Gringa Gone South

Christmas and New Year in Beautiful Cold Canada!

2011-12-26T21:29:00.008-03:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

I am so happy to be writing this post from my dear home country of Canada. It has been 1 year and 7 months since I was last home. I have never been away for this long! Since we have no idea when we will make it back to Canada, my mom got a little anxious and bought me a cheap ticket on a whim to come home. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened my email at work and found an eticket to Canada waiting for me. Unfortunately, my husband has no vacation time since he started his new job a few months ago, but he knew how much I missed my family and told me I should go...god bless him. So here I am, having the time of my life with friends and family.

I arrived on the 24th, the perfect day to be stuck in airports, but luckily, I had no major delays. The only problem was that my luggage was lost...and I still haven't gotten it back 5 days later. This sucks because I had all my christmas presents and favorite outfits in there. There goes my entire winter wardrobe! However, I am not too upset about this since I am just so freaking happy to be back. Words cannot describe how happy I was to see my dad waiting for me as I walked out of the baggage claim with a bouquet of flowers in his hands and a big smile on his face. Of course I teared up right away. We hugged and started talking non stop. After leaving the airport, the first stop was Starbucks of course, for the road, and next, Safeway. I absolutely LOVE the sandwhiches they prepare there. Waaayy better than Subway. It's amazing how much one can miss such little details about their previous life.

The drive to my home town, which is just outside of Vancouver, was breathtaking and I was reminded once again of why I want to end up back here. There was a low mist hanging over the mountains and the air was crisp and cool, my kind of weather. The sun was strategically poking out from behind the clouds in places that amplified the beauty of the forests and mountains we were passing. It was a glorious ride home and I felt as if Canada was welcoming home. As tired as I was, I just could not force myself to sleep because I was just too damn excited to be back. My dad and I talked the whole ride home. I arrived to my house to find it illuminated with Christmas lights, covered in snow, and I could see the big pine Christmas tree shining brightly in the front window. Ahhh...it's good to see Christmas again. In Chile I have never felt like I have had Christmas there. They really don't celebrate much.

My mom and my sister greeted me with huge hugs and we started talking a mile a minute. It was as if I had never left. Everyone shooed me to the dinner table right away and we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner where we talked and laughed non stop. After we went to the Christmas service at our church where I got to see a few good family friends. Once we arrived home, my family and I huddled around the Christmas tree in the living room with tea and continued to talk and catch up about our lives over some hot tea. I know, picture perfect Christmas. It was just what I needed.

The next day, my family and I spent all day lounging around in our pjs and opening and enjoying our Christmas presents. The day after that, my family threw me a big welcome home party and everyone I knew in this city came. Our family is famous in town for having pretty amazing parties because my dad is a musician and a great entertainer and always breaks out the guitar at some point in the evening. Therefore, our parties always end in singing and dancing and that night was no different.

The rest of the week flew by in a blur. I can't believe that as I write this it's Saturday. In a week I'll be back in Chile. This week was full of visiting old friends and family. I met with my old highschool friends for dinner one night, I met with my university friends one night where we had a full night of partying, and I am spending every spare second I can with my mom, dad, and sister. Tonight is New Years night and I'm going up to a friends cabin in the mountains on a lake which is about 40 minutes out of town. A bunch of my good university friends are all going up there and we're planning on going skating and having a bon fire, a great way to finish off 2011.

So I'm going to end this post now. I know this is kind of random, especially since I haven't posted in a while, but I promise I will do a post soon to update everyone on my life. For now, I'm just enjoying life at home with my lovely family and taking in everything I've missed for so long. I don't want to think about my Chilean life just yet, I barely have any time left here, just one more week!

I hope you all (whoever is reading this) has a wonderful and safe New Years Eve celebration tonight and a great year to come!

Happy New Year!!!

September

2011-09-25T10:56:00.010-03:00

Ahhh spring. I know I always complain that I hate the sun and the heat but I can't deny the happiness I feel when I walk to work in the balmy morning and breathe in that delicious flowery perfume that stains the air now that everything is in full bloom. My favorite things about summer are the mornings and the evenings when the sun is gone and all the flowers and plants open up and release their sweet fragrances. It is heaven. During the winter here in Santiago, you tend to loose your sense of smell since the smog pretty much kills everything...then spring comes, and you remember what it's like to smell again. As soon as I smell all these summer smells: freshly cut grass, flowers and trees of every kind...I'm taken back to the hot desert summers of my little home town and all the memories come flooding back: nights and days at the lake, bonfires, swimming, boating, friends, parties...sigh, I miss it.

Okay so now to get back to my life. In this post I will attempt to wrap up the month of Septmeber, since I've been such a bad blogger and can't seem to coordinate my blog with my life. So here it goes:

September is the month that my husband turned 30, a pretty important birthday. We celebrated by having two parties, one with his friends and one with his family. They were both pretty relaxed but we had a good time anyway. I made my first attempt at a carrott cake which had pineapple, coconut, and cream cheese dressing and it turned out pretty amazing. Everybody was raving since they're not used to carrott cake. They thought I was a genius for trying something so different though I tried to explain to them that this cake was pretty standard in North America. I also made my first attempt at hummus which turned out pretty incredible. It was lemon basil hummus and it was so easy. I just threw everything in a blender and it was done. The easiet appy one can possibly make. Again, all the Chileans were raving and couldn't believe how ingenius it was to make a dip out of garbanzo beans. I explained to them that this was also a pretty standard thing for us North Americans but they couldn't get over it. People really aren't used to experimenting in the kitchen here. Just incase your curious, I got the recipes for the carrott cake and the hummus from Simply Recipes (www.simplyrecipes.com), one of my favorite food blogs.

So my husbands birthday came and went and pretty soon it was time to celebrate the big 18, Chile's national holiday. At work I decided to throw a little office bash for our area so I went to ask for money from my bosses boss to organize the event and he allowed it. I went all out and decorated or whole floor until it was barely recognizable, I ordered empanadas, mote con huesillos, and I went and bought drinks and snacks etc. Friday we stopped working at 1pm and we had our little celebration which turned out great. Everyone was really happy for this little work reunion and it was so nice to see people break out of their serious office personalities and let loose. We put on cueca music, ate, drank (non-alcoholic beverages of course), and were merry.

We also had a big work event that my company put on for all its employees. They rented a huge event center in Vitacura and set up a huge stage where they had folkloric groups playing typical Chilean songs and they had dancers dancing traditional Chilean dances. They also had various stands set up with all the traditional Chilean games (which really aren't that entertaining but were fun anyway). They had a huge bbq and roasted lamb and pig and had a stand for freshly made empanadas. They went all out. It was a huge event, especially since there are over 1,500 employees where I work. This particular afternoon happened to be one of the first true days of spring we had had until that point and it was sunny and warm. The combination of the beautiful weather and all the wine, chicha, empanadas, and asado made the evening blur into one happy drunken dream. Near the end of the event, my good group of friends at work and I just sprawled out on the grass and soaked up the sun and relaxed and talked. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. Oh and also, there was a mechanical bull, and I rode it :)

The weekend of the actual 18th, I was supposed to go to a fonda on Friday night with some friends from work but that didn't end up happening. On Saturday morning, my husband and I drove to his parents beach apartment at Papudo and we spend the rest of the weekend there with his brother, his brother's wife, their baby, and his brother's sister-in-law and her husband. It was a nice relaxed weekend. We had our bbqs, enjoyed the beach, and even tried to go to a fonda one night but there was nobody there and it kind of fizzled out so we went home early. So we didn't go all out and celebrate the 18th like crazy but it was a nice festive relaxing weekend at the beach.

