After my first day I felt so stressed, frustrated with Spanish, worrying hard-core about my Spanish ability, and super overwhelmed.
It wasn’t actually a bad first day, more so just overwhelming. It started out with breakfast. We met the strict Tia and the morning shift Tia, who is AWESOME! The morning shift Tia is so nice and very understanding. She told all the girls that they need to speak a little slower for us so we could understand and the main Tia was just like, “No, they need to learn to understand me.” Ha I have never encountered someone who flat out says, “No I will not talk slower for you.” Also, when I don’t understand her, she just kind of stares at me as if I’m the biggest idiot. So that’s pretty fun. That doesn’t bother me, or make me feel dumb, just an interesting interaction.
Then two women came by and we started a garden. After the garden, we had lunch (pasta with a tomato sauce with sliced hot dogs in it). After lunch, I had some one on one time with a girl who was teaching me Spanish. We went through an activity book that goes through the alphabet and each letter’s sound and the different sounds some letter combinations make. Overall, not too bad of a way to spend some of my time. Although, I’m pretty sure she thought I was dumb ha, but hey I’m ok with that.
Some of the younger girls don’t really understand that not everyone speaks Spanish. So they just think you are really struggling with your first language, some of them don’t realize that we actually speak English. The girl asked me what year I was in colegio (primary or secondary schooling) and she was so surprised that I said that I have finished college. Proud moment in my life ☺. While I was doing that, Isabelle was helping some of the girls make earrings.
Next we went outside and played. I got a girl to apologize to another girl (that was HUGE!). We were playing chase and she had accidentally hit another girl while running pass her. The girl who got hit (who is a BIG whiner and complainer) came running up to me telling me what happened. So I called over the other girl and asked her what happened and she said she had accidentally hit her while we were playing. I asked her, even though it was an accident, if she could still say sorry; and she did! That was my small victory for the day. This proud moment was about to be overshadowed.
Right as we were leaving we found some girls trying to pierce another girl’s ear. Her ear was not numbed, the “needle” they were using was not sterile, and she was bleeding everywhere. They would not listen to Isabelle or I and would not stop. We were trying to get them to stop for like 15 minutes and getting nowhere, so we had to go get the main Tia to sort it out. If they were doing something that wasn’t that big of a deal, we probably would have let it slide, but so many things could have gone wrong, plus she was bleeding! Any who, that was the first time the girls had blatantly disregarded what we were telling them to do. I’m sure it is not going to be the last.
After work I was exhausted and hungry, a.k.a. in a terrible mood. I honestly hated the world, in particular Chile, Spanish, and where I work. I got home, ate a snack, took a nap, ate some more after I woke up and felt so much better, and all my negative Nanciness had settled down. Once my food settled, I went for a run and oh man, that was honestly the most therapeutic run I have ever been on! I just took all my frustration, stress, worry, and my feelings of being overwhelmed out on that run and I felt a million times better about everything. I just need to be really patient with myself in terms of Spanish and just remember to breath when times are difficult.
Day Two:
This day was a lot better than day one. Everything was calmer, and not overwhelming at all. I read with a few girls and towards the end I played soccer with three other girls. My stats for our two v. two game was two yellow cards, one red card, and 3 goals. Obviously, I was MVP of that game! And, no it does not matter that one girl was ten years old and the other two girls were younger. I just rocked it that day ☺ It was really fun to play with the girls, especially at a sport that I don’t have the much experience with playing. However, none of the girls wanted to be on my team because obviously this gringa Tia couldn’t play, but oh how I proved them wrong. After the game, the older girl wanted to practice shooting with me, and she was so cute about it. Any time she scored on me (which wasn’t actually that much, I’m adding amazing goalie to my resume) she would run around yelling gooooooaaaaaaallllllllllll, while pumping her fists in the air. She got so excited, it was awesome to see that.
Day Three:
We pretty much read all day, and it was awesome. I tried getting the older girls excited about reading (I had brought my book with me and everything), but they didn’t really want to read. BUT I got one girl to read with me. And I figured we would just both read our own books silently, but she thought that that would be lame, so I asked her if she wanted to read out loud to me and she said yes. I was surprised with that because I still don’t like reading out loud today, let alone when I was younger. She read to me for about an hour. It was nice.
