Plumbing...

As always, it has been quite a while...

But an update or some record of this adventure that is now my life...as I vowed...will be important.

Since July, we have moved to a new apartment...had major kilombos (argie word for mess/disaster) with the apartment itself. No CO poisoning, but broken plumbing, no cable/internet for a month, getting cable/internet 1 day...and on that same day, Cooper chewing through the cable and cutting us away from our cable tv bliss!

The plumbing situation is as follows: in the bathroom there are two faucet thingers. one controls the water to the toilet and the other, the water to the sink and shower. In a normal situation, those faucets could always be on/open. But in our situation, the toilet one causes the sink to dribble water constantly. And the other faucet, when on makes the sink run full force and you cant control the sink by the little handles on the actual sink...they are un-turnable for God knows what reason.

So...if you are following this, in order to turn the shower on, the "sink/shower" faucet needs to be open, which means water runs full force automatically in the sink. Therefore, when you turn on the shower, you have to go quick, because the water will be running in the sink simultaneously...and we have what is called a termotanque which is kind of like a ghetto hot water heater...when it empties (after 1-2 showers) there is no more hot water.

You might ask, "Liz, if you had such a major plumbing problem when you moved in on the 1st of August, why didn't you call your landlord and ask her to send someone over to fix it ASAP"....OH well...one would think that is how this would be resolved, but no..no...we are in Argentina. Nothing is that simple. I could try to explain the process of having to go through the dumbass real estate agency for any problem with the apartment and not being able to contact the owner directly...ever....but that would be silly and you would likely not understand, because it makes no sense.

When we did get a plumber to come..he came once, and didn’t leave this stupid paper that says how much the work would cost (which the real estate agency needs to present to the owner, get it approved, and so on)...he disappeared after and we called him for weeks. Turns out his sister was kidnapped, raped and murdered and that’s why he wasn't working. It's actually just terribleeeee and awfulll...and like WTF?!?!?!?!

AND we still have broken plumbing.

One other plumber came, gave us a new paper (presupuesto) and then the owner didn't approve it. Shocking.

Today, yet another plumber came and he submitted this new presupuesto to the real estate agency. Now we wait. I am not going to hold my breath.

Anyways, enough about plumbing...aside from that, I am continuing to do rugby..practice 2x / week, games every other weekend or so. It's nice to keep playing, but I was sad to miss homecoming a few weeks back. It looked like so much fun and I miss all the girls so much.

Mati and I have our tickets booked for December! We are both uncontrollably excited about the trip...When people asking me what I am going to do in the USA, I start listing off foods that I plan to eat!!! gah. such a fatty, but I can't wait!

Things are getting pretty dicey here with Cristina's impending dictatorship, 40% inflation, and a whole slew of other problems...but it's still my beloved Argentina...I still love my medialunas, ferias on weekends, the language, the wine, the steak, mate, plazas, the music...there are still things here that are great, amongst all the crazyness!

I will write an update when the plumbing is fixed. Hopefully it will be before 2013!

It's been a while...

Gah, I knew this blogging thing wouldn't work out. I tried. But then life got in the way, and I just forgot to sit and write it all down.
There is absolutely no way I could summarize or express in any concise way my life over the past 5 months...So I am just going to pick random things to tell you all about. In no particular order.

I got a job in March...about 2 weeks after I got here. I am an "International Executive Headhunter"...or at least that's what I tell all the CEOs and bigshots i talk to everyday.
But really the job is great, I am never bored, it's intense...great people to work with...we are all expats pretty much.

About a month ago, Erin from study abroad came. She is staying with us, got a job at TXT too, and now we are all getting an apartment together to move out of Devoto. It's a much bigger place in Villa Crespo, and fingers crossed, we sign early next week. It's gonna be sweet.

Things in Devoto were fine, until I got a headache for an entire month, and then through my hypochondriac-ness, convinced myself we had a Gas and/or Carbon Monoxide leak...and THEN WE DID! like could have died. To make a really long and stressful story short, we ended up in the hospital twice to get pumped with oxygen and get our blood taken. In our building, they shut off our gas line...and then the next day, said the whole building was effed...and shut off everyone's gas.
We were really popular with our neighbors...but when they started to sass me...I was just like..HEY I MIGHT HAVE SAVED YOUR LIFE! k thanks.
SO yeah...we are now going on week three of no hot water, no way to cook...it's pretty bad.
This is what we do:
step one: we get smelly
step 2: we call one of our friends
step 3: we say..."hey,....wanna hang out tonight"
step 4:...we then say.. "oh, and by the way, can I shower at your house"

So yeah...kind of very inconvenient this whole not showering in our house thing...Everytime I get the opportunity to shower at someone else's house, i jump at it...because i don't know when I'll get my next shower. I am like a mal-nourished kid who eats every meal like it's his last...except I am a filthy 20-someting...who takes every shower like it's my last.

Also, because we are in Argentina..there is really nothing you can do when everything is completely effed in your apartment: still have to pay full rent and building fees. And our entire water heater needs to be replaced...and that probably won't get done before we move out.  THrough out this whole Carbon Monoxide Fiasco, I have had a couple "I HATE YOU ARGENTINA" moments...it happens to the best of us, Mati included.

