Unintentional Sick Day

Everything is an adventure.  That is the positive way to word and look at all of the crazy things you learn unintentionally when trying to live in a country that isn't your own.  A country with a sistema all its own... oh yes... an adventure.

We will take this story in reverse.  I went to work this morning and was immediately informed (ok, not immediately, first they asked me lots of questions stemming from clear confusion as to why I was there in the first place) to go home.  It was apparently illegal for me to be at work today.  After a few "buts" and "are you for reals", I put on my coat and did my commute in reverse, as if in rewind.

I was sick.  Nothing dramatic, your typical virus of this time a year, magnified by foreign germs and foreign ninos in close proximity.  I made the decision on Tuesday that I would have to, after 8 months, try to navigate the health care system.  I called and made an appointment (yay me... because Spanish on the phone is a whole different language) and set off for what I (even knowing better) hoped would be a somewhat painless experience.  What I mean by knowing better is that nothing... absolutely nothing... is easy here.  Every time I think that I have all the information, that I have prepared adequately for a task, I am slapped across the face by the giant hand of Chile (te acuerdas donde estas weona?)... yeah... si... Chile... lo siento... te cacho.  Needless to say,  there was something with my insurance ( has pagado 3 meses... no yo creo que he pagado por dos meses... ahhhh si, entonces no lo tienes... no entiendo, por que?... SLAP duh es CHILE biatch)  Eventually our conversation led to me saying... ok, can I just pay you to see a doctor, like with cash?  Fifty bucks later (that is without insurance people... my co-pay was that much), I saw a doctor and she gave me 3 days licencia... which translates to 3 days off of work.

When this morning came and I was feeling better, silly me, I went to work.  I didn't see the reason to miss another day of work if I didn't need to, but the Chilean government thinks otherwise, and thus my unintentional sick day.

In other news, I earned my "Hair cut in Chile" merit badge today (thanks to my free day). You guys, I have been mentally preparing myself for that for weeks.  I told the nice ladies at the salon that I had been afraid, and so they joked with me by motioning that I wanted my hair cut above my ears... jajajajajajaja.  Not cool ladies.  Not cool.  Michael started working a little while back in an intercambio department of a University (a job he is enjoying immensely), and we also managed FINALLY to secure a fully functioning Chilean Bank Account each... so this past pay check, I didn't have to transport my entire salary in 10,000 peso bills from school to the drawer beside my bed.  The bank account debacle was just like anything else in Chile, regardless of my preparation, and included a trip to one place to sign the papers, a trip to another place to pick up my card, which included a line of 100 ish people, that I found out AFTER I waited in it, I didn't actually need to wait in it, but actually another line that as soon as I got in that line, the girl went on her hourly texting break and I ended up back in the original line just the same.  (run on city you guys..).  Also, we are playing softball in a league of mostly gringos, but some desperate to understand the rules of baseball Chileans.  It is very entertaining.

Also, it is freaking cold, and it isn't even winter.  My school is in the mountains and there is no heat, so I will be spending the winter months playing the role of a Popsicle.  Luckily, winter vacay here means a trip to visit the good ole US of A during summer.  I can taste Rosa's already!

 

Oh, Hey Fall!

The weather is changing.  The leaves are changing.  We are entering our first fall since 2011.

Santiago got a bath the other day in the form of a day of rain, clearing the smog away, making the air almost sweet to breathe at least for a few hours. From my school, you could actually see the city.  There were suddenly more Andes than I had ever seen in the other direction.  The cordillera is now sprinkled with snow, which admittedly caused me to become almost giddy.

We have also reached another milestone since moving to Santiago, and that is the feeling of actually being settled.  In our first 6ish months, we were guests in someone else's home, travelling and at least I was constantly over stimulated.  The small act of a conversation or going to the grocery store was both a little daunting and exhausting.  Now, we have settled.  We have NORMAL days.  Days where not much other than going to work, making dinner, and going to bed happen.  We have fun days that  feel normal exploring our new area of the city.  I can go to the "Veggie tienda" (as I have named it) around the corner and function just fine, even if I have a question. The public transit that seemed so new is now every day.  We are settled, and it feels nice.

