Adventures in Chile - Part 4

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Greetings.
Nothing really out of the ordinary for the last little bit. Started work at an English Language institute a few weeks ago, working with business professionals. Next Monday I start working at a private school, 3 days a week. www.colegiosdiaconales.cl I´ll be working here until the end of November. I´ll continue working for the institute the other 2 days to make some extra cash.

Its good to hear that all the Canadian NHL teams will make the playoffs (assuming Edmonton can hold their ground). Whats crappy though, is that is unlikely that I´ll be able to watch any of them. If we are lucky I may be able to catch the odd game on ESPN espanol, but it wont be the leafs.
Today is a huge day for soccer in Chile. They play Bolivia in a world cup qualifier game. (as I have mentioned in previous emails, Chile and Bolivia are arguing over access to the Pacific Ocean and have been trash talking each other) Everyone in Chile is pumped for the game. Lucky me gets to work though. I am still hoping the guy will cancel his lesson.
The other day MTVla (Latin America) had a special called the "Maple Invasion" on. I was thinking , great, some Canadian music. Sadly it featured Nelly FurTARDo, Alanis, Nickelback and Avril.

Today is the first day it has been cloudy here in 3 months. I guess Fall is on its way. Its still warm during the day but starting to cool down at night.
The other day we found a restaurant that serves real chicken wings! We had been searching for quite some time. Still can´t find cheddar cheese though - weird eh?

The Chilean economy is quite good - the strongest in South America, and unemployment is low - here's why. If you go into a store to buy a bottle of coke for example, first you go to one person and you get an invoice. Then you bring the invoice to another person where you pay for the coke. Before you can leave the invoice is given to another person who stamps it and returns it to you. 3 people doing one persons job! Another example is the gas station. They have an attendant standing at each pump all day long - 6 pumps, 6 people. There is no such thing as self serve gas stations here. The city is extremely clean, as they have a person picking up garbage on every block even into the wee hours of the morning. Its weird, but its working. I guess its better than having these people doing nothing all day - at least its some $$$ in there pocket.

Anyhow, that's all from Chile. In a month or so, I have to go to Mendoza Argentina (just over the border) to renew my VISA. I'm working on a tourist VISA which expires every 3 months, meaning I need to re-enter the country. The drive to Mendoza is supposed to be awesome, as you need to drive through the Andes. The tallest mountain in South America (Aconcagua sp???) is right next to the road. I´ll send some more photos after that.
take care all
later
JIM

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Photos

Surprise Bday party for me!
Dawn, Rick, Corrine, Me, Kacki, Chris, Daniella, and "Tata"