My 7 weeks teaching and living in Villa María came to an end
on April 29th and the time had absolutely flown by! It was a great 7 weeks and I was sad to see
them come to an end; marking the end of my time teaching in Argentina...and...technically
the end of my year abroad! This is really sad news but here’s some highlights
from Villa María which will always stay with me!
A Family Get Together
On my first weekend we drove an hour to Córdoba capital to
meet the extended family for a big celebration of birthdays! I was a bit unsure of how my Spanish would
hold out but the afternoon was really fun and filled with chit-chat, empanadas – small pasties with a whole
range of fillings – birthday cake and champagne! I was still very much a stranger to my hosts
but I was welcomed as part of the family and the day reminded me hugely of my
own yearly family get-togethers, which I had unfortunately missed out on this
year.
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| Family birthday celebration |
Peanut Factory
One Friday I joined one of the teachers in his weekly
lessons at the factory and offices of the international peanut company, Manisel.
Afterwards I donned a sexy white overall, hairnet and helmet and got a
tour around the factory. We started by seeing
an enormous pile of field-fresh peanuts towering in a dark warehouse to them
all bagged up according to size and weight and being loaded on to a shipping
container headed for the UK! 40 days by sea it would take to arrive; looks like
it would beat me there then!
Brunch
Two of my fellow teachers showed me how to do
weekend brunch in Argentina and took me to a stylish independent tea house
where I dug into coffee and homemade ricotta cake.
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| Brunch |
Home cooking - Indian curry
I may have mentioned a few too many times that the most
popular takeaway in Britain is the Indian curry as I found myself cooking a
Chicken Jalfrezi, for the first time ever,
for my host family...plus guests!
Argentina doesn’t do spicy food so spices were collected from far and
wide and I followed a recommended recipe to the letter – though not so many of
the green chillies! Nevertheless, the
end product was unbelievably spicy; even for me - this dish was lethal to any
typical Argentine! Pouring off all the liquid
- 3 big bowlfuls of it – the curry finally calmed down and, I am thought to
believe, the dinner was a success!
Though whether these guests will choose an Indian curry again I’m not so
sure...
Through
my last teaching week at Rainbow I collected a pile of the most endearing hand
written letters and drawings from many of my students. Gifts of food, an incredible handmade and
personalised tea box, a beautiful mate and
bombilla and Argentine silver and
stone jewellery from the students, teachers and my host family! This was the Christmas I had missed!
On
the last day of teaching, the lessons were filled with despedida celebrations where students produced homemade cake,
biscuits and drinks and an adolescent class even sang the Argentine despedida song used to send people off.
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| A musical end |
My
final class of the day was filled with music. Two of my talented students
played the guitar (I am now committed to learning the guitar this year...and proving it!) and keyboard brilliantly whilst the other three of us sang
along, belting out the English songs; it was, of course, still an English
lesson! I gave them my own rendition of
a popular Argentine song (Nunca Quise,
Intoxicados) which caused much amusement.
Apparently I sounded German!
Needless
to say, I look back at my time in Villa María with fond memories and I hope
that the people I met and worked with enjoyed the experience as much as me. Most of all thanks to my wonderful, welcoming and lovely host family! :D
