santiago, week 3

Hello all,

So it's been an exciting first few weeks in Chile. Our flexibility has certainly been tested as we get revised schedules on a daily basis and often don't know our schedules until the day before or day of.

The most exciting, and sad, news of course, is that we had the 6th biggest earthquake in history about a week after arriving here. Luckily, I don't remember it. We went out that night, got home (to the hostel) about 20 minutes before the earthquake, and I proceded to fall directly asleep. Apparently I was awake and lucid enough to follow directions to get out of our room (away from the bunkbeds), and to bring my pillow, cell phone, and stuffed animal. Woke up the next morning in the next room, with my friend Connie next to me.

We haven't suffered much damage in Santiago itself, especially not near where we're staying but the towns in the south have really been destroyed. Everyone here is trying to help but we're not able to at the moment for a multitude of reasons, primarily that transportation there is difficult.

As there has been some damage to all of the DUOC universities, our start dates for classes were pushed back 2 weeks, so we will be starting classes this Monday. I have classes Monday through Saturday and am teaching Basic and Intermediate English and an English in Tourism class (and since I'm so versed in tourism lingo, I'm sure I'll be great...or......not). Again because of the earthquake, we only received these schedules and our syllabi about 2 days ago. Supposed to be lesson planning right now actually......whoops....distractable me.

During our first on campus orientation, we actually had the 2 or 3 large aftershocks, which I was awake for, so that was really scary. The initial earthquake was an 8.8. The following 'aftershocks' during orientation were a 7.2, a 6.9, and another 6 pointer. We suspended the orientation for that day and continued yesterday.

Apparently, Chilean students are challenging, to say the least. Arrive late, college students act like high schoolers, cheat, lie, make tons of excuses, and should not be held accountable for at least some of these behaviors. I think they'll be in for a rude awakening with the TIPS this year (that's what they call us - don't know what it stands for, ha), since I think we're all going to demand a lot from our students.

Although there's been a lot that's happened that hasn't been ideal, I can't complain and I'm really really grateful to be here. The group of people in this program are amazing; I've never instantly clicked with a group of people more and have already made some great friends here. None of us really want to leave the hostel we're staying at; we've made a pseudo home of it here. It's going to be tough to cut the cord and I'm sure we're going to stay very close.

Santiago itself is really pretty. Tree lined streets, lots of shops and parks. It's a definite mix between old Europe and Latin America; really neat. We finally got out of the city a bit and went on a wine tour in Aquitano, a beautiful beautiful winery at the base of the Andes that looks over Santiago.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and good thoughts. I'm doing great, as is everyone here. I'm hoping that you all can come visit. I'll write more soon.

Love and miss you all