Oh goodness.... a blog post?

Hello my friends!!!!!!

So I'm sitting here in my dining room, enjoying the sunset (summer sunsets are the best, please try to prove me wrong!) and halfway watching Cosby while loading my tunes on my shiny new mp3 player, making the obligatory lists increasingly full of exclamation points, and I'm thinking to myself.... "Jesus H. Christ, I'm leaving for Chile in less than a week! I should probably start posting in that blog that I have been telling everyone I am going to write to keep them updated about my (mis)adventures in the frozen south! Egads!"

It's been a really long time since I kept a blog even somewhat regularly, so it's proving more difficult than I think it normally might be to put into words what I'm feeling and thinking right now. Me? Teaching? In a foreign country? How on earth did this turn from just an idea into a reality? I alternate back and forth between being really excited (they put mayonnaise on everything? COOL!) to absolutely terrified (they put mayonnaise on everything?!?! OH DEAR GOD!) and I've had what I'm sure are only the first of many near-panic attacks to come.

And still I'm packing, I'm reading through the predeparture group emails, I'm fielding questions from friends and relatives with an almost illogical calm. I'm trying to picture the feeling of 5 months, of damp, cold weather, of living with a host family I've never met and won't meet until I, well, meet them; the sense of being in front of a classroom and being responsible for the faces staring back at you. Well, I have had a little bit of experience with that, especially in the past few weeks. I completed my mandatory 25+ hours of ESL experience with the most inspiring bunch of adult ESL learners EVER (!!!) and was fortunate to shadow a teacher who gave me a lot of ideas as well as encouragement and general worldview-opening-upping... (wow, can you tell I'm going to make a GREAT English teacher?!?!)

So I'm feeling pretty good about that at least. I got to see what the nuts and bolts of running a classroom are like, I got to have a fourth of July class potluck with DELICIOUS mexican food (they sang happy birthday to me in English AND in Spanish!) and I even got the chance to teach my own portion of a lesson (conversation bingo is a GO!). It was so hard to leave them today - they all gave me these beautiful handmade cards that are definitely going in my suitcase, wedged somewhere in between the scarf one of my best friends knitted for me a few years back and the snazzy teaching outfit lent to me by my former professor.

I think that's what it's coming down to at this point for me - I'm blown away trying to pin down all the ways that everyone has helped me get to this point. It kind of makes me feel like all I had to do was show up! I know they helped me get to where I am, and knowing that it's pretty much up to me now is its own mental and emotional game of 52 card pickup. This is going to be a real test for me, probably in ways that I can't even name right now. The best kind of test, in my admittedly limited experience.

So ('entonces.....!') here we go... I don't have much else that can be said tonight. I'm not-quite-frantically writing more things on my lists, crossing them off, looking forward to a quick trip away with my family for the next two days, counting the sunsets, and really dreading the airport goodbyes. All in all... business as usual.

:)

Okay, the gooey stuff aside... I love you all and I will miss you all terribly (ha! you thought I was done with the gooey stuff!) but hopefully with the magic of the internet we will be able to keep in touch. I plan to update this blog at least once a week (and you all have full permission to do some long-distance heckling if I don't) and as soon as I get the important stuff (like a phone number, a skype address, a home address, etc) I'll send it along to you, my dearest dears! Please send me your addresses (email and snail mail) if you'd like, too, so I can send you fun little things along the way.

And here's some logistical-type stuff for inquiring minds who would like to know more:

Departure date: July 14th (yes, this means I will be missing Harry Potter, and no, I am not overly happy about this)
2-3-ish weeks (this is going to be a journey of a lot of "-ish," I can tell already!) in the capitol, Santiago, in training
At this point I will be assigned my post, which will likely be located somewhere in the 8th Region (known as Bio-Bio!)
Here are some pictures: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/South_America/Chile/Central_Valley/Bio-Bio/
And here is the wikipedia page: (I swear to you that there was more information here at one time! maybe I was dreaming though.... sometimes it happens, dreaming of being on wikipedia. wait, that doesn't happen to you? oh... yeah.... me neither....) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-Bio_Region_of_Chile

The program I'll be there with is WorldTeach, at www.worldteach.org, and it's the Chile Ministry Semester program.

I will be there until the end of November, at which point I return to Santiago and begin the travel portion of the itinerary. I'm hoping at this point that 10 days will be enough (well, you know) and that I will have some travel buddies by that point. Large plans include Macchu Picchu or Easter Island. Smaller plans include seeing whatever of Chile I haven't seen by then (I really want to see Valdivia and Chiloe, and that place in Atacama with the giant hand statue!) Home in time for Christmas!

Adios para ahora! As Lilia, one of the students I met in the past couple of weeks says, adelante el sol te sonrie.

Love love love!
Meg

Ps... here is a song for you all, complements of the incomparable Irene: