A Family Visit, Switching Over My Visa, and Reuniting with Friends

My dad arrived for a visit last Monday, and he stayed until Saturday night.  It was really good to have him here so that he could see what life is like here, and I think it put him at ease seeing that I am well established.

We took things at a relaxed pace but got to see a good amount during his visit: Cerro San Cristobal, the downtown area, meeting my bosses/coworkers/one of my students, La Vega and the fish market, Valpo and Viña, a walking tour of Santiago, and a tour of the Andes mountains.

During his visit I almost lost my cell phone.  It had fallen out of my pocket while we were on the TransVIP shuttle service to his hotel, and I only realized it about 45 minutes after we arrived.  The hotel staff helped me to call my number, and not only did the TransVIP driver pick up, but he promised to deliver it to the hotel within an hour.  Sure enough when we came back from going out for the afternoon my cell phone was waiting for me in the reception.  I don´t think that getting your cell phone back in a situation like that is the norm at all, and I was really lucky and grateful for the honest people that got me my phone back.

When we went to Valpo, we were offered a full day tour in English for a decent price so we went for it.  I was telling our guide Mario about The Amazing Race and how much my dad and I like it, and it turns out he was on it!  He drives a van around to give tours usually, but people on the race came up to him telling him they needed someone that speaks English and that drives a taxi.  He offered his van to take multiple teams, but they said they could only take a taxi.  One of the teams (from what he described it was a father/daughter team so I think it was Gary and Mallory) offered him money for him to get them a taxi and drive, and so he gave the money to one of his taxi driver friends to lend it to him.  And so he was a taxi driver on the show.

His English was perfect (as he had lived in Australia for 12 years), and he gave us a lot of interesting details about Valpo and Viña that I didn´t know before.  Valparaiso is actually short for va al paradiso (or go to the paradise in English), and it was the location of the first newspaper El Mercurio in South America.  We went on one of the elevators that goes straight up and down, and to get to it you go through a cave that has water running through it.  There was a lot more interesting information, but due to the perils of putting off blogging for so long I forget the details.

While my dad was on a tour of the Andes, I took care of my visa.  I didn´t allow enough time on my first attempt as I had to get my dad on a walking tour and my number wasn´t called in time (I arrived at 8:15 to 70 people in front of me with the office opening officially at 8:30).  So the following day I decided to get there at 7:45 that way I´d be right near the front of the line.  Well, this time there were about 100 people in front of me despite getting there half an hour earlier.  Luckily one of my friends from work came in a few minutes later, and we spent our entire wait catching up since we hadn´t seen each other since December.  I got my temporary residency visa stamped into my passport, and then I made my way to the International Police to get an updated card on file there, and then they took another horrible picture of me to put on my updated ID card that I can pick up after my trip.

One of my friends Chris also had a birthday last week, and so we got together to celebrate.  There were a few of us from the program, a few friends we had made along the way, and a few boyfriends/girlfriends, and it was a great time.  Since not everyone spoke English we spoke in Spanish most of the time, and it was cool that we were all able to converse in Spanish and understand each other.  It's also hard to believe that an entire year has gone by since we met each other and arrived in Chile.

And any post of mine would not be complete without some pictures of the food I´ve eaten lately, so enjoy!

Back in Santiago

After about 25 hours of travel, I arrived in Santiago safe and sound.

The flight to Bogota was uneventful, but the 3 hour layover was a bit of an experience.  The airport is modern, and luckily I was able to get a soda using dollars while I waited for my flight.  One thing that bugged me was that people would bump into you or brush up against you when walking past you without bothering to say "perdon" or "permiso".  I also noticed that when they called for us to board, there was no order whatsoever and everyone simply hoarded the boarding area. 

After the overnight flight I got in at 5:45 in the morning.  I didn't have any problems with customs (I thought they might have questioned why I was bringing my Wii with me) and got to my apartment by about 7.  And no, I don't think I'm going to do a flight with 2 layovers again like that.

It's a great yet strange feeling being back.  Things in my apartment are just as I remember them, yet small changes have taken me by surprise.  The Jumbo store (kind of grocery store) I go to was under construction, and now the 2nd floor if it is a Paris (department store).  At my work they have a new copier and have arranged the office a bit differently.  And some of my friends have returned to the States and won't be back. 

I went out with some friends (all Chilean) for drinks on Friday night, and it was a really satisfying feeling being able to communicate and spend time with them.  It took the first half hour or so for my ear to get accustomed to listening to all Spanish again, but after that it was smooth sailing.  When they all wanted to go out to a disco and I was too tired to go out, they all accompanied me to the bus stop and made sure I made it on the bus safely.  I feel very lucky to have such great friends here.

Despite the friends that are not here now, I feel that this is the place I am meant to be at this point in my life.  I'm looking forward to my dad arriving tomorrow and getting to see Santiago, and after that I have my trip to Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Iguazu Falls before starting work again.

Success!

So I'm sitting in the airport in Fort Lauderdale.  My flight from Philadelphia was smooth, and I arrived here at 10:40.  My flight only leaves at 4:20 this afternoon, and the ticket counter only opens at 1.  Luckily they have free wifi here and lots of outlets to plug in electronics.

