going to cook for my family this week, probably Wild Rice Soup and some homemade bread - let's hope they like it! My parents made pancakes yesterday and they were very different from ours....more like a crepe, and they put manjar (essentially caramel) on them instead of syrup! Nonetheless, I am definitely being fed well:)

The week ahead is my first week having my own class....!

Til next time,

lck