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!!!