Friday we went to a museum with the kids. Car rides are always rough with kids, but just a little bit rougher when there are 10 of them in a car with little AC when it’s hot out. But we made it to the museum. We went with one of the professionals who work at the institution (she is different from the Tias). One of the younger girls (who is 4 years old) was having a mini-fit and the Tia was just yelling at her to get back in line, but then the professional told the Tia to take the other girls, and then she just bent down to be at eye level with the little girl and simply asked what’s wrong. The girl replied that she just wanted to be first in line again and the woman was just like ok then let’s go, and she immediately stopped crying. That was so awesome to see. It just showed that the girls don’t want to be yelled at, and they just want to be understood. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes kids are just throwing a tantrum for the hell of it, but most of the time they just want to be heard.
Friday night all of us (the roommates) were so exhausted from our first week of working so we all stayed in and watched a movie together. It was a good night.
On Saturday my friend Anna, who I met while in Argentina, was in Santiago for two days so we met up in the evening and went to Yogen Fruz. She was only in BA for a month and had been traveling ever since, so we had a lot to catch up on. Once we got to the yogurt place she informed me that she thought she saw one that was a lot closer to my apartment. Not good! I was glad that it was a few metro stops away because then I would only go there to treat myself, but now that I know there is one close to me, I’m in trouble ha.
We came back to my apartment and hung out with the roommates. A little bit later some of the other volunteers came over (Tom, Sophie, and Amy) and we all drank some wine, beer, or gin & cokes for a few hours just chatting and then went out to a club. On our way home, my roommates stopped at this pizza place right across the street from us. I didn’t go because I thought I heard someone say that the pizza is really bad cheap pizza. However, when they came back they offered me a slice (and well my roommates are learning that I never say no to food when it’s offered to me), and the pizza was actually sooo good. Again, more bad news for me. Cheap pizza so close!
It ended up being a really fun night! It was so nice to be able to cut loss. I found out two very awesome things while out that night. The first one (which is the best) is that you can get a glass of water at the bars for free! In Argentina it cost $5 just for some tap water. I was so excited! The second thing I found out is that they have Kalua down here, so they can make my favorite drink, a White Russian. So, pretty big news I found out!
Sundays are one of my favorite days of the week. Each Sunday we go to a market place to buy fruits and veggies for the week. After the market we head for the grocery store and get whatever else we need. It’s a nice little Sunday routine we have going. So far I have bought so many different fruits and veggies that I have never bought before, like avocados, corn on the cob, watermelon, and blackberries. My life down here is pretty exciting ha.
My sister dropped a huge bomb of a surprise on me this week too. Her and my brother (along with my sister’s husband and my brother's fiance and my dad) decided that as a gift for me for my birthday they are going to fly Jason down to Chile for me. Honestly the BEST news EVER! I’m so excited! We weren’t going to see each other till the end of July/beginning of August. So this is going to be really great. He arrives March 20th and will be here for a week. I have already started planning stuff for us to do. Best birthday present EVER ☺
I have quickly learned that my Chile experience is going to be very different than my Argentina experience. I work for 6 hours everyday from 10:00 till 4:00 (compared to two hours a day I did in Argentina). That is a long day to be with 16 girls, the majority of them are under ten years old. Once I get home there is so much I want to work on. I want to study Spanish, I need to eat a snack, I want to work out and run, I want to work on my blog (clearly falling behind on that one), I want to chat with my roommates, I need to make and eat dinner, I need to shower, I want to read Harry Potter in Spanish (also really failing on this one), I want to chat with Jason (and other people from home), I want to read my book in English, and then I need to go to sleep. That is sooo much to do after work. Usually after work I eat a snack as soon as I get back, studying a little, go for a run, make dinner, shower, talk to Jason a bit (either via through messages on the computer or skyping), I’m in bed by 10:00 and read my book in English, then fall asleep. I don’t really have a whole lot of time to do touristy things and explore the city like I was able to in BA. BUT I did have a feeling that this is how it would be like before getting to Chile. I knew my time here would be more like I had a full time job and that Spanish would be a big focus of mine (not that is wasn’t in BA). That’s why I chose to do my volunteer work in the order I am doing it. I wanted to get all my traveling out of me while in Argentina, so I could be more focused in Chile. As of now, I am all traveled out and happy to be staying in a place with a routine. Don’t worry though; I’m sure my travel bug will come back soon!
Until Next Time,
Liz
No comments:
Post a Comment