Falling Back, The Arrival of Winter, My Apartment, and a Protest

I'm curled up in bed, and it's 8:00 on a Sunday morning.  Daylight Savings Time just went into effect here in Chile.  Why is the changing of clocks so late here and not coordinated with the States?  Apparently after the big earthquake in 2010 the country was concerned with it being dark late at night and also with saving power, hence them extending it each year.  (Try telling that to your laptop, Iphone, Kindle Fire, or any other piece of technological equipment, however, and you will stubbornly told that you're wrong each time you try to change it to the correct time) When you thing of falling back you usually associate it with it being darker when you wake up, but with the inverted seasons it is now lighter in the mornings leading into winter.

And yes, I said winter.  After teasing us with days getting up to 75 and even 80 well into mid April, winter is on its way.  The days are starting to get cool, and sleeping at night is starting to get a bit nippy.  We also had the first heavy rainfall of the season on Friday.  Luckily I had my umbrella with me, but I was one of the unlucky pedestrians soaked by passing cars splashing huge puddles of water onto the sidewalk.

As much as I don't like it, I'm used to winter here.  A few weeks ago I put my fan away and began to pull out my sweaters and put away my tank tops.  Yesterday I changed my regular bedsheets over to the flannel sheets  I brought from home, and soon enough I'll change out my regular comforter for the down one I brought from home.  And I'll also have my space heater to use to help keep me warm.  I'm not looking forward to the 30 and 40 degree temperatures for sleeping, wearing of multiple layers of clothing, and commuting in the cold weather, but like I said I'm used to it from my past 2 winters here.

One of my friends was asking me what my apartment looks like, and it occurred to me that I never really posted many pictures after moving in and furnishing it.  So here are some pictures!

My bedroom  The white sheets hanging out of the side are from my overflowing and neglected laundry basket.

View from my bedroom into the living room area.  I have 2 big closets as you can see.

View of my bedroom from the bathroom

My kitchen!  Just below this picture is the table.

Here's the living room area.  I love my couch and 2 Ottomans with storage inside.

I also love my entertainment center with the TV, Wii, and music system.

The view of the Andes from my apartment

Another view from my apartment

And what would a blog post be without a mention of protests?  This latest one occurred on a Wednesday, which was an usual departure from the usual Thursday protests.  The high school students are now taking change of the protests, as they're realizing that the current system isn't in their best interests for having access to higher education.  Unfortunately I feel that some of them truly believe that and want to protest, while many others jump on the bandwagon in order to get out of school.

I was luckily able to avoid this protest too.  It started at 11 in the morning in Plaza Italia (where most mayhem in Santiago starts), which is about 3 metro stops from the office and most of my classes.  This protest didn't march down the main street all of the way, but rather took a route further north up to the Plaza de Armas (a main square in Santiago).  I got to my lunch class without incident, and while at a Starbucks between classes I saw one of my former students, and he advised me to not go up a few of the side streets because of tear gas and the police.  I was able to take another side street to get up to the bus stop I needed and made it out of downtown without incident.

A coworker sent me an article and video he found on BBC about this most current protest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17849745

There's not much else newsworthy going on here.  Now that you readers up in the Northern Hemisphere got to be jealous of my summer pictures during your winter, I now get to me jealous of your summer pictures during my winter here.  Until next time!

Permanent Residency Visa Approved and Pictures

My visa has been approved!!!!!

I got home from class around 9:30, and as I chatted with the doorman I noticed the notorious brown envelope sitting in my box.  I eyed it as he asked me about my New Year, and after a few minutes I got to ask him for it.

I ripped it open to find out that my visa has been approved and is being processed.  It's such a relief, as last year I got a phone call when I was at the airport on my way home that my visa last year was missing documents and I'd have to resubmit it once I was back.

So what does having a permanent residency visa do for me?  I'm not 100% sure about all of these, but here goes:

1. I don't have to renew my visa for 5 years.
2. I can vote in Chilean elections.
3. I can probably get a credit card here.  (I already have a bank account)

A friend came over, and we celebrated with some drinks, chips, and by playing Wii.

So after my text-heavy last some I wanted to put up some pictures.  So here they are:

Meeting up with Stefanie after our Pichilemu adventures

Some late arriving Christmas gifts

On the bus to Viña del Mar for New Years

Viña del Mar

This looks like a normal meal, but what´s missing?

The mayonaise of course!  They love their mayonaise here!

At the beach on New Years Eve

dinner cooking

preparing dinner

Aren´t you getting hungry?

Yes, that´s corn with mayonaise.

On the rooftop awaiting the fireworks

Some champagne to celebrate

shortly before the fireworks

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Good Times, Good Friends, Sensation, and Japan

The weather likes teasing us here in Santiago.  We've had days that have only gone up to 70 and have seemed like autumn, which are then followed by days with a very strong sun and temperatures of almost 95.  I actually prefer the hot weather to the cold, so if mother nature wants to tease me a bit with a cold day every once in a while but still give us nice summer days I'm ok with that.

