Departamento

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately, works has kept me too busy during the week to do more postings. Yesterday I got the keys to my apartment.  Luckily the apartment company set up my internet and tv for me, so all was ready upon my arrival.  I highly recommend Jorge, Francisco and Terrence from Jorge Gamio Propiodades if you are ever relocating to Santiago. Jorge let me use his name for my utilities because I do not yet have my RUT (kinda like a temporary social security number).  I will not get my RUT until I have my work permit.

Anyways...on to the pictures....

This is the kitchen. It came fully stocked with appliances, cups, plates, etc. If you walk through the glass door at the back it takes you to the laundry/utility room.  

The other side of the kitchen has a table with a bench and chairs.

This is the view of the hallway when you walk in the door and turn to the right. The hall leads to all of the bedrooms and bathrooms.

This is the guest bedroom with twin beds.  It has a balcony that it shares with the office.

This is the office with a desk and a futon.  The patio looks a little weird because the shade is pulled. 

This is the guest bathroom. It looks like a cruise ship bathroom...but it is a little bigger :)

Guest bathroom shower/tub.  There is another water closet in the hallway that I found after I finished taking pics.

My room.

Bed, TV and a balcony behind the curtains.

Left side of my closet. One thing is for sure...this apartment has tons of storage space. 

Right side of my closet...perfect for storing giant shoes.

This is my bathroom.

Hmmmm......

My shower..it has frosted windows that open...I guess to let some steam out.

I didn't take pictures of the living room/dining room/main balcony yet because the cable and internet guys were here setting up. Will take some more pictures over the next week while I am settling it.

Today my big tasks is to go to Jumbo (walmart) and Alto Las Condes (a different mall) to buy sheets and randomness.  There is a store here called Casa&Ideas (House & Ideas) that is supposidly like a mini IKEA, so that will be fun to explore.

Tomorrow Dana, Bob, Michelle, Sean, and Dan arrive from the States to help us with some work stuff. I am looking forward to hanging out

Countdown to the weekend!

Another meeting till 9 means another dinner to go at Mr. Jack's. Gonna have to find a new place tomorrow...they recognize me!

Quick reminder to my work people: you have to re-add me to your sametime list...I am an SN now instead of an HQ.

Goodnight!

Terremoto Tuesday

I have been in the habit of repeating restaurants lately...Tirimasu, Ruby Tuesday, and now Mr. Jacks. We went to Mr. Jack's for lunch and I had a cheese burger and fries....then tonight I went back b/c we didn't get out till 9:30 and it is right next to my hotel.  This time I had the turkey pita with avocados...and it came with a side of carrot sticks. Avocados are very tasty down there and are available everywhere!  I tried to take a pic but it is blurry...was in too much of a hurry to eat dinner. They don't realize that gringos need to eat every 3 hours.

Here is the view from outside our 7th floor meeting room. We heard songs and cheering outside and looked out...some people were dancing. They told me that last year the Jonas Brothers were outside and the noise outside was crazy!

And the biggest event / non event of the day was the earthquake.....I missed it!  We started a meeting at 2:30 on the 7th floor...but at 3:00 I had to go down to my office on the 1st floor to take another call. When I got back to the 7th floor they asked me if I felt the earthquake. I hadn't felt anything on the 1st floor!  I can't believe I missed it! Oh well..I am sure there will be many others.

Pueblito de los Dominicos

Today Elvia and I went shopping. First stop was Pueblito de los Dominicos, a large park where artisans sell their handmade goods.  I bought these cool glasses that have real fruit on them for my apartment. 

Afterwards, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant at Parque Arauco. Pizza with olives, pepperoni, mushrooms and red peppers and a salad...and a mango sour and agua sin gas (regular water) of course!  Today seemed to be really hot here...even though it was only 86F, so we opted to sit inside.

Parque Arauco is the large modern mall in the city. It has all of the usual types of stores that American malls have...just called something else. For example, the Chilean equivalent to Victoria's Secret is called Women's Secret. After lunch, we walked around and explored. I looked at bed spreads and sheets, but decided to wait until I move into my apartment this week to buy anything. I'm sure next weekend will be full of trips to the mall and jumbo to outfit my place.  

Tonight I am taking the night off and chilling in my hotel room. Elvia flies out on Tuesday night, so tomorrow we will have to go out and live it up one last time!

Valaparaiso and Vina del Mar

Elvia and I took a Touristik ( http://www.turistik.cl/index-english.htm) tour of Valparaiso (main commercial port) and Vina del Mar (tourist capital of Chile) on Saturday. I recommend Touristik...they have a lot of different tours and are bilingual.

It was about an hour to an hour and a half to Valparaiso (Valpo). In Valpo there is limited space so people live in the hills. The houses are very close together and pretty much stacked on top of the hill and on top of each other. They are very colorful.

