I left my heart... In Valparaíso!!

Parting is such sweet sorrow! I cannot believe we are leaving today. Eric will be taking all of us with our ten pieces of luggage over to Santiago for our flight home. The kids are feeling the pull of their friends and school and American food. They have a list of things they want to eat upon arrival.

Eric will be moving too. He is going to live with a Chilean family that hosts foreign students from our school. The house is in Cerro Florida. I knew I would get him to live in Florida someday!

Thank you for reading the blog! It has been great to share our experiences. Blogger has a list of the countries of people who have stumbled upon our blog and it has been interesting! A big hello to Mexico, Germany, China, Spain, Portugal, Indonesia, France, Italy, and England!!

Goodbye Happy Hill in Paradise Valley! Adiós Cerro Alegre en Valparaíso!

Dinner with friends!

Last night one of Eric's colleagues invited us all over to dinner. It was so fun! Augustín, his wife Cecilia, and their three children, Eduardo, Rodrigo, and Paula made us feel so welcome! AND. Cecilia made Mexican food, Chilean style! It was wonderful and so thoughtful.

Eduardo and Rodrigo are in college. They're also Harry Potter fans. Need I say more? Elaine and Sean were enthralled. We spent the evening chatting in our newly minted Spanish while sitting around a merry fire.

It was really lovely to spend the evening with them. It is nice to think that they are here with Eric when we will be so far away.

South Pacific!

Here are some pictures from our trip to the beach on Saturday. The kids loved it! The older kids kicked their way through the waves and reenacted Chariots of Fire much to the amusement of everyone watching! Elaine and Emily Jane graciously scooped up some water in their hands and allowed Julia Grace to dip her little fingers in so that everyone touched the cold waters of the South Pacific. Que hermosa! How beautiful!

Elaine's Top Ten

1. Skiing in the Andes.
2. Cooking goat in solar powered ovens... And eating it.
3. Walking to school, come rain or shine.
4. Dancing to the beat of marching protestors.
5. Only getting ankle deep in the Pacific Ocean.
6. Visiting La Chascona (Pablo Neruda's house)
7. Feeling on top of the world while really being on the bottom of it! (Santiago gondola)
8. Jota Cruz. Period.
9. Seeing the Southern Cross and more than a couple of shooting stars.
10. Exploring South America with my favorite people in the world<3(:

Emily Jane's Top 10

1. Chorrillana
2. The view
3. The boat ride
4. The beach
5. Skiing the Andes and using a T bar
6. Walking to school and getting in shape!
7. Watching the boats come in
8. The hills
9. Sebastián
10. Being close to the Navy

Sean's Top 10

1. The stars
2. The Andes
3. Ascensores
4. Sebastiàn
5. School
6. Boat ride
7. Beach
8. Chilean food
9. The view
10. Just experiencing the new places!

Claudia's Top 5

1. The beach
2. The stars
3. The boat ride
4. The bus ride
5. The salami

Claire's Top 5

1. The boat
2. The beach
3. The restaurant near the beach.
4. J. Cruz (chorillana restaurant)
5. The view

The peanut man! The peanut man!

Our neighborhood doesn't have an ice cream man but we do have the peanut man! He walks around with his little car that looks like a train and then he pulls a string and it sounds like a loud train whistle, complete with steam! We didn't know what to make of him at first because we didn't see anyone buy anything for a while. He just looked like a man who walked around blowing a very loud whistle with a lot of steam. Then! One evening, we were walking down to our little store and he blew the whistle. This time two kids sprinted out from their house, hands full of coins, and smiles all around. They gave the man some money and he pulled out these little bags from his train. We finally got up the nerve to order some of whatever was inside of those bags. We ordered 6 bags for 500 pesos or 6 bags for a dollar. Roasted peanuts! Yum!

Our Spanish teachers

Most of our days have been spent in our Spanish classes. We start at 9:00 every morning. After an hour and a half of lessons, we have a break. The kids and I then go hunt down a nice place to swap Sebastián stories. Sebastián is Sean, Emily Jane and Claire's teacher. He has the patience of Job and keeps them laughing the whole time. They have learned an amazing amount of Spanish. Sean has learned so much that he has designated himself orderer-in-chief. Whenever we need a newspaper or a coke or a Super Ocho (like a huge Kit Kat), Sean is there! He says, "Lo siento porque mi español es terrible pero necesito una coca cola". They either love him for his attempt at Spanish or his striking resemblance to Justin Bieber. We're not sure! Whenever we walk off, there is always someone singing, "Baby, baby, baby"!

