Party Time!

Ok, so this teaching thing takes so much more time than I anticipated!  I only have 18 hours of actual classes, but I spend probably about 50 more hours a week planning all the classes!  I have three different levels in six different classes, so that is a lot of prepping!  And this first part is the most difficult, because I haven't taught before and was just sort of thrown into it.  Plus, we have a standard test after every two units.  We usually have 5 weeks to teach both units, but this first part of the semester, we only have four.  Combine that with not doing much teaching the first couple days and with students still registering for classes, and it makes for a bunch of very stressed-out teachers (and I'm sure many of the students, as well)!  I still feel like I'm barely managing to keep my head above the water!  I don't know when I will have time to do relaxing things, or to travel!  But I guess this is definitely a quick way to get an education in... education.

I am very tired right now, and I can't really remember what I've been doing since my last entry!  I know that I have been doing a lot of prepping for classes and running around like mad and having no idea what is going on.  At least I haven't been bored!  There is some drama going on at my house right now, but I'm not going to go into it.  Hopefully it will be resolved before I know it and then there will have been no point in talking about it!  Sometimes I start to believe that telenovelas aren't as far-fetched as they might seem...

I did get to go to an Argentinian asado (BBQ) a couple weeks ago!! There was chimichurri and everything--yum!! It was a birthday party for my Chilean friend's boss, but my other friend who is from Argentina did all the cooking.  It was quite and interesting cultural experience.  I forgot how old the birthday 'boy' was, but it was somewhere in the mid- to late- forties.  It was mostly his family and his employees, along with a few other random people thrown in here and there (like me).  We got there around 6:00 to start cooking, but most of the people didn't start to arrive until after 10:00.  The drinking, of course, had started immediately (or even before), so there was quite a high level of inebriation at this event.  Of course, you can't have proper drinking without adequate smoking, either.

That is the one thing that I don't think I will get used to here in Santiago--everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, smokes.  And there are no laws or regulations, so you can smoke wherever you want, which gets a bit annoying when you go to a nice restaurant to enjoy a fancy meal only to have cigarette smoke blown in your face.  But at least I have gotten my roommates to close the door when they smoke on the patio (usually.  We'll see how long it lasts, too).

Anyways, back to the party.  I was surprised how late it was, and also by how rowdy it got!  Especially because this man wasn't particularly young, either!  Most of the people were probably between 35-50 years old, although there were a couple pre-teens who accompanied their parents, and also the parents of the birthday boy who were around 70 years old.  This did not prevent party-goers from eating, drinking, and smoking like there was no tomorrow (and I suppose that is more true for them than teenagers, but... still!). I spent most of the time next to the bbq for three reasons--one, a bunch of super delicious food right at my disposal; two, it was actually pretty cold out; and three, the smoke from the fire negated the smoke from the cigarettes.

I was invited inside to sit with the birthday boy and his family at one point, so I couldn't really refuse that.  Being one of only two foreigners at the party (the other was my Argentine friend), I was a bit of a mini-celebrity.  Especially once the drinking got started a bit more, I got many requests for English lessons.  I was quite impressed with how much peoples' (especially the men's) English improved after just a few drinks!  But at least nobody tried to do anything, I think they were more intrigued by my "exotic-ness" thank anything else.  Plus, I had my two big, scary bodyguards to keep me safe (my 'neighbor' in my house and his friend are both older than me and sort of treat me like their younger sister who needs protection from everything.  That's ok with me)!

The party really started to get interesting around 1:00 am, when they began the lap-dance contest for the birthday boy.  A bunch of the (now extremely drunk) female party-goers competed with each other for nearly half an hour to see which could give the best dance.  There were even long, thin balloons for props!  The winner got a giant bottle of expensive wine.  They even had a second contest for the father of the birthday boy!  He really enjoyed that!  I must say, this is probably one of the more unique birthday parties I have been to.  Unfortunately, being the gringa that I am and not being accustomed to staying out so late (or drinking so much, though that isn't usually a problem for most gringos), I had to ask to be taken home at 3:00 am.  My friend was pretty disappointed and even tried to get me to go out somewhere else, but I was almost to the point of having to hold my eyes open with my hands to stay awake!  I don't know what the secret is!

