We are FINALLY Teaching!

              Hello all.  I have taken the reigns from my husband, so yes it is me, Katie, who will be the author of this blog post.  I apologize in advance for my lack of big words and witty humor that Stephen seems to include in every blog post.  This week we have finally started teaching!  They have moved us to other campus locations since ours is still being built.  Supposedly, we will be moving to the campus we are supposed to be at in 7 weeks…..I am not holding my breath though. 

             All my classes are at a campus about an hour ride south on the metro of where we are living.  Once we move to the campus we are supposed to be at, it will only be a 20-minute commute door to door, which will obviously be so much nicer.  Stephen is at the same location as me for half of his classes, and then he is at another location that is about a 30-minute walk away from our apartment for the other half of his classes.  The subway ride to and from our campus can be quite entertaining.  I think my favorite part of the ride is about a half hour into it when we have to change lines.  The train comes to a halt at the end of its’ line and everyone can not wait to charge out of the doors and they literally start running down the stairs to get to the next line’s train before it takes it off.  Observing this reminds me of Nelly (The Balsley’s min pin for those who do not know) jumping off the couch, running and sliding into the kitchen across the tile at the sound of the string cheese wrapper being opened.  These people are determined to get to the next train and quickly because I am assuming they want a seat.  What cracks me up though is that these people charge out of there, practically mowing over the elderly people who are also trying to get to the next train as soon as possible (just a little slower) just to offer up their seat to the elderly people once they finally reach the train just milliseconds prior to departure.  The Chileans take their spot on the metro seriously, they will push, cut in front of you, and slightly shove to make sure they are on that train first.  I guess what is most amusing to me about the whole process is that I don’t think I have ever waited more than 2 minutes for a train to come, but considering how Chileans love to be late to everything, those 2 minutes could be very crucial for them.

            I am teaching two basic English classes and three intermediate English classes.  I have three classes on Monday, two classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and one class on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.  It does suck having a Saturday class, but only having to work for an hour and half three days of the week isn’t too bad either.  I teach the English classes for the Mechanical Engineering majors.  As you can imagine, mechanical engineering is not popular with the ladies, therefore I have 5 classes, with 18 students in each one that consist of all guys between the ages of 18 and 23.  That is right, I do not have one female student.  Some of my classes make me think I am in the middle of The American Girl store with all the giggling, gossiping, and talking that is going on.  In one of my basic classes I was going over how to say your age, “I am ____ years old.”  So I was going around asking the students how old they are and waited for their responses.  When one student was done answering he asked me “How old are you?”  I told them to guess.  Not surprisingly, most of students guessed my age within a few years, but then I had one smart-ass student who proudly stated, “You are 80 years old.”  You would have thought we were in the middle of a stand-up comedy act with how funny his classmates thought he was.  Luckily my feelings weren’t too hurt and I was able to get over the incident rather quickly.  It also helped when one student was leaving my class, he stopped and told me “You are most beautiful teacher I ever had.”  Even though his grammar was incorrect I told him he would be getting extra credit.  Also, for the people out there that watch “Dexter”, I have a Chilean Michael C. Hall look alike in my class.  It is really hard to call him by his name and not Dexter, but I try to resist…..plus he probably wouldn’t be too happy if he knew I thought he looked like a TV serial killer, but that is neither here or there.

            Stephen is teaching three basic classes and two intermediate classes.  He has radiology, nursing, and mechanical engineering majors.  He has both males and females, and has actually come to find out that the females are better behaved and that his male students are also quite chatty.  Stephen had one girl stay after class and told him that he was really funny.  You can only imagine how much bigger his ego got after hearing that.  Stephen has one class Monday, Friday, and Saturday, two classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and three classes on Thursday.  For the most part none of our classes are before 10a.m. except Stephen does have one 8:30 a.m. class.

            All in all the first week went extremely well.  The teaching experience here has definitely been different than our teaching experience in Dallas.  In Dallas, our students desperately needed to learn English.  Here our college students are just like how must of us were in college.  We were there because we needed to pass the class and graduate not there because we necessarily really wanted to learn the material.  Most students are very respectful and I would say both Stephen and I have AT LEAST one positive teaching experience each day where we really feel like what we are doing is helping someone.  When it all comes down to it, those experiences definitely make any unpleasant experience worth it!!  Here are some pics of my classrooms.

