1 month down, 10 to go!

A whole month! It doesn't seem like I've spent that long out here and the last month has flown by. I say "1 month down, 10 to go!" as though I'm craving a tally of the days that pass into my bedroom wall, waiting for the day I can finally come home. But in reality it's not like that. I feel like I've completely settled here now and am really enjoying the rhythm of Chilean life. I can't wait to see what the next 10 months bring and I look forward to updating you all on my progress!

Why would you want to leave a city as beautiful as this?!?

Getting to know the local rivers

I've just got back from a great weekend of paddling is Santa Bárbara. Santa Bárbara is a beautiful town about 2-3hrs south of Conce. It's nestled right in the middle of the mountains and has some truly amazing rivers. I was up early on Saturday to get a lift there with a group of rafting clients, a guide and the other safety kayaker. This was the same river, same rafting company and same people that I did  my first paddling trip in Chile with. I've gotta admit that it wasn't the most comfy journey as me and Paulo were sat in the boot of the van for the journey with very limited space!

I now know what it feels like to be a piece of luggage...

I tried to sleep through as much of it as I could, and when I wasn't sleeping I was swotting up on my Chilean slang using a book that one of my students gave to me. It's called 'Relatos de una mujer borracha' (Tales of a drunk woman), and is written using so many Chilean idioms and words. I'll give you a little taster in a future blog for those of you who speak any Spanish, or thought you did...! We got there eventually and after meeting up with the other guide and 6 clients and inflating the rafts we jumped on to the river. This time I was working as one of two safety kayakers for 2 rafts, picking up clients when they fell out (or the guides, which actually did happen this weekend!) and setting safety on some rapids. It's fair to say that this day was a lot more eventful that last time, with about 16 swims and a flipped raft in one rapid where a powerful wave flipped the raft right over and carnage ensued. The 12 clients had a great day and all the staff did too. Can't wait to go back!

Good company, solid team, awesome clients!

We spent the night at one of the guide's house in Santa Bárbara and we used today to do a run of the River Queuco. A really entertaining 8km section of very continuous grade 3/4. There were only three of us, Paulo, Diego and me. The section is very powerful but the consequences of messing up are low and we had a great time playing around on the river for a couple of hours, I don't think I've paddled many sections that continuous in the UK (things like the Lower Oetz in Austria would be a good comparison). The amazing thing about both these rivers is that they flow through some of the most breathtaking landscapes and you get to see places that nobody else has access to. I had an amazing weekend, spent in great company and doing a sport I love and exploring Chile's amazing countryside, it doesn't get much better than this. Pucón is hopefully the next stop in my kayaking adventure!!!

Just look at that landscape!

Purple rain

Why purple rain, I hear you ask... Well it's not as interesting as you might have been hoping for. There is a weird purple light on the street outside my room, it's tipping it down and it reminded me of the song. Creative right? The locals call Concepción 'Tropiconce', because the weather here can change in an instant. This week we've had rain almost every day but also sun most days too, you can be sat in a classroom and within one 45min session you've experienced two rainstorms and three brief interludes of glorious sunshine. It's like the city is trying to trick you into leaving the house in shorts and a t-shirt just so it can laugh it you when it pours down 10 minutes later and you don't have anything vaguely waterproof on you! (Sadly, this is a situation I find myself in all too often!)

It's fair to say that Conce is a city full of surprises. Every new part of the town I explore I find something interesting, weird, funny, creepy. On Wednesday on the way home from work we got stuck in a long queue of traffic whilst on the bus, since it wasn't that far from home I decided to get off and walk the remaining 5 minutes home. Turns out the long queue of traffic was due to some protestors starting a massive fire in the road and stopping all traffic from passing, they were protesting rubbish pensions which seems to be a very common thing here. Protests are way more common here than they are in the UK, happening once or twice (potentially more) a week! The best advice I was given was that if you see the police turn up with the water cannon, RUN! I've seen them use that thing and they don't hold back. Tear gas, fire and missiles (no, not explosives...) are not uncommon.

ComBUStion issues... (Maybe I won't use puns on this blog again...) 

"Selfie at a protest? Probably not appropriate, best stick with the standard photo..."

