Week 3 in Santiago

On an uneventful day Charlie and I usually get up about 7:30am and have a couple hours before we wake the kids. Two days ago I was reading on our bed and I felt the familiar yet slightly altered sensation of an earthquake. Different, due to the fact that I was 16 stories high so it was more of a sway that a rumble. Life in an apartment has shown us all kinds of idiosyncratic amusements. Call me sick, but I do enjoy a good session of balcony-watching-the-neighbors’-lives-through-windows. Jimmy Stewart had nothing on me -- okay, yes he did. I'm not using a zoom lens to get details. And there don’t seem to be any bugs here, so we delightedly have the windows wide open all day & night. That brings the sounds of sirens or raucous reaction to the soccer matches and smells of other kitchenettes or cigarette smoke from below us. That is to say nothing of all we’ve gained from elevator rides and doormen . . . apartment living has been a big part of our world abroad!
Jane and I are thrilled to be able to shop for our own ingredients and cook healthy meals. She has accused me in the past of not teaching her how to do laundry or cook before she leaves for college, so look what a year stuck with Mom can bring! We've found that Argentine or Chilean women don't have large recipe boxes. They learn how to make the typical foods, such as empanadas or tomato salad, and that is what they cook...forever. A trip to the grocery store takes longer than usual because we need to figure out what things are in translation. It’s never exactly like Trader Joe’s or Safeway, but we have fun finding close seconds. The farmer’s market on Wednesdays and Saturdays don’t even set up their stalls until 9:30am, so it works perfectly for the Latin sleep-in-eat-later routine. We always have to gauge every shopping trip with the amount that we can carry home. The supermarket is only a block away, but a couple bottles of water and a melon and your arms are falling off.
We had a short week at the school due to Good Friday, but we also did a little painting work at another of VE Global’s institutions, which is a “baby house” or Casa de Guagua (pronounced wa-wa :). Upon arrival we were introduced to several of the ladies who work there and it took some time to get through all the kissing-the-cheek-hellos before we got down to business. Can you indulge us when we get back and do the same? It’s such a nice custom. Nobody in Argentina or Chile would ever walk in to an office and wave hello to the gang – no, everyday they greet each person with a kiss on the cheek as if they’ve never met them before. And they do the same upon leaving! I like it. But again, it takes time…
Well, Mary won March Madness. She was thrilled with the 10,000 peso pot. The zeros just make you feel rich. We don’t have to remember that it only means $17.