La Chilengüita: Days 2 & 3 of Funemployment

I have now been funemployed for a total of 3 days and so far so good. While I took the first day relatively easy, these last two days have been filled with a lot.

On Day 2, I woke up at 8:30am to the sound of Dulcinea barking like a crazy person because the nana rang the doorbell. I was still in bed and Christian was in the shower, so I had to get up and open the door for our nana. She always arrives around this time, but I am normally already up and ready for work, so this time it was a bit of a shocker to wake up to Dulci's crazy bark. I was in such a daze after getting up that it took me a good 15 minutes to actually wake up and be able to think straight. I made some eggs for breakfast again and proceeded to check my emails. Once I was done with that, I got ready and then made lunch. I made some veggie soup (a twist on from the spicy butternut soup recipe I posted here) for lunch and went out to buy some baguette bread to make garlic bread to accompany the soup. I have to admit that I really enjoyed being able to make lunch at home and actually sit down to eat it after I make it, instead of putting it in a tupperware container for the next day's lunch. I had planned to go to Zumba at the gym at 1:40pm so I ended up eating my lunch before Christian go home so that I would make it to the gym on time.

Zumba was great! This was my second class at the gym and I am really enjoying them. Luckily my gym has Zumba classes Monday-Friday and my goal over the next few week is to make class as much as possible. I am trying to schedule all social gatherings or other obligations around the Zumba schedule because I really really really like this class and it's not like I can take it just anywhere (not here in Santiago at least).

After Zumba, I showered and went for a doc appt. It was quick and painless and I was back in about 30 minutes. From there, I started sending emails to the people who are coming this weekend to pick-up the items they bought from us (since we are selling everything to move to the US). Before I knew it, it was 6pm and time to go pick-up Christian at work. So out Dulci and I went.....and I kept telling her "Vamos a buscar al Daddy, dónde está el Daddy?" ("We are going to get Daddy, where is Daddy?"). I tell you, my dog is so doggone smart. She knew exactly what we were doing and this it the first time we have gone to pick him up in over a year probably. In fact, the whole way to his office, she had me running with her instead of just walking. We entered the building, took the elevator to the 16th floor and as soon as we stepped off the elevator, she started whimpering. She was so excited to see him and wouldn't stop crying. We finally entered the reception area where other people distracted her until Christian came out. I swear that everyone in his office knows who she is...."Oh it's Dulcinea!", "How adorable Dulcinea is", "Dulcinea came to visit us!", "That is Christian's dog, Dulcinea"....and on and on it went. Hahaha....!

Originally Christian had plans to go have dinner at one of his coworker's houses. The coworker, who happens to be from Spain, invited me to go as well, and while I had originally planned on working on stuff around the house I decided to go to the dinner and have me some paella. I mean, stuff around the house can wait, I can bust my butt during the day, but these gatherings--with good people who are entertaining--that is what matters right now. Strengthening and maintaining our connections with the friends we have made here because soon enough we won't be able to get together with them whenever we want. And so I went, Dulci did too and we had a really nice time. We took a bottle of wine that I purchased at the Vendemia de Pirque a few months ago that was a Late Harvest that is local to Pirque. It is called La Misión Sauvignon Blanc from the William Fevre vineyard.

We started with delicious pisco sours made by our friend's wife and then moved on to the wine we bought. I had two glasses and probably could have drank more because it was so. darn. good. As was our company.

(L-R: Me, Aceto, JR)

(L-R: Aceto, Chris & Dulci, JR, Claudia)

We ended up running out of wine (we only had 1 bottle & 5 adults)....but that was probably a good thing, hahaha, because the morning of Day 3 when my alarm went off, I was not a happy camper. So I hit snooze and slept for a few hours more. Ahhh and that is what rocks about funemployment. You can hit snooze as long as you want.

Once I actually got up on Day 3, I knew that the gym was not going to happen. I only had time to go in the morning and I was not going to make it. It wasn't even like I was hungover, but I just didn't feel good, I was under the weather and more than that, super tired still. So I working on finishing up the emails to people who are coming to pick-up our sale items and updating our sale blog (which by the way, if you need a bed or a stove or other stuff, check it out!). I had a chiropractor appointment around mid-day and once I got home, I ate the rest of the soup from yesterday. On a side note, I swear that soups are better the second day around. After lunch, I really had to get busy with house stuff. The goal was to finish sorting my clothes. I had previously sorted my clothes into three piles: 1. yes, take with me; 2. no, I don't want; and 3. maybe, need to try on to decide. So I took the third pile, which, of course, was the largest and started trying it all on. I was able to finishing sorting it all by the late afternoon when it was time to prepare for my work despedida dinner.

At my company, or I guess ex-company, whenever someone left the company on their own terms (ie. not fired), someone from their team organizes a dinner that everyone is invited to. I have gone to two or three during my years at the company and it is nice to have an event outside of work to celebrate the person's next move. So this time it was my turn. My boss and some people on the finance team organized a nice dinner at a local seafood restaurant called Aquí Está Coco. This restaurant actually burned down in 2008 and was rebuild and just reopened earlier this year, or at the end of last year. It has been around for over 30 year and is something of a legend in Providencia (the barrio where it is located).

We were a small group of 9 in total, but we had a great time at the dinner. I know a few other people had planned on coming, but after a super rough week at work (pulling all-nighters), they were either too tired or still at the office by the time 8:30pm rolled around. At first, my plan was not to drink at all (especially after last night's dinner)....so I started the evening out with a Shirley Temple. For the picoteo, we had an empanada de maricos, machas a la parmesana, and a tabla de varios mariscos (ceviche, pulpo, salmon, etc).

Then, as I was browsing the menu to pick my main dish, I saw that they had a pisco sour de maqui as a house specialty. Maqui is a purple berry-like fruit from Southern Chile. I remember eating it when my mom and I went travelling down to Lago Llanquihue and Puerto Montt back in 2007. So I decided to try this new type of pisco sour. It was as purple as can be, and quite yummy although I can't say that I truly noted a different flavor. But I did like the color!

For my main dish, I decided to get the seared tuna with merlot reduction salsa and sauteed veggies. The tuna was good, but to be honest it wasn't as tasty as Astrid y Gaston's seared tuna. I loved the merlot sauce with the veggies though.

For dessert, I had the "texturas de chocolate" which were three different chocolate sweets--a brownie, a nutella-like spread and some chocolate ice cream along with some traditional Chilean avellanas. Sooo delicous! Give me chocolate and hazelnuts anytime and I will be a happy camper!

Besides the food, the company was awesome. We had lots of laughs, thanks to one particularly animated coworker, who also got me thinking with his question "What are you going to miss about Chile?" Now, that is kind of a loaded question and definitely put me on the spot. The first things that came to mind were:

Good pisco sours
Having all of my gringa friends in the same city (whereas, as we all move back home, we will be located all over the US)
Good public transportation between cities (onda, not like the sketchy buses back home that go city to city)
The fact that everything is in close proximity--from the mountains to the beach, it will take you max. 3 hours
Good seafood (I didn't actually come up with this one, my animated coworker did, but I agree with him which is why I have added it to the list)

I couldn't really think of anything else, but I am sure that over the next few months as we are transiting back to the US and going through reverse culture shock, I will come up with several more things that I miss about Chilito.

With that, I leave you with a group picture--slightly out of focus--but a good reminder of the evening. Thanks everyone for coming to the dinner!!!