Updates from the Southern Hemisphere....

....Maitencillo....

Hola hola.... back from another weekend at the beach!!

Soooo... I'm learning about this blogging business as I go. And one thing I've just realized is that I've uploaded quite a few pictures for your viewing pleasure buuut.... they're pretty much all landscapes, sunsets, and food. I'm starting to realize the interesting ones usually have a person or two in them so I'll be working on that in the future..... anyways without further ado, let's recap last weekend....

I met up with my friend Adriana from my time in Truckee, CA (Lake Tahoe) and we headed out to her parents (sweeeeet) beach house! Walking in the front door, you come around a corner and this is the view:
view from the porch:


We hung around for a bit, then headed down to a beach north of Maitencillo, in a town called Zapallar. There are trees around this beach and it was absolutely gorgeous......



Adri and I in Zapallar:

Me just living it up at the beach!
After the beach, heading up the hill, we ran into this little church, I thought it was a pretty neat building..... well kept too I might add......

and absolutely starving after the beach I was happy to have my first Chacarero (meat, letuce, tomatoe, green beans, aji peppers).... yum!

back up to the beach house in time to catch the sun setting over the ocean....

....and lemme just say it's a good thing I eat red meat again!! Because the following day, for lunch with my Chilean family.... Ethel made Cazuela which is a kind of soupy dish with meat, potatoes, some sort of pumpkin, aji peppers..... make sure you dip some bread in that soup!! Then after this bowl we all had corn on the cob, and some traditional Chilean salad which is just tomatoe, onion, olive oil, salt.... simple but tasty!!! ....
Sunday I wanted to head down to the beach by the Rodiriguez house in Maitencillo one last time before returning to Santiago (thanks for the sweatshirt mom)....

Sunset in Maitencillo:

I was posting almost daily at the beginning, but now it's more of a weekly type publication, which is think is more reasonable to maintain....

Hope this post finds you well. I know its winter up in the states but when its summer up there it'll be winter down here, so then I'll be the one jealous of your weather.

Also I keep mentioning it to you guys but I'm really easy to get a hold of on Skype.
It's easy..... you Windows folks just head to: Skype D/L for Windows
and you Mac folks just head to: Skype D/L for Mac

If you have a laptop you probably have a built in camera w/microphone and we could talk for freee!! If you don't have a webcam I think they're only around $20 or so(?).... let me know if you have any questions about the whole Skype deal....

If you do get it all set up my Skype name is: zakareid
So just add me and we'll chat it up!!

Ok, was fun publishing this edition of Chile Weekly.
We'll talk soon!!

chau chau,
zak

Lo Siento por el Tiempo... Estoy en Chile!!

Hi everyone! My apologies that I haven't written... haven't had much time!! So last Saturday morning we woke up, Ivan's dad got here, we picked up Ivan's lady friend, and we were off to the beach!!

After about an hour we stopped at a smallish hut-looking restaurant on the side of the road. Ivan tells me it's pretty traditional Chilean food. I had pastel de choclo...... corn cake with meat....

It was pretty tasty.... kind of a bread bowl with corn and meat. The plate next to it was a "salad"... basically a bunch of vegetables to eat with your food. Here's a picture of me and Ivan's dad (Ivan Sr.) at lunch....

When we arrived in Maitencillo, we went straight to the beach. It was a gorgeous day and the water was nice and blue.... the view approaching the beach.....

The beach on the south side of Maitencillo:
We hung out there for a bit, then back to Ivan's family's house... they built this a while ago. They were the first family in this area, bought up some land, and built this house. After this one they built another 3 or 4 houses around and Ivan's mom (Ethel) lives in this house full time to manage the properties.... anyways it's not real big but it's cute inside and out....

Here's their puppy dog.... her name is Gringa cuz she has blonde/red hair.... so when we're together we're the Gringos in Maitencillo!!

I absolutely LOVE Ivan's family......... just as we were leaving I insisted we take a quick picture.... here's Ivan, me, Ivan Sr., and Ethel. Great people....

and just an aside... a bonus picture if you will.... on Monday Ivan and I were running errands en el centro y en un centro comercial la entcontremos esta tienda de yo! My store!!!

Ok now back to work, I'm getting ready to go to an interview today at a company so I'm off. I'll keep you posted.

Un abrazo,

Zak

Mi Amigo Nuevo Ivan y Su Casa

Hola amigos! So a quick backstory.... when I lived in Lake Tahoe, CA, I met a bunch of Peruvians & Chileans. One of my closest friends from that trip is Macarena, but because it's summer vacation right now, she's out of the country. Fortunately, she has a brother named Ivan who lives in the city. I got in contact with him and met up with him last night.

Ivan is a really nice guy and has offered to let me stay here while I look for work, and if I want, to stay here permanently, and start splitting the rent when I get a job. His condo is on the 23rd floor and has an awesome view. It's not the most spacious, but it has wood floors in the hallway/dining room, and I like it. I'm set up in the 2nd bedroom with an air matress right now. There's a desk for my computer and books, as well as closet space.

