Things a doin'!

Photoshop in stink-lines

First day of interviews

Andes!  Cerro El Plomo (5425M) is leftmost

As the post's title indicates: things are a doing!  Matt got into the mountains ("That kicked my ass.") and Sara has been finding work ("I think I've been on more interviews in the past two weeks than in my whole life.").  It's like we're actually doing some of the stuff that we said we were going to do.

Matt
Matt spent 2 days in the Precordillera peaks of Cerro Provincia, Cerro Tambor, and Cerro San Ramon.  The Precordillera are the mountains that dominate the Santiago skyline (visible from our balcony); they are large (Cerro San Ramon is 3253M/10673Ft), beautiful, and close.  The access to Cerro Provincia was only an 1.5 hour subway & bus trip (closer & cheaper than Harlem to Coney Island).  There are a few things that are important to know about hiking in this area:

• The trails are very steep (few/no switchbacks)
• There is no/little easily accessible running water
• The way is not very well-marked



Bomber refugio on Cerro Provincia

• You will see a gross, thick, brown smog-haze covering the city you're living in [Santiago]

After baking in the sun for several hours climbing up to Cerro Provincia, Matt had run out of water.  Luckily, at this point in la primavera [spring] there was still snow up high near the summit, so snow was able to be melted for water.  Matt spent a night in a killer refuge at the summit (2750M/9022Ft).  One alarming fact was that there was a large amount of toilet paper littered about the high camp from winter ascents.  Matt boiled the water before drinking [one recipe for poop soup], so he should be fine (Brush your teeth!).

No Electric Kool-Aid necessary

 After dinner he went to see the stars of the Southern Hemisphere (1st time, AWESOME!), and noticed a bright light to the west.  As it was about 10pm, it couldn't be sunset, it was Santiago!  The city is insanely bright from on high; Matt could read his watch by the lights of the city from the mountaintop.

My route followed the ridgeline

 The next day revealed a view unlike any Matt had seen: huge, deep Andes for as far as the eye could see.  This view is not available from Santiago even though it is so close.  That view accompanied him all the way to the summit of Cerro San Ramon, which he had all to himself.  That is when the sh*t hit the fan.  In a brilliant stroke of outdoorsmanship, Matty-boy had traveled into a new, huge range without a map.  He had written his directions in his trusty notebook, but that proved fairly worthless in the end.  He chose a route off of the summit that descended quite steeply into a vast canyon system leading in a general Santiago-ly direction.  After working over steep, loose rock, waterfalls, rivers, and generally poor-quality terrain for several hours, he emerged into a park as dusk fell.

Scrambling down wasn't fun!

 Unfortunately, said park was quite extensive (a great park in retrospect) and allowed for Matt to have several more hours of descent in the dark before emerging at a road.  After 13 hours of continuous travel (approx. 6/13 filled w/ uncertainty) Charlie (THANK YOU!) picked up a stinky, hungry, and thirsty Matt in La Reina.  Judging by the stench Matt was emitting when he arrived at the apartment to kill a few beers and empanadas (more on that in a minute), he was a lil' bit scared.  All in all, it was a great trip!
 Matt soon hopes to make a journey to Cerro El Plomo for further adventurin' & stinkin', maybe with some company.  It should take about 3-4 days and is about 17K feet; what could go wrong?


Sara
As Matt was living on the wild side, Sara has been working hard to secure job interviews and yes, jobs!! Here in Chile (as you have probably figured out by now), the seasons are opposite yours in the States.  As it is Spring working it's way into Summer, so is the scheduled school year here.  Students generally have a bunch of December, January and February off for summer vacation.  Which doesn't make it easy to get a job.  Sara's hope coming down here was to find a full-time position teaching little estudiantes to read, speak and understand Ingles.  Unfortunately, no schools are really looking for a teacher to start in the last two months of the school year.  Alas, she has persevered and gone on cinco (yeah, five!) interviews to date.


