One Month Behind Me

School

I've been here a little over a month and I'm starting to feel settled in. I've had all but one of my 18 classes and most of the kids seem excited to be there. I have a workshop with one of the classes where anyone who wants to can come after class. I had the first one last week with 9 students. It was such fun! We played icebreakers like I had done with all the other classes, but with such a low number I was really able to interact with them. Now with almost all the first day of class things out of the way, I am moving on to more content based classes. I'm a little nervous but also excited. I am planning on teaching the 7th-10th graders this week. We'll see how it goes!

Road Trip

I was able to take a road trip to two cities on the ocean, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. It was fun to see more of Chile and take a road trip through the countryside after being in the city for so long. In Vina del Mar we walked along the coast and then took a horse carriage ride through the city. Vina is a tourist destination and known for its beaches. I would love to go back when it's warmer and take full advantage of them! Valparaiso was full of historic buildings and I loved it! I love seeing old buildings and thinking that the same building I'm looking at was right there hundreds of years ago. We also took a boat tour out into the ocean and learned even more about the history and got to see all the cities from the water. It was so beautiful! It was definitely a successful day!

Spanish

Ahhh! My daily frustration! My Spanish progression is definitely not going as quickly as I thought. It is just so fast. People will talk to me and I won't understand and then Pabla says the same thing slower and clearer and I get it. Overall, I think I am understanding more and some days are better than others, but usually it just makes me tired and frustrated because I want to be able to communicate so bad and my brain just can't do it yet.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. I hope all is well for everyone at home!