Yesterday was a wonderful day, Tyffanie, one of my friends here, threw a going away bbq since her and her husband are going back to the States to start their lives there. It was a gorgeous and hot day. There was a ton of wine and food and some of my closest friends here in Chile were there. We all sat out on the picnic tables in the shade, eating, drinking, catching up, and enjoying the beautiful summer weather. All around us there were families having picnics, kids flying kites, dogs bouncing around happily, it was the perfect picture of a nice summer afternoon. It was so nice to see everyone in that environment and all enjoy the beautiful day together...though it was sad at the same time to see another good friend of mine getting ready to leave :( We'll miss you Tyffanie and Christian!!!

And now here I am, on a beautiful Sunday morning at Strabucks, just chilling with my coffee and my computer. I love lazy Sunday mornings like this. My husband went to train with his running group (he's training to run a marathon) so here I am, enjoying some time on my own. Later he's meeting me here and then we're going for lunch to one of our favorite little restaurants, Santa Bohemia. For those of you that don't know it, it's in Nunoa near Condell and it's incredible. Google it and go there. Then tomorrow it's back to work, but luckily, here in Chile we only work a couple more weeks and then we have another long weekend on October 10th. Then after that long weekend, we work a couple more weeks, and we get another long 4 day weekend! Then comes Christmas and New Years and more long weekends. I love this time of year :)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Life is One Big Party

2011-08-13T12:01:00.009-04:00

Wow, this last month has been an absolute blur of happy hours, extravagant lunches and dinners, working late, and dancing until the wee hours of the morning. I've turned into a party animal/workaholic. I don't know what's gotten into me but lately I have been feeling the urge to live life and go crazy. I think it has something to do with the fact that I never went through that phase in my life before. I've always been a nerd at school, never went out much, and then I graduated and came to Chile, got married, and now here I am.

I happend to find an amazing job and have met amazing friends there. We have so much fun together and this is the reason for all the recent happy hours and parties. Almost every day, someone wants to have a happy hour and since I'm 25, a time when I should be enjoying life, I haven't been able to refuse. There's just always something to do and somewhere to go after work. Also, work has been very demanding lately and my boss has needed me to stay until late most nights for the last month. The result, as I've mentioned, is one big fat blur of fun. Luckily I love work and my boss and have no problems staying late.

However, the one person that does have something to say about this recent lifestyle change is my husband. Of course it bothers him and it's hard to all of a sudden almost never see me and I know this kind of life is not sustainable for a healthy marriage but at least he's supportive and recognizes that I need to live a bit of a fun crazy life for a while anyway. I've just got to cut down a little. My husband is 5 years older than me and has already passed the "partying and going out all the time" phase...especially since he has been doing that since he was 13. So we're kind of in different places right now but we know how to meet in the middle and at least he recognizes that I need to have some fun, especially before we settle down and have kids and my life is over ha ha. But I'm not going to lie, it is a struggle trying to find a balance between my desire to be independant and have fun and do things on my own and maintain a healthy marriage. I know that sometimes I can be too independant but I want to maintain my own identity, have my own friends, and have a little bit of my own life separate from my husbands. Is that wrong?

In other news, last weekend I FINALLY went up to snowboard here in Chile! I've been here for about 5 winters in row and have never went up until now. We went to Valle Nevado and the day before it had rained and the day was spectacular! IT was definitely one of the best days I've ever had at a ski mountain. There was fresh powder EVERYWHERE! This of course is a paradise for s snowboarders. All together we were my husband, my brother-in-law, and my husbands brother-in-law's sister. First of all, I'm glad we got there alive. Let me just say that the roads up to the resort were some of the worst winter roads I've ever seen! Even with chains, we lost control of the car a few times and once spun out of control and were inches from going off the cliff. The roads have no baraccades so if you slide and lose control, there is nothing stopping you from plummeting to your death. The roads are so steep because you're driving up the freaking Andes, they are uncomfortabely narrow, and full of ice and snow and gapping holes. Not a safe mix. It also doesn't help that people here don't use winter tires and most don't have a lot of experience driving in winter conditions. So, be careful driving up to the ski resorts. Make sure you have a good car and chains and drive cautiously!

Anyway, we got there at 9am and didn't rest the whole day. Well, we stopped for 5 minutes for lunch but we couldn't get enough. At one point I got separated from the group and ended up at another ski resort called "La Parva". I took a wrong turn and was so tempted by a part of the mountain that had fresh powder everywhere so I took off and before I knew it, I was lost in the middle of the Andes and couldn't see any chair lifts or T-bars anywhere. So, I took off my board and did a little treking, something that is quite difficult in knee-deep powder, and finally found a T-bar. When I asked one of the workers how I could get back to the chair lift, they started laughing at me and told me I was at the bottom of La Parva, a neighboring ski resort. Ha ha, it's kind of funny when you think about it, so they escorted me back to the original ski resort I started out at, Valle Nevado and eventually made it back to the group.

Since I hadn't been boarding in so long, I got a little over excited and went crazy, taking every jump I could find, speeding down every run, and falling all over the place. So, by the end of the day I had bruises everywhere and could barely move. That was a fun week at work, I felt the burn and the bruises all day, every day. It's not that I'm out of shape, I've snowboarded my whole life, but it has been about 2 years since I've been up and I pretty much destroyed my body that day since I was a little too excited about boarding again. It's okay though, I love to feel the burn of your muscles after you've used them, it helps remind me that I'm alive and that body's are meant to be used, not sit in an office all day.

I also mentioned at the beginning of this post that the last month has been filled with extravagant dinners and lunches. This is one of the perks of working in the corporate office of my company. I deal with all the big bosses of all the disciplines and so I get invited to all their fancy events. This month all the disciplines have had big dinners and lunches for all their employees so this has included lunches and dinners at Happenings, Nolita, The Hotel Intercontinental (various times), and the Radisson. Of course I am just loving it. Before working at my company, I had never eaten Wagyu beef before and now in the last month, I've had it 4 times! Not complaining, though my waist might be, but it's been great. It's been a great opportunity to get to know more people at work and just have fun with everyone. Next week we have another big dinner at the Hotel Intercontinental again. God my life is so damn hard ha ha. I have to say that I am so happy right now :)

Other news, we're finally moved into our new apartment!!! This place is amazing, I still can't believe we live here. I absolutely LOVE this neighborhood and it is such a pleasure walking home from work or coming back from a run to come home to such a wonderful place. Moving was a bit of a gong show but we got through it in one piece and with our marriage intact ;) This place now feels like home and we're slowly starting to buy things here and there to make it complete. Next on the list: curtains! We still don't have them. And since I hate direct sunlight, this has been driving me crazy.

