I am writing this from my apartment!!!!!

In the last few weeks, things have still been really busy!  I have picked up yet another class, but it is only twice a month. It's on Friday evenings, though, which is a bummer!  But it's with one of Jesse's students son.  He is really really cute, only 8 years old. He's very calm and quiet, not a typical 8 year old boy!   His dad is paying me cash, so it's a pretty good deal. 

We bought a little electric heater for the apartment last week.  It's gotten pretty cold here, in the 30's I'd say.  And it's going to get colder!  I have a hot water bottle as well, and I sleep with it every night. I love it.  I am always cold, all the time, it's not fair.  Jesse can be sitting in a tshirt, but I'm freezing.

Biggest news of all:  We got internet in the apartment!!!!!!!!   I had my Spanish teacher translate a note to my neighbors for me, asking them if we could pay them to share their internet.   I got an email from a guy living downstairs who said he could help.  Turned out he is a Russian hacker musician!  He plays the French horn in the opera orchestra, which is just down the street.  He came in and spent about an hour cracking our neighbor's passwords!  We have two now.  So we went from no internet to free internet!   I am SO MUCH happier.  I've been able to chat online to friends and use skpe more.  It's great.   And he gave us free tickets to see an opera, Ariadne on Naxos, which was great!!

We have been trying now for about a month to get our work permits.  Each time we go to the notary and sign a work contract, we either found the date was wrong, or went to the Department of Interior, and they told us the amount we are making is not enough.  We have been to the notary 4 times and to wait in line in the Department of Interior three times.  And it's STILL not over.  Right now we only have our 30 day work permit, during which, we need to apply for our temporary residents visa.  It's SUCH a pain, considering we only have five more months in the country, but it will help us to save time and money since we won't have to leave the country again, and our boss really wants us to be on a work permit for legal reasons for his company. 

Since the beach we haven't done much on the weekends.  We went to a new club called Bal de Luc with our friends Leslie and David and Nico,  and two other TEFL teachers came too.  We went to a museum last Sunday, that was focused on old toys!  It was pretty cool.  Last weekend I was not feeling great, a bit of a head cold, so pretty much stayed in bed/couch.  I did go to our friend Michelle's housewarming party on Saturday evening for a bit, and we met some new gringos, which was nice.
 Also, last weekend the water in the whole building was out. There was some type of electrical issue and the water went off. It was off for a bit on Saturday night, then all day on Sunday and half of Monday. The hot water has yet to return fully.   It was pretty annoying!  We had to go out and buy water, and now live in fear that it's going to happen again.  Apparently, some buildings were really affected by the earthquake, and we are thinking this is one, because it may have been built cheaply and quickly.

We are still cooking a lot to save money, and last week Jesse made pupusas, an El Salvadorian dish. They were really good!  We are also making things like shepherds pie, fajitas, chicken soup, spaghetti, stir frys. 

Next Monday is apparently St. Peter's and Paul Day, so no one has to go to work.  Naturally.  I am not sure if all my classes with be cancelled, but I'm kind of hoping they are.  I am getting so exhausted!  It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much walking, Metro and bus riding involved. 

Jesse's brother, Joey, arrives next Tuesday to stay for 3 weeks.  On his last weekend here all of us will be going up to San Pedro de Atacama, the desert, to visit for 3 nights. I'm very excited!  We are flying up to make it easier.

If you have read about the volcano in Chile, it hasn't had any effect on Santiago at all.  I didn't even know about it for a day, since I don't read the papers or listen to the news here.

That's it for now!  Hope you all are enjoying warmer weather!  Lucky! :)




 

Santa Cruz, Birthday and Algarrobo

Since the last post, we have been out of town twice. The first to Santa Cruz, a small town about 2 hours south of Santiago, which is in the heart of wine country in Chile, then to Algarrobo, a beach town, last weekend.

