Setting up a day-to-day routine

Hello everyone. I have been meaning to write for a long time, and I have had so much to share with you all. Whilst some information has been top secret until confirmed, the rest hasn’t been shared just from lack of time!

Below is an acknowledgement of my absence, and an attempt to explain it. I will try to keep it concise.

This past month has been an absolute whirlwind for Rubén and I.

New Apartment

One month ago, we moved into our rented one-bedder apartment that we now call home. Located in the very nice and equally expensive part of town, we have spent the majority of our weekends and weeknights making our place a livable location. When we moved in there was trouble with the gas, then the stove/oven, dripping taps and so forth, most of which are now solved through relentless negotiating with the real estate agent and tradies. We’ve had to buy all the things one needs when moving into a new place like containers for food, bed sheets, vacuum cleaners and *shock horror* even an iron. In the 4 units I’ve previously lived in, I have never, EVER bought an iron. Unfortunately for me, Rubén needs ironed shirts each day for his fancy new job.

All of my beds have used the quilt sewed by Mum.

Chest of drawers to double as a TV unit... Don't mind if we do!

Coffee table doubling as a Christmas decoration. My nativity from Bethlehem is looking mighty fine in its new Chilean home.

What is happiness? For Chileans, 4 hotdogs with drinks delivered for $18.

Dining room table against the red wall that I love! My prints from Israel and London on the wall. Blue shopping trolley aids in the weekly walk for the groceries.

Our teen-tiny kitchen.

Yep, what you see is what you get!

Bathroom, with a ridiculous shower-bath. Bathroom much bigger than the kitchen!

Our telephone, one of the few things in the house that we bought ourselves.

With working numbers, and difficult to hold receiver.

Doubles nicely as a glasses holder for Rubén each night.

New Job for Rubén

In thesame weekend we moved, Rubén started working. This has come with the usual challenges of adapting to a new workplace and learning the ins and outs of the role and organization. It has also come with the constant need to buy new business clothes for Stacey to iron. (I just can’t let it go!) I must say though, he looks super good in a suit :D

New Job for Me

In 2015, I will start my permanent, full-time job as a Primary School teacher here in Chile. I will be teaching a Year 1 class (Primero Basico) in a private, bilingual Chilean school very close to our new apartment. I will be teaching (in English) the subjects of Language and Communication (English), Mathematics, Natural Sciences, History, Geography and Social Sciences, with a specialist teacher teaching Technology, Art, Physical Education, Spanish and Scripture.

I am super excited about this new job, and will report more on it when it comes around!

British Camp

For the last two weeks I have been a Native English Speaker teaching Arts and English to 130 students(and one dog) from Year 2 – Year 7. The British Camp (at which there was not a single British person there!) was held in a private school in a suburb that translates to City of the Valley. The guy who named that city didn't have a tough job.

I worked alongside some really great Chilean teachers, Chilean high school volunteers and Native Speakers to have an incredibly enjoyable experience. When the students were asked to evaluate the best parts of the camp, Art, alongside cooking, was the most given response. It's easy to see that they enjoyed it by the dedication they put into their artwork each day.

I am actually speaking with someone, just hidden behind the girls working super hard!

The dog, however, wasn't so involved in English class (and prohibited in Art class).

The many hugs I received this afternoon to say goodbye and thank you was an absolute joy. This camp gave me the kick start to remember how much I love working with kids and has confirmed that I have taken the right step to look for a full-time job in teaching for next year.

Many thanks to the excellent teaching companions :)

To teach at this camp, I had to give up my 6-hours-a-week English classes in businesses. No big loss!

English Opens Doors

I applied for a UN/Government of Chile initiative to volunteer to work in an English camp for students entering high school in disadvantaged areas. The camp is run by Chilean volunteers (who are usually studying English), and native English speakers in Chile. This week I received an email to say I was successful in my application for this program and I will be going to camp for one week in January!

Notable Events:

Evacuation Drill

In this past month, I was involved in an Evacuation Drill in one of the businesses I was teaching English at. The class finished at 10am, and I headed over to the lifts to make my way down to the lobby at leave. This day, however, the elevators did not open for me, and at 10:02 an emergency siren sounded. Employees identified themselves as emergency wardens and mustered us all in a waiting area. An announcement signaled floor by floor who could leave the building. Eventually, us on level 20 were announced and I proceeded to walk down the 20 flights of stairs only to re-muster downstairs, until everyone was accounted for. Not only did it waste half an hour of my day I wasn’t getting paid for, but it definitely flared up my Achilles tendinitis ensuring walking badly for the following week!

