Here is a compilation of pictures and happenings from our last ten days in Chile...
How we do grocery shopping
(Caleb is on Jimmy's shoulders...poor guy needs a massage!)
Barbecuing in the quincho area of our building one last time. There were supposed to be four couples, but in the end it was just us, Matt and Jessica, and our kids. The boys always have so much fun with Jessica!
Looks like she's doing interpretive dance, but she was just throwing up a football.
Turning the crank handle that raises and lowers the grill
Landon loves hiding under this little counter. He just barely fits!
"Un nariz azul mommy!", Caleb yelled to me while painting in the living room as I cooked dinner. I was excited about his sentence formation, and thought he was telling me about painting someone's nose blue in his coloring book. Turned out he had painted his own nose blue and was telling me about it proudly.
Video of Landon dancing with the Handy Manny tools, click here.
Caleb's turn to play.
Drumming and singing...
Taken by one of the kids...
During the last two weeks in Chile, Caleb pretty much stopped taking naps. I was devastated. His sleep schedule is a mess and his routine is all off, and now this. This picture was just a few days after stopping napping when he fell asleep for a cat nap while watching a movie. Now that we are back home we are getting back into a routine and (praying) maybe he will return to napping again when he isn't so overtired...
The day before we left it was very cold and too much so to play in the backyard, so we went out front where the sun was shining more to let the kids play. Gloria and Laura were with us, and Laura had her new motorized moto that she had just gotten the day before on Easter. She was nice to let the boys ride it, and they had a lot of fun. Landon even figured out how to make it go (well, unintentionally). See video here.
There is a tiny little bakery one block over from our house that someone told me about early on in our time in Santiago, but the one time I tried going in the end of February they were closed for vacation. I finally got to go the day before we came home. Its called Dulceria Violeta, and it looks like a little garage or side room of someone's house that has been converted into a full bakery. Except for this small sign I would have never known it was there.
I don't remember the name of this, but it is basically merengue with manjar (like dulce de leche or caramel) inside. Yum.
Jimmy thought it looked awful, but it sure tasted good! Sorel and I enjoyed it ourselves after dinner on Monday.
Monday was Caleb's last day at Pipo :( People have asked if it was hard to leave Chile, and my answer is that we were ready to come home but not ready to stop taking Caleb to Pipo. He might not readily admit it, but he had a lot of fun there, and learned so much in just three weeks. Now I need to do some research and put my thinking cap on to figure out what we can do with him here.... I doubt there are many all-Spanish nursery schools or preschools in Lodi... Spanish speaker Play Group? If anyone knows of something or has suggestions I'd love to hear them!
These little play areas are in the front yard of the school and for the last week of school Caleb and Landon wanted to play in them each day before we went home.
Eating his grilled cheese sandwich - this came to be expected and I brought one for him each day for the three weeks, and he would eat it as soon as I would pick him up. This day he ate it in front of the little play house.
When I picked him up they gave me the project they had been working on all month, along with his Easter treat and summary of what tasks he knows how to do, and which he has yet to learn. This wasn't an easy thing for the tias to assess Caleb since during the first week and a half or two he didn't talk hardly at all, even though several of the things they were practicing he already knows, like his shapes and colors. It is still interesting to see what they were able to see, and give me ideas of what else to work on with him.
Easter Bunny cups that were filled with little candies for each child. Caleb said he thinks it is a cat, not a bunny. :)
When I saw this book I understood what Caleb had previously told me about painting with blue one day, and painting with yellow another day (you may remember me mentioning that in earlier posts about Pipo...). They were painting the backgrounds for this book. The other days when he told me about cutting and gluing, it was also related to work on this project. Its fun to see the details of what he was sharing each day come together into a finished product.
"My house and my garden" - This was the theme for the month.
Part of Caleb's explanation of the cover included pinta (paint) and pega (glue, for the green paper) - apprently he remember the instructions he was given of what to do. He also pointed out the red manzanas on the trees.
The book opened up into a tryptic with three different scenes...
This looks like his classroom, with little hooks for their backpacks (mochilas). The roundish paper next to the little kid is some scribbles he did that are supposed to represent a human body (maybe himself?). The blonde lady with the blue dress is Tia Andrea, Caleb told me.
This is like the backyard at Pipo where the kids play each day, with some ducks and chickens, slides, and toys. They do have several live animals in back, including birds, chickens, and a few other things I can't remember. When I asked Caleb to tell me about this panel, he pointed and said "patos" (ducks).
