I've really enjoyed my time here, and have made the most of it by spending lots of time with family and friends, visiting nice places, and seeing lots of lovely cats and other animals in my neighbourhood and beyond!
Travel wise, it has been a good trip! Although we didn't make it to the beach in Wales because of the weather, I had a nice swim with my mum at the open-air pool in Cirencester yesterday. At the beginning of my trip, I had a great day in London visiting the Greenwich Meridian, and we've also spent time in Oxfordshire, Neigh Bridge Lake, Dyrham Park, Ecchinswell in Hampshire, Swindon, and Bath. (You can check out some pictures on my Instagram page.) Aside from that, we went to Jennie's Kitchen café in Ashton Keynes to see the donkey and alpacas there, and Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary to see the emus there - they recently became world-famous for attacking a drunk driver who was fleeing from the scene of his crime!
This weekend, I'll be arriving back in Chile, and I'm thinking of it as a bit of a new start, in a way. I'm going to finish my current job this month, and I'll be starting a new one soon which involves both teaching and interpreting. Interpreting was one of my dream jobs when I first started studying languages, so I'm excited to begin this new challenge!
Reflecting on the first half of my year in Chile, I have to say it's been hugely challenging at times. My job has been the main disappointment, but we also went through a difficult time finding and furnishing our apartment at the start of the year. Overall, I've had to pay out huge amounts of money to set up my life in Chile, and my "salary" has only covered a small percentage of what I've spent.
I do feel that my priorities have changed since the pandemic began; I got this job within six months of graduating university, and at the time I hated the idea of "settling down" and having a "boring" job - I just wanted to use my languages, do something fun and fulfilling, and travel the world. For these reasons, TEFL was perfect for me. But two years passed before I could actually start the job, and now I'm feeling more of a need for stability; I'd like to earn a decent salary, own a property, have a cat, and maybe have a baby in a few years' time. Because of this and other reasons, Claudio and I are hoping to move to somewhere in Europe next year - we're thinking about Vienna or Barcelona as potential places to live, but we'll see what happens!
However, making this move to Chile has still been the most amazing experience. I'm so happy that we now have our lovely apartment to live in, and that Claudio now has a job he enjoys in a global company (with hopefully good opportunities for relocation). We've also had a great time travelling to some incredible places across the north, south and centre of the country, and even visited Peru for the first time.
Which leads me on to some other news: next month I'm going to Machu Picchu! It's one of the places I most want to visit in the whole world, and I'm really really excited! I'll be spending time in Cusco and different places around the Sacred Valley too, so it should be an amazing trip. Unfortunately it's unlikely Claudio will be able to join me, as he has to work, but he encouraged me to book this trip in order to make the most of my year in South America. Of course I will share the trip with him as much as I can through photos, videos and the internet. And I'm hopeful that we'll be able to go somewhere special together at the end of the year.
Next we have the long weekend of Fiestas Patrias to celebrate when I get back, which I'm looking forward to experiencing for the first time. I'll be writing about that, and the other things we've been up to, soon!
Hasta pronto! 😃
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