At least I had a good cultural experience, and some super delicious food.  If you have never eaten Argentine meat, you have not lived.  In which case you should come visit me and we can go to Argentina.  See you soon!

First Week of School!

I made it through my first couple days of school--GO ME! And I have to give a special acknowledgement to Scott for helping me plan my first lessons--they went amazingly, by the way (and of course all of my students already know what "amazing" means--it is pretty much the most important word in the English language)!  The students (I really want to write "kids," but most of them are only a couple years younger than me.  Some of them are even older than me) are all really great, although some of them are really frightened!  I've tried to catch some of the most timid ones and talk to them one on one in Spanish so that they aren't so nervous (and see that I am learning a language, too).  The abilities in my classes vary a ton!

This semester, I am teaching three different levels--Basic I, Intermediate I, and Intermediate II.  Some of the students in Basic I understand everything I am saying, where some in Intermediate II can barely tell me their names!  I am not really sure how to deal with such varied levels, because I can see that some of the advanced students are already bored by the second day with the activities!  I guess I will teach towards the middle of the range and offer extra hours for the students who need more help.  Unfortunately, I don't have any personal space at the campus, so I don't know where we would meet.  There is a cafeteria, though, so that could work!  I'll work on that part, later.  I have so many different things to keep track of! Some people only have one level to teach--I'm kind of jealous of that!  Oh, well, this will give me good practice!

My schedule is kind of weird--I've had two classes with some groups, and some I haven't even met yet (I will today, though).  Mondays and Wednesdays are my super long days--my first class starts at 8:30 am and my last ends at 10:00 pm!  I have breaks in between, but that almost makes it more tiring, because I can't really fully relax during the interim periods, but I'm not really working full speed either...  I think it will be nice though because I can use most of that time to plan the next lessons, instead of having to do it all during the weekends.  In fact, I should probably be working on that right now, but I'm going to procrastinate instead.  I just missed you guys so much that I figured I should probably update the blog first.  I am going to be very proud of myself if I manage to update it once a week.  Help me realize my goals (by nagging me if I don't)!  We aren't supposed to give out a lot of homework, so at least I won't have very much to grade!  We also don't have to write our own tests, which is nice (less pressure), but also a bit worrisome because all the English classes use the same test (making it easier to cheat).

Apparently cheating is a big problem here, and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it.  I already talked to one student who wasn't doing the work I told them to do.  When I asked him why he wasn't working, he said he was waiting for his friend to finish so that he could copy him!  I had told them to work in pairs, but that wasn't exactly the idea I had in mind!  I asked him what he was going to do on the test if he didn't learn how to do it himself now, and he said he would still copy from his friend.  Then I asked what would happen when he got a great job and had to speak English as part of it; he paused for a moment, but then replied that he would just bring his friend to the job with him!  Tricky kid!  But he did start doing his own work after that.

I have mostly day classes, so that means that most of my students are traditional--they are studying towards a "carrera" (career), and are taking English as part of the requirement to graduate.  They are college-aged (18-22), so they have a lot of energy and like to move around and do active games.  They like to make fun of me a lot too (I am now Professor Britney Spears)!  Even the ones that say they are shy come up and talk to me.   In my very first class of the semester, I wrote a  lot of things wrong on the board (they don't get a sylabbus, so I have to copy everything onto the board for them to copy onto their papers), and I said "oops!" a lot.  The students thought that was hilarious, so now whenever they see me, they say "Hello!  Oops!" Well, at least they are learning interjections.  That could come in useful at some point.  I find that "oops" is one of my most frequently used words...

