August and September

Dear all dearest ones!

It is time for a fairly lengthy update for you all as I believe that the last time I made contact was in August.

Chile has gone from mid-winter (with snowy and icy Andes) to summer (with not so snowy and icy Andes) in a flash, from August, when waking up every day to a fairly harsh frost, to today, when it is almost warm enough to sleep outside. Nevertheless, Chile still has one or two surprises. One night, I awoke in my room to the sound of shaking, discarding the idea that a particularly enthusiastic couple could be performing some sort of non-Catholic ritual to each other only when my bed too started shaking. After several seconds of shaking I decided that this must be two fairly enthusiastic tectonic plates fighting: my first earthquake (apparently a 5.5 on the Richter scale.)

Just after sending my last e-mail I managed to catch the Santiago flu. It was a horrible one and it lasted for around ten days until it decided to “jog on” and when it did, it left me with a fairly severe ear infection which was not ideal either. The family was lovely and looked after me with sympathy; one evening when I was suffering particularly, two of my Chilean siblings said that they were going out to get me a cocktail. My ears pricked up, I sat up, but to my disappointed the cocktail was ibuprofen, paracetamol, antibiotics for my ear infection and freshly squeezed fruit juice. Not the cocktail of scotch, honey and lemon which is what most people would recommend.

From then it was business as usual continuing life at both the school and at university. The first time I wrote, I think I may have hugely underestimated the work load that La Católica expects us to do. Every week involves about 100 pages minimum of reading academic articles, writing reports on them and occasionally, as happened this weekend, an e-mail saying that we should write an essay with a deadline two days after the e-mail was sent. The amount of work really is extreme and the workload about three times as much as in Birmingham. Nevertheless, I’m stilling managing to keep my head above water even if the water is lapping around my neck!



The school is still going well; I have been praised, worshiped and admired by both staff and pupils but luckily, as you can see, I am learning the art of modesty! The school has been on its Spring break for the past two weeks which has given me a bit of time to do some travelling.

I started off with Valparaíso and went with a small group of friends but as usual whilst travelling, managed to meet loads of happy people, including an alcohol-induced happy Chilean stranger who decided to attach himself to a group of us for an evening: very kind but very strange.

The next trip was also to the coast, a place called Maitencillo for Chilean Independence Day. I was lucky to be invited by a friend of Sophie’s called Rafa and eight of his Chilean friends. It was an incredible weekend of barbeque, pisco and parties and was particularly good for my (what sounded like) Spanish, all be it very Chilean. ¿Cachái wéon po?

Last weekend was the university trip to Mendoza. Mendoza really is a beautiful little in town in Argentina set on the other side of the Andes (as are the Falklands, but they do not belong to Argentina!) and everyone who went experienced true Argentinean lifestyle which involves: eating your body weight in steak which still moos; turning up for any appointment or meeting at least an hour and a half late and drinking a few vintage bottles of Malbec before breakfast! Fun times. I also went paragliding there (see pictures) and managed not to fall out of the sky, always a relief.



Well, that’s all for now folks! I should think about going to bed. Hope everyone’s well, please update me with your news as per usual!

Love to all!

Welcome

Saying goodbye is always an interesting way of discovering a few differences between the two sexes. The reactions from my girlfriends (friends who are girls) are always so much more dramatic than guys’ reactions: “Oh but I won’t see you for a WHOLE YEAR!” “I’ll miss you soo much” and “Why are you gooooiiiing?” followed by hugs, more hugs and even more emotional hugs. The whole scene lasts between 5 and 10 minutes, depending upon the menstrual cycle! In a rather amusing contrast, a guy’s farewell consists of a handshake or a man hug followed by a “See you buddy!” Far easier if you ask me!

After all the goodbyes, it was time to head to Heathrow Airport, meet up with my two fellow travellers (Paul and Laura) say goodbye (again) and board the (delayed) flight to Madrid for leg one of our epic voyage. From Madrid, we boarded the (delayed by three hours) plane from Madrid to our final destination, Santiago, Chile. After 13.5 hours of contortionist-style sleep we touched down in a rather chilly Chile!

I am lucky enough to be staying with a lovely family called the Prados. In true Catholic style, they have six children: Francisca, Lucas, Juan Pablo, Sole, Camila (my age) and Ignacio who goes to Redland, the school where I work. The mother, Carolina, picked me up from the airport and took me back their house where I met the clan!

