Chile! - Part 1: Santiago

Better late than never, I thought, and thus you can now read about my weekend trip to Chile.
As there are not international flights leaving Goiania Airport, I had to leave to Sao Paulo first and spend the night there. My flight left here on Friday night and arrived in Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport at 21h. Unfortunately I missed my bus into the city by mere two minutes, and had to wait for another 30 until the next would drive me to Congonhas, but if I have learned something in Brasil, waiting is definitely it…
Sandra picked me up in Congonhas and after a quick beer at her apartment we went to have a big and amazing Sushi Dinner. Of course, not without taking a picture and sending it to Kaoru in Tokyo!
We had a lot to talk about so we stayed up nearly all night and I just got half an hour of sleep until at 5am my taxi arrived to bring me back to Congonhas, to take the bus to Guarulhos, to finally board my plane to Santiago de Chile.

I slept the whole four hour flight and when we finally arrived I was all awake and happy to explore the city.
Once through the very tough customs with dogs and big machines to scan / x-ray all of my luggage to keep me from entering the country with plants, vegetables or any other living thing that might spread, I found Carlos, my friend and first term team mate from IE waiting for me.
We drove towards the city, which is built into a dent with the Andes in the back, and I swear it could have been Switzerland. The swiss impression of the country only changed when we passed the poorer parts of Santiago, but soon we were in the middle of a buzzing, very clean, and very modern city. I must admit: I loved the city from the very first moment on, even though it was cold (Goiania: 28°C, Santiago: 6°C) and rainy.

Carlos’ wife Consuelo was waiting for us at home and as soon as I had gotten rid of my luggage and unpacked my warm coat and scarf, we went to take a stroll through downtown. I just liked the city more and more. One can easily see that Chile is the most westernized country of South America and the clean little parks and spots to sit, the open cafés and the well maintained houses seem to have everything that Brasil is working on, yet still lacks.
We had a coffe in the main square and took a look at a little exhibition about Rapa Nui (Easter Islands) which lie far off the Chilean Coast, closer to Tahiti in fact than to the country they “belong” to.

As it was time for lunch, we went to a nice restaurant at the border of a big park and had amazing seafood for starters, together with fresh bread and a spicy type of tomato relish which Consuelo and I loved. Then I had something “typical Chilean”, a type of meat with a lot of sauce and spicy mashed potatoes. Technically, this could have also come from the “Schwabenländle” in south Germany, where they love mashed potatoes and everything as to swim in a nice meat sauce. I loved it. (yes yes, I keep repeating my love for Chile, but what shall I do, I am supposed to tell the truth here…)
On the way out Franziska reached me. Her and Alastair had taken a later plane and had now arrived in Santiago as well. We decided we would meet later at night for drinks, as I was invited to watch soccer and have some snacks together with Carlos’ family at his parents house.
Before we could think about more to eat though, we first had to walk off all the things we had just indulged ourselves with.
We took a route into the park and up the mountain until we reached a platform from where one could watch all over Santiago. The city was hid in a mix of clouds and smog, yet it was great to see how it was huddled against the mountains in the back.
A little higher up one had an even better view and could climb up to the statue that you can see on the pictures. It watched over Santiago, a little like the Jesus Statue watches over Rio de Janeiro. However it is a little smaller.

I was tired as hell when we reached Carlos’ and Consuelo’s home again, and so I took a little two hour nap before we left to watch the soccer game. Apparently my four hours of sleep on the plane weren’t as relaxing and deep as it had seemed…

We watched the soccer game at Carols’ family’s house and his mom had prepared all kinds of little tapas for us to eat. It was very yummy and even though I have no clue about soccer, I enjoyed it very much.
After the game, we went together with Carlos’ sister and her boyfriend to a nice area with bars where Franziska and Alastair were already waiting for us. We had a couple of beers and a nice chat.

Rainy Days in Chile

Text will follow later, here you find pictures of Santiago, Zapellar, Vina del Mar, Val Paraiso, the Beach and Concha y Tore Vineyard :)

Kafka was brazilian...

... or if not, whomever invented rules and laws on how administrativ things work in Brasil had just read Kafka and loved him.
Me, on the other hand, I do not like Kafka. I never thought he was interesting and when I had to read his books and stories in school I was just reassured, that Kafka really isn't my thing. But you always meet twice in life, and Kafka came back at me. Not in a book this time, but with an adjective that was purely invented for him and the way his stories work. Kafkaesque.

Wikipedia says:

"Kafkaesque" is an eponym used to describe concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of Prague writer Franz Kafka, particularly his novels The Trial and The Castle, and the novella The Metamorphosis.

The term, which is quite fluid in definition, has also been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity. [...]

Situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

If you have read my blog entry "What Pachaa is for Madrid..." then you have already gotten an idea of how bureaucratic things in Brasil are sometimes, even if it is just to get into a club. It led me to writing a series called "Kafka was brazilian..." of which you can read part one right here, right now.

Buying a TV.

Even though I am not a a big fan of TV, I sure am a big fan of movies and I do not like to watch them on the tiny screen of my tiny laptop. Thus, I needed a TV.
Well, I thought, that cannot be so hard. Its a TV. You go to the stores, look at the offers, pick one, take it home, plug it in. Done. Well, thats right, I THOUGHT.

Well, first of all, things tend to be sold out. I could pull out some comparisons to the former GDR now, but I won't ;) Afterall, I have just heard those stories from other people.
But it is true about Brazil. Stores do not like to keep a lot of anything in storage that is expensive, and while I can understand that, it bothered me while shopping for a TV.
Everytime I found one I liked it was sold out and the prices tend to jump up and down every day. But this cannot really be called kafkaesque, so here comes the real deal.

I finally had found a TV I want even though there was none left in storage (if there ever was one) but I could have the one standing in store. Quickly, I pulled out my debit/credit combi-card in order to pay my new TV and take it home.
First though, I needed to register in the store. Name, Adress, Phonenumber... ooops, system fail. Again, Name, Adress, Phonenumber... ooops, does not work, there is a, street number required for the adress and not just the buildings name. Mh, too bad, cause the city hasnt given out numbers yet (it is a new building in a new quarter). Okay, it will be 00.
I am registered. I get asked to please move over to the nice lady behind a bulletproof glas. The cashier.
When I try to pay though, it turns out that neither debit, nor credit, nor a combination work. My limit is too low. Limit?, I think, What limit? They never told me about any limit?! Its just a TV?!
The salesperson offered me I could go to the ATM and take out all money I can and see if it is enough. So I gave it a try, but my limit was 500R not enough for the TV... And keeping it and going again tomorrow for more and driving all across the city with so much money? No thank you.
I decided I would just go to the bank and pick up checks to pay the next day, and i was promised that they would keep the TV. Tomorrow at 10am, they said, we open and you can come and pay.

The next morning, it was 10:30, I was back at the store. Unfortunately, it was still closed. Due to rearrangement of the store, it would only open at 2pm it said on a big screen. Well, "re-arranging" the store?! The guy yesterday could have known that... oh well.

I came back at 16h and, oh, new sign: The store stays closed today. Thank you very much.

Well, there is still sunday. I went back to the store, and as it was closed the day before, they had kept there promise and noone has bought the TV. Actually, the price had even dropped. I pulled out my checkbook and was actually kinda happy to, for the first time in my life, pay with a check.
But oh. Registration. Registration? I just registered the last time?!
Well, for check payment one needs to register "completely". This includes, first of all, the CPF number. It is tax number and "Schufa" (for all you Germans) in one. Luckily I have a CPF number. Next would be my RG number. Unfortunately, I do not have an RG as foreigners do not get registered with an RG but with RNE (Registro Nacional para Estrangeiros - National Registry for Foreigners or something like it). The stores system luckily took RNEs and although I do not have my RNE card yet ( it takes half a year to be made) I was able to proof with many discussions, the protocol of the RNE application and the system print of the RNE Filing (with all its stamps and stickers) that I was really registered and thus allowed to buy things. But although I registered in the stores system with my RNE as a foreigner, when it asked for my birthdate, parents information and birthplace it unfortunately asked for a state and only had brazilian states in the dropdown menu. Berlin with its wonderful postalcode of 14057 was not found in any state, and there was no way to find the postal code to some, maybe existing, Berlin somewhere in Brasil. We left it all empty to see what else is coming up.
I was supposed to give them two telephone numbers in Goiânia as a reference for me being able to pay. Or, just in case I won't pay. Now, I did absolutely not feel comfortable with giving away two of the three phonenumbers I new so far in Goiânia.
Not being registered, would leave the option of writing a check to the store and to come back two days later to see if the check had worked out and if the TV was paid. If so, I could take it home then. But really, I felt even more uncomfortable with that option, thus check book was now officially ruled out.

As I nearly had expected something like this, I had brought my German credit card. The German system works with signatures, while the brazilian always works with 4-digit pins. My card ran through smoothly and though it hurt a bit knowing that the money would be taken off from a bankaccount in Germany that receives no more salary but gets deducted for a student loan every month (more about this in the next Kafka Story) at least the receipt popped out and I I finally owned my TV.
Wait, was that real? Can it really be paid without a pin? Another discussion and explanation later it was decided. Yes. It was real, and I could take the TV home.

They packed up the TV and loaded into the back of my car. It now stands here and is great. But these registry and system things can really drive you nuts. Wait until you hear more about them...