Two of my classes are evening classes, so these are the older students who are coming from jobs and are learning English as part of their continuing education.  I think they have a hard time with me because I look (I am) so young.  They gave me a look of great pity when they realized that that I was here alone.  They were very concerned that my parents were not coming.  Here in Chile, it is very common for kids to live with their parents until they are married or until they get their first job, so most people are in their late 20's before they move out.  The night students are a lot more serious than the day students, so I don't know if a lot of my activities will work for them.  They are more afraid of making mistakes, and they also probably think that a lot of the games are juvenile.  I'm not quite sure how to deal with that just yet... I guess we can do more writing activities or working in small groups, instead of moving around and large group activities.  I would welcome suggestions *hint* *hint*!

Speaking of planning, I'd better get on that!  I have a class in one hour!

About DuocUC

Well, I still haven't finished my second entry, but I guess I should move on since I've missed about a week's worth of stuff already!  Maintaining a blog is much more time consuming that I anticipated!  And there is just always so much going on here that it is always on the bottom of my list of priorities (Sorry, guys.  Guess you'll just have to come visit if you want more details!).  So now I am going to try to summarize what has been going on so that we can catch up a bit.  If I can remember--each day here seems like about three or four days run together!  Today should be a bit slower, though.  All I have to do is go to my campus at 5:00 to meet the site coordinator.

Let's see... what have I been up to since I got my room (yes, I got it!  I know I haven't gotten to that part in the story yet, but I don't want to leave you hanging!)?  This week we have been in orientation/ training at the main DuocUC campus in downtown Santiago.  They sure are packing a lot of stuff into six hours per day--imagine trying to summarize everything that goes into getting a teaching degree into a total of 18 hours of class time.  It is pretty intense.  We had almost two hours just of playing games and doing activities to give us an idea of what we should do with our students.  The teacher that taught that class was so energetic!! It was truly amazing!  We played a bunch of language games that she uses in her classes (although usually you only do one per day, not 10 or 11 like we did!).   She made us do them in Spanish (instead of English, like we will be doing in our classes), so that we could understand what our students go through.  Obviously, I didn't get the full experience because I already am fairly decent at Spanish, but it was really interesting to see how the non-Spanish-speakers reacted when she announced we were going to do it in Spanish.  For some, it was a look of sheer panic.  She told us that most of our students feel the same way, as most of them have never really been exposed to English before.

Before I get too much into the details, I should probably tell you more about Duoc.  Duoc is part of the Universidad Catolica University system, but it is more focused on careers (probably about what we would call a technical school).  Here, a university degree takes 5 years, but a technical degree can take 2-4 years.  There are 14 campuses for Duoc, most in Santiago, but there are also some in Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, and Concepcion.  The whole system has over 70,000 students and 3,000 full-time faculty.  Duoc is the only higher education program in the country that requires that 100% of its students learn English and receive a passing grade on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) in order to graduate.  This year, they have hired about 100 native speakers to aid in reaching their goal of ensuring that each of their graduates have functional English fluency, in addition to the 350 teachers already on staff.

Unlike many higher education institutes in Chile, there is no minimum requirements for entering DuocUC (other than having graduated high school), so the abilities of the students vary greatly.   About 72% of the students come from the three lowest socioeconomic classes in the country, and for over 75%, they will be the first in their family to receive a higher education degree.  Many of the students will have come from public schools in Chile (very different from the U.S.; these schools usually have extremely low academic standards. While it is a national requirement that English be taught in school, public schools simply cannot afford to have one on staff.  Oftentimes, whichever staff member happens to know a few sentences ends up trying to fit in a bit of English here and there during Math class or whatever other subject they happen to teach).  Anyways, so most of the students have basically no English skills whatsoever.

In fact, contrary to what most of us thought coming in, the majority of our classes will be very basic.  We are actually encouraged to use Spanish in the early level classes, just to get the point across!  I am super nervous about starting classes on Monday, but I am so glad that my Spanish is good.  I cannot imagine trying to go into this without any Spanish at all.  Although I guess it would make it easier for me to relate to the students! I am actually thinking about taking another language class while I'm here, too.  Apparently Portuguese is the way to go; that could be interesting!

