santiablog

Though technically I started work in the first week of March, I would hesitate to describe my first month with the university as strenuous. Universidad Santo Tomas is a far-reaching institution with locations all over the country. Their English program, Santo Tomas English Program (STEP - straightforward enough) extends outside the university to teach classes to all sorts of individuals. I have yet to teach any classes but the two classes I've shadowed, for example, were comprised of professionals who were put in the class by their businesses. The classes were small, with less than 6 students in each, catered to a variety of proficiencies, and held in the impressive Torre Titanium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_La_Portada), which I would love to teach in in the future. I don't think we're getting our own students for at least another week, though. So I've been keeping busy to myself with all the free time.

In the meantime, though, because we are still earning a salary, myself and a team of three other teachers have been working with a small group of STEP employees in a number of tasks. After our initial orientation, we were treated to a lavish luncheon to welcome us into the program. I ordered
a lomo liso (lean steak) and the eight or so of us drank good wine and laughed about our poor spanish while discussing cultural differences. It was a blast and a great foot to start out on.

Since then, though, the school has had us writing articles and beefing up their social media pages. I wrote one such article about the experience of being in Santiago as a newcomer. I thought I did a decent job describing the culture shock, so I'm linking it here in case anyone wants to take a look:

http://step.santotomas.cl/english/sala_prensa/noticia_detalle/52/first-impressions-of-santiago

That's it for now. I found an ultimate frisbee league down here (!!!) so expect an update on that soon. In the meantime, enjoy some of the pictures from the lunch. They really know how to treat their employees!