Happy Mother's Day!

On a day that should be joyous, it just doesn’t seem like that way for me. On a day where normally I would wake up and run upstairs to give my mom a giant hug and tell her I love her and Happy Mother’s Day, I can’t do that this year. It is in these times that make me homesick. A skype call, an email, or a phone call just doesn’t quite do Mother’s Day justice. I would trade in a lot right now for just one hug from my mom, it would be a long hug probably with tears flowing of joy and happiness. It would feel like I could never let go. That is what I miss. With that said, Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. Make sure you all give your mom the hug that I could not, don’t ever take things for granted, you never know how much you will miss it.

Don't cry for me Argentina

After a couple of bruises on my leg and butt, a semi-sliced open middle finger, some mosquito bites, a full stomach of some of the best meat ever, some red teeth from the wine and 10 cents left of some Argentina money, I arrived safe and sound back into my house in La Serena, at 6 in the morning... only a couple hours until school starts and the teaching continues.

Best part of Argentina, the bike tour. We decided to take a wine bike tour. You pay to rent the bike and then take off with only the knowledge of a obscure map that really makes things look closer than they are. An hour and a half later we arrive at our first Bodega. We slowly make our way back stopping at as many as possible. I for one know nothing at all about wine, which made it all the more hillarious and interesting to watch all these people taste wine. Copying them only seemed like the correct thing to do so it could make me look more like a professional. I dig my nose into the glass and close my eyes acting as if I can ever smell a difference, I proceed to take a sip then say, yes that is quite good. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.

We met some really cool people along the way, two huge rugby players from England who decided to try the tandem bike, quite the sight to see if I may add. We also met a guy named Mike from Switzerland and a another guy named Stewart from Manchester. Some of the best parts about traveling is meeting so many cool people who a lot of the times have the same interests as you and have great stories.

Argentina is known for there great meat. It is tastey, there is a lot of it, and it is super cheap. The odd thing, no one eats meat during La Semana Santa. So on Friday I decided not to eat meat and I had some amazing salmon. It was so good that my friend Elizabeth, who claimed she didn't like salmon, tasted it and says "Wow, I like Salmon!"

Overall very fun trip, beautiful and very nice people, very clean place. As for now, I am super tired after 13 hours on the bus and teaching classes this morning. Lunch awaits and one more class then sleep! Chao

That just happened

Just a quick note:

I was sleeping today and was woken up by screaming and crying from the 2 year old. Along with it was loud banging noises. I took a peak downstairs, she was on her car slamming it into the main doors entrance, just backing it up and ramming it forward. Bam Bam Bam while screaming at the top of her lungs. I have no idea where anyone is at this point, they never leave her alone. I just go back to my room though and decide to count how long. Kid you not, honest truth, 16-18 minutes of screaming and crying and yelling. end of story.

And the Oscar goes to...

I would just like to thank the Academy...

no but really, I would just like to take this time to thank everyone for everything. I recently found out I will be going to Hawaii for two weeks right after my program is done here in Chile. I had some time alone today, and it just kind of hit me how fortunate I am. For that reason, I would just like to say thanks to everyone, I am truly blessed with a great family, great friends at home and here in Chile. Although there are always hard times, I know I always have my family and friends. I would also like to say thanks to God. Without him none of this would be possible. I would like to say thank you for watching over me and giving me strength when I need it the most. I believe that sometimes we only turn to God when we are at our lowest points of our lives. I feel like we should give thanks when we are at our highest also. So thank you everyone, I am looking forward to my future. I am currently looking into teaching abroad in South Korea. This is a year program. This would allow me to learn more about where I am from and also make a lot of money to pay of some much needed debts. This program pays for flights and your own apartment, which allows you to save a lot of money. I truly feel like this is my next step in my life before I begin thinking about living in the US again, I might even go to Spain again and try and teach for a year after Korea. I just don't quite know yet, I might be so burnt out that I will want to just come back and hopefully live somehwere hot in the US and settle down and start working and making some cash. Anyway those are my thoughts right now. Adios for now!

