Where to start ? Well, getting back early from camping to apply for my Chilean Visa card turned out to mean getting to the offices with 2 minutes to spare, only to find i still needed one more photocopy from my passport! Running down the street to get to a shop and return just in time to be the last one in the queue, and on the last day the office was open before they closed for christmas! That could have put a flaw in my travelling plans as you have to wait 10 days for the card to come through . . . but all in good fun! Ha.

Christmas day in Chile . . . pretty much non existant! They celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, myself and Tim were kindly invited by Rheanna and Lauren's family to their house for Christmas as we currently don't have a family of our own. We all sat down for Christmas dinner around 10, however, other families don't eat until 1. The meal was lovely (obviously nothing on homes!) and the family were so nice and welcomeing to me, considering i have only been in the country a couple weeks! After the meal they take the children out on the streets in order for Santa to arrive, all the children then dissapear back to their homes to find the presents under the tree. They are then given out to eveyone, myself and Tim even recieved one, really showing how nice some Chileans are. You then stay up til 5/6 in the morning drinking and socialising with family.

Woke up with a nakered heart for Christmas as a result tho, not so fun. .! The day itself didn't really seem to have any tradition to it. Just sitting about and then another family meal, really didn't feel like Christmas, but it was a different expericence for sure. We then met up in the evening with the other volunteers in a nice traditional Chilean pub called . . . Dublin, hmm or not!

On the 26th we then left for a few days down to Pichlimu, this being the surf capital of Chile where their nationals are held. Stayed in a lovely hostel which used to be a light house. All good until i experienced my first earthquake which took me by surprise, then we all started to get a tad worried as the owner had mentioned it had collapsed the previous year from one! Had a 4 hour surf lesson with some crazy Dutch guy for about 20 pounds, then just hired some boards out the following day! He may have suggested we put sun cream on, however, as i had been here for 2 weeks and barely got burnt i decided to ignor this advise as the sun wasn't even out! Turns out i don't think they were lieing when they said there is a whole in the Ozone layer over Chile and the UV rays are much stronger, as my face is now pealing a right treat!

Following this was a trip down to Valparaiso for New Years, getting off the bus instantly finding the City to be packed with people, although hardely suprising as this is supposedly the place in Chile to go for new years! I met all the other volunteers from down south and some of the others Chileans friends in the evening. New years its self was pretty eventfull. . we didn't leave to go out until 11ish, pretty standard, we went to on of the main squares, where i met loads of random Chileans one complete stranger gave me a beer just before New Years, i love this country! However, shortely after New Years in my attempts to make new Chileans friends i managed to lose my own! But thankfully 2 hours later and an extended amount of walks trying to find the hostel or anyone i new in general i got a phone call through the packed lines and met up with two of the girls from the south. We then carried on exploring the town meeting people before trying to find Kirsty's hostel and finally returning home at 7 in complete daylight. Not an unusual time to get back in chile at all!

Joking aside, i realise i havn't done much teaching yet, this is because their christmas holidays are the equvilant to our summer. Thefore i will be doing the majority of my teaching later on from the end of Febuary, i wouldn't have chosen to come out at this time . . but im definitely not complaining. :)

And as i´m sure you have noticed i havn't had much time to proof read my blog, appoligies for the spelling!