Redland is an international school where the English department is particularly important. “Gaps”, as we are called, are treated with great respect (amongst the teachers at least) and everyone made me feel very welcome. Walking into the equivalent of a year 9 or 10 class had an alarming effect, particularly within the Hispanic world: silence. In my mind, the silence was a result of my incredible good looks but in reality, I think it’s probably just that I have blonde hair. I also made the unwitting mistake of telling one class my surname so I now have my Facebook privacy settings adjusted accordingly.

I start the University a week today so I should think that the work rate will step up soon. Meanwhile, I’m just settling in with the family and having a tremendous time.

Hope that all of you are well and are being bathed in that glorious British sunshine/rain. Speak soon!

Dear All,

As many of you will be aware, I am about to go on my Year Abroad to Chile. Last time I went travelling to exotic lands on my Gap Year (Gap Yah!) I remember writing some side-splittingly funny e-mails about my travel antics and thought that it was a great way to keep in touch with everybody, wherever they may be. Therefore, for the coming year, I intend to do the same. If at any point you feel that my e-mails are clogging up your inbox, you can always reply with the word 'stop' or any other insulting phrase that you feel may get through to me!

I leave on the 18th July, so exactly 20 days from today. My dear mother is so excited about my lengthy absence that she has suggested that I start packing, these suggestions take the form of post-it notes lurking in places where I frequent such as: the fridge, the microwave and the whisky cupboard. In all fairness to 'Her Motherness' I think it is about time that I start at least thinking about the 'P' word.

The plan when I am out there is to attend a university and, for the first semester, work at a school called Redland teaching English, Music and Sport like, for those that know her, my sister Sophie did. This means that for the first 5 months or so, I will be staying with a host family that I now know have 6 children so I will have to speak Spanish and I think it will definitely help me to improve! The first semesters at both the university and the school finish in early December (the Chilean Summer) so the plan is to travel to Argentina, where I have been advised to avoid flying The White Ensign, through Uruguay to Brazil, where I will do a vacation course in Portuguese and back to Chile, hopefully visiting Bolivia as I go.

The second semester at the university will start in early March and unfortunately I won't be able to stay with the host family or work at the school for the their second semester. However, it will mean that I can focus fully on work (as all university students do) from March-July.

It's now time to throw as many goodbye parties as my parents will allow, earn a bit of cash and, of course, p**k!

Hope to see as many of you as possible before I go.

Love to all,

Preparations

Dear All,

As many of you will be aware, I am about to go on my Year Abroad to Chile. Last time I went travelling to exotic lands on my Gap Year (Gap Yah!) I remember writing some side-splittingly funny e-mails about my travel antics and thought that it was a great way to keep in touch with everybody, wherever they may be. Therefore, for the coming year, I intend to do the same. If at any point you feel that my e-mails are clogging up your inbox, you can always reply with the word 'stop' or any other insulting phrase that you feel may get through to me!

I leave on the 18th July, so exactly 20 days from today. My dear mother is so excited about my lengthy absence that she has suggested that I start packing, these suggestions take the form of post-it notes lurking in places where I frequent such as: the fridge, the microwave and the whisky cupboard. In all fairness to 'Her Motherness' I think it is about time that I start at least thinking about the 'P' word.

The plan when I am out there is to attend a university and, for the first semester, work at a school called Redland teaching English, Music and Sport like, for those that know her, my sister Sophie did. This means that for the first 5 months or so, I will be staying with a host family that I now know have 6 children so I will have to speak Spanish and I think it will definitely help me to improve! The first semesters at both the university and the school finish in early December (the Chilean Summer) so the plan is to travel to Argentina, where I have been advised to avoid flying The White Ensign, through Uruguay to Brazil, where I will do a vacation course in Portuguese and back to Chile, hopefully visiting Bolivia as I go.

The second semester at the university will start in early March and unfortunately I won't be able to stay with the host family or work at the school for the their second semester. However, it will mean that I can focus fully on work (as all university students do) from March-July.

It's now time to throw as many goodbye parties as my parents will allow, earn a bit of cash and, of course, p**k!

Hope to see as many of you as possible before I go.

Love to all!