December 15, 2007
I ran up a big hill yesterday. I’m proud of myself. With running, I usually stick to the safe and easy…long distances. I worked my way up to running between an hour and an hour and a half recently but I decided I couldn’t just keep adding time to my jogs because soon I’ll be running for like three hours a day. That’s just not a very efficient workout. I needed a way to challenge myself, burn more calories, and still be running because that’s what I like, it’s what I do.
To see the hill I ran up, click here (I didn’t take that picture, I just it on Flickr). There is a road that winds up around the hill in circles. It was full of bikers and a few other runners. I’m proud to say that every runner I saw, I passed on the way up and the way down. I also passed a lot of people on bikes too, but according to S. that’s not fair because “biking uphill is WAY harder than running uphill.” Anyways, I thought I was cool passing people with wheels. I think I’m going to go again. A good challenge is something I’ve always loved. Today there’s sure to be more people, hopefully some who are faster than me so I can struggle to keep up.
I know nothing about running. I don’t even try to learn. I just put on my tennis shoes, and my ipod and hit the pavement. I keep no even pace, I slow down or speed up with every song that comes on. I don’t have proper shoes and I don’t ever stretch before or after (and I’ve never had a running related injury either). The one piece of running advice that someone once gave me and I actually remember is the following:
The best way to keep up with someone is to watch their butt. You latch on and go with their rhythm. Keep your eye on the ass and you’ll never fall behind.
So hopefully if someone faster than me is heading up the hill in front of me he/she has a nice ass so I can enjoy the scenery of my one running technique.
December 14, 2007
Sometimes life is just way too good to blog about. When I know there’s no possible way to put into words all the awesomeness that is happening I tend to think that one day I’ll write a huge giant post and explain everything…but then I sit down to write and I feel like I just can’t describe it all.
The new apartment is AMAZING. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life. To be honest, it has changed everything. S. and I both feel so much more free here. Being in the heart of Santiago is really nice too. We walk out the door and we’re surrounded by bars and restaurants, and transportation.
Our move has really highlighted the differences between lower and (upper) middle class for me. Middle class doesn’t really exist here, so I guess that would make us upper class even though I don’t feel like we’re rich or anything. Anyways, for instance, near where we live there are bus stations but there are never any huge long lines of people waiting. Back in my old neighborhood people would have to wait for hours to get on their bus. Just walking down the street is different. I have yet to see a stray dog in the week since I’ve been here. Before, while running, I felt like I playing dodge the dogcrap every time I stepped out the door. Strays and the souvenirs they left behind were all over the place. Streets in Providencia are so much cleaner! And, let’s not even get started on how much better (and not full of dangerous chasm like holes) the sidewalks are.
I used to live three blocks from a supermarket called Lider. When I first moved in with S. I thought that I would do all my grocery shopping there. WRONG. All the vegetables and fruits in their produce section were putrid. And the few times I managed to find ones that didn’t look rotten, low and behold when I’d get the red pepper home and cut into it a few hours later, it would be slimy inside. At my new Lider all the produce is shiny and ripe and perfect. I still don’t shop there, though. I’m scarred for life. But now that I’m not in a poor neighborhood…I have options…GASP. There are two other supermarkets within walking distance, and several fresh fruits and veggie stands nearby as well.
Speaking of options. Twice, when we lived back in Estacion Central we ordered pizza and our order was delivered wrong (and incredibly late). Each time we called back to have them fix it and the phone operator was a total bitch and acted like it was our fault that they made the wrong kind of pizza. We were never offered any kind of discount or even an apology for having waited over an hour for our food. I wonder why. Could it be because they know that not one single other pizza company exists within delivery range from our old house so if we wanted pizza we had one option and one option only???
After moving into our new apartment, we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. We thought it was prepared wrong.
And if you’re wonder why we have all these pizza dilemmas, it’s because I eat my pizza without cheese. People just can’t wrap their minds around that.
Anyways, we called back, the manager apologized profusely, told us to keep the original pizzas and said he would have both remade (even though one was correct already) and would have them sent as a delivery (even though we had went to go pick it up and paid takeout, not delivery price). Could this be because in my new rich people neighborhood there are at least five pizza places within walking distance from us (yes, not even within delivery distance, within walking distance)? Yeah, I think so.
Oh, and in the end it turned out there wasn’t cheese on my pizza, the dough was just really mushy and white and looked like cheese. I’m an idiot. We called back and the manager said we could still have the remade pizzas if we wanted to come get them. Holy customer service batman!
It’s not just the pizza and the grocery store. It’s everything. On a grander scale, if we had kids their options for schools around here would be so much better. If we were thinking about actually buying a house we would have tons of places to choose from. The differences in neighborhoods is just unreal.
I never had any illusions about where I lived before. I was one hundred percent clear that where we lived (not the actual house, the casa itself was quite nice, I mean the neighborhood alone), was crap. And I also actually spent a semester living in Providencia as an exchange student, so it’s not like this is my first time being here. But, in that first semester, your vision of everything isn’t the same. You don’t truly understand what real life in Chile is like if you’re an exchange student.
Now that I’m here as an adult and a semi-permanent resident in Chile, it feels a lot different. And I LOVE it.
December 7, 2007
This is pretty much the most excitement I’ve had in a long time. Things are crazy around here right now. My stomach lining has decided to eat itself because I haven’t eaten all day…why…because all our kitchen stuff is packed. We’re officially moving in to our new apartment tonight and I am beyond thrilled!!!!
Of course, it’s going to be sort of like camping for the first couple days (maybe weeks, depending on how our finances look). We don’t have a refrigerator, we don’t have chairs for the kitchen, or a couch to sit on. We need to buy little things like can openers, a cutting board and probably a vacuum cleaner too. I’m sure we’ll realize what else is missing as soon as we’re moved in. We have a bed though, we’ll have our own space and we’ll have a pool on the roof…and that’s what really matters.
Taking the first load of stuff to our apartment last night, as we drove past bars, restaurants and shops that are all within walking distance from our new place, I just felt such a wave of happiness. Our life is really changing for the better with this big move. We’ll finally be free from invasive family members. And we’ll be right in the thick of things which will be so great for Seba and I. Something we struggle with a lot is that I always want to go out and do things since I work from home and I’m in the house all day long. And he never wants to go out because he’s walking around outside for work all day long every day. A big part of that is because where we live there is nothing by way of restaurants or nightlife (unless you count a strip club about two blocks away where every single man in this neighborhood eats lunch). So for us to go out, the closest available entertainment is at the very least a half hour away, if not more most of the time. Now we’ll be able to go out and come back all within an hour or two which used to be the time we’d spend in transportation alone.
Anyways, point being, I’m HAPPY!!!!
I am packing up my computer now and the internet people don’t come until tomorrow, so until then au revoir.
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