Dora the Explorer

Terremoto- The Day of the Quake

2010-02-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

To anyone who may still be looking at mine and Ellas blogs, though they havent been updated since christmas. We are all fine. We were affected by the earthquake but all are safe. And are in no comparison to what is being shown on the news at the epicentre, we are a safe 200km or so away from conception.

Heres what happened in our neck of the woods:

NOTE: Ella may THINK she is superhuman and may THINK she saved my life. But had i not had saved hers first by getting her up from her bed where she continued lay even though bits of ceiling paint were falling on her face she could not have saved mine by moving me in my confused panic moment at the bottom of the stairs. Therefore she can now stop forcing me to make her pancakes whenever she wants them. That is all - you may read on...

We we're all due to be getting up at 4am to be ready to go on a weekend trip to some beaches near Coquimbo. Jaime was going to be driving a microbus (which we were very excited about) loaded up with the family for two days of beach fun and camping!! At 2am we finally went to bed to catch some sleep be fore four, Ella threw a strop about how Lia had wee'ed on her bedding that day and vowed not to speak to her for the next few days and stomped her way into a diffferent bedroom for the night. We we're then awoken at 3.30am by what we thought was a tremour. After a few seconds we realised it was far more rigorous and the house was really shaking. I called over to kerrianne and as we got up Maria ran in the room shouting "get up and run"

Shit.

We ran down the corridor to get Ella, who was sat on her bed with bits of paint from the ceiling falling on her. "downstairs now" shouts maria so off we go, passing Cynthia in the hallway desperately trying to get her jeans on. We then take on the funhouse stairs. These have since stuck in my mind. Swaying around and creaking all over the place.

Kerrianne runs to the front door and frantically trys to open it even though it is locked. (looking back now this was quite amusing and she cant remember doing it.) I stand at the bottom of the stairs flapping around not entirely sure where we are meant to be running too. Outside!! Oh right ok. We run to the back door where Ella freezes by the kitchen (since then has told us she froze as she thought the walls were falling down. They werent. but various objects were smashing everywhere. (kind of like when the titanic sinks in the film and all the plates and things fall off the wall) We then get outside and huddle round in the middle of the garden until the shaking stops.

We then look around and notice everyone is either dressed or in pyjamas apart from ella.. suprise suprise who is in her pants and a t-shirt. (last night we noticed she put pyjama bottoms on before she went to bed. She's learnt her lesson.) Maria ventures back in search of Lia, turns out shes fast asleep in her bed. Silly dog, shes meant to warn us of these things. Jaime appeared at the gate, doing his duties checking on all his family. He then asked who was going to be the quickest, Ella steps up "go get shoes and clothes but be quick ANOTHER ONE IS COMING"

Maria then spends the next few hours freaking us out jumping up every time the floor shakes. We set up camp downstairs with various family that have gathered. Gustavo tells us whats likely to happen, but again our spanglish gets us again "all I got from that is its either going to get better or a lot worse."

It got better. We all napped in the lounge. Before lunchtime we took a trip to town to see any damage:

Then spent the afternoon hearing the news from england on the phone. Late afternoon we got electricity back and this morning have a little water. But not enough for showers etc, much to ellas delight - she doesnt have to wash.

A bowl full of chile

2009-11-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

ahhhhhhhh so much time has passed again where to start? Firstly with an apology to my family.. I hear theres been complaints as to where the weekly travel literature is.. well here you go...

The past month has brought the arrival of the infamous Andrea Bowie.. our predecessor. She returned one friday in the dead of night.. disturbed from my slumber by the flashing lights outside I ran around the house looking for Ella in excitement/worry as to why the carabineros were on our doorstep... followed by the excited screams from Maria.. "ANDREA BOWIE" well that's an entrance. Turns out she was looking a little lost in Calera and a crazy lady insisted the police drive her to the house, so one confused looking Andrea later we settle in for the night with pan and cafe and stories of the rest of South America.