And now I think it's time I finish this rediculously long post. Right now E is climbing a mountain with a friend and I am sitting here in our beautiful living room typing away and sipping my once hot coffee. Long weekend plans: Today we're just going to take it easy, I'm going to cook a nice lunch (should get started on that soon since it's already 1pm) and in the evening we're going to go see a movie. Tomorrow E has soccer, we'll have a nice lunch, and in the afteroon I'm spending some quality time with one of my best friends here. We're going to hit up the mall and go see the new Violeta Parra movie which I have been DYING to see! Monday E and I are going to use to go explore and see something new so we're looking at day trip options. Anyone have any good suggestions?

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Happy Sunday :)

2011-07-10T10:38:00.003-04:00

Oh life...I love you. Things are good.

I have big news....ready?! No, I'm not pregnant...

NEXT WEEKEND WE'RE FINALLY MOVING INTO OUR NEW APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's finally happening! After months of planning and paperwork and banks and headaches and all that crap, we're finally getting this show on the road. The owners are handing over the keys on Wednesday or Thursday and then we're using next weekend to move in. So I may not be blogging next weekend since we will probably be too busy with moving in and organizing and all that jazz. We're going to try to get most of the heavy lifting done on Saturday so that Sunday we can just spend cleaning and organizing etc. We made a deal with our friends and family, if they come help us move on Saturday, I will prepare my famous great big cheesy lasagna which they love and we'll make a party out of it. Of course, everyone agreed, so Saturday will be a fun moving day.

Life in general has been great lately, I've been so happy...WE'VE been so happy, my hubby and I that is. Things just seem perfect and just as they should, and right now I could imagine myself living in Santiago forever. Of course there are days where I still get pangs of homesickness and want to get on the next plane back to Canada, but those moments are becoming fewer and fewer and I'm adjusting and adapting to life in Chile.

Work is just awesome. I love it. Even though I work 11-12 hours a day and pretty much get home and go right to sleep during the week, I love the crowd I work with, I love the evironment, I love my boss, and I love being useful and working hard for something, even though I might not have the most glamours position in the company....yet ;) Last Thursday there was a huge happy hour at a bar in Las Condes for our company and about 70 people went. I went with a few of my workmates and got to know them a lot better. We had such a good time and by the end of the evening we were on our feet dancing. We made plans to go out dancing again next Friday. It had been so long since I had last danced and it felt wonderful. I can't wait until Friday. The plan is to go for dinner, drinks, and then out on the town.

Last night E and I went to the mall up in La Dehesa because we thought that the farthest mall would have the least number of people in it. It turns out we were right. It is now our favorite mall. Well, my favorite, E hates malls in general. I don't love it because it's the most beautiful mall in Santiago, I love it because you don't find any of the horrific hoards of people pullulating the mall left right and center that exist in Parque Arauco or even that other mall in lower Las Condes. I was completely impressed. The atmosphere was so relaxed, there was a band playing somewhere, people strolled and walked relaxed around the mall window shopping instead of storming around pushing and shoving like I normally experience in other malls. And this was a Saturday night! It might have something to do with the fact that the mall is somewhat outdoors and since it's winter and cold, people prefer to be in heated malls. So we'll just see what happens when summer comes around, but at least I found my mall of choice for the winter. Besides the absence of people at this mall, there were also way better discounts and so many more than at the other malls! I normally hate shopping in Chile but this was actually a very pleasant experience, which is why I am posting this, incase anybody else feels the same as I do and wants to find somewhere to shop in peace.

And now here I sit, in our soon to be nighborhood Starbucks. I walked here this morning with my labtop since we currently have no internet. E is at soccer with his league and is picking me up to go to his parents for lunch after the game. I love these nice relaxing mornings. I walked here from our apartment down Lyon, one of my favorite streets in Santiago because of the huge Platano Orientales that line it. Its a semi-sunny fall day and there still a few orange leaves coating the streets. God I love days like this! This Starbucks brings back so many memories. When I first came to Chile, this was the first Starbucks I went to since it was close to the institute I taught English at, it quickly became my favorite Starbucks and I came here almost every day. When I lived in Chile for a year and 4 months during my university days, we lived close to here as well and so I would come here again and again, with friends, with E, by myself...It's amazing to look back on all those times when I was still a student, when E and I didn't know what was to become of our relationship, when I was struggling in school, dying to get out, dreaming of a day like today when I would live a stable life with E in one country, and see how much as changed. Life is crazy, life is awesome.

And now I'm off to catch up with all the emailing and facebooking I've missed in this past week without internet, then it's off to have lunch with the in-laws. Today is actually a very important lunch since E's family and I are meeting E's sisters in-laws for the first time. They just got engaged so the two families finally decided it was time to meet. So this will be fun :)

Happy Sunday everyone!

One of My Favorite Group: Inti Illimani

2011-07-03T15:12:00.006-04:00

IT´S COOOOLLDDD!!!

Don´t get me wrong, I love the cold, and I know I was asking for it, but it´s different from back home in Canada where you can enjoy the cold ouside for a while, and then go inside to a nice warm house or coffee shop or whatnot. Here, you´re going from the bitter cold outside, to the just as bitter cold inside. Most people don´t have or use central heating in Chile so most of us have to get used to going to bed with freezing noses poking through the 20 layers of blankets we have cloaking our beds. We have so many blankets piled on our bed that I can barely move from the weight of them when I tuck myself into my bed at night. The worst part is waking up at 6am and seeing your breath as you walk to the bathroom to take a shower and have to wait a whole 3 minutes stark naked as you wait in the shower for the water to heat up. Friday night and Saturday night parts of Santiago reached -7C and -8C respectively! I feel like I´m back in Canada, except without the pretty snow and central heating. Okay, enough complaining, no matter how cold I get, I prefer it 10000 times more than the brutal summer Santiago heat. I´m happy to bundle up in nice warm sweaters and boots, my favorite things to wear.

Friday was Canada day, and because the only Canadian I know is currently in Canada, I didn´t have anyone to celebrate it with so it was just another normal day. July 4th steals all of Canada day´s thunder down here in Latin America ha ha. When I tried explaining Canada day at work, nobody even know about it and some thought I was confused for American Independance Day. Poor Canada, always taking a backseat to the States ;). However, I did have a pretty good Canada Day, even if I wasn´t celebrating Canada in particular. I did go to see my favorite group play with my darling husband and his parents. Inti-Illimani played at a big outdoor theater in Peñalolen Friday night and I was so excited to go since I haven´t seen them in so long. I have already been to 4 of their concerts and I NEVER get tired of them!

I´m not really a big concert person so the fact that I never get tired of going to see Inti-Illimani is really surprising to me and my husband. I just can´t get enough. They are the most talented group I have ever seen in my life. The combination of all those instruments mixed with their powerful sharp voices just takes my breath away. They also sing and play with such passion and their songs carry so much meaning because many of them represent important events and difficult times in Chilean history. Inti-Illimani used to be one group but years ago they separated into two groups due to differences in opinion regarding their musical style. One group wanted to incorporate new talent and new styles of music while the other group wanted to stick to the same style of music and not incorporate any new members. The two groups became known as "Inti-Illimani" (the former) and "Inti-Illimani Historico" (the latter). My favorite is "Inti-Illimani" just because their music keeps evolving and I love the way they have updated many of their songs and added a more modern and energetic spin to them. They are truly a treat for the ears. During their concerts, they pass around their instruments and laugh and dance and have so much fun on stage. They also talk about important issues in Chile throughout their shows and really reach out to the audience. At all of their concerts I feel like I´m at a big yet somewhat intimate party.

