Assimilación

It's 6 a.m. Santiago time, and I have an hour to burn before I link up with my carpool, so why not blog?! It's been a few moments since my last post--mi culpa--so let's catch up on what I've been up to the last few weeks!

I am now completely settled in at the new apartment with my homegirls Melissa and Trish. The complex is located at Baquedano, a super central location that's buzzin' with culture (El Teatro Universidad de Chile is literally attached to the four building complejo), young folks (who all smoke like chimeneas), and la vida nocturna. Getting everything squared away with our arrendador (renter) was quite a process; let's just say I was missin' having my Pops as a landlord. The dude's name is Raúl, and every request we posed to him was answered, "Ok, bueno, mañana..." which really means next week. The place was a little dirty when we moved in--hair all over the bathroom and kitchen, dirt and grease por todo (throughout), condom wrappers, yeah you get the idea. Anyways, we now finally have everything (ojala--I hope) figured out. Despite the hiccups in our transition, we are very happy with our situation; we are literally footsteps away from the metro, the departamento is spacious and accommodates us well, and the elevator is one of those cool old-fashioned ones! Since we only have two bedrooms, we are going to switch off who gets the single room with the queen bed. Since Melissa has her little fling goin' on at the moment (with a guy from Colorado, jaja), she gets to enjoy it first. I'll most likely be next in a few months, and then Trish will enjoy it when her boyfriend comes and visits in the Fall, aka y'all's Spring. I love grammatically defunct vernacular.

Quick aside: Wow, I just dropped the biggest deuce in my entire life, and it was amazing. To all the readers out there who are uncomfortable with trivial things like pooping, I'll say this: get over it! I love the book Everybody Poops, and am adamant about it being in today's canon of contemporary children's literature. I'm sure many of you would prefer the title Nobody Poops But You. C'mon, I mean let's get serious: I need a small list of necessities to be happy--water, food and shelter, love and friendship, and smooth stools. Give me those things and I'm good to go! Melissa and I have poop talks weekly, and they have brought us a close bond as well as many laughs. Who's with me on this?! Ok moving on...

The 9 to 5 is amazing. I don't even feel like I'm working! I've established a solid rapport with most of my students (I've learned almost all 200-some names, which has also impressed the staff), I've started easing into my role as teacher (confidently planning and teaching more and more lessons, which is helping David and Solange, who are super busy at the moment), and I can't stop talking about how much I love my school! Job placement, as I'm sure many of you can attest, is a crapshoot here. I must have amassed some serious karma points after my last job at Knight Fundamental Academy (no offense Mrs. Keeton--principal of Knight), because CSFP is by far superior to the other colegios in its staff, teacher-student and student-student rapport, level of collegiality amongst cohorts, and administrative organization. Melissa and Trish are in kind of crummy situations; their schools are highly disorganized, the rapport is minimal (a lot of the teachers, from what they tell me, are burnt out and apática--apathetic), and the English curriculum is strictly based on following the books, with little to no room for creativity, not to mention accommodations and adjustments. They're both troopers and I know they'll be fine, but let's just say they'll be seeking new employers for the Fall semester.

It is time for me to link up with David, my co-teacher, for the carpool with the principal of CSFP, María Teresa, who is very sweet. David is also wonderful. A very good teacher who knows how to keep things tranquilo, we're very similar people who get along great. I'm excited to hit the town with him and get loco.

Much love to everyone, and hollatchaboyeee! I love comments, so get it poppin', folks.

Paz,

Benja