But enough Argie bashing....obvi I love my home away from home. You all know that. Some things, that I had an aversion to before...I have now completely embraced as part of life, that maybe during study abroad I was a little bit meehhh about...here are some ejemplos:
-Milk in a bag. milk in a cardboard box...not practical, but still delish.
-Tang-like juice...here Clight is my fave, which is a small packet of mysterious fruit-like sweetners that you stir into water. After fernet, it is basically a national drink here...or at least in our home.
-Cat-calling...MAMI, QUE BUEN CULO QUE TENES...obviously, that does not warrant a response, but in my head, rather than be disgusted by these nasty men who feel it appropriate to yell things out about your personal appearance on the street and make overtly sexual gestures...I have learned to look at it as "why thank you, all that working out in rugby has toned up my buns"
-Eating dinner at 11pm at night. makes no sense, but that's what we do. As of late, Erin and I have been on a "go-to-bed early" kick because we find ourselves falling asleep at our desks by 3pm...that has allowed for a couple 930pm dinner times...and this past monday a..wait for it...7:45pm dinner time. Downright crazy talk here.
-INFLATION: i wouldn't say that I have embraced this...but it's just the norm...Yes, every item you look at is about 4x more expensive than it ought to be. Fortunately, pesos are like monopoly money, so you don't feel as bad spending them.  Only thing, that the amount you would spend on Park Place or Boardwalk doesn't get you the highest valued property on the board...it get's you an empanada...and maybe a Coca Cola...but that's pushing it.
-People bashing the Government (mainly la Presidenta...and anything that has to do with her...which is a lot of really shittty stuff).: it's a national sport here. It's completely warranted, but it's just crazy. People have no filter. And then there is that 1 Kristina-supporter who speaks up...some times at risk of his/her life. Then everyone shuts him/her down. It's pretty gnarly.
-Asados: also a national sport. Eat meat till you can't anymore. It's similar any college drinking game...how much can you drink / eat before lying down on the floor and crawling into the fetal position...due to an overly worked belly.
-In rugby, we kiss the each girl on the opposing team on the cheek after the game. For those that don't know...traditional and expected greeting here, especially for girls is 1 kiss on the cheek (sometimes between boys that don't know each other they aren't expected to "saludar")...So...after a rugby game, instead of slapping hands and saying good game, you give each girl a peck on the cheek and say good game. At first, I thought this was wierd as shit...not because I am anti-sportsmanship....but because I am sweaty and dead, and I don't want to rub my sweaty and narsty cheek up against some other girl's sweaty and narsty cheek. It was just all too intimate at first, BUT, like most things, I have learned to accept it, and it would now be weird without it.
**Warning...when I do make it to the Guwrfc alumni game....sorry I might try to kiss you on the cheek. Don't be alarmed.

The list could go on, but right now I should start to wrap things up. I am currently sitting in Colonia, Uruguay (had to make a Visa-run). I just ate a Chivito which was delish, and I plan to walk around a bit, and get back on the boat in about 2 hours. I got here at 1030 this morning, and my boat leaves at 4:30ish.

In all, the last few months have been great, and I really feel like I have settled into a life here...with Mati, with Cooper...now with Erin (who we like to call our hija..haha)...a Job, an apartment...real stuff. Good stuff.

But as always, with all the good...there is some bad...and that is that I am so far from all of those people that i love so much....fern, nor, kate, mary, lulu, joc, marta, anne, emi, kat, margaret, ellie...mom, dad, emma, nana, papa jim...the list goes on. It's hard to make a move like this and not feel sad about missing those people...but again..EMBRACING THE GOOD, but not taking away from I MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH. AND WHEN YOU WANT TO VISIT..COME. Doors are always open.

Okay, so this was my attempt at getting back in the blog-o-sphere. I do want to be better about this, to keep you all updated (those that care...i think I have got a solid 2 followers) and to have some record of all THIS!!!

And I'm Back!

I've been on a blogging hiatus...because I felt that blogging about "Livin' South of the Equator" while living north of the equator may be a little misleading :)

But fortunately, I am back in South America...back in Buenos Aires!!!! FINALLY! To make a really long story short, stuff in Chile didn't work out, job-wise. My boss in Puerto Varas quit, so the Santiago office opted to close down the office in Puerto Varas...meaning I had no job. I returned to Chile on February 21st to Santiago and spent the day at my friend Julia's (a PiLA at Fundacion Chile) apartment (she's married to Kris). I really just relaxed and recovered from the long flight. In the evening Julia came back home. Laura (another PiLA living in the same apt building) Julia, and I went to a pancake dinner at their non-denominational, inter-faith church to celebrate Fat Tuesday. It was really nice, and the church is international so there are people from all over the world. After dinner I took a taxi to the terminal to take the bus down to Puerto Varas.

I got in Wednesday morning (Feb 22nd) and went to Jess and Mai Ann's house. I re-organized the stuff that Janine and Mai Ann had moved to the house and fit it into my suitcases. I met up with Barbara, who was shutting down the office, moving all the things out etc. Mujeres Empresarias is keeping her on to work from home for the time being. I had lunch with Jess at Cafe Mawen (where we went my very first day in Puerto Varas) and did more rearranging back at Mai Ann and Jess's. That night, with Jess and Jason (Mai Ann and Jess's house mate) we made stir-fry. It was yummy! The next day I walked around town, red along the water...and it was surprisingly nice weather...like in the 70s and sunny. Barbs bought me lunch, which was very sweet, and then I picked up some things for the Asado...that we were having that night...it was sort of a goodbye thing for me. A bunch of people came..a lot of the rugby boys, etc. and it was really just lovely. I crashed at like 4am, only to wake up at 6am to go to the bus terminal.

