BENNAAAY BENNAY AND THE JETS

The Project has really started to get going.

After the snow its been go go go this end of the line. Me and Kerry are really starting to get into the swing of things. We've been able to take our pretty selves to lots of different places on our own, lots of eating out, talking to randoms and even managed to conquer the fruit market. £1.50 for 2 kilos of strawberries....I AM IN HEAVEN. Im never coming back. I pretty much skipped all the way home.

Kerry came into my room this morning excited by how much asparagus she bought at the market today. I wasnt so impressed...not even after her very long explanation of how much asparagus normally is in England. Yeah okay kerry, i'll leave you alone for a few moments with your asparagus.

We have adults english classes up and running!! Which makes a total of 27 students altogether and as of yet we are just under doubling the red crosses annual budget. (haha this isnt AS impressive as it sounds). 16 THOUSAND pesos raised so far. Good work team. haha. The red cross class are pretty amazing! There is also a girl in there called Macarena. This amused me wholly! I didnt know that was REALLY a name. This excites me.

We also befriended some handsome young men in Vina. One of them had contacted Kerry after he heard we were getting itchy feet and it turns out he is trying to set up his own little charity project. So we've been chatting lately and thinking of hooking our projects up when it gets going next year which is exciting! Lots of beach times for us guys and some nice men to oogle at.

Anyway, we decided to go for a little surf with these boys (i say WE decided...i decided and kerry tried to convince me we needed to plan it a little more) haha nooope. So 6.30 am comes around and we are outside the house waiting at the bus stop with my board. Hold up...bus and a surfboard. Okay maybe we should have planned this a little more. Surfboard slid into the under luggage compartment and a very bumpy ride later (much to a very distressed ella who refused to give up the window seat in the small chance that ANY small chilean attempt to steal cheeky charlie from under her feet) why am i speaking in third person? I blame kerry ANYWAY we arrive in Vina, met by andres who whisks us off to pick up his friend and there we are heading to the water.

Im not sure the boys were used to females being in the water cause 2 bleeding noses and a fat lip later, the boys are looking concerned at how on earth we have managed to bust up our faces in the small ish surf.

This is how it happened: Kerry was given an extra big and heavy board....and decided to instead of surf sing Elton John a lot more. BENNIE B B B BENNAAAY BENNIE AND THE JETS. So when she finally went for a wave, she fell quite rightly on her bum and her board went flying. As she comes up for air, she is still unaware that this huge board is plummeting down towards her head..and all we could do was watch as it landed..on her face. So a quiet defeated kerry gets out...shortly followed by ella and a dodgy roll which also gave her a bleeding nose and a nice fat lip. Kook.

SO in our attempt to erase these rather embarrassing moments from the boys minds, we try to charm them by cooking them a niiiice greasy english brekkie. I think it worked.

We're heading back there tomorrow. Hopefully minus the bust up face. Watch this space.

Over and Out

xxx

Un ano mas!

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO THE SNOW!!

So after a rather amusing birthday weekend for miss o'neill which consisted of a late night family fiesta with lots of cake and bread (much to my delight) and an independent trip to vina...managed to get the bus there AND back with no problems..and into the cinema and an icecream AND the shops..we're getting good at this spanish malarky. We were back to work monday morning where Head Office managed to sort us out with a suprise visit by my crazy uncle as we'd been struggling to get up to the snow. He offered to drive us down as it was the last week so we packed as quickly as we could and jumped in his van.

2 hours later after being quizzed on how to say everything from road to tree we arrived in portillo where fernando (my uncle) took it upon himself to try and get a cheap deal. This is how it happened:

Hi I have two girls who would like to stay here, can you offer us a deal?

No.

Okay thanks.

Well done fernando good work, I don't think we could have coped. half an hour later after settling into our box of a room we were getting suited and booted from the equipment shop served by some very friendly young men.