Lots of painting, gluing, cutting, and it looks like threading and molding for the tree on the right., although when I asked if he had threaded it himself, he said "No, they did it for me."
Just a few more differences and observations that I noticed during our time in Chile...
When I was coming home from taking Caleb to Pipo recently, I was quite surprised to see six green parakeets (loros) fly across the street and onto some tree branches in front of me. Landon and I stood and watched them for a few minutes until some loud cars passing scared them away.
I don't know a lot about birds, but for me, these kind of birds would only be seen in a pet store or in someone's home in the U.S., but apparently here they are out on their own, too. I wished I had my camera with me, and the attempt with my cell phone didn't come out at all, so here are a few pictures I found online that best match what I can remember them looking like:
There are several job positions that would never exist at home, with our obsession with streamlining and cutting out everything extra and not absolutely necessary, even at the expense of jobs for people who need them! Some seemed nice, and others definitely seemed worthy of elimination when it came to waiting in line (that's the impatient American side of me talking...)...
People sit near scales to weigh your produce for you, instead of it being done at the registers.
The grocery store we shopped at most frequently - the one that became only a ten minute walk to instead of twenty after getting the double stroller back and working again!
Car wash while you shop? These guys are the ones that you pay for parking at the grocery store (yes they charge you to park there, depending on time there and money spent inside), and they also help direct cars coming in and out of parking spots in the sometimes very busy parking lot, and they'll wash your car while you get your groceries (for a fee, I'm sure). This would definitely be nice to have at home!
On the walk to Caleb's school there was a tiny little 'security' booth on the sidewalk. The first time we walked by it we were unsure why it was located where it was, because it is in front of a very old and small house compared to the other much nicer ones in the area, and it wasn't near any buildings marked embassy like others around town. We soon realized it was there for the security of the neighborhood of Las Condes. There are two older gentleman in street clothes who rotate night and day shifts and keep an eye on things in the area, and either sit in their booth reading the paper, or wander around the surrounding area visiting with neighbors. I suppose we could liken them to the Partners police volunteers, who are retired and just around to have an extra set of eyes on things. One of them was very friendly and would always smile and say hello when we passed. I didn't ever take a picture of it, but here is a screen shot of it on Google Maps. :)
Not much room in there... I'd want to get out and walk the neighborhood, too if I were them!
I had intentions of listing a few things that we saw around Santiago that I thought would be nice to have in Lodi. One idea was these exercise machines in public parks to encourage people to get some exercise. Jimmy chuckled when he saw an article on Lodinews.com last week about the new Roget Park near Target - they have put some in! (h)ttp://www.lodinews.com/news/article_25452894-c548-5eba-a060-750968d368e0.html#.UV23QICPBjE.gmail) Nice to be able to offer people something free to help them be healthier, not just an expensive gym membership!
These machines were at one of the parks near our house that we visited often, and it even had turf grass in the area where the machines are.
School buses in Chile are very small. I assume this is because many kids either live close enough to walk or ride a bike, unlike here there are so many kids that need transportation.
For Easter weekend we were invited to a lake house with Jimmy's business acquaintance and friend, Mario, his wife Daniela, their three-year-old son Jose, and three other couples - all of whom are our age, and all have children between 9 months and 4 years old (awesome to be with a group that can relate with us on having little ones!). We didn't do a very good job of getting the other adults in the pictures, mostly just the kids...
The house was in a place called Vichuquen, about 4 hours southwest of Santiago. We also had a visitor from Lodi that weekend, Sorel Roget, who went to the lake with us, too. (Sorel is spending a year traveling the world, a few months away, then a few weeks at home, and right now she is seeing parts of South America and just finished a cruise in Antarctica. Amazing, huh?) The drive was very cramped for mommy in the back seat between two wide car seats (see below), but we were thrilled to go check out somewhere new, be at someone's second home and not just a hotel, and spend time getting to know new friends.
Yes, that is my elbow behind my head...
Caleb wanted to hold Landon's hand while we were driving
Day 1: Beautiful weather, and the kids headed down to the private beach area and into the water in their underwear. Though they had just met, the kids had a blast together.
Scoping things out before he got in the water
Caleb and Jose playing in their underwear
The view from the main house up above... big lawn, little strip of beach, and a small dock on the right side.