Of course since the members of Inti-Illimani started out as communists and are now passive leftists, their concerts attract many communist and leftist crowds, especially since many of their songs represent communist ideals. One of their songs called "Venceremos" (We Shall Win) actually became the anthem of the Popular Unity Government (a coalition of the leftist governments in Chile) of Salvador Allende. At the moment of the Chilean coup of September 11th, 1973, Inti-Illimani were on tour in Europe and were not allowed to return to Chile because their music was banned by Pinochet´s junta. I can´t imagine going on a trip and then being told that you´re never allowed to come home. Wow. So when they were in Europe, on "their longest tour in history" their music took on a new character and incorporated elements of European baroque which they mixed with their lively Andean and Latin American sounds. They were finally allowed to come back to Chile in 1988 and continued playing their music and touring Chile...And I love them. And I think their history, and the lyrics in their songs, are fascinating.

Foto of the original" Inti-Illimani" group before they split.
Taken fromthe" Inti Illiami Historico" website: http://www.intiillimani.org

Foto of the original" Inti-Illimani" group before they split.
Taken fromthe" Inti Illiami Historico" website: http://www.intiillimani.org

Foto of the original" Inti-Illimani" group before they split.
Taken fromthe" Inti Illiami Historico" website: http://www.intiillimani.org

Love this photo. Represents good times on the road.
Taken from "Inti Illimani Historico": http://www.intiillimani.org

Foto of the original" Inti-Illimani" group before they split.
Taken fromthe" Inti Illiami Historico" website: http://www.intiillimani.org

Photo of the new "Inti-Illimani" taken from their Website: www.intiillimani.cl.
A mix of the original and newer members.

Friday´s concert was incredible, as usual. I had goosebumps all night...which could have been from the freaking cold since it was -3C in that area at the time, but I didn´t care, I couldn´t tear myself away. Here are links to some of my favorite songs of theirs (in no particular order) to give you an idea of how amazing they are: This is a very powerful leftist song

-Buonanotte
-Samba Lando
-Exiliada de Sur
-Candidos
-La Fiesta Eres Tu
-El Pueblo Unido (this is a very powerful leftist song)
-La Negrita
-Antes de Amar de Nuevo
-Sobre tu Playa
-Danza Mediterenea
-Danza di Cala Luna
-San Juanito

There are so many more but I don´t know or remember the names of so many of their songs so if you like them, you´ll just have to go look up their music yourself. Anybody planning on visiting Chile simply MUST see this group whose music is so haunting and beautiful and so engrained in Chilean culture. I already have tickets to their next concert in October where they will play with "Illapu" (another traditional Chilean group I love). I´m obsessed with folkloric music from any country, I don´t know why, it just touches my soul since this type of music usually has deep roots to the countries history and all their suffering and joy.

Alright, now I´m off to enjoy my Sunday being lazy with my husband at home. But first, to cook a delicious stir fry and carrot ginger butternut squash soup for lunch. I usually cook as much as I can on Sunday so that we have food for the week since I have no time to cook during the week. Happy Sunday everyone!

Update of the Month

2011-06-26T12:32:00.004-04:00

And now for the update portion of the post. Two posts in one day, man I´m on a roll!

So this week took a serious toll on me since work was really busy and I went out with friends every night. Basically my week involved me working from 8am to 7pm, then meeting up with a friend(s) at a bar, drinking and eating late into the night, getting home late and sleeping 5-6 hours, waking up at 6am feeling like crap because the food I had just eaten 5 hours ago at the bar was still being digested (god there is no worse feeling than that!) and then going to work and doing it all over again. The good thing about this week though was that I was finally able to invest in my social life again, something that is hard to do when you´re working 11 hour days.

Monday I went to the bar with a good friend of mine, Tuesday E and I met a couple of friends of ours for drinks, Wednesday was bookclub, Thursday was my only day of rest, and Friday was my good friend´s going away party (Still so sad about that by the way! Sarah, if you´re reading, I love you and I´ll miss you so much!!!). Saturday I was dying to sleep in but since I felt like crap after a week of too much eating and drinking, I seriously needed to go for a run...so I did. After the run, E and I had lunch, and then we both took a siesta that lasted 3 and a half hours! We were both dead tired (E had gone to a birthday party the night before and came back at 6am). Then, Saturday night we met up with a group of friends of ours in Bella Vista. Such a social butterfly I have been this week!

Now today, I am so happy to be sitting here and having some "me" time since I did not have one minute to myself this entire week. I´m even happier that it´s a long weekend which means I don´t have to think about going back to work tomorrow...oh what a great feeling! Today and tomorrow is "E and me" day. Today we´re just going to bum around and relax. Once he gets back from his game we´re going to have lunch, take another siesta, then we´re going to hit the mall (I desperately need a warm coat) and go to a movie and probably even go to chill at Starbucks somewhere in there. Tomorrow we´re going to the Cajon to climb a mountain, something we´ve been wanting to do for so long but never had the time. It´ll be the first time we´ve been back to the cajon since we got married there in December and so we´re looking forward to reminiscing. After the trek we´re going to have lunch at the place we got married at, the beautiful Casa Bosque. I´m looking forward to it, but more than anything, I´m looking forward to just relaxing today, we really need it. I have been waiting for this long weekend for waaay to long. At least we now apparently have one long weekend a month until December, that sounds good to me :)

Also, this week is the week we sign the final papers for our new apartment! Once we sign the papers, it´s going to take about two more weeks and then the apartment is ours. We will be moving in sometime around July 15th. God we´re both so excited! All our good friends and family are going to help us move and then we´re going to have an asado in the beautiful bbq area the apartment complex has so it´ll be a nice informal inauguration celebration.

Now let me just finish this post by saying how lucky I am to have such an incredible husband. Yesterday we celebrated one year of being legally married and every day I thank God for having such a wonderful husband. He truly is an angel. For example, since I was a little stressed this week, I would come home flustered and angry and would complain about random stupid little things. What does my husband do? Instead of reacting and getting pissed off, he patiently goes on with what he´s doing, gives me my space, and when I calm down and am ready, he comes and hugs and kisses me and tells me he loves me. On Friday I came home in a particularly bitchy mood and started getting mad at him for all these silly unimportant things (like not having boughten the lettuce I asked for...yes I know, stupid...when I´m stressed I can be a bitch). So anyway, here I was making a scene, throwing my coat down, stomping around finding more things to get angry about...meanwhile, E is just sitting at the desk, smiling at me and looking at me with so much love in his eyes and he says, "Cosita, I´m going to love you no matter what you say and do so just let me know when you´re finished so I can come and give you a hug". Hearing that ended my bad mood immediately and I went over and hugged and kissed him and held him tight.

