On a Scale of 1-10, I'm a 56!!!

So, remember my feeling of being screwed over. Well, it turns out that I actually was completely screwed over. Not only did I not get my job back, but they failed to pay me for all of the extra in office classes that I taught and now since I don't have a contract with them, I don't get the money because they fucked up. So maybe it's only 11,000 something pesos they owe me, but really the amount doesn't matter! On a scale of 1-10, I about a 56 in the pissed off section. At least I start my new job on Monday!!! Sucks that I have to wait an entire month before I get paid though... I could really use the money now!!!!!

Settling In

I have been in Chile for a week and a half now and it has been kind of uneventful so far. I now have a job and will start on the 2nd of May!! Woohoo!! I am kind of excited that I landed a full time job this time. That means more money and less bored time. I have a long list of stuff I have to do this week before starting my job next week. Along with my long list, Ro has a list of things he needs to do, so Friday is going to be a long day of taking numbers and waiting in lines. Other than that, I have been busy just trying to get this place organized! Ro's family went to the beach for the weekend and we had the place to ourselves which was nice... except it rained. The few days we are able to wash and hang out our clothes to dry it rains. So, we didn't get caught up with doing laundry and we also had to move our bed out of the way because once again we have landed ourselves in a place that leaks. FIL's solution? Oh, just put buckets on the ground it will be fine. So our tiny one foot by one foot bedroom is now reduced to an 8 inch by 8 inch bedroom because we can't use that part of the room for anything. Nice. One day I'm just going to win the lottery and *POOF* I will have a house that doesn't leak with enough room for a bed, dresser, and closet!

Can't Help It, I Feel Completely Screwed Over!

So, two months ago I had to leave Chile very quickly and with little warning. At the time the place I worked, which I won't mention here as much as I really would LOVE to, they told me that everything would be fine and I would be able to continue working as soon as I got back to Chile. Well, a week after being in the US I started getting emails saying, "When are you coming back, we need to know." Of course my broke ass had no money for a plane ticket so I really couldn't give them a date. I did tell them that I was working on it, and they did know ahead of time that I was probably going to be gone longer than a month. Of course I wasn't getting paid for it and I thought everything would be just fine. WRONG. I continued to get nagging emails twice and sometimes 3 times a week. Finally I received an email telling me that I had to write a letter of resignation otherwise I would be fired for abandoning my job. I was told if I didn't write that letter I would be fired with no re compensation... probably meaning the "finiquito" so, I wrote the letter. Then I had to print a bunch of shit, sign a bunch of shit and scan that shit and resend it back to a few different people. I was told I had to do all of this for MY benefit. I was also told that this way I would be able to be rehired as soon as I got back to Santiago and would be able to start working right away. LIES!!! Now that I look back, I am pretty sure that I did them a favor by doing all that paperwork shit so they didn't have to pay some tax shit on me when I wasn't even there working. I also believed with all of my heart that they were going to hire me back as soon as I got back to Santiago. WRONG. I received an email saying that they would love to hire me back and loved having me on the team but unfortunately they can't hire me back. I would like to put in here that I can understand where they are coming from that I was gone for over a month and it was probably bad for the company to save my spot and blah blah blah! But really, I can't help it. I feel completely screwed over, not to mention I am pissed that they would PROMISE that I could start working as soon as I got back to Santiago when really they weren't going to fulfill that promise! So, yesterday I was crabby and angry and job hunting AGAIN!! I feel like all I ever do in life is job hunt!! I sent out one CV and what do you know, they called me back. So, I have an interview tomorrow and this would be the reason that I can't say the name of the company I worked for because.... I am trying to work at a different location of the same company. Smart?? Probably not....

Back!!

So, here I am back in Chile. I have decided that this is pretty much the perfect time of the year to travel from the US to here and probably better going from here to the US. The weather is pretty much at the same temp and its not such a shock as going to Minnesota in the middle of December 2 days after spending the weekend at the beach in Chile! So, in the future I may possibly plan my trips more around Spring and Autumn.

