El Raton de los Dientes

Elisa is about to lose her first tooth in Chile.  Unfortunately, there appears to be no tooth fairy in Chile.  Fortunately, there is "El Raton de los Dietes!"  

Stay tuned to find out how generous s/he is.  Given that the exchange rate right now is 456 Chilean Pesos per dollar, no matter what it is going to look like a lot.  Everything looks like a lot of money - for instance, in order to join the Estadio (the "country club") it costs 677,500 Chilean Pesos.  It will take some getting used to.  It actually costs 31 UFs which is a totally different currency used for large purchases that is not affected by inflation and fluctuates daily.  

Walking and praying

Chileans are neither as thin as their Argentine neighbors nor as "large" as Americans even though they eat a lot of bread.  Based on how much we have been walking I'd say that the average Chilean (or at least Santiguino) is probably pretty fit.  Until we get a car (Rob submitted a form to get his identity number which will help with the process - they "said" that it should be ready by 8/8), we will get to know the public transportation system which is great until you have to go somewhere far away like the main synagogue.

I had contacted the synagogue before we left and the Rabbi's wife had been very welcoming.  The main service is the Friday night service so we went to try it out tonight and the Rabbi's wife told the security folks that we'd be showing up.  It started at 7:30 and we were running late so we took a taxi which wasn't cheap.  It is a Masorati synagogue which is basically part of the same Conservative movement as our synagogue at home.  The main difference is that they have a pianist accompanying the service.  I asked the Rabbi about it and he went into a long talmudic explanation about how you can play instruments that don't have strings because nothing would need to be fixed.  I then noted that piano's do have strings and he didn't buy it (Lizzie/Rabbi - thoughts?).   Otherwise it was quite comforting, as it always is, to hear some of the same melodies etc. even with a Chilean accent. The Rabbi's wife knew we were coming so towards the end of the service the Rabbi called up the whole family for an honor and to welcome us - we were totally unprepared.  In fact, only the "girls" went up at first because I didn't know where Rob and Jonathan were (most likely wandering the halls).  It was nice because then during the kiddush people came up to us to welcome us.  At our synagogue the kids go up to sing the final prayer at the end of Saturday morning services.  Here, the kids go up to say kiddush (blessing over the wine) and then get wine and a candy.  Our kids were upset that they didn't know the custom once they saw that the others came down with a candy (Lizzie/Rabbi - thoughts?).

I am realizing that I have so many different things to write about but I will save them for another day (on one of my infamous lists).

Summer School

Well.....they started school today with a lot of butterflies in their stomachs.  After we dropped them off we sat down with the head of the primary school to go over their evaluations.  The psychological interview had no surprises (Jonathan - perfectionist, Renee - shy, Elisa - young (compared to the 1st graders - at least she is being compared to the 1st graders and not kindergarteners!).  We had to fill out more forms, pay more money, kiss more people and then we had a coffee during "recess" and saw all three kids looking pretty content.  Unlike Kennedy/LaSalle, during breaks the kids run in circles around the building.  It will take some getting used to.

After we finished with that I took a bus over to the main synagogue and after some drilling discovered that without an official host I could not enter the building.  Perhaps we will try and get there for Friday night services with a "host."  Apparently, most kids finish school, play with a friend, and then go over to services - pretty tight community.  The synagogue is in one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Santiago but what was surprising is that it also has a very poor section.  I am sure you probably see that throughout the city.

I got back and the Nana was here cleaning up - I could get used to this!  The best part is that I have to speak Spanish with her (and she is very patient).

There is a huge bread culture here.  It seems that everybody stops off at a grocery store, "corner" store, or bakery to pick up there bread on their way home from work or their Nana picks it up for breakfast.  There are bins full of different individual breads and I keep bringing back a different one every day to try but I think the one with the softest middle is going to be the biggest hit.  I tried to find a cheat sheet on-line to describe all of the breads and the closest that I found was this:


http://mariannegraff.com/2010/01/12/breads-of-chile/

Some photos - finally - second try

We finally found the cord and here are a quick selection of photos.  I still have to figure out how best to upload photos into a blog.

