First things first. I started my internship!!! I actually don't think "internship" is the right word, but that's what my school is calling it so I'll take it! I work with an organization called Corporación Padre Patricio Espinosa. My friend Nallely and I are teaching an afternoon arts and crafts class once a week at an elementary school in a town called El Monte, which is about an hour outside the city. The students at the school (as well as the rest of the town) are for the most part extremely poor. The director was telling us how the school's attendance rate isn't much over half since education isn't considered a priority in most of the poor households. The kids are fed at school, but some of them go without eating all weekend at home. El Monte's teenage pregnancy rate is off the charts, and drug and alcohol addiction is very common. The high school even has a civil registry right across the street, which is kind of a scary idea. Really sad and humbling to think about, but the kids I work with are AMAZING. I work with 3rd and 4th graders and we mostly do simple projects since we have pretty limited resources, but I love every second that I'm with them. They call us "Tía Rachel" and "Tía Nallely" and they all run to kiss us on the cheek before and after each class. A few of them asked if they can follow me home and live with me, which seemed cute at the time, but it's sad to think that they were serious. I've worked with kids for almost 5 years now, and I've never had such a sweet, well-behaved group. They're so excited for everything we do, and the language barrier hasn't been a problem at all. Just goes to show that I have the Spanish vocabulary of a 3rd grader!!! Haha maybe that explains why we get along so well.
Also, I went to my first soccer game in South America! I was actually kinda disappointed that it wasn't as crazy as people warned me it would be...I wanted some fights and tear gas! C'MON!!! Anywho, it was still really exciting, and the fans didn't sit down or stop cheering the entire game. Wish I knew the chants though! The game was between 2 of the 3 major teams in Chile - La Católica (my school) and La Chile (our rival). And...drumroll....................we TIED! Haha. But everyone still went crazy, because it meant that La Católica got to keep their #1 spot and La Chile got bumped out of the running for the title. WOOO!!! Here are some pics!
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| The crowd...rowdy bunch. |
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| TIE! This all happened in the 1st half... |
And some pics from an afternoon in the sculpture garden down the street from my apartment:
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| Rolling down the hill. |
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| Fall :) |
So while all this has been fun, I've been pretty stressed lately. Since when is study abroad supposed to be hard??? I have a ridiculous amount of work for class, including 2 huge group research projects that are due at the same time as my 3 finals (keep in mind, all of this is EN ESPAÑOL). Basically, homework is consuming my life right now but I'm trying not to let it get in the way of me enjoying my time here. Also, it's starting to get colddd! During the day, it's still in the low 60s but it gets down to the 30s in the mornings and at night. And everyone keeps telling us this is nothing compared to what's coming. AHHHHHH!!! At least it's not miserably hot anymore...I'll take being cold over that any day.
Leaving tonight to go to Mendoza, Argentina for the weekend! Wine country :)
¡Chau!
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