Preliminary Observations - Working in Chile

Thanks for all your encouraging and sympathetic emails, blog posts and Facebook wall posts! I know my last blog was a bit disturbing - but it will be something that we can all laugh about in a year (I hope!).

Progress is being made here on many fronts. For example, we should have our house on Saturday and a bank account on Friday, which is huge for us. There are still lots of lose ends but I am confident we'll close them off in due time, as things seem to be accelerating.

I wanted to share some preliminary observations on working in Chile:

1) Kissing:

How many of your co-workers have you kissed? Since coming to Chile, I can safely say that I have kissed each and every co-worker, at least once, if not daily. Each morning there is a steady stream of people coming into the office that stop by to say "Buenas Dias, como estas?" and give me a nice kiss on the cheek. I'm learning to reciprocate but it isn't something that comes naturally to me... as we're so used to respecting people's space and NOT touching each other, no matter what!

I had my first client meeting today. When the senior client came into the room, he approached me to introduce himself and I automatically put my hand out to shake is hand (just from habit), then quickly retracted my hand and offered my cheek for a kiss. He smiled and said "Oh, sorry, you aren't a Chilena, are you?" I was a dead giveaway by putting my hand out, without even speaking any bad Spanish. It turned out fine because he spoke English perfectly, had been to Toronto many times and we had a connection through another client, but it was so funny that the kissing custom gave me away as a Gringo before I could stumble through any bad Spanish. Note: offering two cheeks for kisses also is a dead give away that you are a foreigner.

2) Lunch Time:

It is a well known fact that people in Latin America take long lunches. I can now confirm that this is true. For the most part, even in Consulting, people take a 1 to 1.5 hour lunch, starting at 1 or 1:30 PM. I have been participating in this custom as it is a great way to get to know my co-workers, network and practice Spanish, however it is something that feels so unnatural after many years of wolfing down sandwiches at my desk.

At lunch people typically eat a large meal - more like what we would consider to be dinner in Canada. The lunch places near work all seem to have fixed menus, that come with a starter, entree, dessert or coffee and a drink (for about $6 with tip). Everyone looks at me like I'm from another planet when I skip the dessert and opt for a coffee (and refuse the pisco sour).

Someone in HR told me yesterday that they had an issue when they sent people to Canada for training because the lunches were too small and people were getting really hungry during the day. Hilarious!

2) Cookies and Synthetic Sugar:

At meetings first thing in the morning and first thing in the afternoon, it is typical that drinks (pop, coffee, tea, juice) and cookies are served. Just like in the US, people will drink pop first thing in the morning, but they'll also eat cookies (and many cookies). Also, they have all these different sugar products that we don't get at home - namely sugar pills (small tablets that come in tic-tac-like containers) and sugar syrup. All of this sugar is super concentrated and synthetic... so if you accidentally drop more than one pill into your coffee, you get a serious sugar overload. It is sometimes difficult to get real sugar for your coffee, as the synthetic varieties are rampant here.

There are so many nice people in Strategy & Operations here in Santiago, and I can see myself becoming good friends with many of them. We are discussing getting together weekly for wine, cheese and Spanish/English, as many people here are eager to help me with my Spanish but also get my help with their English. It is a great opportunity to become friends with real Chileans, and really get to know the country and the culture.

The First Week of Work - Alison's Perspective

A dark storm has blown in and "Mission Chile" has become turbulent.

In retrospect, I had a hint of what was to come when I received the agenda for my first day 100% in Spanish. But here is the story of my first week at the Deloitte Santiago office...

My first two meetings were with the admin folks in HR and Consulting to complete the standard documentation (e.g., Visa stuff, Code of Conduct, technology, etc.) and all of it was in Spanish, which didn't phase me because everyone spoke to me slowly and clearly, and I completely understood what was required. By 11 AM I was delivered to the area where the Strategy & Operations (S&O) group sits and met my buddy, Claudia (who is Chilean but lived in the US for a number of years, did her MBA in Europe and worked in Denmark where she met her husband, so she speaks English quite well). She actually told me that she was instructed to speak to me only in Spanish (which was my second hint that something was brewing), but was lovely and helped me by translating when I didn't understand.

Claudia then took me to meet one of the two Partners that run S&O here. As soon as Claudia introduced me to him, he said something to me really fast and in a very think Chilean accent. I thought I knew what he asked me, but wasn't sure - I was a bit fried from three hours of Spanish so far that day, plus a little intimidated to meet this guy, and I second guessed my reaction and didn't answer him. At this point, he threw his hands up in the air and said "What am I going to do with someone who doesn't speak Spanish?" in perfect English. Then he asked me "What is your plan to become fluent in a few weeks?". I was so taken aback, I didn't know what to say - I explained that I had 9 weeks of Spanish classes before coming (two hours per week), and was to continue classes ASAP here in Santiago once HR is able to coordinate them for me. Claudia stepped in at this point with a number of things she thought I could help with - some proposals and projects that were required in English, and other ways that we could leverage my expertise and get around this temporary issue, but it was a brutal first meeting.