I have to go make sure I have everything ready for my meeting this afternoon, but hopefully I will have time to write some more later!

No Longer Homeless!

Well, so much for writing every day!  There is just so much going on right now that I can't keep up!

But on the upside, I am no longer homeless!  Yesterday was quite an interesting day!  There was a place that I wanted to visit down near where my school is, which is about half an hour from our hostel by metro.  I slept in until 11:00 or so, and got going around noon.  The place was really easy to find, and in a really nice location.  It is actually considered "University Housing," but in Chile, they aren't run by the universities so anyone can live there.  It is about three blocks away from a "Hiper Lider" (Super Walmart.  Literally.  The Lider brand was bought out by Wal-Mart a couple years ago).  On the other side of the street from the Lider is a huge mall.  Like Mall of America huge.  And my campus is just down the street from there.  So, perfect location!

Anyways, I found the house around 1:00, but I didn't have an exact time to meet with the owner (we had just agreed "in the afternoon."  Which around here is probably more like after 3:00, because that is usually when people eat lunch).  I had thought that there would be a doorbell to ring once I got there, but there was nothing to ring or knock when I got there.  The whole house is surrounded by a very tall, thick metal fence, so I couldn't see in or reach around to knock on an inside door.  I decided to call the owner to have her let me in, but every time I tried, my phone kept saying "not allowed."  I thought that maybe I had written her phone number down incorrectly, so I tried to call someone else just to make sure.  Once again, "not allowed."  Our phones are pre-paid, so I figured that I had just run out of money.  I headed off towards the Lider to recharge the phone.

On the way, I noticed that the neighbor was sitting out in the yard, so I figured I would see if he knew anything about the house.  The place had been advertised as "Hostal Universitario," so I asked him if he knew what it was.  He was a little old man (the kind that you can just imagine yelling "get off my lawn, you stupid kids), and his accent was incredibly difficult to understand!  I'm not sure if he is foreign, or if that is just something that comes with old age, but I had the hardest time understanding him!  He said that he knew of the Hostal, but that the police had come and shut it down because it was illegal and they didn't have the right papers and everything like that.  He said there was a raid and they had to kick everyone out.  I was incredibly confused, for a variety of reasons, so I just said "thank you," and started to walk away.  As I turn, he called out to me "You didn't hear it from me! Keep quiet on this!! I didn't say anything! I didn't say anything!!" It was very strange, especially considering that I could see that there were definitely people still living in the house, and everything seemed quite calm and organized.  Perhaps his accent was just that difficult that I got it all wrong.  Or maybe he is just a paranoid old man (I discreetly checked his story with other neighbors, and they all seemed quite baffled with it).  So, after that interesting encounter, I headed off again towards the Lider to recharge my phone.

But of course I forgot the word for "recharge," so I asked for a phone card.  The clerk gave me a sim card.  After some confusion, we finally figured out what I wanted (recargar).  The last phone I had in Chile, you had to buy a card and charge the phone ourselves.  This time, apparently you have to tell the clerk your phone number, and they recharge it with a machine.  Of course I didn't know what my phone number was, or how to find it in the phone.  The clerk was quite patient with me as she handed me a pen and told me to write down the number.  I finally found the number (luckily, I had saved it myself into the phone; unfortunately, nowhere obvious), and gave it to the clerk.  She asked me how much I wanted, and I asked her how much people normally put.  She gave me a funny look, but told me I should put 1,000 peso ($2).  I agreed, and finally got the phone recharged.  It was definitely a trip, but I think that I at least entertained the store clerk!

With my phone recharged, I headed  back towards the house, figuring that I could call the owner on the way and she could let me in once I got there.  Again, my phone told me that I was not allowed to make the call!  I was about to just leave and give up on the whole thing when I dropped the phone and the battery fell out.  I put it back together and turned it back on.  I decided I would try the call one more time before I left, just to make sure.  Amazingly, the phone worked this time!!  I talked to the owner (her name is Saydee, pronounced say-day) and told her that I was at the house for our appointment.  She said that she was still at work because I hadn't given her an exact time to meet, but that she would call someone else to let me in.  Just about as soon as I hung up, a man appeared at the door to let me in.  I forgot his name, but it starts with a "D."  I'll let you know when I figure it out.  He has awesomely curly blond hair, so he is obviously automatically awesome.