The next morning we head over to vina with our new playmate to lay in the sunshine for a few hours on the beach, followed by fajitas and exiting smoothies and very rushed bus trip back to Calera to get to Sole´s wedding in time. Ahh 5 minutes to get changed a lot frantic running around the house to get ready 3 girls appear in dresses at the bottom of the stairs, to then be informed we´re not actually leaving for another half an hour. Well in that case, lets start swapping dresses and actually do our make up properly.

Wedding time. ooooh yeah. upon arrival we´re informed we will be singing a duet during the ceremony.. ok.. hold on a second during the actual ceremony?.. not later on when everyones had a few glasses of champagne and wont be listening intently. no no you´ll be singing as a close to the ceremony. Oh brilliant. Im glad im a really good singer and that we took the time to learn these words on the bus back. oh dear. "and now Kerry and Ella will be singing"... shit. so up we go. sing our hearts out and smash another fear off the list. singing in public. done. now wheres that champagne. The wedding continued with lots of dancing, more singing, a slideshow a bouquet throw at 3 in the morning.. wow these chileans know how to party.. cake cutting at 4 in the morning!! Both Andrea and Ella got to dance with the hottie at the party.. an old man with one tooth who initally thought andrea was Ella's mum. I escaped with a trip to the toilet timed perfectly with the end of a song so he couldn't run over and whisk me off my feet. We rock back up to the big Chile house at 5.00 for early morning sandwich making and then to sleeeep to dream of one toothed men.

In an even shorter summary, we've hit the beach a lot been working on our tans most weekends ella's bikini bottoms are creeping higher and higher in an attempt to rid all white tan lines, we may have an indecent exposure claim on our hands soon. Beach time was interrupted for a necessary trip out of our beloved chile to see some more of South america. So we chose mendoza after dreams of peru became unrealistic.

Mendoza

Off we hop on the bus all excited about a trip to the big city, 6 hours you say, easy time for a film and nap brilliant. and what a delightful sandwich you have provided us with. (this is not sarcasm it really was a delightful sandwich.) So we leave Calera behind and set off into the heat of the day up to the mountains, where we encounter the first problem, an oil carrying lorry has over turned and lost its tank of oil down the side of the big hill, traffic slows as it creeps past to get a good look of the crane pulling up the tank.. and off we go again, up through the mountains, past portillo and the scary feeling in my stomach feeling like i was about to try and get off the ski lift again and ceremoniously hit the floor. but no on we go up to the border. wahoo 4 hours down at the border, piece of cake...... 3 hours later we're still at the border. 3 whole hours!!!! and still not through. Let me take you through the process, you need at exit stamp from chile then an entrance stamp from argentina in a different queue, then back on the bus to collect bags and have them scanned, and your done and on your merry way. but no apparantly this takes hours. after this we're back on the road into argentina and arrive in mendoza bus station about 10.5 hours after we left. brilliant. we wave andrea off on her way to find her next bus onto Buenos Aires, then went from hostel to hostel looking for somewhere to stay. no beds. even better. Finally we stumble upon another hostel with a whole room free, six beds to ourselves. brillo. We change then head out to see what mendoza has to offer after walking around town taking it in turns to decide whether to go left or right at roads with no real plan of where we're heading I spot an andrea shaped figure up in the distance... could this be? yes in fact it was, and really what are the chances of bumping into her in this huge city. Turns out she missed the bus and was staying in the first hostel we tried. So off we all trot onto a bbq at a hostel. We danced and met lots of other tourists, but where are the locals? We somehow make it back to our hostel, me having completely forgotten the name of it. Next day we spend napping in the park under a tree, really taking in the sights. And I should really add that mendoza is possibly the smelliest city ive been too. it smells of sewage everywhere. andrea then suggests we go to the indoor market, ...ah lovely hanging animal corpses everywhere. Ella desperately wants lasagne so we stop in the first place we see with lasagne on the menu. we probably should have thought more about this. picture the scene, Mendoza's sewagey streets, a cafe with hideous food pictures on its sign. The food appears... mmm your lasagne has a delightful after taste...of well feet. Our next day was slightly more successful we hit the aquapark where we get a chance to do our favourite activity, tan and we can swim here too! brilliant, although the pools are quite shallow and i manage to scrap my hands along the bottom of the pool causing injuries that make me look like ive been in a fight. Monday morning we get moving to the bus station. Please take us back to chile we miss it too much. We hop on a bus to santiago, another ten hours down with some questioning at the border as to why we want another 3 month holiday in chile. Because we friggin love chile ok. why wouldnt we want to go back. I miss Calera, and more importantly Maria.

