Saturday, January 29, 2011
...I Touched down in Chile.
In Chile. Spent a night in santiago and we are now at our HOGAR! That´s home, by the way. Hopefully getting internet in our house on Monday, so will be able to do more regular updates then. Going home now, so will write up the story of our journey here tomorrow or on Monday.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
...There Was 4 Days To Go
Yup. 4 days. When I finished fundraising time started to drag and it seemed like our departure date would never arrive (especially when we didn't know when it would be)! But the 2 weeks since my party have flown by and I have suddenly found myself with 4 days until departure and 101 things to do!
It's not that I've been particularly disorganised, in fact I've been making lists and seeking out the things I think I'll need for weeks. I think even the most organised person would still find themselves rushing around a couple of days before leaving for an extended trip.
Friday was my last working day, so now all my time is dedicated to getting ready and spending quality time with my family before I go. The main task is of course PACKING! Packing one rucksack for 8 months is a challenge. I know we'll be able to get most things we'll need out there and I'm mostly packing summer clothes, as that's what we'll need when we arrive. but still! I gotta fit a whole lot of stuff in there:
At least I have a few days left to fine tune the contents. Excitement has most definitely overtaken the mild panic that set in last week. I just can't wait to get on that plane now!
It's not that I've been particularly disorganised, in fact I've been making lists and seeking out the things I think I'll need for weeks. I think even the most organised person would still find themselves rushing around a couple of days before leaving for an extended trip.
Friday was my last working day, so now all my time is dedicated to getting ready and spending quality time with my family before I go. The main task is of course PACKING! Packing one rucksack for 8 months is a challenge. I know we'll be able to get most things we'll need out there and I'm mostly packing summer clothes, as that's what we'll need when we arrive. but still! I gotta fit a whole lot of stuff in there:
At least I have a few days left to fine tune the contents. Excitement has most definitely overtaken the mild panic that set in last week. I just can't wait to get on that plane now!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
...I Said Goodbye
I had my leaving (/birthday) party last night. It was fab. I saw lots of people I haven't seen in a while, ate too much lovely food and was touched by all the good luck wishes.
We had a very loose Latin American theme with salsa music playing in the background, Mexican and Chilean style food and red, white and blue (colours of the Chilean flag) paper chains decorating the house.
I knew most of my close friends were coming, but had a very pleasent surprise when a big bunch of people from my am dram group, family friends and neighbours arrived. Looking at the range of ages and people in the room made me realise the diverse circles I move in!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the evening and tried not to feel sad about saying goodbye to my friends. After all, I'll only be gone for 8 months and will stay in touch with everyone. So it was more like a celebration of the adventure I'm going on, rather than a leaving party.
The very few photos I took:
In other news....We have our leaving date!!! We finally know when we're jetting off, which is such a relief. We will be flying from Heathrow to Santiago (via Sao Paulo) on the 27th of January. It's much later than I had originally hoped, but after the worry of not having any date at all, I don't care!
We also have somewhere to live! The problems with finding us a place to live were what led to the delayed leaving date in the first place. So this too is a huge relief. We will be living and working in a special school in a village about 20km from Santiago. They have 200+ students, most living on-site, aged between 3 and 50 (some just never leave!). We (4 girls) will be living in a house in the school compound and will be helping to provide extra-curricular activities. In March, the other 2 girls are moving to a different project in Santiago, so it'll just be me and Katie who are there for the remaining 5 months. It sounds INCREDIBLE and I can't wait!
Aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh! Excitement!
We had a very loose Latin American theme with salsa music playing in the background, Mexican and Chilean style food and red, white and blue (colours of the Chilean flag) paper chains decorating the house.
I knew most of my close friends were coming, but had a very pleasent surprise when a big bunch of people from my am dram group, family friends and neighbours arrived. Looking at the range of ages and people in the room made me realise the diverse circles I move in!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the evening and tried not to feel sad about saying goodbye to my friends. After all, I'll only be gone for 8 months and will stay in touch with everyone. So it was more like a celebration of the adventure I'm going on, rather than a leaving party.
The very few photos I took:
In other news....We have our leaving date!!! We finally know when we're jetting off, which is such a relief. We will be flying from Heathrow to Santiago (via Sao Paulo) on the 27th of January. It's much later than I had originally hoped, but after the worry of not having any date at all, I don't care!