"D" let me in and showed me around.  The room that was available was on the first floor, down a hallway behind the kitchen.  It has a big bed (they call it 1.5 plazas, but I can't find a direct translation.  It's about as big a queen bed), and a bedside table.  Those two things pretty much take up the whole room.  There is also a built-in closet that is pretty shallow (about as wide as a small hanger), and a tv in the wall.  So the room is a bit smaller than normal (or the bed is bigger than normal!).  The best part about it, though, is that it has a private bathroom!  That is almost unheard of (at least in the price range I'm looking for).  The kitchen is a good size (fairly large for a Chilean kitchen, there is enough room for two people to stand side-by-side in the narrowest part, so that is quite large).  There is also a big dining area with two refrigerators, and an outdoor patio to eat as well.  There is even a washer and dryer (also rare in my price range).  I was pretty excited about the place, even though I hadn't met the other people living in the place yet.  "D" said that they were from all over and that they were all really calm and quiet, which is perfect for me since I'm not really into partying and stuff.  The room in that house rents for 155,000 pesos per month (about $320), including utilities, internet, and access to a washer/ dryer.

The same owner of the hostel also owns a guest house out the back of the big house, which "D" took me to see as well (because I had told the owner in an email that one of my friends also wanted to come look at her place.   I ended up coming alone, but I took a look anyway).  We had to go through a gate to get the back, and as soon as "D" opened the door, I was surrounded by a bunch of super fluffy puppies!  Apparently they own a couple shi tzus who had just had some puppies.  They were so excited to see someone new and all gathered around my feet.  There were two elderly people sitting in a swing on the back porch, just watching the puppies and laughing.  They are the owner's grandparents.  I nearly tripped because of how enthusiastic the puppies were!  We finally managed to get through the sea of puppies and into the guest house.  The house is super awesome, and I would totally have gotten it if I had known for sure that someone else was going to stay with me!   It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  It also has an awesome living room and fully equipped kitchen.  They are renting it for 300,000 pesos per month ($620).  If Scott comes and decides to stay, hopefully we might be able to stay there (fingers crossed that the timing works out!  It's a really great deal).

We left the house and navigated through the sea of puppies once again, and I told "D" that I would like to rent the room in the big house (it was the only one left, so I wanted to make sure I could still get it).  He told me to give Saydee a call and let her know, so I rang her up and asked her about the renting process.  She told me I had to put down a deposit (here, you usually put down an extra month's rent as deposit).  Since I only had 8,000 pesos with me, I told her I would have to go get some more from the ATM if she wanted me to leave the money with "D."  I asked him about that, and he didn't seem comfortable dealing with business things, so Saydee told me just to come back around 4:00 so that she could write up a contract for me and take the deposit.  She said that she would call me when she got back to let me in.  I asked her how much she wanted for the deposit, and she said, "oh, whatever you feel like.  Maybe about 40,000 or 50,000?  Probably more than 8,000, but whatever..."  Since it was only about 2:15 at this point, I decided just to head back to the hostel and pick up money there that I had already taken from the ATM instead of paying to take out more (there are banks that let me take out  money without a fee, but they aren't the most common so I haven't been able to get any yet.  Hopefully once I get more settled, I will get to know where they are).  I thanked "D" and headed back towards the metro to go back to the hostel.

