Día del Joven Combatiente (Day of the Young Combatants)

I knew that we had a bunch of religious holidays coming up in addition to Easter (more on those later) but this one showed up out of the blue.  Last night I found out that activities are cancelled at the Estadio to let the teachers get home early.  The didn't tell the kids why but just said to ask people at school - so much for teaching moments.

It turns out that El Dia del Joven Combatiente, which is not officially recognized, initially commemorated the killing of two brothers during the military regime in 1985 but has turned into an overall day of protests and remembrance by the Chilean left.  I was warned this morning that today would not be a good day to do some sightseeing in downtown or really anywhere in Santiago.  The papers say that they expect violent protests in 23 areas but the map doesn't show any in the barrios altos (the high neighborhoods or where the wealthy, and we, live). According to Marcela (the Nana), as would be expected most people forget what the day is commemorating and just take it as a day to vandalize.  Warning taken - I'll say at home and do our taxes instead.

A Collection of Observations #6

Now that I have stopped obsessing about earthquakes, yet another round:

1.  On the way home from the south we stopped by a place that sold this great vintage in 5 liter jugs.

2.  In many of the metro stations they have a library system where you can borrow books and return them to any of the other "branches" called Bibliometro.  Brilliant!

3.  Advertising.  A friend thought that it might be interesting to blog about billboards here but they are so influenced by American marketing that I have found little intrigue but I will keep looking.  This is in a large public park near our house.

4.  There is no "Pi" Day in Chile.  For those who aren't familiar with it, Pi Day is a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant "pi" and is celebrated in the States on March 14th (3.14).  The 4th grade at my kids' school in South Bend always celebrates it by having pizza and doing many things with circles for the day.  Of course that same day here is 14.3 so it just doesn't work.  In fact, given the fact that decimals are written with commas here it would actually be 14,3.  My kids are going to be so messed up, for a while anyway.  Don't even mention how they write ones and sevens now!

5.  Street food - While I have already mentioned the ubiquitous completo (hot dog with more toppings than meat), what I have been noticing now are people with coolers selling humitas (the tamale-like corn dish wrapped in corn husk) or bags of salad.  They sell both at the farmers markets as well but they seem to be a late summer treat as people line up for them at lunchtime.

6.  In addition to bags of salad, at each local farmer's market there is always at least one stand that also sells all the ingredients to make either a stew (minus the meat) or a soup in a bag.

7.  A sign that we must be coming home soon:

8.  I volunteer once a week at the school's bookstore (libreria) to help with my Spanish and get a better feel for the school.  The kids always visit me during one of their recesses (they get three every day!).  I volunteer on Fridays so I often have a stash of fresh challah behind the counter to feed them.  Take note that Jonathan's hair is indeed longer than Renee's in places ;-)

With Daniza

9.  More on condiments - I thought that the condiments station at the theater was good enough to display the Chilean's love of condiments on their hot dog but I think that I have found the ultimate. Jonathan and I entered a Doggis for the first time last week and were completely amazed by the selection.  Doggis is a Chilean hot dog fast food restaurant - a plain hot dog will never look like enough again.  I suggest just going through that link to get an idea of some of their specials.  What is amazing is that even after it comes with more than enough toppings they still have a condiment stand to add even more.  This one adds garlic sauce, cheese sauce, and what they call chiminesa (perhaps chimichuri and mayonnaise?).

10.  Good Feeling  - I already blogged about Radio Disney and all of the cross-cultural music that we are listening to in the car.  This one takes the cake.  There is a pop/rap song out now both here and in the States by the rapper Flo Rida. As in many of the rap songs today they have a bridge which is an old familiar song. The one has a section of Etta James' "Something's Got a Hold on Me" from 1962.  So what we have is Chilean kids dancing around singing some classic soul music.  Gotta love it!

Tremor #2 in two days

I don't like this at all.  This time it was during the day so the kids and I all felt it and hung out in the foyer outside the apartment because somebody told me it was the safest place to be.  We watched the pictures swaying and just sat there panicked.  We are on the 9th floor of a building that was not damaged in the 2010 earthquake.  I tried to be the grown-up but I really don't like these things.  Somehow tornado warning sirens seem easier to take than swaying buildings.  Perhaps I really am a Midwesterner at heart.

Jonathan - It was fun but also scary.

Elisa - I didn't even feel it at first.

Renee - It was fun but scary just like J. said.  It felt like a miniature version of those bull rides that try to throw you off.

This one was a 7.1 but was 136 miles from Santiago.  I hope that there was no damage.  I'm sure we'll hear soon.

Ugh.

I just spoke to my brother's girlfriend Yukari who grew up in Japan.   Apparently, tremors were a weekly occurrence.  I guess that I'd eventually get used to it but I wouldn't like it!

