“Estamos juntandonos al hostal a las 9:30 y despues por la Cumbre Wachaka”
Pato, the manager of the hostal I was staying at when I first arrived, sent me this message around 4:00 and when I sent one back asking him about what is the “Cumbre Wachaka”? he didn’t respond back to me…I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I show up to the hostal around 10:00 to find that Pato and Helen were nowhere to be found. I spent an hour or so talking to Angie, the receptionist. We worked out a deal that I will be teaching her 4 days a week from 8 to 9:30 Monday through Thursday.
I had no intention of going out late Friday, as I’m now teaching classes two Saturdays a month from 9:00-12:30 and last Saturday was my first class with my new students (children, mind you). I wanted to be awake and animated for these kids so I told myself that I would head home around one a.m. We didn’t even arrive to the Cumbre Wachaka until around midnight.
I dare you to try and leave the Cumbre Wachaka after only one hour, impossible! Let me explain:
The Cumbre Wachaka is a traditional Chilean party that goes from around 5:00 p.m. Friday evening all the way until 5:00 p.m. Saturday, and it only happens once a year. I told Pato initially that I couldn’t go.
“Danny are you American or are you a God Damn Canadian? Are you a man or a little girl? The Wachaka only comes once a year”
Nobody, I mean nobody calls me a Canadian! Truthfully, I’m so used to Pato’s inane insults that his chiding didn’t bother me. I was more interested in seeing what this Wachaka was all about. This party is held in the Estacion Mapocho which is an old train-station in the center of Santiago no longer in use. It is massive and has been beautifully restored. We show up around midnight and this place is packed with around 6,000 people all dancing, drinking, eating and singing. The entry fee was expensive (about $14 US), but once you got into the station, everything was a picada (bargain). At the front of the station there was a band with trumpets, trombones, guitars, cellos and all kinds of different percussion instruments. The music blared through the whole station and everyone was enjoying themselves. The place was packed, and thw ages of the participants ranged from five to 75. Shortly after arriving we saw perhaps the eldest participant at the festival too intoxicated to stand up. A group of three men hoisted this elderly gentleman up in his plastic chair and carried him out of the Wachaka to a rabid round of applause from the lookers on. Numerous banners adorned the station walls saying things like “Socialist, communist, capitalist, atheist: we are all Chileans tonight!”, and “God bless the drunks, because when he comes they’ll see him twice”. The atmosphere was lively and everyone was set on dancing, laughing, and having a good time.
I dare you to try and leave the Cumbre Wachaka after only one hour, impossible!
I joined right into the Wachaka and tried to dance the traditional Chilean dances. My friends laughed at me and told me I was doing it all wrong, but, hey, I thought I looked good on the dance floor and laughed right along. I was confused when everyone grabbed napkins off the table and started swinging them around there heads, but grabbed one myself and swung it around, too. Girls were coming up to me asking if they could take a picture with me. I was a rare sight at the Wachaka – a Gringo in a backwards Red Sox cap and work boots swinging a napkin around his head – I loved it.
So one a.m. went as quickly as it came and I stayed jumping around to the “Negro Jose” and other timeless Chilean songs until about 4:15 a.m. Great Dan, real responsible. Needless to say when my alarm sounded at 7:45 I felt like I had been run over by a steamroller. I felt like a wad of chewed gum, but regretted nothing: the Wachaka comes but once a year.
My classes went surprisingly well, the kids seemed to get a kick out of me, and seemed to enjoy the class, perhaps because I was still delirious from the Wachaka and funnier than usual. I quite liked teaching a class of children…it was nice break from the one on one classes with engineers. These kids told me they’re big Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers and STP fans, we’re going to get along just fine. Next class I’m going to bring in a CD with a few songs and I’ll have them follow along reading the lyrics and have them fill in a few blanks with the appropriate lyrics.
