Level Out

It's been a long time coming, I know. I am still in the process of collecting all of my thoughts, not to mention really digging into the reason I am here - teaching English to all of my wonderful Chilean students. However, I wanted to finally jumpstart my blog and give you all a few teasers. For example, my panorama photo of Santiago, taken from Cerro Santa Lucia (one of the many hills in the middle of the city - this one's important because on the cerro, there was a founding ceremony by the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1541).


I will be putting posts up piecemeal, filling in all the gaps from the past three weeks. A lot has happened: flying through Atlanta to Santiago, meeting my amazing group of WorldTeach volunteers, exploring the city, spending time with Patrick, drinking lots of vino and pisco, seeing a gazillion stray dogs, watching a riot, learning I lived down the street from where people were tortured in the 70's, camping in Parque Nacional La Campana, learning about the riotousness that is the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), wandering through places like the Mercado Central with my fellow gringos, picking up Spanish little by little, finding out our placements (then having them change last minute, for some of us), settling into my new host family and learning they are positively awesome, getting to my new school (which is an Adventist school), meeting my kids, and so, so much more.

Keep a lookout for posts, in other words. I would also like to thank everyone who helped to make this amazing experience possible, whether you donated money - I will not name you all specifically, in case you do not want to be mentioned - or just supported me with words, or both. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I have learned so much in the past three weeks and made some great friends, and I cannot wait to see what the next five-ish months hold for me. Buenos noches!