lost in translation

went for another walk round cholchol today. took pictures of all the cute coloured houses and all the animals.they have soooo many chickens here and huge cows. we helped in class today for the first time. they are being so nice and letting us start teaching next week to get used to the school so right now we are just helping in classes. one class were learning about sports and helping required alot of spanish which i lack so they had me acting out the sports, cringe! they started asking about all the names of different animal in english. i thought they were just interested but the teacher later told me they all call each other names in class such as cow and they wanted to know it is english! i should have known they were up to something!! but i really love the kids they are very patient with we as i take ages to think of the words i want to say and they have already guessed them before i say them! i also love the girls in the boarding house they have so much energy! i wolk this morning to the sound of them laughing! one girl yesterday taught us the quaka dance( i think that is how you write it) it is for a festival they are having in about 3 weeks which is celebrated all over chile and this year it is going to me huge because it is the 200th anniversity. yesterday i decorated my room. put up the scottish flag and all the pictures from home. it was funny unpacking because it actually started to sink in the fact it was my bedroom for the year.
this morning we had breakfast with juan and margaritta(the cooks). they are both loving. we normally eat with the children but we got took to lie in which was nice! juan let me watch him make the bread. when my spanish is better i might ask if i can help him! we had bread and jam for breakfast which was nice but then again we had soup and bread for lunch and you can bet your bottom dollar we will have bread for dinner. it is lovely homemade bread but if i eat anymore i am going to burst!!! margaritta asked if we liked cooking and i thought i said i like making cakes but leona told me later i said i like cooking cats!! because i said the french word for cakes which sounds the same as gatos which is cats in spanish. what will that woman think of me now! it is a really bad habit of mine to start saying stuff in french when i have no idea how to say it in spanish, as if they are going to understand it! just had a group of wee kids round me a minute ago looking at what i was writing as if they could read it! the kids are so funny yesterday they said i had barbie hair but then again today one asked if me and leona were pregnant! guess i really do need to stay off the bread!!!
R xxx

chol chol

i just arrived in chol chol this morning. we took the bus from santiago late last night and after a 10 hour bus journey we arrived here at about 7.00. the head master was suppose to collect us from the bus stop but after 30 mins of waiting around we decided to make our own way to the school. after asking about 3 locals who all gave us different directions we found the school and were given a warm welcome.we were later told they thought we were coming tomorrow! haha have to get used to the manana manana culture!  but we have been shown round the school and introduced to the children. we will be teaching the really young children which i am happy about because they are just so cute! we also got shown our accommodation in the boarding house which is basic but it is fine. we also met some of the other children who will be living in the boarding house to and they seemed lovely. the only proplem i am having is the fact my spanish is not up to the standard it needs to be to understand what people are saying. i am just learning to nod and smile and add in the odd si here and there!! hopefully it will soon start to click!
 I am still very tired after two 10 hour flights on which i didn´t manage to sleep. we spent two days in santiago in a youth hostel when we arrived. I really liked Santiago it had a really nice atmosphere. The people were very friendly and the location amazing. we walked up a castle type building in the centre and there we could see the andes that circle Santiago. we also saw the andes when flying into santiago it was such an amazing thing to have seen! it looked as though we were literally about to touch the peaks. the weather was lovely in santiago but it is pretty nippy here in cholchol but nothing i´m not used to in scotland!
well í´m off for my first luch here with the children. sorry if there are alot of errors in the post i am just too tired to correct it all!
speak soon
Rxxx

The whole training group on Coll

first blog!

Got back from my second trip to Coll about a week and a half ago and since then I haven't stop thinking about the fact I am leaving soooooo soon. I leave from Heathrow on the 27th of August then onto Atlanta then to Santiago. I then, apparently, have an 8 hour bus journey to Chol Chol the small village I will be living in for the year! The nearest town, Temuco, is 45mins away and is in the lake district part of Chile. I will be living and teaching in a boarding school in Chol Chol and hopefully getting stuck into the community life. 
So this is my blog and I will hopefully be able to update it regularly throughout the year so you all know what I am getting up to. Never had a blog before so just getting to grips with it but hopefully I will have it all figured out soon!
Rxxx