One month update

It has been just a little over a month since I arrived in Chile. Before I came I did little research of Chile and had no knowledge of anything. This is what I have learned since day 1:

1) Chileans speak very fast and make up their own words # Bad place to learn spanish
2) Collectivos are taxis that go from one place to another while picking up people on the way # Cheap and cool way to get around
3) Bread for breakfast, Bread for dinner # Losing weight as we speak
4) Health care is really expensive # Kids running a muck in school
5) It doesn't matter if your Korean or Japanese, you are Chinese here # oblivious racism
6) If you didn't know your overweight or skinny, well now you do # "de"constructive criticism
7) The blonder you are the more money you have, apparently. # stereotyping
8) Don't leave your bag on the ground # bad luck
9) There are more stray dogs here than people # Veterenarian's dream
10) Don't show up on time if your meeting someone, they will be late # bad practice for job interviews
11) Justin Bieber is just as popular here as he is in the United States # Bieber Fever

It's a small world!

It truly is a small world. I can prove it! This past Saturday night two of my friends and I went to a restaurant. I overheard two people talking in English, a rare occurance in Chile. I decided to start some small talk and we got to talking. They were both Medical students studying at Harvard. They were in Chile for two months at a clinic and are about to graduate. I come to find out that one of them is from Washington state, so I'm thinking Seattle or like Bellvue or something. Turns out she is from Bellingham and went to Sehome. I was like wow I went to Squalicum. She responds by asking me who I had for math, I say Mrs. Torpey and she says oh yea that's my mom! What a small world!

My students!

Entry to CIEE Contest

CIEE the program which I started this whole thing is hosting a contest for teachers to write about a typical day in the school where you are teaching. You must include three pictures. The winner receives 250$ from Amazon and your school receives 250$ from Amazon. So I decided to enter and this is my take on being "schooled."(the theme).

OMG! Justin Bieber!

My name is Joel Morse. I teach 5th grade through 8th grade in La Serena, Chile and this is my story of "schooled."

Tio! Tio! Tio! The students form a tunnel as I arrive to school. I feel like Justin Bieber walking down the red carpet to the Grammys. My name is replaced in the form of "tio" or "profe" and the chants, well I can't help but smile. The students use the name tio as a form of respect and to be honest I'm not even sure they know my real name and I'm just fine with that. Some of the students give me gifts and not like a gift certificate to the closest Starbucks or a gas card to the nearest Chevron, I'm talking about an orange, one cookie from an already opened package, a pencil, a marker, a juice box and some portraits of myself on a spiderman body, don't ask. All these gifts I have stored in a box in my room, except the cookie, orange and juice box for which I consumed on site. Would I trade these in for a Starbucks gift card? No. Not a chance. A chevron gas card? Well...gas prices are pretty high lately...and I....just kidding, there isn't a chance I would. Somethings are just worth more.

Hey do you know Justin Bieber? Hey do you know Justin Bieber? Hey do you know Justin Bieber? This is the most popular question amongst my students. And the answer is no. I do not know Justin Bieber, I did not talk to Justin Bieber, I did not go to any of his concerts, but I did see him on tv once... When I told them that the girls went wild. They did that "oh my gosh Justin Bieber is so hot scream." The boys usually don't say much about their celebrity crushes but they love to give me soft taps on the stomach and ask me if I have abs. "Abs?" "Have abs?" You would think that the hundreth time they would know whether I have abs or not. Looks like I better start working out!