Here's a picture of my room:
And here's the view out of my window:

Here's the dining room:

And the patio:
I also took a few pictures of the kitchen/bathroom but it's taking me forever to upload the pictures onto this blog so I'll do it later.

Oh, also, tengo otras buenas noticias! The airline found my bag and will be delivering it this afternoon!!

Also, Ivan and his father are headed to the beach for the weekend and he's invited me soooo... voy a la playa esta fin de semana (i'm going to the beach this weekend) !!!! woooo!!!!!

I'll make sure to take some pictures and share them contigo.

Then Monday begins the job hunt in earnest.
I'll be in touch.
Hope you are well!!

chau familia....

El Primer Dia.

Hola! So I´ve already learned one important lesson de Santiago... don´t bring traveller´s checks!! I didn´t bring any when I went to Europa but since I have to pay a 3% fee everytime I withdrawal money or use my credit card, I brought some traveller´s checks.... only problem is nobody accepts them!! I had to walk really far with my packs to a place that would trade me for Chilean pesos and intead of the usual 500 pesos/dollar, they gave me 470/dollar... so I´m now losing 6% instead of 3% !! haha que triste....

I walked around the downtown area today. Although it´s a big city, they do a good job of having trees all over the place and nice little parks. Here's a few of the pictures I took as I explored and checked out the city.... now admittedly there are sectors of the city with more buildings and less trees, I just liked the tree filled areas and took pictures of those areas..... anyways here we go.....

On Augutinas walking towards Santa Lucia Hill:

I hadn't seen this before and liked the side of this building :

I headed up to the downtown area where there are a bunch of bridges that cross the Mapocho River which runs through Santiago:

Heading back south through the downtown:

El otro lado de Santa Lucia Hill, una pequena calle con muchos arboles!

y despues de un dia de caminar, necesitaba un asiento y una cerveza.... all the necessary ingredients for an aspiring teacher are present here:

ok I hope you liked my little tour.... chau!!

He llegado...

I´ve arrived!!

It wasn´t the most glorious of arrivals though..... firstly, I knew I´d have to pay some sort of entry fee, I was thinking around $30..... and I was kinda close, I mean Mexicans arriving pay $23....... the sketchy part is Americans pay $131 !!

So that coupled with a lack of sleep had me a little bit irked, but I was fine until I picked up my bags and one of them is missing! :O I have my fingers crossed it just didn´t make the transfer in Los Angeles to Aeromexico or something.... really hope it comes in tomorrow!!

But on a positive note I just found out a buddy of mine from Wisconsin (that I hadn´t done a good job keeping in touch with) moved to Santiago 3 weeks ago and is currently teaching English!! What a small world!!!

Ok it´s 3am so I´m off to bed! abrazos y besos!! chau!!!

En Route...

<-- the terminal, i love the ceiling...

I am currently sitting and typing this in the Alfa Bar & Restaurant in the Mexico City Airport. I arrived at about 430am from LAX and my Aeromexico plane leaves at 1230pm for Santiago. I'll get in at midnight tonight and then it's straight to the Bellavista Hostel.... (Reviews)

Well (in typical fashion) I saved much packing till the last day. Yesterday was hectic. But harder than all of that was the goodbyes... in particular one special lil lady....

I brought a Spanish grammar text book and have been studying, with more to come on the next flight. I can feel the vocabulary coming back and the accent is feeling pretty comfortable so I'm feeling optimistic. I've always wanted to be bilingual and here's a great opportunity that I'm ready to take full advantage of. Unfortunately with my goal of teaching English I also brought an English grammar textbook that I will need to dive into........ can you tell how excited I am about that one? :P

Ok I'm going to eat a little food, then airplane, then Sudamerica!!!

One Day Till Departure

Wow.... one day till I hop on a plane to South America and I have about 34o53498530 things to do!! Probably shouldn't be spending my time setting up this blog but I wanted to start this dialogue before I'm off. This is my 2nd go at a blog (did one for my piano self-teaching adventure) and I'm determined to make this one better than the last (read: pictures, more updates)....

I arrive in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, February 10th, at around midnight. I'll head to a pre-determined hostel (pre-determining to occur today) and sleep off the plane travels. Then up Thursday morning to get a feel for the city and adjust to my new life.

The goal is to hit the pavement for the first couple weeks down there and interview outta my mind to get work. I really want a position Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). I just finished my certificate last week for TEFL and I think it would be an awesome job. I'd love a full-time contract with a school/academy/company, but am also prepared to work to obtain multiple part-time/tutoring gigs. I'm ready for anything at this point... I just need to stay focused, work hard, stay positive, and I believe it will pay off.

Just under 36 hours now till the airplane departs out of Phoenix Sky Harbor. Feeling nervous, a little anxious, a little stressed, but a lot of excitement. Overall I'm happy with my decision.... it was a hard one, and although I'm leaving loved ones behind, I need to continue to push myself to grow... to be the person I know I can be. I'll be back soon with a whole different outlook on the world, and with plenty of stories to share.

34 hours and counting....