In typical Alison fashion (and if you know me well you'll know exactly what I'm talking about), my first reaction was to blame myself for this situation. Here I am in another continent - I've uprooted my entire family (husband, kids, pets), rented out our house (which we have spent loads of blood, sweat and tears renovating, not to mention money), taken a huge career risk by leaving a great job in Toronto, sold a ton of our possessions for a huge discount, etc. - and now I'm completely useless (apparently) to the office here because my Spanish skills are not up to par.

The same Partner called me into his office about an hour later and to talk about some more constructive ideas for getting me up to speed, including full immersion - I am to attend as many meetings as possible to get my ear tuned to Chilean Spanish and I am to speak only in Spanish (even if it is wrong). The entire department now has the mandate to only speak to me in Spanish. I attend 3-4 meetings in Spanish each day and am working on two proposals (in Spanish). I have lunch with different sub groups in my department and have awkward kindergarten-level conversations with them about things I know the verbs to say - like where do you live in Santiago, do you have kids, how long have you worked at Deloitte, etc. It is humiliating and exhausting. I have absolutely gone from being a high performing consulting professional in Toronto, to being pretty useless. To make matters worse, my Canadian computer's hard drive is dead, so I have no access to my files or archived emails - a resolution is in the works but is slow coming. On the bright side, many of the junior staff and two of the female Managers I work with have been quite lovely and supporting. One of them even invited us (including Jeremy and the kids) to a picnic on Sunday, which was wonderful... but it really has been a completely different welcoming than I expected.

On the home front things have been rough going too. We had a temporary nanny this week, as our full-time one can't start until next week. Both kids got a terrible cold and fever (and passed a lower grade version to us)... so they were touch and go all week. Each day I left to a chorus of crying boys, who were clinging to me and wiping their snotty noses all over my suits. A wheel on our stroller broke, so the nanny had difficulty taking the kids to the park with one flat tire (but did anyway). One day William purposely locked himself in one of the bedrooms in the hotel, kept leaving the hotel room and going into the hallway and threw up (after a coughing fit) all in one day... so we came home to an irate Spanish speaking nanny.

We are also still homeless and Hasso is still in the dog hotel. We changed our housing strategy after walking to the two houses in Santa Maria de Manquehue and finding that they are completely removed from the city - we couldn't even push the stroller from the park to the house (for the Hollywood one) as the hill was too steep, so there was no way our middle aged, portly nanny was going to be able to do that. Also, we were increasingly nervous that William and Jackson would need to take a bus to school/daycare. So, we revisited one of the runner up houses in Old Vitacura that was really overpriced, and put in an offer that was accepted. We are now neck deep in the BS of contracts and payments for the house, but are hoping to move in next weekend. The house is 1 block from Alianza Francesa and numerous parks, Jardin Infantils (daycares), bakeries, grocery stores, gyms, transit, etc. so although it doesn't have the view, it is still in a fantastic neighborhood and fits our lifestyle much better. If you want to see where we'll be living, reference the map at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110908962556855004094.00049131af458e56d0057&ll=-33.393272,-70.582159&spn=0.010534,0.015407&t=h&z=16. The house is at the corner of Espoz and La Perouse.

AND, Jeremy starts traveling for work this week (but only to Vina del Mar and is driving home each night for all but one night)... but next week he's gone for the entire week to Copiapo and also back to Canada. On the bright side, I am hoping he can bring back loads of maple syrup, Children's Tylenol, and some hard liquor to help us get through the next few months. Maybe he can even take back my dead laptop to get fixed.

Funny quotes/situations from this week:

1) I came home from my first day at work and invited William to go swimming with me, because I had a rough day and needed to do something fun. He asked me why my day was rough, and I said there was a mean person at work. He said "Mommy, not again?!!! This always happens to you!" So funny... what have things come to when your four year old becomes your shrink?

2) On Saturday night we were having dinner together as a family and Jeremy says, "this is so nice - for once no one is crying, or fighting, or yelling and we are having a civilized meal together". As if on cue, William (who just chugged his entire glass of milk in about 2 seconds) throws up his entire dinner, in a waterfall of milk. Ouch.

Hopefully things look up this week! Luckily in all the disasters that happened last week, no one was seriously injured... for that I am thankful. We can only go up from here!