The seats fill up and I ask the class to stand up. I say in my most properest English, oops I meant proper English, "good morning class!" They respond, "good morning teacher!" I usually see about one or two hands a day raised before I start class. "Yes Daniella, what is it?" She looks back and forth at her two girlfriends beside her and smiles. "Do you know Justin Bieber?" She follows it up with a giggle and a slight blush and the class continues. I begin with the question of the day which could be anything from how are you to what are you doing this weekend? They answer but you can see it in their eyes that they are wondering whether or not we are going to play a game or not. The first game I ever played with the students was Simon Says. I really had no idea what level their English was at so I started out with some vocab that they knew. They got bored and I asked why? They said they knew all the vocabulary already. So, I decided to switch it up and add a whole bunch of new vocab. Simon had them doing all sorts of things from cartwheels to pushups from dancing to giving high fives. I had them practically breakdancing. They not only had fun doing the moves but I'm sure a few of them went home and asked their parents if they knew what an air guitar was and performed it afterwards, rightfully so.

Days usually end around 3 or 4 and maybe if I'm not too tired I'll stick around and get my butt kicked in some Ping Pong. Who knew Chile breeded professional middle school ping pong players? I sure didn't! First two shots were winning backhands followed by an applause and the Tio chant. The next 21 shots not so much. I feel I may have a shot in the next four months. It's like what I tell my kids in English class, the more you practice the better you will get!

My school is called Colegio Cordillera and it is four years new. The walls of my own classroom are blank waiting eagerly for student's work to be posted. Just some odd days ago, the library was just a single wall of books and two tables. They just finished building a bigger room for it and are in the process of moving things as we speak. The school is small in size but big in heart. The small number of students and staff make it more like a family than a school. There are around 200 students from grades K-8 and it seems even smaller than that. One of the best times of the day is during the 15 minute break where I have a front row seat in the teachers lounge to watch all the students run a muck in the playground. The smiles on the faces are priceless and the carefree attitudes are unquestionable. If I'm having a bad day I just wait til the clock strikes 12:00 and turn my eyes onto the playground. If I'm not having a good day, at least I know someone is having a good one, and for that, I am thankful.

Whether or not I know Justin Bieber or have chissled abs, the most important thing is their education. This is an awesome school in that there is one class per grade. I'm excited to leave after the four months knowing all the names of my students, even though I probably won't be able to pronounce any of them correctly. I pass through the hall to my class everyday. The students interact with eachother as if there is no discrimination between grade levels. It's just one big family. I feel that these kids would all have eachothers backs, even mine. That is what makes this school special. The school may be only four years old but it feels like these kids and staff have been together forever. It is a school where students want to stay afterwards and play volleyball together. It is a school where the staff makes you feel at home even if you stick out like a sore thumb, aka "un gringo." It is a school where students take your school bag and your cd player and walk it down to your classroom for you. Even when you look at the school you can't help but smile. The yellow paint on the outside provides a sunny disposition. The neighborhood of close friends and family provides safety and warmth. This is a good school with good people. For that, I am thankful and for that Colegio Cordillera is deserving. Help fill their new library with books. Ciao.

Friday Friday Gotta get down on Friday

It is often times hard to keep up with the pop culture from the United States, not because I don't internet in my house, but because I just don't have that much time. Most every television show is in Spanish, the news is only about whats happening in Chile, and if it is in English, it is dubbed over with really over the top voice overs. I recently checked Youtube to see was new. When I left the states a three weeks ago, Charlie Sheen was the talk of the town. I recently found out about this song called Friday. It is sang by Rebecca Black. It is horrible. The lyrics, the video and everything about it. Anyway I had no other creative way to title this blog but with some lyrics from the song. If you haven't heard the song, please go on Youtube and watch it. It is horrible yet somehow it gets stuck in your head.

Moving on..

