Corrugated City

Thursday 22 May 2008

The Expat Get Together And Plans For Another


Last night we had what I hope will be the first in a series of get togethers for expats and English speaking locals. Luckily, the rain stopped enough to make actually getting to Cerro Concepcion a possibility. It's been seriously tipping it down here for a couple of days and on Tuesday the streets were almost knee deep in water in both Valpo and Vina.

I wasn't actually sure how many people were going to come along so I was more than a little pleasantly surprised at the turn out. In total there were 14 of us. From the local blogging world we had: Meredith and only friend Elisa, Allie and only friend Julie, Luis, Clare, Jess and myself. Other attendees were Adrian and Sybil from England, Emma and Scott from Australia, Berkeley from the US and Pablo from here in Recreo. Ed, Allegretto's English owner, also joined us for a short time.

So thank you everyone for coming along. I hope you all had a good time- I know I did. It was cool to meet the people behind the blogs I read and also everyone else as well.

I'd really like to try to get something regular going and to attract more people to the meetings. I was thinking maybe once or twice a month to all come together and have a good time? Let me know if you'd like to do it again at least...Allegretto is always a good option as it's not too expensive and there's usually draught Cerveza del Puerto (it had bloody well run out last night...bah...). But if anyone else has a suggestion then please let me know and we can all decide.

Also, if anyone just fancies meeting up for a beer at any other time, I'm not usually averse to that kind of activity so just get back in touch..!

Something I would like to definitely try and organise is a trip Pablo, Jess and I were talking about. For 300,000 pesos we can hire a boat that will take us 30-odd miles out to sea. The reason for this adventure? Once way out into the Pacific we'll be able to see a huge array or sea-birds and other marine life, including Albatross and Penguins. I'd love to see an albatross in real life. With a group of 15 we'd have to pay 20,000 pesos each, including light snacks and all the dead fish required to throw overboard in order to attract all the sea-going critters. The boat would leave early in the morning, around 6am and we'd be back sometime around 2-3pm.

If anyone is interested in doing this, please let me know and we'll try to fix a date for sometime in June.

Thanks again for coming along and I hope to see you all again soon. If you couldn't make it this time, hopefully there'll be a next time in the near future..!




14 comments:

Douchebaguette said...

I will definitely be available for the next episode, as well as a couple friends if that's cool.

Allison Azersky said...

is that my hand?!?!

don't make me FREAK OUT.

Matt said...

Erin-cool. When are you actually arriving? I think i'm going to try to organise another meet up for about 3 weeks time, second week of June or thereabouts.

Allie-Hand? I don't think so. But in the first photo I think you can see the top of your head. Next time, I'm going to take individual portraits of everyone attending, ok?

Allison Azersky said...

FREAK OUT

Anonymous said...

I had lots of fun! And am in for the boat trip-- work allowing.

Matt said...

Allie-Deep breath. Relax.

Clare-great and thanks for coming! As for the boat trip, I think a Sunday is probably going to easiest for a lot of people as a few people work Saturday mornings. At the moment, there are five of us that I know are definitely interested so we need in the region of 10 more.

Meredith said...

I am definitely interested in the boat trip. Only Friend is named Elisa, I will ask her what her thoughts are.

You most likely can see into my living room from your house, and the alfajores are fabulous.

Thanks for organizing Wednesday night! Looking forward to more, despite the danger that it puts me in of having to discard the title of Only Friend.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for organizing the get-together, Matt! It was a smashing success, in my opinion.

And I see that you just HAD to post that last picture, didn't you? Watch out, buddy--when we go on the boat trip, I'm tossing you overboard.

Matt said...

Meredith-cool and thanks for clearing up only friend's name.

I'm surprised you didn't get confused US sailors knocking on your door when the Washington was in town last week. After all, your family sells what sound like the best prostitutes ever: The alphawhore :)

Jess-I told you I was going to post the photo...I'm a man of my word. I will remember to wear a life jacket on the boat...

Douchebaguette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Douchebaguette said...

Matt- I'll be there on the 9th of June. I'll be in Santiago until then.
I say "alphawhore" too!

Douchebaguette said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Douchebaguette said...

Matt- you no longer have to flinch when reading my name. The nefarious Douchebaguette has been retired in favor of something more cryptic.

Erin

Matt said...

Awww, just as i was getting used to it...