All is well.
domingo, 20 de abril de 2008
domingo, 13 de abril de 2008
Fake it 'til you make it
(Pictures from Vina del Mar)
So where did I leave, off, I’ve found sufficient work and am getting along well with my apartment mates…
I’m enjoying my work tremendously right now. Compared to my job at Mercer, I’m making peanuts, probably about half of what my salary was there, though I’ve never enjoyed a job as much as I’m enjoying this one. I’ve always known deep down that I would like to be a teacher…I like speaking in front of groups of people and I like to tell people what to do. Knowing this I’ve had thoughts of becoming one later in life after being more financially stable. Here I am, teaching in Santiago. So far all of my students are businessmen and women of Chile. I’m working from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at a company called Molymet just outside Santiago to the South in Nos, a barrio of San Bernardo. I’m there ten and a half hours and get paid for eight classes each day. Teaching eight classes in a day definitely wares on you, especially eight classes with engineers – some of them are quite dull. This company I’m teaching at (www.molymet.com) is a big-time molybdenum and rhenium refinery, this place is expanding by leaps every year. I’m working with some of the best and brightest in all of Chile and I get to tell them what to do…I love it. In my other job I was a nobody, one of 200 answering phone calls in a quarter-cubicle getting bossed around by some people I know I’m smarter than (Not you, Allan, you're money). With this job I get my own office, the front wall is all made of glass and I get a phenomenal view of the whole property. I’ll put some pictures up, but I need to get clearance from security before they let me take pictures of the plant. I’ll have to ask my 9:15, Fernando Gomez, head of security. This guy is a serious man, a former artillery officer in the Chilean army; he’s packing wherever he goes. This refinery is in the middle of a pretty scummy area with a lot of gangsters. He’s been telling me about the different gun battles that have gone down on the plant between the security guards and local gangsters. All the guards have shot-guns at night. No one’s died yet, but one of his best friends was hit in the arm with shot-gun spray. Every weekend, without fail, these gangsters try to break into the plant to steal the very expensive rhenium and molybdenum deposits and it’s not uncommon for him to have to roll out of bed in the middle of the night and come to the plant with his pistol. He tells me the police want nothing to do with these gun fights and never respond to the calls.
Almost all of my classes are one on one, and for the first class I’ve elected not to do any work, I like to have a discussion with my students so that we can get to know each other so we can be more comfortable together in the learning process. After that I liked to have each student bring in a news article in English, they have to read it and then we discuss it for the first ten minutes or so before getting into grammar. Most have been bringing in articles from the Miami Herald, CNN.com and the New York times…This one guy “Big Fernando”, the man’s an absolute giant at about 290 pounds (we translated kilos into pounds for one class exercise) got really creative on me…he printed out an article from the “Norton Mirror Online” I almost fell out of my chair laughing, I was touched. He remembered I was from Norton, Mass from our first discussion and printed out an article about South Eastern Regional Vocational High School and whether or not they are going to extend class hours.
I feel like I’ve been in Spanish chemistry class for the past two weeks. Getting to know these people, we often talk about their work and their interests, and invariably we talk about refining molybdenum and other work they’ve done. You want to build a cell phone tower…I’ve got a guy, you want to brew large vats of beer…I’ve got a guy, you want to convert a brine solution into lithium ion…I’ve got a guy, you like potassium…I’ve got you hooked up. You want to convert Magnesium Sulfate into pure magnesium and hydrochloric acid; first you add water and then ask Victor, I forget the rest. We’ve been getting in depth with the different chemical processes, and I’ve been strangely fascinated by it all.
To walk through this plant you need to wear a helmet, safety glasses and protective shoes. I have no need to walk through the plant as a teacher and I don’t have the necessary gear to do so. The self-proclaimed “Big Fernando” is going to hook it up though; he took my shoe size and is getting me all the gear; I’m going to be decked out like an engineer and will be able to walk around the plant with impunity, again pictures coming soon.