My bus left Puerto Montt at 8:15 (i magically managed to get all my bags on the bus) and I was exhausted. I dozed basically until we crossed the border into Argentina. It was wild crossing over because there was all this volcanic ash up in the mountains. Everything had like a coating of this dull grey powder. Kind of depressing. We made it to Bariloche by 4pm and had a 1 hour break...then the long leg of the journey began....the bus was kind of narstyyy and I was in a window seat that had water leaking out of it all over me. Lovely. NOT.

At like midnight or so, they woke us up to switch buses (I think we were in Neuquén). In the morning we made it to Bahía Blanca and had a little break in the terminal there. We finally made it to Buenos Aires at like 7:30pm on Saturday...35 hours on the bus. I can honestly say I don't want to be on a bus again. ever.

Mati picked me up and we went to two birthday parties...first Mati's old coworker Gaby...who's married to Yanil. When I was here in August/September, I got to know her. Very nice family. After that we drove to La Plata to celebrate Catalina's Bday (Mati's niece) We stayed in La Plata until Sunday evening and then headed back to Capital. I had my interview with TXT International (the headhunting firm) on Monday. It went really well and they asked me back that Thursday to meet with one of the directors...who offered me a job. That was last week. This week I am meeting with the other director to figure out the details of my start date, etc. I also had interviews with a consulting firm all last week. But I am for sure going with TXT :)

I met up with Clara last Friday to have dinner...at La Cholita!!! She's a friend from Georgetown who moved to Argentina in December. It was really great to see her and it's great that she's here in Buenos Aires!

Saturday, Mati and I went to La Plata to hang with the family, and then we came back to Capital because we had to get up early in the morning to go to the wedding of one of Mati's teammates. The church ceremony was a noonish out in provincia, and then the wedding was in like an outdoor garden that was gorgeous. It was hot as ballllss so we were all sweating a bunch. We left around 10pm...so it was like a 9 hour wedding...but totally awesome. Highlights include: one of the clementes doing an improv skit which ended in him taking off his pants...and pretending to be a rabbit...OH, and how I somehow got tricked into a 6 couple dance off....Mati and I magically weren't the 1st eliminated. 2 other couples got eliminated before us! Not because we are particularly skilled, but because we hid ourselves strategically where we'd less likely be seen. When a Tango song came on...we were both screwed. Yes, I studied tango for 1 semester...but that was 2 years ago. I forgot everything. And what I did remember, was the male part, so I started dragging Mati around the dance floor (he had no idea what to do)...Yeah..that got us eliminated.

Anywho...Today I am going back to rugby at DAOM! I am pumped to get back to playing!

More updates to come....

The Day Has Come...

I have a bit of catching up to do in the blogging department..and I am gonna do it. I'm committed to this blogging bit. fore real...mainly for my own selfish reasons so that when I am older I can look back and feel nostalgic by reading all my AWESOME authentic blog posts.

Okay...catching up time...here goes...I believe the last post touched on Thanksgiving and 14 year olds playing rugby...So from there, a few great things have happened..I haven't been to more rugby practices due to scheduling conflicts (full time jobs can be lame sometimes), but in 2012 I am coming back fully rugby steam ahead.

Some notable things (in no particular order):

-Tenue, the dog that lives in Jess and Mai Ann's house (owned by Vicki Johnson who is an expat who's been here for 30 years), impregnated one of the street dog whores--who he tends to impregnate---and she had puppies. They are cute little fur-balls. very fun to play with.

-Mai Ann works for a Salmon exporting company so she gets sweet deals on fresh fish..trout and salmon typically. So the other night she cooked us a great dinner of trout with a blueberry-walnut-onion topping..and keenwah (i have no idea how you spell that food..the thing that's like rice slash cous cous). and salad. twas amazing.

-I learned (from reading some random shit online) that if you have an ipod or a cell phone you are trying to play music from out loud, but the volume just isn't enough... you stick it in a ceramic bowl of some sort..and it amplifies the sound. MindBlowing. For shitty rental car-rides where there is no ipod adapter or cd player, a bowl is a good substitute.

-I made a baked ziti...big enough for an entire family...made kinda like how my mom makes it, but i had to substitute the cheese (didn't have any mozzarella) for this creamy weird cheese that comes in tuby-packaging...It was good though. Because of it's size..I had it for lunch and dinner for approximately 6 days.

OKAY...now the most important event or thing to report was the trip from the weekend of December 9thish...when i saw MATI!!!!!! So I headed up to Santiago on Wednesday night December 7th. Poor guy flew in leaving BsAs Wednesday Night and landing in Santiago at 2am. My bus didn't get to Santiago until 7am, so he had to stay in the airport in the early morning hours..but then he came and met me at the terminal..yet another blissful reunion. Granted we were both delirious from travelling and lack of sleep ...best way to remedy that..you guessed it, we got on another bus to head to Valparaíso. Mati conked out on the bus, while I watched Forest Gump, dubbed. The dubbed version of Forrest Gump is really offensive. They make Forrest have this like overly exaggerated mentally retarded voice...just dumb.