And the ironic part of all this is that they didn't cancel or even delay my original flight from Philly to Fort Lauderdale.

1 flight down, 2 more to go!

Preparations...

So I started writing this in Panera Bread in Vorhees, but they have limited their internet access to 30 minutes during the lunch hours.  I didn't get to finish let alone post this when I was there so I'm now awake at 2:40 AM at home, monitoring the weather to be sure I make it out on time due to a few feet of snow in Detroit where my flight originates.  I'm finding it hard to believe that it was a year ago that I started my adventures and that I will once again return to Chile in (hopefully) two days.

Even though I may not show it, it's a stressful time for me as I prepare to return to Santiago.  My time has been busy with saying goodbyes to family and friends, buying anything I would possibly need and not have readily available in Santiago, changing over currency to have Argentinean and Uruguayan pesos, and preparing my dad for his visit.  I've been putting off packing due to laziness and unwillingness to create a detailed packing list of each piece of luggage, but I know that it is the best thing to do to prevent things from getting stolen from my luggage. 

Written on Monday afternoon at Panera:
The weather forecast has had me nervous too, but it looks like it will be fine in the end.  Snow (we're expecting a few inches) is forecast for Tuesday, which will then change over to sleet/freezing rain and then rain on Wednesday.  By the time I fly on Thursday morning everything should be fine, so that's a relief.

I'm also doing research for my trip to Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Iguazu Falls, as I will be traveling there for 9 days before work starts up again in early March.  Wikitravel is a good (and free!) source of information, and after googling "iguazu falls hostel" I was surprised to see that there are hostels there.  I wil be staying with a friend from my exchange year in Germany who lives in Buenos Aires, so it will be great to catch up with him and have a bit of a personal tour guide while I am there.

Written at 2:40 AM Wednesday morning:


My dad woke me up a little after 1 AM, telling me that my flight Thursday morning from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale originates in Detroit, which is currently under a few feet of snow. Basically that flight will inevitably get cancelled, so I've started doing research on changing my ticket. US Airways is awesome in that they waive all change fees in the case of a flight advisory (which this situation is), just like what I had to do last week when coming back from Los Angeles. But the problem is that I got my ticket through cheaptickets.com The US Airways rep on the phone told me I'd have to go through them to make changes. So what does cheaptickets.com charge to change my ticket? 225 bucks. Yeah.
Plan B? Let's call up Avianca, who has the authority to change my ticket since 2 of the 3 flight segments are through them. So how much do they want to get me on a flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale 2 hours earlier that originates in Philadelphia? 843 bucks. Hmmm.

Plan C? Call a friend who works for US Airways. Apparently if I go to the airport in person I might be able to get on the flight originating in Philadelphia a few hours earlier.

Plan D? I could fly out at 8:40 PM tonight (what a way to spend the night of my birthday) and then spend the night in the airport until my flight at 1 PM.

On a happier and less anxious note, I got to see Linkin Park in concert last night.  It was quite a different venue than where I normally see them in a few different ways:

1. It was winter. 
2. It was an inside venue.
3. We had assigned seats.

Prior to this I had always seen them in summer or spring, and with the exception of Las Vegas it was always an outdoor venue.  Dana and I arrived plenty early since we weren't sure what to expect with traffic and parking. 

This was my first time to the Wells Fargo Center, and it was huge.  There were 3 huge tiers of seating and then standing room for VIP ticketholders.  We got Wawa sandwiches to eat in the car and just got funnel cake before the concert started. 

We ended up sitting behind a group of guys speaking Spanish, and after striking up a conversation with them I found out that they were from Peru, with one guy from Mexico City.  It was cool talking with them about areas of Peru I had been to, and the guy from Mexico City knew Tepoztlan (a town outside of Mexico City where I took language classes for 2 weeks back in 2008).  We talked after the concert too, and it was cool getting to talk to them.

The concert was great, as I expected.  I wasn't anywhere near as close to the stage as I was in Santiago or Las Vegas, but I didn't mind.  I didn't even recognize the first cover band and only a few songs of the second one, but when Linkin Park took the stage the place exploded.  They played pretty much all of the same songs that I heard in Santiago.

Now that I can't sleep, I have a good reason to finish my packing and packing lists and finishing up the mundane details I've been putting off.  The weather will certainly make my last 24 hours or so at home(and my birthday) more adventurous than I was expecting.

Hopefully my next update will be from the Fort Lauderdale airport or Santiago.  Everyone reading please wish me luck!

Visiting California

So my week in California has come and gone.
It was a great visit, full of friends, good food, warm sunny weather, and all in all good times.

My first stop after taking the Flyaway from LAX was Union Station and Olvera Street. 

With lots of architecture and historical buildings dating back to the founding of Los Angeles, I always enjoy hanging out at Olvera Street. The Mexican food is delicious, and the strolling musicians and shops bring back fond memories from going there in college and bringing my Spanish students there for a field trip using public transportation from Woodland Hills.  I was surprised to see Mr. Churro (which has delicious churros with a variety of fillings) had moved, and there was also a new cafe on the corner which was really nice.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The next part of my trip was spending time in Pasadena and Eagle Rock.  I stayed with friends in Pasadena, and they only live three blocks from the school where I taught kindergarten.  I'm still in contact with some of the teachers there, and so I visited my students that are fourth graders now.  They've grown so much (go figure) and it was rewarding to seeing how they are doing and catching up a bit with my former colleagues. 
 
