(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.
