My First Week

As promised, this post should have lots of pictures, and I'm hoping the next one will too! :)
So far, it's been a bit of a challenge making adjustments. So here are some of the adjustments I've had to make:
1. It is winter here. And it is very cold. Especially after coming from summer weather in Sacramento. My body has struggled quite a bit to adjust back to the cold, and it has been difficult for me to get warm.
2. Sort of in line with #1, most places here don't have heaters or have small/limited heaters. In my apartment, There is a gas heater that heats one half of the house. It gets turned on in the evenings, but is turned off before bedtime. Other than that, it doesn't run. Which means the rest of the time, the house is freezing cold.
3. Driving a stick shift. Fortunately, I know how to drive one, but it's still a challenge to adjust to. As promised, here are a couple pictures of my "camioneta."

This is my truck just parked at work...

...and this is where I have to park when I come home :)
4. The food here is a bit different. Especially when I have difficulty understanding what it is. The people I'm eating with usually have to explain what the food is to me, so I know what I'm eating/ordering.

This was just one of my meals. It's not particularly foreign (although the sauce/marinade for the chicken was different from home), but it was extremely delicious!
5. Not seeing my family/friends every day. It's been a little lonely without family and friends around. Even though Marcela, Anatolio, and my co-workers are very welcoming, I can't help but miss family and friends.
6. The size of everything. Everything here is much smaller than what I'm used to in the U.S. The bathroom is much smaller, the kitchen and appliances are much smaller, the rooms are much smaller, the cars are smaller, and the lanes are smaller.

This is the typical size for one of their wine glasses.

And these are some of the smaller appliances. (For a frame of reference, the toaster is normal sized.)

Overall, it was a pretty good first week. I made friends with a couple of my co-workers, and we eat lunch together everyday.

 Claudio is on the left and Jose is on the right. (That sign behind will be coming up in a later post. It's very insightful and really great advice). They have been very friendly teaching me about the different kinds of Chilean foods and showing me where to go around the office. Usually, we go to small local restaurants near the office.

This is a typical restaurant we would go to for lunch. You can kind of tell from this picture how small they are, but basically they are tiny little restaurants. They have really good food though and are fairly cheap. ($6 will get you soup, salad, bread, main course, dessert, and drinks!)

In addition to making new friends, I have almost completed the project that I was assigned. On Monday, I will be presenting my findings to the sales rep (Bernadita), the finance manager (Jaime), and the office manager (Sebastian).

A couple final things to share...

This is Viruta (named after one of their products. Viruta is a small chip that is used as an oak substitute). She lives at the office (but is not allowed inside). She is very cute and playful :)

This was the sunset view from the office the other night. Quite beautiful!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and look out for another post toward the end of the weekend with some more fun stuff. Feel free to comment below or send me an email if you want to know more about anything :) Love to you all!

-Ryan