Well Susan was able to find her electric dryer, which here is called a secador, here is a picture of the standard secador in Chile



Susan also purchased a toaster and a freezer. Yes we did buy a TV and I did lose, we purchased a 32 inch, but I did get a blue-ray and home theater sound system. So as you see we are getting our house together.

This is a link to the Alto Las Condes Mall http://www.cencosudshopping.cl/altolascondes/
we shopped at,  It is a very big mall. The food court is very big. Just outside the mall they also had TGIF and AppleBees. It is kind of neat that two of the major retailers, Ripley's and Paris, sell motocicleta (motorcycle) in their stores.
We went with our neighbor, Gladys and her son Adolofo, who acted as our translator.

Shopping

Well today we are going to go Las Condes to do shopping. This area is called "Sanhattan," a mix of the words Santiago and Manhattan, this is because the area has many new and very expensive buildings housing offices, restaurants, hotels and banks.

Two of the tallest buildings in South America are located here:
Titanium La Portada, 55 stories and 194 m tall,

and  currently under construction, the Gran Torre Santiagoat, which when completed will be 300 m tall and 63 stories, located in the neighboring Providencia commune, which when completed will be the tallest building in South America,

Making new casa feel like home

Well we finally have our bed, well I should say I finally have a bed. Was delivered last night, at about 20
:45. That is another thing that takes getting use to, seem they will delivery till 21:00 (9:00 PM). Also they are not real set on delivery dates/install dates. We finally have Internet access, was schedule for Saturday but that was installed today, so can not really be sure when something is going to be done.

To be honest, have had some issue trying to sleep since we have had two earthquakes, our neighbors, both across the street say not to worry, houses are well built and even during the last big one, only a glass lamp shade was broken.

So our are days are pretty relaxed, although for some reason Hanna has started to get up at 6:00 instead of 7:00. If we need to go to the store for food, it is about a 10 minute walk. We do have watch how much we buy, as we do have to walk back, and my granny shopping cart, not this color, but style; sufferer's from a broken upper handle now.

The weather is starting to change, it is still in the 80's during the day, but in the morning its around 50 or so. Seems that I have gotten use to the warmth, that I have to put on a pull over in the morning.

Well tomorrow we are going to go shopping for our new TV, I say 42 inch TV and Susan says 32 inch, so we shall see. Laugh, although we all know I will probably loose.

This is the month THAT ALL of Chile, registers their vehicles for the year, you can pay all of it or pay half and then half again in December, I think. Also this is the beginning of new school year. Here all the kids wear uniforms, whither its a public or private school. Also the schools are called colegio, or college.

Well guess its time to post, as I cant think of anything eles to add.

Earthquake Chile

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0008pwq.php

Rolling..rolling

25 March 2012

Studying Spanish when earthquake started, looked at lamp it was swaying, went and looked at pool and had wave going. Initial reporting says it was 7.2 , about 136 miles  SSW of SANTIAGO. No damage but this getting trying....we ran outside, along with everyone else.

Casa Location

Here is link to Google map of location of our house

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Las+Vi%C3%B1as+6881,+Santiago,+Chile&aq=0&oq=las+vinas+6881&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=32.885543,84.814453&vpsrc=0&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Las+Vi%C3%B1as+6881,+Pe%C3%B1alol%C3%A9n,+Santiago,+Regi%C3%B3n+Metropolitana,+Chile&ll=-33.481496,-70.560572&spn=0.008447,0.020707&z=16

Wish Happy Birthday

Hey everyone, wish Susan a Happy Birthday today

Happy Birthday

Susan

New casa

 

Shake, rattle & roll

24 March 2012
Had small earth quake about 04:30 this morning.
See link
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/c0008pgw/us/index.html

No damage.

Will update later

23 March 2012

Well we are in our new home; we have been here two days. We have really nice neighbors; they brought over a bed, table and three chairs and TV and stand for us, the day we moved in. The children are our new interrupters’ as they know some English.

The day we signed for the house we bought a washer, refrigerator and couch and love seat, bed and night stands and an entertainment center. So far we have gotten the washer, refrigerator and entertainment center. The bed is supposed to be delivered on Monday.

There are two stores that are within walking distance for us to shop. One is called Jumbo, which is one of the largest retailer's here, somewhat like Wal-Mart; the other is like Cosco.

Some of the new things we have learned:

1. How does the power company read your meter? Especially because most homes have a fence and locked gate? Well I saw how they do it; the meter man uses binoculars and a mirror. He uses the mirror to add light to see meter if needed. I haven’t seen how they do the water and gas. I think they can use the same method to read the gas as they did for the electricity though.