We return from Mendoza to find the house is getting ready for christmas, up goes the tree and various other christmas related items. I lovingly make advent calendars for the classrooms and kitchen with chocolates in for everyone.. im still not sure everyone entirely understands what these are though.

And then it was abuelitas birthday.. which we took charge off. We want everyone here, no excuses. and my my was everyone there, that'll be fourty chicken legs, a million potatoes and lot of salad. and possibly a harry potteresque table that we can get everyone sat at. Dinner went down a treat, follwed by a talent show!!! oh yes! now this is a family who knows how to entertain. We had Fernando and his magic tricks, Cyntia, maria pas and chinga dancing, camila singing with Fresia rolling around on a chair much to everyones amusement. Some more singing, followed by jaimes lot singing and playing guitar. and then it was our turn.. erm ok.. well we have actually made up a routine.. ha. (id like to point out that we have a dance routine on account of having to start camilas party when her friends were too cool to dance. in this time filling stage we made up a 30 second piece that got the crowd moving.) We performed our dance routine much to the delight of the family, followed by a short burst of happy birthday on the ocarinas.

This was followed by a much postponed trip up North to Andres' house by the "world class waves" So midnight arrives on grandma's birthday, but the party doesn't stop so we slip out to catch the bus up to Coquimbo and later hear the party didn't come to a finish until 2.30am what a party animal abuelita turns out to be! Five hours later we arrive in Coquimbo and take a trip to the beach.... world class waves you say.. well that was a lie. But yes it is a nice beach. I take up my position on a rock for the next 3 days camera in hand ready to take some world class photos of the guys and ella in the water. We have a funfilled few days, broken up with a car break down where we pass the time doing pilates in the middle of a dirt track. but all in all a very chilled and beneficial surf training weekend. Good work team, lets go again soon.

On our return to the casa grande the container arrived!! this was a very fun day with lots and lots of boxes filled with everyones generous donations. Obviously we claimed all the good stuff first! ha jokes. The house has been kitted out and there are still many boxes to be unpacked. Kids we're all delighted with all the new toys they can now play with. And then the durans arrived, with much talk around school with many a kid muttering to themselves about mr duran arriving, local celebs or what! So schools finished the big pool is up in the garden with a slide going in to it, we spent yesterday on the teacher/family trip, (minus the teachers, as they're too sad) and had a lot of fun in the swimming pools all day. Today is the orphanage christmas party and everyone is busy planning games to play, myself and ella have a fairground type coconut stall to construct and its christmas on thursday!! So all in all a busy week ahead but lots of fun to be had.

Feliz Navidad!! (Happy christmas!!)

Christmas love to everyone

x x x x

if I could ride my bicycle all day everyday i'd be very happy

2009-11-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Firstly. Id like to apologise to my fans for my lack of blog updates So in summary I shall attempt to remember the events of the past two weeks..

We shall begin with ella's birthday, Friday 16th October. We spent a busy day planning nursery school changes followed by a trip to the beach for an hour or so to lay in the sun with an ice cream. Lovvvvvvely.

