Solving the household problems

On sunday morning we woke up at 1 PM. We had slept for 12 hours and we still felt that we could have slept for longer. However, it was a time to get out of the bed and start solving the problems of our household. The only thing that worked in our house was the lights. It was terribly cold and extremely humid in our flat. We couldn't take our clothes out of our backpacks because otherwise they would have became moist. Everything in the flat was moist, the wall-to-wall carpet was moist, the beds were moist, the walls were moist and the couches were moist. Furthermore the flat stinked like a potato warehouse (!) because of the mold. We didn't feel that comfortable anymore because our home was like a one big tent. We went straight downstairs in our "pyjamas" and couldn't communicate too well again - "Solo luz, solo luz" was almost the only thing we could say - but the man at the reception desk fortunately undorstood what kind of problems we had.

After hour or two the janitor came upstairs and found out that our water boiler had fused a short-circuit. During his visit almost all of our problems were solved, but the internet still wasn't working. We called to the technical support but our spanish was way too poor! So we called to our land lord and he came to our place and solved the problem with the internet. He seems to be such a helpful and nice man!

On sunday we also had our first guests Malin and Brie, who are from Germany and also attending the same Spanish course. Girls were so helpful when we tried to get our home working again. They spoke better Spanish than anyone of us so without them everything would have been way more harder. We had a nice afternoon with the girls, just chilling in our home. In the evening we went to a mall and made some necessity purchases.

Tired but happy after the day we went to our double bed again and slept our second night in our moldy but more comfortable home.

The only socket that worked in our flat was the one in my room.

Helpful Roberto solving our internet problems.

Our first guests.

Finally in Santiago.

After 26 hours of traveling we finally arrived to the airport of Santiago de Chile at 8 AM. It was the most beautiful blue moment when the plane started the landing. You could see the snowy Andes between the foggy morning clouds. By then I already knew I would fall in love with the country.

I shall tell you a bit more about my first day in Santiago and especially the first impressions of the city and the people.

After arriving we waited for a few hours at the airport, arfter which we took a taxi straight to our new flat. The driver dropped us off in front of our house on our street Ramón Corvalan. We neither saw our landlord nor Laura, but we didn't have to wait for a long time until we heard the landlord calling "Pia, Pia" from the balcony of our apartment (which is "by the way" on the 22nd and the highest storey). We entered the gates of our yard and saw a doorman waiting for us at the door of the house. In Santiago almost every apartment house has its own doorman and reception desk. At the door of our flat we finally met Laura (oh yes, she's alive and having the time of her life). When we finally calmed down - after hugging, screaming and catching our breaths because of the unbelievable view from our balcony - we signed the lease. The communication with the land lord was poor but funny, because Roberto (his name) was very delighting person and patient with us. We all were very pleased with the apartment and from the Finnish point of view it was incredibly cheap (imagine a flat with the city view surrounded by Andes for 700 euros).

We were dead tired and hungry after traveling 30 hours all in all. We decided to go and catch something to eat and do some basic grocery purchases. On our way to the eatery we were beseted by a bunch of crazy and loud football fans who started hugging and squishing us. After several pictures taken with them they finally let us go. I would say the first contact with the locals was quite a funny situation - especially because of our tiredness and newbie-kind of feeling. Finally, after the incident we found a place where to get some food. It was a local casual "restaurant", where they offered churrasco sandwiches (churrasco= thinly cut strips of steak). We managed to order our portions with our poor Spanish - thanks to the lovely and helpful old lady who had nerves of steel with us. Me and Pia ate our first meals in Chile with an good appetite. Laura, being a vegetarian, had some problems with the communication: instead of a veggie sandwich she got a hot dog.

Satisfied, we returned to our flat and went to bed. We all slept for several hours. When we finally woke up we confronted some unsatisfying facts: none of the electronic devices worked anymore. This meant that our fridgerator didn't work anymore, there was no warm water, no internet, no electronic heating, nada. Furthermore we couldn't call the land lord cause the phone didn't work. After processing the facts for some minutes, we forgot all our problems because of the unbelievable view - again. It was already a evening and dark so we could see the city in its full regalia, with thousands of glinting lights. After admiring the lights we decided to take a freezing cold showers and get ourselves ready for the evening. Oh yes, Laura got already a plan for our first evening: we were supposed to go out with the other people from our Spanish course (which had already started on 1st of July). So at 10 PM we took a metro and met everyone in front of our school Universidad Mayor in Manuel Montt. We continued our way to the Bellavista district, which is famous for its' bars and restaurants...and tourists. We spent the evening in a bar, eating, drinking (the local alcohol called pisco) and getting familiar with the other students, who are from Brazil, Germany, France, US, Denmark and Taiwan. Some of the people are staying in Santiago just for the language course and thus leaving after July. Some of them are staying the whole semester, just like us.

Me and Pia started to feel a bit tired at the point when crazy brazilians started the dancing. We left the bar around 1 AM and walked back home. Our flat is situated perfectly in the heart of the city so the distances are short, no matter where you are. When we arrived back "home" we had to encounter the coldness again. There's no central heating systems in the Chilean houses so the temperature inside can be sometimes even lower than outside. We decided to rely on the human warmth and instead of sleeping in our own bedrooms we all three shared the double bed and it turned out to be a perfect idea. I had the best sleep I've had in a long time. I slept incredibly tightly and it wasn't cold at all, thanks to the two socks (normal ones and the woollen ones), the two shirts (a normal one and a woollen one) and the two pants that I wore. Not to mention the sleeping bag and the warm blanket in which I wrapped myself. The first day in Santiago was behind and we all thought the feeling was still a bit unreal.


Finally in Santiago with all our luggage.


Pia in front of our new home.


Night view from our balcony.


The First night.

The Start

Mikonkatu, Helsinki

This is where my journey to Chile begins. To be honest I don't even realize that I'm actually leaving and not going to see my dear Suomi-faces in a while. I haven't set any certain goals for things I need to do or see during my trip. There's still a couple of tiny missions I wish to accomplish:

1. To discover Chile and other South American countries.
2. Learn to speak Spanish.
3. Enjoy Life.
(4. To keep this documentation updated ;))

I suppose it can't be too hard..

Now everything starts to be ready for the take off. At the moment I'm with my friend Pia, who is also my future flat mate, travel buddy and a very wonderful person. When we arrive to Santiago we are supposed to meet another Finnish friend Laura (also a great companion!), who is also going to be our flat mate. Laura took a flight already on Monday, so she has been there now couple of days. We are supposed to meet her in front of our house - we really hope that Laura will turn up there, because we haven't heard any single thing about her yet (and that's a bit frightening). She left already on Monday, so she has been there for couple of days now.

Now is the time for the final panicky kind of packing. Our flight is leaving at 5 PM and we have to be at the airport 3-4 hours before, since they have said it's going to be crashing rush hours at the airport. Our travel time is more or less 20 hours.

Bye Bye Finland, Welcome Chile. Here I come!