Happy Anniversary, Duoc!

After nearly 9 months of hard work, the teachers and staff at my campus finally got to let loose and relax a bit.  The school holds an annual dinner celebrating the anniversary of the university, and this year was the 44th.  Everyone received an invitation by email about a month before the event.  I get so many school-wide emails that don't ever pertain to me, so I ignored it when I first got it.  For the next couple weeks, I was so caught up in school and the pending midterm tests that I all but forgot about it completely.  It was only when one of the staff members asked me if I was going that I remembered.  I wasn't really sure I wanted to--it was scheduled for a Tuesday night, and I have early classes on Wednesday.  But everyone kept talking about how much fun it was and how they always looked forward to it every year, so I was finally convinced.

All of us TIPS (the American teachers) have the same schedule on Tuesdays, so we agreed to meet up after work to get ready together.  I was a little nervous because I am not really a "dress up" type person (see how worked up I got about a wedding dress), but another one of the girls is about the same size as me and offered to let me borrow something if I couldn't come up with anything from my own closet.  I got home from work around 4:30 and started going through my outfits to see if I could find anything appropriate.  Luckily, Aunt Jenn had taken me on a shopping spree before I left Florida last year and had helped me pick out some good dresses.  Since I never have occasion to wear them, I'd nearly forgotten I'd brought them at all!  But I pulled out a knee-length black and white dress with a diamond pattern that seemed perfect for an anniversary dinner.  The only problem was that I'd lost the only pair of black shoes that actually fit me when I moved to the center of town.  The ones I had were way too big, but it was too late to do anything about it then, so I just stuffed them with toilet paper and headed out.

I was the first to arrive at my coworker's house, and when she opened the door we both had a good laugh because her dress was very similar to mine.  Guess we both have good taste!  As we waited for the rest of the girls to arrive, we talked about how school was going (and both agreed we were definitely looking forward to the end of the semester).  I mentioned that my shoes were not the most comfortable, and she ran to her closet and pulled out a pair of black flats that went great with my dress and fit perfectly.  I almost felt like Cinderella!  With the shoe dilemma solved, we turned our focus to the important stuff--wine and french fries.  Chileans are notorious for beginning events much later than scheduled, so we weren't sure what time we'd actually be eating.

The rest of the girls showed up just as the fries finished cooking.  We broke open the wine and had our snack while we made some last minute preparations.  One of the girls had seen a video online about how to create a new hairdo (called "the spring flower" or something along those lines).  The presenter in the video made it seem like it was a snap and so easy the cat could do it.  It turned out that may have been a slight exaggeration, because in real life she'd had very limited success attempting to put her hair up in that style by herself.  So we put in a group effort and managed to complete the hairstyle.  It took three of us 20 minutes to finish a hairdo on another person that had been done by the woman in the video to herself in only five.  So, we considered it a success!  We all finished up with the minor adjustments to our outfits, and got ready to head out.

yorkblvd.com

The dinner was scheduled to start at 8:00, so we left the apartment around 8:30 so as not to arrive too early.  We were surprised when we arrived to see that there were already quite a few people at the hotel, socializing and snacking on hors d'oeuvres.  People were just kind of muddling around, so we did too.  It was very elegant; there were waiters walking around carrying trays of all kinds of foods (even little bowls of soup--that was one braver waiter!).  Of course, we had to try as many as possible!  And what would a party be without alcohol?  There were many options to choose from, but I went for the Chilean drink of choice--pisco sour.  We made the rounds and said "hello" to the other teachers in our department, as well as some that we'd chatted with in the teachers' lounge.  It was a little strange at first to see all the teachers dressed up for a party instead of for a professional setting, but it was also really nice to see everyone more relaxed and with their guard down a bit.