Back on the bus to get back to create fireworks in the kitchen. We were attempting to cook up a storm for the hoards of Durans. We made fajitas, various salsas and three delightful puddings of; banoffie pie, apple crumble and eton mess for 18 people. Challenge accepted. And we can safely say noone was ill after and there was barely anything left (much to my dissapointment on the apple crumble front.
Ah then the birthday cake appears. Ella blows out her candles followed by a lot of nudging, winking and giggling around the table and various people strategically placing themselves around ella and her cake as maria informs ella its customary to take a bite out of your cake in Chile. Maria proceeds to take the candles out of the cake, with my realisation that this cake is probably going to end up on her face soon. Ella has no realisation and is happy to follow "traditions." Take a bite then... SMASH maria pushes the cake up, Chinga pushes her head forward and manuel was ready and waiting with the camera.. Brilliant.. one cakedy facedy. This then starts a bit of a food..face war whereby Ella thinks its accpetable to attack people with cream who had little involvement in her cake attack, Manuel takes a plate of eton mess to the face who then throws it back at Ella and then for no reason whatsoever Im attacked with cream. All the while the true culprits Maria and Chinga get away with clean faces. Ruddy brilliant. Abolita looks on the scene in confusion, why waste good pudding? A short shower later and the cream beginning to smell faintly like sick in our hair and faces we settle down to watch a film on the big screen and promises of Fantasialandia in the morning. The next morning we slowly rise to the bombsite downstairs... cream up the walls, salsa on the ceiling..(only joking) but it is cleanup time, conveniantly Ella stays in bed until its done and Manuel distracts himself by cleaning his car.

The creepy man described below

Naya and Sole arrive so we jump on a bus with Manual and male and all hit up Santiago. Here we learnt how to use the slightly overcrowded metro, Well incredibly overcrowded in fact but for the small price of 40p no matter where you want to go why wouldnt it be? Not sure how we got on or off for that matter. Think London, rush hour, and times it by 10. So we arrive at our destination and Manuel is pretty excited to take the snazzy bus. £7 entry to the theme park, what a bargain, we can come here more often. So we spent the the day checking out the crazy rides. Us definately being more dare-devil. Until we went to leave, where we were attack by halloween people, which I have no shame in saying was terrified of one guy. He followed me around for ages getting really close to my face.. I didnt like it. Painfully Manuel made us stay in the presence of these horrible people for ages. We then took a trip back on the metro which if possible was even more busier. We were entertained by a girl attempting to get on the metro with a big balloon ball. This was incredibly funny for us but I fear this may be something you just had to see. She attempted several times to get on the metro with her ball in front of her, repeatedly looking confused as to why only the ball fit and not her, but she persisted in trying over and over until she finally realised as the doors were closing on her that if she lifted the ball above her head that she could infact get on the metro with her stupid balloon.

The next week is a bit of a haze, I seem to recall a surf trip but not very good conditions where we gave it a go anyway.. me not for so long and Ella perfecting her duck dive and Andres just dissapearing out into the ocean. And probably various trips to the ice cream shop.

Our following weekend was taken over by rearranging the nursery and bringing in a new system. This was actually quite satisfying to create a huge mess, which is what we do best then attempt to fix it by Monday morning.

Before

During

After

We also took a midweek trip on the bus to Quillota at somepoint. In search of the cinema.Pretty interesting trip.. Ines how do we get to the cinema.. "spanish spanish spanish number 7 bus.. spanish spanish near the plaza..spanish spanish number 3 or 4 back spanish spanish." ok then number 7 number 3 or 4 and somewhere near the plaza. on the bus we go.. Ella cleverly asks the bus driver man to holla we were near the plaza. Done. in quillota brillo ah yes and theres the cinema. I leave a paper trail for our way back. Right whats on.. ah good nothing. Lets watch this one. Ah yep sitting comfy. Bugger. Ive definately seen this terrible movie before. Drag me to hell; terrible terrible movie. Ive definately learnt my lesson on the spanish name disguises for films now. and once again for anyone that has seen the movie fear old women again. Now to get home.. yep theres no buses here... erm.. so we call manuel who finds it hilarious and attempts to describe where we need to be. And in the end a nice man directs us to the supermarket which is apparently where the buses reside.. true dat.. ah yes the number 3. home we go. Another town conquered. Well maybe that one conquered us, but still now we know for next time.

And our most recent adventure was to Valparaiso on Friday. Which is my new favourite place. Unfortunately forgot the memory card to my camera so we'll have to go again. yes. Here we met up with Andres who introduced us to his lovely girlfriend and showed us the sights of valpo. A place with real cafes. and very arty, me likey. We went out in the eve to some bars caught about 6 words from the convosations but enjoyed every minute none-the-less. and in true british style bought a lot of chips on the way home. Mainly over a small confusion as to whether they'd been ordered yet so ordered more. whoops. Ill take photos next time..not of the chips.