We also have somewhere to live! The problems with finding us a place to live were what led to the delayed leaving date in the first place. So this too is a huge relief. We will be living and working in a special school in a village about 20km from Santiago. They have 200+ students, most living on-site, aged between 3 and 50 (some just never leave!). We (4 girls) will be living in a house in the school compound and will be helping to provide extra-curricular activities. In March, the other 2 girls are moving to a different project in Santiago, so it'll just be me and Katie who are there for the remaining 5 months. It sounds INCREDIBLE and I can't wait!
Aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh! Excitement!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
...I Got a Piece of Paper (A Very Important One)
I got a coach to London on Tuesday. It took 5 hours, which is longer than the train, but is nothing compared to our 12 hour road trips to Scotland! And seeing as it was only £12 return, I'm not complaining. The coach got into London at about 5:00pm and my hotel was nearby, so I went to check in. I then found my room, ate unhealthy food, got into my PJ's, snuggled up in bed and watched murder mysteries before crashing out.
The next morning I left the hotel about 2 hours before my appointment at the Chilean embassy. I thought I'd better leave plenty of time in case I got lost, as it was the first time I've been in London by myself and I was planning on walking. I shouldn't have worried. I didn't get lost and ended up sitting in a park and taking in the sights to kill some time.
The appointment itself was straight forward, I only really had to hand over documents and sign things. While the things for me to sign were being prepared I sat in the waiting area and tried to pick out all the bits of Spanish that I could understand from the conversations going on around me. I was disappointed at how little I understood, but I could at least work out the general message people were trying to get across.
At one point there was an elderly Chilena sitting next to me and she started chatting away to me in Spanish. And even when she was looking directly at my clueless face she didn't realise that I had no idea what she was talking about. Actually, that's not true. I knew she was talking about the baby being bounced up and down across the room from us. So I smiled and nodded and waved at the baby and made cooing noises. This seemed to satisfy both the baby and my elderly friend. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of smiling and nodding going on when I first arrive in Chile. Oh well, it's all part of the experience!
After 40 minutes or so I was handed that precious piece of paper. My visa! I am now officially allowed to be a temporary resident in Chile. Not a tourist, not a visitor, but a RESIDENTE TEMPORARIO! Does that mean that when I leave, I am allowed to say that not only have I been to Chile, but I've lived there? I think it does. That pleases my inner showoff :)
The next morning I left the hotel about 2 hours before my appointment at the Chilean embassy. I thought I'd better leave plenty of time in case I got lost, as it was the first time I've been in London by myself and I was planning on walking. I shouldn't have worried. I didn't get lost and ended up sitting in a park and taking in the sights to kill some time.
The appointment itself was straight forward, I only really had to hand over documents and sign things. While the things for me to sign were being prepared I sat in the waiting area and tried to pick out all the bits of Spanish that I could understand from the conversations going on around me. I was disappointed at how little I understood, but I could at least work out the general message people were trying to get across.
At one point there was an elderly Chilena sitting next to me and she started chatting away to me in Spanish. And even when she was looking directly at my clueless face she didn't realise that I had no idea what she was talking about. Actually, that's not true. I knew she was talking about the baby being bounced up and down across the room from us. So I smiled and nodded and waved at the baby and made cooing noises. This seemed to satisfy both the baby and my elderly friend. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of smiling and nodding going on when I first arrive in Chile. Oh well, it's all part of the experience!
After 40 minutes or so I was handed that precious piece of paper. My visa! I am now officially allowed to be a temporary resident in Chile. Not a tourist, not a visitor, but a RESIDENTE TEMPORARIO! Does that mean that when I leave, I am allowed to say that not only have I been to Chile, but I've lived there? I think it does. That pleases my inner showoff :)
Monday, January 3, 2011
...The Story So Far (Part II)
Project Trust (PT) has it's base on the Isle of Coll off the coast of Scotland, so getting to the selection course was a mini adventure in itself. When the time came, I packed my rucksack, flew from Cardiff to Glasgow airport, got the bus into Glasgow, hung out for a bit and then got a coach to Oban.