How lucky am I? I don´t know anybody that wouldn´t put up a fight when a bitchy girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband arrives home and starts complaining about everything. His patience and his ability to not react to things fabbergasts me to no end. Besides that, he cleaned the whole house before I got home, and then since my friends were coming over that night, went out and bought us wine and champagne and gas since our gas supply was dwindling and he wanted us to be warm. Then, the next morning, after coming back from my run, I enter the apartment to find it is totally clean again after the big mess my friends and I made the night before. He had cleaned everything. Seriously, how lucky am I? God love him for putting up with my occasional mood swings. He´s going to be such a good dad with all that patience he has :) I love him soooooooo much and I can´t imagine my life without him!!!

And with that I end this post. Hope everyone has a great long weekend!

War at Paris

2011-06-26T11:59:00.003-04:00

Ahh...here we are again, a nice weekend morning with my coffee relaxing after a nice long run while E is playing soccer. I finally have a chance to blog again! I realize I haven´t blogged in two weeks but these last two weeks have been crazy! Especially this last week.

First of all, let me tell you the highlight of last weekend, I´ll do another general update in another post. In Chile, customer service is non-existant. Whenever I shop, I have problems, especially when I try to return something. For some reason, I let the sales people trample all over me and I never get my way. E explained to me many times that when you want something in Chile, you have to fight till the death to get it. It´s all a game and the most confident person wins. So last Friday I went to go return a pair of boots I had purchased at Paris because I realized they were not comfortable. I was within the 10 day limit to return an item so I went to Paris after work to return them. Boots are important to me and these were quite expensive so as I walked to Paris, I mentally prepared myself not to take "no" for an answer and I swore I would leave there with a new pair of more comfortable boots.

After waiting in a rediculously long line at customer service, the lady looked at the boots, and told me they were used and wouldn´t let me exchange them. My mind went into war mode. I told her I had never wore them and they were sold to me like that (which was true!). She insisted they weren´t. I asked her if she wasn´t there when I bought them, how could she possibly know the condition they were in when they were sold to me. After a bit of bickering, she dragged me over to a sales manager who also insisted that the boots would never be sold to a customer in that condition (they were in perfect condition by the way, there was just some dust on them which made them look used). Again, I insisted they were like that when I bought them, again, the sales person shot back insisting they weren´t.

This went back and forth for quite sme time until I realized this was going nowhere. However, I stood my ground and did not back down. I told her, "Okay, let me talk to your manager because I am NOT leaving here until you let me return these boots". Then I went into a huge speech about customer service in Chile and how many problems I had previously experienced in Paris and how they can´t treat customers like this...etc..." By now we had a crowd circling around us watching the show but I didn´t care because I was so focused on the irrational sales people infront of me. By now I was very angry because after every comment I made, the sales person would respond with some silly answer and kept insisting that they don´t sell boots in that condition in Paris. That was pretty much her only line of defense. I would really like to know how a store can insist that they are right and the customer is wrong with no evidence Often times sales people in Chile give you some answer without really thinking about it and without really trying to solve the situation. They follow the same old robitic routine based on the logic that, "that´s the way we do it" without really knowing why. This drives me and E crazy. Sometimes they need to stop and think about a situation before giving a response that they don´t even understand.

So anyway, after fighting with the customer service representative and the sales manager for about 30 minutes, I asked, "Okay, what´s it going to take for me to return these boots because I am not leaving until I do". Finally the sales people realized that I was never going to back down and so the manager told me, "Well, if you can wipe off the dust (or what she thought was dirt) from the boots and make them look new again then we´ll let you exchange them". ARghghg!!#" We could have saved so much time if we would have reached this compromise earlier. So, right there infront of the illogical sales people, I quickly wiped the boots on my pants, and thrust them at the manager. She nodded, took them, and issued the exchange. I felt like screaming and pulling my hair out. This is part of the reason I hate shopping in Chile.

Well, though it was a torturous experience, it was the first one in my Chilean history where I attempted to go up against a sales person. I usually let people trample all over me. When they say I can´t return something or can´t do something or other, I just take it and accept it. This was the first time I took a stand and didn´t back down!!! I got what I wanted! All the coaching E has been giving me about how to deal with sales people in Chile has finally gotten to me! I used to be so embarassed when E would fight with them about something to get his way (only for a good reason and when we knew we were right) and I used to tug his shirt and just tell him it didn´t matter, lets go. But NO MORE! You really have to be tough when it comes to standing up for yourself here or else people will walk all over you. Many sales people don´t even know why they do the things they do and so when you confront them, eventually logic shines through and they back down once they think about it a little.

So I did it, that´s one more point for me and one less for Chile. I guess the process of Chilenization is taking it´s toll on me :)

Happy 6 Months of Marriage and 1 Year in Chile!

2011-06-12T19:10:00.014-04:00

We went to an excellent restaurant today called Santa Bohemia. This was our second time there and everything was delicious yet again. They have the most unique meals. Our first time there, I had grilled salmon stuffed with sausage and cheese, it was soooo good. This time I had salmon with avocado sauce with a side of something that looked and tasted similar to pastel de choclo. Can you tell I´m a salmon fan? I really should try something new for the next time. For dessert I had leche asada cooked in beer. Strange I know, but so good! Anybody that is up for trying something new should definitely check out this place. Apparently they are famous for their ceviche though we´ve never even tried it. It´s on our list of things to try the next time we go back. And we will be going back...many more times in the future :)

The restaurant itself is in Nunoa in a very adorable bohemian quiet little neighborhood and it has a really nice little patio for sitting out on. Today was one of those perfect slow sunny days for lounging around on some nice patio and eating and drinking wine. Though I´m getting sick of this non stop 20 plus degree weather when it should be winter, I was able to enjoy it today as E and I sat outside sipping our wine and celebrated 6 months of marriage and one year that I am in Chile. My goodness how time flies by...

This weekend was a quiet one, E went to the beach with his friends until Saturday night which left me with some quiet time all for myself. I was planning to go to the bar on Friday night to watch the NHL playoffs and watch my dear Canucks win, however, I got home from work exhausted, took a nap, and woke up to find the game almost over. So, there was nothing left for me to do but go to the supermarket, buy a bottle of wine, popcorn, and chocolate, and cozy up in my bed to watch some movies. Ahhhh....pure bliss. I´ve been dreaming of a night like that for a looong time! I feel like I´m constantly on the go and my brain is always over active so it was nice to just think of nothing and enjoy some cheap entertainment.

Saturday and Sunday morning I went for my usual long runs, and Saturday night I went to have some drinks with some dear friends of mine, one of which is leaving to go back to the States in just a few weeks...so sad I know...Slowly but surely, all my close friends are starting to find their way back home, leaving me here all alone :( But that is life, and though we´ll be separated, I´m sure we´ll all meet again in the future. Until then, I´ll have to find some new friends here in Chileland.

And now E and I are off to watch a movie we just rented. Why are there no good thrillers in Blockbuster nowadays? I love a good scary movie and haven´t been able to find a good one in a long long time. It seems that the only movies they´re making these days are chick flicks. Not that I have anything wrong with them, I do enjoy a good chick flick every now and then but I loooove scary movies!