To anyone thats made it to the bottom of this, congratulations this was long ting. Ive learnt my lesson, Ill try not to leave it as long next time.

over and out x x x x

Woooooaaaaahhh... MY FACE IS ON FIRE

2009-10-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy busy non-stop week, and a brilliant one. Friday was the start of my birthday, yes thats right, Maria said it was three days long so three days long it became. Friday night kicked off with a pretty awesome party, Maria got plenty of bread, crisps, cake and apples in for the occasion, she seems to have gotten to know our favourite foods, carbs carbs carbs. So the no bread ban was out the window and everyone tucked in. Manuel set up his dj booth, party lights and smoke machine and we danced the night away to some reggaeton interjected with a bit of english cheesey pop. Saturday we took the bus to Vina and I endured a few hours of ella sobbing to my sisters keeper or as the chileans have named it.. un decision mas dificil. So two wet and red faces later we hopped back on our bus to crash and burn back out the house. Sunday brought the arrival of my birthday, and a bouncy ella made pancakes while I opened the cards that had been stolen from me. A pretty damn good three days if you ask me. Settled in for the night ready for another week of Spring time in the classroom, only to be awoken to some kind of commotion about going to the mountains. Fernando set off to fetch his car and requested we be ready in ten... ummm hold on rewind.. what? actually dont explain ill just go pack.

After an incredibly exciting road trip through the mountains we arrived at Portillo, attempted to check in and after struggling for a few minutes with our spanglish the woman informs us she cant infact speak english.. well in that case you lovely lady where might we locate our room, and more importantly what time is dinner time? We opted to not spend 200 dollars a night each to stay in the hotel and chose to stay in the lodge outside, one cosy room later with the possibilty of being joined by more people in it we managed to unpack our small bags and somehow fill the room with all our stuff. No chance of being joined. theres no shelves left.. sorry. We then wandered round the hotel .. a gym.. a beautician.. a pool.. a cinema! oooh yeeeahh. very nice. Next stop hire shop.. here we befriended the staff with our wit, english beauty and general attitude to get stuck in. That was until we got outside.

Boots on
Snowboard on.. I think
Top of the slope
Stand up... woah no. Yep this is slightly more difficult than I first anticipated

So I spent a lot of time on the floor not really being able to work out how to get up and then when I was up I was straight back down again. Back to square one.. Get up.. nope I really cant.

So we laughed and bickered and I fell lots and seemed to only know the word cant. We were the last people out in the snow and after a few more tumbles we called it a night and headed in to warm up.. and boy was my bum cold from sitting on in too much. Id learnt my lesson.. work out a better way to get up or lose my ass to the snow where tomorrow it would more than likely fall off if I stayed on it too long. We hit up the cinema, then the gym where ella seemed to turn into one of those gym freaks that has to get their fix of the gym equipment, one hot and sweaty ella later we hit the showers. These I cannot describe in their full glory.. What sort of hotel builds a row of pretty much see through showers? ah well in we get followed by a lot of hysterical laughter from our end of the row as various body parts were mushed up against the glass. After dinner we hit the DISCO.. and it was dead but we bumped into the hire shop guys and taught them some english card games.

Day two - Whey straight up and standing. Look at that determination. 20 mins on the green slopes then off we go to the blue slopes.. erm theres a pretty big difference between this one and that one are you sure? oh yep well were on the lift now... hold on hold on.. how do we get off.. turns out no matter how hard you try on a snowbaord you just fall off. well maybe not if your a pro.. I definately think i may have broken the world record of stacks off a ski lift managing to fall off every single one.. a few times taking ella down with me, if she wastn already down of course. And the few times i did stay up I was knocked down by Pablo.. thanks Pablo (never ridden a snowboard before.. yeah right.)