Overall, the flights went pretty good. I didn't get any sleep Tuesday night. I think mostly because I was staying at a friend's house and because I was kind of nervous/excited/completely restless!! So, when we left for the airport at the ass crack of dawn (3:40am) I was already feeling completely exhausted. I made it into the airport, no problems and say and waited at my gate. I did try to buy a bottle of water at a vending machine and it wouldn't take my $5 bill so I ended up paying with my debit card.... at a vending machine! Whoever thought that up is pretty effing smart! Yes, I could have walked farther away from my gate to an actual little store, but I always stay as close to my gate as possible. ALWAYS. My flight out of MSP Miami was pretty uneventful, I dozed off for a little bit and the lady sitting next to me asked me about my "Kindle" which happens to not be a Kindle at all. In Miami I got all sorts of confused in the airport. I was in concourse D and I had to get concourse J and somehow I ended up following signs and I was walking outside. I did turn around to ask some grouchy airport person who snottily told me to follow the signs. Thanks asshole, I'm sorry to trouble you... After I got to where I was supposed to be I realized that I was out of security and had to go back through after I checked in at the TACA counter. Well, TACA's counter didn't open for an hour so I had to sit on a bench and later got crowded off my bench by some hoity toity Brazillian who was bitching about how all 12 of her bags/boxes wouldn't be able to fly with her that very day and some of them would arrive at the airport the following day. Her carryon was a Fisher Price singing potty chair. Not that you care, I just found that a little odd. Anyways her luggage and 2 people she was with pretty much zoned in on my bench. Not that I am against sharing a bench with people, but seriously was it necessary for them to scoot as close to me as they could until I was pretty much off the bench. I'm sure it would have been a little less rude to just say, "Hey my 12 pieces of luggage and 2 friends are way better than you, so will you please get off this bench and go sit in that unoccupied piece of space on the ground?" Thankfully TACA opened their counter as I was getting shoved off the bench so I could get back in the airport. I must have looked very suspicious or something because they made me go in that body scanner thing and I didn't see a single other person have to go through that thing. Which of course made me feel awkward because I have never been in one of those and had no idea what to do and probably looked like a moron. Oh well. After I got into the airport I only had 2 and a half hours of my 5 hour layover left. I was hungry so I wandered around and decided that I better just get McDonald's because I really wanted a strawberry shake. I ended up not getting a strawberry shake. I sat by a big sunny window. When I got to my gate there was a lot of empty spaces on the benches so I found a spot to lay down and take a little nap. When I woke up it was almost time to board. I sent my goodbye text messages and updated my Facebook status one last time. The flight to Lima went really well. I ended up having a 3 seat row all to myself and I slept at least 3 hours of the 5 hour and something flight. In Lima I only had an hour, but the flight ended up boarding and leaving late so I had time to sit on a bench and listen to some lady talk about dog shit and some specially formulated dog food that is supposed to make dog shit easier to clean up. Yes, this is when I got my ipod out and wondered what the fuck is wrong with people and how the hell do you even get to the subject of dog shit while sitting in an airport? Anyways, the flight from Lima to Santiago went well. For some reason I thought it was going to be a  5 hour flight, but it was really 3 hours and 10 minutes. Again I totally lucked out and got a 3 seat row all to myself! It kind of made me super excited. I slept most of that flight even though there was a lot of turbulence. I got woken up at least 3 times by the flight attendant because I was laying across the seats and I had to sit up and put my seat belt on. By the time they made the announcement that we would be landing in 24 minutes I was crabby and wanted the flight to be longer just so I could go back to sleep. I was excited though by the time we landed. I flew through the airport and passed almost all of the slow walking Chileans. I even passed some of them twice after I stopped to try to make my hair look halfway decent in the bathroom. Then I went through customs faster than I ever have. They asked me what kind of food I have in my bag, I said candy, then they asked why I have three big knives in my bag and I said to cut stuff with. Then I flew through those doors with my bitch face to try to keep the taxi drivers away from me, but smiled as soon as I saw Ro and they were on my like flies on shit. Seriously... did they think I was smiling at them??? Even after it was 100% clear that I was with Ro, they still continued to ask if I wanted a taxi. We finally got out of there and made it home. Which I have to say is one bug fucking disaster. There are even dirty dishes that were dirty before I even left!! But I didn't care at the moment and I will be making Ro clean those on Sunday because that's just fucking disgusting! Finally made it to bed at 5:30am and didn't wake up til almost 3pm, Ro went to class at 4 and I read a book, but when he got home I was sleeping and he had to climb through the window because he locked the door when he left. Yes, if you come to my house you can break in through the window, you can also reach up the doggy door and open the locked door. Safe right?
Well, that's about all I have to say. I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and hopefully resting on Sunday!!!

