Dear Mr Mason,
I hope you are well! Sorry to have not updated you since last year it has been a very busy time with the South American summer holidays and then getting back into a new school year!
From December until the end of February is when Chile and the majority of Latin America take their Summer holidays. This gave me and my friends out here a great chance to travel. We headed down to Patagonia, the very tip of South America, before Christmas and then onto Peru and Bolivia after New Year, where we flew to Lima and then bused all the way back to Chile over two months. It was the most incredible three months and I feel so lucky to have seen and experienced so much in that short time.
Since March, we (Patrick, my project partner and I) have been back hard at work teaching English at the school, which has been great to return to, however a little complicated due to my boss becoming pregnant and therefore having to work with lots of different people over recent weeks. That said, it gives us more responsibility given we know the kids now.
I have even been tasked with taking many more entire lessons on my own recently. There have been lots of events, including Easter celebrations and School sports day (where I enjoyed a nice run up and down the coast helping the children).
My Spanish has been coming on after having no choice but to learn it in a country which speaks little to no English! Although Chile has been named as the hardest place in the world to learn the language (due to their accent and slang), they say if you can speak it here, you can speak it anywhere!
I have really been getting into life here and with only just over three months left (3rd August!) it has suddenly hit that I don’t have long remaining of this incredible experience! It is hard to believe how fast this year has gone. We are just going into the winter months in Chile which get get very very cold! It will be a big difference to the constant sun and heat I have had since arriving.
I want to thank you hugely again for awarding me the scholarship and making this year possible for me!
Kind regards,
Oli Reid