A little after 9:00, there was an announcement calling everyone into the dining room.  The dining room actually happened to be a giant tent (almost circus-style) into which dozens of tables had been set to face a large stage and screen.  The lights were dimmed and the room was illuminated by candles and colored light accents around the periphery.  We headed to the table in the back corner with our department head and some other English teachers.  They told us they hoped we'd eaten a lot of snacks, because it typically took a long time to distribute the food to all the tables.  Luckily, we'd been allowed to bring in our drinks (and were still full of french fries), so we weren't too concerned.  But they must've switched up the service order this year, because no sooner had we been seated than a line of waiters appeared through the door and headed directly to our table!  We were the first group to be served!  The teachers who'd experienced the anniversary dinners before couldn't believe our good fortune.

The first course was smoked salmon with a side of a green salad and couscous topped with huevos de pescado (the Chilean version of caviar).  We were also given our choice of red or white wine, or fresh juice.  Some people went for all three!  I'm not notorious for my drinking abilities, and I'd already had a glass of wine and a pisco sour, so I opted for some raspberry juice.  It was delicious, and very refreshing with our meal.  By the time I finished my plate, I was feeling quite satisfied.  What I hadn't realized was that that was only the first course!  The waiters came around swiftly to collect our plates and make room for the next course.

Again, our table was the first to be served.  This time, we received grilled chicken and steak on a bed of rice.  The dish had a very beautiful garnish, but I'm not quite sure what it was.  It looked like clovers to me (yes, I am quite sophisticated).  I was starting to feel the effects of all my hors d'oeuvre-sampling and the first course, so I only managed to eat about half of the second course before I felt as if I could no longer move.  I made a valiant effort to eat as much as I could, but my stomach can only stretch so far!  Of course the others made fun of me, but in the end it worked out for them because they got to finish off what I couldn't!

Of course, the most important part of any meal is dessert, and we weren't about to miss out on that!  Luckily, this time the waiters gave us a little more time between courses so our stomachs could settle a bit before attempting another workout.  While we waited for dessert, the campus director made his way onto the stage and began to announce winners for various awards, such as a staff member of the year.  One of my students also works at the school, and I was very proud to see that he was runner-up for "most invaluable asset" in his department!  We'd heard from TIPS at other campuses that they also had an award for best exchange teacher, so we were excited to see who would get that.  Unfortunately, our campus apparently doesn't give that award.  We were only momentarily disappointed, however, because as the awards wrapped up, out came dessert!  It was a big plate with three different delicacies--strawberries and cream, peach custard with a chocolate shell, and raspberry ice cream in an edible mini dish.  They were all super delicious!

While we enjoyed our desserts, we were entertained by one of the design teachers doing a live sand art show.  He was dressed up as an Arabian prince, and created a story simply by drawing in sand that was spread out on a table.  It was really cool to watch, especially because it was totally synchronized with the music.  He drew the story of Duoc, showing students in the classroom and all sorts of other activities that go on at the university.  The whole show probably lasted 15 minutes, during which he drew continuously.  It was really impressive!  The grand final was when he drew the Duoc logo and wrote "Happy Anniversary" in the sand for posterity.  Or at least until the cleaning crew arrived.

After the art show, we were treated to a talent contest.  Unfortunately, none of us (American teachers) had heard about it beforehand. We were a little disappointed because we could think of a few good ideas that just might have brought us the prize.  Too bad we won't be around next year.  But we did enjoy watching the normally very primp and proper teachers strut their stuff on the stage in all sorts of outrageous costumes!  My favorite was a group who did a medley of different dances, mostly to songs I didn't know, but ended with their own rendition of "Gangnam Style."  Even though I didn't really know most of the participants, it was still really entertaining to watch!  After the talent contest, there was one final act.  A singer came on stage, pretending to be Spanish with a very exaggerated accent.  Apparently he was imitating a very popular artist from about 50 years ago.  Of course, that's way before my time (and place), so I had really no idea what was going on.  All of the other women were swooning, though, so it must have been kind of a big deal.  Our department head told us that everyone loved that singer because he was all of their mothers' favorite.  It was funny to watch how they reacted when he would come up and sing personally to some of them!  I wish I remembered his name so I could look him up and show a video.  I'll ask around.