Countdown Has Begun!!

Alright, I am still packing. Nobody should be surprised by this though. I have my two check bags packed. One is sitting at 42lbs and the other 48lbs. I am allowed to have 2 bags that weigh 50lbs each, so right now I still have some stuffing room!! So far today, I have unpacked, and repacked my bags trying to get the weights right. It wasn't easy to get as far as I have. Usually space is one of my main problems, almost more than the weight problem, but now I am having a hard time NOT stuffing socks and rolled up teeshirts into every nook and cranny! My carry on suitcase still isn't packed, but I am starting to feel good and not so anxious about this.

Last night, I had to say goodbye to my niece. She doesn't really understand that I am leaving, but I told her yesterday that she will be able to see me on the computer again. Of course I started bawling and she didn't understand that either and said, "Auntie has owie?" I said no and gave her a kiss and after that she said, "All better?" Sigh. I love that little goober so much and it sucks that I don't even know when I will see her again. But at least I know that I can see her on the webcam and she can sing me the abcs or twinkle twinkle, or one of the songs she makes up as she goes which is usually of course to the tune of the abcs and twinkle twinkle.

In a couple of hours I am going to watch my little brother play baseball. This will be the last high school game I get to watch. I was lucky to be able to see him play a basketball game back in February. Next time I see him, he will be a college student. After the game, I have no idea what's going on. But sometime tonight I will be in the Twin Cities at my friend's house. Since I have such an early flight and I where I live is so far away from the airport, I will say goodbye to my family tonight and my friend will be bringing me to the airport. This will be the first time that my mom hasn't dropped me off at the airport, but I am feeling like that might make the whole goodbye thing a little easier.

Well, I better get this packing thing done. Time to go back to the bottom of the world.

Crunch Time!!!!

I hate packing. I don't know how many times I have written that in this blog. I think I have written it right before every single one of my trips. But for anyone who missed out on that, I HATE PACKING!!!!

So, obviously since I am thinking about packing and writing about packing... and currently... not packing, you all know that I have my ticket!
I didn't choose either of the 2 options because I found one right in the middle! So, yay!! I did end up buying the ticket off cheapoair.com and now I'm kind of worrying about the whole baggage thing. I am flying 2 different airlines, American and Taca, so I don't really know what the policy is going to be on baggage. The flight I have on American is just from here to Miami I looked at the website... but it really wasn't helpful enough for this dummy. Taca's site however was much more clear.

When I came back here, my bags were extremely underweight. I threw everything in my bags the day I called to get my ticket date changed. When I checked into the airport in February, my bigger bag weighed 13 kilos and the smaller one weighed 14 kilos. The bags are allowed to be 25 kilos each so I left myself plenty of room to shop and also dig through some of the stuff I have here to see if I love it more than the last time I was home. I am also planning on packing 2 more of my favorite blankets since its going to be winter in Chile soon.

And I was planning on making som curtains because I am on so talented in the sewing department. Actually I am pretty good at sewing if I can get the sewing machine to cooperate with me in under an hour. I also have the wonderful mearsurements from my hubby. The window in the kitchen I need to make a curtain for is from the tip of his right middle finger to the left side of his face wide, and two middle finger to elbow lengths tall. I can't remember how big the other window is, so he is probably going to have to remeasure it for me.

Now, I better be off to see how heavy I can make my carry on bag.

Flights! Flights!! Flights!!!

The like always bittersweet time has come again. Back to Chile I go. So, searching for flights begins. I don't have enough money to buy a ticket directly from any airline so I search everywhere. Any cheapo site, I look at. So, far the cheapest cheapest in my budget is an insane 28 hour total trip time. A flight from Minnesota to LA for a 2 hour layover, LA to Costa Rica for a 6 and a half hour layover, then Costa Rica to Chile. The next cheapest, but at the top of my budget is only 19 hours total trip time. MN to Miami, 6 and a half hours in Miami, Miami to Lima, then Lima to Stgo. So, there you have it... I have 2 choices. Do I suck it up and take the lengthy flight to save a little bit of money? Or do I go for the shorter flight for a little extra $$??

If anyone knows any good or really bad sites to book tickets off, please let me know!!! : D

Well, I better get packing!!!