Though I really dislike getting up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the company bus three metro stops away, getting paid for eight hours of work three days a week makes it worth getting up to take the hour bus-ride. Another part of the job that I really like is that fact that I’m 23 and I get respect from everyone in the company. The “Profe” (Profesor) is someone they all respect there. My three youngest students are 26, 28 and 32, my oldest is 50 and the other 20 or so are somewhere in between 35 an 45 and they all shake my hand and thank me for my time after each class and I can tell they really mean it. The vice-president of this quarter-billion dollar a year company had to interrupt my class to speak to “Big-Fernando” and he apologized to me for disturbing my lesson. I’m a nobody, a phony, a kid with zero teaching experience…apparently they didn’t get that memo yet.
My new life motto is “Fake it ‘til you make it”. You know that scene in Boiler Room where Ben Afleck is giving that super-cheesy speech about “act as if”? The movie was absolute garbage, and the speech was overly crass and contrived, but I’m taking Benny Boy’s advice to heart. I’ve been strutting into every class decked out black dress pants, shirt, tie and wing tips, lap-top, head up and smiling…you’d be surprised at how many people think you know what you’re doing when you don’t let on that you really have no business teaching English to highly educated businessmen. I’ve been faking it so well that even I’m beginning to think I know what I’m doing…scary, really. At first I preferred the one on one classes, they are easier, less eyes on you. After sitting teaching seven one on one classes I’ve been welcoming the last class of the day which is always a group class. These group classes have turned out to be the most enjoyable of them all, I get to stand up move around, call on people and write on the board. I can tell the students have been having a good time with these classes too.
I work with this really crazy guy, Cesar. He’s 46 and lived from age 15 to 30 something in Miami and California. He’s a Chilean, but considers himself an American and has a strong affinity for Americans. He’s been overly generous to me over the past couple of weeks. He’s been teaching English for over five years now and has built up a very big client base so now he has more private work than he knows what to do with and is kicking his extra work to me. He’s already set me up with some private lessons with a girl who’s moving to Australia in three months. I’ll be seeing her for an hour and half five days a week. I’ve been to his apartment three times now for lunch and dinner with his family. He and his girlfriend have been very nice making sure I have everything I need. Every time I leave their house Pillar packs me a doggy bag with left-overs, bread and some dessert, making sure that I’m eating alright. Last Thursday Cesar sent me off with a jar of peanut-butter (a novelty here) and some Oreo cookies. As I mentioned above, Cesar’s an absolute nut, I don’t think he’ll ever grow up. He enjoys telling me stories about all his current girlfriends and the difficulties that go along with loan-sharking, his other, more exciting means of income.
“Big boy you just stay in the car, I’ve gots to have some words with this mother...boy owes me some money!”
From what I could see from the car, it looked like he just went into a convenience store to buy a pack of smokes.
I really can’t tell if he does run a loan-sharking business or if he’s full of hot air. Either way, he’s a wildly entertaining character.
This past Friday night was the most fun night I’ve had since arriving here, everything came together for me that night. My Colombian friend, Viviana, invited me to come to her apartment for a party on her roof. She’s studying abroad here for a semester and all her friends are people from the University as well. Everyone had to bring a dish from their own country. I had a tough time figuring out what to bring since the food in Chile is very similar to the US. I was debating bringing a bucket of KFC, but decided on cooking my own baby-back ribs instead. I really wasn’t sure how they’d turn out since I’ve never cooked them before, but they were a wild success. The South Americans were going crazy for them. Finding ribs was easy; finding barbecue sauce in Chile is another story. I eventually found some BBQ sauce at a giant grocery store 45 minutes away by metro called JUMBO. It was in the small “Ethnic Foods” section next to soy sauce and “Old El Paso” taco sauce. I was shocked at how good they turned out with only “Hunt’s” sauce and an oven…the key is to boil them first for an hour or so.