2 hours later, we arrived in Valpo. From the terminal we hopped on a public bus, but we were unaware of where to get off...so we went all the way across the city..figured out our mistake and came all the way back on another bus. We took an little lift elevator type thing to get up to the section of the city where our hostel was. Valpo is just a bunch of hills and cliffs...thus to get around easily by foot, they've installed all these funiculares.

Our hostel "Jakarta" was pretty cool. These two dudes run it, and there were a bunch of Australian and French people staying there at the time. Mati and I napped for a bit and then headed out for a late lunch to what we were told, is the best seafood place in Valpo..Called "Los Porteños II"...On our way there, as we were arriving to the restaurant, Mati almost got pick-pocketed. HE accidentally put his wallet in his back pocket, and some ASS tried to take it out...right as he was doing it, Mati noticed and turned around, and they guy just played dumb and pretended like it was an accident...Mati was about to throw some punches, but he took a deep breath, decided not to make a scene and we sat down to eat. We had beer and Paella. YUMMMM.

After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we decided to head to Viña del Mar (next city over) to go to the beach. It happened to get really cloudy and windy at this point, so we froze our little tooshies off on the beach. We went and had coffee at a McCafe to warm up...McCafes are funny...they try to be Starbucks, but are still so clearly McDonalds.

After Viña we were still sleepy from all the travels so we went and napped some more at the hostel. It was like 11pm before we mobilized for dinner and found this weirdass restaurant that was open (everything was closed because Thursday December 8th was a holiday in Chile..and Argentina)..so we decided to go..we were the only ones there and It was like someone´s house..very strange. Had some Asian chicken dish, which was quite good.

View from outside the Funicular that we took to get to our first hostel

Friday morning we got up and had a yummy bfast at the hostel..free with our stay! Toast, a fruit drink made with apples, oranges, and bananas...and some salami and cheese. A-ok.

We decided to trek to our next hostel..called Casa Club or something..which was in a different area of the city..kinda shitty area, but the room we stayed in was huge, which was nice! And it did have a spectacular view of the port and water. After dropping our bags, we headed down this path that has a great view of the city...we also went to the Naval History Museum...and we walked EVERYWHERE and took a bunch of photos..making it back to our previous hostel (we accidentally had taken the key with us)..We had some empanadas for lunch. YUM. It was kind of an overcast day, so we opted out of the beach, but did go to a shopping area to buy mati a bathing-suit slash shorts ..bc he was silly and forgot to pack a bathing suit or shorts of any kind.

We headed back to our hostel to nap in the afternoon...and get ready to go out at dinner timeish. In true Argentine fashion, at 8pm we decided to "tomar la leche" which literally means "drink milk" but actually means have some coffee. So we went to this cafe that was on the pathyway with the great view..called Cafe Arte Mirador. The old man running the place was totally overwhelmed and short-staffed and our coffee and pastry were a little weird. Not gonna lie. But the view was breathtaking and great for a photo op.

After coffee, we headed back to the neighborhood where our first hostel was..bc supposedly there was this festival of lights thing happening. the flyer looked cool, so we went...and then after hiking up the horrifyingly steep hill to get there, we realized festival of lights meant some of the hostels in the area put up a string of Christmas lights and maybe a lantern. It was a bust for sure. But at least we were getting a lot of exercise walking all over creation. So then some time after 10pm we decided to head to dinner. We went to this place, that was really hard to get to and involved hiking like 6 flights of steep cement stairs...called Altzaga. It was delicious. We shared two fish pasta dishes. The pasta is all handmade, right there in front of you (it's an open kitchen concept). Mati tried his first Pisco Sour...he was definitely underwhelmed and prefers his Fernet and Coke...granted Mati and most Argentines like to take any opportunity to say they are cooler than Chileans...I try to be unbiased and appreciate the beauties of both places...but I obviously have a littttle bit of a bias ;)

Saturday we woke up, waited for the dude at our hostel to serve us breakfast...literally the man that was running the hostel didn't know shit...there is a giant sign in the hostel that says breakfast will be served between 8am and 11am. So Mati and I got up at 10...we went outside and there was one other couple there also waiting to eat...and the dude runs out and is like "BE righttt back...gotta go buy the bread"...so we were delayed a bit on starting our day...and to spite the dumb man...we stole some of the bread (he had given us 2 pieces each..but we took a third) mwhahahhahah.

It was finally sunny in Valpo..so we put our suits on and prepared to have a beach day..We got to Viña...to the same beach we went to on Thursday, Reñaca, and started to catch some rays...it was another one of those days where empanadas for lunch were in order (for me, that´s like everyday). As we lied on the beach, I put on minimal sunscreen...and didn´t reapply. When we were leaving, I felt a little crisp, but didn't think it was that bad.. Then we went back to the hostel and I showered...and I was SOOO RED. Like fireball Candy red. everywhere. IT was like 6pm and we wanted to get on the road back to Santiago...we were gonna spend our last night there. So we headed to the terminal and got on a bus to Santiago.

One of the other PiLAs, Julia, is working in Santiago and she has an apartment there with her husband (who came with her to Chile)..they happened to be away for the weekend, so she offered up her apartment to Mati and I. Which was sooo generous and so great! Free place to stay. And the apartment is in a great part of Santiago (called Providencia) 1 block from the metro, and just all around very nice.

