Working in Chile

I have not updated recently because I have been busy working, studying Spanish and, of course, playing frisbee.

I have been working for about 6 weeks now. I work for a company that finds clients and sends me to their houses or businesses for private lessons. Currently, I'm working about 15 hours a week between Monday and Thursday but I usually have to travel ~3 hours per day by subway, bus and/or walking to get to and from my classes.

Company social event with co-workers

At the moment, my students' ages range from 7-16 years old and I also teach one business professional. On Monday and Wednesdays, I start work at about 4 pm but I have to leave my house before 3 pm because the classes are out in the northeastern suburbs of Santiago. I was pretty surprised at how wealthy some of my clients are, I teach at a few houses that are 3 stories. Tuesday and Thursdays I teach a business professional for an hour in the morning then start with children again in the afternoon. I usually finish work at 8 pm and return to my house after 9 pm.

The lessons that I teach vary. With the youngest kids, who are 7 years old and can't speak much English, I try to do a lot of activities that keep the kid entertained and speaking English--drawing, playing card or video games, throwing the frisbee and saying numbers or ABCs after each throw. My backhand lefty frisbee throw is pretty sweet. I also teach a few kids who are 8 or 9 years old and usually do activities that require following or giving directions--Simon says, drawing specific people and items, showing me things in their house.

The majority of my students are between the ages of 11 - 14. They all speak English well. With the younger students with less experience I do a lot of games, with the older ones I've been able to recycle some of the lessons I did in Korea with my high school students there. I like working with the oldest students the most since I've got completely free range over what I can teach. These lessons are a lot more organic, we can use the computer and talk about questions the students have as they come up throughout the lesson. With the younger kids, lessons need to be more structured and focused to make sure the kid is learning the vocabulary or grammar.

Before ending this blog post, I have posted a video of some of my students below. They are a family of 7 kids. This family reminds me of my cousins in Arizona, the Youngs, because there are a lot of boys and they all like wrestling. My favorite moment at this house was when the youngest brother went outside with a lucha libre mask, picked up a skateboard and started jumping on the trampoline while swinging the skateboard back and forth at his imaginary opponent. These kids would've made formidable opponents in my family's Royal Rumble in the living room back in the early 1990's. I always have a lot of fun at this house. And without further ado, here's a special mother's day video the boys and their little sister. Happy mother's day!

Happy mother's day from my students! (video link)

Vina del Mar (Vineyard of the Sea)

We left our hostel in Valparaiso and took a city bus for about twenty minutes until we reached the beaches of Vina del Mar. We stayed for two nights in Vina del Mar.

Most of our time here was spent exploring the landscape, climbing rocks, taking in the views, throwing a frisbee on the various beaches, and making new friends. Alex and I met a couple of interesting people at the new hostel as well as some nice people during our hike. I saw a girl drawing pictures of some of the landscapes and buildings, she told me she was a university student studying architecture and we talked about travelling to different places in the World. Later, after a long hike, we finally found some empanadas for lunch and chatted with the chef who was from Argentina. Chile has been interesting because there are so many people here from all over South America. It makes understanding and learning Spanish even more difficult because every country speaks it differently and uses their own phrases and lingo.

Sand dunes in Vina. Looks like a desert.

Nice scenery where we climbed rocks.

Looks like a great beach for some frisbee.

Valparaiso

Bay of Valparaiso
(There was a huge forest fire nearby, hence the smog in the sky>

My first "this isn't Korea moment" happened on day two of my time in Chile. I woke up on Thursday morning at my hostel in Santiago and I assumed I could reserve a bed again at 11:30 am. I was informed the hostel was full and check out was at 12 noon. Instead of trying to find a new hostel during a busy weekend, Alex and I decided to leave Santiago for a few days.

We took a two-hour bus ride from Santiago to Valparaiso. Upon arrival, we met a Chilean girl who gave us directions to our hostel on the other side of town. We got the city bus, as instructed, and headed towards our stop. A man on the bus told us where to get off, but before we got off, in English, he said "dangerous" as he pointed towards an up-hill alley. We decided it would be best to take a taxi up the hill since we didn't know the exact location of the hostel. Somehow, our taxi driver drove us over 3 kilometers back towards the bus station before I asked him "Donde va?" (Where you going!?) Luckily, we were able to find the hostel number on facebook and called to get directions.

Our weekend in Valparaiso was spent bothering the receptionists at the hostel (like 90% Alex), wandering through the streets, looking at the architecture and street art, and throwing the frisbee at every plaza or park that we came across. Valparaiso, located on the east coast of Chile, is a port city with lots of rolling hills and great views. It has many small, winding streets that reminded me of walking through Granada in Spain. Many walls and buildings in the streets had been painted over or tagged with graffiti. Below are some of the highlights of the street art that we saw.

I found 사랑 (love/amor) in Chile!

Street art in Valpo

More street art

We also made some new friends. First, we met a Korean girl from Seoul travelling through South America. Her English, Korean and Spanish were all better than ours. At the hostel, one of our roommates asked us for toothpaste, so naturally, I asked if we could follow her and her friends for the day. They were Chilean and they took us to an art museum and taught us a few phrases in Spanish. We went to a park where we eventually won them over with our sweet frisbee throws. At night, we ate dinner together and they introduced us to the joys of a Chilean alcohol called Pisco.

New amigos (friends)

So far we had traveled to two cities in Chile, Santiago and Valparaiso. Our next trip would be a short bus ride over to Vina del Mar (vineyard of the sea) which you can see in the top picture, it's the city across the bay with the beach in front of it.

Santiago: First Day and Food

I arrived in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, March 11. The first thing I noticed was everything is expensive. It was $30 USD for a taxi from the airport. Do you want to sit down at a restaurant and eat? It will be a minimum of $8 USD with a 10% tip. Sadly, I have not found a kimbapchunguk (김밥천국) in Chile.

I arrived in Santiago around 9 am and I spent my first day walking through the city center looking for food and looking at the different shops and plazas (public parks). After the jet lag began to hit me, I took a nap (the first siesta). Later, I met my friend Alex, another teacher from Busan in Korea. Of course, on our first night in Santiago, we went to a frisbee practice. The team is called Blue Wings and a lot of the team's players are from Venezuela. Although we liked the team, we can not play with them due to a conflict with our work schedules.

After frisbee practice, we walked through the city center to look for food. Ironically, it seems like hot dogs and hamburgers are the national food here--and empanadas, of course. The hot dogs are called "completos" and the hamburgers are called "lomitos". Below are photos and descriptions of the food I usually eat at restaurants in Chile. Next time, I'll write about my trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.

Empanada: Baked bread filled with various ingredients such as cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables.

Lomito: Hamburger bun filled with sliced pork, guacamole (avocado), tomato, sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) and mayonnaise.
Completo: Hot dog with guacamole, tomato and mayonnaise.
French Fries: Pretty good when warm.

Leaving Korea

After three years, I will leave Korea on March 2. I will begin a new adventure in Santiago, Chile on March 10. This blog will be short stories written in simple English. It is dedicated to my friends and former students around the World who want to follow my next adventures and practice reading English.

Students' drawing of me. Apparently, I look like a strawberry.