2. We have learned that Chileans are very trusting of other people; this is why the houses have high fences and locked gates. This also means that you have to have your keys in your pocket or someone in the house, as if you go outside and the door shuts, the door locks automatically.

3. I am not going to go to deep into the issue of flushing toilet paper down the toilet, here is a good link.
http://www.southamerica.me/things-you-need-to-know-about-chilean-toilets/


The only think I will say is that there is not always a public restroom, one place you can look for one is at McDonalds’ or Burger King, they are typically on the second floor and they may not be marked where they are, just have to look. The banos in public will cost you about C$375 pesos, also make sure to get the toilet paper before you go in to stall….or bring your own.

4. Don’t ever wear gold jewelry, Susan had a woman stop and reprimanded her for wearing her gold necklace, she showed Susan how someone ripped the earrings out of her ears, and necklace off of her. Susan took hers off for one day then put them back on, were walking back to our apartment a few days later at dusk and someone came up behind Susan and ripped in off her neck. He was gone in seconds. The word is that you only wear gold if you are going out, and wear costume jewelry otherwise.

Will have to add pictures later, as having issues...sorry

17 Saturday March 2012
Well we are in new apartment, have to use prepay for Internet, so I will update more later. Also have received money from wire so we should be able to move in next week, Monday or Tuesday, I would think

Adios

15 Thursday March 2012

Well still waiting on money wire... ;(. Hope we do not lose the house we looked at. May have figured what issue was. 

Well not sure how I now have ads on my page.....?

Well not really sure how I am on Internet, is not supposed to be working...*L* but we all know an IT geek will find away.... :).

We like the new area we are in and will post new pictures later today.

Susan is currently giving the dogs a bath, now will be white dogs not gray.

14 Wed March
Well getting ready to move to new apartment. Here is the link for google map: Marcoleta 462 depto 913 Santiago Centro  http://maps.google.cl/maps?q=Marcoleta+462,+Santiago&hl=es&ie=UTF8&ll=-33.443295,-70.642498&spn=0.007869,0.016512&sll=-33.443142,-70.641968&sspn=0.007869,0.016512&hnear=Marcoleta+462,+Santiago+Centro,+Santiago,+Regi%3%B3n+Metropolitana&t=m&z=17  We are still waiting word on bank wire, so please pray for us as this really causes a lot of stress for us. Other then that not much is new, the weather is starting to cool off a little. Susan is not liking this as she has really gotten use to the heat. Well I will talk to you later, drop us a note when you get the chance

¡hasta mañana

 

3 March 2012

Well didn't do much today as Susan was not feeling well. So I thought  would upload some of the pictures we had taken

11 March 2012
Well I finally got my Linksys to connect, so now I can be on the Internet too.

Well where to begin.... we thought we had a house to rent, but that fell through due to its really hard to get to your own money here. The banks here cannot help you unless you have an account, which you cannot get unless you have a residential visa. And the banks in the US think that something is up if you try to wire yourself money.

So it has been an up and down roller coaster, we have to move in two days and still look at houses. I am sure that GOD will have us find something.

Some of the things that we have learned about this adventure are:

1.      Don’t try to fly from the US with connecting flights, if that’s the case, land and clear customs and fly the next day, especially if you have dogs or kids. In our case the dogs are our kids now.

2.      Make sure that your ATM cards work and you can remember your pin number , seems “Walter” has forgotten his…

Some of the things we have learned about Chile so far

 Fire Fighters are called "Bomberos", they are volunteers. All the officers are democratically elected by the volunteers. The government does not finance specialization courses for firefighters. Instead, they have to pay for it on their own. 'Bomberos' is the name given for the firefighters in most Spanish speaking countries ('bomba' is the name of the water pumps).

Founded in 1851, Valparaíso's Fire Department is the oldest of the country. Following it are the Santiago Fire Department established in 1863 and Viña del Mar Fire Department in 1884. Now all cities have a Fire Department each of which has its own officers and companies.

I have been able to make cable in English with Spanish sub-titles on some stations; otherwise, we watch it in Spanish.

Hanna and Kobe are doing well; they seem to have adjusted to city life.  Kobe does seem to miss being the attention of people, Santiagos seem to always be somewhat in a hurry, although at times people do stop and pet them. The only real problem we have with Hanna and Kobe is keeping them clean, they always seem to get dirty.

Well try to up load more pictures

Adiós, hasta luego

02 March Friday
Spent day walking around, here are some of the pictures

Found fish market

01Thursday

We spent most of the day, coping and notarizing paperwork for resident visa.  After this was completed , we had picrures taken and then off to the post office to mail.