But that doesnt matter, the point is I was now up and unstoppable on my board, apart from the falls at the top of the ski lift, I could now get all the way down the mountain with only a few falls here and there. A few pretty spectacular falls though I might add, one involving an almost broken hip.. no jokes. Ow the pain. 4 meals later and a full day out on the slopes we were feeling good but pretty tired. we took a two hour nap and then headed out in search of entertainment; we headed to the cinema room where they were playing Donde esta Elisa.. boo yeah! Maria would be loving this. we settled down in our bean bags and waited for the film. Charlie Wilsons War, pretty good. Maybe a little heavy for our tired selves but nevertheless managed to stay awake throughout. just about. After the film we headed down to the disco.. empty. One of the women informed us that everyone was over the road at the other bar. So we decided to check it out. Luckily we bumped into the ski rental guys outside as the "bar" in question was infact someones house. But boy was it banging inside. Here we found out was where the staff hung out and it was someones birthday. We got our groove on and danced the night away. quite literally the music stopped at 3 and it was us for a change that wanted to carry on. Nope bedtime. oh ok.

So 4 hours later we were up again. incedibly tired but eager to have our last morning on the slopes. Ella was getting good at learning to carve and I could get from the top to the bottom without stacking it. Brilliant. Well done us. Two very proud girls took our last trip on the big ski lift. Enjoyed the view all the way back to the top then once again ceremoniously stacked it coming off. I seriously dont understand how anyone gets off them.

So it was goodbye to Portillo and hello to fernando.. and apparently fernando's videocamera. Why oh why are you filming the receptionists.. and the carpark.. and the goats..

x x x x

Dont forget to pack the meat

2009-09-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo its been a busy week Tuesday we took another trip to Vina. whooped Male and Manuel at bowling 3 games won by team kerry and Ella and the final game stolen from us when Ella somehow managed to forget how to bowl completely and sent a lot of balls straight into the gutter. I then managed to fall up an escalator in a slow motion running fashion right in the middle of the shopping mall, much to Manuels amusement. Took a gash to the leg and now probably have escalator aids. embaressing.

Wednesday was party day at the school. Some very interesting gladrags were put on. Im told floral is in fashion at the moment but not so sure about grass skirts on boys.. The kids looked adorable in their traditional dancing outfits. There was a bit of stage fright from a few of the kids. My fav girl wouldnt dance at all and stood with her arms crossed in the middle of the stage.. hilarious. After the dances the family got on stage with some guitars and sang a couple of songs. Followed by a bbq by some of the parents and the misses. MEAT MEAT MEAT. meat on sticks. meat in pastry, meat in bread. MEAT. We ducked out of the party to get some of our favourite bread and ice creams from our new favourite shop run by a little old lady who is very helpful. We're trying to get her to be our new best friend. Shes brilliant. Once the party was over we took to the trampoline for some bouncing fun with a few minor injuries and some impressive backflips from ella.

Thursday night after almost managing to fall asleep on the sofa we were taken to a dance in the park. and it was cooooold. but pretty fun. Highlight being the weird old man that came over to me and asked me to dance, I pretended I didnt understand him and apologised for my lack of spanish. He then came back ten minutes later and worked his magic with ella. She caved and danced with the very energetic crazy man. He took every opportunity he could to kiss her on the cheek then once the longest song in the world had finished he kissed her some more then showed his gratitude by giving her an empanada. TRUE LOVE. unfortunatly he left without giving her his number. Rejected.

Friday - Independance Day.. Lets see what the fuss is about.. well I would tell you but we missed the parade, due to numerous people sending us to the wrong place (ill name no names) So instead we took a long walk in the wrong direction to the park. and not the stadium. and then a long walk back. with a pit stop for ice cream again. mmm ice cream. half an hour later cars appear and people begin bustling around the house.. beach time!! ooooh yeah. Load up the minibus.. thats right maria we probably do need all those pots and pans. Do I think we need polenta?? erm maybe.. why wouldnt we need polenta maria? (turns out we didnt need polenta) but we DID need those two bags of meat. phew. Glad the meat got packed. right everyone in... 17 people later we all hit the road...

