Downgraded

I want to start by apologizing for not writing sooner... Not that anyone noticed.

My excuse is, we moved from our palace in providencia to the armpit of alameda. Right now, my (temporary) roommate is nowhere to be found, he left the hostel without the key - and for some reason, they only have one. Also, just in case you were dying to know more information about the key to my room, it is like an old-fashioned skeleton key that a well-trained monkey could probably fashion out of a paper clip. I am QUITE pleased to know that my computer, cameras, and all other worldly possessions are being so well guarded... But I digress -

which means I can´t shower, can´t shave, don´t have my wallet, and I smell like onions (all of which are the result of being locked out of my room, save for the smelling like onions part). Also, I haven´t eaten since noon (it´s now almost 10pm), and I am supposed to get together with a group of some other teachers (whom I don´t know very well) to create a 15 minute presentation as practice to teach our students. I really hope they like onions.

As for a quick update, over the weekend I went to Vina del Mar, which is a beach town about an hour outside of Santiago. I put on SPF 30 sunscreen and passed out on the beach. Word of the wise, when you are told by mulptiple people about the existence of a hole in the ozone layer, it might not be a great idea to fall asleep on the beach for 4 hours. Needless to say, my goal to disguise my gringocity with a nice even tan failed miserably, as I am pretty sure my neon red burns around my arms, shoulders, eyes and feet (everywhere I didn´t put enough sunscreen), pretty much SCREAM: I´m American, please steal my wallet!

We moved from our nice hotel on Sunday, and joined up with a bunch of the other teachers (and YES, we are in fact the teachers for our classes. I am not a TA, but will be teaching actual college students, alone. They put ME in charge of the education of others??? BIG mistake!) who are from various programs, but are mostly American (there are two brits) at a hostel more towards the center of town. Colorado dominates the scene with a whopping 25% (out of about 40) of the teachers hailing from Denver, Dillon, Boulder and Ft. Collins. Pretty random, I know.

I have already started looking for apartments and have a couple of promising leads with some Chilean students.

Last night I went out with a local named Marcelo, that I somehow got connected to through a friend of Hugo´s during my one-day stay in Los Angeles. I will save any further elaboration of last night for future posts, just to keep you all somewhat interested... And, also to keep 3 people behind me waiting for the computer from gouging my eyes out with their Duoc-issued pencils.

Hasta pronto.