This picture is right after a class left.  Clearly sitting in orderly rows is out of the question.

Another classroom

View of The Andes out of my clasroom window.  Kind of a smoggy day though.

The whiteboard that I bless with my intelligent English words that may seem like Hieroglyphics to my students.

Fantasilandia

I once again apologize for the low frequency of updates and will strive for a higher frequency.  To be honest though, we really didn’t have too much to update until this weekend.  Regardless, we just now had our first day on the job so we should be able to develop more of a routine from here on out.

            On Tuesday night, we met with a Chilean friend, Valentina, for an intercambio (exchange).  In a nutshell, an intercambio is an exchange with a Chilean that wants to improve their English, and so we talk for one hour in English and one hour in Spanish.  Valentina’s English is currently better than our Spanish, but she did have one minor, humorous slip-up.  After she was talking about how bad the area is surrounding her apartment, I wanted to test her knowledge of a common English statement.  I leadingly told her, “You better watch out because the bad people may stab you with a _______?????”  She triumphantly replied “A napkin!”

            In an effort to make the most of our time off, we decided to take a trip to the Baños Morales on Thursday.  Baños Morales are popular hot springs that are about 2 hours outside of the city.  Going off of our friends advice to “take the bus until the last stop and you will be dropped off right in front of the hot springs”, we boarded the bus.  We patiently waited until the last stop and stepped off the bus and onto some fertile hitchhiking land.  I say this because there was hardly anything in sight that we could give mankind credit for building.  The bus had already taken off and so we were at the mercy of Lady Luck to guide us back home.  After about 30 minutes, another bus finally came and picked us up, and also alerted us that the hot springs were only open on Saturday and Sunday.  Overall, a failed trip but we did enjoy some nice scenery and some fresh air outside of the smoggy city that we call home. 

            On Saturday, we went to an amusement park with two of our friends, one being an American, John, and the other being his Chilean girlfriend, Mari.  I really didn’t know what to expect from Fantasialandia, but it was a pleasant surprise.  They call rides “games” and also games “games” so it is easy to get confused between the two.  We were at the park for about 7 hours, which allowed us to trial about 15 different rides.  There was one ride, The Evolution, where it was difficult to apply the typical roller coaster rationale that no matter how scary, you would remain unscathed.  The Evolution didn’t care about our feelings and the turns followed by the flips followed by the reverses were reminiscent of what one may experience at zero gravity.  Conflictingly, every last molecule in our body wanted to obey the Law of Apple and the surge of adrenaline from this contradiction was reminiscent of what one may experience when watching Rocky run up the steps to Eye of the Tiger.  We survived.

Outside of Fantasilandia

Being a Kansasite, Katie couldn't pass this picture up.

Katie and Stephen waiting in line for the days' first roller coaster and many more to come.

Our friends John and Mari crossing the finish line in first place.

This was a ride that we went on that flipped us many times and then at the end sprayed us in the face with freezing cold water.  Not the ride I was referring to up above.

"For smiling in line" is what the text says below the little kid.  Evidently, he didn't learn from smiling in line the first time.  Ha, we were trying to get a picture of just Stephen and the little boy wouldn't leave. 

            After the amusement park, Mari’s parents were kind enough to invite us over to enjoy some authentic Chilean food.  I don’t remember the exact name of what we ate.  It was a soupy dish containing beans and corn with a piece of steak in the middle.  Sounds pretty simple but it was delicious.  There were six of us surrounding the table, but a little poodle named Dylan (pronounced Dee-lan and named after Bob Dylan) was persistently trying to make it seven.  They would try and discipline Dylan with sharp, verbal commands to get down from the table and then reward the perro with human food from the table.  Needless to say, Dylan was confused by the mixed signals and kept his paws on the prize.  This whole scenario was like déjà vu to me as I’ve seen this same thing happen at the Balsley Household with the beneficiary being a Min Pin that goes by the name of Nelly Balsley.  Mom or dad will never come completely clean as to whom the culprit is, but I found out that this Catch 22 is not culturally exclusive to any one country.

            On Sunday, Mari’s parents were still not tired of us and invited us to join them on a side trip to Pomaire.  Pomaire is about 2 hours outside of Santiago and is famous for earthenware pottery that they make.  Devastated by the earthquake in February of 2010, this small town has since rebuilt and is alive and well. 