One year worth of "stuff"

An avocado sandwich (there are many many avocados in the stores - it will take time to find our favorite)

Skyping with the Kirschs - this is going to keep Renee sane.

The girls bed at the Apart Hotel - never again!

Our day of touring at a local museum

Palacio de la Moneda (The presidential "palace" - but literally and originally the Mint).  You may best recognize it from the 1973 coup.

The very efficient metro system

The mountains from our aparthotel but also the same basic view from my desk right now!

Gender Bending

We have yet to see a Chilean girl with hair above her shoulders and yet to see a nine-ish year old Chilean boy with hair at his shoulders - this has led to some challenges.  Today we went to the shopping mall to buy Renee shoes and we went to the woman's department because she wears a 9.5!  As I stumbled through my Spanish trying to ask the lady for black tied shoes in her size the lady looked at us incredulously and kept saying "niño" and I kept saying that she had big feet and belonged in this department.  For those who know little Spanish you could maybe sympathize with my ignorance as I thought she was saying that we had to go to the kids department not the boys department.  When she finally brought out the shoes I tried to ask if she thought Renee was a boy and she nodded.  Oops - gotta get Renee to wear longer earrings!

As for Jonathan, he is a hit with the older set -  all of the Mom's keep playing with his long "blond" hair.  Elisa just gets her cheeks and chin caressed and pinched periodically.

Oh - I have to eat my words - the Internet people showed up at 12:45 (scheduled for between 9-1) and got it all done in a day!  Efficiency!!!!!

Most Chilean middle-class and up homes employ domestic help or a Nana because it is relatively inexpensive.  When we were staying at Pablo's his Nana helped out a lot with meal preparation, child care, and house cleaning.  I am sure that I could get used to that!  Our apartment came with a "built-in" Nana who can come twice a week for 4 hours at a time.  After mopping a day's worth of soot off the floor this morning I think that I understand why daily help might be nice!  As I was sweeping and mopping Elisa said "Mama - why are you doing that?  Doesn't the lady do that for you?"  Obviously she is getting acculturated faster than I!

Renee just remarked that I am going to probably slow down with blogging once things settle in.  Probably true but this has been a lot of fun.  Renee - do you want to add anything?   "I am really happy that I can Skype my friends."

Did I mention the mountains?

If I sit next to a window in Renee's room I can get a weak internet connection.  Somebody is supposed to come today to put in a phone and internet sometime between 9-1 - it is 12:40 - we'll see.  One thing that we have noticed is that everybody underestimates time and distance.  We have been told that something is just four blocks away and after walking 4 kilometers we get there or we are told that a meeting will take 20 minutes and it takes closer to an hour.  Just something to get used to - I guess.

So we are in our apartment - its only taken a week to get it - not bad.  It has the most amazing views of the mountains - have I mentioned that yet? ;-)  Unfortunately, this is the first day that I have really noticed the smog.  Santiago is noted for the winter smog and it is quite something.  The grossest part is that a layer of black dust covers a lot of things.  There are cushions for the porch furniture but we were told not to put it out until early spring because they will get dirty.  Everything has a layer of soot on it - the floors, the furniture and I am sure that we do too.  Time to finally get Jonathan to take daily showers!!!!

Rob and I went for our parent interview at the school this morning.  They don't have the results from the kids evaluation yet but seemed "certain" that they can start tomorrow.  Everybody has been really nice and I have found that my Hebrew is coming in handy at times. Everybody has to eat lunch at the school so we tried it out yesterday and it was actually pretty good.   I think that once we get settled in we'll get a lot of invitations to people's homes.  Unfortunately, many of them live far from public transportation (up in the hills) so we'll have to get a car eventually or just take a lot of taxis.