The ferry to Coll left quite early the next morning, so all the potential PT volunteers were staying in Oban that night. I checked into the youth hostel and it wasn't long before another girl turned up who was also destined for Coll. She had caught a train up earlier in the day and had met a bunch of PT recruits on the way. So I was introduced to the rest of the group and we set off in search of fish and chips. Later in the evening, another train arrived from Glasgow with another load of potential volunteers. So we all congregated in one of the hostels and chatted away all evening until some of us decided that it would be a good idea to hit the hay.
One sleep and ferry trip later and we'd landed on Coll. The selection course lasted 4 days. It consisted mainly of workshops, talks, eating and sleeping. And of course digging lazy beds (which most of us enjoyed, despite the horror stories)! During the day we were based at PT headquarters, but in the evenings we returned to our host families.
This was all part of the selection process, of course. I stayed in the village (Arinagour) with Kathy, who fed us extremely well! She doesn't like food to go to waste! I was one of 4 potential volunteers staying there and I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed our stay. Who wouldn't enjoy staying in a house with a lovely host, a geriatric dog and 2 birds?
The selection course drew to a close with the traditional ceilidh, which was hilarious, seeing as most people had never tried ceilidh dancing before. No major injuries though. I left Coll having decided that I wanted to go to a teaching project in Latin America, assuming of course that I was offered a project. Which was not a certainty, by any means.
Happily, it wasn't long before I recieved a letter offering me a placement in a rural primary school in Honduras (if this fell through, Chile and Peru were the back-ups). It was perfect, and I suspected that I'd been partnered with Cat, who had stayed at Kathy's too. Yay!
Time went on and I decided to take the risk of leaving fundraising until after my exams were over. It might not have been the most sensible idea, but one stress factor was enough at the time. The summer passed ridiculously quickly and before long I was getting ready to return to Coll for training in October.
In September I got a phone call asking if I was willing to move to a project in Santiago, Chile, as there was no longer enough places in Honduras. I wasn't sure at first, I'd been researching Honduras and was really looking forward to going there. But when they described the proposed project in Chile, I changed my mind. I would be working in a care home for children with learning difficulties, mainly providing the kids with activities, and possibly working in special schools as a teaching assistant. Although it wasn't English teaching, this project seemed to suit my interests even more perfectly and I probably would have asked to go there earlier if it had been an option.
So I set off to Coll once more, excited to learn more about how I'd be spending my 8 months in Chile. Again, all the volunteers met in Oban the night before and we had a great night. The group of us who arrived earlier found a nice, but affordable restaurant and a free salsa class to while away the time.
Again, we all hauled ourselves out of bed in the morning and got onto the ferry.
This time, rather than staying with host families, we all stayed in rooms on-site PT's headquarters. We were split into rooms depending on which country we were going to. I was with another 3 girls and we were all going to Chile. Luckily we all got on!
Training was much more intense than selection. There wasn't the pressure of trying to secure a place, but the early starts and late nights combined with hours upon hours of presentations and workshops made for a tiring few days! It was great fun though, seeing people we'd met on selection and getting all excited (and nervous!) about our projects.
Again, our stay on Coll was concluded with a ceilidh, although I have to say that this time it was more freestyle...at one point we were dancing around like idiots to Senegalese and Malawian music...good times! Other highlights of training were walks down to the beach, learning dance routines and the Huh! game. Only on Coll!
I should mention that on training I also found out who I'd been partnered with! Miss Katie Cameron and I shall be living and working together for 8 months...let's hope we can still stand each other afterwards! I'm sure we'll end up being really close, it's kind of inevitable and we do get on pretty darn well at the moment.
Since training, I have finished fundraising (with lots of help from my lovely family and friends), had all the necessary vaccinations and officially started to freak out about the whole thing! In a good way :)
Just in case you're curious, out of the 4 of us that stayed at Kathy's on selection, 1 is in China, 1 will shortly be heading to Namibia and Cat is going to Peru. Out of my group on selection (the A team), 1 is in China, 1 is in Namibia, 1 is in Sri Lanka and I'll be joining 1 in Chile!
Going to London tomorrow to sort out my visa, will be back on Wednesday, so will probably write a post about it later on this week.
