Okay, am now officially over the drama that was getting paid from Tronwell. Since then I have successfully navigated both the extranjera office for my work visa and the internal affairs office for my tax number. Both a nightmare.. the extranjera office especially as I waited 2 hours, for a guy to stamp and print out my visa which could have been done in 5 minutes. But I won`t go into that... Got my first full pay check since being made redundant and man how exci...

Bureaucracy in Chile Part 1: Trip 1 to Tronwell (my previous institute where I worked 7 days when I first arrived). It was pay day. "Hi, can I please have my pay?" "Actually it will be ready in 2 weeks" "Why?" "end of contract administration time" Trip 2 - 2 weeks later; "Hi, I`m here to pick up my pay" "Um... er.. did we call you?", "No, but you said it would be ready" "Um, er... can yo...

Things I love about Chilenos and Chile 1. They kiss you on the cheek when they arrive and leave. This is great if your a no mates like me. You immediately have friends. And when you go to leave you can kiss all your new friends, even if you didn´t talk to them. This poses problems with a large group. Entry and exit to parties consists of a round of kissing people which can take a while. No wonder Chileans are always late. 2. Booze and food is of upmost importa...

This week has totally flown by, as I have gone from doing not much to being crazy busy... working heaps, my boss at the language school loves me as I just am doing as many hours as he gives me. Feel like I should as I don´t know how long the work is going to last! So between teaching English, I have been still doing the volunteer stuff and even mananged to fit in a little tour guiding to some friends from Queenstown on Friday. I really realised how far my Spani...

So, and another week passes... I have slipped into routine of English teaching + my volunteer work and a few Spanish lessons in between. Luckily Carlos my boss has lived up to his word of giving me more hours and October should finally be a full pay where I at least break even... that will be a shock to the bank balance! lets hope my life continues in this vain...as these past few months have been tough! I almost accepted a job in a shop I was getting a bit worr...