Have a good week everyone! Until next weekend :)

Group Post: Bad Menu Translations

2011-06-12T10:34:00.005-04:00

Margaret over at Cachando Chile decided to revive our old group post tradition here in the blogosphere, a great idea I must say and long overdue. This time the topic is "Bad Menu Translations". After reading over some of the other bloggers thoughts on this topic, and feeling a little depressed that I couldn´t remember any of my funny menu experiences, I decided to go look online for some funny menu translations to revive my memory. I had quite a good laugh, here are a few bad menu translations I found on an online forum:

1.) Conejo asado - roast Rabbi
2.) Gazpacho - cold andaluz refresh men
3.) Brocheta de cerdo - pig spit
4.) Fritura variada - variety fried
5.) Choto en su jugo - a baby cooked in its own juices
6.) Huevas aliñadas - Tidy spawns
7.) Pechuga de pollo a la plancha - Breast of chicken to the plate
8.) Palometa con queso curado - Wing nut with cured cheese
9.) Choco frito - Shock doughnut
10.) Almejas a la marinera - Clams to the sailor's blouse
11.) Choco a la plancha - I hit to the plate
12.) moule mariniere - mussels in a seaman sauce

Check out some of my fellow blogger´s thoughts on bad menu translations:

Margeret at Cachando Chile
Isabel at Of Heart and Mind

There will most likely be more to come. By the way, we should start doing a monthly group post where we each take turns picking a topic. I think it would definitely inspire me to write more and allow me to focus on writing more about different topics. Sometimes I feel like I don´t have enough material to write about! What do you all say?

Rain and Running and Starbucks

2011-06-05T12:28:00.010-04:00

I have been waiting for a REAL Fall day like this for so long! And now it´s finally here. This is heaven. Sitting at my favorite Starbucks (soon to be just a few blocks from our new apartment) cozy and warm, drinking a nice hot coffee, watching the rain fall outside while my husband is out playing soccer. Pure bliss. Here in Santiago we have been waiting for the rain for quite some time. All I can say is thank God! If it didn´t come soon, we would all end up dying of toxification from this permanant nasty plume of smog that´s been hanging over the city since summer came to an end. As a person who prefers the rain over sun, the fact that it´s raining for the first time in months, makes me very very happy and relieved. There´s something so calming and peaceful about a good rain. And when it´s over, the world is fresh and new again, a transformation that is most notable here in Santiago. After the rain, it seems that everything is rejuvenized. We can finally breathe again and everything is clean and shiny once more. Of course that doesn´t last long but it´s a healthy change that those of us living in this dirty smogy city desperately need to see once in a while. And of course as I´m typing this, the rain is beginning to slow down. Perhaps I became too excited too soon...hopefully this little sprinkle turns into a full out downpour soon.

I was trying to think about what topic I would discuss for my weekly post and I couldn´t think of anything in particular that was too important but just a minute ago I was daydreaming about my morning runs and thinking about how good they made me feel after a long hard week and so I thought I would share my joy of running with you for just a moment. This weekend I wasn´t able to run, since E and I were sick, which would explain why I´m daydreaming about running now. I miss it, even after a week.

Normally, Saturday and Sunday morning is my time to go out and run a nice long run. It´s become such a ritual that if I don´t go on my weekend long runs, I can´t start the week out properly...I end up feeling grose and lazy and tired the rest of the week. Running for me is such a spritual and physical rejuvination and it´s a way to remind myself that I´m alive and that life isn´t just about going to and from the office every day.

The other reason running is so important to me, especially here in this crazy city of Santiago, is that running in the morning on the weekend is virtually the only time I can get a chance to be out in the city without hoards of people everywhere. Living in this overcrowded city really begins to get to you after a while. Everywhere you go there are people pushing and shoving and screaming and yelling. On my morning runs, there is almost nobody out. Especially on Sunday mornings, those are the best days. The only people I run into are the occasional runner, biker, or dog walker, but the rest of the run it´s just me, the road, and what appears to be a deserted ghost town. I can actually hear the birds during these mornings and even hear the wind rustling the leaves, sounds I almost never hear during the week.

Morning running on the weekend is a way to remind yourself of all the sights and sounds you forgot even existed. It´s a way to reconnect with nature (even the little nature exists in Santiago) and meditate. I think about things during my run that would have never occured to me when I´m so focused on work and other things during the week. I think about life, why we´re here, if there´s a god, what that old man on the corner asking for money has been through, if he has family that love him, and thousands of other irrelevant things I don´t usually have time to think about during the week.

There´s nothing like the feeling I get after finishing a long run, walking back down the quiet deserted street to my home, feeling my muscles aching and my heart racing, drooling over the hot shower I´m about to take and the delicious oatmeal I´m about to stuff my face with. There´s nothing like the feeling of using your body to make you feel alive. I know not everybody is a morning person like myself but even so, for those of you living in Santiago, I highly recommend once in a while getting up early, and going for a run or even a walk to see how calm the city can be. The transition is unbelievable.

So before I end this post, I´ll give you a brief update of my life. Work is going great but it´s getting more and more challenging as my boss starts to pile on the projects and give me more responsibilities. The other day at work I went to a meeting with him and he randomly decided that I should give a presentation on a topic I didn´t know too much about right in that moment as the meeting was starting. So I was freaked out but I did it. Damit, I hate these last minute, on the spot presentations! I need time to prepare people! I´m a perfectionist and am used to having time to make things perfect. But, I guess at work one doesn´t always have time to prepare things exactly the way one wants, something that is hard for me to get used to.

We´re so close to getting our apartment! Last week the bank said they were going to go and do their investigation into our apartment so it should be done now. We´re going to call on MOnday to find out how it went and if they actually did it. But if they did, then we could be moving in as little as 2 weeks!

Oh, I almost forgot! E just got a really good new job in a very good company. He´s moving up in the corporate world so we´re pretty happy about that. It´s especially nice to have the higher income he´s now getting since we´re buying our first apartment. God I can´t believe how different things are from just a few months ago when we were so poor. Now we´re more comfortable than ever, it seems like a dream. How this happened and who is looking out for us, I don´t know, but I am so greatful. Yesterday we had lunch with the family to celebrate, everyone is so happy for us. Especially E´s mom. It´s no secret that E is her favorite and she was absolutely beaming about her smart successful son and bragging about him to everyone ha ha. It´s cute.

Alright, so for now I´m done with this post and am going to enjoy my coffee sitting in my favorite place and just relax until my hubby is done with his game. Then we´re off for lunch and then maybe a movie. Ahh, what a great way to finish the weekend :)

The Day from Hell That Ended Well :)

2011-05-28T15:34:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was one of those days where the entire universe seems to conspire against you. One thing after another went horribly wrong...

I had a very big presentation to give on Friday morning at 8:00am. I had been working on this presentation and studying the topic for two weeks and was quite nervous to present that day. Things started going down hill on Thursday night. Thursday was looking good and by the time the clock hit 6:30pm, I was ready to pack up and go home. Before leaving, I saved my presentation, along with all my supporting documents, onto my flash. I copied the folder I had open on my desktop onto my USB. The only problem was that I didn't realize that I had already been working from a folder on my USB and so I had just copied the old version of the folder onto my USB, wiping out all the work I had done that day including my presentation and all the important documents I needed. F. U. C. K.