Our teacher has been Natalia. We have absolutely loved her. She is the best language teacher while keeping us absolutely laughing to the point we are crying every day while laughing. Eric joins us when his schedule permits and it has been a blast. Being in a class with Elaine has been a lovely opportunity and I treasure the time we have spent.

Things we are learning besides Spanish...

The time changed last Saturday night. Unfortunately, the clocks moved forward because it is almost Spring here. So, we get up now in complete darkness and the sun doesn't rise until almost 8:00! However, the sunrises are such a treat that they are worth it.

Or should I say 08:00 because Chile is on military time! I changed my phone so that I can look at 21:30 and know that it is 9:30pm. I can also order 300 grams of salami and know what I have ordered! We've gone metric!

I know that 19 degrees Celsius is going to be a nice day while 11 degrees and rainy is COLD! My brain seemed to rebel at first but with the constant repetition, I am beginning to make sense of it. Now if only they had something like Celsius for your age. Sure, I'm 42 in the U.S., but down here, I'm 29!!

The Southern Cross

When we arrived in Chile I felt as if I were hanging on to the edge of the world. This past weekend, I felt like I was on top. The Mamalluca Observatory was amazing. We seemed so close to the stars that I could reach out and sweep them about. The Milky Way looked like it had been sprinkled with twinkling fairy dust as there were so many tiny stars tucked in with all of the enormous ones. The Southern Cross was a beauty - a treasure to behold.


We were able to take pictures of the rest of the weekend and here they are!


We stayed at a cute little hostel in La Serena.





We also toured the Elqui Valley which is truly wine country. So many beautiful vineyards were either nestled down in the valley or sprawled half-way up the mountains. We sampled something called pisco which is pretty much the national drink. They make 50 million liters a year and only export 5 million which leaves 3 liters a year for every man, woman, and child!

We ate at a completely solar powered restaurant and took lots of pictures for Brian. The food was all cooked by these amazing solar ovens. The ladies would just come out on the patio and put in a dish of goat casserole or chicken or potatoes! They even baked our bread in them!!

We also stopped by one of Chile's many dams. A lot of their electricity comes from water!

As for the bus ride, well, let's just say Julia Grace can't read.

La Serena

We are packing for our weekend trip to La Serena and the Mamalluca Observatory. We have been told that the skies there are some of the clearest in the world. I am so excited to be able to see the southern stars at their best! The U.S. has it's own observatory there but it is for research only - no tourists! La Serena is quite far and we are taking an overnight bus. The idea, on paper, is that everyone sleeps through the long drive and wakes up happy and rested in Mamalluca. It's a shame that Julia Grace can't read. So, we'll see!!

Emily Jane's view of Valparaíso

Things here have slowed down a bit as Claire has been under the weather. She's feeling better today but hasn't yet recaptured her sparkle. So I have been spending a lot of time fetching drinks and Advil and watching the world of Valparaíso whirl by. I told Eric that sitting here in front of these windows is like watching television! The ships in the port are always coming and going. If you look away just for a moment, the scene changes. Today, Eric and Sean spotted a submarine pulled up alongside a Chilean battleship.

Here are a few pictures from our in-house photographer, Emily Jane.

Our view out the window looking north.

The little store with the red doors is where the kids get their drinks and snacks. The people are so sweet. At first they were merely polite as they thought we were only there for a day or two. We have now exchanged names and stories. They help me with the numbers in Spanish as numbers are my downfall. 500 pesos is roughly equivalent to a dollar. So by the time I have rewarded each child for summiting Cerro Alegre, I have spent around 2470 pesos. It is a mouthful pronounced in Spanish. At first I would just open my hand and let them pick out what I owed. Now I can give them exact change!!

The lovely port!

The lovely port a while later!

Other beautiful views!

Thank you Emily Jane!!!

Cooking in Chile!