Last weekend I went to a barbeque with friends on Cerro San Cristobal.  There were about 7 of us there, and it was nice catching up with them.  None of us could believe an entire year had passed since we arrived, and we talked about our summers and plans for staying in Santiago.  Thanks to our genius planning we didn't bring any plates with us, but we improvised and used plastic bags instead.

This weekend was the pancake breakfast that I went to last October.  They were expecting a big crowd this year and opened an hour early, so I got there right when they opened.  A big crowd came around 10, and I met up with some friends when they arrived around then.  After browsing some books we took a leisurely stroll and got drinks and chorillana.

The big event of the weekend, however was Sensation.  It's basically a huge dance party with electronic and techno music, and in order to get in you have to dress completely in white.  I got my ticket back in December, and it was an amazing event.  The theme was Wicked Wonderland, and so there were things throughout the night related to Alice in Wonderland.  There were videos of her wearing all white and going through various scenes of the story projected on huge screens around the area, white flashes of fire and fireworks, huge butterfly wings opening up after the lyrics of "spread your wings and fly" people dressed up like dolls with white hair, white balloons with lights inside of them, the list goes on and on.  In an outside area there was food and drinks as well as different companies with entertainment booths to promote their products.  I found it ironic that a cigarrette company had a booth which had large signs about the dangers of smoking was giving out lighters which also had a warning on the front of it with the same warning.  El Mercurio (a newspaper here) had a booth set up with Just Dance on the Wii, and after having played it at my brother and sister in law's house when I was home for Christmas I played a round dancing to Walk Like an Egytian.

I would be remiss to not bring up the tragedy in Japan.  I woke up last Friday morning and booted up my laptop while getting breakfast, and I went to cnn.com to see what was happening in the world.  The pictures of the tsunami sweeping over Japan seemed surreal.  The images of houses on fire while being swept along with the tsunami seemed right out of a blockbuster apocolyptic movie, not like something that was happening in real life.  I know a few people that were exchange students from Japan, and luckily they are all ok.  I also have a coworker here in Santiago who lived and taught English in Japan for three years, and he has understandably been deeply affected by it.  As the news gets worse and worse, I find myself torn between wanting to know what is happening but not wanting to since the news is so horrific there.  I also can't help but feel a bit guilty that I am living in a place that experienced an earthquake but did not suffer a fraction of the destruction and mayhem that is currently going on in Japan.  I want to make a donation to the relief efforts, but the cynical side of me fears that scammers use this as the perfect opportunity to make a quick buck.

To end on a positive note, here is the view of the Estadio Nacional from the window of my apartment.

Goodbye May

So I am curled up in bed as I type this and am amazed at how fast time has been going by.

Due to not having internet over the weekend at my place I didn't get to update about the will versus going to question.  I hope no one died in the suspense of the moment.  So here are the rules (according to the English book at my school):

You say "going to" when you are talking about something that you planned before you began speaking.  For example, This summer I am going to eat a lot of Kit Kats for Dan since he has none in Chile.

You say "will" when you are talking about something that you decided right at the moment you started speaking.  For example, Gosh, that last example got me thinking about Dan.  I think I will send him some Kit Kats now.

You can use either "will" or "going to" to tell about predictions of the future.  For example:

Dan is going to get some Kit Kats in the mail.  OR Dan will get some Kit Kats in the mail.

So enough of the grammar.  This past week went by quickly, as did the weekend.  I got together with Mel and Chris, two people from the program, and we did a Friday night Pizza Hut dinner.  It was good to catch up with them over what has been happening and to just laugh about all of our adventures here.  I also learned a new phrase that they (and I now too) use to describe the craziness and almost unbelievable situations we have found ourselves in: motorboat crazy.  Here was some of the Pizza Hut goodness:

My weekend also included building a nightstand sucessfully on my own, shopping for a sweater and some new shirts (there was a huge sale in Patronato), and here is what the store looked like inside:

All over the store it was exactly like this, with piles of clothing all over the place.  The prices were pretty good though, especially for good brands.  I have never really been a sweater type of guy, but I really like the one that I got.  I will have to snap a picture of me in it soon. 

Here is some more food from the weekend.  A small pot/pan of eggs with ham and some hot chocolate:

It turns out that Sunday the 30th of May was the Patriotic Day of Culturalism in Santiago.  There were parades and free entrances to musuems.  Unfortunately the lines were long no matter where I went and I was occupied with other plans so I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest, but here are a few pictures:

May was a month of transition for me.  I moved from one apartment to another, and I am also making the transition to eating more healthy and spending my money more wisely (ie less eating out and more cooking at home). 

And to end this entry here is a picture of the mountains on a clear day from outside the front door of my apartment: