The Photographer's Muse - and she wasn't even posing!
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I can't remember exactly which day I took these pictures. I did it because I wanted to have some evidence of how beautiful Santiago can be, but to do that you need to catch it right after it has rained, when all the pollution has been washed away.
Well, it had rained for a couple of days, so I thought it was the perfect time to get my camera out and wander around one of the nicest areas of the city, which happens to be right where I work. The romantic twist of the story is that while walking and taking pictures, I decided to start asking in the different buildings if they had anything for rent - Paul and I had been looking since March, and we really wanted to move near work - and in one of the buildings they told me they had a flat available that ticked all the boxes. I decided to have a look at it, and when I walked in and saw the view I thought "I've found us a flat" which is exactly what I said to Paul 5 minutes later over the phone, when I asked him to come and see the flat.
Anyway, here's Santiago...
Cyn
 Bandera con Agustinas |  Something old, something blue. |
 Probably la Iglesia de Las Agustinas |  Paseo Estado |
 Triciclo |  Museo de Bellas Artes |
 Outside the Museo de Bellas Artes |  Estatua al frente de Bellas Artes |
 Entrada al Museo de Bellas Artes |  Parque Forestal |
 Forestal / Bellas Artes area |  Man over the Mapocho, with Telefonica building and the Andes in the background. |
 Transantiago buses over the Mapocho |  Parque Forestal y Museo de Bellas Artes |
Mosqueto con Monjitas
As it turned out, Mosqueto is our road, and this is our Metro stop.
 Waiting for the company bus at 07:30 in the morning |  It had rained recently, so the mountains are quite clear. This was taken from my taxi on the way back to the centre. |
Until yesterday, I worked one-to-one with a student at APL Logistics on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Pudahuel is in the middle of nowhere, but the English Connection paid well. The student had good coffee too.
Paul
| Natural Urban Art, in the concrete pavement near Santa Ana metro station, in the morning sunlight. | This sign in the metro reads 'Do not sit on the floor' |
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| This sign reads 'For sale'. I thought it was a bit optimistic. | It rained, and for a few days the underground became the underwater. |
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This was the day after we saw Jarvis Cocker!
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Sunday 6th of April was a very special day for me: it was my first competitive run. I took part in the 10K segment of the Santiago Marathon. I enjoy running very much, and for a while I'd wanted to take part in an organised run, so I guess I can say it was a small dream come true. Another reason why it was special was the fact that my Dad joined me! Paul and my sister Barbara came to support us, which was fun. It was nice to run in Santiago, I never thought that would happen. Until then, I'd done all my running in other cities because Santiago is so polluted; I never imagined it would feel right to run here. However, shortly after we arrived I saw the ad for the Adidas Marathon, and I thought 'why not?'. Anyway, it was fun, and now I'm looking forward to the next one. Will keep you posted.
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Watch this video to see Cynthia & Roberto setting off.
(This is taken from a letter that I sent. I decided to post it here too, as it sums up quite nicely what we've been up to so far!)
So, the dust is as settled as it's going to be for a bit. When we arrived in Chile in January we had a flat to live in, organised by my in-laws. It's well located in a quiet cul-de-sac near the underground and a shopping centre with a large supermarket, cinema, a department store, and various other shops and services. It's also across the road from my in-laws, which has its benefits. For the first month we didn't even have a cooker or fridge, so we ate at theirs!
All our stuff arrived intact from the UK, on my birthday! The only casualties were two champagne flutes, and considering the amount of things we shipped, that's a miracle. It was a bit weird as when it all arrived here I had to do all the paperwork and sign documents in the warehouses, which saved money, but wasn't normal practice. When I got to the warehouse on the coast they wanted to know if I had brought a hard hat, reflective jacket and reinforced boots! Luckily they had some to lend me.
I couldn't find any suitable jobs in private 'British' schools, and the pay is way too low in the disturbingly under-funded state sector. Both Cynthia and I are working at the same place, and it's the same place where Thom Kiddle (Barbara King's cousin) works, and Barbara (Cynthia's sister) studies and works!
Cynthia is teaching translation, oral English and British Studies to translation students and trainee teachers at the Instituto Profesional Chileno Británico. I am teaching methodology and technological (IT) pedagogy to trainee teachers there too, and I have some English classes in the University and Institute branches of the same organisation. I'm also designing an Interactive Whiteboard course with Thom.
The academic year begins in the middle of March, so we had some time to go on holiday to the coast. Santiago can get a bit too hot in the summer (yes, I am gloating), and the coast is always more manageable.
Unfortunately, the government’s latest project to sort out public transport (Transantiago, a.k.a. Transanfiasco) failed miserably. They reduced the number of buses by at least 60%, and, unsurprisingly that meant the Metro suddenly had a ridiculous amount of extra demand, and at times collapsed altogether. Some mornings if I have a class at a peak time, it’s best for me to go to one end of the line on an empty Metro, to be sure I can actually get on the Metro going the other way. So, considering our landlord also wants to sell our flat, we’re moving again (I’m really looking forward to being settled at some point). The plan is to move to the centre, so we can walk to work or a great selection of bars, depending on the time of day. This is where we want to live:
One of the things we were looking forward to about moving to Chile is the fact that it is possible and affordable to see musicians play live. Sure enough, last month we easily found tickets to see Jarvis Cocker (previously the lead singer of the band Pulp) live in his first concert in Chile! We turned down the chance to see Bob Dylan. There are even rumours that Radiohead are coming to Chile in August. All very exciting!
So, that’s where we are at the moment. Things are likely to look a little different in a month or so, but I’ll let you know (eventually) how it all works out. The temperature has dropped, but it’s still around 30 degrees at the hottest point of the day. They say La Niña means we’re going to have a particularly dry winter, after what has been a very dry summer. Considering the high proportion of hydroelectric energy sources in Chile, that could be a big problem. To make things worse the Argentinians, Peruvians and Bolivians are reluctant to supply Chile with Gas for a variety of reasons, so we’re all being urged to save power. Hmm, we’ll have to see how the winter pans out. At least if we move to the centre, the chances are any scheduled power cuts should take place in the middle of the night.