Unfortunately my Peruvian pal Cesar had to take off around midnight because he was changing apartments on Saturday. He’s the one I know the best out of all of them. I’ve hung out with Viviana and the two Brasilians before, but I didn’t know anyone else. I was having such a good time I decided to stay even though Cesar took off. Around 2 we ended up moving the gathering down to Viviana’s apartment where we all sat around, talked and listened to music until about 6. I was thrilled with the night because I was able to hold down conversation in Spanish for 10 hours straight, it was beautiful. I enjoy talking with the Brasilians because they speak Spanish very slowly. I’m amazed by them: They decided to study abroad in Chile without knowing how to speak Spanish, but speak about as well as I do and understand more after being here a little over a month. After knowing Spanish, I imagine Portuguese wouldn’t be too hard to learn. They’re from a city in the north of Brasil called Fortaleza, and it sounds awesome: they tell me it’s always hot and the people are very friendly. Judging from the “torta de pollo” they prepared, the food should be unreal as well. They told me not to come unless I’m ready to stay forever; a lot of Americans go down for a visit and end up making a life there. The other Latin Americans all seem friendlier, warmer and outgoing than the majority of the Chilenos. Like any place though, there are good people wherever you go. I hung out with some Chilenos that night who were some of the coolest people I’ve met so far. They all had a lot of questions about the US, and they weren’t the typical “Why did you elect George Bush twice?” which is getting old now…I didn’t have anything to do with it, I promise!
So I’ve been trying to meet as many people as possible and have been giving everyone a chance that I meet. This has been the reason for many a good night, but also has been a reason for a few headaches. Listen to the song “Conquest” and you’ll understand my plight and my biggest headache as of late. 27 year old women in all countries are looking for a husband ASAP. Don’t talk to them, don’t humor them, and don’t let them take you to lunch…RUN! I truly look forward to getting married someday, but it’s not a subject I want to broach on the first date, ¿Cachay?
We’re still in the process of looking for another apartment, there have been a few delays, but hopefully we will be in a bigger, cheaper and better place by the end of the month. That’s all for now – I found out my cell does accept international calls - If any of you all have a burning desire to hear my voice my number is: 011-56-99-4885610.
I’m enjoying my work tremendously right now. Compared to my job at Mercer, I’m making peanuts, probably about half of what my salary was there, though I’ve never enjoyed a job as much as I’m enjoying this one. I’ve always known deep down that I would like to be a teacher…I like speaking in front of groups of people and I like to tell people what to do. Knowing this I’ve had thoughts of becoming one later in life after being more financially stable. Here I am, teaching in Santiago. So far all of my students are businessmen and women of Chile. I’m working from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at a company called Molymet just outside Santiago to the South in Nos, a barrio of San Bernardo. I’m there ten and a half hours and get paid for eight classes each day. Teaching eight classes in a day definitely wares on you, especially eight classes with engineers – some of them are quite dull. This company I’m teaching at (www.molymet.com) is a big-time molybdenum and rhenium refinery, this place is expanding by leaps every year. I’m working with some of the best and brightest in all of Chile and I get to tell them what to do…I love it. In my other job I was a nobody, one of 200 answering phone calls in a quarter-cubicle getting bossed around by some people I know I’m smarter than (Not you, Allan, you're money). With this job I get my own office, the front wall is all made of glass and I get a phenomenal view of the whole property. I’ll put some pictures up, but I need to get clearance from security before they let me take pictures of the plant. I’ll have to ask my 9:15, Fernando Gomez, head of security. This guy is a serious man, a former artillery officer in the Chilean army; he’s packing wherever he goes. This refinery is in the middle of a pretty scummy area with a lot of gangsters. He’s been telling me about the different gun battles that have gone down on the plant between the security guards and local gangsters. All the guards have shot-guns at night. No one’s died yet, but one of his best friends was hit in the arm with shot-gun spray. Every weekend, without fail, these gangsters try to break into the plant to steal the very expensive rhenium and molybdenum deposits and it’s not uncommon for him to have to roll out of bed in the middle of the night and come to the plant with his pistol. He tells me the police want nothing to do with these gun fights and never respond to the calls.
