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!