Teleton

Each year, all of Chile’s free-to-air TV channels simultaneously stream a 29 hour telethon to raise money for children with disabilities. When walking home from work one day, I saw this really long queue with average looking people and policemen and their ‘army trucks’ that are used to detain arrestees. I joined the queue and received two tickets to see the humour section of Teleton. The tickets were for 12:30am – 3:30am on Friday night (Saturday morning).

Even though I had my Achilles problems, and Rubén was exhausted from his first week at work we manned-up and caught the last subway of the night to join the queue.

11:30pm: Joined a very long queue.

12:30am: The queue moved forward, a policeman checked our tickets and let us in to join another queue with view of a big screen to view the event.

2:30am: We finally advance enough in the queue to enter the building. 3 hours standing in the cold was not fun. The show, however, was running late so we hadn’t ‘missed’ what our session was supposed to be. Many were still behind us though who did miss part of it.

2:45am: We sit down in the studio audience. One of my goals to participate in an audience for a TV show before I’m 30 is now complete.

We saw a variety of stories of children who have been helped by Teleton, along with a comedian, bands and a skit. My goal to be seen on (Chilean) TV is complete.

 I’m looking at the screen at this moment so I knew I could stop pretending to laugh with the comedian I couldn’t completely understand!

5am: All public audience members were asked to leave. We walked back to the main road and took a taxi home and had a well-earned sleep well into the next day.

Meat Pie

I ate a meat pie. It tasted amazing. The photo is not amazing. It is an excuse to go back.

 I probably won't be updating this before Christmas, so from Santa-Rubén and I we say ¡Feliz Navidad!

Money, Dinner, Halloween & Coke!

Bank

I finally have a bank account here in Chile. Woo hoo! As no bank here in Chile trusts me enough to give me a place to store my own money I had to settle for a 'family card'. After co-signing with my husband a bucket load of contracts, I was presented with my very own debit card. It wasn't without its problems though. The first submission was rejected by the system as the computers couldn't understand why I only had one last name, so it cancelled the process. Then, when using my card for the first time, the ATM blocked it due to entering a correct PIN too many times, thinking it was incorrect. Honestly, computers and contracts make life so tricky!

Notice my fancy last name... we had to trick the computer into thinking I had two last names :)

All I need to do now is get paid, then I can have some money all of my very own. Somehow though, I don't think working only 3 hours a week isn't going to make the bank balance grow quickly!

Going Out

We've been dining out a wee bit this last few weeks.

At first it was a night out in a restaurant with my gringa friend Helen and her friends, where not only did I eat the most amazing banana split in the world, I also met her boyfriend and her gorgeous little boy.

Rubén and I dined with his mum at Ruby Tuesdays. This is a restaurant Rubén always said he'll take me to, but we end up going somewhere else, so it was a big deal that we finally got around to eating there. I gorged myself on ribs and chips and took advantage of free coke refills. My choice of restaurant to celebrate something pretty awesome...

Hmm... Saucy goodness!

Spanish Class

I have resumed taking classes of Spanish. At a different institute, three afternoons a week. So far I'm being exceptionally challenged - but I quite like it that way! And hey, when you spend a big chunk of the lesson analysing Tom and Jerry like we did today it can't be that bad.

For your viewing pleasure, I've included the English version of the clip here:

Halloween

Halloween came and went fairly uneventfully. We bought 3 bags of candy (Buy 3 for the price of 2), ready to give to the kids who came trick or treating. Our neighbour was fantastic, when the kids rang the bell the neighbour next door answered the door with a mask on and an almighty 'boo!' scaring the kids shitless making them run to the other side of the hall to their mothers! With only two sets of kids ringing the bell, we have plenty of candy for the next month :) Mind you, the chocolate covered marshmallows went within the next two days. Yum yum!

Yum yum yum

Pictured also are Saints cards. We were given those when went to Mass to distribute to the kids to celebrate all Saints day.

Best part of Chile, All Saints day was a public holiday - so long weekend - woo hoo!

Coca-Cola

Moving half way around the world has in no way, shape or form limited my intake of Coke. They are currently running the 'Share a coke with...' promotion here which made searching through the coke bottles at every department store all the more "important".

It was the second day in Chile when I saw a whole fridge full of Rubéns, with the fancy é that caused so much trouble in Australia! I was just a tiny bit excited!

Two weeks later, I found a bottle of Olivares, and pretty much lost my shit. Knowing there is no way I'm going to come across my given or maiden name here in Chile, I feel I have successfully won at finding the names of my family :)

Touching Base

Another fortnight of struggling to find my own feet here in Chile!

