Phase Two

Where did I even leave off? To be completely honest, I'm going to have a hard time remembering sequential order of things. So i'll start off by describing the apartment hunt.

I went to see apartment #3 on sunday. it was very huge and the people there are very nice. it was a Spanish family. Very friendly. there were 4 incredibly colorful rooms available all around 160-170 (including utiilities). But the fact that they spoke Spanish makes it really difficult deciding whether I want to live there or not. I ultimately decided that I wanted to find someone that spoke English as well as Spanish. so no bueno for apartment #3. apartment #4 kept flaking out on me. they would say that they could have me see it on monday then tuesdau then wednesday. I didn't want to lose apartment #1 (the best one), so i told them I wasn't interested. So I have decided to move into apartment #1! This one costs 165,000 chilean pesos per month, is in the safest part in all of Santiago, is clean, and has been inspected by some official chilean electrical company for safety (which i was told to look for). The only minor downside is that the heating system they use is called a calefont. I was told this is kind of unsafe in certain situations. For example, if you have to light a match to use it, it's unsafe. If it's in the bathroom, it's REALLY unsafe because it can explode and cause fatalities. fortunately, afterdiscussing with the guy who owns the apartment, the heating is automatically regulated from gas pipes in chile and the calefont is actually located in a safe area that isn't the bathroom. Ideally, it'd be nice to find a place with electric heat, but at this point, i feel pretty safe in this apartment. I just know i'm going to get crap for renting in an apartment that has a calefont, but again, I've discussed it with the guy that owns the apartment and it's safe. I'll be ok.

The job hunt. My god. I have been EVERYWHERE. This one I can do pretty sequentially. I mentioned in my last blog entry that I had 2 interviews monday. The first one was at the International Preparatory School in Lo Barnochea. Now... in order to get to Lo Barnochea from where I am currently, I have to:

1. take the metro to the end of the line
2. take a bus to Lo Barnochea
3. take a cab to the school up the mountain.

It was a bit of a trek and I got on the wrong bus twice but I managed to only be a few minutes late to the interview. It went well. But after all that work I learned that they don't have positions available but it's "definitely a possibility" that they might in the future. Thanks guys. I went all the way to Lo Barnochea to learn that. The trip back was much easier. Lo Barnochea's kind of cool, though. It's close to the Andes and it's a very rich area. It reminded me of certain parts of Florida. On the buses, at practiaclly every stop, someone would get on the bus and play guitar or sell candy or something similar to street performers in Boston or New York. This group of guys got on the bus and stood in the middle. One of them started beatboxing and the others were freestyling. They were really good, too! I wish I had my camera then but I didn't. But yeah, it was one of the coolest things I've seen since I've been here.

Monday afternoon I went and interviewed at the Burford English Center which was walking distance from my hostel. They seemed really desperate. I think they really needed English teachers. They asked me to go to an orientation in 2 days so I did that. They said they'd have tutoring available for me in a day or two. But that's the thing. it's private one-on-one tutoring for 50 year old business executives. This is not exactly my cup of tea. I'm looking for more jobs with groups of people and definitely younger than 50 year old people. For now though, it's the only solid work I have. So I'm going along with this but still looking for other jobs.

On Tuesday, I went to Sam Marsalli to hand out my resume. This place is my top choice for a school to work at. I had previously applied online with them but of course while I was doing that, the internet cut out on me and I wasn't sure if the application went through. Every time I tried to do the application again after that, I got an error message. So I decided to just show up and figure out what was going on. I chose to not take the metro because I thought it would only be a short walk. How wrong I was. I ended up walking for about an hour and a half until I actually got there. Once I did I explained my situation only to realize that they already had my application filled out online. So basically I walked that entire route to physically give them my resume. They said they might call me back for an interview during the first week of March. Oi... After that I didn't want to waste the trip so I went to The Wall Street Institute which was close by. This school is like #7 on my list. I went in and filled out the entire application for them. As I handed it to them, they asked if I had a work or student visa. I told them I had a tourist visa and they said it wasn't likely that they could help me out, but that they could put my application on file and call if something comes up. Which was basically a no. So I tried to think of what ELSE i could do that would make walking that entire distance a total waste and I decided to buy myself some headphones, mouthwash and water. so thankfully i at least found something to do that didn't make it a waste.