The ferry to Coll left quite early the next morning, so all the potential PT volunteers were staying in Oban that night. I checked into the youth hostel and it wasn't long before another girl turned up who was also destined for Coll. She had caught a train up earlier in the day and had met a bunch of PT recruits on the way. So I was introduced to the rest of the group and we set off in search of fish and chips. Later in the evening, another train arrived from Glasgow with another load of potential volunteers. So we all congregated in one of the hostels and chatted away all evening until some of us decided that it would be a good idea to hit the hay.
One sleep and ferry trip later and we'd landed on Coll. The selection course lasted 4 days. It consisted mainly of workshops, talks, eating and sleeping. And of course digging lazy beds (which most of us enjoyed, despite the horror stories)! During the day we were based at PT headquarters, but in the evenings we returned to our host families.
This was all part of the selection process, of course. I stayed in the village (Arinagour) with Kathy, who fed us extremely well! She doesn't like food to go to waste! I was one of 4 potential volunteers staying there and I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed our stay. Who wouldn't enjoy staying in a house with a lovely host, a geriatric dog and 2 birds?
The selection course drew to a close with the traditional ceilidh, which was hilarious, seeing as most people had never tried ceilidh dancing before. No major injuries though. I left Coll having decided that I wanted to go to a teaching project in Latin America, assuming of course that I was offered a project. Which was not a certainty, by any means.
Happily, it wasn't long before I recieved a letter offering me a placement in a rural primary school in Honduras (if this fell through, Chile and Peru were the back-ups). It was perfect, and I suspected that I'd been partnered with Cat, who had stayed at Kathy's too. Yay!
Time went on and I decided to take the risk of leaving fundraising until after my exams were over. It might not have been the most sensible idea, but one stress factor was enough at the time. The summer passed ridiculously quickly and before long I was getting ready to return to Coll for training in October.
In September I got a phone call asking if I was willing to move to a project in Santiago, Chile, as there was no longer enough places in Honduras. I wasn't sure at first, I'd been researching Honduras and was really looking forward to going there. But when they described the proposed project in Chile, I changed my mind. I would be working in a care home for children with learning difficulties, mainly providing the kids with activities, and possibly working in special schools as a teaching assistant. Although it wasn't English teaching, this project seemed to suit my interests even more perfectly and I probably would have asked to go there earlier if it had been an option.
So I set off to Coll once more, excited to learn more about how I'd be spending my 8 months in Chile. Again, all the volunteers met in Oban the night before and we had a great night. The group of us who arrived earlier found a nice, but affordable restaurant and a free salsa class to while away the time.
Again, we all hauled ourselves out of bed in the morning and got onto the ferry.
This time, rather than staying with host families, we all stayed in rooms on-site PT's headquarters. We were split into rooms depending on which country we were going to. I was with another 3 girls and we were all going to Chile. Luckily we all got on!
Training was much more intense than selection. There wasn't the pressure of trying to secure a place, but the early starts and late nights combined with hours upon hours of presentations and workshops made for a tiring few days! It was great fun though, seeing people we'd met on selection and getting all excited (and nervous!) about our projects.
Again, our stay on Coll was concluded with a ceilidh, although I have to say that this time it was more freestyle...at one point we were dancing around like idiots to Senegalese and Malawian music...good times! Other highlights of training were walks down to the beach, learning dance routines and the Huh! game. Only on Coll!
I should mention that on training I also found out who I'd been partnered with! Miss Katie Cameron and I shall be living and working together for 8 months...let's hope we can still stand each other afterwards! I'm sure we'll end up being really close, it's kind of inevitable and we do get on pretty darn well at the moment.
Since training, I have finished fundraising (with lots of help from my lovely family and friends), had all the necessary vaccinations and officially started to freak out about the whole thing! In a good way :)
Just in case you're curious, out of the 4 of us that stayed at Kathy's on selection, 1 is in China, 1 will shortly be heading to Namibia and Cat is going to Peru. Out of my group on selection (the A team), 1 is in China, 1 is in Namibia, 1 is in Sri Lanka and I'll be joining 1 in Chile!
Going to London tomorrow to sort out my visa, will be back on Wednesday, so will probably write a post about it later on this week.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
...The Story So Far (Part I)
I think it's about time that I shared the story of how I got to this point.