I recently spent my frist weekend in La Serena and it was very fun. On friday, Katie, a girl from my program who also lives in La Serena but works at a different school, invited me and the other two people, Danny and Elizabeth, for a BBQ ( or asado, i think is the word). Usually we have what they call "once," which I described in my other blog as some bread and some tea. So we got to Katie's house and the madre made us an once. So we are all thinking we are just going to get some bread and tea so we all try and eat as much bread as possible. Low and behold, the padre is having all of his friends over. They in turn, bring massive amounts of onions, chicken, meat, etc. So basically we all fill up on bed thinking its going to be the only thing we are eating, but actually it was just a starter. We all sit outside and talk to each other finding more and more about their culture as well as telling them about ours. They love Danny. Danny speaks the best out of us four gringos, he can converse like a pro. They love it and they joke around a lot with him. A couple hours pass and we are about to eat. On the table is rice, chicken, potatoe salad. Its a feast. I want to eat so bad but we are all so full (minus Danny, he is the big eater of the group). We eat as much as we can and then one of the padres friends drives us all home. It was a fun night of learning and talking spanish and having a very good meal.

On Saturday, I find out that another girl from our program who lives in Ovalle, which is about an hour bus ride away, is in La Serena. Katie, Elizabeth, Shauna (Ovalle girl), and myself all go out for ice cream. We then decide to walk to the beach where we met two people from Colombia, one girl from Ecuador and one guy from Chile. They were all around our age and are living here. We all talked for a while and hopefully we can start an intercombio, where we teach them some english and they can help us with some spanish, free of charge. I scratch your back, you scratch mine ( Insert Superbad quote here). We then proceed to have dinner at this restaurant that was recommended by Lonely Planet. Shauna decided to stay the night, so my family graciously allowed her to stay here. We woke up and went to the mall  and sunday market with the family. The sunday market has tons of fruits and vegtables and the mall is very nice too. All in all, we had a very fun time and got to speak a lot of spanish this weekend.

My classes started today, I am on lunch break right now. My classes are goign very well, and for the most part they are actaully pretty well behaved. The only thing missing is, I don't have any materials and I don't have a whiteboard. The ministry of Education is supposed to give me supplies but have failed to do so and my room where I teach is brand new so there is no whiteboard yet. So these first couple of weeks could be interesting.

So to conclude, it was a very fun weekend. Friday Friday, gotta get down on Friday.

Tio Tio Tio!

Tio! Tio! Tio! Tio means uncle in Espanol, but here in Spain when someone calls you tio, it is a gesture of respect. I feel like a king everytime I walk into class. The kids chant Tio Tio Tio! If I respond with a bow or a little jig they all go wild. They are just waiting for my reaction everytime. I find myself giving more high fives, kisses, and hand shakes in a matter of 20 seconds while I walk down the hall to my class, more than I ever have in my entire life. Teacher, Teacher, Teacher! the students yell this  while reaching out for a hand shake. Talk about a good way to start your day. Just think if you worked at Starbucks, and everyday you came in bright and early at the crack of dawn, and your customers did the wave or made a tunnel for you  while cheering and clapping? I don't think anyone would quit their jobs!

My school is called Colegio Cordillera and it is four years new. I have my own brand new room to myself. I can decorate it with whatever I please, maybe some Justin Bieber posters because it seems to be that everyone loves him here! " Tu conoces Justin Bieber?" ( Do you know Justin Bieber?) I told them I saw him one time on the street with body guards and they all screamed in excitement. Actually let me rephrase that, all but one girl screamed. There is one girl who doesn't Justin Bieber and you will never guess who she does like? Nope? Have any clue? Cris Angel! She loves magic I guess.

The students are all willing to learn and very excited I have arrived. The discipline is different here and the students are quite all over the place, but I feel like my school is pretty calm compared to a lot. They all speak pretty decent English. My co-teacher and I will work with them each teaching two subjects. I will teach listening and speaking and my co-teacher will teacher reading and writing. I am excited to start.

At the home front I have been eating great. Here they don't tend to eat much of a breakfast and for dinner they have a "once." An once consists of tea and bread. Their main meal is lunch, and they are pretty big indeed. I have had hamburgers, french fries, roast beef, mashed potatoes and some other stuff. I have not been disapointed with the food at all, nor do I found myself hungry at all. I have skyped my family a couple of times and have talked to some of my friends also, Drew, Sabrina, Will, Curt, etc. Skype is a savior, it's very nice to see people's faces instead of just hearing their voices.

