It´s Raining It´s Pouring...

One of my favorite Santiago winter moments...when it´s raining and cold outside and I´m inside curled up by the estufa reading (or on my labtop in this case). I have the perfect little cubby hole to sit curled up in too, and it´s in my favorite place in the apartment...the kitchen. The owners of this apartment changed the laundry room into an extension of the kitchen. Instead of normal walls, this little extension is made up of glass walls so that you have a view of the city on every side. It´s the perfect little place to sit and write or read. Right now I have food cooking on the stove and the smell is adding to the delicious cozy comfy feeling I´m basking in at the moment. Add to that my mug of steamy hot tea and I feel like it´s Christmas time. I love it.

Speaking of Christmas, I now know why every time I pass by Castanos I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The smell reminds me of Christmas! All those sweet warm oders are exactly what I smell when I´m baking with my mom in the cold winter months of Canada! No wonder I feel so happy passing by Castanos! For those of you not familiar with Castanos, it´s a delicious little bakery that you can find on pretty much every street corner in Santiago and it´s mmm mmm good! Sometimes when I´m passing by a Castano I have to fight back the urge to go inside and buy all those warm gooey little baked goods! But usually it´s a no-win battle and more often than not, I come back home with a bag full of goodies he he.

Things on the working front are going along swimmingly. I´m slowly starting to be entrusted with more and more responsibilities and I´m finally starting to get past that awkward adaptation phase you experience on the first couple weeks at a new job and are a little lost and unsure of exactly what to do. In fact, I´ve already gone out for lunch with the boss twice! Oh yeah...I´m special! I must say though, I have a pretty amazing boss! I couldn´t have been more lucky!

Another positive spin on my work is that I just found out I live right next to a gringa friend! I was supposed to meet this friend at her house for coffee today and had been there once before at night so I thought I had a pretty good idea of where it was since it was near my work. So I took off in search of her house and walked...and walked...and walked...her apartment wasn´t where it had been in my mind. After I had pretty much explored all of Tobalaba and El Golf, and after having two or three phone conversations with this friend trying to figure out where I was and how to get to her apartment, I discovered that she lived just across the street from my work! And I don´t mean somewhere over there across from where I work...I literally mean that all I had to do was go to the cross walk infront of my work building, walk 10 steps to the other side of the street, and there is her place! I´m such a moron when it comes to "ubicating" myself in this city...no...anywhere actually. The place in my brain that should be reserved for spacial orientation has been replaced by some other type of processing center...probably another food center because I am constantly craving it! Why oh why do I love food so much!??! But that topic is for another post....Okay now I´m off topic, where was I?

Alright so, it is now late and I just got home and now have about an hour before I spontaneously crash and fall asleep. I still can´t get used to having a work schedule and having to get up early and be gone all day! Though very fulfilling, rewarding, and enjoyable, it can get exhausting and leaves little room for "me" time. I am a person that desperately needs her 8 plus hours of sleep and so if I don´t get it, I sprial into a state of semi-consciousness/disorientation after a given amount of time so I better stop writing before this ends up making no sense whatsoever. Actually, it´s probably getting there. Just wanted to post something because it feels like I haven´t posted in a while and I don´t want to slack off with my beloved blog!!!

Good night to all and to all a good night!!!