Horseback Riding Two Year Olds and Gringo Torta

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday, so we started the day in the traditional Weyland family way... with a freshly baked Kringle for breakfast. Restricted to the hotel implements, I peeled fresh Chilean lemons and chopped up the rinds instead of grating them, so the Kringle was super ZESTY but delicious!

With the Chilean Bicentennial holiday fast approaching, the festivities were already in full-force. We received several recommendations to visit Padre Hurado Communal Parque in La Reina (a region of Santiago with a great view of the Andes), so we hopped in a taxi and headed there for the day. The park was set up with tons of activities for kids and adults, including bouncy castles, animals, games, airplane/army vehicle displays, etc. They also had traditional fondas set up where there were bands playing Chilean folk music and lots of delicious traditional foods, including melt in your mouth sausages and meet kabobs.

The best part of Padre Hurado Parque was the horseback riding. When we first approached the ride we figured they might let four year old William ride a horse, but there was no way they'd let two year old Jackson! I inquired about the price (equivalent to $4 per kid) and before we knew it, both kids were saddled up and riding ponies across the track with massive smiles plastered on their faces! I kept thinking that there was no way they would let a two year old ride a pony back home in Canada and despite the otherwise incredibly strict rules in Chile, I think this place is pretty cool :) Hopefully this means both kids will be riding horses AND speaking fluent Spanish before we come home in two years!

We rounded out the day with a dinner out (sin los ninos) in the Belle Arts area of Santiago (which looks a lot like areas of Paris) at a Basque restaurant for some very traditional Spanish cuisine, which was incredible. Angelica (our new nanny) babysat the kids and did remarkably well given that Jackson kicked off the evening by flinging a full glass of milk across the living room. I think she might be a Saint! Angelica speaks no English, so working with her has stretched the boundaries of our Spanish abilities and necessitated a lot of use of Google Translator. At the end of the night, she was talking about the "Gringo Torta" and how Jackson kept asking for "Gringo cake" so she kept giving him more... where the whole time Jackson was actually saying Kringle. From now on Kringle will be referred to as Gringo cake in our house!

Today Jeremy did some reconnaissance on "autos usados" (used cars) - we're looking for a large vehicle with seating for 7, so we can hit the slopes every weekend in the winter and truck around our visitors. No luck on this front yet, but there are lots of interesting options available that you can't buy back home. We also borrowed a friend's car and did some more driving around in the neighborhood where we now have two offers out on houses (and should know the status by Tuesday). I have to say that it is going to be very different not living downtown, but living on the side of a mountain Hollywood style is pretty cool, so we're willing to take the plunge for two years (especially given William's school and Jeremy's office is still less than a 10 minute drive away). No matter how you cut it, living out here will be an adventure!

Making Progress & Super Dog Gets Evicted

We are now ending day three of our Expat experience here in Chile.

The Good News:

1) Visas/RUTs: After the mad bureaucratic scramble of lawyers over the last few days, we have our temporary work visas and RUT (Chilean version of Social Insurance Number) now in-hand, so we can work, get paid and spend all our money! What a relief!

Note: Without a RUT you can not open a bank account in Chile, make any big purchases or sign any leases. According to our local friends "You are nobody without a RUT". I feel like somebody now.

2) Housing: We had our first official house hunting day with our relocation consultants. The good (or bad) news is that we have fallen in love with an outrageous house in Santa Maria Manquehue in Vitacura, which is a posh district of Santiago near Alianza Francesa (where William will go to school). The house is in the hills overlooking the city and the snow covered Andes - it is a spacious bungalow (mostly windows), with a huge lot, lovely garden and in-ground pool and tons of room for guests. It has TWO servants quarters. What a waste it would be not to fill both of them!!!

3) Nana Hunting: Nannies are called Nanas in Chile, which is bound to cause mass confusion given that our kids call their maternal grandmother Nana too! In any case, we need a Chilean Nana to take care of the kids when they are not in school/daycare (and frankly, take care of us too). Nothing replaces our Aunty Glyn, but we will hopefully find her Spanish twin somwhere here in Santiago! We met a great prospective Nana today and will continue to interview tomorrow. None of them speak a word of English, which will provide endless entertainment going forward.

The bad news:

1) House Hunting: If we cave and go for the dream house, it will be very painful moving back to Toronto in two years. Even with our new Craig List dishwasher find and swanky ductless air conditioning, our house in Parkdale will seem so non-Californian in comparison to living the Vitacura dream.

2) Eviction: Our Super Dog (Perro Super!) has been evicted from the hotel. Hasso has been turning heads around all of Santiago - people stop dead in their tracks and stare at him when we take him places, particularly when it is four year old William who is walking him (perhaps they think he will break free from William and attack them!). German Shepherds are not uncommon here, but the only place you see them is as guard dogs (Presidential Palace, landmarks, exclusive communities). The non-stray pet dogs in Santiago are mostly small, wimpy dogs that are more appropriate for apartment living.