After the serenade, once it was assured that no one had fainted from heart-throb exposure, it was time to get the party started for real!  Everyone was ushered back into the reception room for dancing and more free drinks.  Unfortunately, by this time it was past 1:00 a.m. and the effects of the alcohol were starting to get to me--I was tired!  The other American teachers also had to teach early classes, so we all agreed to go home together.  We said our good-byes and went on our way.  I still had a few things to get ready for class the next day, but by the time I made it home, I was lucky to get my pajamas on before getting into bed for the night!  Luckily for me, no one noticed how tired I was the next day because I'm pretty sure they were all even more tired!

Feliz Día del Profesor!

Happy Teachers' Day!  I actually had no idea that it was a holiday at all!  I remember seeing a couple weeks ago an ad at the mall for it, but quickly forgot about it.  I had better things to think about, anyway, like the fact that we had Monday off from school!  I slept in late, spent the afternoon at the park with my friends, went out for pizza, and finally reluctantly did some lesson planning at the end of the day.  I was even starting to look forward to going to school the next day, because I had some pretty fun lessons planned out.  Or so I thought.

Of course, it happened to be "Career Day" at the university, and of course I was not aware of it beforehand.  This meant that the entire bottom floor of the main campus was filled wall to wall with booths set up by employers looking for new hires.  It also meant lots of promotion in the form of very loud music and lots of yelling from loudspeakers.  The room for my first class directly overlooks the courtyard in which all of these events were held, so as you can imagine, it was slightly difficult to maintain the attention of my students.  The few that even showed up.  We didn't even manage to get started until about half an hour in, and even then the whole next hour was a struggle.  Most of the kids just wanted to get back downstairs to the festivities, and the ones that were trying to participate couldn't very well because of the noise.

Luckily, I only have two classes on Tuesday.  I made it through the first one and was looking forward to getting the other one over as well.  Fortunately, my second class is held in the annex, so at least I wouldn't have to deal with the noise.  Unfortunately, because the passing period between classes is only one minute and I have to walk down three flights of stairs, down a block, and back up three flights of stairs to get there, I'm usually a couple minutes late.  And the students know this and use it as an excuse to show up late themselves.  Except that they're usually about 20 minutes late.  I've learned to accept it.  After all, it's not me that could use the extra minutes to practice English.

When I first arrived, there was only one girl in the room.  She's the only one that is consistently on time.  We chatted while we waited for the others to arrive.  By about fifteen minutes later, five more people had arrived.  There are only 14 people enrolled in the class, so that's actually a fairly good ratio. I was surprised because there are usually a few more people, especially a group of four girls who are all pretty quiet but do good work.  I thought they might have decided to go to the job fair instead.  I started class with the few people who were there.  It took a while to warm them up, but eventually the energy started to rise and we started to have fun.  We even danced a little.

Finally, about half an hour into the class, the four other girls showed up.  They're not usually very late and I didn't question them because I just assumed they were at the job fair.  They sat down and got straight to work.  Even though the subject matter was a bit tedious (we're learning how to talk about health problems, not the most interesting or useful topic to a group of vigorous 18-year-olds), everyone participated and even laughed at my stupid jokes and crazy antics.  By the time we finished, I was feeling much better and could tell that the students had enjoyed the class, as well.  I dismissed the class, and everyone filed out, saying their "good-bye"s and "see you"s on the way out.

I'd turned my back to the room to clean up my supplies before heading out myself.  I assumed everyone had left, but when I turned around, I saw the four girls that had showed up so late.  Like I said, they're all pretty shy so when I asked them what I could do for them, they all just looked at each other to see who would speak.  After a bit of an awkward pause, one of them got up the courage to ask me if she could speak in Spanish.  It was after class, so I agreed.  She told me that it was National Teachers' Day and the reason they were late for class was because there was a long line at the store.  At first, I didn't make the connection between those two statements, but then the girls pulled out a gift-wrapped bag and handed it to me.  They said they were glad I was their teacher, and had a gift for me.