The metro was much more crowded on the way back, but I managed to get back around 3:00.  I had thought that my excursion would be quick, so I hadn't eaten yet that day.  I had a piece of bread left from dinner the night before, so I grabbed that and gulped down some water before heading back out with my money to get back to the hostel around 4:00.  I got to the area a bit early, so I did some exploring of the neighborhood.  It is a pretty new area (most of the houses have only been built in the last few years), and it seems to be mostly families.  I saw two different colegios (Elementary/ middle schools.  They are usually for about 1st-8th grade) within walking distance of the house.  There were also two nice parks to hang out in nearby, and one of them even has a full circuit exercise course.  Around 4:00 I walked towards the house to wait for Saydee to call, but after about half an hour I still hadn't heard anything.  I knew that she had said she had a lot to do at work, so I figured she just got caught up there or in traffic or something.  I decided to walk around a bit more to wait for her call.  I went back to the park with the exercise equipment and played a game on my phone for a while (and also watched a really cute old man in formal attire using the exercise machines, very slowly, on a 90 degree day.  He is awesome).  Still no call, so I decided that I might as well go check out the mall across the street.

This was Thursday, the day before colegio starts again here in Chile, so the mall was packed to the brim with back-to-school shoppers.  Navigating between the families and groups of tweens was quite interesting, but I managed to dinf my way around a bit.   I was surprised at how upscale the mall seemed, and how many American brands there were!  There was, of course, and other Lider (Wal-Mart) inside the mall, but there was also a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.  There was even an Apple store!  The mall itself is huge, and has just about any kind of store you can imagine (and of course, because Chileans love pharmacies, it had at least three.  Probably more, because I only managed to see about 1/4 of the entire mall).  I walked around and even contemplated getting some Dunkin Donuts coffee (one thing that I missed about Florida), but then around 5:30 I got a call from Saydee saying that she was about to head home.  I hurried off back towards the house.

I had figured that I would get to the house before Saydee (I have no idea where she works, but I didn't know at the time that she has a car so I thought that the public transportation would take a while), so when I got there I just sat outside the door and waited for her to arrive.  While I was waiting, the grandmother that I had seen earlier arrived and entered.  She gave me an odd look, but smiled and continued in without saying anything.  I waited a bit longer, and as I was about to call Saydee (around 5:45), another car pulled up, and two women stepped out, carrying a brand new printer.  I thought one of them might be Saydee, but they also just went inside without saying anything.  About two seconds later, one of them came back out and asked what I was doing outside the door.  I told her that I was waiting for Saydee to come so that we could talk about renting a room.  This brightened the women right up and they told me that Saydee was already inside!  They let me in and brought me back to the smaller house behind the big rental house (this is Saydee's house.  Apparently she owns a bit of land, so the big rental house, her house, and the guest house are all on the same parcel).

After so many attempts, I finally met Saydee in person!  She is really nice!  She actually owns three different business--one is consulting, another is renting out properties, and I don't remember what the other is.  Suffice it to say that she stays pretty busy.  She had three computers up and running when I came in, and blueprints spread all across the table.  She had some other things to figure out first, so I just sort of hung out for a while as she worked on some other things.  The other women were also trying to work on other things.  I didn't catch their names, but I guess they both work for Saydee.  One left shortly after I arrived to take one of the puppies to the vet, so I don't know much about her.  The other is a middle-aged woman from Spain who actually came to Chile to find a job because things are so bad back in Europe.   I actually understood her speaking better than everyone else!  She is currently living in the big house and working for Saydee.

While I was waiting, "D" came back with glasses of soda for everyone, and I sat down next to Saydee so that she could begin to set up the contract.  She already had a template set up, so this should have been super fast; just change the names and dates and everything would be all set.  She wanted to finish it pretty quickly so that we could go to the notary and get it notarized before they closed at 6:00.  Unfortunately, technology had different ideas.  First, she couldn't find the correct template.  Then, her computer just completely turned off, totally randomly.  By the time she got everything back up and running, it was already too late to get to the notary.  She had the Spanish woman start calling around to see if anyone else was open later.  In the meantime, her phones (yes, she had multiple phones) were ringing off the hook. 