HOLD UP.. 17 people... one beach house.. I began to get a little worried and wondered whether we were infact going to ron weasleys magical house with lots of bedrooms or if this was going to be a super cozy shed. Not to worry two beach houses, 14 beds, two sofas and an extra mattress. phew. and grandma shotguns a bottom bunk. BQQ lit. music pumping.. and a huge beach to explore. ooooooh yeeeeah. 3 days of sunning ourselves on the empty beaches and exploring ( we found horse bones.. gross. oh AND we saw a boy surfing in a bouyancy aid.. hilarious.) time to pack up and head home... maria promises a meat free week ahead.. we'll see. Ive actually grown to quite like a lump of meat.. not too sure whats happening to me.. quite enjoy a bit of salt too. uh oh.

Oh and bread has officially been banned. the bread binge is over due to the health risk it was causing us. Buff and brown. buff and brown. not fatty boom booms.

Over and Out

CIAO CIAO

x x x x

"I just nearly killed a child"

2009-09-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

What a week!

School is buzzing with excitement.. its independance day next week and I think its bigger than Christmas, there has been a lot of preparation and lots of dance practise! AND theres a stage in the garden, much to our delight!!

Wednesday we hit Vina for the day, watched Manuel whip the football pitch into shape and score some goals for his team they were also playing against a team sponsored by durex, much to our amusement.

The girls teams were terrible, now I realise why girls football isn't as big as mens.. they run round like fairies looking scared of the ball. Hats off to the bitch fight though for a bit of entertainment. There was a lot of over dramatics with fake injurys.. very unconvincing, however, the football proceedings came to a halt when the goalkeeper hit the ground. A deadly silence, then a lot of shouting for an ambulance. Hold up guys, lets check the situation here, theres been a lot of dramatic tumbles and your all fine, why does he need an amblance.... oh yes i see, his foot shouldnt bend that way, right you are!

In the afternoon we hit the zoo and got to touch the animals!! This was awesome, we got to stroke the above animal which I have no idea as to what it is (not the elephant, i know what an elephant is.) which rolled over onto ts back for a belly rub. The tiger (through its cage) but still pretty awesome, I actually think he was my favourite, closely followed by the escape monkeys, who distract you with their frollicking ways and when your backs turned they are almost certainly digging a tunnel out of their cage. Male informed us that various animals escape on quite a regular basis, the penguins were seen swimming down the river to freedom, a seal escaped once. I think its safe to say all the animals are pretty intellegent and hatching masterplans for freedom.

However the best moment was when ella went to stroke the penguin and it projectile pooed at her. VERY amusing. The elephant was also pretty interested in sniffing her.

Friday we watched each class pratice their dance for independance day, however, became distracted messing around with a few of the kids. There we were happily doing rollie pollies and such and ella decides to lift a small boy in the air, he kicks off her hands and does a mid air somersault. Our hearts definately stopped but her quick reflexes managed to spin his shoulders so he landed on his feet, happily bouncing around. that was the end of playtime.

After this escapade Manuel picked us up and drove us down to the beach to get the surfboard fixed. We watched the surfers for a while until we got too cold then wandered around the mall trying to find the right shop. after we hit up mcdonalds where they had a V.I.P section.. you what?? We then went into vina to get some mobiles and look round the shops. mainly at shoes. Picked up Male from the vets who was waiting with empanadas for us. yum. and debated over whether we were going to the discotech or not. This debate lasted longting and I cut my losses and hit my bed for sleepy sleepy time.

And finally Yesterday we thought it would be a brilliant idea to ramble/rockclimb up a hillside dodging various tramps that had taken up residence... and yes it was. the views from the top were amazing. Once at the top we noticed a nice steady road that led up to the top but decided it would be more fun to go back down the way we came up.. most of the way down we slid on our bums with a lot of comical trips and falls. Followed by a trip into town to stock up on curry ingrediants, well sort of, near enough ingrediants anyway. We soooooo want a Curry.

over and out x x x

Jesus is on the phone

2009-09-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

CHILE NEWS

Headlines

So two more days have passed.. but not too much news to declare.. except that Gap Chile is now online! Have a peek for yourself and pass the news onto anyone looking for a pretty awesome adventure in a faraway land of excitement. http://www.gap-chile.com/

The key to the locked away chocolate supply may have been lost by me. Whooops. much to a very unhappy ella who was desperate for some of the good stuff. After 20 minutes of searching followed by a further 10 minutes of trying to break into the locked suitcase, I finally got in and recommend people against loackable suitcases as they are very easy to get into if your THAT desperate for the contents. We're now down to one set of 5 dairy milk bars. This is not good. So if anyone wants to send us some chocolate it would be greatly appreciated. Although maybe its a good thing we're nearly out. We should probably go cold turkey. Id also like to take a moment to "suggest" that ella definately stole more than her fair share of the 2nd to last bar. but I have no proof.