I was shocked!  I didn't even know it was Teachers' Day, and even if I had, I wouldn't have expected anything for it!  But here it was! I opened the gift, and laughed at what was inside.  They pay more attention in class than I thought!  The gift was a pink, girl notebook with a cute cow on it.  I tell my students that cows are my favorite animals because its something that both my "hometowns" have in common.  They told me they knew my favorite color was purple, too, but that there weren't any notebooks in that color.  To go along with the book, they also gave me two rainbow-colored pens.  Do my students know me, or what!?

I was still so surprised that all I could do was keep saying, "thank you, thank you!"  I wasn't quite sure of the protocol after that, and they seemed a bit unsure themselves.  Are you allowed to hug your students for a gift?  I think it would be acceptable here, but I've been so conditioned against it in the states that I just kind of stood there.  I felt very awkward, but just said, "thank you," again.  The girls smiled and acknowledged, and then headed out to their next class.  I hope I did the OK, because I really do appreciate that the students take the time to do things like this for me!  Although I guess my awkwardness is part of my gringa charm.  Or so I'll say.  So, I know it's unlikely, but girls if you read this--THANK YOU!  You really made my day!

Salón del Automóvil

There are some perks to teaching business people, although I wouldn't know because most of my students are young college-goers.  I do, however, have a friend who is well acquainted with such benefits, and he was kind enough to share them with me on this particular occasion!  But before I get to that story, let me tell you "our" story.

Dan is a gringo like me, but he's been living in Chile since 2010 (arrived just a few days before the big earthquake, in fact).  He was actually the first person I talked to about coming to Chile before I did.  Ever since I did my study abroad here, I'd been trying to find a way to come back.  It was around 2010 that I heard about the TeachingChile program on a "Teach English Abroad" website.  But, as you all know, I'm pretty skeptical and I have to read tons of testimonials and reviews before buying or doing anything new.  It was difficult to find third-party opinions on this program, but through some searching I happened upon Dan's blog.  He was already writing about his experiences on the blog, so I thought I'd give it a try and e-mail him for some advice.

To my surprise, he responded and we started a year-long cross-continental correspondence.  He gave me some advice about the program and did his best to prepare me for the upcoming challenges.  After helping me through so much, I was finally able to meet him in person at a BBQ when my group arrived in Chile.  We've gotten to hang out a few times since then (and he's still always there for me with tips and tricks for living in Chile when I need it), but it's usually pretty casual like BBQs or pizza/game nights.  When he invited me to go out on a Wednesday night, I knew it had to be pretty special (we're both kind of nerdy and usually reserve weekdays for planning, etc).

Dan works for an institute that caters more to business people in one-on-one settings, so he's gotten to know some fairly successful people here.  One of his students works as an event planner for the Asociación Nacional Automotriz de Chile (ANAC), an association of importers and sellers of all brands of automobiles in Chile.  It's a pretty big deal.  Every 4 years or so, the association throws a huge car show, the Salón del Automóvil, to feature all the new models available in the country.  The event lasts two weeks and is open to the public for most of the event.

Except opening night.  That night is reserved only for VIPs and their invited guests.  Being one of the main planners of the event, Dan's student was of course a VIP.  He managed to procure some extra invites, and gave them to Dan as a gift.  Dan is only one person but had two tickets.  So, I got the honor of going as his date for the night (sorry, Scott!).  It was a black-tie affair, so I did my best with my limited wardrobe to dress as nicely as possible.  I think I did OK; my students would surely be surprised!  Dan looked great in a suit and tie.  The only problem was that neither of us owns a car, so we had to take a bus the half hour or so to the event center.  It didn't start until 9:00 p.m., so at least the bus wasn't too full, but we did comment on the irony of traveling to a car show on a bus.  We got a couple of weird looks when we walked through the gate as opposed to driving, but we can just chalk that up to our gringo-ness.