The first interview was for an elementary classroom teaching position at Santiago College, one of the most prestigious English private schools in the city.  The interview went well, they asked her to sub the very next day, and she will return for a demonstration lesson and psych evaluation later on.  She's pretty sure she'll do fine with the demo lesson, but is a little worried about the psych evaluation.  She was a teacher in the Bronx for five years- that will loosen a few screws.  This job would not start (if bagged) until March, so she has had to continue to search for employment.  Check out the Santiago College website and see if you can find Harry Potter on the campus: www.scollege.cl

"Will I find work?" -Sara of the past
"You will!!" - Sara of the future

Many expats here in Chile rely on teaching English to earn them a little cash while in town.  Fortunately for Sara, she has a Master's and Teaching Certificate in ESL.  So, this means she really has been hitting out of the park for the interviews she's had for part-time English teaching/tutoring.  She already has 4 classes lined up starting this Thursday.  She will be teaching basic English and business English (that one semester of Economics at Fordham is really coming in handy).  Also, she is on hand for two other companies that provide English services for new clients/clients that fit into her schedule.  It has been hard for Sara to not have concrete things to do each day.  It allows for a lot of time to worry (about money, mostly - but who doesn't?).  It will be great for her to have scheduled classes and appointments each day (which leads to money, which leads to being able to stay in Chile longer).  Right now, she has 17 hours of work a week, but is hoping for more.


Other than grinding for work, Sara has been honing her Chilean cooking skills.  As a welcome home (why do you stink so much?) surprise for Matt, Sara made the most well-known Chilean empanada, empanada de pino!  Provided below is an abridged, "Sara" recipe for the Chilean treat.  (*Note: Sara has had trouble finding measuring cups and spoons.):
          Empanadas de Pino (a la Sara)
      For the filling, you will need:

Before the oven

• Meat (ground beef was used)
• Diced Onion
• Garlic (not traditional, but good)
• Oregano
• Salt and Pepper (lots of salt here, not so much pepper)
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• 2 boiled eggs
• Raisins
• Black Olives (with or without the pit, depends on how dangerous you are)
• Steps:



Post-oven, pre-eating!

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• For the filling, cook up the onion and garlic in some oil in a pan.  After the onion is translucent, add the meat (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup).  Cook this up real nice while adding the spices (Sara just guessed according to taste on how much to add).  After the meat is cooked, take off the heat and into a bowl. 
• In another bowl you should have the chopped hard-boiled egg.  In another bowl, some raisins.  In the last, the olives.
• Now, for the crust of the empanadas, Sara cheated and bought the store-made ones.  If you are inspired to make your own crusts, look up a recipe on the internet.  Good luck!
• To fill the empanadas, take a round crust and wet the edges with some warm water.  Add a little bit of meat filling, some chopped egg, some raisins and one olive.  Don't over-stuff your empanadas or you won't be able to get them closed.
• Roll one side of your empanada crust so it shuts onto the other edge.  Use a fork to seal the edges together.  
• Take a bit of raw egg and brush it on top (or use your fingers, that's what she did).  Use your fork to put a couple holes in the top of your empanada so it won't explode.
• Let the empanadas cook for about 35 minutes.  They will be golden brown on the top when done.  Let cool and enjoy with some red wine (preferably from Chile).

'Mejillones y Almejas a la Escudo'
with Escudo to drink!

Lastly, Sara and Matt both had a hand in making Mussels & Clams a la Escudo.  They ventured to the Mercado Central, where fish/shellfish/seafood is both sold and prepared in numerous restaurants.  They bought a half kilo of mussels and a half kilo of clams (about $3US), steamed them up with some onions, garlic, oil and Escudo-the unrecognized 'King of Beers' here in Chile.  Why Escudo you ask?  The answer is simple: there was no white wine in the house.  It turned out delicious and made the apartment smell just like the market.  Sara hopes to continue trying out different Chilean recipes and really hopes she can find some measuring cups (brown sugar wouldn't hurt either!)

Stepping into the (wo)Man Pants

The view from our new apt. (doesn't do it justice)

Aunt Teri w/ Mike sneaking

Que tal?  It has been a while, hasn't it?  We've arrived in Santiago just in time for Spring and it has been beautiful down here.  Everyone we've met has been incredibly kind and helpful.  We knew that we would need plenty of help after we left Aunt Teri's for the airport in Miami and couldn't understand a word that was spoken at our flight's gate.  After a long flight to Santiago w/ a stop over in Sao Paolo, we arrived on 9/28 (about a day later) at noon.  Our Chilean contact and good friend, Will, had his mom, Mariana, and her friend, Gino, pick us up at the airport.  They provided us with food and place to stay for two weeks; muchas gracias a uds.
We've spent the first 3ish weeks exploring the city, looking for work, and going to a bunch of carretes (parties).  A few things that one must understand about Chilean nightlife:

• People smoke a ton of cigarettes
• Booze is cheap and plentiful
• You don't go to dinner before 10pm
• You don't show up at a party until 1am at the earliest
• If you want to leave a party at 5:30am, you are a chicken (according to Charlie)

That being said, we've spent some very late nights out and about.  This is particularly true when we've been out with Charlie, Vale, Ina, & Mashini (Will's friends).  If you've met Charlie, you understand what I mean ("Catorce!").  Those nights/mornings and following days have been fun, but painful.  We thought we left that kind of partying behind us.