A few people have asked what I buy at the grocery store and how we eat at home. Well! That has been interesting! Just about everything is different here. The ingredients, the packaging, the names, and what is available.

It has been an adventure finding what my kids will and won't eat. Some of the successes have been...

Hot dogs!

(Also known as salchichas here in Chile. In Mexico, salchichas are sausages but these have nothing to do with sausages except the shape!)

The biggest success has been the milk. When I went to the store and saw that they sell their milk in those boxes that have a shelf life of years, I thought, oh no! But I was wrong! It is a good thing this milk comes by the case because they can't get enough! I get white milk and chocolate milk by the liter! I buy it semi-descremada just because I love to say the word descremada - try it! It sounds way better than reduced fat!

Me encanta this little guy. It is a water boiler and it boils water fast! People here use them for hot tea and their cafe con leche which I describe below. It is pretty chilly here and coming home to hot tea is wonderful! The tea that I bought is called Ceylon tea. It is a little red and que delicioso!

I use matches all of the time because to turn on my oven I have to light it! Three weeks in and I still get such a kick out of it! I know I didn't drag in my own firewood or anything but it feels kind of Laura Ingallsish.

Once we found these I knew Elaine would eat something Chilean that wasn't chorrillana!!

Almost everything here comes in plastic bags. Here is my parmesan cheese! In a bag!

Here is my pasta sauce! In a bag! One more thing about pasta sauce is that it is only tomato sauce - nothing else is in it. So to make it more like the Prego my kids are used to I have started making my own pasta sauce using these bags of sauce and my kids love it! Goodbye Prego!!

Can you see that little white spout?

Here are my raspberry preserves, in a bag!

The only sad note for me here is coffee. Apparently, Nescafé has convinced most of Chile that Nescafé is coffee. They mix it with hot milk and they call it café con leche. Real coffee is rare and you have to ask for it by saying, café café. The few die hard coffee drinkers here have a cute joke about the name. "Nescafé no es café" which translates to "Nescafé is not coffee"!

El Colorado, Chile!

Wow. The Andes are as big, as awesome and as intimidating as they sound! We drove up to the El Colorado ski area today and have officially skied the Andes, in South America, during August. Eric is a happy man!

Justin Bieber in Santiago

Oh my word! Llamas, Justin Bieber, ballerinas in the streets, funiculars and we have only been here 7 hours.




After a 90 minutes bus ride with only 3 visits to the onboard baño with Claudia, 2 tunnels, and countless vineyards, we made it to Santiago! The bus station was enormous but we managed to navigate our way through and hopped on the Metro. We dropped off our stuff at the Chil Hotel (not a typo!) and didn't go a 100 feet before we bumped into a llama! What fun! Que divertido!







Then we made it to the highly recommended Galinda restaurant. We ate our lovely chorillana and decided to expand our culinary horizon with Pastel de Choclo which is like a corn version of Shepherd's Pie. Que delicioso!



As we walked along the street, a lovely ballerina was dancing in the crosswalk between lights. She could have been on a stage in New York yet she was here, amidst the cars, with us. It was truly enchanting. Where had we landed?

We then went up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal for a beautiful view of Santiago. We went by funicular which is just like an ascensor but with, apparently, the correct name. We found out only Valparaíso uses the name ascensor for these outdoor elevators!



Then! We came down into a pack of wild teenagers who were convinced that Sean was Justin Bieber! He was absolutely mobbed!!!!!!! There must have been 30 of them and that is no exaggeration. Just minutes before, three young women had asked for a photo with him which he graciously obliged while being completely clear that he WAS NOT Justin Bieber! With the mob? We just ran for our lives!!!!



We now have the young heartthrob safely in bed.

7 hours. I kid you not.

The slide of dreams

Cuando no funciona el ascensor...

If anyone was wondering why we are always looking for working ascensores, these photos are a good illustration of what happens when the ascensor no funciona.

I tend to get so far behind that the kids get to sit down and wait. The second picture illustates why I tend to bribe them with a bebida at the top. A body at rest, tends to stay at rest!

What we woke up to this morning...

And then, a few minutes later...

The mountain in the far distance that looks like the sun is right behind is Aconcagua. It is the tallest mountain in the Americas and is 150 miles away in Argentina!!