Cultural Embrace by API

I have made the decision to teach English in Chile through Cultural Embrace so that I can work on my Spanish while imparting wisdom upon the niños there. Although I was a little nervous about the prospect of teaching English since I've never done it before, I was comforted by the fact that I will be working alongside a Chilean teacher in the classroom; basically it's like having teaching training wheels. My dealings with Cultural Embrace have been great. They were in constant communication with me to help me figure out any problems that may occur with the recent Chilean earthquakes. Their mission statement of 'discover the differences, share the possibilities' is something that I have found to be true in all of my travels abroad and is something that I can't wait to apply to my time in Chile!

I am on my third day teaching now and I have been busy with creating lesson plans and well, teaching. My day is set up is with a homeroom class from 8:30 to 10:20, then a picture dictionary class from 10:30-11:20, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After that class I have a two-hour break. At 1:30 I have an oral English class, then another one again at 2:30. Usually, at night, there are optional activities that we can do with the kids. Yesterday, we took all 200 kids to a field and had a little competition. The events were a three-legged race, wheelbarrow race, balloon toss, and a relay. We got 1st in the wheelbarrow and relay. For the relay, they had to balance a balloon on a badminton racket, run to the other side, and hand it off. My kids pushed the tied part into one of the crosses of the racket's string. I know almost all of my homeroom kids' names, and they are all very well behaved. I am pretty lucky to have them. In one of my afternoon classes, there are two younger girls from Korea. They are adorable and their English is very good. I'd say they are about 7 years old. Today, we stayed an hour extra to have 'conversations' with the kids. We got to choose our topics, so I just chose sports. Probably not the best subject for me since they all love basketball, and then baseball, the two I know the least about it. Everything here is going really well though. It's very tiring teaching all day, and my previous thoughts that I could never be a teacher for a career are being confirmed. I am getting paid a fair amount more than I thought I would for teaching, so that is awesome!

Everyone is so friendly. There are so many cute dogs! My student wrote a poem about the meaning of equality; it was so good. People really know how to save water here. I can play soccer everyday if I want to. My sewing teacher can make anything! She is a magician and never tires! The Chinese doctors have healed my injured knee. I feel no pain. I giggle and rejoice with my fellow foreigners: Oh my god, did you read her shirt?! It says 'Sadistic Teddybear'! Hahaha. I love ice crrrrrrrrream. It is 13 cents AND delicious. She asked for 100 bucks, but I paid 30!