Almost all of my classes are one on one, and for the first class I’ve elected not to do any work, I like to have a discussion with my students so that we can get to know each other so we can be more comfortable together in the learning process. After that I liked to have each student bring in a news article in English, they have to read it and then we discuss it for the first ten minutes or so before getting into grammar. Most have been bringing in articles from the Miami Herald, CNN.com and the New York times…This one guy “Big Fernando”, the man’s an absolute giant at about 290 pounds (we translated kilos into pounds for one class exercise) got really creative on me…he printed out an article from the “Norton Mirror Online” I almost fell out of my chair laughing, I was touched. He remembered I was from Norton, Mass from our first discussion and printed out an article about South Eastern Regional Vocational High School and whether or not they are going to extend class hours.
I feel like I’ve been in Spanish chemistry class for the past two weeks. Getting to know these people, we often talk about their work and their interests, and invariably we talk about refining molybdenum and other work they’ve done. You want to build a cell phone tower…I’ve got a guy, you want to brew large vats of beer…I’ve got a guy, you want to convert a brine solution into lithium ion…I’ve got a guy, you like potassium…I’ve got you hooked up. You want to convert Magnesium Sulfate into pure magnesium and hydrochloric acid; first you add water and then ask Victor, I forget the rest. We’ve been getting in depth with the different chemical processes, and I’ve been strangely fascinated by it all.
To walk through this plant you need to wear a helmet, safety glasses and protective shoes. I have no need to walk through the plant as a teacher and I don’t have the necessary gear to do so. The self-proclaimed “Big Fernando” is going to hook it up though; he took my shoe size and is getting me all the gear; I’m going to be decked out like an engineer and will be able to walk around the plant with impunity, again pictures coming soon.
Though I really dislike getting up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the company bus three metro stops away, getting paid for eight hours of work three days a week makes it worth getting up to take the hour bus-ride. Another part of the job that I really like is that fact that I’m 23 and I get respect from everyone in the company. The “Profe” (Profesor) is someone they all respect there. My three youngest students are 26, 28 and 32, my oldest is 50 and the other 20 or so are somewhere in between 35 an 45 and they all shake my hand and thank me for my time after each class and I can tell they really mean it. The vice-president of this quarter-billion dollar a year company had to interrupt my class to speak to “Big-Fernando” and he apologized to me for disturbing my lesson. I’m a nobody, a phony, a kid with zero teaching experience…apparently they didn’t get that memo yet.
My new life motto is “Fake it ‘til you make it”. You know that scene in Boiler Room where Ben Afleck is giving that super-cheesy speech about “act as if”? The movie was absolute garbage, and the speech was overly crass and contrived, but I’m taking Benny Boy’s advice to heart. I’ve been strutting into every class decked out black dress pants, shirt, tie and wing tips, lap-top, head up and smiling…you’d be surprised at how many people think you know what you’re doing when you don’t let on that you really have no business teaching English to highly educated businessmen. I’ve been faking it so well that even I’m beginning to think I know what I’m doing…scary, really. At first I preferred the one on one classes, they are easier, less eyes on you. After sitting teaching seven one on one classes I’ve been welcoming the last class of the day which is always a group class. These group classes have turned out to be the most enjoyable of them all, I get to stand up move around, call on people and write on the board. I can tell the students have been having a good time with these classes too.
I work with this really crazy guy, Cesar. He’s 46 and lived from age 15 to 30 something in Miami and California. He’s a Chilean, but considers himself an American and has a strong affinity for Americans. He’s been overly generous to me over the past couple of weeks. He’s been teaching English for over five years now and has built up a very big client base so now he has more private work than he knows what to do with and is kicking his extra work to me. He’s already set me up with some private lessons with a girl who’s moving to Australia in three months. I’ll be seeing her for an hour and half five days a week. I’ve been to his apartment three times now for lunch and dinner with his family. He and his girlfriend have been very nice making sure I have everything I need. Every time I leave their house Pillar packs me a doggy bag with left-overs, bread and some dessert, making sure that I’m eating alright. Last Thursday Cesar sent me off with a jar of peanut-butter (a novelty here) and some Oreo cookies. As I mentioned above, Cesar’s an absolute nut, I don’t think he’ll ever grow up. He enjoys telling me stories about all his current girlfriends and the difficulties that go along with loan-sharking, his other, more exciting means of income.
