This past weekend Jesse and I went back to the coast, to a town called Maintecillo. We had passed it in a bus the last time we were on the coast and wanted to go back. We caught a bus out of Santiago at 6:30pm on Friday, which put us in Maintecillo at 9:30pm without a place to stay. We learned that the town only has cabanas (basically cabins/small houses) to rent, there are no hotels. We found a cabana, but it wasn't very clean so we got our money back and started wandering around looking for something else. Everything seemed closed. We walked for about half an hour or more looking. Finally, as we wandered into a place, we were told we could rent a house up the hill. The woman, Anna-Maria took us up in her car. It was much cleaner and also cheaper. We were so relieved! We were starving, and so Anna-Maria drove us back down the hill and dropped us off at a restaurant. She was really funny, so warm and sweet and accommodating. She knew someone that worked at the restaurant and so came in with us, but he wasn't there. Then just as we were paying the check, she was back! She drove us back to the house and we collapsed, not believing our luck and what a crappy time we'd had walking around looking for a place to stay.
The next morning we walked through the dirt road village to the store and got some eggs and bread and lunch for the beach. We cooked the eggs at the house then went down to the beach. We sat on the beach all day. We ate our chips and fruit, read, drank beer, splashed a little in the ocean. It was really cold. Then we went home to shower and go back out for dinner. At the end of dinner when we tried to pay with a credit card we were told the restaurant doesn't accept them. We didn't have enough cash on us. They said there was an ATM next door, but when Jesse went it was closed. The family at the table next to us overheard the conversation, and the Dad, Javier, offered to take Jesse to the ATM since it was near where he parked his car, and then come back to pick up his family. I waited with the Mom, Anna-Maria (another one), and the 3 kids. The kids were only 5, 2 and a half, and 9 months. It was already about 11:00, and the kids were exhausted. (Chileans stay out late with their kids. It's not uncommon to see kids at a restaurant at midnight). After about half an hour, we started to wonder where they were... turned out, after an hour, that the ATM's they tried all didn't work and Javier insisted on driving until they found one that worked. Jesse kept telling him not to worry, but he insisted. Meanwhile, I felt awful because the baby was fussing and the toddler started waking up and crying. Finally, they came back and Jesse had cash and we paid the bill and left. The next day we bought them a bottle of wine but they had gone to a neighboring town for lunch and our bus back to Santiago left before they got back. Since they live in Santiago, we will have to bring it to them here.
Sunday was overcast, but not cold, so we took a long walk on the beach then had some lunch on the beach. It is such a cute town. It's not over-developed or fancy. It's still very casual and rugged and more of a “beach” town kind of feel as opposed to a resort. We had told Anna-Maria that we would meet her at at the house at 4pm to give the keys back. But she called as soon as we got to the beach and said she was leaving town so needed the keys back now. So we walked up the hill to meet her, but when we got there she called to tell us to just put the keys under the mat. Tad bit annoying.
We then caught our bus back, which was thankfully uneventful and speedy. However, when we got home Jesse realized his camera was missing. So that has been the second thing lost! Such a bummer. Luckily it wasn't in such great shape. My camera is worse off, so hopefully that will get stolen too. :)
Today, Monday, we moved into our new apartment. It's in the central of Santiago, thus there is a lot of traffic noise during the day. It's on the 20th floor of a modern building. We have a pool, workout room, and wi-fi room. Already, on our first night we are having house guests! They are two Australian guys we met in Valparaiso. They have been traveling around South America and are on their way home from Santiago.
Jesse has already found some classes he is teaching. One is just a Skype conversational class and the other is a one-on-one lesson with a lawyer. He starts that one tomorrow morning.
We both have great leads for more classes - the work is just now coming in since it's the end of summer, so we are waiting for it to get organized and distributed. Ideally, we would each have 20 hours of work a week. As a teacher, 20 hours turns into about 35 hours, because of lesson planning, prepping, and travel time. It seems like for the first few months we will be working as freelancers, picking up classes from different companies, but then usually one of the schools will start offering you more classes if they like you, and you become more full-time with one school/company.
So our working life embarks!! We are excited to have our own place to live, as we have never lived alone. And we (well, Jesse mostly) are excited to work and put our learned skills to the test and hopefully see our students learning English!
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