a mezcla of goodies...

so here we are, exactly 100 days antes de the last day of school... and i'm on my way to antuco, a little town about an hour outside los angeles, to pay the chickities of their town a visit. kelly ryan and i were all invited to do so by raul. raul is a funny little man (who apparently was called "cutie.pie" in the US when he travelled there as a teacher. he now thinks this a term of flattery for a good looking male) who teaches english in the only elementary and high schools in antuco. we were greeted by hundreds of grossly excited children in both schools. at the elementary school, we visited a few classes (including the lil pre-k and kinder oobers who i absolutely adored), singing songs in english and just soaking up the pure joy of these kids. we held Q&A sessions with the high school students where we presented ourselves in front of hundreds of painfully shy students... but not all of them were this way... one girl raised her hand simply to tell ryan he's beautiful, and kelly and i had a handful of boys asking us for kisses!

we also visited with the children of a smaller rural school who were so welcoming. one kid asked if we would sing our national anthem. we couldnt disappoint them, so, soon enough i found myself hitting high notes that sounded worse than a nail dragging against a dry chalkboard as we sang our beloved country's national hymn in front of 30 sets of googling eyes. what an experience. poor kids are probably deafened, but nonetheless, happy as clams.

after our adventures in the schools, raul drove us up to antuco's volcano which overlooks a beautiful dammed lake. we smiled at the camera a few times in front of the chocolate chip mountains (the volcanic rocks slightly covered in snow look scrumptious!) and started on our way back to los angeles.

this week we find ourselves quite busy with a new program we are initiating for some of our kiddos. its called "spanglish speakers." kelly and i both chose 5 elementary kids from our schools whom we think, for whatever reason, could use a good role model to hang out with once a month or so. we are pairing those 10 kids with 10 students from ryan's high school. its kind of like the big brothers/big sisters program you find in the US communities. we are planning at least one activity per month so these kids can establish a true relationship with their new "buddy;" we're hoping that during these activities, the students will be practicing english as well as talking about what the future holds for them. our goal is to help these kids see that their future lies in their own little hands and with motivation and a good role model, nothing is out of reach. we are absolutely thrilled to be starting this program in our town and hope it continues forward after our time in chile is up.

speaking of time being up in chile. 3 more months. so crazy that we're on the downhill slope of such an amazing adventure. its still winter and still colder than ever (and rainier!) and i can definitely feel my mood reflecting the weather. but i'm keepin my head up and looking forward to springtime which should be peaking its colorful head around the corner in september sometime.

ryan and i have been diligently planning our after program travel plans... we've decided on going to a few of argentina's quaint little towns before soaking up patagonia's natural beauty. we're then heading north to cabo san lucas for one last hoorah before heading back to normality. our return date is scheduled for... drumroll please... december 20th! back in time for christmas. we couldnt stand the idea of being away from family during the holidays. consider us the ultimate, living christmas gifts wrapped in chilean love!!

love and miss you all dearly. xoxo from chile