La Familia

My first encounter with my family illustrates some of the Chilean personality attributes perfectly so here´s where I´ll begin. I was picked up at the La Serena bus stop by my Chilean mother, her sister, and a teacher who spent some time in Australia in case I didn´t speak any Spanish. When they discovered I do speak a minimal amount of Spanish however, the floodgates were opened and I now live with the constant challenge of understanding the fastest, most colloquial Spanish en este mundo. They exhausted their English phrases pretty fast with ¨what is your name, door, chair, grandmother.´Upon walking into the house my mother pinched me on the side and told me I would gain at least 10kg living with her, y mi casa es tu casa. She then led me up the narrow staircase, where if I didn´t duck my entire upper body would be swiped off, and introduced me to the 87 year-old grandmother, who smiled and told me I am so young and pretty. After dropping my things off in my Catholic-cross adorned room I came back downstairs to be force-fed an array of empanadas and pasteles de choclo (corn and sugar based things). I was introduced to the daughters of the family, a Kinesiology student age 24, and a Kindergarten teacher age 28, and the father, a taxi driver. He was immediately patient with my struggling Spanish.
Then came the swarm of women. The school inspector, other office women, and a few teachers all came into our house to meet the Canadian girl. I was peppered with questions, the first of which is ALWAYS ´¿tiene un pololo?´ (do you have a boyfriend). They also are constantly checking up on my body temperature since it´s rather cold right now, and they think it´s crazy to only wear socks around the house so shoes it is. OH the name Kelsey is also very difficult to pronounce; they think it sounds like the word ´crazy´. We had more sugar-filled treats, tea and ice cream-coffee, and they laughed when I failed to follow the conversation and told them it was because they all talk at once!

The three of us with my two ¨sisters¨ at La Cruz de Coquimbo

My school is called the Estado de Israel Institución de Administración y Comercio and yes, although there are no Jewish students to be found, our fences and courtyards are decorated with the star of David. It is considered quite a good school by Chilean standards, but as is the case with Liza´s school, the students speak NO English and are accustomed to music, cell phones and wandering about in class. When the students were asked if they have ever come in contact with a native English speaker before, only about 3 of the 45 said yes. Also, the English teachers here tend to describe people as ¨tender¨ and ask the meaning of ¨dairy,¨ so I am excited to be an English resource to the school. When the students were given the opportunity to ask me questions they delved right into it (still almost all in Spanish) - do you smoke, boyfriend, age, music taste, do you dance etc. So I am 23 with a serious boyfriend, in case you were wondering. I have already led a few classes but am excited to start official teaching next week and will give an update on how it goes!


-Kelsey.