Yesterday I had scheduled an interview with English First (my #2 school) at 10:30am , but I had orientation for Burford that day at 10:30am so I had to rescedule the English First interview to 4:00. BUT, I had a huge opportunity to be interviewed for a position at a community college called Duoc at 4:00 as well. It was an interview that could literally only happen at that time or I wouldn't get the job. So, regrettably, I had to reschedule my English First interview AGAIN. but since the guy wasn't available to reschedule, I just told the secretary that I had to cancel and for him to call me back.

Duoc is the same program that Alice is doing, which is part of the huge appeal of it. They had an interesting situation where someone dropped out and they needed someone to fill the spot so I had been doing all kinds of last minute legwork for them like trying to find letters of recommendation and making sure certain funds would get paid in the states if i were to go through with this... all on a hunch. all on a "maybe". So I went and interviewed with Duoc. The woman who's been hooking me up with the position was very ncie and the interview went really well. after interviewing with her, i was interviewed on the phone at Duoc internationally by this guy in the states. he asked me basically all the same questions. again, it went really well. So after that I left Duoc and came back to my hostel. I got a call an hour later saying that they couldn't accept me into the program because I didn't have at least an intermediate level of Spanish. Can you believe that? after all that hard work I did for them. I totally got my hopes up for it too. Being in the same program as Alice would have been sweet. I got really bummed after that. I feel like I keep working my ass off to find a job and the only results I'm seeing is tutoring 50 year old guys. I don't want to do that job while I'm here.

Oh and also, I called back English First this morning (the one that I had to reschedule the interview for twice) and they said that because I rescheduled the interview twice, they didn't think I was interested. So I lost Duoc and English First. awesome.

I also think I'm experiencing the dreaded "Phase Two" of culture shock. see Phase one is "wow! this place is so cool! i can't believe everything! i'm so impressed! wow! look at that park bench!". phase two is like "fuck. what the hell am i doing here? i have no idea how to speak this language. my situation is not ideal. i don't know when it will be. this sucks". It really blows.

That's not to say I haven't been having fun while I'm here, though. The other night I went out to dinner with Eric (the guy from Lexington) and his friend Jordan in Bellavista. I had a completo de italiano which is like a hot dog with a whole bunch of delicious stuff on it like tomatoes and guacamole. We also had Pappas Fritas (i think i spelled that right) with STEAK AND CHEESE on them. that was tasty. I've also had a gelato and OH MY GOD IS IT AWESOME. way better than ice cream. I also had an Empanada Pino yesterday. I had no idea what it was but it looked good so i ordered it. After eating it, I still had no idea what it was. It could have very well been squid or hedgehog or giraffe but it tasted pretty good. I'm going to try other kinds of Empanadas I think. Maybe ones with pollo or jamon y queso. Also, I went to Eric and Jordan's place in central Santiago and had some sausages there. Their place is pretty nice. their neighborhood... not so much. They live with a Chilean woman. She had a broken guitar there. all that was broken about it was that one of the strings wasn't on its ridge and it was way out of tune, so i fixed it for her. she was very grateful. I was too! that was the first time i'd played guitar since i'd been there and it was so awesome. Eric also realized that evening that he might have to leave Chile if he can't find a job there and once the Chilean woman found this out, she said he should probably find another place to live. I gave Eric my landlord's phone number

I've also been seeing Alice, though not as much as we'd like to because we're both so busy. I'm sure that will change once her orientation is over and we both have places to live. I think there's just lots of adjustment right now. We've walked around a little but haven't really had a long amount of time together. We plan on going to the museum here soon and also we want to have a day where we pick destinations and just go on the metro to explore. I really look forward to stuff like that.

I've also met a couple of other people that I could call acquaintances. 3 of them work for Burford and are in a similar situation to me. I've also met a lot of people atthe Hostel but most of them are in transition to another country. lots of austrailians! and the newer austrailians are cooler than the ones that were here before. one or two people from the states looking to teach english as well.

Tonight is my last night in my hostel. It's been fun but, as John Legend would say, I'm ready to go. It's becoming aggrivating rearranging all the stuff in my bags so that the locks are on them and making sure that all my stuff is in my locker before I leave. It'll be nice to be able to actually UNPACK some things and leave them out in my own space.

It's time to go though. Maybe in the future I'll write about Instituto Chileno Norteamericano, the museum and my new apartment. I also drank some tap water last night for the first time since I've been here so maybe i'll write about insane indigestion. So yeah. Not the most positive blog entry but that's just how it's been so far. pictures and videos take forever to upload on this connection and I just don't have time. check facebook for them. Until next time, adios.

