Summer in Pichilemu

I feel as though we have returned to a different city from the one we left in December!

With the coming of summer our quiet little town of 13,000 has exploded with the coming of 50,000 tourists and surfers. When we were here just a little more than a month ago we would go to the beach and there literally wouldn't be another single person there but us. Now... well you can just look at the picture! It brings a lot of life to our little town for sure but it is quite a change and this is not the tranquil Pichilemu that we are used to!


After a week into the DTS, we love it! We've been working hard (and trying to shake off the jet lag at the same time) so it was so nice to have some much needed rest and relaxation on the weekend. We have enjoyed getting to know the DTS students a little better and like I said before, we have such a great group with lots of diversity. Staffing a DTS can be demanding at times but we are so happy to be doing this, it is a real blessing for us!

Our Spanish has been increasing quite well. We split into small groups once a week for an hour an a half to discuss how things are going and my group is a mix of English, Spanish and Portuguese and Dutch I have to translate everything!(well just from Spanish to English and vice versa) But it is a very tiring thing to do especially when you are just starting to get a hold of the language and you know enough but not everything so it is an interesting 90 minutes and it sometimes feels like I am playing charades with all the actions I do to try and get the point across but it's a good challenge and I'm learning so much more by doing it.

Aaron has set up this really great website with more pictures and fun things. We really would encourage you to check it out when you get the chance http://web.mac.com/ortega.as

This is a totally random point but I was at the supermarket yesterday and I was buying our meat when I see this guy who just casually walks in with a quarter of a cow on his back, it was like the whole leg and thigh! The whole time I was just thinking that would never happen in Safeway...