A milestone reached and exciting new opportunities

So after having let go of the idea that it was going to happen a long time ago, I reached a milestone in my language learning: I started dreaming in Spanish!

It first happened on Saturday night, and I was driving some type of jet ski on some course.  I was going down a spiral water road (kind of like something you would see in a video game), but I took a curve too fast and fell off the road and into the ocean.  Somehow the jet ski sank, and I was left to fend for myself.  I swam around for a while and got to dry land, only to wander around to find complete desolation.  After a while I finally found a guy and I asked him, Perdona señor, ¿cómo llego a casa? (Excuse me, how do I get home from here?) Then he answered, Hay que ir por allá (You have to go that way) while pointing to his right.

I woke up not quite realizing what happened for the first few minutes, and then I was really excited.  When I was an exchange student in Germany I dreamed in German for the second half of the year, and I continued to dream in German for a good year or so after returning to the States.  Being an English teacher here and seeing how much English I speak in a day I thought it would never happen with Spanish, but getting to know my Chilean friends and spending entire days talking completely in Spanish with them has really helped me reach this milestone.

Some great opportunities have come my way here.  I was recently asked to head a team of 4 teachers that are giving an intensive English class to a bank executive for 25 hours a week.  He´s moving to New York to manage a bank there in a few months, and therefore his English has to be top notch once he arrives.  I´m teaching him for 10 of those 25 hours and am in charge of his overall program.  It´s an honor to get to work with someone so high up in a company and also to be trusted to manage his progress.

I´ve also been lucky to come across some private classes teaching English to kids.  The students are all well-behaved and eager to learn, and so it´s a really enjoyable experience.  It also makes you think of how to teach particular grammar concepts in a kid-friendly way and also is a nice break from adults for a few days a week.

And of course I have been getting together with friends and catching up on the weekends.  Here are some pictures from a sushi night, birthday outing, and a barbeque.