As we set up the kitchen we were told not to place glasses on the second shelf of the cabinet because they may fall during the tremors - something that I am not looking forward to.  Apparently they happen pretty often and nobody thinks twice about it.  Hmmmmmm

We are in!

Things are looking better today (how could they not?).  Rob is getting the keys to the apartment while I am with the kids at school as they take their “exam” or evaluation for school.  Jonathan probably has the most butterflies in his stomach.  Renee was reading an Isaac Asimov book and J. was reading something on his Nook as we were waiting for the evaluation – that should help – if only Elisa was reading a Harry Potter to convince them that she is 1^st grade worthy!

We don’t have a car yet so we took public transportation to the school which included a walk, four stops on the Metro and a 20 minute bus ride “up” to the school.  The good news is that it is sunny and much warmer in the school.  The school kids are still wearing their black down coats but it looks more like overkill now!  Everybody here wears black coats – little kids and adults.  As we were taking the transportation Renee remarked that we (in our hot pink, purple, maroon, and light blue coats) look like tropical fish compared to everybody else ;-)

I hadn’t realized that Rob fibbed to get us our last apart hotel and said that we were a family of four so last night was another night with a “girls” bed.  I pity Elisa’s future partner!  It had an absolutely stunning view of both the city and the mountains.  The city view was not of downtown Santiago but of “El Golf” or what they can SanHattan.  It is basically the new commercial district and has high rises (as high as they can go with the local seismic activity) as well as apartment buildings (photos hopefully soon – Danny – really).

The people at PUC (Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile – La Catolica) are starting to wonder if Rob really exists so hopefully he will go in tomorrow.  We still haven’t started the process (visits to three offices in different parts of the city) to get official here in order to buy a car but it will happen eventually although I did manage to get 2 cm x 3 cm mug shots taken of me and the kids for the official documents.  I will get by with my Spanish but really just get by!  Once we get settled I’ll try and find a class or tutor or just wait for my Dad to visit to learn some Philly-español  ;-)

The best part is that the kids have been real troopers through this (I guess I’ll wait to see what they say when they emerge from their evaluations).  As would be expected, Jonathan is amazed at everything but mostly the buildings and public transportation.  Renee is most intrigued by the ability to “talk” to her friends on Skype and Elisa is happiest when she just has a stuffed animal or her Mamá with her wherever she is.  All age and personality appropriate!

We ordered Internet for our apartment but it may take a while to get – maybe days, maybe weeks, maybe months……So – unless I hang out here or in a café with wi-fi  - I may be signing off.

Day 6 - I quit

Looks like we are headed to our fourth hotel room in four nights and might need to move to a 5th one tomorrow night.  There are many, many hoops to go through to rent an apartment and Rob's work has been very helpful but it is still taking time.  Let's not even talk about identity cards or buying a car!

We woke the kids up early to get ready for school and nothing turned out as we hoped it would.  It was raining hard so it was difficult to get a taxi (it took 40 minutes).  Once we got to the school it turned out that it was a day just for looking at the school and meeting the administration.  Tomorrow the kids need to return to take some sort of exam and then on Wednesday they'll start school, maybe.  Our challenge is going to be convincing them that Elisa belongs in 1st grade because based on her age she should be in Kindergarten.  The issue is the older kids get out at 4:00 and "Kinder" gets out at 1:30!  So it is a Mama issue!

Today is the coldest day and it was completely freezing in the school.  Renee lost feeling in her toes ;-)  The school kids were wearing down coats in the classrooms and teachers had on boots, scarves, and long coats.  The school is at the foothills where it can be 8 degrees colder than where we are living.  Also, it rained "down here" but snowed pretty close to the school - Where is Midwestern heat and humidity when we need it?????  Dreams of Swanson Pool.