“Big boy you just stay in the car, I’ve gots to have some words with this mother...boy owes me some money!”
From what I could see from the car, it looked like he just went into a convenience store to buy a pack of smokes.
I really can’t tell if he does run a loan-sharking business or if he’s full of hot air. Either way, he’s a wildly entertaining character.
This past Friday night was the most fun night I’ve had since arriving here, everything came together for me that night. My Colombian friend, Viviana, invited me to come to her apartment for a party on her roof. She’s studying abroad here for a semester and all her friends are people from the University as well. Everyone had to bring a dish from their own country. I had a tough time figuring out what to bring since the food in Chile is very similar to the US. I was debating bringing a bucket of KFC, but decided on cooking my own baby-back ribs instead. I really wasn’t sure how they’d turn out since I’ve never cooked them before, but they were a wild success. The South Americans were going crazy for them. Finding ribs was easy; finding barbecue sauce in Chile is another story. I eventually found some BBQ sauce at a giant grocery store 45 minutes away by metro called JUMBO. It was in the small “Ethnic Foods” section next to soy sauce and “Old El Paso” taco sauce. I was shocked at how good they turned out with only “Hunt’s” sauce and an oven…the key is to boil them first for an hour or so.
Unfortunately my Peruvian pal Cesar had to take off around midnight because he was changing apartments on Saturday. He’s the one I know the best out of all of them. I’ve hung out with Viviana and the two Brasilians before, but I didn’t know anyone else. I was having such a good time I decided to stay even though Cesar took off. Around 2 we ended up moving the gathering down to Viviana’s apartment where we all sat around, talked and listened to music until about 6. I was thrilled with the night because I was able to hold down conversation in Spanish for 10 hours straight, it was beautiful. I enjoy talking with the Brasilians because they speak Spanish very slowly. I’m amazed by them: They decided to study abroad in Chile without knowing how to speak Spanish, but speak about as well as I do and understand more after being here a little over a month. After knowing Spanish, I imagine Portuguese wouldn’t be too hard to learn. They’re from a city in the north of Brasil called Fortaleza, and it sounds awesome: they tell me it’s always hot and the people are very friendly. Judging from the “torta de pollo” they prepared, the food should be unreal as well. They told me not to come unless I’m ready to stay forever; a lot of Americans go down for a visit and end up making a life there. The other Latin Americans all seem friendlier, warmer and outgoing than the majority of the Chilenos. Like any place though, there are good people wherever you go. I hung out with some Chilenos that night who were some of the coolest people I’ve met so far. They all had a lot of questions about the US, and they weren’t the typical “Why did you elect George Bush twice?” which is getting old now…I didn’t have anything to do with it, I promise!
So I’ve been trying to meet as many people as possible and have been giving everyone a chance that I meet. This has been the reason for many a good night, but also has been a reason for a few headaches. Listen to the song “Conquest” and you’ll understand my plight and my biggest headache as of late. 27 year old women in all countries are looking for a husband ASAP. Don’t talk to them, don’t humor them, and don’t let them take you to lunch…RUN! I truly look forward to getting married someday, but it’s not a subject I want to broach on the first date, ¿Cachay?
We’re still in the process of looking for another apartment, there have been a few delays, but hopefully we will be in a bigger, cheaper and better place by the end of the month. That’s all for now – I found out my cell does accept international calls - If any of you all have a burning desire to hear my voice my number is: 011-56-99-4885610.
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