One Week Down

After the initial culture shock wore off, things haven't been hard at all to get used to here in Santiago. My apartment is a two bedroom condo in a 22 story building in Providencia, the more upscale business and metropolitan neighborhood of Santiago. I would live in this place in the States. The view from the top of the building is amazing:






























Work has been interesting. Every monring I ride with 7 Indian consultants (you don't want to rent a car in Santiago, trust me). There are also 5 Brazilian consultants that we work with. Add the chileno clients to the mix and in any given room where we work, people are speaking Spanish, Brazilian, Hindi and English (I am the only native English speaker). It can be a bit crazy. Luckily, everyone except for a few of the clients speak English.

I haven't had a formal Spanish class since high school, so needless to say, I am a bit rusty. I spent a few weeks in Costa Rica a few years ago, and I've been hitting Rosetta Stone pretty hard to dust up on the language, but I'm nowhere near fluent. My coworkers give me the chance to practice Spanish and can bail me out when I give up and start speaking English again.

Every night this week I walked to restaurants for dinner in Providencia. FYI... dinner doesn't start down here until after 9:30, so most restaurants will be fairly empty until then. Partying doesn't start until after midnight and lasts until 4 or 5 am, but more on that later...

If you are in this area, Liguria is definitely a restaurant that you need to check out. They serve typical Chilean food and the atmosphere is very cool. Nearby is a place called Phone Box Pub, which is a British style restaurant, although the food is a bit more chileno than British.