One of the calls she received was from a couple of Portuguese students who were going to rent an apartment from her and were coming to her house to sign the contract.  They had apparently been calling for a while, and were very lost.  She kept trying to get them directions, but they still couldn't find the place.  Finally, she managed to get them to the correct metro stop, but she decided that trying to explain to them how to walk to her house would be too difficult and that she would just go pick them up at the metro stop (just about 4 blocks away).  She thought she would quickly print out my contract and have me sign it before she went to get the boys, but once again, technology wasn't on our side.  The new printer kept giving an error saying that the ink was out, even though the whole printer and the ink was all brand new.  They messed with it for a while, and couldn't figure out how to fix it.  Saydee really had to go pick up the Portuguese guys, so they decided to stop at the store on the way an exchange it for a new printer.

Unfortunately, the woman who had gone to take the puppy to the vet was the one with the receipt.  That woman wasn't planning to come back to the house until very late, so they decided to just buy a completely new printer and return the other one later.  So the three of us got into the car and headed towards the store and metro station.  We dropped the Spanish woman off at the store to buy the printer, and then Saydee parked right next to the metro station near a stop light.  She was getting nervous because she wasn't technically supposed to be parking there.  Apparently, she had met the boys before, because she recognized them as they walked towards the car (and then got stuck at the light, of course).  When they made it across the street, they hopped in the car and we headed off back towards the house.

The two Portuguese guys are here for 5 months on study abroad with their University.  One of them is studying to be a mechanical engineer, and the other is getting his MBA.  The school system is a bit different in Portugal--there are three years for undergraduate, and then two more for the Master's.  Once you start, you have to go all the way through to Master's, you can't stop after the first three years.  We all talked a bit in the car in a weird mix of Spanish, English, and Portuguese.  I don't remember Chile being so international before, but I guess I must just be in the right places this time!  It is very interesting!

We arrived back at the house once again and waded through the puppies to get into Saydee's house.  She had already written up the boys' contract, so we just had to wait for the printer to arrive to print them all out and be ready to go.  We all chatted inside for a while until the Spanish woman returned with another new printer.  While the two woman worked on the printer situation, the Portuguese and I played with the puppies an talked.  I felt really bad because one of them said that he had a really bad experience on his first day.  Apparently, he had done his research and knew that a taxi ride from the airport should cost around 15,000 pesos ($30).  When he found a taxi, he asked the driver straight up what the cost would be and was told 15,000 pesos, so he took the cab.  However, when he arrived at his hostel and went to pay, the driver said, "Oh, I guess you didn't know this about Chile, but when we say fifteen, we actually mean to add an extra zero, so the price is actually 150,000 pesos.  And that is what everyone charges."  Being tired and confused, the Portuguese guy just paid the driver the 150,000 and the driver left.  It wasn't until later when he was talking to some more honest Chileans that he realized that he had been duped.  Apparently, the hostel's camera had caught the driver's face, but not his ID number or license plate.  I felt so bad for the guy!  I guess that cab driver had a really good day, though!

Apparently we got along quite well, because when the owner's boyfriend arrived with yet another printer, he asked if we were dating (after only having known each other an hour)!  It was really interesting, and the puppies were adorable (although they did eat a hole through my shoes), but the day was starting to get long.  Finally, around 8:30, it was announced that the printers were finally working!

We signed our contracts, and Saydee asked the boys for their deposit.  Unfortunately, both of them had forgotten to bring enough money to pay the complete deposit (they are renting a whole apartment, so they had to pay much more than I did).  They offered to go to the ATM to take it out, but Saydee said that they shouldn't be walking around with so much money, so she offered her boyfriend to go take us to the ATM and then to the subway.  On the way, he gave us some advice about being in Chile and said that he would help us out whenever we needed it.   I felt really good about choosing to live with them, and having made some good friends in the process!

By the time I got back to the hostel, it was nearly 10 pm and I had missed another appointment to view another apartment.  I had tried to call him, but my number was wrong!  I received a very angry email about that, but after an apology, everything turned out OK.  I am very excited about being able to live with so many different people, and also being so close to my school!  I will leave you with some pictures of my new home: