All moved in and teaching

Saturday was a long day. Danielle and Landon and I moved all of our suitcases to our new apartment which is located in the historical/cultural neighborhood of Santiago, the neighborhood Bellas Artes. Our apartment has two bedrooms, a living room, one bathroom, and a spacious kitchen. It’s right next to Parque Forestal (a huge park) and el museo de Bellas Artes (the art museum.) We are told that this is THE neighborhood to be in as long as we are careful at night because like any neighborhood in a big city, it can get sketchy.

We had our first “get-together” on Saturday night with a few of Pipe’s best friends to inaugurate our apartment. It wouldn’t be official without piscolas, the Chilean alcohol Pisco mixed with Sprite or Coke, a very typical Chilean drink for youngsters like us. So we drank piscolas and conversed until about 3:45 a.m. and there was nothing abnormal about it. Apparently, 3:45 a.m. is early! I still need to get used to this type of schedule.

Now, I realize how sweet we had it by living with Pipe’s parents. We never worried about our meals and about having what we needed to survive. We had everything from clean towels to a delicious home cooked meal. Now, as we are living on our own we realized how expensive things are and how hard it will be to adjust to the idea that we need to cook things regularly. My idea of cooking before consisted of opening up a can of soup and putting it in the microwave and maybe if I’m lucky boiling some noodles for spaghetti. I have learned from Pipe’s family that real cooking takes a lot of time and preparation because they simply don’t have prepared meals in the supermarket and if they do they are very expensive. So, in order to survive here I’ll have to do a couple of things. First, I’ll have to plan what exactly needs to be bought and when (especially because we don’t live right next to a supermarket.) Second and definitely most important, I’m going to have to bite the bullet and take cooking lessons from Pipe´s mom. I want to eat things other than bread and starches for a change, but it´s kinda difficult here because Chileans eat a ton of starch everyday. Regardless, I still need to learn how to cook meals because if I don’t learn how to cook soon, I won’t survive. O sea, puedo sobrevivir pero me cuesta mucho porque no puedo comer pan para cada comida, cachai? So I will be taking cooking lessons from Pipe’s mom and probably Pipe himself (who is a great cook by the way. Is that just a coincidence?)

My teaching is going well. The hours of an EFL teacher aren’t that great, though. For example, I have three classes on Monday and Wednesdays. My first class is from 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m., then I have a class from 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. and then finally from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Basically, they are long days. I come home late and I wake up early. The worst part is that all English teachers have the same type of schedule. Because I teach businesspeople for an institute, we have to work around their schedules, which means we teach before work, during lunch, or after work. If an English teacher has a class during these three time slots, they are considered lucky. We also have to teach most of the classes outside of the institute and in the actual company’s office. I teach English to people who work for international banks, pharmaceutical companies and the oil/gas industry. English for these people is a necessity because as you all know, most of the world’s business is conducted in it. I’m still getting use to everything but I enjoy what I do so far. I just can’t wait until my first paycheck comes which will happen once the Chilean government sends me a letter saying my work visa is "en tramite" (in transit.)

For now, my days will be filled with classes, trying to get enough sleep, and trying to put my room together in this new apartment of ours. Hasta luego.