Love, love, loving this city!!!

No we have not disappeared.. we are still very much alive and well in the bustling city of Santiago- just busy, busy, busy!!! Henry has been working away at archdaily and he couldn’t be happier. We both get home around 8:30 and when I ask how his day was I don’t receive the normal “Ehh, it was good.” response. I get the “It was awesome! I love my job! Today I cranked through ten articles, my architecture classics article on the Brooklyn Bridge was posted, (check it out here), I taught my co-workers the thrill and competition of March Madness and now everyone in the office has a bracket hanging on the wall, and Friday it will be my turn to grill out for the office lunch- what do you think I should make?” Throughout the whole explanation he has the grin of a little kid at Christmas full of utter excitement. I am so happy for him and couldn’t be more proud - to find a job you love that much seems nearly impossible these days. So if you’d like to see what he’s up to check out http://www.archdaily.com/  - His articles are posted daily.

I have also been quite fortunate in finding a great job. (Almost as great J) I am working for a small English school, Rincon Ingles (English Corner) near Salvador Metro. A 20 minute ride on the metro or a pleasant 30 minute walk from our apartment.  We don’t have a pool in the backyard, or cookouts on Fridays like at archdaily but we still manage to have fun without those. We are a small school with about only 6 professors and my two bosses (the owners). I was just recently hired as full time which is exciting and typically difficult to find as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher. Because we’re so small, it’s not that impressive but myself and one other teacher were just given the responsibility of heading up the academic coordination and organization of the school. A huge task and responsibility but very exciting. So while I’m not working on that I teach a range of classes throughout the day to a range of students- Conversation, structure and grammar, private one on one classes as well as in-office classes. I’m really enjoying it and man, am I learning a lot!

Henry and I both typically have fairly long days during the week… he works from 9-7 and I from 11-8 or sometimes 9-8. We come home hungry and start attempting to cook something for dinner in our tiny kitchen amongst our five other roommates.  There are a total of 7 people in our apartment now – two French guys, two German girls, one girl from Philadelphia and ourselves. We couldn’t love them more- it is such a fun place to live! So in the midst of cooking and eating dinner, sipping on some wine after our arrival home between 8 and 8:30 we share stories, jokes, music and more usually in four different languages. And we thought we were coming down here to only learn Spanish! – Our lists of Spanish, French and German sayings grow longer every day.

Stumbling upon our apartment, our jobs and new friends here in Santiago has almost come too easily- we feel so spoiled but are so very thankful for how everything has worked out.  Thanks for being patient during our hiatus on the blog – we’re trying to post on a weekly routine again and we have lots of posts to catch up on. Stay tuned for: A day trip to the pottery town of Pomaire, An attempt at baking in our degree-less oven, A weekend in Valparaiso – the city by the sea, Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago, Shenanigans with the roommates and much more!

Dinner and

shenanigans on the roof.