A driving tour of Santiago

 We didn't have much time in Santiago de Chile, but our chauffeur during our stay was so great that he gave us a driving tour on our way to the airport. 

 

Parroquia Nuestra Senora de la Divina Providencia and a cool bridge.

 

Cerro de San Cristobal and President Jose Balmaceda Monument

A random park

The National Library!!!

The Chile version of the White House, the Palacio de la Moneda

A random building that isn't actually random but I can't remember what it is

Alameda Railway Station (Or estacion central), which is 137 years old

Speaking of heat waves

And speaking of heat waves (it was in the last post), it's really making me miss Buenos Aires. Where it was winter. And by winter, I mean in the 50s. And I miss it so much. The best I can do is reminisce. 

The bad news is I didn't have as much time in Buenos Aires to get out an about as I did in Montevideo. The good news is my last night in Buenos Aires was at a hotel right in the city center (I'm guessing it's the center?) where lots of cool stuff was and I could see it all from the balcony. I did leave the room, but yeah, didn't have to.

View from the first hotel room

Shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the hotel, but super genius. Why are we still doing little bottles?

Empanadas. They were amazing! And this one shows really well how they mark the flavor with letters on the crust.

View from the second hotel room.

View from the second hotel room.

The Obelisk. With the letters BA. 

The Teatro Colon

The literally 16 lanes of traffic outside the hotel. Okay, 16 is just my estimate. You'd think I'd have time to count the lanes, but when you are crossing, you have to hurry just to get across the section. But if you can figure it out, kudos! I'm going with 16. 

 

Heat wave

Last week* my team had a shindig with the published materials team at work. And, yes, shindig is the official term, because I'm the one who came up with the shindigs and I decided that is their official title. Basically, since we had one our biannual reorganizations, we're all broken up and siloed and I had been kicking around the idea of having a get together with each of the other teams so that my team would know other people (which they desperately need, as they don't really know any of them from before the reorganization and because I just decided that's how it should be. Call me a rebel.) and I was talking to a friend on another team and he mentioned that we need more treats at work. So, on my lunch break, I picked up some treats and we had a spur of the moment get together. After that, I made them more official, with actual calendar invites and by about the 3rd one, I decided the official name of them was going to be shindigs. And major props to my boss, who has let me run with it and has pitched in with bringing the goodies. 

Anyway, this last week I brought ice cream bars and stuff because the whole planet is having a heat wave and we are not exempt. And it is just too darn hot. I always go overboard when I do this sort of thing because I'm so terrified of running out of treats, so I had 6 boxes of different kinds of treats. For, maybe a dozen people? Lots of variety, though, so everyone would be happy.

And maybe more of those treats would have been eaten, but my boss (remember, the cool guy who just goes along with this whole scheme of mine?) brought pastries from an Argentinian bakery, which obviously were way cooler. There was some ice cream eating, too, but let's just say there were a lot of leftovers.

Well, I forgot to take them home that night, so the next day I told a group of friends (3-4) that they were still down in the freezer. And basically, all week long we were having ice cream breaks, which was SUPER fantastic. Definitely the way to live life in a hot July when you have to go to work. 

Basically, that was the best thing about this week and if you have a rough week--or an easy one, or a normal one, or a weird one**--coming up, I recommend ice cream parties. 

*or this week, depending on when you start a week? My calendars all have Sunday as the first day, so I'm going with last week. But Sunday is also the last day of the weekend, so if it is ending the week, how can it be the start of a week, all of which proves that time is dumb.

**Totally unrelated to anything, but there's a conference room at work where someone has written on the white board: "Have a nice day!" and then they crossed out nice. It makes me laugh every time I see it and also gives me a confidence boost because that is something I can definitely achieve.

Happy holiday!

Today is international chocolate day, according to the internet.* I celebrated by eating chocolate purchased in Montevideo, which in turn was imported from Bolivia. And eaten in the US. Which is pretty darn international. 

And since you can't enjoy the chocolate, maybe you'll enjoy a glimpse of Montevideo through pics:

*I did look into this once, and there's half a dozen various national/international chocolate days, in case you were wondering.

Transitions

The transition around travel is always weird for me. One minute, I'm at point A. Then there's this weird time warp thing where I fly or drive and am kind of in this not-here-not-there outside of the world phase. And then I'm at point B, doing point B things like point A didn't exist. It's weird.

On Friday, I got back from a 3-country trip to Latin America. And you would think a 9 hour flight from Santiago to the states and a 3 hour flight from state A to state B would get me back in the US groove, but not so much. (For the record, the 9 hour flight was an overnight flight, so I left from one country and woke up almost in another). I landed and it was super weird to not wear a mask places. Or hear Spanish everywhere and be wracking my brain to understand everything and remember the right words to answer. Or to remember how to buy groceries. (It was almost 2 weeks, guys). Or be on a non-travel schedule. Or get in a car and drive somewhere as the driver (we rode a lot of places in South America). 

Tomorrow I will go back to work and have to adjust to that, too, which I'm not looking forward to. Even though it was a work trip, it was like a vacation in a lot of ways. No meetings, no management (meaning, I didn't have to manage, which honestly was probably a vacation for everyone who reports to me, too). Just sitting down and doing the work. And tomorrow will be paperwork and tying up loose ends and reports and editing and lots of interruptions. And people, which is nice, because I haven't really seen people for a couple of days now (the pros and cons of getting home on a holiday weekend). But also people, who I love but also have a lot of anxiety about. (Yes, that is totally a thing that is possible. Liking people and being stressed by them are not mutually exclusive). 

And, yes, it is weird because it feels like my country tour was so long ago (4 days, folks. Only 4 days!). Because time is weird and doesn't make any sense, and coming home from a trip is a bittersweet transition and time is SUPER WEIRD, did I mention? Anyway. Happy Tuesday to you!