Winter Arrives _ Rain at Last!

At  end of May the weather started to turn. The days are still been warm (between 16 to 20C with bright sunshine) but night time tempertaures drop to between -8 (out here in Lampa) and 5C. It has only rained a handful of times since November last year so the air is quite dusty in Santiago. The other drawback of the warm daytime temperatures is the temperature inversion effect like in Los Angeles. The pollution in the city is pretty bad. It is like a really foggy day in the UK, except the poor visibility is caused by pollutants. There are vehicular restrictions with heavy fines if you use your car. So you have to check what plates are allowed into the city on a daily basis: in fact I get a text message to warn me if I cannot use my car. But after it rains the views are amazing. 

Clear Santiago after a days rain

Clear Santiago after a days rain

Since January many things have happened:


We had non-stop coverage of Obama's  visit to Chile in late January. He brought with about 700 staff and a whole host of vehicles. The roads were closed for hours around Santiago preventing people from getting to work and around, many were really pissed off with the amount of attention accorded. And in the heart of the nuclear problems facing Japan after the earthquake and notwithstanding that Chile has experienced the two worst earthquakes ever recorded worldwide,  the USA and Chile signed a pact to help develop nuclear power in Chile. Bloody mad! 


In February we spent our first Valentine´s Dday together. As a surprise I took Eli to this wonderful boutique hotel, The Aubrey in Santiago, had a romantic meal and enjoyed explored Bellavista. It was some exploration as I spent £400 on a sculpture of Don Quijote.                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                             Eli surprised me with a kitten - Seve is his name. It was a romantic day. It's a bundle of fun now, running around the house with its big bushy tail held up high and annoying all the dogs in the street. 

We also had our first visitors from the UK since I got here. We welcomed Ella and Doran. We spent a great week togther showing them Santiago and tasting the food and drink of course.  

http://www.oceanpacifics.cl/main.htm

http://www.theaubrey.com/

I also had my operation to remove my lesion in my colon in February too. The doctors were able to safely remove pre-cancerous cells and undertake a full colonscopy with biopsies every ten 10cm. The operation was at University Catholica Hospital,  which was very modern and efficient but you had to have health insurance. Please please don´t support the destruction of the NHS, because the private system, no matter what people say is there to make money.There were more staff administering the admission to the hospital than there were health workers. The amount of checks and forms that needed to be completed before the doctor is given permission to continue is madness. We found out  when I was admitted that my Medical insurance did not cover me automatically to have operations at that particular hospital, and it was decided by the hospital a month before and nobody informed us. This meant paying up front first , a cool 2000 pounds and claiming afterwards. Of course all of you have experienced how efficient insurance companies are at paying up.. they are evaluating my claim at the moment. .. ha ha!

At the beginning of the March, Eli started a new job, she joined Pontificia Universidad Católica de Santiago and she was very happy but the struggle with her power crazy boss ended with her resigning. She was meant to Head of Projects but she spent much of her four weeks having her PowerPoint presentations rewritten and simple letters to clients corrected. Although Eli had no problems with this, her boss has no idea of Pareto´s Principle and spent an inordinate amount of time making minor minuscule corrections that it drove Eli round the bend. Anyway she has another job to go to,which is good.


Work wise , I have more students and more work. I have started working for two schools: Bridge Language Group and  Executive English Solutions. Both together provide me about me with 30 hours a week work  plus I also have a whole host of private students. This is not helping me with my Spanish practice though. I work with students in some big companies like : Johnson's, Becthel, Schnieder-Electric. The age range of my students is between 24 and 61. They are mostly men, mainly engineers. It looks like there is a real push in Chile to make English the second language. 


May was spent in Malaysia, which was Eli's first visit.. see my FaceBook..many photos there. 


In our spare time, we continue to go trekking and have seen some lovely areas out and around Santiago. The Andes is now covered in snow and the ski season has started. A 45 minute drive takes you to three ski resorts just outside the city.I  The best one is Valle Nevado (looking forward to going up there in the next few weeks) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_Nevado

It's the end of July and I am getting into a routine, so my next blog entries will tell you about Chilean food , a little history etc.