Midway through our visit at the school Jonathan's jaw locked up - obviously we are all feeling stress.  Not to mention the consistent whining of #3.  No worries - they are all watching Cartoon Network in Spanish - it's all about immersion ;-)

Copa America

Who would have thought that I'd be listening to Rob and Jonathan yelling "GOAL!" from the hotel bedroom after less than a week here. It is the Copa America (the Latin American championship soccer tournament) and although Chile has already been knocked out the streets and Metro clearing out at around 2:30.  It is the final between Uruguay and Paraguay - but I am sure that you knew that already ;-)  Rob's folks live in Uruguay so we have some sort of allegiance to the country which makes it a bit amusing to watch (2-0 at the half).

We did a bit of the tourist thing this morning - La Moneda (the presidential palace), Plaza de Armas, and Bellavista (a trendy neighborhood that leads to a funicular to go up San Cristobal).  It was too cloudy (smoggy?) to see anything so we just ate in Bellavista and went back to the hotel.  Again - photos were taken but we have no clue where the cord is to upload them!  We have three of our 10 bags with us and are definitely missing some things.

School starts tomorrow and the anxiety is definitely building mostly with child #1.  Hopefully it will not be too painful after a few weeks.....

Did I mention that it was really cold here?  We went into a museum to warm up only to find that everybody was wearing their winter coats inside.  Oh well.

Found a place and found the Jews

We went back to the apartment this afternoon and left a deposit.  It is a bit out of the way but in a nice neighborhood and has a parking spot (as if we have a car! - we'll get one, eventually).  One of Rob's colleagues lives in a house a few blocks away so that might be nice for him for commuting to work although he intends to use the Metro most of the time.  The best part is that the apartment has tremendous views which we will post once we move in on Tuesday.

We actually started the morning by checking out public transportation including the metro and the bus system.  We took it "up" (which means towards the mountains) to check out the Estadio Israelita, basically a country club but from the 1950s with a sort-of kosher twist.  It is not far from the Estadio Palestino.  Rob got drilled on his ancestry, affiliation and circumcision and then we were allowed in.  They have a gymnastics center which hopefully Renee will join, taekwondo lessons, an indoor and an outdoor pool, a kosher cafe and a non-kosher cafe, a sepharadi synagogue, merengue classes, and a lot of tennis courts and soccer fields.  What more could you ask for?

It turns out that many kids go on a bus from the school (Instituto Hebreo) straight after school gets out (4:00), have a snack, do homework, and then do an activity.  We'll have to check it out.  Saturdays kids usually have some lessons in the morning and then go to one of three youth groups either at the club, school, or synagogue.  I haven't gotten a straight read on the difference between the clubs but I'm sure we'll get it.

Tonight we were moved to a one-bedroom apartment with a pull out couch.  The girls get the "big"' bed and the boys get the little - it should be a fun filled night for Mama!

We also tried out the local empanadas that did not cut it with our kids the same way that the Uruguayan/Argentine ones do.  The main flavor is pino.  A vegetarian staple. Ah well.  They also eat a lot of avocado so Rob and I shared a toasted avocado sandwich for lunch (photos to come when we find the cord).

Tomorrow we plan to be tourists before getting ready for school on Monday!

As promised?

We've had a crazy few days and we've had the opportunity to see Rob stressed which rarely, rarely happens.  It has been harder than "promised" to find either a short-term rental (extended stay hotel) or a longer-term rental.  As we were setting off for a day of apartment-hunting a secretary from Rob's new office called with the name of an apart-hotel for us - the catch was that we had to stay in three rooms over three nights and then wouldn't know what would happen next.  We took it and here we are watching Cartoon Network in Spanish - at least there is some educational value?

We saw four apartments one of which may work out well (the possibility) but is about a 15 minute walk from the Metro and a bit of a haul to the school.  It has an incredible view of the mountains (Danny - I promise we'll get the camera out soon) - almost every place does in the outskirts of town.  It is in a neighborhood with apartments and houses and some small parks.  My dream was to have a few cafes around the corner but Rob and I agree that this is no Buenos Aires or Paris ;-)

The kids start school in two days - yikes!  We haven't had time to shop for uniform stuff yet but they can always wear other clothes....

