We flew back into Santiago with 1 week of Spanish classes booked. The classes were pretty intense as we were in school for 8 hours a day, then we were practising in the evening with our Chilean host lady.
By the end of the first week we realised that we had only really picked up a small amount of dangerous knowledge, and so we decided to book for a further 3 weeks.
Because of our extension we were lucky enough to be in Santiago during their Bicentenial celebrations, 200 years since the removal of Spanish rule. There was a real buzz in the air as the Chileans sure like a party!
Our school put on a fiesta for us where we could eat, drink and be merry!
We also had a chance to try our hand (or feet?) at some traditional dance, the Cueca. These guys showed us the moves and we then proceeded to amaze everyone with our ability, not only to understand all of the instructions, but to show real flair and natural talent... oh wait...no...we were the ones facing the wrong direction and falling over...oh well!
At least we managed to get this pose right!!
After the dancing we had a go at a traditional game, El Emboque, where you need to flick a wooden bell shape with a hole in the bottom, onto a stick that is attached by some string. It was pretty tough!
Here are Luisa and Luis, two of our favourite teachers. Luisa was absolutely 'loco' and Luis was amazingly patient and a great teacher.
We didn',t really do too much exploring in Santiago as we were both pretty tired out by the weekends, but we did manage to trek up to Cerro San Cristabel to get some views of the city.
Thanks to some generous birthday gifts we were able to celebrate Stephs 27th at a nice restaurant in Bellavista (a few doors down from where we were staying) called 'Como Agua para Chocolate'. We even managed a glass of Champagne!
We did manage a daytrip to Valparaiso, an hour or so outside of Santiago, which is a UNESCO World heritage site.
We took a trip up the oldest funicular in town, and managed to get some shots of it on the way down.
On the last Friday of our course one of the teachers invited us to her house for some typical cuisine. Believe us, it tasted great, a lot better than it looks!
This was our home for the month, nestled in the artistic area of Bellavista, very close to one of Pablo Neruda's houses.
We had a fantastic time learning Spanish in Santiago, it has helped a huge amount already. But what really made it extra special was being able to stay with a 'real' Chilean lady.
Mireya was like a surrogate mother to us during our 4 weeks stay. She made us some typical foods that we would not have tried otherwise and tested us nearly every day on our Spanish.
Thanks Mireya.
No comments:
Post a Comment