Not your Average Teacher

Well well well… It’s been a minute since my last update. Since then, I’ve been busy doing this thing called life. More on that to come. Something I wanted to share is that I accepted a summer school teaching position for the month of July. It’s been very interesting going from teaching in Chile to The U.S. While I completed all of my undergrad fieldwork and student teaching in The U.S., I still had a lot to adapt to after coming back into it with a real grasp on teaching. Som

Hi all As promised, I thought I’d give a little update on my life and check-in. So for those of you just tuning into my blog, I returned home (The U.S.) at the end of December after teaching abroad in Chile for 3.5 years. I celebrated Christmas with my family for the first time in 4 years and rang in the New Year with my childhood best friend. This next part of my blog I think I've been putting off writing because I really don't know where I'm going next or what's in store fo

Hello friends, I finally found a minute in the chaos to sit down and write. To put it simply, it’s been chaotic. Simultaneously closing the school year and leaving the country indefinitely has been a lot for this gringa to handle. My game-plan has been to accomplish small goals each day, which has worked well. Leaving Chile in all of its bureaucratic glory should be considered an Olympic sport. I started the process 7 months ago, and I’m still working on it. I’m going to be m

Hello friends! I’m currently writing to occupy myself in the awkward silence as the handyman installs a new porcelain throne in my bathroom. Why you ask? Let’s backup to yesterday afternoon. I was trying my best to enjoy my Sunday afternoon (Sundays are my least-favorite day of the week) when I had the urge to pee. Like most, I went to the toilet and completed my mission without issues. I had recently dropped one of those things into the toilet tank that makes the water turn

Well hello! It’s been a while! Let’s back it up all the way to mid-September when I returned from Easter Island (see previous post). I actually hopped on a plane a day later and headed back to the USA for a very brief visit home. It was an impromptu trip –one that I was not thrilled about having to take. As many of you know, I am leaving Chile at the end of December. As a result, I am currently trying to close all of my accounts and collect my pension. I have a significant am

Hey friends! It’s been a minute! I’ve been a busy little bee down here in Chile. Just like in previous years, it’s the most stressful time of year. The two most important events of first grade are [poorly planned] two weeks apart from each other. We just had student-led conferences where the student shares his/her work with their parents and we reflect about the school year together. Those are exhausting because we have 27 conferences in 1.5 days. By the end my face always hu

Hi all! It’s been a whirlwind the past 2 weeks. As mentioned in my previous post, I was supposed to go to Brazil for the first week of my winter break. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I still can’t comprehend how I forgot, because I never forget things, but I forgot to get my visa for Brazil. US tourists need a visa to enter Brazil, because the US requires one of Brazilians. To say I was heartbroken is putting it lightly. So instead of relaxing on the beach in Rio de Janie

Hola dear friends! Since we last spoke, we celebrated fourth of July and you guys at home have had 1 or 2 heat-waves. Personally, I’d much rather be swimming in the pool than holed up in my apartment for 3 days straight because of heavy rains. The temperature this winter has been melodramatic here in Santiago. One week it’s pretty cold, the following week it’s pushing 70’s. Shortly after my last post, I became very sick with sinusitis again. The air in Santiago is so horrendo

Hi friends, sorry I haven’t written in a while, it’s been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. Concluding a semester is no joke for teachers, even elementary school teachers. I’m still not finished with the laundry-list of things I still need to do. But as I’ve always said, I prefer to be busy rather than not… The Fourth of July This was my second fourth of July in Chile, remember I initially arrived in August. Since SC is technically an American Private School, they really