Travel and Teaching

Well I don't know about you guys but I have had quite a busy week.

I should probably start with last weekend when we went to Valdivia with some friends. The first day we actually went to a little village just outside of Valdivia called Niebla. It's by the coast and is just a really pretty little place. The ocean was really calm there and there wasn't a lot of wind... pretty much the opposite of Puerto Saavedra, which I have found out has the windiest shores of Chile. We walked along the beach for ages and ended up reaching the next village 20 kms away. It was really sunny and really nice. We found some blackberries to help us with the walk back.

On the second day we went into Valdivia and walked around the botanical garden. Found lots of stray dogs that followed us around all day. They were close friends by the end. We went to the Fluvial Market which is set up next to the river. It has vegetables on one side of the market and fish on the other. Sea lions swim up from the sea to eat the discarded fish parts. They're huge! Not nearly as pretty as the seals we saw in Valparaiso. We didn't really do too much more in Valdivia. We did run into two girls that we met in Puerto Iguazu in Argentina! The world is small.

we found llamas

Our weeks been pretty busy as Ingrid has been off work all week because she's ill. So we arrived on Monday with no idea that we were going to have to take all the lessons ourselves. Ingrid had left us a note with what to do with the classes but other than that we were left on our own. This was interesting. We're in a strange position at the school. We're not teachers but we're also not proper assistants. The kids sort of give us respect but are also a bit more relaxed (naughty). So we end up kind of being teachers and kind of being friends. Some of the classes were really good and listened to us and did the work (of course not all the kids do, but then they don't usually). Some of the classes were horrible. We've employed lots of songs to entertain the children. We know all the words to them all because we've heard them all so many times. Tuesday is our worst day of the week because all the classes are with older children. And the bad ones. The older kids don't listen as much and behave worse. So we left school very wearily on Tuesday, after hearing that there was a substitute English teacher starting the next day.

The new teacher is very friendly and a good teacher. She's nice because she lets us be a bit more involved in the class. It was a bit weird telling her how things went in the school and what we were doing with the kids. But the week did get a little easier with her around. Still we were very happy when the weekend arrived. I did enjoy getting that teacher experience. It's something we don't really have any more because we're not teaching in Vega Larga any more.

Yesterday we did some mega shopping and then went to capoeira. There's a new instructor who's really good and takes us through all the music and movements. He's also doing a good job of recruiting new people because the class was about twice as big as usual. It was a really good class yesterday.

Off for lunch now. Have to try and eat and breathe at the same time as I have a cold.

It's Still Sunny!

Wow this week has felt pretty hectic!

On Saturday we met up with the vols in CholChol in Temuco. We went to a cafe and had cake to celebrate Aminas birthday. As a birthday present they gave Amina something a little different.
Meet Vincent Maloy/Sheldon/Poseidon/ Abdula/Moquito.

Yep. We have a turtle. He's really cute and small. He's in a nice big box with water and rocks etc. Amina got a water heater so he swims around very happily. Only had one escape attempt but he was found quickly enough hiding under some books. Argh he's so cute.

On Sunday we went out picking blackberries and made great smoothies. Mmm rica. 

All week we've gone to escuela 6 seeing as we still haven't heard anything about going to Vega Larga. Lots of noise. The classes are all so noisy. I remember primary school being quite quiet. We were never allowed to talk as loudly as the kids do here. We were given many adorable cheek kisses from the kids. It's even cuter when the little boys do it cause you know they won't do it when they get older.

This afternoon we went out for tea with Ingrid and a couple of students. Very tasty. Had giant sandwiches and talked the whole time in Spanish which is enjoyable now that we can. I think the summer has made us better at socialising. Things seem a bit easier with the teachers as well. Although this doesn't help us remember their names. There's one we just know as "smiley guy".

Off to Valdivia tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be quite nice this weekend.

Thoughts

Being back in Lautaro is strange.

Number one, not travelling and having time to think, made me realise that I'd overlooked the fact that I've been here for over six months. That's half my time gone. Time passes so quickly. Of course I've missed home, and at times it felt like the year was going so slowly, but being on this side of summer makes it all seem so short. I can't believe there's less than six months less. I worked it out today that we only have 22 weeks left. I've been here 30 weeks! It still feels like there is so much more to do.

