Chile -The 3rd and final week

Our last week at St Margarets passed by quickly. On Monday the girls had a fair amount of study time during the day, then it was the usual sports all afternoon. Once again I was asked to take a rugby session which the Chileans really enjoyed. They want to continue with it, but none of the Chileans sports teachers are able to teach it!

During their time here the girls have been working on a couple of giant wooden puzzles which they are going to give to a local primary school for disadvantaged children. They did a good job on them & on Tuesday they finished them off by applying a couple of coats of varnish.

On Wednesday afternoon we had an excursion to the local sand dunes. We joined a couple of year 9 or 10 classes who were going as part of their fitness class.  

The dunes were huge & it was hard yakka getting up with the soft sand.

Once at the top we were rewarded with some impressive views over Concon. Even though it was a lovely warm afternoon (albeit a bit breezy on the top of the dunes) it was quite hazy. Concon often seems to be shrouded in mist, even when Vina del Mar, just down the road, is clear.

The girls enjoyed running down the dunes to the bottom (more than the slog up I would say!) & we walked back to school, arriving just after the end of day bell.

On Thursday Lucy held the fort at school & let me have a day off. It was lovely having a nice long sleep-in. I can't say I have been too impressed at having to get up at 6:10am every weekday during my 'school holidays'! It was a glorious day and around lunchtime I walked to the mall via the beach, which took about 50 minutes. There are a lot of men trying to sell horse & cart rides around Vina. I like the pic below of one of them having a wee siesta in the sunshine in between business.

Once I had trawled the mall tomy hearts desire I walked back home via the Vina downtown. That night my host family had a farewell meal for me, accompanied as usual by pisco sours, & also some very good red wine.  This was my last dinner with the family as on Friday night I was going out with the headmistress and Rosemary.

Friday was the day of the royal wedding, which the school had been counting down to for over a week. As Lucy said, the school is more British than schools actually IN Britain! As you can see below, she has felt quite at home...

 We spent most of Friday morning watching the wedding in the gym, which is basically a huge big freezing cold steel shed! Luckily they had bought in some big gas heaters to take the chill off...

I even managed to get a picture with the happy couple... How do you think I suit my tiara??! The art department didn't actually do too bad a job of it, apart from making William's head too small! They actually weren't too far off guessing what the dress was going to be like either!

The infant school also got in on the act, dressing as 'princesses' for the day. They were very cute.

After the wedding we had a couple of hours before home-time in which the girls made thank-you cards for their host families, & also gave out little presents to people that had helped them out & looked after them at school. We also all had coffee with Carolyn the headmistress (pictured below), who, along with Rosemary, has looked after us all very well indeed.

That night Lucy & I, Carolyn & Rosemary, plus Maureen (who Lucy was staying with) went out to dinner at Portafino, a very nice restaurant overlooking the Pacific. Unfortunately Consuelo, who I was staying with, couldn't make it. We had an excellent meal, & then I returned home to find my host family drinking margaritas! I stayed up & had a couple with them as another farewell, heading to bed at around 12:30.

Today has been very relaxed, I am all packed & in half an hour or so Consuelo will drive me to the school for the last time. We then have a couple of hours on the bus to Santiago, then about 13 hours on the plane, taking off just before midnight. We arrive in Auckland at some unearthly hour (4am or so...)  & have to wait around about 4 hours before our flight to Wellington. We arrive in wellington at 9:30am, then Tuesday we will be back at school.

Adios Chile, it has been a blast!