A Day in the Life...

"...you have to work everyday?"

no, **I get to work everyday

Rise and shine begins and the office life starts at nine.  Living in such a large city (almost 7 million people, yeah what?!), the metro is the hot spot of transportation.  With five lines and connecting bus routes, the glorified NYC subway is my go-to for point A to point B.  Since my host family is only fifteen minutes from my work, I get to start my mornings with a little exercise (: (:  Through the neighborhoods of Las Condes, just a hop skip and a jump, I pass local schools and kindergartens until I reach my building.  

Floor three you find me, in an office for ten and creativity to no end.  My typical work day consists of various projects on office design, retail, restaurant, and residential.  Occasionally there's a field trip to the clients house or building site and office space to check-up on the process or take dimensions.  Free food is the fav, from vendors and various presentations, they come to network and share their products and projects for future potential collaboration.  Lunch time comes around 2:00, sometimes with a venture to the plaza across the street to try local cafes and other hot spots in the area.  Back to work and out by 6:00.  With my experience thus far, I've been fortunate with this opportunity to learn something new everyday, whether it be in Spanish or design, and have some design freedom to share my work and ideas with the team.

Since my summer falls to their winter, sun sets when my work day does as well, and nighttime begins at six.  Dinner time in Chile is typically between nine and eleven at night, so my three hour span allows me to rewind from work, catch up on some odds and end tasks, research my next adventure, catch up with friends and family back home, watch some Spanish Netflix series to touch up on my vocabulary, or help the family with dinner!  My host mother or their nana always serves up dinner for my host brother and myself.  I've had the chance to cook for them as well and share some ~american cuisine~.  I typically slide in to help with dinner clean up, but from time to time we play trivia games after our meal to determine who will wash the dishes.  Great Spanish practice but I think my host brother is a little to smart knowing I'm usually the washer in the end...

Monday through Friday usually consists of the same, occasionally meeting up with friends after work.  There are a lot of various events for English and Spanish speakers that allow me to immerse, interact, and practice my Spanish while helping others with their English! But when the weekends roll around and I'm work free, it's my me time(: My favorite part about Santiago is the amount of green space they have for a city.  Each weekend you can catch me in a new park, or exploring a new site to hike.  On Sundays, they close down a lot of streets downtown for five hours for people to go out and spend time with their families.  My favorite is seeing all the children galavanting through the park and dogs chasing through the fields.  The best part about being in such a large city, is there's always something new to explore both inside and outdoors.  Empanadas have become my staple and I love trying different ones at each place I come across.  Many shops or restaurants are closed on Sundays or close early, but Chileans love their malls and those are always an easy go to!  Santiago also offers a wide range of museums which are another one of my favorites to explore, along with the street craft and artisan vendors of clothing, art, jewelry, and odds and ends things of anything you can think of.  So many places to go and so little time, I'm excited to continue finding new spots in the city and venture to various parts of Chile to explore the country as a whole.