We have arrived!

It has been just over a month since we have been in Chile and it has passed so quickly. One of our goals was to get this blog up and it is exciting to make our first post.

We are set up in our new home, which was quite easy, as it is a furnished apartment, so we literally only had to unpack.  But we are still unpacking a bit, as I brought more shoes than I remembered and am still trying to find places to hide all of them.  And while we didn't get much of a honeymoon (we are calling it a mini-moon as it was only 2 days long) no honeymoon can surpass how good it felt to unpack and be home.

Here are some photos of our new home:

Our new home is in the bohemian part of town  (called Providencia) and is in an older building (built in the 50s) that Victor's Grandmother used to live in.  The great thing about older buildings in Chile is that you know they are well built if they have made it this long with the earthquakes :)

The building faces the Mapuche river so we have a nice view of the mountains on a sunny day as there is no building blocking our view (see the photo of the view farther down in the blog).  And these is a walking bridge right in front of our apartment that leads to a park with a public library. I sometimes go work from the library as they have free-wifi; it is a cute little library and great to have so close.

The kitchen is also red, like our old kitchen in DC, and I love it.  It is a large space, but set up kind of funny, so you don't actually have a lot of counter space.  And I have never seen such fancy appliances in my life.  The frig is made by the same company who makes my contacts: Bosch, and the washer and dryer have buttons in 3 languages.  I think only when you live abroad do you try appreciate how exciting it is to make the appliances work the first time.. it is as if you have figured out the secret code.

One bad thing is that we did have problems with the refrigerator when we returned from the wedding and it wasn't working for the first 10 days, so we were eating out a great deal. But now it is up and running.

This is the view out of the kitchen window.  The hill is called San Cristobal and it is a city park.  There is a statue of Mary at the top and there are walking trails, as well as a cable car to go to the top.  Also you can see the Hospital on the right, which is just around the corner, so we are in a great part of town with everything so close.

This is our living room. It has a bit of a 70s feel to it with the funky light fixture and the sofa (which you can't really tell, but it is purple velvet!).

This is the view outside my office on a beautiful day.  The Chileans call days like this Santiago in HD (high definition).  While I must say that not all days are like this, as Santiago also is known for its smog, the beautiful days really do stand out.

This is my office and where we spend a great deal of time either playing Wii (our favorite wedding gift) or watching cable (this is the first time we have ever had cable and we are enjoying it).


Until next week, over and out from Chile.