Santiago: Week One Recap – Moving, Exploring and House Hunting!

 

Hola a todos! Wow!  So much has happened in such a short amount of time.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been here less than a week a this point. We spent last weekend at my parents house, and got a great send off from my grandma and aunts before my parents dropped us at the airport Monday evening.  Leaving behind friends and family is definitely the hardest part of this move. I had to blink back a few tears as we turned the corner in the security line and gave my parents one last wave.  Fortunately, after saying goodbye and heading to the terminal, everything went smoothly with our flights, and we arrived Tuesday morning ready to explore our new home.

 

Packing for a long-term, international move is a little tricky to say the least. We have one small air shipment that is being imported separately, but everything else had to be checked and taken with us on the plane.  This meant we had a total of 7 suitcases between the 2 of us – 2 Carry on bags, 2 large rolling suitcases and 3 of my old Xavier volleyball travel bags.  Despite being a little nervous of whether we might be stopped at customs given the ridiculous amount of luggage we had, the only hiccup with the luggage was pushing our baggage cart down a hill toward the rental car lot.  After weeks of packing, organizing and re-packing, it felt great to arrive at our temporary apartment, unload our suitcases and settle in.

We were greeted at our apartment with a goody bag full of Chilean treats.  We got Tika chips (artisanal potato chips made from potatoes grown in the south of Chile), Cuchufli (rolled wafers filled with dulce de leche and dipped in dark chocolate), the Chilean spice Merquen and a bottle of Pisco.  Matt and I got pretty familiar with Pisco during our trip to Peru a few years ago, but apparently there is a rivalry between Peru and Chile over who this liquor belongs to.  Either way, I’m sure we’ll enjoy our fair share of Pisco Sours over the next few years.

We had a few immigration related items to take care of on our first day in the city, but once that paperwork was done, we set out to start exploring our new neighborhood.  The apartment we’re in now is just a temporary rental to get us through the first 30 days while we hunt for a place to lease during our time here, but it’s located pretty close to the neighborhoods we’re interested in living. One of the first things that struck us upon heading out to walk around and explore was how modern and clean this part of the city is.  While there are certainly differences that make you aware that you’re in a foreign country, there are times I could have sworn I was walking down a street in Chicago or Boston.

One thing I am already growing to love about Santiago is the amount of parks and green spaces.  Our current apartment is very close to Parque Araucano, and it was one of the first places we visited when we headed out to explore.  I can tell already that we’ll be spending a lot of time here.  It seems like people in this area are very active, and the park was full of runners, bikers and people kicking around soccer balls.  The gym at our temporary apartment leaves a lot to be desired, so we’ve actually used the park as our temporary gym, hooking our TRX up on a tree. Eventually we’re going to get a gym membership, but with a weather forecast that is all sun, all day, everyday for the foreseeable future, the park is a pretty good solution for now!

Just behind the park is a large commercial shopping area and mall.  I felt like I needed to stock up on wardrobe stables because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find them here. After seeing the mall we couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves when we realized how readily available most of the major brands we have at home are here.  There is definitely no shortage of options when it comes to shopping here.

We have also made several trips to nearby supermarkets and are starting to get a feel for our options here.  Unlike at the mall, there were definitely some things missing from our “usual” grocery list.  Organic and natural foods don’t seem to be as highly sought after here as they are at home, and more niche items like almond milk, are hard to come by and expensive when available.  Speaking of milk, it looks like we’ll probably be going without dairy milk for the next couple of years too.  So far all we’ve found is condensed milk or, what I can only assume is unpasteurized whole milk that sits, unrefrigerated, on shelves.  Eggs are also curiously not refrigerated here, which seems to be the case in the majority of other countries I’ve been to. We probably won’t forgo them completely, but it will take some getting used to to see them sitting alongside other produce on a regular shelf.

The first week wrapped up with our very own real life International house hunt experience.  I love me some HGTV, and House Hunters International was always one of my favorites.  While we saw way more than 3 properties, in the end there were actually 3 that stood out from the rest, so I definitely pretended I was on the show and deciding between:

House #1 – “With the beautiful rooftop pool, but far from the metro line”

House #2 – “Great kitchen and patio, but no building amenities”

House #3 – “Convenient location to work, but with an awkward layout”

The jury is still out on which one we’ll end up with, but we did put in an offer on our favorite of the three today, so fingers crossed that things work out.  From what we saw, there are lots of great options in this area, though, so either way I think we’ll end up somewhere that we’re happy with and we’re exited to finally move into our first place together.  Stay tuned to find out which one was the winner!

Overall, it was a great start to this next phase in our lives. The people have been incredibly welcoming, despite how few of them speak English.  It’s clear that we still have a lot to learn, and continuing to practice and master our Spanish is our #1 priority for the next few months, but we’re excited to see what else this city and country has to offer during our time here.  Hasta luego amigos!