Mati and I grabbed a bite at a place near the apartment..then we treated ourselves to some gelatto. I was hurting pretty bad at this point because of the sunburn. I tried not to move much as I lie in bed, bc the slightest movement caused quite a bit of pain. I was also emitting a ridiculous amount of heat.

Anywho, the next day we got up, bought some bread and jam and breakfasted at the apartment...We planned to sightsee all afternoon becuase my bus left at 10:30 that night (Sunday), and Mati´s plane left Monday morning at 7am. So we went to Plaza de Armas, El Museo Nacional, La Catedral Metropolitana (which is gorgeous)...and La Moneda (the presidential palace). I am pretty sure we went to all those places when we did the high school trip in 2007, but it was so long ago, so seeing all that stuff again was cool. We then took a taxi to La Vega, or El Mercado Central, which is this ENORMOUS fish market with a giant seafood restaurant in the middle. It was quite cool..we had shome shcallops and a cold beverage, and then we decided to WALK to San Cristobal (the mountain I went to with Laura that one time..with the Virgin Mary statue on top of it). We decided to walk, mainly because from the Mercado Central we could see the peak of the mountain...but GUESS what...it was a long walk and I was in flip flops, sunburnt, and shvitzing like none other. When we finally arrived, we took the funicular up the mountain, snapped some amazing photos. It was my second time there and I was hot and tired and sunburnt...so I definitely wasn't all that thrilled about the breathtaking views..but Mati was!! He was loving it and with his new camera was having a blast taking some stellar photos.

We headed back around 5ish to the apartment..bc we wanted to go in the pool that's on the roof of the apt building. So we did. Very refreshing. Then we got changed, relaxed a bit and Mati accompanied me to the bus terminal. Again, saying goodbye never gets easy...it's always hard and sad...but we had the most amazing and fun weekend together...just the two of us...and that's something to be happy about.

Mati stayed at Kris and Julia's until he had to head to the airport at like 3am. They are really chill and said he could stay there (they got back from their trip on Sunday night). 13 hours after I left Santiago, I was back to work in Puerto Varas. It was definitely a rough morning. I had kind of a rough week that week.

This past Saturday, I went to the Angelmo marketplace (place with all the wool and stuff) in Puerto Montt to do some xmas shopping. On Sunday..didn't do all that much...in the afternoon I really wanted to watch the Patriots game, which wasn't on any of the channels I have in my house. So I headed down to a bar that I had heard has DirectTv...and asked if they would kindly put the game on. And they did! And I drank some beer. Some peeps from Colorado showed up and at the beginning of the game, the Broncos were winning, so they felt bad for me and said they would buy me a beer (the dad offered me the beer...he was an older like in his 60s and was there with his son. he was nice)..then the patriots turned it around and we won like 41 to 23 or something. I got a free beer out of it too! So all in all...a good day.

Yesterday (Wednesday December 20th) we had a breakfast for new socias at the Hotel Cumbres (that we always do events at)...it was goodddd. Had some yummy foods. THen I went to the office, worked and then came home to get everything ready to leave on my 8pm bus to Santiago!!!! EEEKKKKK. On the bus to Santiago, I was in the front row seat on the 2nd floor. It was aweeesooommmee. Seriously.. I felt like I was driving the bus, bc the whole front is a giant window.

They put on The Bourne Ultimatum...which is a quality film for bus rides, in my opinion..Half way through the bus made a stop and turned off the engine which restarted the movie, and they couldn't get it back to the place we had left off. As a solution, they put on the movie Hotel for Dogs...not sure why..But of course I watched it...of course it was bad...then i went to sleep.

NOW, I am in the office in Santiago...meaning the Day HAS COME that I leave to go home for Christmas. I AM SOOO PUMPED....i really miss all my loved ones...like so much, so this is a much needed break and trip for me. My transfer to the airport picks me up at 6pm!! Sooo soon.

See many of you very soon!!!

BIKES, Thanksgiving, Naps, Santiago, 14-year-olds-playing-rugby

I feel the need to sputter a list of things I have been doing that are noteworthy/fun/I wanna remember...I've been in sort of a gloomy mood lately...for no particular reason, until TODAY when Mati and I confirmed our trip to Santiago/Valpo for next week. (Thursday Dec 8th and Friday December 9th are holidays here). SO, that has obvs instantly lifted my mood, thus prompting me to share shum shings.

SO..two weekends ago Zoe, the PiLA that's in Bariloche, came to visit. She's a real cool cat and on the Saturday that she was here, we had some grand plans to go to the Saltos of Petrohue (some waterfalls that aren't too far from here). Due to Friday nights festivities and imbibing, the group really didn't mobilize until about 330-4pm on Saturday...and the last bus to Petrohue left at 4pm...AND all the rental cars were rented. We were bummed, and it was Zoe's last day so we had to come up with a new plan. ENTER BIKES. Mai Ann has a bike, and some friends that own a hostel had two available bikes..So Mai Ann, Zoe, and I set out on what was initially going to be a leisure bike ride around PV...25 km later, my derriere was hurting quite a bit. But honestly, it was pretty awesome...we went all around Lake Llanquihue and had breath-taking views the entire way.