I immediately began panicking and didn't know what to do so I packed up my things and got my butt home as fast as possible to see if my computer genius husband could do anything about it. I got onto the metro, and realized I had no money on my BIP card so I had to waste more time standing in line during traffic hour trying to recharge my card. I finally made it to the metro platform...only it was so freaking packed with people, I was predicting I would have had to let about 5 metros pass before I could have finally squeezed my way to the front of the line to get on on. Not wanting to waste more time, I got onto the metro to go in the opposite direction, hoping the previous metro stop might be less full. Thank got it was and so I managed to get on and get home. Imagine me freaking out as the minutes tick by wondering what I am going to present the next morning and how I'm going to fix this. I frantically called E during the ride home trying to explain what happened. I admit I took quite a bit of frustration out on him...and he still tried to help and be supportive god love him. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to fix my problem.

I got home and decided I would have to redo my presentation the best I could, though I had none of the info I needed. After spending a few hours on it and not getting very far...I randomly opened another folder on my computer, only to find that the current version of my presentation along with all the other info I needed was right there!!! I had saved it in the wrong folder! Hallelujia! So once I had my presentation all ready to go, I practiced as much as I could and went to bed. By this time it was 2am and I had to wake up at 6.

The next morning I presented, but I was so sleep deprived and I didn't practice it as much as I wanted to, that I felt I didn't give my best performance. I also realized halfway through the presentation that I had way too much information for the time limit I was given so I started rushing through it and skipping all the good examples I had planned out. So in the end, though I delivered what I was supposed to deliver, I could have done a lot better. I'm a perfectionist. At least my boss loved it and told me I did a really good job so in the end, as long as my boss liked it, I'm happy.

After my presentation, I was about to get ready to go back to work when I realized...I FORGOT MY COMPUTER AT HOME!!! It's a company computer and it's the one I work with so without it, I couldn't do anything without it! Luckily, my boss had another meeting at the time so I took advantage of his absence and ran back to my apartment to grab my computer. I got to the metro and things were looking good until...at Metro Los Leones, I realized I forgot the keys to my apartment at work! So I had to get off the metro and get back on to go in the opposite direction. I got out of the metro and had to pay again to change sides since there was no bridge to get to the other side. When I went to pay to get on the metro again, I realized I was out of money on my BIP card! I ran to the nearest bank machine...and it wasn't working. I ran to the next one...and it wasn't working either. I finally had to leave the metro, go out on the street to the closest farmacy, take out money, and get back on the goddamn metro.

So I got back on the metro, but in all my anger and confusion, I realized I had just gotten on the wrong metro which was heading in the opposite direction I wanted to go in! Again, I had to get off the metro, leave, and pay to get back on again...this time in the right direction. I finally got to work, grabbed my keys, and booked it back to the metro, having to pay again, to get to my apartment. I think I wasted about 4 lukas on the stupid metro that day!

I finally got to the metro station near my apartment and decided that I didn't have time to walk the 10 minutes it takes to get to my apartment so I took a taxi. I paid the taxi with 10 lukas bill and quickly took the change from him and bolted up the stairs to my apartment. It wasn't until I got to my apartment when I realized that the taxi driver gave me counterfeit bills back in change. I don't know how I didn't realize that before because the bills looked like monopoly money. But whatever, just another thing that went wrong that day. At that point I didn't care, I just wanted to get my computer and get back. On top of that, I was running on 4 hours of sleep and was so exhausted and all this running around and stressing made me feel like I was going to collapse at any minute.

I finally made it back to work in one piece and proceeded to work the last two hours of the day (on Fridays we get out early). By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted and ready to get home and collapse into bed. Here's where the day started to look up...

An hour before it was time to go home, my boss called me into his office because he wanted to have a chat. He wanted to know how I liked working at the company and how I was feeling. He told me that he has been getting a lot of positive feedback on my performance and told me that I was doing over and above what he expected of me. He basically told me I'm doing a great job and that he wanted to look for new and bigger opportunities for me at the company. Hearing him say these things made the whole disasterous day worth it. It was music to my ears. Getting confirmaton that you are doing a good job, that you are useful, that people value what you are doing is one of the best feelings ever. And hearing it come from my boss, just made it that much more gratifying. We had a big chat about my job performance, the new projects he wanted me to start working on in the near future, and my career development at the company and I left his office feeling so valued, so invested in, and so appreciated and motivated to continue doing a good job. Oh man what a good feeling!

I went home walking on clouds and collapsed into bed with a smile on my face before sleeping for 4 hours straight. That night we went out for Mexican with a couple who are good friends of ours and had such a great time. It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect day.

And now here I am with my Saturday "me" time, with a coffee infront of me, typing away. Only this time, instead of sitting in my kitchen, I decided to go to my old hangout and favorite Starbucks in Providencia. I used to come here all the time during all my visits to Chile while E was either at school or working and so being here brings back so many memories. E went to watch the Europian Soccer Finals with his guy friends so that's why I have the afternoon all to myself. I went for a nice long 22km run this morning so I'm feeling great and I think it's just about time to go take a nice long siesta. Oh I love weekends!

So I'll end this post here since I need to start reading this months book for bookclub. I never have time to read anymore so I have to take advantage of this nice relaxing visit to Starbucks.

Have a good and relaxing weekend everyone!

Just Another Saturday Morning with Me and My Coffee

2011-05-21T11:20:00.007-04:00

Good morning and happy judgement day to you all! Sorry to any of you who take the "rapture" seriously and actually believe that the world is going to end today but for me, it's just another glorious day to be alive. I just came back from a deliciously grouling long run and I feel fantastic. There's nothing like using your body and pounding every last ounce of energy out of it to make you feel alive. Now that I work, I only get to run on the weekends since I get back too late during the week (and I'm not a very big fan of evening running), and so I take advantage of my Saturday and Sunday mornings to run as long and hard as I can to make up for the rest of my motionless week. I know eventually I'm going to have to incorporate a more balanced work out schedule into my life but for now, this seems to work.

So here I am, a week from my last post, sitting and doing exactly the same thing. Drinking my warm cup of coffee in my kitchen corner with the view of the city, thinking about life (while E is out playing soccer with his league). I love this cozy little corner of mine and I'm really going to miss it when we move into our new apartment, something that will take place in a maximum of two months (though if we're lucky, it could be a month). E and I are both dying to move into our brand new home. We drive by the apartment every chance we get just to check out our future neighbourhood and drool over our future home. I've even incorporated our future address into my running route just so I can run by and dream. I know, we're geeks right?

So far, everything is looking good, we have the loan approved and started signing papers on Thursday. Next week we should be able to finalize everything. Then the bank has to go in and start doing their investigation and whatever it is the bank has to do before we can finally call the new apartment our home. However, I'm still holding my breath until we sign every last paper at the bank. I've heard horror stories when buying property in Chile and I do not want something like that to happen.

And now to summarize this week:

1.) Work: Still chugging along, working hard, and loving it.

2.) Friends: This past Wednesday I went to my monthly bookclub meeting with my friends. We discussed the book "Blink" by Malcolme Gladwell. We chose our books for the next few months in February and I had never heard of this book so I was quite surprised when I started reading to find out it wasn't fiction. I minored in psychology in university and I loved this book. It really summed up many things I learned at school and opened my eyes to the power of the unconscious.