OK - Danny - although we haven't taken any pictures this is what we saw from every apartment window today - 

It was really clear y espectacular!

Quote of the day care of Elisa "Why do we have to walk EVERYWHERE??"  Mama  "Because it is a real city."


Mañana es un nuevo dia!

Well......welcome to Latin America

We made it with all ten bags and five tired people.  Rob's colleague Pablo picked us up at the airport with a taxi/van and we proceeded to our aparthotel that, despite our earlier contacts, told us that it would not be available until 3:00 (it was 11:00).  We continued onto his house and spent the day (and now night) there as it became more apparent that it was never going to be available.  So......we're camping out here and will try and find another place tomorrow.  We are all too tired to really care but are lucky that Pablo and family have been so accommodating.

The quote of the day was from Jonathan who asked "If we had a reservation why can't we stay there?"  The response from me was "Welcome to Latin America!"

Buenos noches

The day has come - Jonathan

Today we leave and I'm getting pretty nervous. But, I'm still excited about going to Chile. The weather reports say it starts cold in the morning and it doesn't get to its hottest until around 5:00. That might take some getting used to.

Anyway over all, I think I'm ready for Chile!

-Jonathan

T-12 hours

We gave in and finally realized that we need all 10 bags that we are allowed for five people but probably will not reach the 500 lb limit!  It was a question of whether or not to bring the Wii and the more we hear about the winter smog the more it seems to make sense to bring it.

Elisa summed it up last night as I was putting her to bed "Mamá, are we ever going to do anything else but pack?"  Just wait my dear.......

Jean McManus has willingly agreed to shlep us and the 10 bags up to Notre Dame to catch the bus to O'Hare and there our travels will begin.  We will be staying at an "Aparthotel" until we find an apartment which hopefully will happen the first week or two - http://www.apartsuite.cl/home_en.html.  It is pretty centrally located within a few Metro stops of where we hope to land and is just one bus ride away from their school which they start on Monday.

First steps will be visiting three different bureaucracies in three different areas of the city to try and get "official" so that we can buy a car and send the kids to school (http://www.institutohebreo.cl/).  I have survived the lines in Israel and other places without my Kindle but have never survived them with three cranky kids in tow.  That will be the first challenge.  More from the other side.

Chau!

Oops - did I mention that our basement flooded today?  Never a dull moment!

All together now

Renée is back from camp and we are all learning about blogging together post frozen yogurt dessert.

A word or two from each kid on how they are feeling about the impending move:

Renée - I'm excited to go but I am also nervous because I am going to miss all of my friends and activities.

Jonathan - I'm excited about going and I think it will be pretty fun but leaving South Bend will be kind of sad.  I think it will be fun to ski down there. I think I'm going to like it down there.

Elisa - I'm going to miss my friends.  I am excited to go to Chile.  I hope they have lots of good Chilean sweets.

14 days and counting

As we are preparing to head to Santiago for the year, friends keep asking if we will be blogging so.....I'm going to attempt it!

We have 14 days until we leave and things are basically under control on this end but I am going to attempt to leave my Type A personality here (I'll at least try) and hopefully things will slowly come together on the other side. We arrive on 7/20 and the kids start school on 7/25 (after winter break) and that's about all that is in-line right now. Car, apartment, cell phone, etc. will hopefully be figured out the first week or so and then......

Meanwhile we are leaving summer and heading towards winter which in itself will be a challenge at least for me.

Santiago weather

Tonight

32 °F

Partly Cloudy

South Bend weather -

Today

86 °F

Clear

We'll keep checking the weather in December and we be uploading beach pictures! I'm going to see if I can get at least Renée and Jonathan to join in on the blogging (to keep up their English writing skills ;-) )

Meanwhile back to canceling utilities and setting up e-bills. Nice to be doing this in the 21st century!