On April 2nd, 2010 I board a plane bound nonstop for the Southern Continent and its long, narrow western shore. I go to Chile.
There, for the following 8 months I will endeavor to teach young Chilenos the beautiful and incomparable tongue of the Britons. As I write, I have never been to Chile (or South America for that matter), nor have I ever taught in any sort of professional capacity. I have a college degree in Film and Video with a minor in English, and I am a native speaker. That's about all of my qualifications...and oddly, that's good enough for the Chilean Ministry of Education and the volunteer program in which I am a participant, Ingles Abre Puertas (English Opens Doors.)
I plan to use this blog to chronicle my experiences, to keep friends and family updated on my adventures, and to ponder the cultural differences I am bound to encounter and run up against. I hope to stay on top of updating and writing here, but I honestly don't know what my internet situation is going to be like down there. I'm am no stranger to travel-blogging, have traveled and written all over Australia and Europe (and to a lesser extent, Canada) so I am confident I can make something work.
The plan right now, as I understand it, is to fly into Santiago where the program will put me and the other volunteers up in a hostel for two weeks while we attend orientation. Then I am to be bused up to the north of the country to the region of Antofagasta. There I will teach and live with a host family.
In later posts I hope to address the "why" of my journey, and elaborate more on the "how", but for now I need to go pack some stuff. Eight months is a long time.
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