On Monday we entered into the maze of confusion that is the local government once again. We weren't picked up by the director to go to Vega Larga, so we thought we'd check that we were still going there. It turns out that with a change of alcalde there were a lot of other changes. They don't seem to share information very well because we had to explain again who we were and what we'd been doing in Lautaro for the last six months. A lady used us as an excuse to blow off some steam and ranted on about how unfair the sharing of resources is. So as usual we left with less information than we entered with. Ran into Ingrid on the way home though and she said just to go to Escuela 6 so that's what we did. Being back at the school is great. The kids are so cute and were really happy to see us (though we weren't quite as happy to see the huge class of 6th graders that just wouldn't stop talking). Trying to think of ways to do more. I would like to be able to do more teaching and less... sitting watching the children work. Did have a very good first lesson with the second graders. They're so well behaved at that age. Still listen to you and give you respect. Give them about a year and they won't listen to a word you say.

All the Kinders that we were teaching last year have moved up to primero, which means they've been set loose in the playground. We were swamped the other day by a mass of children running at us to give us kisses, when we stepped outside at break time.

The bad thing about being back at school is that our friends aren't working there any more. So we're back to how is was in the beginning, wandering the halls or being in the staff room instead of being with our friends in the computer room.

I suppose a bit of news I have is that I received an unconditional entry place to Edinburgh uni. Pretty pleased because it's for the uni and degree that were pretty much my top choice. So I'm pretty happy. Tried to explain it to Ruty but I don't think she gets how difficult it is to get into some unis. Then she asked why I couldn't just stay at home and relax instead of living in halls. I swear, all Chileans ever want us to do is relax.

We met up with some friends yesterday for the first time since coming back to Lautaro. Really nice to see them again. I got all envious about one of them being able to play the guitar really well. We sat in the park and made up songs while eating chocolate. I think Amina was a bit surprised by the amount of people that remembered her birthday. She got loads of emails and presents and was able to chill in the sun so I think she was happy.

Us with our friends in the park

A little video from the Iguazu Falls. Pretty sure this is from when we were walking the upper trail along the top of the waterfalls.

There and Back Again

Well all good things must come to an end. I'm sitting here in Lautaro, enjoying not having to carry a bag around and not feeling guilty for relaxing and not going out to see something. It was a pretty amazing couple of months. Don't regret a single place we went (except maybe spending that night in Potosi).

We ended our holiday in Bariloche. It's next to the cordillera so we had great mountain views. There are lots of big lakes and the Nahuel Hapui lake is the biggest one. We arrived at 11 in the morning. You can tell that you're getting used to day long bus journeys when a conversation goes like this:
Amina: "Oh great, we're nearly there!"
Beth: "What are you talking about? We have 5 hours left."
Amina: "Yeah that's what I mean!"

We found our hostel which was actually one of the best hostels we'd been to. Apart for being clean and having comfortable beds, there was a free box of food. It had food that other travellers had left and meant that we never had to buy pasta or rice once while we were there.
We spent the first day chilling by the lake and wandering around town. Oh, we even tried one of the ice creams. They're amazing. To be honest I would tell people to go to Bariloche, just to try the ice cream. Oh I'm still such a child at heart.

Day two found us heading out to the chocolate museum. Bariloche is pretty well known for having lots of chocolate shops. Mmm the museum was great. We got free samples of chocolate and hot chocolate. Got to see them making the chocolate and then we saw some big chocolate-made statues of animals that were supposed to represent the culture of chocolate. What I wanted to know was, why was there penguins?

These are made of chocolate!

In the afternoon we met up with a Lautaro friend who had come to Bariloche at the same time as us. It was really nice to see him again. Just hung out at the beach again.

Day three we went out on a bike ride. Rented some mountain bikes and hit the "short circuit". Ended up taking us most of the day. At the start there were some cars on the roads but after a while it was really quiet and we were able to zoom down the hills without fear of being hit by cars. Passed some really beautiful scenery. Passed the most expensive hotel in Argentina which would set you back £1300 a night. Really enjoyed the bike ride though we all had very sore bums afterwards! And I did fall into a bush at one point :/ Basically I got startled when a car beeped it's horn at me and stumbled. Anyway enough of that.

The bus journey back to Lautaro was only 9 hours long. Nothing. We had a two hour changeover in Osorno. It's weird to be back in Chile because everything is familiar but still different from the way things are at home. In Argentina the people are also quite European with different hair colours and eye colours. Being back in Chile I feel very conspicuous again. Arrived home to a warm hug from Ruty. So nice to see her again. Had a big long chat before heading upstairs to unpack. I love having all my clothes in drawers again. And having other clothes to wear. It's great.

Us at the Argentina/Chile boarder

It's been a long road but it's great to be back. Starting school/work again on Monday or Tuesday.

Oh and in case you didn't know, I've re-uploaded the blogs from Machu Picchu and the Timeless one, with pictures included.