Blogs from O Higgins, Chile, South America - page 5

I spent the past two weeks traveling up and down Chile. It was an incredible two weeks, full of adventures, misadventures, new people, new friends, and incredible sights. I started out from Rancagua on Thursday, July 9, traveling to Iquique, which is a beach city in the second region of Chile, so it's very far north. I was traveling with Kate and Kelly, two of the other volunteers also living in Rancagua, and our friend Scott met us up there. We didn't get to our hostel in Iquique until about 1.30 in the morning, but Kate and I accidentally ended up staying up until 6.30 hanging out with the hostel workers. They were all really young, and were sitting down in the bar area just hanging out and totally welcomed us into the hostel, and into ... read more

Another week down. Another month started. I can't believe that June has come and gone and yet it is still freezing cold here in the southern hemisphere. It's difficult to explain the weather down here. It's often colder inside than out, forcing me to wear layers upon layers of wool and fleece. I even sleep in wool socks. I usually teach in a tee-shirt, sweater, vest, and fleece jacket. I would wear my hat and gloves but i move around too much so my hat falls off and my hands get too sweaty in my gloves. It's funny because I'm always so cold, but you would think that having lived in Rancagua forever, like most of the teachers, they would be used to the lack of indoor heating by now, but all you hear in the ... read more

First week of school is done and over with. What an experience. It's nice to finally get back into a routine again, even if it is still a little uncertain. I'm teaching eight different classes at the Liceo Comercial Diego Portales. It's a public high school just outside "downtown" Rancagua. I say "downtown" because Rancagua is a very small city, and the downtown area reminds me of an older Mercer Island, just in layout, not in content. It's a wonderful place, and I'm obviously still getting to know it, but I think that six months here is going to be awesome. So I'm teaching eight classes, four ninth grade, three tenth grade, and one eleventh grade. Per the rule of the Ministry of Education I also have to teach two workshops a week, so I have ... read more

First day at the host family's house! They have been absolutely wonderful so far. I am living in the city of Rancagua, which is in the Sixth Region of Chile, just about one and a half hours south of Santiago. I'm going to start my week of observation in my school on Monday, and I will be teaching high schoolers, but I'm not yet sure what age. We just spent the last week in a hostel in Santiago with all the other crazy peeps who are here teaching, and last night they prepared a traditional Chilean asado (barbecue) for us all. It was pretty bomb food, and then turned into a crazy dance party. Rio and Petra, two of the program coordinators, were tearing up the dance floor. I loved. My host family consists of three ... read more

We went back to Rengo and went to the Santa Cruz museum, there aren't many pictures of us inside as we were not allowed to take pictures in enclosed spaces, we took a sneaky picture and a security guard came running out of nowhere to tell us off! Santa Cruz is a small town that's about 1 hrs south of Rengo and it has the largest privately owned museum in Chile, the owner used to be an arms dealer :s. The next day we went to a place where we had a bbq and it had a swimmig pool in Rengo, it was the same place where I went the day before Andy arrived in December. ---------------------- ESPAÑOL Fuimos a Rengo y de ahí al museo de Santa Cruz, no hay muchas fotos de nosotros adentro ... read more