After that it was off to Eagle Rock via the Metro Rapid bus.  I got to see the familar places: Swork coffee shop, Jamba Juice, Senor Fish, and of course Occidental.  It was warm and sunny, and the walking around made me feel nostalgic. 
 
The other highlights of the trip were visiting the Rose Bowl, the Americana in Glendale, hiking in Eaton Canyon, the good food, and just catching up with friends.  It was so refreshing to be somewhere familiar and reconnect with the people that I haven't seen in a long time.  Some people I saw during my last visit to California in November 2009, but one of my friends I hadn't seen since we both left Germany in July 2001.
 

My trip wouldn't have been complete without complications due to an impending snow storm.  Around 9 at night I started putting two and two together, and I realized that US Airways allows you to change your ticket without any fees if there's a weather advisory.  My flight was scheduled to leave at 11 in the morning and arrive at 7 at night, which was right in the middle of the heaviest forecast snow.  I was too late to catch the redeyes that night, but luckily I was able to get on the 6:30 AM flight. 

The next challenge was finding a way to the airport.  One of my friends was working near LAX the following morning, but he only had to get in by 7 and couldn't get me there early enough to check in.  After calling up multiple shuttle services and finding many without any availablity, I lucked out and found one, and it picked me up at 3 AM.  I was at the airport by 4:15, and after waiting for security to open I got checked in and camped out at my gate.

The flight was surprisingly empty, and they needed to shift people from the front of the plane to the back in order to balance out the weight distribution.  At first people were reluctant to move their seats, but there were plenty of empty window and aisle seats with empty seats next to them.  Besides that the flight was uneventful.

 
I was so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles.  I didn't get to catch up with everyone I wanted to or visit every place I wanted to, but it was such a wondeful feeling spending time with such great friends and being able to stay in contact with them. 
 
Now I have one week until my return to Santiago on February 3rd.

On my way to Los Angeles

My laptop is open, and here I am typing this blog post.  I see 3:17 AM staring at me in the face, and I am pretty exhausted now.  But I do this to myself on purpose so I can sleep on the 6 hour plane ride to Los Angeles and prevent myself from letting the 3 hour time difference affect me too much.  (My flight leaves from Philadelphia at 7:35 AM)

I've been putting off updating becuase I haven't been feeling particularly inspired.  I've been putting this pressure on myself to come up with amazing stories that will make people want to keep on reading, but unfortunately there hasn't been too much exciting happening lately.  I figure that updating with less than exciting thoughts is better than not updating at all.

The lack of work and lack of meaningful things to do was challenging for me the past few weeks, but I've made it through it.  This last night here was spent over a friend's house playing Magic and video games and included all types of random jokes and of course ordering a pizza for a late night dinner.  Even though it was nothing special it was a really great night.  Thinking back to about a year ago, I realize that I spent my last night in New Jersey with those same exact friends before my flight out of New York during the snowstorm.

I also got to visit some friends near Harrisburg last weekend, and it was a really nice weekend just getting away from home.  Just spending time together watching TV, sharing a meal, and reconnecting with others that also have an interest in traveling and other cultures was a refreshing experience.

I'm realizing I spent too much time focusing on what wasn't going right (not being able to find a job, letting small things frustrate me), but this night helped me refocus on the good friends that I do have and to make the most of my last two weeks.  Plus I'm going to Los Angeles and will get to see friends, eat good food, and visit familiar places.  I already know that being there will feel like a time warp for me, as I cannot fathom that I lived in Los Angeles for 7 years and did not take better advantage of all of the cultural opportunities there.  At the same time, I was also without a car for 5 of those 7 years.

I know that time is going to fly by once I am back from California next week.  I'll have one week to pack, celebrate the family birthdays, go to a Linkin Park concert, and say my goodbyes to family and friends for an indefinite period of time.  And no, I don't think the fact that I have a one way ticket back has hit me yet.

My third winter in 12 months.....

I am at home, relaxing inside while it is snowing yet again.

Almost 3 weeks have gone by since I returned home, and I have about 3 more weeks before I fly back to Santiago.

I have had copious amounts of free time, as my search for short term work and tutoring have not turned up successful.  I've been listing and selling books online, cleaning through the house with my dad, and sorting through my Magic cards to bring back with me to Santiago.

I've also done some shopping and am amazed at the low prices for things.  New clothing is so much cheaper here, and it's nice getting things before I go back.  I've also found a lot of old clothing that either doesn't fit me or that I don't wear anymore, and so I've donated it.

For those readers in the South Jersey area, I am also selling my car.  It's a 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback station wagon with 154,000 miles on it.  It has power steering and brakes, AC, automatic transmission, a 2.5 liter engine, and the inspection is good until July 2011.  I'm asking 2900 for it.  If you (or anyone you know) is interested please have them contact me at dguim2006@gmail.com.