In other news, a very good gringa friend of mine went and bit the dust like the rest of us and got enganged to her Chilean boyfriend! We made sure to celebrate at our bookclub meeting and the celebrations will continue on tonight as we meet them and the rest of our friends for drinks.

3.) Husband: Though he complains that he never sees me anymore during the week (because I take my job a little too seriously) we make sure to spend a lot of time together on the weekend. It's difficult to find a balance during the week when you're working a demanding job and then get home at 8pm and have to wake up the next morning at 6am. When I get home from work, all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. Because of this, we decided it was time for an intervention and scheduled a weekly mid-week date night where we do something together and release the stress of work. So we decided to make that night Tuesday since we like going to cheap movie night at the cinema. I admit, it's not easy finding a balance, and I'm struggling with it right now, but at least I recognize that it's an area I need to work on and I know I'll get there.

Oh, I just had to throw this in here, last Saturday E and I went driving around looking for a new place to eat. We went to this awesome restaurant called "Santa Bohemia" on Avenida Italia in Nunoa and it was amazing!!! Please try this restaurant, they have such different types of foods and flavours. For example, I had this salmon dish which consisted of a filet of salmon, smothered in cheese and chorizo, covered by another filet of salmon and smothered in this delicious sauce...I never pictured fish and chorizo going together but the end result was heaven in your mouth. Note to self: Attempt to try this dish at home in the near future.

4.) Family: It sucks because I feel like I never get to speak with my family back home anymore. I feel like their lives are carrying on without me and I'm completely out of the loop. Now that I'm working, it makes it even more difficult to find the time to skype and have long chats with them. As I type this I have skype open, hoping someone will pop up from home and talk to me! I love them and miss them so much and it makes it hard knowing I don't know when the next time will be that we see each other again...

As for E's family, they're all exstatic that we're buying an apartment because, though we've told them that eventually we're going to go back to Canada, they think now that we have the apartment it means that we're going to stay in Chile forever and ever and ever. People are so tied to possessions here. Buying an apartment isn't going to tie us down at all, we bought it for us to have a place in Chile in the future and also as an investment, one that we can take care of in Chile or in Canada. Well, we don't want to burst their bubble just yet. Let them be happy for now.

Tomorrow we do Sunday lunch with the family, something I've really come to look forward to every week. It's great having a full day to just sit around, drink wine, eat, and catch up with loved ones.

And with that I'm off. Have a great weekend everyone!

"Me" Time

2011-05-14T09:31:00.007-04:00

It's Friday it's Friday!!!! Oh joy!!! What a great week this has been. Ever since I started my new job a month and a half ago, every week has just been getting better and better. Now it's a glorious Saturday morning and it's just me, my coffee, and my computer sitting at my little kitchen table, looking out at the view of the beautiful Andes and the city below. I love lazy Saturday mornings like this. E went with some of his friends to do the Climing Tour this morning so they're off to climb some mountain...can't remember which one, so that leaves a little down time for me...something I have been craving. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and love spending time with him, but I have always been very independant and it is absolutely necessary to schedule some "me" time during my week for myself or else I'll go crazy. So here we have it, my very own "me" time! Finally! There's nothing I love better than spending this time sipping a hot cup of coffee and writing, reading, or just thinking. Sigh...what a nice treat to the end of the week.

Ever since I've started working, I haven't had much time to myself at all. I start working at 8 and finish at 6:45 (which usually ends up being 7) so that's 11 hours a day people! By the time I get home it's 8 and then I only have two hours to do something before going to bed. Since I wake up at 6am during the work week, I NEED to get to bed at 10ish or else I will crash during the week. Laugh all you want but I am a person that needs my 8 hours of sleep a night or else I go crazy! However, as hard as I try, I usually only end up getting between 6.5 and 7 hours a night during the week. Also, Thursdays and Fridays I have important presentations I have to prepare for work so I am usually up way later those nights trying to prepare the damn presentations and make them perfect. I admit, I probably spend waaay too much time on them, and on everything I'm doing at work, but I just really want to make a good impression and I really want to do a good job. I've always been an over achiever and it's hard to sometimes accept that I can't make everything perfect all the time. I guess that's something you just have to learn as you adapt to working life.

I never really had a chance to talk about my new job so let me enlighten you. Of course I'm not going to mention where I work, but let me just say that it is a very good company. It's a big international company and it's one of those places that really treats their workers well and pays really well too. I feel so great there. My boss is very very very high up there on the corporate ladder so I am getting an incredible opportunity to learn. You would think that these big bosses have time for squat and wouldn't invest a lot of time in their employees, but in my case, I am so lucky. My boss is pretty much my mentor now. I can't get over how well he runs his team and how effective he is at being a leader. He's got that perfect mix of emotional intelligence and interpersonal and leadership skills that allow him to get things done efficiently but in a way that makes his team feel that he is supporting them and there to help them.

I have never felt this way in a position before where a boss invests so much time and energy into my personal development. He is one of those people that really believes in coaching and knowledge transfer, not only for my benefit, but because he knows that in the end, it will benefit everyone at the company. This in turn makes me feel so motivated to do a good job, which is why I might be putting a little too much effort into my work, but I can't help it. I want to reciprocate this investment and acheive beyond what is expected of me. So for any bosses out there reading this, coaching and motivation works wonders.

Not only is my boss such a great person to work with, but everyone in my area also follows the general trend of being a good leader and supportive coworker, I'm guessing my boss has given them all a good example. It's only been a month and a half and I already feel part of the group and part of the team. We had a bbq yesterday for our area at a colleague's house and that gave me the chance to get to know everyone better outside of the work environment. It was great to see that as soon as the ties and heels came off, everyone was just a kid again, especially the men. I think Chilean men never grow out of that "collegio" phase. Some of the jokes that were told would probably result in sexual harrasment lawsuits in North America ha ha! But we laughed and ate and had a great time and I left feeling like I knew everyone I worked with on a much more personal level. What a great way to kick off the week.

So now to change subjects completely, to update you on our apartment, this week we did some research on banks and we found "the bank" we're going to go with so next week we're going to do all the official bank paperwork to get this show on the road. God I can't wait to move into our new place.

In other news...E is most likely going to be changing jobs. He got an amazing job offer for a managing position to open up a new plant in Santiago for a very good company. He's really excited because this would be a once in a life time opportunity for him and everything about the job description fits E perfectly. He has two final interviews on Monday with the heads of the company and then it will be decided. If he gets the position, he will have to go to Buenos Aires at the end of the month for 4 MONTHS of training!!! So you know what that means...back to long distance!!! Akkk!!! And here we thougth we were done with that forever. Well, I guess that means there's a lot of "me" time coming up in the near future! (If he gets the job that is...crossing my fingers!). But the company will be paying to come back to Santiago to visit at least once a month and I can go there once or twice a month for the weekend too. Though it will be crazy, we'll figure it out. At least it's only for 4 months.

And with that, I'm off to start my Saturday. And by that I mean I'm going to my cozy bed with my coffee to watch re-runs of Sex in the City...a show I just started watching from season 1. Love it! Then I finally get to put my dusty cooking skills to good use and cook up a nice lunch for E and I. With work I never get to cook anymore so by the time the weekend gets here, I can't wait to cook up everything I've been day dreaming about during the week.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!