Anyway, it's time to have an once in a bit so I will take off. Until next time, mucho cuidado y espero que esten bien! un beso, ciao

Home sweet home

After a 6 hour bus ride north to La Serena, we were all greeted like celebrities. All four families and co teachers were awaiting for the arrival of los gringos. One family even had a video camera videotaping my friend Elizabeth. They are all very sweet people. I was excited to move in with my family but also sad to leave some of the coolest people I have ever met...luckily we all live really close! I live with a 2 year old host daughter and a 11 year old host brother who loves videogames, I think we will get along just fine. The daughter is a spitfire, she has more energy than anyone I know. She immediately follows me everywhere and wants to play all the time. I reached my arms out to say goodnight and she came running into them and gave me a huge hug then proceeded to making swimming motions on the stairs, like I said, mucho energia. My host mother is so sweet and really likes regaeton. I also live with a nanny, she basically does everything around here, its awesome. I also have a flat screen tv in my room. I think there are a total of 5 televisions in this two story house. It is very modern and very nice, I am very fortunate and blessed.

 Today, we had another orientation, but this time with all of our co teachers. My co teachers name is Marco, he is really nice and I think we will do some good work for these kids. I was introduced to all the teachers already and they all seem really nice, I am excited to start teaching. This week however, is just an observation week. I will sit in and help a little here and there but mostly just observe. It is looking like more and more I will stay until the end of November, it´s just something too good to pass up. There is an awesome hotel slash casino very close that I think my parents will enjoy staying at if they decide to come in the end of July.

It is nice to be settled but I do really miss my family and friends at home. Until the next blog, adios!

This guy...this guy

I had to blog about this situation that my room encountered last night. I had no idea what time it was but I found myself awake peering outside our door that was supposed to be shut. There laid two people, one trying to get his friend to awake, and the other just lying there passed out, drunk. Well wait, drunk would be an understatement. This guy was out cold. John tells them to shut the door but they won't. We find out that he is supposed to be in our room. Danny helps the other guy carry the guy in and place him on the bed. He curls up into a ball and begins snoring. of course he does. anyway we all fall back asleep and find ourselves waking up to sounds of dry heaving and slobbering noises. We all watch and try and to wake him up. It starts to build up and long story short, he vomits all over the bed. This red colored vomit exits his mouth like a sequel to the Exorcist. We go downstairs and tell the front desk. They are taking care of it as we speak. Yummy, anyone want breakfast?

Family Matters

"You've got mail!" Well kind of...Although it wasn't exactly the old America Online phrase with the 56k modem, I did receive an important message. I opened up my gmail account, filing through the typical junk mail and came across the email I have been waiting for. It was a letter from my host family! In it consisted a description of my family and how excited they are to meet me. The family consists of two young brothers, a madre and a housekeeper  slash senora slash helper person lady... There is a father but he works outside of the house and is barely ever in the house. They live only one street away from the school I will be teaching in so I can just walk to class everyday, but the best news of the letter is that they have wifi in their house! I feel very fortunate and blessed and things seem to be falling my way. I am looking forward to meeting them and finally start getting immersed. With that said adios!

Now you see them now you don't

It has almost been a week now since the original group of ten met up with other fellow volunteer teachers to create a mosh of 50 some odd persons...and just like that, poof, they were gone. A few of us still wait for our departure though and you can sit downstairs in the cafeteria watching stragglers come and go, skyping to their boyfriends and girlfriends, checking their emails, or even grabbing a quick bite. You can tell everyone is getting anxious, or maybe they are just still a little "under the weather" from the previous night of the EOD cocktail celebration, two words: Pisco Sours (a popular chilean drink). I believe Ice Cube quoted it best "Today was a good day."

La Serena

Where I'm going to be teaching...need I say more?

