As I reach the two week mark, it seems a good place to write a few things about Chile and my weird and wonderful experiences thus far.

Before my week of orientation began in Santiago, I met up with Max and lovely Maria for a few nights of debauchery and a bit of sightseeing. Maria took us to her beautiful house and we got to see Santiago by night from above which was amazing. Then began the week of training. The previously empty hostel I was staying in became full with about 40 volunteers from all around the world. Despite the rigorously timetabled days (with 7 o'clock starts) we managed to squeeze in a couple of nights out sampling the nightlife but gradually came to the conclusion weekday drinking and teaching simply do not mix. We sampled the 'Terremoto' or 'Earthquake' (by the bucketload) cocktail, 'shots' of the local drink Pisco (half a glass is considered a shot here) and obviously Chile's finest (or cheapest) wine. Just like when I arrived in Argentina, cocky as you like, convinced I had Spanish down, I arrived in Chile and am straight back to square one. They have a different grammatical form, accent and an entirely different vocabulary. Great.

Trained and ready to educate Chile's youth and thus shape it's future, we all went our separate ways within the country to our different placements, and after a 17 hour bus journey, I arrived in Diego de Almagro. I'm not going to lie, the fact that it didn't appear in my guide book, or even on any map I could find worried me. My first impressions of the town was how small and...deserty it was. The older parts of the town, like the abandonded train station looks like a set of an old Western film. Although, it is extremely beautiful, and having asked for rural, hot and Northern, how could I complain? There to greet me was my host lady, Patty, one of the English teachers at the school, Miss Jadith, and her two lovely daughters. After a lovely breakfast and some beautiful presents I immediately felt at home. I am however, extremely grateful for my Kindle, and am currently enjoying The Jungle Book! Upon arrival, one of my first questions, (so paranoid) was what to do in the case of an earthquake. Well, that night I would find out! It was just a 'temblor' (tremor) but the windows shook and I was obviously petrified. There have a couple of since and I feel like a seasoned pro already, and it just feels like a train is passing.

One thing I have to mention - During our orientation week in Santiago, the people from the program who were training us proposed a few hypothetical situations that could possibly arise in our placements, giving us a chance to have a little think about what we would do if confronted with such a situation. One of them was the suggestion that our host families would not nutritionally satisfy us, giving us small portions of bland food and we felt like we weren't getting our money's worth... Having put on roughly a stone since I arrived (one week ago) I am pretty sure this is not going to be a situation that I will have to tackle. I am also convinced that this is pretty typical and you would have to be pretty hard to please to not enjoy the dishes and portion sizes served here in Chile. Perhaps this has something to do with my host lady, Patty. In Patty's house no body leaves with an empty stomach or nutritionally unsatisfied. She is the kind of person that will overhear me discussing a certain dish in casual conversation and the next day said dish will be sitting in front of me. We will be in the supermarket, and I will merely ask what this fruit is, or what alcohol that is, I turn around and it's in the trolley. In short, I am living with an extremely hospitable, generous lady and will be double the size I am now in six months time. I have already been taken on a few days out too, highlights being seeing the penguins that live right next to the world's driest desert, learning about the national teacher`s strike, and attending my first Chilean asado (bbq)

Having been at the school for a week, although only observing classes, I have been able to get a bit of a feel for how it is. My first impressions were of how clean and ordered everything was, despite being literally in the middle of the desert. The children (ages 4-14) generally adhere to the fairly strict uniform regulations and the school itself is beautifully kept. (I'm still getting used to there casually being cacti in the garden outside) As for the students themselves, all I can say is that I feel like a minor celebrity. Some of my favourite reactions have been being asked for my autograph, one of the little ones just ran around screaming, 'AHHH QUE BUENO, AHH QUE BUENO' (literally translated as 'how good, how good!!'), another of the little ones asked if I was from China, and another just gave me money. They are so affectionate and I have been literally adorned with gifts, from the staff and the students. When I was introduced to the whole school at the 'Acto' (assembly), the children had filed into the courtyard with The Beatles playing and I had guessed there would be a theme. What I was not expecting was the school taxi driver, Juancito, to appear dressed as Sherlock Holmes, with a beautiful antique novel in English, a basket of English toffee and a huge bunch of flowers. IT WAS AMAZING!

I am looking forward to beginning teaching next week, having come from the training in Santiago I have lots of ideas for lessons that I'm really keen to try out. The level of English is completely varied, there's a handful which I literally can't believe have never been to an English speaking country, they speak confidently, can tell jokes and act as translators for the other students. There are others who are very keen to try, and always participate. Then there are some who just stare at you blankly, smile sweetly and giggle, or nod along to the music in their headphones. My work will definitely be cut out though, the classes are pretty big (35ish) and engaging that many students will be tough, especially when the novelty of me being foreign has worn off. Their questions have been really interesting, ranging from 'What is your favourite colour' to just simply 'Miss, you are so so beautiful' (obviously he got significant abuse from fellow classmates). However, if I get asked one more time if I like Justin Beiber.....