Good Gear!

It was chilly in our apartment till we found this little powerhouse. We’ve also outfitted the bed with a warm down blanket to help us through this Chilean winter. The cold temperatures, though, are giving us time to find a cheap/used refrigerator to buy.

The real rush is to get the internet hooked up in our apartment. Paula is having Facebook withdrawls and I miss Skyping my friends and checking the baseball scores. It has been a bit of an ordeal trying to talk with these fast speaking Chileans over the phone. If it’s not the speed they talk at it’s the Chile slang and expressions. We are getting nowhere so we’ve enlisted the help of a new friend in our building and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be online.

We’re hoping to be taking Spanish lessons soon too! Our school also teaches Spanish and offers to swap teaching hours for lesson time. It’s a really good option because Paula and I are on similar schedules and should be able to take the Spanish lessons at the same time basically giving us a 2 for 1 deal.
We’re both loving our classes and Paula is really liking teaching. I am really enjoying the organization and methodology this school provides. It’s a far cry from what I experienced in China.

Anyways hopefully the next time we post it will be from our apartment!

Yep, we´re employed!

We’ve got work and a new apartment!
Hmmm, living in Canada wasn’t THIS good, apartments are really nice and affordable. We quickly learned why, Chile doesn’t winterize or heat them! (brrr!) Also, they don’t usually come with a fridge. We’ll be hitting up the markets this weekend to get these final important pieces and a few trimmings to make our apartment truly guest worthy.

As for work, we’ve been fortunate to find a company that will arrange working visas for us. We’re slowly gathering teaching hours and looking into tutoring on the side (this is where the real money is at). Also, we’ve been arranging volunteer opportunities and looking into other organizations within Santiago. We won’t be firm on times though until our teaching schedules are all worked out.

The school, Bridge Linguatec, caters to business clients in and around Santiago. Sean has been gathering classes quickly with most of them being at the business’ office. He gets paid travel time which is a nice bonus and he’s happy to travel around the city. Paula’s happy to see him in a shirt and tie!

Enjoy the pictures of our new place. We also posted a couple of videos from inside the apartment.

Back in Santiago

Well we’ve been back in Santiago de Chile for a week now. The weather seems to be nicer than Argentina, but it’s still heading into winter so it’s chilly and we’re starting to get multiple overcast days. We bought an umbrella today!

The true sign that winter is on its way are the people in the streets selling umbrellas and the skiers getting stoked for the season.
We are told that watching the mountains gather snow and then watching it recede is a good way to pass the next couple of months. We are also told that it’s not supposed to be a rainy winter, but that doesn’t help with thoughts of Canada soaking it up in the sun right now.

Paula and I are passing the time with multiple projects including; finding volunteer opportunities in the community, finding a job, finding a place to live, and finding cheap watering holes. The holes aren’t to hard to find actually, you can go anywhere for a good cheap drink. Pisco sours are Chile’s cocktail and good beers at good prices are at every restaurant(Kuntzman (sp), Escudo, and Cristal are regional). The key to being thrifty though is finding restaurants that have a happy hour. We’ve been lucky enough to come across a great sushi bar and a great thai food joint offering half off everything on their menu’s. Along with finding a place that offers ‘real’ caesar salads we think this is the key to good living. As unemployed transients and mindful buddhists we take what we can get and give as much as we can.
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