Estoy Viviendo la Vida....

Hola compadres, como están? Estoy biiiien, finalmente estoy conociendo mas gente y visitando mas lugares de esta ciudad. En facebook escribí que, ahora me estoy sintiendo parte de Santiago. Que emoción!! Mi Castellano está mejorando también! wooo!!!

I still have a long ways to go but have actually gotten many compliments on my Spanish from both the locals and some gringos. I've actually had other foreigners ask me if I was from Santiago!! haha woohooo!!!

Sooo, as I said, I've been getting out more. I love the metro system (except it stops running at 10:30/11pm depending on the day!!) .....now the bus system is a lil crazy but I live walking distance from one of the main streets in Santiago and there's buses that run up and down that street (Alameda y Providencia también), so that's nice.

Last weekend Maca and I went hiking up Cerro San Cristobal. It's this nice big hill in the middle of the city. It was maybe a 10 or 15 minute walk to get there from my house (it's to the NW), and maybe a half hour or 45 minutes to the top, where you get a nice view of Santiago. We headed up at sunset. Here's a couple pics....




The view from the top after the sun set, before dark....


Me and Maca at the top.


Sunset over Santiago.

The next day I met up with a group of friends that had a little event at a Brazilian restaurant planned. I ordered Feijoada (a very popular, traditional Brazilian dish), but was soon advised that they were out of Feijoada, so I changed my order, and for the life of me I can't remember the name....... I thought it was Faijon de 'something' but I can't find it on the internets.... anyways, doesn't look too exciting, but reminded me of my favorite food growing up (thanks mom)... Red Beans and Rice woo!! was very tasty....



The whole time we were eating there was some awesome live music, and after our meal, a dance party broke out!!



After the Brazilian party I had a little extra energy, so on my walk home, I stopped off in Bellavista, approached a table of strangers, and asked if I could hang out and practice my Spanish with them.... success!! There was 6 of us, but we didn't get a picture of the whole group for some reason(?)... anyways, here's 3 of us!

As we were just sitting there chatting it up, the lights went out........ in the whole city!! The street lights, building lights, everything! There were a ton of people outside sitting, enjoying the weather and drinking beer so we were all just kinda like.... well I guess we'll wait for this to pass! haha, the waiter quickly supplied little candles, we ordered another beer, and just waited it out.....


A little out of order here but this is from Friday the 12th and was my first meetup with the Expats group. It was a really cool event, I spoke mostly in Spanish all night (with a little English where necessary), we ate Mexican food, and I made some new friends (both Gringos and Chilenos).

Ok, back on the timeline, last one, these are from Tuesday March 16th... this is from the Santiago English-Spanish club... basically just another group that gets together extranjeros (non-Chileans) and Chileans, and give them a chance to practice English/Spanish....


Me and Fiorella, she's a Chilean and she's the one that let me know about these groups, so I have her to thank for a bunch of my new friends and new experiences here in Chile (plus she says she's going to teach me to Salsa)..... thanks Fio!!


Ok, hope this post finds you well! The Expats group meets again tomorrow night and it's Italian Food night yay! Ooh ooh, also, I worked out 3 times last week, and have worked out every day this week!! Wasn't getting enough exercise, but now I'm getting back in shape over here!!

Ok love you all and I'll update 'soon' hahaa....

abrazos, besos, cuidate, chauu!!!!!!

Zak

Updates...

Hi friends and family..... well not a whole lot of new exciting business to report down here*. Santiago pretty much seems back to normal after the quake, and I haven't really been able to find any good volunteer opportunities (although I just found one as I was typing this! haha, needed some harder looking). Nevertheless, the closest I've been so far was I went to a party where there was an entrance fee of 2 non-perishable food items. My buddy was helping with the party, so I ended up helping organize a bunch of the food and moving it to a storage room..... by the end of the party the entire room was full!! It ended up over-filling the bed of a truck, so that was awesome!!

*well after finishing this post, it's kind of novel-ish so watchout!!


Also, to keep this interesting, the other night there was a nice sunset view on my patio.....

Other than that, I went to the beach last weekend for the first time since the terremoto and everything was fine..... was good to be back with the Chilean family :) Also it was really fun this time because Macarena (Maca) has returned from her international vacation...... she was one of my best friends in Tahoe and the whole reason I got to meet this awesome family. So many many thanks to Maca!!!

This week I've been looking at more ways to get involved with and meet more Chileans.... I've met a few people out skateboarding at the local park by the apt.... but I also found a couple of neat groups. One is called Expats in Chile and the other is Santiago English-Spanish Exchange Group.

The Expats group is a group of some non-Chileans (although Chileans attend as well) that meet up fairly regularly to do fun things, and you can meet some other people in similar situations as you..... this Friday they're meeting and doing a Mexican Food Night....... which might sound like same-ol same-ol to you folks in the states but I haven't had Mexican food once since I've been here and ohhh do I miss it!!

The other group meets once weekly and it's for both native English and Spanish speakers and half the time the group will speak in English and the other half in Spanish..... so I'd get to work on my Spanish and help others with their English!! So I really like that idea (I'll keep you posted).

