Tuesday, October 11, 2011

First Day of Work

Today was my first day of work! It was a longer day than I'm used to because here they work from 8AM until 6:45PM, with an hour break for lunch. I spent the morning in a meeting where 90% of it was in Spanish. It has been difficult for me to understand the Chileans when they speak in Spanish because they all tend to mumble, speak extremely fast, and they shorten some of the words. I understand some people better than others, depending on how clearly (and slowly) they speak. Fortunately, the project that I'm on is in English (all the legal documents are in English). Everyday I am able to use more and more Spanish though, so hopefully within a few weeks I'll be a little more useful.

For lunch I went out with my new friend from Texas and another American who recently relocated to Santiago. We ate at a chicken restaurant that reminded me of Kenny Roger's Roasters from Seinfeld. The food here is really good. Good thing I walk everywhere because I'm certainly eating very well.

For dinner I went to a highly-recommended hamburger restaurant called Mr. Jack. It is very near my hotel, which is the main reason why I went there. I'm sticking close to "home" until I am more familiar with the area. It was funny because I went in, ordered my meal, and within thirty minutes the restaurant was PACKED OUT. There is a HUGE soccer (football) game tonight between Chile and Peru. Everytime anything happened, especially a goal, the restaurant erupted in cheering Chileans. It was so loud - these people get excited about "football!" It was kind of fun to be there - I even saw Chile score two goals.

It is freezing tonight, and I have heard people say that it is unseasonably cold. It has also been really smoggy and you can hardly see the mountains (typical I think). It is supposed to rain this week, which I hear will clear the smog and allow for some pretty views of the Andes. Since I'm probably starting to bore you with the details of my day I think I'll end this entry here. Zack and I chat via webcam everynight, and it's almost time to dial in. Hope everyone had a good Tuesday!

Ciao!

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