Second week of teaching, weekend, apartment options

This post is coming pretty late. Sorry about that. My second week of teaching already feels so far in the past, as today is the second day of my third week, but I'll give an overview.

My second week of teaching went a smoother than the first, which seems pretty predictable. It really didn't feel like it was going to though. Monday-Wednesday were really really hard. Finally, by Thursday I felt like I had the hang of things, I had planned all of my lessons ahead of time (instead of an hour or two before) and I felt more practiced.

The problem with teaching right now is that I feel like I was not really prepared for this beforehand. I don't have a degree in teaching, I haven't really taught (minus dance clases and swim lessons here and there through high school and college), and the school sort of just handed us our books, told us where to go and said, alright cool have fun. I took an TEFL certification, but all that did was remind me of the structure of our language, which I had learned in 7th grade and obviously forgot... but no one showed us how to present the material, how to TEACH it to someone. After observing a couple other teachers' classes, and remembering how I was taught in school, I have somewhat figured it out. It's all just going to come with time.

Another reason why I think everything got easier Thursday: I had 3 apartment options that day. It felt wonderful to at least have options. Deciding between these options became a different battle entirely, but at least I had options.

Option 1- a room with a sister in my church. She's Chilean and understands and speaks a little English but not that much. The place is near Santa Ana, which has some unsafe streets, but where the place was was fine. The woman is so sweet, kind, and we definitely have a lot in common spiritually. She's in her 30s I believe, so just a little older than me, and works for an optometrist. The place was so nice, it was very clean and decorated. It felt very homey. Two of my friends from the program, Hannah and Lizzi, live within walking distance of this place. Other plus, right near La Vega, the huge fruit and vegetable market where I want to be able to buy all my food. And final, amazing plus side: this woman offered me the place for less than a fourth of my monthly salary!!! I almost cried when she told me that. I asked why, and she said it was because I'm in a new country, at a new job, in a strange city, I'm stressed out and she could tell. She said I didn't need to have the added stress of paying a lot for somewhere to live. She can afford to have me there for that much and it was up to me. The downsides to that would be, the area, and living with someone who isn't really close to my age, who I also don't know very well.

Option 2, which is now no longer an option- a place in Manuel Montt, 2 metro stops from where I am now, a 35 min commute to school. It was with a Chilean and a Spaniard. Manuel Montt is a really awesome area, with bars, restaurants, things to do, health food stores and vegan food. My Chilean family lives 4 blocks away from where this place was. The 2 roommates were muy tranquilos (very chill) and it was a good location. Also, I'm drawn to any Spanish accent ever, so I was like, perfect! I could try to keep my Spanish accent instead of picking up the Chilean one (not a fan of it yet haha). But, the rent was half my salary per month and I needed the place to really wow me for that, and it did not. So I decided to eliminate it as an option, sadly.

Option 3- this option came later in the weekend, maybe Friday or so. Jenni, one of the teachers here that did our program last year and is back this year. She is living a block away from where I am now in the hostel, on the same main road, Vicuna Mackenna. She lives with a Chilean, Marisela, and they have a third room. Since I arrived here the room had been going to a Colombian girl, but she got really flaky and Jenni and Marisela decided to just tell her she couldn't have it. Jenni offered me the room. The pros of this include that Marisela is Chilean, they speak Spanish together... Marisela also works at a vegan restaurant, and they cook a lot of vegan, healthy food at home. They both love yoga and are spiritual (a different kind of spiritual than me, but I love that) and we all just get along and click really well. The downsides include the rent, which is still within my budget (1/3 of my salary of less), but after getting offered to pay so little with Option 1, everything feels so expensive. And the other downside, the building is kind of old and not that nice. But the girls want to paint it and make it look nicer. I'd also be paying for the location, which is a really great one. More pros, Jenni and I get along really well already, have similar sense of humor and want a lot of the same things in life/are confused about a lot of the same things. Marisela also apparently studied psychology, so she'd understand a lot about what I go through with depression and anxiety. They like having people over, being social, eating food, hanging out. They are both my age too (Jenni's 23, I guess I don't know how old Marisela is, but I'm assuming around that age).

So I was struggling between Option 1 and Option 3 for the past 5 days or so. I asked advice and input from people. Basically so many elements, and good and bad sides to both. As of last night, I made a decision!!!! I was walking home from the grocery store and it just hit me, which was the right one. I've been waiting to feel that way and I definitely think it was God answering my major question. It was suddenly just really clear.

So I move into my new place tomorrow (Wednesday)!!!! Hopefully by then or Thursday/Friday I will be settled and I'll post a picture on Facebook!

This past weekend was really nice. It was my first real weekend in Santiago (minus the first weekend, when the whole program was here, before everyone left for other cities, etc.) On Saturday night we went to an area called Las Condes, which is on the west side of Santiago. It's cleaner, both in the streets and in the air, and a lot nicer. We (Hannah, Lizzi, Natalie, and I) went to meet a friend of Natalie's, and he and his 3 friends.  They made us dinner, which was delicious, and I could eat a lot of it! Yay! And then we went dancing at a club. It turned out differently than we had hoped, but it was still a good experience and I liked that I was able to meet more Chileans. I hope I can meet more and more.

My next post will be about random things I have noticed and people in my life here.

Besos,
Ally