Beginnings

Welcome to my blog, Skinny Country! Just a few days ago I started a ten month long adventure teaching English in Santiago, Chile, and I'll be sharing my experience here.

So, I'm here as part of a teaching program through an American organization, CIEE, that set me up with a job at a Chilean university, DUOC. It's a technical school, so the students I'll be teaching will be working towards specific career-related degrees. We don't know too much at this point about the details of our work (what level we'll be teaching, curriculum, etc.) and from what I've gathered it's going to be a long and somewhat disjointed process getting all that information. We'll see. What our program organizers have made very clears is that they do things a little differently here in Chile, and to prepare ourselves for a "singular" work culture that will, more than likely, frustrate us quite a bit.

For the first month (or as long as we want, I'll probably try to move out earlier) we are living in a hostel in a section of Santiago called Providencia. Luckily for me, my campus (DUOC has several in the city) is right down the street. For that reason, and because this neighborhood is not only safe, but also quite pretty, I'll be looking for an apartment close by. Hopefully that process won't be too hard-- I'm not sure how long I'll last in a room with 7 other girls (though they are all great!) and sharing one bathroom.

I've taken Spanish since fourth grade, and I've always been kind of ashamed at how much it still gives me trouble to speak it. Being here has made me even more frustrated and determined to really work on my fluency. Much of that, I'm sure, will come from making Chilean friends (which I am hoping to do) and becoming familiar with their very distinctive version of the Spanish language. And I know I'll have a lot of opportunity for practice, as there really isn't much English spoken at all in the city, at least where I've been so far.

I think that's all, as far as an introduction goes...now for the good stuff...