Shortly after we arrived, it was time for lunch and it was a good one.  After taking salivating glances towards the other tables at the dish we would eventually get, the suspense was over and it arrived.  The contraption that was placed in front of us looked like a mini-cauldron that was filled with heated coals to keep the frying surface above sizzling.  On the frying surface was a plethora of meat including a couple varieties of pork, steak, chicken, chorizo, blood that tasted like Mom’s Meatloaf in a good way, and intestines.  All the meat, though we may have to single the intestines out, was extremely tasty and succulent.  They called the intestines “interiors”, but the name change didn’t fool Katie and she politely refused the offering.  The interiors weren’t horrible.  They were rather gamy and tasted, well, like you may imagine intestines would taste like.

After lunch, we visited a few more shops looking at all of the pottery.  The pottery included cookware, bowls, candleholders, ashtrays, pigs, fire hydrants, and an abundance of other items.  Walked around a little bit more and then we did the 2-hour trek back home to do some lesson planning. 

A little earthenware serving bowl and spoon from Pomaire.

Here is a Choncho or a pig as we know it.          

The foreground is a decoy.  PDA is prevalent here and we just wanted to capture some Chileans in action.  For your viewing pleasure.

We started classes this week and we will update later in the week as to how they are going… 

Breaking News

In an attempt to make you feel like you are getting the news as it happens, we offer you this.  We just received a call from the English coordinator letting us know that we will not be teaching until next Monday.  Will post more in the next couple of days.  Let the PTO continue!!!

Second week in Santiago

            This past week was supposed to be our first week teaching.  However, the keg of Red Bull was floated at the construction site and the workers weren’t able to expedite the completion of our university in time for us to start.  So we have been enjoying our paid time off, which beats being unemployed.  Most of our time has been consumed by playing administrative assistants to the English coordinator, searching for an apartment, and having an enjoyable, PTO induced nightlife.

            On Tuesday morning, we were summoned by the English coordinator to help her organize packets for the 60 or 70 other teachers in the program.  She also relayed the message that our starting date was still not confirmed.  This mind-numbing task exhausted us because work had been merely a four-letter word since February 4^th.  After putting in long hours from 10 to 4, we went back to the headquarters at Hostel Providencia.

            While hanging out on the patio at the hostel, we heard a faint sound that was reminiscent of a college marching band.  After going inside and confirming it wasn’t this Israeli couple watching Drumline (they literally watched 3 to 4 movies a day), we went outside like old people do to see what the ruckus was all about.  Coming up the street right in front of the hostel was a parade complete with instruments and Chileans adorned in colorful dress.  After doing some under the hot lamp interrogations, I found out this parade was in honor of International Women’s Day which is a really big deal here. 

           Upon becoming privy to this information, I realized my international woman was inside the hostel.  I then went inside and retrieved her and in honor of this special day, I held the door for her on the way out.  This parade was unlike any we’ve seen before as the mood at the beginning of the parade contrasted sharply with the taste you were left with at the end.  After all of the initial bells and whistles, protestors piggybacked the vibrant musicians to spread the word about perceived labor mistreatments and surprise surprise, Obama also hurt their feelings. 

            Obama is set to come and speak here on March 21^st and the protestors were demanding that he lift the embargo on Cuba before his arrival.  To illustrate this message, they had a hybrid Obama/Joker from Batman face superimposed on a large white canvas.  Being from the poster country of capitalism, it was definitely an awkward experience observing these anti-capitalistic protestors from no more than 10 feet away.  Much like you would try to avoid eye contact with the cashier after stealing a Snickers bar, our exchanges were much the same. 

International Women's Day parade taking place on Vicuña Mackenna in front of our hostel.

Later that night, we went to a karaoke bar in celebration of our friend Rich’s birthday.  It continues to boggle my mind how Chileans have really taken a liking to U.S. music and are very knowledgeable about artists and songs spanning the past several decades.  The Chilean directing the karaoke came over to our table and uttered a few encrypted English statements to us before he went on the stage to belt a Sinatra classic in perfect English.  Dare I say, he made Sinatra sound like Justin Beiber? 

