Alive and well!

Happy weekend after Thanksgiving!  I hope that everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed spending time with family.  While it’s difficult being on the other side of the world from everyone else, with Skype and the wonders of technology I never feel too far away from home.  On the bright side, my waistline is fairly happy that I didn't “sample” 15 different kinds of desserts at each meal on Thanksgiving this year…

That's right, from the context clues you've figured out that this is Paul!  Holy moly!  I’m pretty new to the blog-writing, so please take it easy on me.  Rachel requested that I write a blog post a few days weeks months ago, and as a dutiful husband I am happy to fulfill her request (eventually).

I'm in Chile!  As a reminder, I've marked where it is on the map below...

I arrived in Santiago near the beginning of October, so have been living here for a couple of months now.  It’s been fantastic!  Of the three cities I've lived in so far (San Jose, Lima, and Santiago), Santiago is definitely the most modern and easily navigable of the three.  Chile has a booming economy and is well-developed, so it has a slew of skyscrapers, clean streets, and well-groomed parks to explore.  If everyone and everything weren't in a different language, you could almost mistake it for a nice city in the U.S.

My corporate apartment has been very well-suited for me.  It’s just the right size for one person, and has a kitchen and all the amenities that make it comfortable.  It even has an indoor A/C so I can keep it nice and frigid at night, just how I like it!

I'm up on the 16th floor.  Dizzying, but a neat elevator ride.

Kitchen - wow, Paul!  Look at all that fruit!

Living room, where I relax and watch TV

The wall rotates!!!  Fantastic.  I'm also very festive, as I'm sure you've noticed.

Nice bed.

The rotating wall again, in all it's glory.

It's a really nice apartment, and Kimberly-Clark is treating me very well.  The rotating wall is really neat, sometimes I just sit around and spin it.  It’s also nice as it allows for better airflow in the apartment.

The best part about the apartment, though, is the balcony.  Santiago is surrounded by beautiful mountains, so I always have a view!

My view in the morning - gorgeous!

My view in the evening - also gorgeous!

So I’m living pretty comfortably!

My office is about 30 minutes away, and one of my co-workers has been gracious enough to let me carpool with him (so I don’t have to mess with the bus system).  It’s much more manageable than the hour to hour-and-a-half commute I was suffering in Peru! 

Here’s a picture of my office.  It’s very nice:

Guess whose office Minnie is always starting into?  I’m pretty dreamy.

In Costa Rica and Peru, I worked in the factories.  Here, however, I’m working in an office.  While I like the hustle and bustle of the mills, it’s been nice to have a lot of peace and quiet as I finish up my project and start to think through my thesis topics.  Work has been going very well, and in the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to visit additional factories in Argentina and Colombia.  But I can save that for another blog post.

My days basically consist of breakfast, work, lunch, work, run, dinner, relax.  Pretty nice routine.

I’ve really gotten into running lately since I have a lot of free time.  I started out running short distances every day, following the Couch to 10K program.  I’ve enjoyed seeing my progress, and now I’m running around 5 miles every other day and weightlifting in between.  It’s amazing how much of the city you can see by just running around!

One nice thing about where I live is that there is a big park right beside me.  I always run here, and it’s a lot of fun.  Very pretty and relaxing.  Picture barrage!

Streets of Santiago - very clean and modern.

The country flag waving in the wind.

My street: Manquehue (similar to mahn-KAY-way)

The park - nice little fitness area and recreational courts

Lots of trees and greenery in the park - refreshing!

A small boy reflects on his life at one of the park's fountains

There are lots of nice trails and trees in the park - good running space.

It's also surrounded by lots of tall buildings.  Like the (much) smaller cousin of Central Park.

It even has a rose garden!

Nice time of year for roses.

Lots of roses behind the water fountain.

Little birdie grabbing a drink.

Some offices cut through the center of the park.

LAN (airline) has a building here, with a plane jutting out of the side.

More nice trails!

A cool bridge crosses over Manquehue to connect the park.

More bridge!

Lots of mountains in the background.

Bridge!

Coming off the bridge into the more open side of the park.

This side always has a lot of doggies - fun to watch.

Bridge!

Wide-open spaces are nice!

Another nice flower - it's still Spring time here!

My longest run so far was around 9 miles, on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago.  I started by taking the train to San Cristobal, which is a large hill in the middle of the city.  I hiked up, enjoyed the views, and then ran home.  Quite a trek!

The subway system is pretty nice and well-connected (better than Atlanta...)

View of the city as I was hiking up San Cristobal

Picture of a handsome man I saw at the top - stunning!  The view is nice too!

There's a giant statue at the top, watching over the city.

Nice view of the mountains and some of the taller buildings.

The tallest building is like the Tower of Sauron.  It's the largest building in Latin America, and one day I may have to destroy the One True Ring in it's fire-frothing pits..

Santiago.  So nice.

And here are some kitties!

Hopefully that gives a good overview of how I’m living down in Chile.  Things are going really well, though I certainly miss having my beautiful wife around.  But she’s pursuing what she loves in Boston, so I can be patient!  Rachel flies down in a couple of weeks and we’ll be spending about a month adventuring in Patagonia, Argentina, and Brazil.  Should be a great time!

I will try to write at least one more blog post, but we will see how lazy I am.  At the current rate of writing, it would show up around mid to late March.  However, I’ll try to be a little more proactive this time J.   I’ll leave you with what I made for breakfast this morning, which is what crazy people do when they make breakfast by themselves:

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