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