Singing in front of a crowd with a blatant Chilean bias was challenging, so I had to bring out a special song.  I chose “To Be With You” by the one-hit-wonder Mister Big.  Following up Rich’s rendition of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” where he made Mic Jagger sound like Stephen Balsley (a bad thing), I took the stage and connected with I counted one Chilean in the packed bar waving his arms.  The thing is I may have changed his life so that was satisfying enough for me.   

            After Mister Big and a couple Chilean-sung Guns ‘N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilot songs, it was time for Katie accompanied by our friend, Jamie, to step up to the stage.  In order to not draw any attention to themselves, they chose a very subtle song, “Barbie Girl” by Aqua.  I wasn’t sure how the Chilean crowd was going to react, but they LOVED IT!!!!!  There was a creepy local that was in front of the stage shooting a video from his phone, so don’t be surprised if you see the girls on YouTube.  I don’t think I would have received the same reaction if I sang this song.

          The next night, our hostel put on this amazing barbecue consisting of chorizo, beef, chicken shishkabobs, potatoes, and a Chilean salad.  Barbecues are a big tradition down here and a common staple in these gatherings is the choripan.  Originating in Argentina in the mid-19^th century, choripan has since spread to Chile and other Latin American countries.  Choripan is simply chorizo sausage inside of a French roll (chorizo + pan = choripan) with any desired additives.  They usually top them off with "salsa de pebre", a chopped mix of tomatoes, onions, cilantro, peppers, olive oil, and vinegar.  After drinking cerveza leading up to the BBQ, we ate ourselves to the point of complete sobriety.  Excusing ourselves from the group due to the deep food coma that had overcome us, we proceeded upstairs to pass out in our less than comfortable beds.

Us with some of the chicas in our program at the BBQ

The delicious chorizo, chicken shishkabobs, and beef

            On Thursday, we had two appointments scheduled to see apartments that were centrally located in the city.  We really liked the first apartment we saw, but the second apartment smelled like Joe Camel was living in it prior and was not what we were looking for.  Needless to say, we opted for the first apartment and moved in the next day.  The apartments here only have the bare essentials.  It was actually some what difficult to find one that had a microwave, wi-fi, and cable, but we managed.  Our apartment consists of a kitchen (with two little refrigerators), little living area, a bedroom, and a bathroom.  The apartment building has a gym, pool on the roof top, and a laundry room.  Here are the pics of the new place!

The kitchen

Eating area and living room

Bathroom

Bedroom

View from our 9th floor bedroom window

View from the living room window

         Moving in wasn’t a stressful process due to the close proximity of our hostel and the fact that we were just moving clothes.  Moved in, trip to the grocery store, trip to the department store was the chain of events that ensued.  That night, we went to a Chilean friend’s apartment that had a beautiful view of the skyline.  We hung out there for a while before making our way to a local bar.  At about 3:30, when we were perhaps winding down a little, the Chileans asked who wanted to go to the discoteca.  We politely declined as I probably had 20 seconds of the robot in me and that was it. 

Katie with some of the girls on the roof top

            On Saturday, our power went out due to trying to force our U.S. electrical customs on the Chilean electrical grid.  We were without electricity for over an hour and after the service technician finished his sandwich (no joke), we were back in business. 

            Dinner was our next mission and we decided that spaghetti sounded appetizing.  If Katie were to be wearing sunglasses inside, I would have seen the reflection of myself preparing the whole dinner.  I would have also stopped to admire myself a couple of times.  I’m sure I’ll be wearing the incriminating shades plenty as well.  That’s what marriage is all about, so they say.  We are going to attempt laundry today….wish us luck.

Our amazing spaghetti dinner

Another stray dog of Santiago, just for everyone's enjoyment

Viña del Mar and stray dogs

This past weekend we went to Viña del Mar, which is a beach town about an hour east of Santiago, with another couple.  The public buses here are both punctual and luxurious, both pluses for a long bus ride.  Getting off the bus in Viña at around 12, we quickly realized the importance of checking the weather forecast especially when your destination is a beach town.  We encountered dense, cloudy skies and a chilly breeze with no hint of sunshine.  Katie, who was scantily dressed, sallied forth like a soldier on the beaches of Normandy (My favorite expression which will be used ad nauseam).   

