On the similarity of cooking and showering in Chile

I have moved into my "apartment;" it's in quotes because it's not an apartment building (it's a house), but it sounds too weird to say house. The house is huge 3 story turquoise edifice made with a wooden frame. My room is huge with bay windows, but you can tell that the house is really old. There are 2 cats, 1 dog, and 1 rabbit and endless amount of plants (lots of cacti...I'm in heaven!). There is also a great garden with lemon trees, strawberry bushes, olive trees, and a big palm tree. Most importantly, the Pacific ocean is visible from my room (better seen from the garden). Well anyways, here are some things I realized today:

1) A 30 kg/50+ lb suitcase is impossible to lug up 4 flights of stairs by myself
2) When you bring that horrible suitcase to the 'ascensor,' these decades-old (dare I say..century old?) wooden external elevators to go up a hill, the lady will gawk at you and charge you double because the suitcase counts as a person...
3) Do not buy a lot of heavy grocery items when you have to walk a mile back home, most of which is uphill (ok...I caved in at around 1/2 the mile with damn groceries and took a colectivo, a shared taxi)

Once I got home, I was really excited to cook a hot meal (even if it was just pasta). I got everything ready, and turned on the stovetop...only to find out that it did NOT get hot. WTF I want my damn pasta. Well, I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I settled on a sandwich instead. I was a sad, sad girl that moment. And pretty pissed.

Couple hours later, I wanted to make tea. GUESS WHAT? I can't boil water! Well I was in a shitty mood. Then, the guy from Uruguay who lives in the room next to mine came out, so I asked him if the stovetop ever worked. Then he showed me how they work in Chile. Apparently you have to turn the propane tank on (next to the oven) and then using a match or a lighter, physically ignite the stovetop. Hmm this strategy does NOT sound so safe, especially with the propane tank within 1 foot of the oven. Well whatever, I had my hot tea so I was fairly happy.

Yet another couple hours later, I decided to shower. Well I couldn't get hot water to work. I was super pissed. I let it run for over 5 minutes and nothing worked. Wondering if I had to go shower-less for the rest of my year in Chile, I got pretty pissed. I decided to ask the other guy who lives on the floor (he's Chilean) to see if I was missing some magic switch. Well, indeed I was. Behind the bathroom there is this sketchy closet type and...oh what a surprise, there was a PROPANE tank. There was a small box on the wall, and a really small hole in the box. Basically you take a match and light something in the small hole on fire. And that rotates and heats the water. Keep in mind that this was all done in the dark. Also I think I was supposed to wait a bit for the water to heat up, because while I showered, it oscillated between hot and cold and needless to say I was freezing by the end. Last time I take a shower at night...I'd prefer not to burn my hand off or freeze my butt off...what a great combination.

On a brighter note, I had a 70 minute conversation totally in Spanish today with the guy from Uruguay who lives next to me. He's the first Uruguayo that I've ever met and he looks European. We're going running along the coastline tomorrow afternoon, which inevitably means I will embarass myself with my pathetic athletic skills.

Tomorrow I will take some pictures of the area where I am living. It is called Cerro Alegre, cerro means ´hill´in Spanish. Valpo consists of countless hills on top of each other, with houses precariously perched on every edge imaginable. The two hills that are under UNESCO world heritage site protection are Cerros Alegre and Concepción, so they're pretty cool neighborhoods with nice cafes, art galleries, music halls, and bookstores.

I kind of don't want to go to work on Tuesday...just want to bum and enjoy the city for a year...oh well, c'est la vie!