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Published: October 30th 2018
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Rio Mapucho bike path
That 2 degree pitch uphill pitch is tough! What an existential title right? It was either this, or my second idea for a title was how the f*ck does electricity work anyway, because really, I have no idea. But I figured, I really wanted to hook those deep thinkers in the crowd, or maybe just the philosophy majors.
So relating to that title of the post, an important event of the last few weeks was…cue “Celebrate Good Times” from Kool and the Gang…our shipment arrived from Canada! And I have to say, as much as I loved that little leather white couch being our only piece of furniture in our living room, man is it great to have our stuff. About a week and a half ago our things made it through customs and came to our house. Many thanks to Steph and her mom whose longs hours have us pretty well set up (hey, before you get any ideas, I had to work those days). So the place is looking great. And while there are are a few things which still have to go up…for instance, the walls are concrete, so I was at the Sodimac, basically a Chilean Home Depot, buying concrete nails, screws and drill
Una historia de amour
I think, it was in Spanish, so not sure bits on the weekend – and coincidentally stood there with another expat couple trying to determine which drill bits were the ones we were both looking for, as the packages only had vague pictures of what the drill bits could be used for, instead of oh WORDS to tell you (uh…is that a picture of concrete, I don’t know either). And the girls were excited to get their beds, toys, and a new trampoline (best idea ever dad!), and our house is feeling more like a home. Although, I still am figuring out this whole electricity thing, as we bought converters, and a 50 pound transformer, and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t, and certain things only need adaptors, and certain things that should work based on the instructions of the converters don’t (see Iron, Bose Soundwave) and it’s all just so confusing and I am not any bit of a handyman or electrician, but I think Key converters should refund me a bunch of money!
The last few weeks have been extremely busy with work, but we have managed to check a few more things out here in the city. We spent a day biking all the
Sanutario de la Naturalizad del Arroyo
Sure it's nice, but where's the Quincho! way down to Parque Forestal in the downtown area, about an 11 km bikeride down the Mapucho river from our house…which is great when you are heading down there with a couple of kids in a chariot, as the nice gradual grade lets you whisp through the city. I paid for that on the way back, as that gradual grade doesn’t feel so gradual with 70 pounds of children and chariot behind you. But the park was full of kids, and entertainers, even a puppet show (La Fantama y El Diablo! Ahh!) and of course ice cream. An interesting note was how the guy collected money. He did the first three quarters, and then went around getting money so we could see the end...what a hustle! We also headed for a hike around Santuario de la Naturaleza el Arrayan, about a 20 minute ride from our house which was stunningly beautiful…and is all set up with Quinchos, which essentially these little charcoal BBQs that all the Chileans love (every new home advertisement is like THIS HOUSE HAS QUINCHO QUINCHO QUINCHO! All the bland cooked meat you can handle!). Steph and I also tried a great Peruvian place called Sarita Colonia
(Cocina Peruano Travesti is their motto) in the Bella Vista neighbourhood…was great to get out for dinner, as to be honest I have not got out much after dark! Great ceviche, slow roasted beef and curried fish, and of course the Chilean standard, pisco sour.
The weather continues to warm up here in Santiago, and the girls have even been in the pool – I jumped in one day at the end of September, and the girls wanted to come in, so they did, and it ended in a few tears (theirs and mine having to deal with two crying children) as the pool was still pretty pretty cold. These last few weekends the pool is warmer, although Zoe does ask after “daddy, can we go to a warm pool”…well, no, sorry honey, this is all the pool we have. A warm shower does help though.
But this week we head into another long weekend, with Thursday and Friday off (what’s the deal with all the days off!), which I think is All Saints Day and All Souls Day respectively. Sounds like I should be going to church, but I will not be. We are off on our first Chilean mini vacation to Pichilemu, a surf town about 3 hour drive from here…or potentially about 5 hours, depending on the long weekend traffic. It’s a black sand beach and we are staying in a place right on the beach…I am told however that the weather on the coast is still a little cool at this time of the year, but hope to get in the ocean for a little surfing. Shoehorning five of us (Steph’s mom is still here) and our stuff into a Mazda CX-5 may be a little tough, but it’s ok, I won’t have to sit in the back, so I’m not too worried. So good luck back there Marie.
But we are excited for that. Almost as excited as a grown Chilean man riding an electric scooter (not like a vespa, think more similar to what you see three year olds riding around on), which seems to be all the rage with the young professional set as I crawl my way through traffic downtown…so maybe the jokes on me because they are getting home more quickly, but I’m pretty sure the jokes on them…also spotted on the road the other day was a male/female gymnast duo performing at a traffic light, and they weren’t bad either, but I was still kinda creeped out by two sweaty adults in gymnast clothes knocking on my car window asking for money…so no denairo for you.
One final note, is that this last weekend I found out a good friend that I had grown up with had passed away, and it has been a real shock to me, and I know to all my friends back in Calgary. He was a such a kind person with such a great heart and am extremely saddened by his passing. There are moments of homesickness here, and this is certainly one of them – a moment that I want to go home, to be able to share good memories with old friends about someone we shared a bond with, and to support in whatever way I can the people who are hurting. So tonight while I am hurting, and I know others are too, I want to say how grateful I am for what I have…it’s easy to lose sight of that sometimes. So hold your loved ones a little closer – and know whatever is going on in your life, there’s so many around that love and support you.
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