The first day consisted predominantly of searching for a hostel, which took a while because we started out looking for one that was reasonably priced.  After looking for a couple hours and determining all of the hostels/hotels too expensive, we finally settled on a rather feminine, flowery-themed hotel.  The ambience that this hotel created allowed me to be more open and share many of my untapped, locked-in-a-bank-vault emotions with Katie.  After crying and holding each other for hours though really minutes though really not at all, the sunlight breached through the flowery drapes.  Much like the sunlight is an indicator to the vampire to run to the coffin, to us, it was the beach.

One thing you will quickly pick up on in major Chilean cities is the stray dogs running everywhere.  These dogs are well adapted to city life and wait at the crosswalk just like everyone else.  I even heard one crudely whistle at Katie.  Saying all of this, it is common that these dogs will warm up to the pheromones of a particular pedestrian and follow them for a while.  I don’t know if it was the ¼ pounder from McDonald’s we ate a few nights prior, but before we knew it there was a pack of dogs that picked up our scent and were following us for a good half hour.  If we didn’t stick out before, we sure as **** (I can think of about three words off the top of my head to insert here, but it's your fault for selecting) did after all the dogs that didn’t go to heaven were following us.  Pictures below illustrating just this….

We finally made it to the beach and into the frigid, West coast water.  The coastline is beautiful here and Viña del Mar is adjoined by another coastal city, Valparaiso.  We didn’t stay at the beach too long and went back towards our hotel in search of a pub and some sushi.  We had a pitcher at a local pub, while American music was blasted from the speakers.  We then ventured across the street and met the best sushi we had ever laid our taste buds upon.  The seafood here is so fresh and was a deserved night cap to an exhausting day. 

After talking to locals and seeing first hand, we discovered the following day that the typical weather pattern in Viña is cloudiness until about 2 and then sunshine and warmth until about 8ish.  Before we made it to the beach, the couple we were with made it a mission to get an Americana from Starbucks.  The extreme desperation for the Starbucks coffee was initiated from the lack of quality coffee in Chile.  The popular coffee here is instant coffee (Nescafe) and freshly brewed coffee is hard to come by.  After listening to the Talking Heads song “Road to Nowhere”, we were out the door and on the road to the beach. 

We went to a beach a little further north this time that was heavily populated by natives and sparsely with stray dogs.  We were even brave enough to fully immerse ourselves in the extremely cold, salty water.  Further along the beach, we came upon these big sand sculptures that were semi-abstract and very detailed (Pictures below).  Some more friends met us up at the beach and yada yada yada.  There’s not much to do at the beach besides laying there and relaxing.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing but it’s not very conducive to blog posts.  Just take my word that the gentle gravity pull on the waves, moderate temperature, and the compliments Katie was showering me with all day made it a very good day.    

This was a cool clock that we saw pretty close to the beach.

A picture of la playa.

This is a popular Chilean dish called a Chorrillano.  It consists of fries topped by eggs, onions, and beef.

Stray dog taking it all in.

Picture of the coast and unfortunately there's a smudge on the right side of our lens.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Picture of lighthouse in the background.

La playa tambien.

Our friend Rich corralling the dogs.  Those who have the pleasure of knowing Katie's brother, Marcus, will know that this is just an everyday occurrence for him with his 5 dogs.

Un perro came up behind me and was utilizing the shade that my massive frame produces.

Sand sculptures

A bunch of pale gringos in the waves after jumping in.

Pictures, Round 2

Stephen sticking out like a sore Gringo.  As you can see by my attire, I haven't really tried to fit in yet.  In my delicate hands resides the peach drink that I had mentioned above.  

The first room we stayed in....we have a new one now with our own bathroom!  From doghouse to penthouse.

Catedral in Plaza de Armas.  It has been destroyed 5 times, three times by bombs and twice by earthquakes....or maybe it was twice by bombs and three times by earthquakes.  I can't remember.  The word for earthquakes is terrimoto, which I immediately developed a word crush for.  Katie enjoys how this word rolls off my tongue.  A terrimoto is also a popular drink here that the Chileans will down before going to the discoteca.

.....and this is the school that we are suppose to teach at on Monday.  It look so completed in the architectural model, but wasn't really one in the same when we visited.  Picture from the front.

This is a picture from the back of the school which is just as incomplete.