Even the university system here is characterised by the regular political activities of its students. There are two stages to university protests, as far as I'm aware. Stage 1 is called "En paro", which kind a means a pause in studies whilst the students protest (I think). The second stage is the one I know I little bit more about, it's called "En toma" and it's where the students break into the faculty at night, occupy the building and don't let any staff or officials in until they've got what they want or reached some resolution. It's really common here. In fact, the first week I walked around the UdeC (Universidad de Concepción) campus, most of the faculties were 'en toma', and some faculties won't start classes until Monday due to the protests! I find it fascinating that we know practically nothing of this in the UK and we don't realise it really exists in Chile because it's so normal here that nobody documents it, the same goes for other street protests. I'm thinking it might be interesting to do some kind of film or photography project that would give a bit more of a creative insight into the whole protest culture out here to foreigners.

Don't mess with armoured police single decker buses!

"Escuelita en toma" one of the many UdeC faculties affected

The doctors are at it too!

I'm off to bed now because I have to be up early tomorrow for what will hopefully be a whole weekend of whitewater paddling about 3hrs South of here. Stand by for the update!

Work and Play

Hi everybody! It's been a while since I've written a post on here. I'm now about 2 and a half weeks into my trip here. This week has been the busiest so far. Monday I moved into my new place. It's a small en suite room that gets quite cold, but I've got a decent electric blanket which has kept me nice and warm. Millie the cat seems to like spending the day sleeping on my bed, good thing she's friendly! I've met most of the housemates who are really nice, there are 8 Chilean students and 1 English girl, all around the same age. It should be good fun socialising with the house in the weeks to come.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to go on a short paddling trip. I went to a place called Santa Bárbara with a rafting company and a group of clients, me and a friend ran the river by kayak and stopped at certain rapids to take photographs and set safety for the raft. It was only a few hours away and was definitely the best quality grade 3 I've ever found anywhere!

Tuesday I taught the class to the firemen, which I mentioned in my last post. It was pretty intimidating standing in front of 20 firemen and having to deliver a class of 90mins on quite a niche subject in Spanish, but I managed to fumble my way through! It can't of been that bad because they've got in contact and want to do a few river-based sessions too which will be really fun. It was nice to be able to share some of the skills I've picked up in the UK with people out here who will be able to apply them in emergency situations. I also started work this week. I've taught lots of different levels of English to students of the Hospitality, Gastronomy and Tourism courses at INACAP as well as working with some translation students. The teachers are good fun to work with and in general there's a very relaxed environment in the classroom. I'm also working with the debate team who we're trying to prepare for a debating competition in English, so I've been spending a bit of time today trying to put together some resources to help them with their public speaking, intonation and debating skills. This coming week I'm hoping to organise getting a new kayak to use over here, working my first full week at INACAP and hopefully meeting lots of new people!

I first thought this was a cool idea at a local nursery for the kids to play with... I was later informed this is the emergency escape route in case of an earthquake! 

A week in...

It's strange to think that I've only been in Chile a week now, it feels like I've been here a lot longer! I think it's because you have to organise a lot of things in the first week, accommodation, identity card, banking, work, clothes etc.

I've had a really exciting week settling in and have met lots of new people. On Sunday I met up with a friend who took me to a place called Desembocadura, where the River Bio-Bio meets the sea. It was a really cool place and we walked up a slippery path to get a good view of the sunset. It seemed to be a popular spot with the local surfers and the waves looked pretty great.



Then we went to a local fast food place and ate 'completos italianos', a hot dog with tomato, mayonnaise and avocado... It's worth trying once I would say but I would probably opt for something else next time!

Bizarre intro to Chilean fast food...

Monday I was in the bank for an hour trying to figure out how the system worked and trying to pay the deposit for my new accommodation. As usual, everyone else knew exactly what they were doing and I was the one staring cluelessly at the different forms and slips to be filled in! The afternoon was a lot more relaxing, the English department at INACAP had organised a wine-tasting class which was really fun and it was good to meet the other teachers that I might be working with.

I thought English banks were confusing!

Working hard...?

I also met the other British Council language assistant who is working in Concepción at a different university, we went for a long walk around the town and had lunch together. We explored some really pretty paths in the local park, Parque Ecaudor.


















Yesterday I picked up the keys to my new place, I move in on the 8th so hopefully there'll be some pictures to follow. I also met with one of the local fire brigades, they specialise in rope rescue and aquatic rescue. They've asked me to run a classroom based theory session about whitewater safety and rescue as a bit of a refresher next Tuesday which should be good fun, We're also looking at the possibility of teaming up and heading out to one of the local rivers to set up some practise exercises and scenarios for them. It'll be a challenge teaching the session in Spanish, since a lot of the vocab is very specific but we'll see how it goes!!!