And off we went to discover the world of snowboarding. First day didnt go so well. For all of those who know me and kerry it was a classic kerry and ella argument. Where kerry thought it was acceptable to sit on her arse and moan 'i caaaaaaannt'. And i thought it was acceptable to lecture her over how she is not allowed to sit on her arse. Consisted of plenty of fruitfull language and an ending line of 'i am not standing here all day to just watch you sit on your arse'. 'i cant get up' 'you can' 'i cant' 'you can' 'i cant' 'you can'...yeah went on like that for a while i think much to everyone elses amusement except ours.

We then decided to check out the rest of the hotel facilities to get our moneys worth which we were welcome to use even though we were in the hostel shack. A gym, a cinema, a pool, A DISCO! We hadnt packed anything useful like bikinis (cant say that was the first on my list). So we ended up working out in the gym in pyjamas and ugg boot type shoes. I got a nice free gym introduction from a guy in there...who decided to think it was a good idea to show me he could do the splits. One very exposed shower later..why on earth put cloudy glass dividers..and one very exposed ella much to kerrys distaste (hehehehehe boy did i find that shower amusing), we and our empty stomachs went to eat eat eat. After we then decided to check out the cinema which wasnt showing anything great but had bean bags and a nice radiator where kerry was puzzled over why her arse was so cold and attempted to warm it up by sitting on it. Then to hang out at the bar. Where we played cards for most of the night on our own in a very quiet disco. Towards the end of the night we were joined by the hire equipment guys who we befriended, taught them how to play cards and then tottered off home with the promise of new friends and a better day to come.

I welcomed kerry into the next morning bright and early by serenading her with the only spanish song i know 'keeerrrryyy keeeerrrry'. That day i managed to pull kerry off the green slopes and she was managing to not only stay standing but to remain standing for a good ten seconds before she fell again. Very amusing stacks...one of them consisting of a front rolly polly where i couldnt breathe enough to check if kerry was okay. 'THATS what you call a stack kerry' We also were THE WORST at ski lifts and most of them ended with a frantic dash for a soft area and kerry in a heap. Our most memorible stack was when the guy recognised us from a previous stack so stopped the lift for us at the top...where we still both tumbled over and ate snow. accompanied by the most girliest scream from kerry. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH. Much to his amusement.

Also totally didnt bring suncream....and boy my face was burning. I broke my board after lunch by accident and so stopped off into the shop where the boys we had befriended fixed it for free (phew) and gave us suncream. (phew) Because as the great kings of leon say: woooooooooaaaaaah my face is on fiiiiire!

In the eve we crashed in the cinema and almost fell asleep.

After dragging ourselves out of the cinema, we decided to go see if the boys were in the disco...to be sociable. But they werent...here we met a lady who told us that the party is down the hill and across the road. So we tottered down there where i promised we wouldnt stay long...I dont know how or why kerry STILL has not learnt that when those words often fall out of my mouth our nights out end up being some of the most insane, This night was no different. On our way we bumped into the boys who had been walking up to meet us and they walked us to the bar THANK GOODNESS... cause the bar we had been directed to looked like we had just entered someones house and was rammed with chileans. Consisted of lots of dancing....random conversations with australian men, chilean men, random dancing, dancing dancing, dancing to a song which said Culo alot (ass in spanish) and kerry discovering I infact have a small talent of picking up plenty of old men. And plenty of old men i did indeed pick up.

Next day after waking kerry up with the second song i had learnt from the night (or should i say the few hours before) 'un ano mas..ra rdumpr rarra keeerrrryyy!' with nice crusty faces we hit the slopes for the last time, joined for a wee while by pablo who attempted to learn snowboarding for the first time and continued to knock kerry off the slopes. Brilliant.

and then we returned home...where we were welcome by fernando and the paparazzi (fernando had brought his video camera..and for some strange reason decided to film us and trees...roadworks etc all the way home).

im pooped. Good work team.

Over and Out

xxx