ZZZ

Have you ever caught yourself falling asleep during a class or in a movie? Your head slowly lowers and lowers and lowers until your chin hits your chest and you suddenly wake for a slight moment only to fall back asleep. This tends to happen to the best of us. We had our first day of workshops for the EOD ( English Open Doors). Around 50 fellow college graduates found seats in a hotel's conference room. Outside are cops and bomb squads waiting for the arrival of Obama, making it only that much more hard to concentrate. The class was basically a repeat of what I have already learned from either TEFL class or from our orientation with CIEE. We have three more days and we found out on wednesday where we will be staying within our region. Looking forward to it. Until then, I will be hanging out in the sun, eating some horrible replicas of Pringles called, Kryzpo. Better yet I can quote Paul, a guy from Chicago who I met today, "this food tastes of bad childhood memories." 

Obama in Chile

It's sunday evening and I'm sitting at a cafeteria table listening to the sounds of Chilean protests rumble througout the hostel. The music is loud and the chants even more heart pounding. It felt like the macy's day parade, in sound and in length. These were not your typical musical songs from your favorite artist, these were chants of anger, togetherness and stength. Word has it, some of the Chilean people are angry about the policies Obama has with nuclear power. In fact Obama is making his latin american tour as we speak. He will arrive in Santiago Chile tomorrow morning at 10. With so many things going on in this world ex. Japan, Lybia, etc, many people thought this might not be the best timing to come to latin america. I do not have enough credible information to come to any concensus or voice any kidn of opinion, so for the next couple of hours I will be reading more into this. For that I am signing out.

Speaking da Spanish

Today, we woke up went to an orientation at the universidad de chile office. We had a native speaker give a presentation on all the slang chilean words and a whole bunch of phrases. It is amazing to see how different it is compared to Spain. I have to switch up a lot of my spanish now. Its frustrating but I am learning more and more everyday. He then took us on a tour of Santiago and we had another great dinner, which served tons of tapas, which are like appetizers. We had fish cheeks, fried mushrooms, calamari(spell check too lazy), chicken picante, oysters. There was a lot of food! We had extra food so some of the girls took the rest of the food and fed the stray dogs as we walked back to our hotel. There are many stray dogs that run a muck around the streets. We are now just hanging out deciding whether or not to go out for a bit or just go to sleep and rest, because tomorrow we start our EOD orientation, which is the ministry of education, this is where it could start getting tough. We are going to stay in a hostel and perhaps meet other people from other programs, which will be cool, but the work is about to start. We officially start classes April 4th. Anyway, check in later, hasta luego

Joel

Chillin in Chile

Hola a todos!

I have finally arrived here in Chile. I am currently in Santiago and loving it. I have met some really cool people so far. I am in a hotel right now with two guys. One is from Santa Cruz who is 26 and makes wine. The other is a colorado Univeristy history graduate who is 21. They are both cool guys who know a lot of spanish so it helps a lot with my learning. We have only had a small orientation so far but have a grasp on what to expect. We will spend the next 5 days here in Santiago then split off into 2 groups. One group will go to the region of Coquimbo and the other will venture off to O'higgins region. I will be going to coquimbo with The guy from Santa cruz, danny and three others who are really nice too. Our coordinator tells us that we will all be at different schools in our region but most likely only a bike ride away from each other so that means we will get to spend a lot of time together outside of the classroom. I asked about free time though and she said there is a lot of out of classroom work but she said we will still get tons of freetime and time to spend with our host families. We went out to dinner tonight as a group. It was really good, we had steak and this spicy mashed potatoes. You will all have to forgive me with the names. I am going to start remembering the names so I can list them here, but I always forget. Anyway I love it so far we have met a lot of cool people and we are all enjoying it a lot right now. Keep in touch for more. I will try and update this more often, but often times when we get wireless it is either slow or needs a password. ciao, y un beso

Departure

I am currently sitting in Sea Tac waiting for my flight to Dallas. From there I will have a 7 hour lay over and then 9 hour flight to Santiago! It's going to be a long day but I love traveling and doing the whole airport thing.

