Just call me "profe" ...

WHAT. A. WEEK. After 2 hectic weeks of "training," all us gringos were thrown into the classroom on Monday to start our new "careers" as English teachers. A couple things wrong with this situation: Monday morning on our way to campus none of us had our schedules, class lists, lesson book, and we didn't even know what level of Engish we were going to be teaching (it ranges from basic to accelerated advanced). Our coordinator conveniently missed our meeting on Friday when we were supposed to find out all these things and instead just e-mailed us and told us to meet on campus at 8:30 a.m. - and also that 4 of us would be teaching first thing in the morning. Wonderful.

Brooke and I, along with 3 other Americans, are teaching at the DuocUC Plaza Oeste campus which is in Maipú (yes, it's pronounced like THAT ... you can imagine how much fun we've been having with that name) ... wayyyyyyy southwest of the city center. We take a combination of metro and "micro" (city bus) to get there ... a nice little hour and a half ride through some of the poorest parts of Santiago. And I thought my 30 minute commute to West Liberty was a lot! What's even better is that on days I have to teach at 8:30 a.m., I leave for the metro around 6:45 a.m. when it's still pitch black outside!

So we all get there Monday and get our schedules ... mine is by far the best of all the Americans. I teach 5 classes, 1 basic and 4 intermediate. I have weekends and Tuesdays off, and work 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, and have 4 classes in a row on Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:30-2:30. Not too bad except for the whole waking up when it's still night and having to teach for 6 hours straight thing. One of my collegues got completely screwed over and works at 8:30 a.m. every morning, has between an 8-10 hour break, and then has a night class which goes until 10:30 p.m. every night. His choice is either to stay in Maipú the whole time or do the 3 hour round trip commute twice a day. We've been told over and over that it is not safe to stay in that area at night, plus the bus ride to the metro can take up to 45 minutes and the metro closes at 11 p.m. Needless to say he is not a happy camper and is likely switching campuses within the next week ... I don't blame him.

After pulling my first lesson out of nowhere, we come to find out that our coordinator has decided to quit. No real surprise there! Clearly this is why he gave us no direction ... he knew he was getting outta there! So that was the icing on the cake after a MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD week!

The upside to all this is I LOVE MY STUDENTS! Most range from 19-22, but I have a couple students in their mid-to-late 30's as well. The DuocUC campus we're at specializes in majors like automechanics, industrial engineering, graphic design, etc. ... very "male" oriented careers ... and I have a total of 3 girls in my 5 classes.

For the most part my students are really excited about learning English. One student came up to me after class and talked my ear off about how a couple weeks ago he was dreading English class, and then he met a German guy at the train station who spoke 3 languages and he was so inspired, etc. etc. etc. Granted he told me this while speak 100 mph, slang-ridden, mumbly Chilean Spanish, so I could be wrong :)

Although last week was a disorganized disaster, I was able to pull together some really fun lessons and I feel like my students really learned a lot! No word on who our new coordinator will be, but I'll be getting my book on Monday and have a really great lesson outline now. YIKES, I thought I was getting into this English teaching gig to avoid the "real world" and a "real job!!!"