The following day, I was invited to eat a crap-ton of seafood with a friend from the rugby team...The deal was that a boy in town has cancer, so a family/group of people/i don't know the actual relationship, cooked up a bunch o' "curantos", and sold them for 3000 pesos (6 bucks) to raise money for the boy with cancer. A Curanto is essentially a clam-boil bag..equip with mussels, clams, chorizo, potato, chicken, and some weird potato massy things that were delish..and BROTH...So we stuffed our faces with that and then I went into a serious food coma.

The following week entailed a lot of prep for thanksgiving. By a lot of prep, I mean on Wednesday night Janine and I trekked to Puerto Montt to a giant grocery store in search of a whole turkey...and some other gringo-ingredients. IT was a serious adventure..we also had to find a turkey baster..easier said-than-done. But we were successful. I came home at 10pm Wednesday night and made an apple pie. That's right i made an apple pie. From scratch. I also attempted to do some of the prep work for my stuffing...that I had to make a ton of! Thursday I worked all day (well, I snuck out of the office an hour early...i had to COOK..don't tell anyone). I came back home and started a cooking frenzy. The stuffing had about 3 million ingredients so it was a long process. Just before 8 i popped it in the oven to cook (the thanksgiving feast was supposed to start at 830).

Mawenko, the hostel that lent us bikes, let us rent out the place to have our Thanksgiving feast. It was 4 gringos, some Spanish peeps, and bunch o' Chileans totaling 20 people. I rolled into Mawenko at like 845 thinking I would be incredibly late...and i was the first one there. Typical South America.

We ended up feasting at 10:30pm when I was absolutely ravenous with hunger. Our meal consisted of:

TURKEY (duh), cooked by Elias-Chilean, on the mens rugby team, bigfan of pisco sour (basically the national drink of Chile)...the turkey was in fact infused with pisco sour. yum!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP: so freaking yummy. Made by Mai Ann!

MASHED POTATOS (another DUH), cooked by Janine. Smooth, buttery, and scrumptious!

MY stuffing: ingredients included: bread, walnuts, apples, chorizo, chicken broth, sage, onions, cellery, among others. It was a hit.

FALAFEL BALLS with YOGURT SAUCE: I bet your scratching your head right now...BUT because we had a multicultural Thanksgiving where 90% of the guests didn't know what Thanksgiving was, falafel balls were in order. Ibai, Spanish dude, was the chef!

Apple Pie: made by yours truly..little burnt on top, but plenty of butter and sugar to make up for it.

NOT-Pecan Pies: 2 faux-pecan pies made with Walnuts (pecans don't exist here) made by Ben.

BEER, PISCO SOUR, and SPRITE. And wine. duh.

We feasted, clutched our overstuffed bellies as we tried to eat more, and there were NO leftovers. That's a first for me at Thanksgiving. I normally eat leftovers for approximately 1 week after turkey day.

I peaced from the party around midnight, bc Friday morning I had a really early day...Our Annual Seminario started at 830am on Friday and I had to be there before 8..GASP. I normally roll out of bed around 830 and stroll in to work before 9! The seminario was a mixed success...a lot of people didn't show up, so instead of having 150 peeps, we had like 80...but the speakers were fantastic.

Friday afternoon I went on a shockingly long run...for me (60 minutes...insert otro GASP) and then boarded a 10:15pm bus to Santiago. I had been told earlier in the week that I had to be in Santiago on Monday Nov 28th for a stupid errand at the Chilean equivalent of the IRS. DUMB. Anywho, I thought I'd take advantage of the weekend and spend it in a warm climate. Janine was nice enough to message all her friends in Santiago asking if I could stay in their house. Shockingly, 2 responded....Daniela and Juan (they are boyfriend-girlfriend)..and Daniela picked me up from a metro stop on Saturday morning. She proceeded to take me to Juan's parents house were they were preparing a birthday extravaganza for a 2 year old. With a bombass princess cake, and lots of delicious treats! After a short stop over there, we went to Daniela's mom's house (a few blocks away)..had lunch..and I was literally falling asleep in my pork and rice, thus they offered to let me take a nap (mind you I had met these people around 1 hour before). I went and passed out in one of their beds..don't even know whose it was, and slept like a baby till 5pm..when it was time to start the 2 year old's bday bash. IT was really cute and there were a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds running around. I met Juan, and his entire extended family, and chatted it up with a bunch of people. Around 9pm the kiddies started to go home. I, being the dumb north american that I am, thought the party was over. WRONG.

The real party had only just begun. Large platters of raw meat were brought out to the BBQ..which had a spectacular view of the Andes mountain range. 1130pm, meat was served up (including porkribs, chorizo, steak, and chicken) along with tomato salad, potato salad and rice. Oh and WIne and beer. And pisco.

After we finished eating, Juan's Dad takes out the light bulbs he has set up, and exchanges them for black-light light bulbs, and hangs up a strobe light (you know, everyone just has a strobe light lying around their house). Decorating people with toilet paper and dancing ensued. I on the other hand started to lose some steam around 230am and the party had no signs of slowing down. So again, friendly new friends said I could take a nap. So I went up to Juan's mom's bed (again, I had just met this women) and napped there until 545 am when Daniela woke me up and said we were gonna head home. She and Juan live on the other side of the WORLD in santiago...so we took a bus, and were gonna take the subway, but we were there at 630 am, and the subway didn't open 'till 8am on Sundays. FAIL. So we called Juan's uncle, who has a taxi and he was out working that night. He gave us a ride home and because he was so generous, we obvs had to sit and eat breakfast with him. so we did. At 830am I went to sleep.

