Continuing with this same rowdy class, the following week they manage to behave like little angels for the first class of their week. I was super impressed. I thought maybe they learned their lesson. But the second class of the week was a complete 180. They come in on Friday at 10:45 ready for the weekend (as was I). I start teaching class and half way through 4 of the students get up and tell me that they have to leave to study for their next test. I told them that they could have studied the night before or in the morning but that they couldn't leave my class. They made excuses saying they had to work or couldn't study the night before and I told them that wasn't my problem. They left anyway. I was so frustrated. Ten minutes later another group of students gets up and leaves to study. Finally, the rest of the class stayed and they would NOT stop talking. I constantly talk and complain about this class because, like I said, they are my first and last class of the week so they leave a big impression. I have other classes that can be bad, too. There have also been "charlas" or lectures that have been occurring on campus that have caused half of my students to miss my class. I was never informed by another professor of these charlas and continued with my lesson even though 5 students only showed up. Then the students complain because they are behind and don't understand but it's not my fault they didn't come to class. Even when there aren't any charlas students still miss class all the time. Chilean students can be very difficult and very whiney and complain: "Miss I was sick...Profe I had to work...Teacher the metro took forever...Blah blah blah". I remember other classmates making up excuses in the United States when I attended my university but it is just so different being a teacher and constantly hearing these lame excuses (although sometimes they are legit).
On a positive note, I do have some GREAT students. After I graded the second tests, I had girls come up to me after class telling me they were really happy with their grades and that they studied really hard for the test. I told them I could tell that they made an effort. I also had students give me a flower and say "We love you, miss Sarah!" And I love when I can laugh with my students. For example, I was teaching invitations, such as "Would you like to..." The students had to look at the answer and formulate a question according to what the answer said. The answer said "Yes, I'd love to see it." I told them they had to write a question with something you could "see" like a movie or TV. One girl read her question and said in a super quiet voice..."Would you like to come over and see my pet?" But I heard "bed". I started to laugh and she looked all confused. I asked her to repeat herself and then I realized she said pet not bed. I explained to my students what I thought she said and they started cracking up. Another example was this past week when I was teaching about neighborhoods. We were discussing why neighbors complain and one of the themes was cleanliness and garbage. I asked my students what "Basura (Garbage)" means and one of my students blatantly calls out the name of another student "Emely". She basically called Emely garbage haha. Everyone began to laugh hysterically. And my students LOVE it when I say tongue twisters in English like "Which witch went which way with which witch's wristwatch?" They look at me like I'm crazy. They have one in Spanish that I can NOT say for the life of me: "Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal" (Try saying that ten times fast). So all in all, although I have my bad and rowdy students who irritate the living daylights out of me, I do love most of my students and love it when I see them succeed on their tests.
Teaching does not consume all of my time which I am grateful for. Last weekend I went to Isla Negra which is where the infamous poet Pablo Neruda lived. Another teacher from Santiago and I met up with some of the teachers from Valparaíso and toured Neruda's house. We got to Isla Negra around 1:30, made a reservation to tour his house at 3 and went on a hunt to find some sea food (it was, after all, a seaside town so I HAD to eat fish!). We found a restaurant and I ordered a delicious reineta white fish with a creamy white sauce. I also had a mango sour which tasted so sweet by the beach. We rushed back to Neruda's house and got the audio phone to start our tour. We walked through 15 different rooms and learned all about Neruda's life. He was a Communist and a poet who won the Nobel Prize and traveled all over the world. He collected tons of artifacts from all the countries he went to and kept them in his house. He loved the sea so he built his house to be modeled after a boat. The views from his house were spectacular. His bedroom literally looks right over the Pacific Ocean. The head of his bead was placed so that it would be where the sun rises and the foot of his bed looks over the ocean where the sun sets. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the house, but outside the views were incredible. It was fun meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in a while and to get out of Santiago. It was a nice, refreshing cultural change and a great day trip!
This weekend I went to a friends birthday party on Friday, planned things to do for when my family comes in two weeks, ate DELICIOUS sushi for a great price, spoke a lot of Spanish, and went salsa dancing at a bar in BellaVista. Also, last weekend and this weekend Chile won 2 national soccer games! Last weekend we beat Bolivia and this weekend we beat Venezuela! Chi-chi-chi-Le-Le-Le!!! Anyway, today, I decided I needed to go to the big supermarket about 15 minutes from my house to stock up on food. I left my apartment around 1:45. As I began to walk I noticed the air was really weird and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I kept sneezing and then my nose started running. I noticed people walking toward me holding their noses or pulling up their shirts to cover their faces. I saw benches flipped over and tons of trash on the street. I didn't watch the news so I had no idea what was going on. I called my roommate and her boyfriend and Seba said it was probably teargas because of a protest. I kept walking and kept seeing more crazy things. A man came up to me and tried to hang me a poster all about Pinochet. I arrived closer to my destination and saw a bunch of "carabinero" trucks and blocked off streets. Tottus, the supermarket, had a bunch of gates and security that I had to walk through. I did my shopping and then got some more calls from Seba and my friend Trisha. Trisha had experienced teargas before so she told me not to touch my face. She said that there had been a protest for a homage that had been made to Pinochet. I finished my shopping and walked back to my apartment. I saw even more fires and a used car sales lot with tons of bricks that had broken the windshields. I got home and watched the news and looked up the information online. Here is a link for more information (Pinochet homage) but basically there was a documentary that was being released honoring Pinochet, saying that Chile needs to go back in the direction of Pinochet. Protesters obviously wanted to make their voices heard and there were 64 people arrested. Tear gas and water cannons were used to disperse the protesters. Luckily, the main protest happened about an hour before I left to go to the store. So I did not experience the full effect which I am grateful for. It was still spooky even seeing the after effects and feeling the tear gas but I am so glad I didn't witness the main even especially because I was by myself. In general I feel safe in Santiago but there are times like these protests that it is a bit more dangerous. But I know that it is not as dangerous as Rio or Sao Paolo or Buenos Aires so I am grateful that I can feel safe most of the time.
Protesters, "carabineros" (police) and police trucks...hazy sky due to tear gas