We managed to escape dancing again for ice cream instead. Although Manuel did pull up outside the church but carried on driving past after our protests. Hopefully we've wormed our way out of it altogether.. but Ella did answer the phone to jesus earlier and I think her heart may have stopped for a minute (hahah Jesus on the phone.. what an image!)

School News

Fridays lesson was a Friday Funday game of bingo. Using a prince and princess theme from thursdays lesson. This was interjected with a p.e lesson with the misses. They laid out an abstacle course followed by tug of war.

My new favourite child this week is a little girl in the youngest class who talks about her mum constantly no matter what we are teaching. Im starting to think her mum is wonderwoman who can relate to any topic. "me mama es un princessa" ofcourse she is.

Maria Watch

Maria watch hasnt brought up any exciting stories but no doubt they'll be more on the way during the week

Sport news

Yep we still havent done any exercise. Technically we did schedule it in for today but film time seemed like more of a priority. We definately need to get on this before we turn into massive lump of cheese or a loaf of bread.

Donde esta Elisa?

2009-09-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well following on from Ella's blog.. yeah thats right you have to read both..

Lunch was another classic. Sand soup... erm does your soup taste sandy?? yes is the answer. We tasted the delights of mussel soup, with added sand, I think it might be an aquired taste. Shortly followed by more meat. They certainly love their meat. So we'll probably hit the bread again soon.. we cant get enough of the bread. and cheese. and toffee stuff (yes ella I still cant remember what its called. no matter how many times you tell me. bla blah bla)

Today we got our paint on. Literally. a few of the kids clearly thought we needed a good coat of paint too.. which of course im delighted about. lucky its washable.. I hope. One boy decided paint on his potato (potato painting, they're not deprived of paintbrushes in case you started to worry) wasnt enough so proceeded to paint his hands arms face all his clothes and inside his ears... not so easy to get off.

I dont actually think I can top ellas story of maria pulling out random objects all day long my favourite being ellas pants. although in other maria news she did manage to spray a little polish in her nose earlier whilst trying to smell it. It doesnt smell very nic either.. the polish.. not marias nose.. cant say ive actually sniffed her nose...

......ANYWAY ciao for now

xxx

The Adventures of the Boy Who Eats Carpet..

2009-09-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

A small update on los niños we've discovered a girl who eats playdoh.. and the rug has been turned over in the classroom but carpet boy is still finding ways to munch on his favourite snack. Ive also been informed by Ella's aunt that as a child she used to eat sheep poo..(shes definately going to kill me when she reads this but it was inevitable that it would end up somewhere on the internet.) So maybe all children find strange things to eat...

All that aside we had a productive day yesterday teaching the kids about healthy eating.. although should possibly consider teaching some of the adults a thing or two about the effects of too much salt on their dinner. We also thought we'd make keeping fit fun by building an obstacle course in the garden.

We've also somehow been roped into being dancing partners for some dance in a week or two... not quite sure how this happened but i hear we have to wear leotards and do in front of 300 people, I think they were joking.. or at least I hope they were.. its difficult to tell what we're getting ourselves into..

Over and out

x x

Lazytown.. you what??

2009-08-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Our Chile adventure began in the best way possible with Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus films on the plane.. amazing... and since touching down we've met a boy who eats carpet, a girl who wets herself a lot and a chess whizzkid.... and these are just my current favourites.

I think the highlight of my week so far may have been our trip to the park where after a lot of fun on the slides the cast of lazytown appeared, met by the excited screams of our kids follwed by a mass workout session.. which in some strange way I'm told was a healthy heart event. Pretty damn good way of spreading the message if you ask me!

Im also getting slightly worried about ella's self help book reading and constant need for chocolate..

Over and out!

Kezzle
x x x