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.