The seventh grade social studies curriculum starts with earth science.  They happen to be studying earthquakes right now.  I haven't commented that much on the Chilean education system but in this case I am quite impressed with the level of experiential learning ;-)

Early morning tremor

OK, I finally felt one.  I was just woken up at 4:30 by a 5.1 tremor 50 km from Santiago (the local news says 5.3 - I don't know the difference!).  I thought some kid was shaking the bed and I was going to scream at him/her until I looked up and it kept going and nobody was standing there.   Definitely freaky and definitely glad that I don't permanently live in an earthquake zone, that the kids did not wake up as well, and that Chile engineers are leaders in designing tall buildings for seismic events. I can't begin to imagine how the one in February 2010 felt - it was an 8.8 - so 10,000 stronger??  Yikes! Back to bed - maybe.

Coffee/cafe Scenes

When my sister was here she noted that we seemed obsessed by coffee.  Perhaps it is more an obsession with trying to find some good coffee here.  Although both Rob and I had visited Chile before we both had imagined (hoped for?) more of a Buenos Aires coffee culture here.  The default coffee here is Nescafe.  As I mentioned before there are also quite a lot of Starbucks.  That said, there are hidden gems and at most nice restaurants you can order an espresso-based drink (cafe espress).  Rob and I prefer the cortado which here is like a latte back home.

My staple - a cortado doble at the Estadio

What I observe while sipping my cortado - Elisa is actually studying Hebrew in the picture.

On one of our balconies not reading the Sunday New York Times

They get the latte minus the cafe

Sarah's cortado at a cafe with Diedre

Almost feels like Argentina, almost

Renee prefers a submarino (chocolate bar dunked in steamed milk)

I know this is already on the blog but I had to repeat it.  An Argentine breakfast  - mmmmmmm

I can't leave this topic without at least mentioning the "Cafe con Piernas" culture here.  Despite Chile being a relatively conservative Latin American country, there are quite a few cafes downtown that serve "coffee with legs."  They are something akin to Hooters in the States where there are women wearing very little clothes and high heels serving coffee mostly to business men.  Seeing that this is a "family" blog I'll let you search for any additional information.

Tarde mas Bakan

Before we came here, the wife of one of Rob's graduate students who is Chilean gave the kids (and me) a few lessons on Chilean Spanish.  I believe that "bakan" loosely means "cool."  The school opens the year with a sort of fair for families that they call "Tarde mas Bakan" or "The Coolest Afternoon" (is that right Anita?).  One of the two largest supermarkets chains, Jumbo, provided a lot of the staff and equipment but there were a lot of volunteers as well.  After we dropped Rob off at the airport for a week visit to South Bend (call out to all South Bend friends - that is Rob biking around town this week in the beautiful weather), we grudgingly heading over to school for this event.

Guess which one wanted to hide in his luggage?

Always with the mountains as a backdrop...

It ended up being a lot of fun mostly because they had a group called El Circo del Mundo there that was teaching the kids circus tricks.  There were carnival games, a bazaar, food, and various bouncy things but my kids spent almost five hours in the circus tent learning new tricks.  Renee favored the aerial silk, Jonathan the balance board, and Elisa the ring.

Representatives from Bomba Israel, a voluntary Jewish firefighter group that has been around since the 1950s, were there with a rigged up zipline that caught Elisa's attention as well.  They have a youth brigade that includes the teenage son of one of my friends.

They also had a tent with representatives from one of the more prestigious local clinics (Clinica Alemana where we ended up with Elisa during her asthma attack) that provides emergency services for the school.  Their booth consisted of giving everybody a cast for their wrist.  I was tempted to just send this one photo to Rob ;-)

I keep hearing that spring has really sprung in the midwest so while I can't offer any beautiful pictures of wisteria at this time of year I'll just offer this one from the Estadio:

Swept up with a broom - I assume that bring the rakes out for heavier jobs!

Note to self - listen/read the news before heading downtown

The kids are in school now full-time, my work crunch is over, so I decided to go downtown and do a few things that I have been meaning to do including a tour of the municipal theater and a walk through a neighborhood close to downtown (Calles Paris y Londres - much better photos than I would ever take!).  When I got off of the Metro I did a double-take because I noticed more Caribaneros (policemen) than usual gathered at the top of the station.  I walked over to the theater and noticed a group of teenagers marching with a flag that said INBA (I later learned that they were from a prestigious public school Internado Nacional Barros Arana).

