The English Opens Doors Program, Orientation Week in Santiago

So I arrived in Chile two Saturdays ago…meaning that I am in my third week here, and that this is the first moment I’ve had any time to sit down and start writing my blog. So I will catch you up!

I arrived in Santiago on Saturday the 19th, put on my winter jacket (eek) and got my transport to the hostel with no problem. For the English Opens Doors orientation/ training week, all the volunteers were placed in Hostel Londres, which was across the street from the orientation site.

Over the week was a lot of meeting people, hearing their stories, asking the same questions about where they’re from and what region in Chile they’d be going to and such. It was really interesting to meet my peers and learn about their motives for coming to Chile. I found that everybody was extremely intelligent, motivated, and interesting. Many of the volunteers were a bit older than me, and quit their jobs to come to Chile and change the direction of their lives. I think it takes a specific kind of crazy to do what we all came here to do, so I had a lot of fun bonding with people who were a lot like me. I actually felt like I must be really smart and special, because everybody else certainly was. This was not a group of slackers. Mostly ivy- leaguers, people that had left successful, big time jobs, well- traveled people, people from France, Bulgaria, Scotland, England, Australia, India, New Zealand, and the US (luckily no Irish because I could barely even understand the Australians). A professional handball player, somebody who worked on the Elizabeth Warren campaign in Massachusetts, a girl who just got back from studying marine life in the Galapagos, a Harvard grad with a big time job lined up and waiting for him, an NYU economics major who gave up his law school scholarship to come do this. Definitely a very good bunch of people. Though I felt like the majority were way smarter than me, I did have a one up on many, because a lot of people came without any knowledge of Spanish!

And so began orientation week, which was very informative and really helped me to feel comfortable with what I am about to do. Though  we had just a week, the NVC (National Volunteer Center- the ones in charge of us), really were very thorough, so I have to hand it to them. We did teacher training and practice, and they even told me I had a natural “teacher voice” so that boosted my confidence!

The three individuals in charge of the teachers/ volunteers, had all been volunteers themselves for 2 services, which I think is about a year or more each. They told us their stories about how this experience changed their lives and the lives of their students, and you had no choice but to believe them because it seemed so sincere. I really do think that this will be a once in a lifetime experience.

I also found the staff to be very caring and concerned with our well-being (which seems to be a thing here, I’m actually feeling a little smothered with care), which I appreciated. They answered all of my questions, even the specific ones just about myself and my situation. At the end of the week they drove us to the bus station and personally put us on the bus to the North. So, armed with a bag of teaching materials, advice, phone numbers, insurance papers (and a bunch of food for the 22 hours bus ride), I was off to the desert.

Catch Phrase in the common room with the volunteers, a lot of laughing!

Drinks with the volunteers at a local cafe

La Moneda, government building Santiago

Last night in the hostel

Outside of the Peruvian festival in Santiago that we went to on Saturday

Tom from England and I in the common room