So most of you know that my friend Lucy was coming to Chile to backpack with me all the way to Lima, Peru. Well, she´s here! As soon as she got off the plane I took her to all the touristy spots in Santiago: La Moneda and the Plaza de Armas. To most of you who haven´t been to Santiago, there´s really not that much to see. I let Lucy rest for the rest of the day and today we went to Cerro San Cristobal to admire the view of all of Santiago. ... read more

Being part of the United Nations Development Program, the English Opens Doors closing ceremonies where held at the United Nations building in Santiago. It is a beautiful building. Our ceremony was hosted at the Economic and Social Committee's chamber which had the traditional round table with microphones at each seat. All 54 members had their flags represented in the background. All 41 out of 52 volunteers that survived the program attended as we received our last survey to fill out and our certificate of participation. ... read more

I have one week left in Patagonia... ONE WEEK! I can't believe 5 months have gone by this fast! I nearly didn't get to do things that I wanted and got to do a whole lot more that never new I would do. As for school, this week I've planned a lot of fun games and activities for my classes so that the kids remember what a good time we had together. With my 5th grade we played tons of games that had to do with body parts such as "Simon says" and "Head to toe". With my 12th grade I designed a treasure hunt. They ran up and down the school for half an hour deciphering clues only to find out the treasure was learning English. Of course! I also gave them lollipops. I still ... read more

Chileans are very generous and friendly people. My friend Brad had been helping a Chilean named Francisco with his English in exchange for him taking Brad around and showing him the area. When Francisco learned that Brad had invited other volunteers to come to Puerto Aysen to teach English to kids (including his son) he offered at once to let us stay at his cabañas for free. He even made us an asado for us and invited his entire family to come and get to know us. We were the life of the party. Everyone wanted to dance with us and hear story from us. It was an unforgettable night. The next day we they took us to Lago Riesco to sightsee. ... read more

As part of my involvement in the English Department, I conducted a Spelling Bee competition at the elementary school I work at. I invited all the kids to participate voluntarily. As a result, I had more contestants than I needed. I had to carry out a preliminary round the day before the competition so that I could have 5 kids per grade left. The competition was done by rounds were two grades participated at the time. The whole competition was carried out in English so sometimes it was up to my applause of lack of to notify the parents, teachers and students that they had spelled correctly or incorrectly a word. Chilean kids are always full of energy and I was a little worried that they would misbehave during the competition. On the contrary, they were ... read more