English Opens Doors

Last week I spent travelled to the North of Chile to volunteer my time at an English camp. These camps are run jointly by the Chilean Government and the United Nations to provide opportunities for high school students attending public schools to participate in a one-week camp free of charge. The camp, named ‘English Opens Doors’, has the objective to give students the opportunity to use English in stimulating activities, interacting with both Chilean and Native-English Speaking volunteers. Students can attend up to four camps in during their high-school years. Over 10,000 students applied to attend one of the many camps situated throughout Chile, and 2000 students were placed nationally.

Our camp ran with 1 Monitor, 5 Chilean Volunteers and 5 Native-English Speaking Volunteers and accommodated over 70 students (and one resident cat). The theme was Fashion – Show Your Style, and the majority of the activities incorporated this theme. Many arts and crafts activities were held including hat making, costume runway shows and of course poster making!

The day this photo was taken, I was also interview for a journalist (in Spanish!). The link is here:

http://www.elobservatodo.cl/noticia/sociedad/estudiantes-de-la-serena-y-ovalle-refuerzan-habilidades-en-ingles-summer-camps

We also made it to the print :)

Other activities included a scavenger hunt, sing-alongs, running dictation, wool-throwing and journaling.

There were also many ice-breaker games played to really encourage the team-spirit.

The highlight of each camp is the lip-dub video. It is a national competition, where each camp active at the same time are given the same song and the same timeframe to complete a video, demonstrating that the students understand the meaning of the song in one take. Posters, costumes, choreography and singing were a must! Underneath is the link to the lip-dub we prepared.

The program paid for the bus ticket to and from the camp back to Santiago, and put us up in the best hotel in the suburb for 6 nights. An included 3-course meal every night, and a buffet breakfast was a bonus I wasn’t counting on. Combined with the joy I get when working, I came back to Santiago one happy little camper!

 

The only non hotel/school food I ate was the delicious Papita Chips. A specialty of the area, with an incredible line at all hours of the day, they serve fried potato gems, with the most incredible home-made garlic-mayonnaise. What an absolute joy they were to eat. They are so remarkable that this was the designated treat we bought for the kids with their Friday lunch.

Volunteering for a week, also allowed me to cross of ‘Volunteer my time for a week’ off my ‘100 things to do before I’m 30’ list. I better get cracking on the list though – I only have 54 weeks to complete it!

I have since returned home, sleeping in a bed which frequently reminds me of The Princess and the Pea. Since we are renting a furnished apartment, we aren’t in a position to throw the old terrible mattress to accommodate our new, oh-so-amazingly soft mattress.

Since arriving to this apartment we have replaced the curtains with block-out curtains, and of course, bought the new mattress. These two things have provided a great environment to sleep upon well into the morning while Rubén goes and earns the money!

What is the only thing that has since ruined my perfect routine of sleeping all day?

My early birthday present:

Welcome to the family Calypso and Cielito (name may be changed shortly).

Calypso, at the age of 3 months, is a tiny blue and green ‘Australian Canary’. He spends his day rocking uncontrollably on his perch, much to my distress.

Cielito  is a sky coloured blue/white. At 5 months of age, he does not rock uncontrollably.

Both are eating happily inside their cage in their new home, proudly perched upon their new table we carried home on foot from a train-station away

The only other thing worth noting is that 2015 is the year that I began to read books in Spanish. Graduating from short-texts and fairytales, Bajo La Misma Estrella will be my first novel. Having watched the movie The Fault in our Stars on the plane to Chile (and crying my eyes out the entire time), I thought the Spanish-translated version will make the ideal first book. So far, I’m enjoying it just as much as the movie :)

With a wedding anniversary, birthday, Valentine’s Day, conclusion of Spanish classes and starting a new job happening in the next month – I imagine there may just be a little more news to come.

I hope all is well in your world!

Christmas and New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope your festive period was joyful and you have ushered in the New Year with much enthusiasm.

Our town has gotten into the Christmas spirit, with lots of lights to be seen along the streets!

Rubén and I spent Christmas with his Mum’s family in the country side. A late meal at 10pm and exchanging of gifts through a Secret Santa at the stroke of midnight happened as is the tradition in most Chilean families.

For the Secret Santa, I had Rubén’s sister Maria. With a $20 limit I had to get creative, and as such, my gift was one to be practical when she shortly moves into her new home.

4 x mugs, 1 colander, 1 spaghetti spoon, 3 x spaghetti & 1 pasta sauce.

Rubén’s mother was the one who drew my name out of a hat. She gave me a pair of exercise pants, to much jovial laughter of the family. I light-heartedly laughed, knowing that the only exercise I do is when I have to carry my suitcase. “It’s a sign,” people said as I opened them. I proceeded to look at the tag – Size Large. So not only does my mother-on-law consider that I need to do more exercise, she perceives me as two clothing sizes bigger than I am! Thank goodness for exchange tickets – I traded my pair of too-big exercise pants for 5 pairs of undies. They will come in handy in my upcoming week away from home!

My gift to Rubén was a mini-esky, and 5 packets of cookies, to assist with the transportation of his lunch to work each day and to minimize the damage his backpack makes rubbing against his new business shirts.

Rubén’s gift to me was some natural eye-cream (which he calls eyes cream, which constantly sounds like ice-cream), and some natural body butter. My skin is crazy dry in this climate – so they are well received.

As always, both Grandparents were super spoiled, and very appreciative.

 

Skip forward a week, and New Years Eve is upon us. We celebrated at Rubén’s father’s house. Rubén’s cousins came down from the North and joined us in a barbecue dinner, champagne at midnight, and spirits well into the morning. 4am, and we called last drinks and went home.

The past few days have been used shopping, shopping, shopping. Once again, we have hit our monthly credit card limit! However we now have block-out curtains for the bedroom and I have new shoes and a new dress from my new favourite clothing shop in Chile.

A new mattress will be delivered tomorrow. Bad, springy mattress will no longer rob us of a comfortable nights sleep.

Next week I am off for another Summer Camp, a volunteer position run with the UN and government of Chile. Have a safe fortnight!