We were disappointed that we had to hand over our beautiful invitations before we were allowed in, but we were so awed by the sites that we soon forgot about that.  Neither of us know very much about cars, but were still fascinated by the sheer number of different types of them all in one place!   There were about five different pavilions, each home to different brands of cars.  We walked past a stage (we realized too late that it was for the opening speeches) and into the largest of the pavilions.  Most of the cars looked pretty similar to me, but what I found most intriguing were all the different female models standing next to the cars.  My first thought was pity, because it was a pretty chilly night and most of those models weren't dressed appropriately for such weather.  Then, I wondered why they were all female.  Don't us girls deserve some eye-candy, too?  All of the models were very gorgeous, but my favorites were the ones hired by Jeep.  I'm not even going to try to explain; just look at the picture.

As we meandered through each display from each manufacturer, we were offered drinks (champagne, wine, and pisco, of course) and small hors d'oeuvres.  They were very elegant, I have no idea what any of them were made of.  But they were delicious (especially because I'd come straight from work and hadn't had time for dinner)!  I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol, so I only managed to make it through one glass of champagne.  Actually, Dan even had to help me finish that one off!  But they did offer soda and juice, as well, so I didn't feel lacking.  I know I'm so sophisticated, but my favorite snack was the kettle corn we were given by a race car sponsor.

In addition to getting our fill of food and drink, we also did admire some of the cars.  Dan told me how he always had a special place for Subarus (it was the brand he grew up with and learned to drive on), so we stopped by the Subaru stand to snap some photos.  I don't remember what brand of car I learned to drive on (I just remember it was awesome because it was green and sparkly and had mood lights and a tube tv inside).  Dan was also a German teacher back in the States, so we checked out some of the German manufacturers and he helped translate the signage for me.  My favorite stand was the Kia display.  Not because I have any great feelings for Kia as a brand, but because theirs was the only car that was painted rainbow!  I know absolutely nothing about it as a vehicle, but I am determined that that is the one I am going to get!

We walked through most of the pavilions, checking out the displays and trying to find Dan's student.  I wasn't much help because I'd never met him before.  But I did my best based on Dan's description of him being "kind of tall with brown hair."  After a couple of hours of wandering, we were both starting to get tired (and all the free alcohol wasn't helping).  We still hadn't been able to find Dan's student, but decided to call it a night and Dan would call him the next day to thank him for the invitations. On the way out, we passed by a display near the exit with life-size, real car characters from the movie "Cars." We almost passed right by it, but it was so neat that we decided to take a quick detour for the photo opportunity.  As we got to the front of the line, we heard someone call out, "Daniel!"  Dan turned to look, and it turned out to be his student!  After all our looking, we finally found him just as we were about to leave!  He was there with his wife (also a former student of Dan's), so I was introduced to both of them, and amazed at their English ability--both had only studied a few months!  They insisted on taking pictures of Dan and me at the display.  We could hardly say no; it was a pretty awesome display after all!

After a quick chat and some pictures, we said our good-byes and headed back to the bus stop.  It was a few blocks from the event center, and as we got about a block away we saw the bus we needed drive by.  By now, it was pretty late and we weren't sure how often the buses came.  Even though we were a block away, Dan waved at the driver to get him to stop, and we chased down the bus like there was no tomorrow.  It's a good thing that my highest "heels" are just boots, or that could have been dangerous. Luckily, the driver saw us and waited at the stop for us.  In fact, we were the only people on the bus at that point.  He actually apologized for not stopping closer to us, but said something about it being illegal or something.  We were just happy that we weren't going to have to wait out in the cold for another bus!

The bus ride back was much faster than on the way there (traffic sure does die down quickly in a couple hours), and we got off near Dan's house.  He helped me catch the correct bus to get back to my place.  By the time I got home, it was nearly midnight and I was exhausted.  I went straight to bed, and dreamt about my future rainbow car.  All in all, it was a great experience and I'm so glad I stepped out of my routine do something a little different that night.