Queso de Cabra

We are in the goats cheese capital of the world. Bleeeeugh! We managed to hold our gag reflexes today just long enough to snap this photo in the local market...

However, we are also (despite the lack of rain for 5 years!) in one of the most fertile valleys in Chile so plenty of fresh fruit and veg to be scoffed if you can catch it before it´s exported... strawberries to Germany, grapes to the USA, and Avocado all over the world. Not to mention the giant broccoli´s. Getting hold of the fresh shiz in the local eating joints however remains somewhat of an issue, so next time you´re in a supermarket and see the Chile sticker on your fruit and veg, think of us (and post it back!)

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Observations of Chile

Top 5 Great things about Chile so far.

1. The buses are taxis. Much more speedy and less chance of sitting next to a stinky.

2. Chilean people drink as much tea as the English.

3. Grapes and avocados grow in your back garden.

4. The maximum time to go without a BBQ is 15 days. It takes around 2 weeks for them to finish all the meat they BBQ'd last time.

5. Old school video games are still going strong in this town.

Top 5 odd things about Chile

1. People here drink entire cups of tea with teaspoons, sip by painfully slow sip.

2. Chickens and rabbits live together in harmony, as do parrots and tortoises.

3. Dead animals stay put. This weekend we saw a dead seal, donkey, dog, goat and bird. Anything still living will be humped by a stray dog sooner or later.

4. Nobody goes to bed until at least 1am. Partly because an after dinner lie down is considered a must.

5. Collectable keyrings are still cool in Chile.

Goodbye Santiago, Hello Ovalle!

Toward the end of an intense week of training, it was time to explore Santiago's wild side. This coincided with one of the city's frequent student riots. So amid the tear gas and riot police, we headed up to the best vantage point to catch a glimpse of the unrest at a safe distance whilst enjoying the superbueno sunset...we can protest later.

Slowly, the volunteers trickled out of the hostel to their regions, and we nervously boarded the bus to Ovalle, where we've been placed along with 2 other US volunteers. Met from the bus by our teachers and families and a very angry perro, we were whisked away to our new homes. It's strange living with host families...a bit like French exchange all over again!

Both families are very friendly but don't speak ANY English. We are quickly mastering our acting and spanglish skills, and learning lots about the culture. With our rusty Spanish, we've not yet learned how to deal with the daily earthquake tremmors, the 1am bedtime routine, or the 4 large meals a day. Wide camera lenses may be required for any photos from here on....

We've been schooled

After an epic bus journey across the andes and smuggling Jonny's mum's home made marmelade through the border, we have finally arrived in Santiago, Chile.

Sharing our bustling youth hostel with our fellow trainee teachers in what feels like a University American sitcom...high fives at breakfast, Apple macs for lunch and chat about soccer and thrift stores at dinner. It's totally AWESOME. Ahem.

Working long days in a v. Studious district next door to pinochet's torture quarter, which isn't a far cry from our teacher training. Apart from being schooled on the art of not getting ourselves pregnant, we have learnt lots of useful tips on how to deal with a bunch of 25 mischievous Chileans, which culminated today in us conducting our own mock class...although this scared us both silly, we now feel somewhat prepared for the onslaught. Nonetheless, we took ourselves off after class to recover with a large glass of vino and the best most delicious ice cream I have EVER tasted (and I've tasted A LOT!)

The weekend will bring new adventures as we head off to our new families in Ovalle, in the small north. The town is famous for producing Pisco so we are never too far from a post school high! Ciao ciao for now x

League of Winos

Day 4. It has not taken long to get used to the south American way of life. After a day or so of comparing everything we saw / smelt / ate / understood to England, we can now get on and enjoy everything at face value. Our Spanish is still very rusty, but that will have to change next week when we are sent to our allocated towns in Chile. Yesterday was spent cycling and wine tasting in mendoza's vineyards which was incredible. Slightly merry, we even got a police motorcade escort back from the vineyards, we are not sure whether this was the result of straying into a less salubrious end of town or (more likely) Thea's erratic cycling.