Today, we took our Sunday afternoon, rode our bikes and enjoyed the sunshine and people watching at the park.  On our way back, we stopped at the grocery store for the makings of a Cinco de Mayo feasty feast where all of Santiago seemed to be.  (Note to self... Sunday afternoon... Jumbo... NO!!)  Side note: I definitely sarcastically  permiso-ed the crap out of this young Chilean couple that thought the packed to the brim supermarket was the place to stop in the middle of the aisle for a more than PG 13 rated make out session.  Yeah... though I said permiso... I said it with more of a tone of ... Get out of the (#*&$@(#& way!
Needless to say, Spring Fever exists in all seasons here... wallering capital of the world.

Regardless, Fall is in the air.  Days are shorter.  It is without a doubt getting colder.  Cinco de Mayo in Fall.... That's new.  :)

Grape Stompin' at Casa Marin

A couple of weeks ago, we headed out to Casa Marin with the SHHH (our running group) for the second annual (I think) winery hash.  We loaded buses in the morning with plenty of familiar faces and even more strangers for a day of fun complete with smog free air and wine.

Running through a vineyard.... check.  Picking or cutting grapes.... check.  Plenty of other debauchery... double check.  

Hills... omg... hills....

Preparing to start our labor of love... somehow we PAID to work... not sure how they managed that.

After about 10 minutes... "Wait... we REALLY have to fill this thing up?"

Michael sporting his fancy scissors

We are being watched...

Picking... eating... Picking...

After we picked grapes which will be used to make a fancy wine that will be out sometime next year, they gave us a tasting before our typical Hash nonsense.  Was this a good idea?  It was a delicious idea.

These grapes in these buckets are covered with Raid to keep the bees away and stinky man feet... Just guessing, but Stinky Raid wine probably doesn't jump of the shelves, even in Chile where wine is cheap and everywhere.  

The circle was a nightmare... but it was a nightmare in an idyllic location.

"Yeah... you want to stomp grapes?"... "Umm we should stomp grapes"

Greatest and most bizarre and disgusting feeling ever, all at the same time.  Sometimes being here definitely opens doors to bizarre and fun things.  

Kaitlyn's Trip

We didn't have long to wait after returning from the tip of the Earth until my sister made her maiden voyage to South America.  We were super excited to show her as many things as possible, and I planned a jam-packed week for her to get the whole experience if you will.  Part of the Chilean experience, as I'm sure you can tell if you've read anything I have written or talked to me in the last 6 months is also adjusting when plans don't work out.  We did plenty of that too.

Day One:

Kaitlyn arrived in the morning after a good night's sleep on the plane and we headed back for a relaxing day at Michael's family compound.  She immediately got to eat parotos granados, a Chilean dish that they are very proud of, and began her immersion into Spanish.  Even though we informed the entire family that she spoke absolutely NO Spanish, they still tried to speak to her, just slowly.  (The whole time I was wishing that they had ever spoken that slowly to me... that could have been so stinking helpful... )  We took a trip to the giant grocery store owned by Walmart to buy all of the makings for an Asado that evening.  Around 10 o'clock that night everyone began gathering water into water bottles and we soon found out that there had been too much rain in the Andes which meant the water company had announced a scheduled "shut off" for 24 hours beginning at midnight.  Wait!?.. you´re thinking... they shut off the water for a city of 7ish million people.  Yes... Yes they did.  Welcome to Chile Kait!

Day Two:

Day two was made incredibly interesting because of the whole... there is no water ANYWHERE thing.  Santiago looked like a ghost-town as we took Kaitlyn around to see some of the big sights... San Cristobal, Santa Lucia (not the market that day though.... closed), Moneda palace, Plaza de Armas, etc.  The weather was also uncharacteristicly cool for the city that had been a varitable sweat box for weeks.... that part was nice.

Kaitly and Michael atop Cerro San Cristobal

The Virgen 

With Santiago and some haze in the background.

Kaitlyn´s first empanada.  

Hiking up Santa Lucia

This.

As we approached Moneda palace, you could hear drumming and chanting, and upon further investigation, we found this:  A celebration of Chinese primavera (en verano) put on by the Confucius club of Universidad Catolica.  

Plaza de Armas wasn't quite the ghost town like the rest of the city that day as proven by the rando that jumped out and growled at Michael, giving Kait a small heart attack.  Then I made her pose with some stuff.

We lucked out that one of our favorite restaraunts was serviced by another water company and was the only thing open for blocks.  We fed Kaitlyn chorillanas... and kunstmann... and scene.

Day 3:  We took a day trip to Pomaire, a little town that specializes in artesan clay things... namely pigs in the shape of sugar bowls and pigs with only 3 legs that are good luck.  We followed the signs and then paid a few coins to pose with this guy:  the largest clay pig ever.  I translated for Kaitlyn as she took advantage of low prices to buy souvenirs for all her peeps back home, and I only dropped and destroyed one clay item during the day.  

We met Condorito carrying a gigantic empanada.

When we returned from Pomaire, we quickly packed and started our journey to the bus station where we would take an overnight bus to Valdivia (we purchased the tickets earlier).  Once on the bus however, it turned out Michael and another guy had the same seat number on their ticket... how could that be?  Then some ladies had our seats.. and then upon further investigation we realized that the lady had sold us tickets for the same date in March... neither us, nor the guy tearing tickets had noticed.  (In case you were wondering... the dates in February are the same as the dates in March.. as in 10th on a Sunday... yeah).  All of the buses were completely full that evening, so we had to change our plans and leave the following night.  After a few minutes of extreme frustration at the whole thing, we hopped a city bus back home, tickets for FEBRUARY in tow and rearranged the beautiful plan I had made.

Day 4:

We visited the Cousina Macul Winery which included a tour, glass, and wine tasting.  Then, since the water was on this day, we headed down to Santa Lucia market for Kait to do more shopping.

We then took our already packed bags and set out on our trip to the South, where we would now begin with Pucon and THEN head to Valdivia thanks to our little mishap.  

Pucon was amazingly beautiful.  I could have stayed there for weeks, but we only had about a day and half.  The first day was rainy and cold causing Kaitlyn to wonder where her escape to summer was.  We ate at a hamburger place that wasn´t awesome, hung out on the black rock sand beach, and took a trip to the hot springs in a local bus which was more like a van.  Rule number one at the hot springs: Don't have sex.  I'm not kidding...  NO tener sexo... rule number one.  There was plenty of wallering to be seen.  

Kaitlyn had her first Pisco Sour

Fun at the hot springs.   

Terrible translations are awesome... we recommend "heither" be added to the dictionary

The hike back up.

We got caught in an epic traffic jam that evening in the bus on our way back to Pucon.  By the time we made it back, it was time for food and bed.

The following morning we went river rafting.  As per usual, there was an issue when we arrived at the place where we had made our reservations the day before.  They said something like, "Oh yeah.. sorry there isn't room... you can go at three this afternoon."  We then said... "no... we need to go now because we are leaving this afternoon" and somehow a magical solution was found.

We did the level 4 rafting which was really fun!  We went over a few level 4 and 5 rapids first and then came to a level 6 where we stopped, got out of the raft and hiked around it.  Our guides sent the raft down and then made there way to the rock that everyone was standing on where they then informed us that we would be jumping off the 20ft ledge into the river.  Well played, guys, well played.  I started the group off with a graceful jump, and before we knew it, everyone was down in the rafts gazing up at the point where we had all been a few minutes earlier.  Our guide Ricardo told us we had one more rapid, but, and I quote, "it would be super easy compared to the others we'd done".  Sure enough, it was just a small bump, but I flipped off the side into the water.  I was laughing so hard (and so were Michael and Kaitlyn) that it was difficult to get back in the raft, but I managed to hold on to my oar like a champ.  They had beer waiting for us at the end (Chile rules in this aspect) and we made our way back to town.  We spent the day on the beach of the lake where the sun finally made an appearance! That evening we hopped a bus to Valdivia.

The guides called these "sexy shorts"... right... on!

Our beach friend

In Valdivia, we were in our hostel for less than 10 hours.  We spent the day doing exploring the riverside, visiting the Kunstmann Brewery, chilling in Niebla, and of course, watching lobos marinos.

We asked the girl at the hostel if the Brewery was too far to walk, and even though she said yes, we ignored her and trekked all the way there.  She was right... note to self.  

We took a tour of the Brewery and then, during our wait for a table for lunch, took the opportunity to Prosit! with all of the inflatable/statuesque German looking dudes with beers.  I think Michael and Kaitlyn will be glad I made them do this some day.  :)

Always....

Taste testing...

Salud!

In Niebla, there was some kind of festival going on, so Kaitlyn got to experience an anticucho of awesomeness.  

We took another overnight bus from Valdivia to Santiago, and upon arrival, immediately bought tickets for the next bus to Vina del Mar.  We spent the day on the beach... Kaitlyn getting amply sunburned just in time for her flight home, 

All in all, I think we earn some kind of award for fitting an unreal number of things in a week.  The next time she visits, we can be a little more chill :).