Sleep

Living on the nosiest corner in Santiago continues to be a struggle. Trying to find a good pocket of sleep each night is difficult. The days and nights are increasingly becoming hotter, resulting in the necessity to sleep with the window open each night. Though it must be said that the 9pm sunsets can be quite pretty.

We have a stand alone fan in the bedroom each night, providing a long drone hum to harmonise with the street noise throughout the night. I have learned to synchronise my window movements in the evening with the lighting of a cigarette from the apartments below, to the arrival of the garbage trucks after midnight. Ear putty, a sleeping mask, dehydration and exhaustion ensure I am getting some kind of rest each night. Side note: Ear putty is near impossible to buy here. I've heard rumours of them being in some chemists, but I have visited plenty and they either don't stock them, or don't have them in stock. If anybody wants to send me a care package - include ear putty!

Work

I teach classes of English on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning, for an 8:30 start. I awake early and battle the metro each day to get to my allocated classes on time.

Wednesdays and Fridays I teach a class in the local telecommunications company. There is only one student, but the class is unreliable. As written in my previous blog, my first class with her was cancelled upon arrival to the wrong building. History repeated itself yesterday when I arrived to the correct address at 8:22, and the concierge told me she had cancelled the class the day before. Sure enough, at 8:28 the Institute I work for called me to inform me the class was cancelled, and so is the next. So far, from 5 classes booked I have taught two, two were cancelled without notice and one cancelled with anticipation. The two classes I have taught were fine, except getting there proved to be a little complicated for an uncoordinated being like myself. I slipped over on the dry footpath my walk to work this week, scratching my knee badly along with my palms, other knee and toes. What makes the situation all the more embarrassing is that everyone who walked past me just gave me strange looks and kept on walking past! I'm sure I made a great impression attending class with mud all over my hands, feet and blood pouring from my knees.

No problems now, I've bought new, ultra-safe gladiator style sandals to tackle the mean streets of Santiago!

Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach a class at a Department store. With 4 students in the class all about my age it is a really fun place to be at. Further more, although I take the metro there, it is only a 25 minute walk home so it's nice to be outside and enjoy the city while everyone is in their offices. This class is paid for partially by a government subsidy, so attendance is taken with a computer and a fingerprint scanner. I feel very fancy operating such technology.

All this work equals a grand total of 6 hours of work each week, if the classes take place. With ambiguity still if I will get paid for my time even when the lessons don't take place, and seriously small amount of hours when it was implied I would have additional classes within the institute in the evenings, I've decided it is time to look elsewhere for work. International schools finalise their recruiting for teaching staff for 2015 in November. I've submitted a few applications, but the most important from this exercise is finding what further qualifications might assist me in securing full-time work for 2016. Fingers crossed that what ever is supposed to happen will happen.

Daily Life

I've finally been given access to the apartment building I'm living in, again with the fancy fingerprinting technology. I feel very fancy fingerprinting myself and being granted access to doors I previously had to ask, then ask again the concierge to open for me.

Acquiring a bank account here as a foreigner is a near impossible feat. All banks require that I present a bill with my name and current address along with a series of payslips before granting me the privilege to put my money in their precious vaults. Since I work on an hourly rate, I don't have payslips as such, and since I don't own anything here, I don't have bills so no one would accept me. Very annoying, as my place of work keep asking me for my bank details and won't accept Rubén's details. Finally, Rubén's bank accepted me on the condition that Rubén sponsored me. I am now the proud owner of a 'family card' bank account where I can keep all my millions from the 6 hours of work I do each week!

I also saw a taxi transporting a ridiculous amount of oranges.

That is all.

Football

Football fans are the main reason why I have never attended a football match in a stadium in Chile. As you can see from my video out the window football fans are a little fanatic. Rubén's football team, nicknamed 'The Blues' only travel on the blue public transport buses. This was a group of the supporters making their way to support their team one day BEFORE the match was to be played. The noise is a combination of the building work, and the chanting and banging from INSIDE the bus as heard from our 7th storey apartment.

It looks exciting now, but typically, after the match, the TV was littered with images of fans throwing objects at each other, causing chaos, police beating them with batons etc etc.

I can honestly say though that I have now watched a game of football in Santiago. Rubén and I have watched a few matches of the 12th Homeless World Cup, held this year just minutes from our apartment.

Watching Chile vs Mexico play was a nice way to spend the evening when the sun goes down and the evenings are cooler. Free to watch, the tournament runs for one week with 40 countries participating in this event.

