Take your protein pills and put your helmet on...

I know, Ground Control to Major Me, right? Time for an update already!

*side note* this was actually supposed to be posted yesterday, but crappy internet in the hostel meant that it did not happen. Sorry!

It's really easy to forget that I'm kind of a world away right now. In Santiago, of course, modern sprawly smogfest city that it is, it's easy to close your ears to the Spanish around you and imagine that you might be in any major city around the world. The people on my program have done a lot for making me feel more at home than I've felt at UCLA sometimes as well... more on them later because they are wonderful people and I want to throw them their own parade in just a minute.

We're all in a strange kind of in-between stage right now - we're done with our FANTASTIC WorldTeach orientation (can I just say it again? it was FANTASTIC!) which was occupying a lot of my time that might otherwise be spent updating my blog or, heck, even seeing the new Harry Potter. But it was absolutely time well spent - I cannot believe how much I learned in only a week and a half's time. Too many things to name here, but the one that unites them - how to take big and potentially overwhelming things - teaching English to kids who have had little meaningful interaction with the language, living so far away from home in a country with a fascinating but at the same time heartbreaking history - not to mention doing all of this with little to no teaching experience and fewer linguistic skills than I'm used to having - and being able to break them down into manageable, understandable, and ultimately communicateable pieces.

(Goodness - that was a long sentence!)

We learned lots of Chilean slang, we presented lesson plans (snowball fight was also a big fat GO! Thank you Mrs. Cowper's Level 3 ESL class!) had a lovely end-of-program carrete (party) and all-around felt pretty darn proud of ourselves. We're a really tight bunch, something that I wasn't necessarily counting on happening but am really glad that it did. Some conversations are about shared frustrations over Chile's lack of central heating and fun toilet paper issues (come on, Chile! Get with the program!). Some are about today, some are about the next four months. Some are about bigger plans beyond what we can see in front of us. All of it has currency. Meghan, our Assistant Field Director and person with all-around awesome name, describes us as little birds hovering over the edge of the nest, flapping our wings, about to take off.

Ministry training is, shall we say, a good deal more fome - to be fair, it would be hard to compete with all the awesome (*hand motion*)-ness that went on when it was just the WorldTeach gang, but I think it's safe to say we're all getting a taste of some of the challenges waiting for us - educationally, organizationally, philosophically. Spanish classes have also started. I had estimated that I was about an intermediate level in Spanish, but as I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I actually picked up or internalized or whatever in the last year, a review of ser vs estar is not what I had in mind. But I love my teacher - he's this wickedly funny older Chilean guy who just finished writing his first novel and mimed popping a giant pimple on his face to teach us the Spanish word (which, alas, I've clean forgotten). I think I'm probably learning more from the teaching perspective from him than actual Spanish, but at least a good discussion of amigos con ventajas was included.

The hostel is a new and perhaps unimproved environment as well. Let me sum it up by saying that they make you pay to rent a towel. I paper-toweled it the other day, with a surprising degree of success! The environmentalist in me felt a little guilty, though, so I bought my very own brand-spanking-new Chilean towel yesterday. The shower today was all the lovlier in anticipation.

The biggest news today is that some of us in the group finally have our placements! We know that four of us will be sent to Angol, a town in the Araucania region of Chile. The rest of us are waiting to hear which of four cities in the Bio Bio region to which we will be sent. I've heard a little about each city, and I definitely have my preferences, but I'm trying not to get too attached either way because I really don't have a say in it. We're all crossing our fingers that we get to find out tomorrow and that, as has been conjectured, we won't be lined up at the bus station and picked like middle school dodgeball teams. It's all about the flexibility, amigos.

Well that's about it for now.... we have a few bottles of wine from the market calling our names, because we're classy like that.

edit, Wednesday night: We FINALLY have our placements!!! Through a series of currently non-understandable Ministry hijinks, we have actually been spread out through a lot more towns than what we had been told originally. This means that I will be heading to a place I a) have never heard of, and b) have no preconceived notions about, which is really for the best. So.... drum roll....

I'm in Yumbel! Surprisingly they have a pretty legit website. And the BESTEST news: I'll be with my pal Jessie! I'm really happy with my placement at this point. I still don't know anything about my host family, and I would like to learn what grades I'll be taking on at some point, but for now I'm good. More as more arises... off for more attempts at packing, perhaps with a little Harry Potter and carretear-ing thrown into the mix. Chau!