Adventure

I'm nearing the halfway mark of my time here teaching, and my how time flies. I've seen highs, and I've seen lows. I've seen gorgeous days, and I've seen bad ones.  I've explored, and I've twiddled my thumbs. I've also been waiting to write about my adventures because I wanted them to be more than a recounting of the days. I wanted to find a common thread among them that I could weave into an interesting story that would be more than a retelling of my day. I wanted to be able to wow my readers with complex and explanatory prose that left them wanting more. Well, that plan's not working out, so  I decided to just tell you some fun stories about my adventures thus far. So, here it goes.

The 1st week that I arrived in Punta Arenas I had a week off. This turned out to be a blessing and a curse. I had time to sit and think, a lot. Which quite frankly sucked. But, I also had the opportunity to do some traveling. My 1st adventure was when I went to go see the King Penguins in Tierra del Fuego. My host dad, Leo, asked if I wanted to go, I of course said yes. I had heard of penguins being in the area so I was thinking that it would be a rather short day trip. A 4:30am wake up call and 3 hours in the car, and we were half way there…. Nonetheless, it was much better than sitting at home on my ass. Looking at social media. Thinking about how I missed summer and friends. The car ride went something like this.

The sunrise view

The pampa

The lighthouse at the ferry crossing to Tierra del Fuego

The penguin reserve and Bahia Inútil 

Sole and Leo (mom and dad)

The culprits for this exceedingly long road trip aka the King Penguins

The way back was much of the same. Lots of pampa (the type of grass that grows in the plains of Patagonia), lots of guanacos (basically wild llamas, and yes wild llamas exist), and some more pampa. All in all it was a great trip, nothing went wrong, all was smooth sailing. Or in our case, smooth driving. As smooth as driving can get on miles and miles of dirt roads in the winter…

The next adventure took place in Torres del Paine, which is gorgeous. Same early morning. Same long drive. But this time the views were much better and the company spoke english, which at this point was very welcome. I'll let these pictures do the talking, because lets be honest, you're already tired of reading this and looking at them will be much more fun than reading anything I can write about them. 

1st stop was the The Mylodon cave, just outside of Puerto Natales

Me and the Mylodon, I think we're related

The "I don't remember its name" Waterfall

Then, through the mist, appeared the mountains, and we were treated to this spectacular view

And this one

(Los Cuernos)

And then this one

(Lago Grey and some glacial fragments)

And then this one

(Lago Pehoe)

And lastly, this one

(Lago Pehoe, again)

This trip was spectacular and made me want to work in the park for the summer, which might possibly be the next stop for this train of a journey. The views were stunning, the company was good, and again, it was smooth back road bumpy sailing. 

My most recent travels occurred much closer to home. They were this past weekend with Alex, the only other volunteer in my area, and 3 chileans. Alex is visiting from Puerto Natales and one of the teachers that I work with offered to take us on a hike. We coordinated to leave by 10am, which realistically means anywhere from 10:30-11:30 Chilean time. So we gave them the benefit of the doubt, and were ready by 10:30, not to be picked up until 11:15. Then, we had to run and grab a few more supplies because, unlike us, they had not yet boughten their lunch stuff. So after about 20 more minutes of that, we were finally on the road. We arrived to the dirt road that leads to the trail about 1.5 hours later than we wanted to, but we were there and thinking everything would be fine. Well, we were wrong.

The road was so muddy and torn up that we couldn't go more than 2km of the 15 we needed to go to get to the trail. And even if we wanted to try it, well we couldn't. There was a rather large truck carrying a load of wood stuck in the mud. After some investigation and misunderstood spanish, we drove up the hill a ways, parked, and everyone started to get out. Alex and I looked at each other and said, "Welp, here we go".

We donned on our back packs and jackets and headed out. We had about 25km to hike, each way, 2 hours of day light to make up, gusts of wind up to 40mph, but at least it was sunny… for now.

The beginning of our long road

The calm before the storm

Not so calm any more

The storm

After the storm passed, we stopped for lunch at about the half way point (where we should have started the hike) because another storm was coming and we didn't have the hours we needed to make the round trip before dark. So, we took a selfie. And then turned around.

The crew

Light at the end of the tunnel

 After making it about a quarter of the way back, this little red truck passed by and offered us a ride. We eagerly accepted his offer.

The little red truck that could

We made it

This trip was full of ups, downs, and surprises, but all in all it was an absolute success. We got in our hike, survived some rain and wind, enjoyed some sun, and successfully hitchhiked our way back to the car. This one definitely qualified as an adventure, because most things that could have gone wrong, well, they did. But not all was lost, new friends and stories were made, physical and mental toughness were tested, and optimism was found in all the challenges our very bumpy and muddy road presented. 

So, I guess what I'm getting at is that after 2 months in this wild Patagonian landscape, I can finally call it an adventure. And as corny as it sounds, I've really learned that its not about the destination, its all about the journey and making the most of it. So while I'm down here, not knowing where I'm going or what I'm doing half the time, at least at the end I can say that it was about the journey…. and the rain… and the cold… and the wind… but I mean hey, who's counting? All I know is that there is plenty more journeying to be done. 

The Learning Curve

Every dog has his day, and every teacher has theirs. This is one of the many things that I have learned in my first month as an English as a second language teacher. I work with girls from 7th to 11th grades, so the maturity levels vary greatly as do the enthusiasm levels. In other words, I can't get the 7th graders to shut up and I can't get the Jrs. to stop being "cool" for long enough to finish an entire activity without giving me the "this is so boring and you're so lame just let me do my make-up and text boys on Whatsapp" look.

Ok ok, so maybe not all classes go quite like that. Some classes are actually really good. Some days the 7th graders decide to pay attention for longer than their gold fish like attention spans usually allow and they are really enthusiastic about the games, activities, and so on. And some days, even the Jrs. take off their cool coats long enough to act as ridiculous as I do and have some fun. On those days, we take class GoPro selfies.

Silly faces obviously encouraged. 

As for the bad classes, well, my post class notes about my lesson plan look like this…

No caption needed.

And as for my favorite class, well they look like this.

This is course 7A. 

And no, there's no picture. 

I haven't actually had class with them yet.

And that's exactly why they're my favorite.

Juuuusssttttt kidding. Well, I actually haven't had class with them yet, but the whole "they're my favorite because I haven't had them yet" was just for kicks. While bad classes do suck, I think I learn the most from them. The moment when I realize that what I planned isn't going to work like I planned, well thats an "oh shit" moment. But often "oh shit" moments are closely followed by "ah ha" moments. These are the times when I have to improvise on the spot, and come up with something interesting and fun so I can put the train back on the tracks. And these are the moments that I think I learn more than the girls.

They have taught me that no matter what goes wrong, no matter what doesn't work, and no matter what doesn't go like I planned, as long as I smile, act silly, and make the most of the situation, everything will be just fine. Teaching has a funny way of teaching me all those lessons I never learned when I was the student. Its wonderfully ironic, and has given the phrase "life lessons" a whole new meaning.

Planning classes is becoming easier, and I'm starting to learn what works for certain courses and how to motivate them all in their own way. Some of the pressure is alleviated every time I realize that my sole purpose as a teacher is to make English fun, and that as long as fun is at the core of every lesson, its all going to be alright. And as for my metaphorical German car of a lesson, well its a 1976 VW bug that wouldn't pass a Florida smog check, but it runs and gets me where I need to go, even when this bumpy road of mine gets rough. For now, we'll just call it a work in progress.