Television

Outside of football, I'm convinced the national past time of Chileans is TV. With the millions of channels available on cable, and the many locally made TV talk shows, soap operas and reality shows the local Chilean is never without something to watch. The smoky skyline is scattered with the subscription TV satellite dish, a necessity for all homes rich and poor. Again, I refer to the view immediately outside of my bedroom window for evidence,

Surely this mismatched roof is held together with the 6+ satellite dishes

These dwellers of sky scrapers are happy to sacrifice their already tiny balconies for their precious TV receptors.

When one dish just won't do

 But I can't see why anyone would one. After all, TV just doesn't seem right. It spreads a lot of lies about what food should be.

For example, my cravings for KFC are constantly dampened when promotions like these interrupt my viewing of the latest The Big Bang Theory.

Soup and rice? Where are the damn chips?

No... it's not good.

Or being told that the a particular brand of beer is the 'perfect compliment' to a hotdog. Honestly, this country is mad about hotdogs!

Just no.

Oh, and the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory always looks like this:

And you're never quite sure when a show is on.

Tuesdays at 9pm in Lima, is 11pm in Santiago. This will inevitably change when Perú enter summer time.

My First Day of Work

Wednesday 15th October, 2014

Today was the day I was meant to start my first class teaching English.

7am: I woke up to the usual sounds of the Chilean urban wildlife consisting of large grumbling buses, high pitch drills and the mating calls of the smaller automobiles honking out to each other from across the stretch of 3-lane bitumen.

I stretched and took in a deep breath of what consisted of partial air, partial cigarette smoke from any of the six levels below me and the emissions of earlier noted wildlife, emitting their pheromones as they hurried off in their usual migration patterns. It has taken me two weeks to learn to accept I am living on the noisiest corner of Santiago. Today, I embraced it a little bit more, knowing I was to be a part movement of leaving warm comfortable nest to the long drop to the ground below. Hopefully I’ll find my wings and start to contribute to this new, loud society.

7:30: I left the house, allowing 1 hour for the half an hour journey. I walked to the metro (underground train) station and waited for the metro. The first train came… full. The second train passed a few minutes later, and I pushed my way in. Old memories flashed before me of how to create a space where there wasn’t one by simply pushing the others away.

The metro stopped at each station, few people got off but many more got on. These people had completely mastered the art of pushing. As the doors opened, you were literally picked up and moved further and further inside the carriage, as group mobs reversed their bodies into the carriage doorways. The movement always reminds me of the group efforts of the fish in Finding Nemo.

Thankfully for me, the station I was to get off at was an interchange, so with most of the people planning to get off there anyway I was basically carried off the train at the right time.

8:00: Arrived outside of the building as listed on the address on my official documents from the Institute I was working for. Bit too early to go in, as everyone generally arrives late for work. I sat outside and waited for 16 minutes, enjoying the much more serene area where there is lawn and seats.

This isn't my photo, but does show the area my class was in :)

8:16: Headed inside the main building. Looked up at the directory on the wall. My paper work said it was on the 14^th floor. The directory confirmed that company is on the 12^th, 13^th and14^th floor. I head to reception and explain that I am teaching a class of English in that company. She asked what floor, and I confirmed the 14^th floor. She gave me an access key and I was on my way.

8:17: Took the elevator to the 14^th floor. Was greeted by upside down chairs all over the floor and badly lit area. The reception desk was abandoned, and in all directions were signs saying ‘Floor Closed’. I retreated to level 13.

8:18: An elderly security guard was sitting at the reception desk on level 13. This floor was also closed. He suggested trying level 12.

8:19: Level 12 seemed more promising. Brightly lit, clean, typical female receptionist, no upside down chairs. I approached the lady, introducing myself and explaining that I had a class on level 14 which clearly was not there. I showed her the paperwork, and she told me that not one of the contacts listed worked in this building. She searched the company listing, and located the student contact numbers. First she rang the office, no answer. Then her personal mobile number, and the student answered. The student informed her that her office was in a completely different building, nearby, however she was not able to have classes today because she was in a meeting.

The kind receptionist gave me the updated information, took me to a window and pointed out which building she worked in, and recommended that I check with her prior to each lesson.

8:30: I left the building, absolutely confused by the events of today.

a)     How did the Institute possibly have all the information wrong?

b)     Why would the concierge give me an access key to a floor that is closed?

c)     Why would the student not have contacted the Institute to change the start date?

Not to worry, thanks to the kind receptionist I actually have the accurate information now so I can check in advance.

So as to this point, I am yet to earn a single peso!