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!