On the job front..... the company I'm hoping to work for has had trade shows in Canada last week and Mexico this week, so the people that would be in the position to offer me a job have been out of the country. The woman who would likely give me an offer said that she's planning to send me a more formal email next week..... so I'm hoping that's going to be an offer. But I'm still looking elsewhere.... through a connection I was set up to interview at a local school but the woman replied that she was in fact looking for a Chilean. My friend Maca told me when she took English in school, the class was ran completely in Spanish, and as a result.... she didn't actually learn any English!! haha.... so if I want to go the teaching route I'm likely going to need to speak to the company's that train businessmen to speak English..... so that's the next step there......
Ok enough typing.... I could type for days over here!! Not too many new pictures but I have a couple to share......

My good friend Adri's last night in town before heading up to Lima, Peru to start school for the semester......

Sooo as I said I was out at the beach this past weekend. For lunch one day Ethel (chilean mom) made something called Porotos Granados con Mazamorra... which translates to something like "Choice Beans and Smooshed Corn" haha, but let me reassure you, it's amazing!! It's Maca's favorite and I can see why!!! .... also you'll notice a little traditional Chilean Tomate y Cebolla ensalada (and you'll also notice I have a touch of Aji Pebre in there as well ;) ).. I've eaten more tomatoes here than in my entire life combined!!!



This picture is actually a couple weeks old but thought I'd post it anyways, it's fun :P I was playing a kind of beach tennis game (paletta) with Adri, when she ran into some friends so I took her paddle and got into a solo game! haha, and Panchi, a friend here, took this candid photo. They were kinda laughing at me cuz I was so into it but I was loving it..... I was making some great hits and had nobody to mess it up on the other side hahaa..... soy el mejor palettero del mundo!!!



Well all weekend it was cloudy at the beach which was kind of a bummer...... but Sunday afternoon, just before we were getting ready to head back to the big city, the clouds cleared up and Maca (chilean sister) and I walked down to the beach. It was a gorgeous day and I had to take the same picture of the beach..... starting to think I'm going to take this picture everytime I go there so we get a nice montage of the changing seasons as seen at Maitencillo......



Maca and I hanging out down on the beach....


Just watching the waves....


I said something similar on facebook, and it's kind of sappy...... but in this country where everyone speaks a different language..... it's nice hearing the ocean singing her same old song....... makes me feel more at home. At least there's something familiar here you know??

Hope this post finds you well..... I'm hoping to meet some new people over the next week, start honing in on this job business, and stick to more of a routine (ie. waking up earlier!)....

That's it for this issue of Gringeno** Weekly!

Chau!!!

Zak

**Get it like Gringo Chileno.... Gringeno.... haha :P

La Semana del Terremoto....

Hey folks, well as you know there was a serious earthquake here early Saturday morning. I've been in touch with you guys and let you know I'm fine, I also just found out Adri's family in Concepcion, who they hadn't heard from, just got in touch and relayed they're ok. They don't have water, but they're fine, so that's good.

Anyways, the damage isn't too bad here in Santiago, there are some cracks in buildings, chunks of cement have fallen of churches and older buildings, but I haven't seen anything too terrible. The most noticeable affects would be that some traffic lights have been out, and quite a few stores/restaurants have been closed because employees haven't been coming in (and maybe a shortage of supplies from lack of shipments?).....

But yes we're ok....... I don't even really have any pictures of the damage around here because it's not too serious, but I'll keep my camera with me in case I come across some photo-worthy business.....

Buuuut since I haven't updated for almost two weeks (yikes!) I do have a couple photos from the past week or so.......


Ate at a little place by my house called Santo Pollo and had.... well I think it was called Granjera de Pollo..... era papas fritas, cebolla y pollo.... french fries, onion, chicken.... with a lil aji (hot pepper sauce) on there for good measure, gotta have my spice!! But it was great to have some chicken again..... soo much meat here!! haha.....

On Wednesday I was in Santiago and wanted to get back to the beach so I took a bus out to Maitencillo, then we drove down to Vina del Mar (well Con Con actually, but they're neighbors).... and I got to see my good friend from Tahoe, my buddy Felpa, was awesome to see him again.....

We went out for a little bit, and met up with another real good friend from Tahoe, my buddy Ivan:

The next day on the way back to Maitencillo we stopped at a friends house in Horcon, here's the view from her balcony:

Later that day I had lunch with Ethel Rodriguez, the roommate's mom in Maitencillo...... she made this carrot dish, not sure if we have anything like it in the states, it's called tortilla de zanahoria... con arroz y tomate:

Adriana had a bday/going away party Friday night, here's a pic of me, Adri, and Maca Rodriguez, my roommate's sister..... she just got back from her international vacation, and I have her to thank for where I'm living and the Maitencillo family...... anyways this picture was taken mayyybe 3 - 4hrs before the 'quake......


The next day, Ivan came by and picked me and Maca up.... we went out to his grandma's house to make sure she was alright (she lives alone)..... we were just stopping by but she ended up serving us some lunch..... she served us humita.... which is corn mashed up with some spices, maybe a little onion, and cooked in the husk....... yumm!!!

Me and the abuelita.... she was just the sweetest woman! She loves showing off her plants and is all smiles..... gotta love these Chileans!!

Ok folks, I'm really gonna try to do the update/week, preferably on Sunday/Mondays...... I'll keep you posted on the earthquake details, I just found out a grocery store here needs help packing up food to send down south so I'm gonna try to make it down there to help out..... I'll be in touch, love you all!!

abrazos y besos,
zak