The goodwill of the hotel management has expired when it comes to Hasso. The maids are fearful to clean our room. The breakfast people do not come around anymore and when they do, they forget to leave key items (yogurt), as they are distracted by our giant dog on the balcony scratching at the window and barking. The straw that broke the hotel management's back was a complaint from a neighbor about a blubbering dog on Sunday, when we were out on a city tour. So, unfortunately, Hasso will be making his way to the somewhat sketchy dog hotel tomorrow...

3) Feeling Like an Idiot: OK, so my Spanish is limited - I had 9 weeks of Spanish classes (2 hours each week) before coming to Chile. My reading comprehension/writing is fairly decent, my listening is getting much better but my pronunciation is pathetic. I tend to get caught in these useless conversations where I reveal myself as a foreigner with my terrible Spanish. For example, at the grocery store they asked me if I was a member of their loyalty club - which I understood and replied "no". They told me how much the purchase was so I handed them cash, then he said something about whether I had X pesos to make the change easier and I understood but got confused and couldn't answer. There was an awkward silence, with the cashier, the bag guy and the lady behind me all looking at me like I was some sort of blubbering idiot. After a few moments their looks turned more sympathetic when they realized that I'm a Gringo. Ouch.

There are more little vignettes to tell you about - like the fact that our cat is not handling the change from Iams to Purina Cat Chow very well - but I won't bore you with the details. At some point this adventure will get very trivial, but until then, hopefully you are finding our stories entertaining as we attempt to grow roots here in Santiago!

The Big Migration

We have finally arrived in Santiago, Chile... our new home for the next two years.

The last few days have been really crazy clearing out our big old house in Parkdale, which we have painstakingly renovated over the last 5 years, to prepare for another family to lease it. It was also a humbling and perspective-building experience to rationalize all of our material possessions to fit into 7 giant suitcases (plus two car seats). I will never shop the same way again - everything screams "Garage Sale!" now when I walk into stores like Canadian Tire :)

The adventure to Santiago began in a highly civilized manner. The logistics were daunting, but through a multi-stage drop-off process, we checked in our dog at Air Canada Cargo, and the rest of us in the main gate with the help of grandparents, Jeremy's siter Laura and the Super Elite concierge.

Fun fact about traveling with pets: We learned that you can't put carry-on pets (i.e., Missy our cat) through the X-ray machine at security. In addition to the chaos of two young kids, a pile of carry-on and three laptops to take out of our luggage, the security personnel had me take Missy out of her carrier and go through the metal detector. If you know our cat, you'll be flabbergasted to know that she was not at all daunted by this - there was no mountain lion-type growling, clawing or trying to get away. Cat nip is the key to success on this one.

Never to make the same mistake twice, we didn't drink too much in the lounge and attempted to time our boarding of the plane perfectly. A large diaper incident and a defiant two-year old sabatoged that plan and we were one of the last groups to board the plane, and struggled fiercely to find stowage space for our carry-on luggage.

Fun fact about traveling with kids: You never want to be the first to board the plane, as the kids will get restless before take-off and are likely to have a tantrum. But, the only thing worse than boarding too early is boarding too late, as all your essentials need to be stuffed below the seats as there will be no carry-on stowage space anywhere in the vacinity of your seats.

The flight went reasonably well - much better than the same flight 6 months ago. Most of the people around us (including the crew) were void of personality and gave us cold stares when our children did anything child-like. The jumping on the seats and kicking a neighboring passenger when she was searching for a rolling water bottle didn't help Jackson's case, but we made it through relatively unscathed.

Bringing a cat into Chile was a breeze via carry-on. I translated (with my limited Spanish) the forms for the vet on duty, and they ushered us through nice and quick :) Bringing a >70 lb dog via cargo is not a breeze. It took over 6 hours to get Hasso released... Just when we thought we had all the paperwork and payments complete, the whole cargo terminal went on a nice long lunch/siesta break, which delayed the process further. We're already feeling the wrath of Chilean bureaucracy!

Our work visa paperwork is now well underway (after the lawyers visited the hotel earlier today) and the lovely hotel management gave us the green light to keep our animals with us, so we are no longer sending them to the mysterious "pet hotel". We have the day to ourselves tomorrow before the serious relocation agenda begins in full-force.

After spending hours waiting for Hasso's release from cargo, and eating lunch at 4 PM with two exhausted kids, then testing out the hotel pool (and accidentally breaking the bathing cap rule), William declared that he "had a great day spending time with Mommy and Daddy". Thank goodness for children - they put it all into perspective :)