At noon I awoke, showered up, had lunch and then headed to the centro to meet up with Laura Marrin (one of the PiLAs in Santiago). We did some sweet touristy stuff, saw some nice views of the city, ate gellato, and then headed to Julia and Chris's apartment (Julia is another PiLA in Stgo...Chris is her husband. he came to Chile too for her PiLA year. Cute). Janine happened to arrive in Santiago that day, and another friend of Janine and Julia's from college was visiting..Elizabeth. She cooked us a delish dinner and then I had to head back to Juan and Daniela's.

Monday morning, I got up, breakfasted with Juan (Daniela had peaced out at like 5am bc she had to travel to Antofagasta) and then I had like an hour commute to work. I forgot to mention earlier, it's flipping hot in Santiago. Like 85 degrees..which was refreshing at first, coming from PV and all...but once i SWAT through all my clothing on the metro, I was not diggin' it so much.

Anywho, I worked from the Santiago office on Monday, did my stupid errand, and then took a 830pm bus back to PV.

12 hour busrides...have become a way of life for me. They sound terrible, but being able to travel the length of a large part of the country is pretty freakin sweet...and only at about 20 bucks a pop.

Erm, yesterday I went and helped out the rugby boys youth team of a friend of mine from the men's team (Cesar). His team has mostly 14 year old boys..but he's a forward and the backs don't have much guidance. So I came to lend a hand. It was actually really fun and I enjoyed getting back out on the pitch..even if I was just teaching. ALSO, 2 girls came because they want to play and get a girls team started. THey both are named Camila and are wicked badass. We are already facebook friends and have big plans for a girls team. WOOT.

Tomorrow I am likely going to see the youth team play in Llanquihue ('bout 5 km from PV)..And NEXT week on Wednesday night I head up to Santiago to meet up with MATI!!!!! SO EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

The group

My finished products!

The many steps to stuffing

living tranki

Since I´ve moved, I have definitely gotten more into a routine. I get up in the morning, make me some coffee (I HAVE A COFFEE MAKER IN MY NEW PLACE...CLUTCH)...and have granola with warm milk due to the frigidness of the mornings. Just too cold for cereal with cold milk.

Work is about a 10 min walk from home..maybs 15 if I am particularly sluggish and not entirely awake. This time of year we are wrapping up all the projects from the year, and have a big event next Friday. After that, it's a lot of paperwork and planning for next year!

After work, I tend to get a few groceries. Shnacks, and something for dinner. Then, Every other day, sometimes more, after work I like to go jogging along the costanera (the street on the lake Llanquihue). It's pristine and gorgeousss. When there aren't too many clouds or volcanic ash...you can see the Volcanoes (Osorno and Calbuco) which are stunning.

Next week is thanksgiving..hard not to be at home, but I'll probs be doing something with the gaggling of gringos living here in PV. THere are quite a few of us. It's impressive how many foreigners have found their way to PV and stayed here! IT's just that GORGEOUS...and tranki.

The ash from Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano has been spewing since June. Fortunately, here in PV we don't normally have many negative affects. A large chunk of the ash has been blowing east to Argentina. Even still, flights going north in Chile are hard to come by, so anytime you need to go to Santiago or fly thru Santiago, odds are you're flight might be cancelled. Accordingly, I am taking the bus to Santiago to leave for Xmas. 13 hours on a bus is worth it to make sure I get to be home for the holidays :)

This Thursday, the PiLA who is in Bariloche Argentina (Zoe) arrived for the weekend (she's doing a visa run...aka she entered Argentina on a tourist visa and thus needs to leave the country every 90 days to renew it). She was telling us how bad the ash is in Bariloche and the whole city is going into an economic depression due to NO tourists and all the businesses are closing. It's very sad, bc Bariloche (though I've never been) is a natural paradise of lakes and mountains that is now covered in toxic ash :( It's nice having Zoe visit, and despite the disarray of Bariloche, I will probs go in a few weeks! It's only a 6 hour bus-ride away!

Today there is a possibility of hiking or something outdoorsy..depends on if it downpours or not. We'll see.

Next weekend I'll be trekking up to Santiago again for a work thing the following Monday...and then a few weeks after that, I'll be heading home for 2 weeks!

Puerto Varas and long weekend in Buenos Aires

So I have been here in Puerto Varas for a month exactly (today). The cold has been an adjustment and the slower paced small-town lifestyle is also new. BUT, I am settling in quite well. In the last week of October, I moved to a new house. A friend of some of the Americans I know down here was renting this room, and then he moved to another part of Chile, so he offered it up to me! The house is a little bit further away from the center, but it's only a 10 minute walk to work. My room is much dryer, gets natural sunlight all daylong, and there's no mold! WOOT. 3 other women live in the house: the owner, her cousin, and this other girl in her late-twenties who's a massage therapist!

The house is itty-bitty, but it's comfortable and warm. Which is what I was looking for! My internet got installed yesterday, so I have everything I need! I can see myself staying here through the summer months and then maybe finding a new place afterwards. It would be nice to end up living with friends, because it's somewhat isolating to be in a house with none of the people you hang out with.

