End of week 2

(getting in touch with nature)

(view from my roof and me with all my friends)

So sometimes I’m an idiot…walking home from Bellavista at 4a.m. alone…idiot! My friend, Yenny, was trying to help me out asking how much I had in my pocket making sure I could take a taxi. She and her friend seemed over-eager asking me for how much I had on me, which made me really defensive, I kept saying “tengo sufficiente”, I have enough. In retrospect I really think they only wanted me to get home safe. I was not thinking clearly last night, brushed them off and started walking home alone. I knew it was stupid at the time but I wanted to walk. I was expecting to get robbed the whole way home. I had my fists clenched and was walking with a power-strut, ready for someone to try, I was going to blast them in the face. Luckily I didn’t see anyone once I got near my house, there were no mysterious men lurking in the shadows last night…I made it to the elevator into my apartment and then bed without any problems…brilliant! The Chileans last night kept telling me that I looked bored with the conversation, and maybe I was, only on the parts where I wasn’t included…they speak so fast down here, it’s really tough to keep up with the conversation sometimes, especially when there are inside jokes.

So that was last night, but I have over a week of things unaccounted for: So after going out with the coalition of the willing last Saturday night a ton has happened here. The two things most essential to my survival here are an apartment and a job, in the past week and a half I’ve obtained both. The apartment’s quite small, and I have two roommates Cristian and Claudio, both very nice 25 year old Chilean Engineers. It’s definitely a novelty for them to have an American living in their apartment with them now, everything is “gringo gringo gringo”, they love that word. I’ve now been in my new apartment for four nights and for the past three we’ve all hung out and talked for a few hours each night. They’ve been teaching me how to pronounce my Spanish better and I’ve been trying to teach them basic English, they essentially don’t know any. They know a few basics, “Hiii, howryoooo” and “wachuurnaame?” and that’s about it. My bedroom is a glorified closet, but I have room for all of my stuff. The apartment building has a gym on the top floor and a pool on the roof which attracted me to this place. The rent is roughly $250 American a month with all expenses included hot water, electricity, and presently we are lifting free wi-fi from some unassuming citizen without security on their wireless, thank you Mr. “T.P. Link”. Though the internet is free for the moment, the connection is shotty at best, some days I can connect for an hour no problem and other days, like yesterday and today, I can’t connect at all, I this is going to need to change.

(teleferico and the train to get up el cerro de san cristobol)

Luckily, the Chileans have all been extremely nice to me, probably because I am a novelty. I was out with Yenny last night and she told me that she doesn’t usually like foreigners, Americans, French whatever, but that I’m different than most because I can actually communicate in Spanish with her and because I’m going to be sticking around for awhile. She’s 23 and she’s acting like my mother right now telling me where to go, who I should and shouldn’t talk to, and last night she was trying to make sure I took a taxi home instead of walking. I heeded much of her advice, but not the part about taking a taxi, certainly an idiot. Santiago’s not that dangerous if you know where to go and where not to go and if you take a taxi home when you stay out late. People definitely do get robbed here but if you keep your head about you, you can avoid this. I was warned not to wear my gold chain out at night because someone will most likely rip it right off my neck. During the day there are no problems, it’s just if you stay out late at night you need to keep your head about you.

So I’ve found work now, too…I found it in the rarest of places. I responded to this guy Tony’s post on craigslist in Santiago looking for people to play American football on the weekends. I responded telling him that I would like to play and left him my number. Tony calls me ten minutes later and he asks me what I’m doing here and I tell him that I’m looking for work teaching English. He tells me “I know this lady, she’ll get you a job, no problem, call her now”. He gives me the number for this lady Elba, I had two interviews with her and I have now taught three classes so far. I have classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday with an accountant named Rodrigo from 7:30 a.m to 9:00 a.m. Presently, Wednesdays I am teaching two hour and a half classes at Audi in Las Condes which is the richest part of the city. After my classes I told one of the bosses that my rate is a new car every three months…he laughed at me and sent me out of his office. I’m still looking for more work. This Monday I’ll be working 8 hours in an office Translating documents from English to Spanish. This is only a one time job, though. These people only have a set amount of material they need translated right now. I have second interview on Tuesday with the Burford institute in Providencia. The woman Katie told me they are now in need of more teachers. Burford is more attractive than other options not because of the pay, but they told me they can help me secure a work visa here in Chile in order for me to be here legally which is of paramount importance.Ideally, I’m looking to be an entrepreneur here. I’m going to hand out flyers in the malls, post flyers in the universities, and post my services online. I can charge double what I am making if I do private classes. I’ve done the math…If I can teach roughly 15 hours a week privately, I will make enough to enjoy myself and here to send money back home to pay off my loans, not bad!! Less hours, better lifestyle and I’m not saying “Thank you for calling Mercer, you’ve reached Daniel Callahan, how can I help you?” I think I’m going to lose my lunch. Ideally, I will only work for Burford so I can get a visa and I will do private classes, but in the meantime I will be doing work for Elba so I have some sort of cash-flow. My roommate, Cristian, is helping me to put my flyers together and Yenny told me she’s going to tell her friends about me and is going to post flyers in her university for me, things are coming together.
Side-note: there is always some type of Jenffifer in my life, always has been. I seem to get along with Jenns and Jennys and now Yennifer, I’m probably going to end up marrying a Jennifer.

Right now I need to find books that I can base my lessons on and that I can give to the students. This is only a small problem and I’m sure I’ll have it resolved in the next few days if I ask around. That’s all for now, I'm off to the beach shortly, emails are always welcome!