I had a wonderful private tour including the set design studios, the back-stage manual pulley system to change scenes and the mechanism to raise and lower parts of the stage and orchestra pit (I sound like an engineer).  I then did a quick tour through Calles Paris y Londres and started for the Metro station called Universidad de Chile.  Not a good plan.   I turned the corner and was met by protesting students, tear gas, and water cannons.   Marcela (my Nana) told me the water canon truck is named El Guanaco, I assume, for the animal that spits when it is angry (had that happen to me with a llama - not quite the same).   I quickly covered my eyes and ran into a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant where I chatted, in Spanish, with the Chinese waiters - an experience in itself.  I eventually just ran for it down into the Metro station and headed far away with my eyes still burning.  Guess the students are protesting again!  Actually they didn't strike me as much as students as the ones from INBA - rumors have it that young people are jumping in and causing more problems than the students themselves.

Los Caribaneros

The tear gas truck

El Guanaco

Who said I had no topics left for the blog! Note to my Dad - please listen/read the news before we head downtown when you visit ;-)

Car companies we don't see at home (aka: the Chinese are coming!)

Jonathan is obsessed right now with making enough money one day to purchase a BMW.  Meanwhile, he is learning about other options and is obsessed with knowing all of the brands that we see here.  Unfortunately, many of them are not known to me and Rob.  I have been jotting down the names and logos and then trying to figure them out on-line.  Some of the "new" ones we have been introduced to are:

1.  Lifan (Chinese): Started in 2005 and now sell in 51 countries but not the US.

2.  JAC (Chinese):  Selling cars since 2007 but we mostly see small vans.

3.  ZXAuto (Chinese):  SUVs and pick-up trucks.  Piece of trivia from Wikipedia - Pickup trucks produced by Zxauto were widely used in the 2011 Libyan civil war by both the government and rebel forces.

4.  BYD  (Chinese):  The sixth largest Chinese car manufacturer. They are also a big player in electric cars.

5.  Great Wall (Chinese - duh).  Mostly known for SUVs (to tackle the Great Wall?  Yikes!)

6.  Changan (Chinese):  The fourth largest auto manufacturer in China.

7.  DongFeng (Chinese) - One of the "big four" Chinese companies.  We actually just saw these in the south of Chile.  They are a big player in hybrid vehicles.

8.  Tianjin FAW (Chinese) - We only saw these in Uruguay.  Looks like they do a lot with Toyota.

9.  Renault-Samsung (South Korean): Who knew they made cars too? There are a lot of SM3 cars here but I don't think that I have seen them in the States although South Korea definitely sells cars there (Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo?).

10.  SsangYong (South Korean): Apparently, they are gearing up for US sales in a few years.

11.  SKODA (Czech Republic):   Been around forever and now part of the Volkswagen Group. Are these seen in the States?

The Chinese have 12.7% of the Chilean market (after the US) perhaps due to their free-trade agreement.  My question is when, and if, the United States will allow the import of Chinese vehicles.   It sounds like for now it is a question of safety and emissions standards.  Thoughts from my China-expert friends out there?

When the deluge occurs you can say you first heard of them here ;-)

100 days to go

That really doesn't sound like enough time!  I have already started three blog entries that we will upload right before we leave:

1.  What we will miss about Chile
2.  What we will not miss about Chile
3.  What we are most looking forward to going home

Each person is contributing and I am keeping a running list.  You can guess who has the shortest and the longest answer for each one ;-)

School is in full swing and all, especially Renee, are swamped with homework. We are all back in our classes at the Estadio (Renee - gymnastics, Jonathan - tennis AND swimming, Elisa - gymnastics and swimming, me - pilates and an adult swim "team").  Birthday party and Bar/Bat mitzvahs are starting again (we have given Renee a "bye" for the Bar/Bat Mitzvahs - how miserable can you make a kid?).  The weather continues to be beautiful (but the pools are all shutting down next weekend) and hopefully will stay that way for the next 100 days!

The first week of school included the Jewish holiday of Purim where we commemorate the Jewish people's survival in ancient Persia (Book of Esther).  We made hamantaschen to pass out at school, Elisa dressed up as Pippi again (how many times can I use that costume!), and the kids were sugared up for the day.

Purim decorations at school

No more Queen Esthers in second grade

Pepita Medialargas or Bilbi (the Israeli version)

A visit with Hazzan David and Ellen Tilman from Philly (with separate connections to my grandmother Reba, Aunt Hannah, first cousin once removed Sheva, first cousin once removed Ezra, Beit Shraga in Albany, and many more)

Jonathan finally got to walk (or was walked by) a dog - he really really needs one

Elisa is never going to be satisfied with a birthday party in the backyard again.  This is the typical scene at birthday parties here ;-)

Having some Chilean sanguches (sandwiches) to "celebrate" (OK, I had a salad)