I have been spending time with Jess, Mai Ann and Janine (the 3 other Americans, all former PiLAs that are still here in PV). And they have been introducing me to their friends, etc. They all hang out with the mens rugby team here, AND I was talking with some of the mens players last night, and they would totally back me if I wanted to get a women's team together! So over the next few weeks and months, I am going to start investigating that...apparently 3 years ago, there was a women's team, but wasn't very organized and fell apart. BUT, there are women interested in playing,...and that's all you need to start a team!

Work is good. I've been getting more and more responsibility and this time of year is very busy here, because we 'wrapping the year up' with events, etc. Our anual Seminar is November 25th (So soon) which is a huge event with important speakers, etc. Also, our major government funded project ends in December, so all the reporting/financial stuff needs to be turned in over the course of the next month. But I am liking it. AND starting in January, I get to work on new projects...of my choosing! So it's nice to have that kind of freedom to really take the bull by the horns and do what I want.

Last week I got my ticket home for Christmas...which I am so excited for. I haven't been out of the US for so long...it's only been about 3 months at this point, BUT now that I am in CHile where everything is a lot more foreign and unfamiliar, missing home happens quite a bit.

BUT, this past weekend, we had a long weekend here in Chile..So i took that opportunity to go to Buenos Aires! I left PV Thursday Oct. 27th on a bus to Santiago. I got in Friday morning, worked all day in the Santiago office and then headed to Fran's house to chill for a bit. I slept till 430am and then headed to the airport for a 720am flight. I got into BsAs on time...Customs was kind of a bitch because about a gagillion people arrived at the airport in BsAs when i did...from every country in Europe.

Mati picked me up at the airport and brought COOPER!!!! Who was sooo excited to see me (Cooper...and Mati obvs). I swear Cooper recognized me! We headed back to Capital and had coffee at El Destino...which USED to have some of the best medialunas around, but they got a new baker,...and they're not AS good. I'm gonna have to find a new spot. Afterwards Mati and I packed up to head to La Plata (with Coop) to spend the afternoon with his family. His baby nephews are getting so big and it's just sooo cute. His parents' dog just had puppies too, so there were oodles of puppies and babies to play with. BLISS.

Mati and I (with Catalina and Santi -his niece and nephew) went together to buy tickets for the Semi-final rugby match between San Luis (mati's old team growing up) and SIC (another team from Buenos Aires). Later that night, we went to Manu's (one of Mati's closest childhood friends) place and had a few beers and a picada before heading to the game. The game was SPECTACULAR....so intense. Sadly, San Luis lost, but it came down to the last second when San Luis scored a try and they were down by 2 (so they just needed the kick for the points after)...but the try was scored in the far corner of the try zone, so it was a really hard kick to make...and the poor guys missed it. Not by much..but he did. Nevertheless, it was very exciting. We headed back to Mati's parent's house, had dinner and then drove back to Capital (to return the car we borrowed from Gaby, a friend of Mati's). I was soooo tired from my trip that I passed out in the car..mouth wide-open, druelling...the works.

We had to get up really early the next day because Mati had a game at 10am. We took Cooper, which was fun. He ran around like a maniac. Mati played scrumhalf (which he normally doesn't do for this particular team) and the game was excting..but they lost. The team they played was quite strong. We went back with Ruleman (mati's rugby friend) to his place, because he has a dog too...a giant pitbully type dog who is really sweet, but is bigger so sometimes he would stomp all over Cooper without intending to....They played like maniacs and then Cooper was nearly comatose he was so tired by the end of the day.

Mati and I cooked steak for dinner! Yummy.

Monday we did a bunch of errands in the morning, with Cooper...and then we both headed downtown so Mati could go to work and so I could go buy the list of things that people in CHile had asked me for. Monday night Mati cooked an amazing Pasta dish with a whitewine cream sauce, ham, onions, panceta, mushrooms, and Chicken. YUM

Tuesday I just kindof hung around Devoto and played with Cooper a bunch. I had to get up at 3am on Wednesday to get on a 615am flight back to Santiago. I got into Santiago at around 830am and had a long van-ride to the office. The driver literally drove around in circle sin downtown Santiago. I made it to work...delirious from lack of sleep and worked all day. I headed to the bus station, via subway...with my giant hiking backpack and just bummed around the bus terminal till my bus left at 915pm. I was so tired on the bus that I didn't even watch the crappy movie they always put on.which I normally love. I got in a little late to PV (at around 945am) and headed straight to work (thursday Nov. 3rd). Thursday afternoon and evening I was kind of a zombie and just went to sleep. Same deal Friday night because I hadn't so much recovered from so much travelling and lack of sleep. Saturday I went for a gorgeous run along the lake..truly spectacular...so much so that I ran 10 minutes more than my standard 30 minute jog. HAHA. I had to hang around the house most of the day Saturday because the internet man came to install an antena on the roof, etc.

THEN Saturday night, I went to Janine's house for a little Mexican fiesta. Her friends from college, who she met while studying abroad in Mexico, are here visiting...There was margaritas, guacamole, pico de gallo, and refried beans...also BLISS! twas quite fun.

So yeah..I am getting into somewhat of a routine here in PV. It's still new, but between work, the gorgeous natural beauty...and the possibility of RUGBY....I am very excited for what's to come!