Apart from all the late nights, the exploration of Santiago has been challenging (language, lack of letter/number street grid, sun on the other side of the sky) but very exciting.  This is a beautiful city, despite pollution which can obstruct the view.  Two things that we did not expect but have found a lot of here are graffiti and marches (related to recent educational reform protests) and stray dogs.  There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE.  They are not vicious and people tend to pay them no mind.  Interesting side note: lots of stray dogs, but not lots of stray dog sh*t ... strange.  

Us w/ Charlie & Vale

Awesome seafood @ Mercado Central (ignore the face)

The biggest and best developments thusfar have come only in the past few days.  For one, we found a killer (mostly) furnished apt. in Santiago Centro.  It is on the 21st floor of a doorman building across the street from a police station and near many stores, bars, cafes, metro stops, and restaurants.  Best part, the living room has a floor to ceiling window wall that leads out to our balcony.  The panorama above is of that view.  From our apartment we have incredible views of Cerro San Cristobal, eastern Santiago, and the Andes.  When we first saw the view, we both knew this was exactly what we had been looking for (it helped that we had a few beers beforehand).  The apt. also has an exercise room, bike rack, laundry, and a rooftop deck/patio (quincho) w/ swimming pool and grill.  The view from the roof is 360 degrees of pure Santiago.  

Cajon del Maipu

The other goods news involves jobs, but we'll hold off on that until the jobs are landed.  Apart from jobs, hopefully this week Matt will finally get into the mountains which have been torturing him so.  They are so close, yet he hasn't been able to get to them yet.  Now that we have a more permanent home, it seems to be the appropriate time to put a bunch of stuff in a bag, stick out his thumb, and get the hell out of there and into those mountains!  We did make it out of the city one day to Cajon del Maipu, a massive canyon system southeast of Santiago.  The bus ride out there was crazy: speeding driver, bus never fully stopping, swerving, etc.).  That taste of the outdoors made Matt hungry for more and bigger.  The first trip out will have to be solo, but hopefully he'll make some contacts while in the mountains (it's surprisingly hard to make friends as a 27 y/o male who doesn't speak the language well, "Quieres ser amigos?").

We think about our family and friends Stateside a good amount, but we are definitely enjoying our gran viaje so far.  Until next time, "Ciao!"

Would you believe this old man performed our marriage ceremony right inside his old man bar that was full of old men?

5 days in Chile: Things we´ve learned

We finally made it to Santiago de Chile!  After a long plane ride with a short diversion in Brazil, we landed in Santiago.  Our friend´s mom picked us up at the airport and brought us to her lovely home in the El Golf neighborhood.  We are currently living in an apartment in Nuñoa (a jump, skip and hop away from the National Stadium i.e. GOOOOOOOOAAAL).  It´s a great place, but a little far from the center of town.  So, our main order of business at this time is to find an apartment.  It´s strangely difficult to find an apartment in a city you´ve never been to and don´t speak the language in.  But, we will persist!!!

Everyone we´ve met has been extremly friendly and inviting.  We learned our first (and maybe most important) lesson on Friday:  We were invited to a party at a girls house in La Reina.  Being New Yorkers, we thought we were night owls.  OH NO!  We were picked up at around 11pm, went to another guys house for a piscola or two, then headed over to the party at around 12:30.  There were about 5 people there; we´re saying, ok, small party.  But, the party didn´t START until 2:30 in the morning.  Getting home at about 6 in the morning was a bit shocking for us.  And, yes, it happened again on Saturday night.  Chileans like to party and they like to do it very late at night/very early in the morning.

We´ve been walking around a few different neighborhoods, trying to get a handle on the layout of Santiago.  There are many beautiful parks, lots of very good-looking stray dogs, and a shit-ton of people on the subway during rush hour.  Tomorrow, we are hanging out with our friend Charlie and his polola (girlfriend), Val.  Then, it´s continuing to find apartment, learn spanish, and eat more seafood paella. 

We don´t have internet in our apartment, so we are writing this from a cafe near the Plaza de Armas.  Once we have internet in our home, we will post pictures and include more humorous stories of the two lost gringos in Santiago.

Ciao ciao!