We visiting one of the three homes of Pablo Neruda (famous Chilean poet).

More views of the city....

 Because the hills are so steep, they have an better way to get up the hill...an elevator! It costs 100 CLP (about $0.20) to go up and another 100 CLP to come down. It was a bit scary...if one of the cables broke we would have been dead meat for sure!

This is the building of a shipping company that decided to keep the original building on the outside and build their new building on the inside.

Reloj de flores...Flower clock in Vina.

The beach in Vina was nice. The sand was warm but the water was cold.  There are a lot of stray dogs in Chile. The ones in Vina were digging holes and laying in the sand. Sugar and Cee would have done the same thing I'm sure.

Chile is divided into Regions instead of States. Eastern Island belongs to the same region as Vina del Mar...so there is a Moai statue in the city.

I'm glad we went and I am sure I will be sending my visitors on the same tour when they come!

Week 1

It has been a wild first week in Santiago and a great one. Everything has gone relatively smoothly so far...no big culture shocks or big problems thus far. 

I reported to work on Monday morning and attended new employee orientation with 14 other new hires.  It was pretty similar to New Hire Orientations at home...but en espanol of course. After Monday most of the work week was filled with meetings (reuniones), meeting people, and salary planning...and it will continue into next week.  My co-workers are awesome...very welcoming and are helping me improve my spanish.  They have also helped me with the most challenging part of living here thus far...dialing the phone!  I had to make a chart on how to dial...because it is different if you are call from a cell phone or a land line...and then it depends if you are dialing to a cell phone or land line.  Hopefully I will learn soon.

Here are some pics of the Fluor Santiago main building and my coworkers:

I have had a dinner party every night to attend. 

Wednesday night, I met Susana (Mexico HR) and Elvia (Greenville, SC HR) for dinner at Zanzibar. We were so lucky to realized that we were in Santiago at the same time. Unfortunately Susana was flying back to Mexico the next day, but Elvia and I have been hanging out ever since. We went to a place called Zanzibar en Barriorio...nice place with lots of restaurants. Zanzibar had food from all over the world. We had ceviche, chicken satay, empanadas, and salmon.  

Thursday night Barbara and her boyfriend took us to Peluqueria Francesa (http://www.boulevardlavaud.cl/english/history.html)...an old barber shop turned into a restaurant.  Men can still get haircuts there until 5pm.   I only have one pic of the moment...and it is of our appetizer. Cheese, meet, olives and nuts. I also ate Beef Bourgonion (spell check). 

On Friday, I met up with Francisco the realtor who took me to see apartments. I ended up selecting the first one I saw that previously was used by a Fluor employee that was sent to the field. We think it will be ready on Wednesday for me to move it.  This is the pic of the outside of the building. It is a 3 minute walk to work, near Parque Peru, the W hotel and the Ritz....best location ever!

Zzzzzzzzzzz

Hola,

I am too tired to write today..it's 11:30 and I am about to go to bed...but here is a picture to prove I go to work.

I'm here

Hi everyone!

I arrived safe and sound in Santiago yesterday. The flight was great...slept most of the way, watched a movie, and ate some good food!

I arrived in Chile and paid my 140 USD fee to enter the country. A taxi picked me up and brought me to the Hotel Atton in a neighborhood called Las Condes. My hotel is only about a 5 to 7 minute walk from the Fluor Building.

Stein and Steve (from the Greenville, SC office, working in Peru) picked me up and took me around town on a double decker tour bus (like in England). We went to the fish market to look around and pretend we were Anthony Bourdain. Flip flops weren't the best choice...and I got some fish guts/water/juice/whatever it was on my feet.  Next we ate at a restaurant in the middle of the market named La Joya del Pacifico. I had a pisco sour and we ate an assortment of seafood...shrimp and eel mostly. Pretty darn tasty!  They also served salsa with bread (not tortilla chips).


El Mercado

Stein and Steve

Me and Stein (pisco sour in my hand)

Then after lunch I did what any normal Chilean would do on a lazy Sunday afternoon at the market....I got up in front of the crowd and danced with a cowboy.

After lunch we hopped back on the bus and toured the rest of the city. It is an interesting place with lots of different types of buildings...old, new, modern, traditional, clean, not so clean, and some still had earthquake damage. I'm looking forward to getting my bearings so I can go back and explore different parts of the city.

Sunday night the three of us met Maricela at an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood called Tiramasu. It's a really popular place and usually hopping till midnight on weeknights and 2am on weekends. I had pizza olive and Chocolate Nutella ice cream with nuts.

Stein ordered the small ice cream....

Got back to the hotel around 11 or 11:30...finished unpacking and then hit the hay for my first day at Fluor Chile.  Gracias a mis amigos nuevas for showing me a great time!!  You tube link of my dancing and a recap of my first day of work to come tomorrow (hopefully).  Adios!