A month since I left UK

It will be four weeks today ( 25th Nov) since leaving the UK and time has flown by.  Last week, mainly involved the continuing trauma of trying to open a bank account with El Banco de Chile. Maybe it is a good thing, after what banks got up to in the UK and US, but it appears that the banks here are very risk averse to opening accounts . They need to see all your documents, your money, they take your photo and your thumb print. I actually thought at one point they were going to want to measure my penis... well if they had, they definitely would have opened an account for me.... oh yes be afraid! be very afraid!..ha ha ha ha ha ha ( in a shrill demented  voice).


I have met some interesting and some odd characters at the English Spanish group. V who organises the group is a petit Chilean lass who is an architect. She is lovely, friendly and makes sure the group sticks to the rules. That said, I have yet to discover why she runs the group and spends a considerable length of time organising other activities. 


Then there is a Al, a Brit, who is a bright young female  with a doctorate in Astronomy, She and her team has just discovered , wait for it, a unique and exotic star system with a very cool methane-rich (or T-) dwarf star and a 'dying' white dwarf stellar remnant in orbit around each other and apparently it is a 'Rosetta Stone' for T-dwarf stars. All very interesting if I had a clue what she was taking about.. but really.. she is nice and speaks Spanish and teaches at the University of Chile.


E, a Chilean guy.. well he is weird.. always looking down on the floor, slagged off Chile, had enough of it people, slagged off the Bank he worked for and wanted to be anywhere but Chile.  I could not find one thig about Chile he liked. I tried to get away from him as rapidly as I could. 


J also from Chile who was with his girlfriend, spent most of the night eyeing up every female that moved.. he would cut a conversation short and head straight for the women. As for his girlfriend, an American - whose bright white teeth dazzles, was a stereotypical gringo,  so false and pretending to be really interested in what you had to say. I think they deserve each other.  


There were many more  a couple of Swiss guys, a Frenchman, Germans, Brazilian, Chinese .. a fantastic mix of people..

http://www.morande.cl/

The weekend was spent down on the coast. We had a lovely time in El Quisco and Valparaiso with our friends Jorge and Ximena. We had lunch at The House of Morande in the Casablanca  Valley. It was good but at the moment El Cuadro and Santa Rita are ahead in the wine and food stakes. 

El Quisco- view from the house

After a lovely lunch we got to El Qisco, which is a seaside town but not of the same standard as Valparaiso or Vina or Algorobbo but it made some of the loveliest empanadas I have tasted. We spent the night at Ximena´s unlcle´'s place by the sea side chilling out and playing cards until 3am. 

The following day was spent in Valparaiso. We ate at a Belgium Art Deco Hotel restuarant. called Via Via Cafe. I recommend it highly.  

Well I will sign off with reports of my first quake experience. There was a loud rumble whilst the house shook for about 3 or 4 seconds about 11pm last night. It was amazing. Eli was non plus! but I got some quake advice from Eli.. like don´t stay in bed, Get out to the street or get up open the door so that one can get out quickly it needs be.  

Valparaiso Bay

Week Three : November 8th to 14th.

The week started with the excitement of my first job in Chile and that was fun.

Tuesday was relatively quiet as Eli was at a conference in town and I spent the first day in the house alone. I decided to go to the supermarket and do some shopping. It wasn’t too far away so I walked, that said I had no option but to walk. It’s amazing how a simple task of going to the supermarket made me feel nervous. I was worried that I could be asked questions which I would not be able to answer. No, actually, it was the fear that I would be asked questions in rapid, quick fire Chilean Spanish and that I would be left floundering like a fish out of water. In any event I managed it, and the only difficult question I faced was one that is asked by thousands of checkout staff all over the word. Yes, you guessed it! ´Do I have a loyalty card or collect points?’Ahhh!

Wednesday I decided to join the Santiago English Spanish Group. They meet every Tuesday, yes stupid me.  I went to the meeting and not a soul was there. Eli had dropped me off and had gone off to meet some friends miles away, so I had a couple of drinks and wondered the streets of BellaVista for a few hours. But I will be going tomorrow..

Thursday was my second English class. I got an extra student, more dosh. I am beginning to enjoy it. I led some role plays of airport scenarios. I think the guys will progress very quickly.

Friday, I saw my doctor in the morning. He gave me three options. Have the whole colon out so will never have any more problems or take medication again for it. But it is major surgery. The other was remove the mass using endoscopy, and start a regime of regular surveillance or do nothing with a 50:50 chance that I might become cancerous. Have to think about it. So Friday was a little depressing but drank the night away with a wonderful barbecue at Marco´s house.  

Saturday and Sunday was quiet as Eli was away and it gave me a chance to sort out some of my books, notes, CV etc. Great win for ENGLAND against the Aussies.. great match – watched it this morning on ESPN. Unfortunately CHELSEA lost . Flycick also kept me company online..thanks Flychick.

Hey, I have not described our house to you have I? As you can see it is a new build (just about 4 years old) in a suburb called Valle Grande. It’s situated in the north-west part of Santiago called Lampa, a 30 minutes drive to the center of town. La casa has 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, a small kitchen and a living room. There is a back garden and a driveway to park the car. Eli’s dog, Almendra, usually sleeps out the front. The garden has got lemon, lime, orange and avocado tree. The house faces north and from the side of the house and garden there is a wonderful view of the Andes. It withstood the rigorous testing of 8.6 magnitude earthquake and therefore I think it’s been built well.  

Well another week beckons.. still waiting for news about my visa, my bank account and my health scheme. 

Hasta lueo

First teaching job

Sunday(7/11) was awful, it rained all day and it was cold. It was very unusual for this time of the year. That said , Monday the day of my my first teaching experience the weather improved significantly.
I got to the office at CODELCO early and it was a little awkward as the students were not available until 1230, so I sat in reception revising my lesson.
I was really nervous but when we started the class it went off better than I thought. I had four students : Eduardo, Claudio, Cesar and Cristian. All four are engineers' and have a good level of English but just don't get the chance to practice speaking very much. They wanted to learn and were good fun. I started off with a get to know each other session  followed by a question and answer game. The hour went by very quickly.

Surprise Party

Wow had an amazing surprise 'Welcome to Chile' party at Casana Lonquen http://www.casonalonquen.cl , where we had our wedding. I thought I was going for a quite lunch with Eli, our friend Kena and Elvira, the boss of Lonquen - but boy was I in for a shock. It was hell of a shock and a fantastic surprise. Hidden in the back garden were all my friends and new family waiting to give me a huge welcome to Chile. I was taken aback and apparently my face was a real picture. I am waiting to see it..will put it on Facebook . It was a great day, started at 2pm and finished at 10pm.. lots of drinking and eating and dancing and more drinking etc. I was so emotional that I could barely eat all the food that had been prepared. Thanks to my friends and family in Chile.

My first job

Hey all, last few days have been very quiet, just getting on with domestic stuff and important visa related things. I have got a temporary RUT ( equivalent to a National Insurance number) and I am in process of opening a bank account.  I sent off my visa forms today, so fingers crossed that should go okay.
I have also got an appointment with a eminent gastroenterologist to sort out my colon. Hopefully that should go well.
The most important thing is I had an interview for a teaching job, and I start next week. It is with CODELCo ( one of the biggest company's in Chile). I will be teaching a small group of students twice a week. It's not great money, but great place to start and get experience and network. So a big Pisco |Sour for me later. 
The weather has been great , a mild 25 today, a warm 29 tomorrow..woohooo.
Love to you all... missing |England. but not the weather.