Day 8: Domesticated

Hola a mis amigos,

Well, I've taken that next large step into Chilean immersion.  As of 7 hours ago, I have officially signed a lease on an apartment in Santiago.  Crazy to think that I'm "legally obligated" to make payments on this apartment for the next 7 months.  Of course, I don't think any american creditors would frown upon stiffing a 50 year old Chilean residential leasor, but still.  For the moment, I'm fully in.  Admittedly, it was a little overwhelming at first - committing myself to an apartment down here through February.  But it had to happen sooner or later, and I'm glad it finally took place so I could get out of the 8,000 pesos/day hostel (still actually relatively cheap, but not compared to a long-term place).

So, without further ado, here is my room:

I'll post photos of the common areas (they are nice, but are similar to how your grandmother might decorate a place).  It's not ideal for raising hell in Chile, but the people who live here only speak Spanish, and the room was the nicest of any of the 8 I looked at thus far.  I'm confident I will emerge from this apartment fluent and ready to complain about cualquier by this summer.

My buddy Junaid (from the hostel) and I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Beautiful Art - a little on the nose if you ask me) yesterday, and it wasn't bad.  Truth be told, I thought there were a lot more suspect pieces there than in a normal museum, but there were definitely some impressive pieces as well.

 Everybody's looking for a handout.

 The finer points of the fist bump have yet to make it to Chile.

 This was one of the better photos (I thought) in the collection.  The glare in the center was intended (not the stuff around the edges)

 Me and Junaid (the museo de feos artes was across the street.  we decided to skip it)

(Again, I liked this one.  I really bought into the emotion of the piece)

I taught a one-on-one today with a guy who owns 16 companies, including business shares in England and China.  He owned 5 houses throughout Chile, but still had to sit there and listen to me grill him on the differences between "V"s and "B"s, and "J"s and "G"s.  It was strangely satisfying.

Alright, I have to go to bed.  I'm teaching my first substitute English class tomorrow, and I need to be alert since I won't have any idea what the material is until I get there.  Hasta manana, el internet.