The hardest part of leaving is saying goodbye to the parentals. My mom dropped me off and you can all imagine how that was :( and I said goodbye to my dad monday morning because he had to work and couldn't come to seattle :( oh and my sister called me monday morning and that was really hard too.

I learned one thing while traveling, pictures make it so much easier to travel. If you are ever plan on moving away from friends and family, bring photos they help make the day go by. There is a lot to be excited about. I am about to partake in an expierence that I really have no idea how it will be. I am truly excited and can't wait to find out though!

One more note: I have truly the best friends and family ever. It was amazing to see how much support I have from all of them. I have received emails and messages on facebook, and letters from everyone. I have been taken out and bought for during lunches and dinners. I would just like to say thanks for everyone. You guys mean the world to me. Keep me in your prayers and thoughts!

Adios y un beso

Anxiety

I just purchased my ticket to Santiago, I will have three days of orientation there, then be sent off to one of the following regions: O'higgins or qoquimbo( spell check) . I am already feeling very excited but I think one of the worst feelings before heading out is, knowing that you are leaving your friends and family.

Friends and family are the most important things in my life along with God. Sometimes I don't feel like even going because I'll miss my family and friends too much, I wanna know everything that is going on in Bellingham, whos dating who, who broke up with who, who just got a job, who graduated, what happened downtown, whos having a baby etc. I'm afraid I'll miss out on all that! ALthough I'm only gone for 5 months and maybe more pending on whether or not I pick up another job or not or continue at this school, it still is sad knowing that I will miss out on all that.

With that said, I also feel that this is the reason why most don't venture out and travel, or see the world. I feel a lot of us are trapped because they feel "comfortable" with where they are and what they do and who they hang out with. By all means, that is not a bad thing. This world is filled with all kinds of people and I'm not suggesting that its a bad thing. So I know that even with this feeling about missing my friends and family, I know that once I get there, I will not regret it one bit.

I recommend to anyone who reads this as corny as it may sound: If someone says you can't do something or if something is hindering you from not pursuing something, don't listen to them. Do it, listen to your heart and do what you feel is right. I promise you, you will not regret it. See the world, help the hungry, live life. Go at everything with an open mind and heart and you will live an extraordinary life.

Preparation

Preparation:

I am currently in the process of getting TEFL certified. It is an online course that I have found very helpful and my instructor is very nice and willing to give advice.

I am going to purchase my ticket to Santiago this week and am debating whether or not I should get a one way ticket or round trip. I really want to find another job after I finish my five months teaching in Chile.

I am slowly doing some packing and picking up some things here and there, but I'm not too nervous with packing just yet. I don't leave for another month.

Other than that I am just waiting to leave. I will truly miss all my friends and family but I am very excited and anxious to see what is in store for me in Chile. I am going with an open mind and willingness to try anything.

Greetings

Welcome to my blog site. I have created this Blog for people to follow me while I am living in Chile. Here is a little about what I am going to be doing there and what to expect in this Blog.

I recently graduated Western Washington University with a Spanish major. I was fortunate enough to have studied abroad while I was in college and kind of got the knack to travel more. I will fulfil this knack by traveling to Chile and teaching english to foreign learners. I am currently getting TEFL certified and will join a staff in Chile where I will have to create daily lesson plans and present them to students from grade levels 6th grade-12th. I will also have to have 10 hours of outside classroom time to either help with clubs or sporting events. I am looking forward to it and hope you guys enjoy all the expierences I encounter.

I don't know how often I will be able to update this considering that Chile is still a developing nation and they say internet speeds are present yet often times slow. So please be patient. I will update it as much and as fast as possible.

You can also reach me via Facebook or email at morsej4@gmail.com

Thank you all for your support!