The First Few Days...

While I'm typing this, there are people in my hostel downstairs watching a soccer game and speaking Spanish. They cooked something that smells delicious and I'd eat some if i wasn't so full of delicious food already. The window is open and it's about 60 degrees outside. I have a sunburn on my forehead from walking around pretty much nonstop for the past 3 days. i'm listening to "Go Hard" by Kanye West and T-Pain and i'm finally able to get on the internet on my own laptop after much trying for the past few days.

so really, there's no better time to start this blog up. here we go.

the flight was totally easy. it was 10 hours long but felt like 5. i slept for a good portion of it and watched Little Miss Sunshine. I also ate some food, played some games with alice and got through some mildly disturbing turbulance. right before we landed in Santiago, the Andes mountains were poking through the tops of the clouds. as we descended, they were everywhere and gorgeous. i really wish i hadn't packed my camera in one of the bags i checked but take my word for it, these mountains are beauuuutiful. customs at the airport took forever. i stood in a really really long line only for them to tell me i was in the wrong line. so i went and stood in the right line and then had to stand in the ridiculously long line again. then more customs afterward. it took a while but it was worth it when i stepped outside and the weather was fantastic. sunny. barely any clouds.

i stayed at a holiday inn that was a 30 second walk from the airport as it was right across the street. during my time, alice and i mainly only got to explore the airport as we were nowhere near the city yet. we ate at this place called "gatsby" and i got this delicious chicken quesadilla with tomatoes and guacamole on it (to the right). we both agreed that we weren't really "there" yet because we hadn't seen the city. the next day, alice left with her group. i had arranged for a shuttle from my hostel to pick me up but they never showed, so i shared a cab with one of the people leading alice's program. we got to talking on the cab ride to santiago and it turns out there's a small opening in alice's program and there's a very very very small chance i may be able to fill it based on my qualifications. i'm not banking on it. but that'd be kind of amazing as it pays way better than any English Teaching job i've seen so far.

Santiago looked much like any other big city i'd been to at first. once i got to my hostel, i checked in and got situated. i saw one of my apartment contacts on gchat and messaged him asking when i could check out the room available. he said i could stop by today so we arranged to do that. after doing that bit of online work, all i wanted to do was explore. the metro stop i'm near is called Salvador, and i chose to walk west towards downtown Santiago. i didn't get very far but walked through some amazing looking parks.the trees curve in a really cool way. people are relaxing everywhere. the general Chilean mentality is that no one's ever in a hurry and you can just relax all you want. it's great for being lazy but not so much when you need to be somewhere soon and don't have a lot of time to wait for food to be brought to you. generally, i enjoy it.

after walking through these parks i eventually made my way to the next stop west on the metro and was incredibly intimidated by the city. it looked like the grosser parts of new york or boston. i walked into a phone kiosk to try to buy a prepaid phone but realized that my lack of knowledge of the Spanish language will be a huge crutch while i'm here. i didn't get a phone and decided to meet up and check out the apartment i had agreed to see.

and OH MY GOD this apartment is amazing! it's very clean and right in my price range and in the safest part of Providencia, which is pretty safe to begin with. it gets an A- from me. after that, i felt a lot better because if every other apartment i see sucks, i can move in there and i would absolutely love it. lots of confidence after that.

oh, and let me talk a little about the subways in Chile. absolutely gorgeous. the best public transportation i've ever experienced. everything is brand new so it's clean. there are flat TVs in the subway that play music videos by the likes of Kanye West and Coldplay (it's really surprising how much American music is played in Chile). The trains come literally every 30 seconds. so if you miss one, no pasa nada. just wait around and count to 30 and another one will be there. upon entering the train, i noticed that similar to Boston and NYC trains, it was blazingly hot. so i was like "oh well.. it can't all be perfect i guess." and then as soon as the train took off at a blazingly fast speed, the train's superior ventilation system shot cold air at me from what seemed like, all directions. it's like if your head is out the window of a car minus all the annoying air pressure but keeping all the coolness. Easily the best public transportation i've ever experienced.