Since I was about 14 I've known that I'd like to take a year out between school and university. And I knew that I'd like to spend part of that year traveling. As time went on and I thought about it further, I decided that volunteering might be a good idea. I don't know what career I'd like to pursue, but know that I'll probably end up working with kids. So I thought teaching English might be a good addition to my CV and something I'd enjoy and be capable of.
So i started to look up gap year organisations and English teaching projects. Even though the locations of most of the projects were incredible and I'd love to visit them, I wasn't convinced. There were a few things that didn't sit quite right with me. For a start, the prices of these projects were ridiculous considering how short they were. And that was another thing, most projects were only a couple of weeks long. And I don't think that teachers constantly coming and going and never really getting into their stride or getting to know the kids properly is a great set up, for the teachers or the pupils. Of course, there are benefits of projects like this, but for me, the negative arguments outweighed the positive (can you see me up here on my high horse?).
I was starting to think that I should just use my gap year to travel, seeing as I have the rest of my life to volunteer. But fate intervened at just the right time :)
A member of staff from Project Trust was visiting my college and giving a presentation about what the organisation offer. My friend had spotted the posters and knew that I was planning a gap year, so she convinced me to go along with her (thanks Loz).
There was barely anyone at the presentation, and we were a bit late, but hey ho, we went in anyway. Project Trust is a charitable organisation based in Scotland and they specialise in long term projects overseas. Most projects are 12 months long, but they also have 8 month placements. As we were one of the last schools/colleges to be visited, we had to move fast if we wanted to get a place on one of their selection courses and have a chance of getting a place on one of their 2010-2011 projects.
I wasn't sure about the length of time, I'd been thinking about a total time of 5 months or so overseas. And there was the small matter of raising over £4000 alongside my A levels...hmmmm. But I thought I might as well fill in the application form online and see what happened. And then I got a call saying that my application had been approved and I could book onto one of the last two selection courses, which were in a few weeks. Again, I thought i might as well go for it, so I signed myself up.
And I have spent far too long on this computer, so I will continue The Story So Far tomorrow...
Since I was about 14 I've known that I'd like to take a year out between school and university. And I knew that I'd like to spend part of that year traveling. As time went on and I thought about it further, I decided that volunteering might be a good idea. I don't know what career I'd like to pursue, but know that I'll probably end up working with kids. So I thought teaching English might be a good addition to my CV and something I'd enjoy and be capable of.
So i started to look up gap year organisations and English teaching projects. Even though the locations of most of the projects were incredible and I'd love to visit them, I wasn't convinced. There were a few things that didn't sit quite right with me. For a start, the prices of these projects were ridiculous considering how short they were. And that was another thing, most projects were only a couple of weeks long. And I don't think that teachers constantly coming and going and never really getting into their stride or getting to know the kids properly is a great set up, for the teachers or the pupils. Of course, there are benefits of projects like this, but for me, the negative arguments outweighed the positive (can you see me up here on my high horse?).
I was starting to think that I should just use my gap year to travel, seeing as I have the rest of my life to volunteer. But fate intervened at just the right time :)
A member of staff from Project Trust was visiting my college and giving a presentation about what the organisation offer. My friend had spotted the posters and knew that I was planning a gap year, so she convinced me to go along with her (thanks Loz).
There was barely anyone at the presentation, and we were a bit late, but hey ho, we went in anyway. Project Trust is a charitable organisation based in Scotland and they specialise in long term projects overseas. Most projects are 12 months long, but they also have 8 month placements. As we were one of the last schools/colleges to be visited, we had to move fast if we wanted to get a place on one of their selection courses and have a chance of getting a place on one of their 2010-2011 projects.
I wasn't sure about the length of time, I'd been thinking about a total time of 5 months or so overseas. And there was the small matter of raising over £4000 alongside my A levels...hmmmm. But I thought I might as well fill in the application form online and see what happened. And then I got a call saying that my application had been approved and I could book onto one of the last two selection courses, which were in a few weeks. Again, I thought i might as well go for it, so I signed myself up.
And I have spent far too long on this computer, so I will continue The Story So Far tomorrow...
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