View from the beach looking up to the main house
The second house (where we slept), with lots of bunk beds inside
Day 2: Gray, foggy, and cold! Sorel and I were not at all prepared for this kind of weather and spent much of the weekend cold... Forecast said 78 degrees - this was not even close, but beautiful just the same.
Lago Vichuquen is actually very close to the coast - only about a 5 min drive. Well, maybe 10, but only because of the incredibly bumpy and winding dirt road you have to take to get to and from the area where the house is. On Saturday we wanted to drive over to the ocean to take a look. It was twice as gray and foggy, and MUCH colder. The kids were so tired they fell right to sleep, so Jimmy, Sorel, and I got out for 10 minutes to take pictures while they slept soundly in the car.
Back at the house Saturday afternoon... Hanging out, letting the kids run around, and some friends of Mario's came to visit in the little fishing boat you see docked under the awning. Never had a chance to talk with them, but they had two beautiful little girls (in pink and yellow sweatshirts three pictures down).
Caleb and I play fishing on the dock with reeds. Cristobal and Clarita on the right playing with reeds, too.
Tete (as we called her) the brunette and Sole (the blonde) making crowns (coronas) for the kids from lake grass.
Always hard to get all the little ones looking at once, but you get the idea.. They were all wearing their crowns. (Two sisters in yellow Gap and pink coats were visiting for the afternoon...).
Video of kids bouncing on couch while eating cookies, click here or below:
Took a very short ride out on a fishing boat until Landon starting to get upset. Not so sure about the moving vessel...
Cloudiness passed and left us with a beautiful sunset on Saturday.
We wanted to dye some eggs for the Chilean kids since they are accustomed to hunting for chocolate eggs. It was kind of a last minute plan, and we weren't able to find white eggs or food coloring at the little market where we stopped to buy. Sorel did her best trying to dye brown eggs using anything we could find in the kitchen... Grenadine, Curry powder, Red wine, and bags of tea... Some gave better color than others, but all were just a slight tint of color, and rubbing the wax from a real candle to try to make contrasting designs didn't work so well either. Good thing the kids are young and don't know the difference!
Nothing like at home, but at least we got some variation!
Mario on the grill making Saturday's dinner
Sunday, March 31st happened to be Sorel's birthday, which we knew about thanks to Facebook, but Sorel didn't know that we knew. A few of the couples picked up a cake for her before coming to the lake, and just after midnight Saturday night, only 30 minutes after sitting down for dinner, we surprised her singing happy birthday, in both English and Spanish. She had no idea the cake was being brought out for her until it was set down in front of her, so it was a great surprise. Oh, and everyone loved the "?" candle - it was perfect because the couples buying it had no idea, and she didn't have to reveal a thing!
Day 3: Easter (Happy Resurrection Day for Jesus!!!) Unfortunately there weren't too many references to Jesus in this year's Easter celebration other than the story telling we shared with Caleb of what the day was really about. The kids all had a lot of fun looking for their baskets and hunting for our 'colored' eggs and running around on the lawn playing with the paper grass from the baskets.
Video of Caleb and Landon playing with the paper grass, click here or below:
Video of Landon doing 'salta' (jump), click here or below:
Caleb and Jose sitting on his car transporter truck.
There were two kayaks parked on the lawn of the house that the kids had been climbing and playing on all weekend. On Sunday morning Jimmy took Caleb out for a ride - new for Caleb, and he really enjoyed it and the time with daddy.
Video of Caleb and Jimmy as they paddle away in the kayak, click here or below:
This picture of Landon cracked us up! We weren't sure whether to call it evil, mischievous, sly, or what, but it sure does not seem to go with his sweet personality! So fun that Sorel happened to catch him looking this way. In addition to her cheerful company, it was an added treat that Sorel is into photography and loves to take tons of pictures. We felt a bit like celebrities, as if someone had been hired to document our weekend and we didn't have to worry about the cameras ourselves or not getting to be in the pictures. Thanks Sorel for sharing your love of photography, and when we buy our SLR maybe you can give me a crash course! ;)
On the drive home we made a quick stop at probably the only winery open Easter Sunday to grab a few bottles of wine. Caleb slept in the car, and we had Sorel take a picture of the three of us with the beautiful vineyards and valley behind us.
The four hour drive ended up taking 6 because of traffic - I don't think I have ever experienced 150 km of nearly constant traffic, with about a 10 minute break after passing a large city exit. We were exhausted and ready to enjoy some of that wine by the time we finally got back to Santiago. What a fun weekend though, and a great way to spend our last few days in Chile!