my hostel was having a barbeque dinner for $8 that was all you could eat. i'm really going to have to get used to these late dinners. i ate at around 8:30 and the meal lasted for like 4 hours. they just kept bringing food. i has sausage, rice, cucumbers, steak and pasta. all infinitely amazingly delicious. chilean wine was free everywhere but i'm standing by my not drinking. also, while i was eating i met a lot of interesting people. i met two girls from Germany that were touring south america. today they're on a 40 hour bus ride to buenos aires (no thanks!). i met a couple from Ireland that's doing something similar except they're taking a 10 hour bus ride somewhere. i also met 3 people from Austrailia that were flying to New Zealand the next day. let me just say that the Flight of the Conchords descriptions of Austrailians is pretty accurate. at least for these people. I also met this guy named Eric. He's here for a few months but, similar to me, he's trying to extend his stay to 10 months by trying to find a job teaching English. as if those similarities weren't crazy enough, get this... he grew up in LEXINGTON!!!! which is 2 towns away from Burlington. it blows my mind. so of course we became friends right away. i plan on hanging out with him a lot even when we both leave this hostel. he's a really cool guy. i also met Eric's friend who is also cool and is ALSO trying to teach English. after about 4 hours of socializing and eating delicious food, i passed out.

today i decided to get a phone as soon as i woke up. i went to a convenience store and they tried to explain to me where i could get one but i didn't fully understand. they mentioned something about Lyon and Paris and Los Leones. i didn't quite get it all so i came back to the hostel. Eric said he needed to add more minutes to his prepaid phone. since we were on a similar quest to find prepaid phone areas, we walked down Providencia Ave looking for one. we walked past 3 or 4 stops on the metro until we reached Los Leones. We were going East instead of West. i think that the further east you get in Santiago, the nicer/cleaner/safer/funner it gets. it revamped my confidence in my choosing to reside in this city. lots of trees everywhere. lots of colorful shops. and did i mention that i went by a grocery store that was blasting "Confusion" by New Order? so cool. at any rate, Eric and I were able to find a place to buy a prepaid phone. it was in a store called Paris in a shopping center called Lyon! so it looks like the people at that convenience store were leading me to exactly this spot! no other phone kiosks were open. so i finally got a phone. huzzah!

we celebrated by eating a disgusting lunch at Burger King. all the sodas here are in way smaller portions than in the United States. I kind of love it. it's way better to at least try to watch your weight even when you're eating a ton of gross food. did i mention it was gross? i'm going to try to steer clear of american food from now on and eat all the Chilean food i can when i get hungry.

after that i was off to see apartment #2. i had to cross one of the bridges that goes over the river of sludge in Santiago (right). one of the few really gross looking things here so far. oh i also heard there was smog here and that it really messes with some people but as far as i can tell, there is virtually no strange odors. any way, this apartment wasn't that great. the guys that live there are cool but i took one look at the sink and noticed that there were ants all over a dish. the guy was basically like "they come and go". i was reminded of my ant horrors with the apartment i had in Amherst. at any rate that was kind of a deal breaker.

after that i wandered back over the bridge over sludgeoned water to Los Leones. Alice's program currently has her there. she's currently doing orientation for her program but had the night off so we spent it together. we went and sat on a bench in a park and i brought her up to speed on my experiences here since we parted ways at the airport. we actually found another gatsby's and ate there again but this time we were coupley and got what the other person ordered last time. so she had the quesadilla and i had a turkey sandwich with cream cheese in it (so delicious). after that i went and saw Alice's accommodations (which are way nicer than mine) and we made our way down to my hostel. we walked down the same park trails i went down before. this time we crossed a bridge over sludgeoned water (which actually looks a lot nicer at night) and walked along the trails on the OTHER side of the bridge. we made our way to Bellavista and saw a lot of cool shops and restaurants in one of the many nooks and crannies of Providencia that gives it an amusement park feel. after that we went back to Alice's accomodations in Los Leones and i taught her how to play rummy. Eric called me and asked if i wanted to join some others for some clubbing but i was wiped so i just headed back to the hostel to relax. it was a really fun night.

and now i'm here listening to "Heartbreak Armageddon" by Dragonforce updating my blog. i think we've covered the other logistics of the soccer game and the chill atmosphere.

all in all, i'm thoroughly glad i chose to come here. while i miss everyone, i could definitely live here for 10 months. i just pray my interviews go well and i get a job so i actually CAN stay. this is exactly the break i've needed from life in the states. not too overwhelming but overwhelming enough so that it can be a completely unique experience. i have no idea what these next few days weeks or months will bring but if these past few days are any indication of what life is like here, i'm happy as hell that i chose to come to Chile.

tomorrow i'm checking out another apartment. monday i have 2 interviews and i'm checking out my last apartment that day. monday will be nuts. i will definitely write about it.

until then, buenos noches. expect more later. adios.