Santa Cruz was nice, a bit nicer then a typical Chilean town. We went with our neighbors, Mark and Jenny, who are from Boston. It's a small, sleepy town. Our hotel was a house that had been converted, and it was really nice. There weren't any cheap options in the town, so we spent $24,000 (that's 24 thousand pesos – about $50 bucks) on our room. We went to a local football (soccer) game the first evening. It was a 3^rd division team, so wasn't very good! Nobody scored. And on Sunday we went to the museum there, which was very good. It is pretty big, and covers a lot of things. There was a room with old cars, which was great. And a Darwin room, since Darwin spent time in Chile. The South American Native Peoples collections were really great as well. We didn't go to any vineyards, which I didn't mind since I've been to Napa a couple times and pretty much know what a vineyard looks like. Plus, we didn't want to pay for the taxi rides out there.

Then we stayed in Santiago for two weekends. The 28^th of May was Jesse's birthday, and we had a gathering at one of our favorite local bars. It has a small basement area, and we overtook it, squishing in. Our gringo friends and our Chilean friends came, and it was a really fun night!

Last weekend our friends David and Leslie took us to their parents beach house in Algarrobo, and our friend Nico came too. It's about 2 hours southwest. We left late on Friday evening and arrived about midnight. When we got out of the car three street dogs came up to us. There was one with a broken leg, and another that was so skinny. It was awful! So the guys went out and got dog food and other stuff. There was another little brown dog that would jump from yard to yard. I have no idea how she did it, maybe she used the roofs. She was obviously using the fenced yards to keep safe from other street dogs.

On Saturday morning Jesse cooked pancakes for the Chileans, and they loved them! Breakfast in Chile consists of bread, butter, cheese and maybe a cold cut. Then we took a short walk on the beach, then went further south to Pablo Neruda's house in a place called Isla Negra. Neruda was a Chilean poet, born in a small, poor town in the south of Chile in 1904. He built his house when the coast there was still wild and rugged, and it is still breathtakingly beautiful. It looks very much like the northern California coast, minus the redwoods, of course. Neruda's house is on the cliff overlooking the rocky beach. He stocked his house with items from all over the world, since he served as the foreign minister for Chile. He has many of the statues that were on the front of ships, many gorgeous shells, masks and musical instruments from all over, as well as antique maps, miniature ships in bottles, and African statues. It's an amazing museum and beautiful house.

We drove on, further down the coast for dinner. Then later that night, back at the house, we grilled up some chicken, pork and sausages. It was an amazing day!

On Sunday Jesse made scrambled eggs and bacon, and then we took a trip to two different beaches. The first was a gorgeous small bay. The sun was out and there were even people swimming in the water! We climbed up to a high rock and sat and soaked it in. Then we drove to another beach and walked along it for about an hour. A storm was starting to roll in, and it made the cliffs and sky look amazing. The houses along the cliffs were really impressive.

We had a quick dinner, then headed back to the city, and it almost immediately started raining hard, which of course meant accidents on the freeway, and slow going. It was the first real rain of the Fall, and has been much needed because the rain helps free up the smog. The smog was becoming really disgusting, and the government had implemented “pre-emergency” days, restricting certain older model cars from driving.

Jesse's brother Joey is arriving on the 27^th of this month and we'll all be taking a trip up north to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a town right on the desert and salt flats. It's supposed to be stunning, so we are very excited.

I have been working really hard, with always 3 to 5 classes a day. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the travel time. There are always so many people on the sidewalks, on the Metro, on the bus, in the shops. It gets exhausting. And I feel like I walk about 5 miles a day. My legs look good, at least! Not having TV, DVD, a CD ROM or the internet is really frustrating, because all I want to do when I get home is watch a movie or the news or surf the net... I've been very on edge about it lately, and will probably have to buy a DVD player because the internet is not going to happen, and I doubt we can find an antenna big enough to catch a TV signal, which is all in Spanish anyway.... It feels like all work and no play.

Luckily we have received a work contract from one of our bosses, and we now won't have to leave the country every 3 months. We just have to go through a ton of paper work and sitting in lines until we get it approved. But as long as we are in the process of doing it, we don't have to leave the country.

Lately we have been talking and thinking about going to Easter Island in November. The photos I've seen of it are amazing, and everyone we talk to says they loved it. The problem is that flights are incredibly expensive, about $500 - $600 each...

So is it getting warm for you all? Hope it doesn't get too hot this summer! I fear that it's nothing but extremes from now on... pretty scary times. There was a volcano eruption in the south here yesterday, but they knew it was going to happen so were prepared.

Until next time, hasta luego, and thanks for reading!