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 :)