i'll tell you what i think is funny. and i'm sorry ahead of time if this is insensitive...
on more than one occasion i have heard highly inappropriate english songs played in department stores, grocery stores, restaurants... why? because they're in english and no one is really paying that much attention and maybe some people don't understand the lyrics anyway?
we're talking, songs with lyrics like "you turn me on baby, yeah" and words with sh*$ and f#@*. no joke!! i'm like, seriously? and people just go on with their business as if nothing is going on at all.
on the upside, you can hear jamiroquai, sometimes pearl jam or eminem while you're buying your cheese and milk...
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
perks of working at my school
my school is a technical/trade school. it's all about putting people in situations and classrooms that are as real as possible. how does english fit into this? it doesn't. i'm just saying that hotel/administration classes are held with rooms with faux front desks. gastronomy class is held in a virtually real restaurant inside one of the campus' buildings. adventure tourism classes are outside as much as possible.
as a teacher there, and also as a native english speaker, i'm quite hooked up. the gastronomy kids need people to feed, the tourism students need people to give tours to... we're talking like 5-course meals with free wine and apertivos. a couple of weeks ago, i went on a tour to about 5 different small towns outside of Santiago and on the coast (all this for free!). the tour was all in spanish and after 10 hours my brain hurt. but i saw seals!! that was the highlight for me. i also ate some delicious seafood stew/soup (called paila). the picture below on the left is part of the cajón de maipo mountain range and legend has it this particular mountain looks like a reclining/sleeping lady. oh and we had the most delicious cheese and chicken empanadas (they were baked in a clay oven, like the ones from Argentina)!
so yeah, free stuff is nice. free experiences are even nicer. i had the opportunity to play pick-up soccer games (pichanga) with some of the college women but stopped after one session. the coach was kind of a drill sargeant and by then i still hadn't been used to being called niña by an adult male not related to me.... but that's a whole other discussion.
as a teacher there, and also as a native english speaker, i'm quite hooked up. the gastronomy kids need people to feed, the tourism students need people to give tours to... we're talking like 5-course meals with free wine and apertivos. a couple of weeks ago, i went on a tour to about 5 different small towns outside of Santiago and on the coast (all this for free!). the tour was all in spanish and after 10 hours my brain hurt. but i saw seals!! that was the highlight for me. i also ate some delicious seafood stew/soup (called paila). the picture below on the left is part of the cajón de maipo mountain range and legend has it this particular mountain looks like a reclining/sleeping lady. oh and we had the most delicious cheese and chicken empanadas (they were baked in a clay oven, like the ones from Argentina)!
so yeah, free stuff is nice. free experiences are even nicer. i had the opportunity to play pick-up soccer games (pichanga) with some of the college women but stopped after one session. the coach was kind of a drill sargeant and by then i still hadn't been used to being called niña by an adult male not related to me.... but that's a whole other discussion.
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