Thursday 19 June 2008

Across the Bay in La Serena...


13km or 80 cents from Coquimbo is the beautiful and touristy city of La Serena. Surrounded by hotels and tour shops, my house and school are located right in the city centre.

La Serena lighthouse


As I setted in over the past few weks, although not surprised, I was shocked by the nonexistant English my family spoke. I live with an 88 year old abuela(grandmother) who is adorable and gets very excited every time I come up with spanish sentence to say to her. She generally stays in bed except for at lunch time when she gets all dressed up. I can usually hear ´much music´ blasting from her room. The other woman that I live with is a 74 year old nanny named Horte who is always cooking or baking a cake. She makes some incredible feasts. Coming from zero spanish a month ago, I am now able to communicate a little... mostly about food and activities. They are very patient with me. Some of our frequnt misunderstandings include my box of chocolate syrup ball cereal that I get every morning with hot milk, my 3L bottle of cream soda, and getting locked out of my house when I dont bring my keys.


Horte


My School, Gabriel Mistral, is an all girl´s high school. There are 9oo students in 3 buildings and I think this was the first week I managed to not get lost. The girls and staff are very kind and welcoming. Sitting in a staff room of 40 middle aged women chattering in spanish and trying to communicate with me is an experience in itself. Learning 320 spanish names is quite a challenge, but usually I´m pretty safe going with ´macerena´or ´francisca´. I have told some of my girls tht they can come home with me to meet my brother. Hope that´s okay, Dave!!

Students and ´completo´

I teach grades 9-12 from Monday to Thursday and run into my students around the city the rest of the time. Whether in a grocery store or on the beach, it is normal to hear ¨hello Miss!!¨ coming from all directions. A few days ago I was surprised by about 15 girls on my street who popped out of a hostel to sell me a completo (hot dog with tomato, avocado, cheese... you name it). It was.... edible. Most Mondays I hear of all the places my students saw me over the weekend.

Well thats all for now. Its so difficult to sum up life here in a post, but I´ll try to update this more frequently. Off for another weekend adventure! con amor (that´s me stitching together my nonexistant vocabulary... hope it made sense....),

Vianna

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Vianna! Is that the front entrance to St. Clement's? I love your photos and your stories...you are amazing at handling so much so fast. I think the available girls in Chile might well enitice some Canadian brothers to go south to teach!

We send hugs to you all!
Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Hi Vianna,

We hope you'll pick up some good Chilean recipes and music and bring them back to Toronto. We are looking forward to a few Chilean feasts!!!! Looks like you have some wonderful students. Great to see you are all happy learning culture and language from each other.

love to you all
Esther

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Summit of San Cristobal

Summit of San Cristobal

Alpaca Market

Alpaca Market