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 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!
I am sure that the changes that your experiencing will be at times difficult but in the end rewarding. I lived in Switzerland for a year and could not understand swiss, but I did learn german. Gerda was my savior in that she speaks 6 languages. There are moments that I,ll remember for the rest off my life and your experiencing some of those moments and feeling ackward. I think youre experiencing life in a new way and We wish you and Jeromy and the boys the very very best. All our love Tom and Gerda and family.
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