Holidaze

One of the strangest parts about living in another country is the part where your forget that the random Thursday in November that seems like any other late spring day is actually Thanksgiving.  All of your friends and family back home are stuffing themselves with Turkey and preparing to fight the crowds of Black Friday while you just get up, go to work, and... yeah.

Sarah (the other gringa at my school that arrived in August) and I had a mini-party when the cafeteria happened to be serving turkey and mashed potatoes that day for lunch.  We also had our coworkers tell us what they were thankful for... coincidentally teaching some of them the word thankful.

That evening, rather than try to create a sub par traditional Thanksgiving dinner in our shoebox of a kitchen, we decided to create our own tradition by heading out for a terrifically Chilean Thanksgiving dinner complete with Chacarero (green beans abounding), papas fritas (potatoes.. duh) and beer.... that is just a given.  Our "Gracias-giving" was a great and pleasant success.  

We finished the night with some Bravissimo cheesecake and our fancy-ish bottle of wine from Argentina, officially making it a very multi-cultural  evening.  

For Jacqui's last weekend in Chile, we took her to the artisan town of Pomaire about an hour outside of Santiago.  Michael and I had been a few times before to walk the streets of artisan shops full of clay made pots, and pigs.  (The "chanchitos" only have 3 legs.. this is good luck... I don't know).  Pomaire is such a great little piece of Chilean charm.  We souvenir-shopped, empanada-ate and posed with the world's largest clay pig.  Yes that is a thing... and yes it is as awesome as it sounds.

The 90 degree weather didn't deter the placement of ginormous Christmas trees throughout town.  Honestly, without Thanksgiving to get in the way, the Christmas decorations began popping up around November 1st. Indoor trees like this guy looked happy:

 While this guy looked like he was sweating and hating his life: (we feel you bro... seriously)

We rounded out November, sweaty and thankful.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Day came and went in Chile without the normal trip to Clyde, stalking of Black Friday adds with my crazy aunts and cousins (even though I never get up early, because.. please), and the food (and wine) coma I have come to love from Thanksgiving day at the Welch's house.  Wednesday, Michael and I made a trip to the store to buy the good sliced turkey from the deli and a can of green beans.  On Thursday, we made ourselves a turkey sandwich for lunch, skyped with Memaw, skyped with Tommy, went to Happy Hour a little later and high-fived one-another for a job well-done.
Since making the move to Chile, we both have reflected many times on how lucky we are in so many ways.  For me, even when I have had rough-ish days wondering if I will ever get to be fully independent again (as in, speak this language), I feel super blessed to be here in this wonderful country, taking advantage of time that many people never get in our work-driven world.  Here is just a small list of things I feel thankful for:

1. Happy, healthy families and friends.
2. Our terribly handsome god-sons (that we miss seeing everyday, but their parents keep us posted).
3. Skype, e-mail, and all that other crazy new-fangled technology that allows me to keep in touch with those family and friends as if we live 3 hours away.
4.  The Goethe Institute.... the German Institute where I took my Spanish classes.
5.  Cuevana TV... because we TOTALLY have already seen the third season of Downton Abbey... and it is good!
6.  My old Alamo kids having so much success (and the technology and people that allow me to properly stalk that progress as well)
7.  That Michael and I are great partner's in crime no matter where we are.  I'll also add that my brilliant husband has done more for his crazy independent wife in the last three months to help me adjust that most people would.  Well done, sir!  Well picked, me!
8.  A warm, wonderful Chilean family.
9. Great in-laws!  (We both say this about eachother's family all the time.... because some people have crazy in-laws... and somehow we missed that boat... and we are thankful, thank you very much).
10.  The opportunity to be here, and the freedom to explore and learn more about the world every single day.

I could go on and on... but you get the idea... we are blessed people.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was filled with more awesome-ness.  Saturday was the "Gobble Gobble" hash with our running group (where we were given hash names).  What happens at the hash stays at the hash, at least for this blog's purpose, but we did end up singing karaoke late into the night.  Oh yeah... we are thankful for this group for sure.


On Sunday, a couple, Mark and Jess, from this group are so thankful for, hosted a fabulous Thanksgiving for 20 expats.  It really was amazing the trouble they went to in order to make the day special and "traditional" for everyone.  They built a table in the living room that sat 20, prepared turkey with all of the fixings,and even played the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the background followed by the amazing "butt fumble" Jets game.
We sat around the table, inhaling the wonderful food, but once we came up for air, we all went around table saying what we were thankful for.  It was such a great moment comprised of so many smaller moments as everyone expressed their gratitude for their lives and for one-another.
Between dinner and dessert, we took a walk (a tradition Katy from Boston's family) before returning to play cards, laugh, and celebrate the holiday.  It wasn't home, but it was close, and for that we have to thank the many situations that brought us all to Chile.

"The Land of Blas"

We had a weekend jam-packed with Onces, lunches, dinners and most importantly, Spanish conversation. We had the opportunity to meet many different "friends of the family" that we hadn't had the opportunity to spend anytime with yet in Santiago.  It was a weekend that proved, yet again, how welcoming Chileans are to friends.  (If you'll remember, I've made comments before about how strangers treat strangers... I stand by that.  I'm still amazed by the oblivion people exhibit on the streets); however, everyone we spent time with over the weekend welcomed us as family.  The best part about meeting more Chileans, aside from the wonderful food and feelings of belonging, is the opportunity for me to practice speaking Spanish.  I got a slight ego boost from these new people as I told them how long I'd been here and they proceeded to make facial expressions displaying both approval and astonishment at the fact that we were having a conversation at all.  To me, it is hard to feel the improvement, because every time I improve more, I have more things... more complicated things... that I want to express that I can't.  Vicious cycle for sure.  

We spent Sunday with the Lorca-Suarez family at the "land" owned by my darling suegros. (Notice that I said Lorca-Suarez family and not just Lorca.  This comes from the fact that in Chile, women do NOT change their apellido to that of their husband.  Children have TWO last names-- Dad's then Mom's, making Michael's name in Chile, Michael Stephen Zenteno Hellinghausen... woot!  More importantly, the first day we were in Santiago, Michael made the mistake of saying the "Lorca" family to Isabel (the mom of this family) and her reaction was quite classic.  Also, I explained that in the States many women take the name of their husband and then kids have the man's last name only to the fellow that takes my license every day at the Institute in exchange for a keycard granting me access to the second floor, and his reaction was, and I quote, "Que fome!".  I agree sir... it is a little bit lame-o).  Anyway....

We spent the day a little bit South of the city in the country, breathing smog-free air and gazing at incredible views.  "The Land of Blas" (I just named it that) is stunning.  One of the men that lives near their property met Michael and immediately called him Blas 2, and then allowed us to use his Quincho for a BBQ.  Excellent choice of neighbors.  

 Notice how I caught Michael in the picture twice... Creeepy.

In other news... WE BOUGHT BIKES!!  The weather is perfect right now, and it turns out you can explore at a much quicker pace on a bicycle.  Thanks in part to an early Christmas gift from my parents, we took a trip to Mall Sport and returned with the nicest bikes we've ever owned.  It doesn't seem silly to own a Mountain Bike when there are... you know... mountains, and we've already explored a lot of the neighboring comuna, La Reina in our first week.  Aren't the precious??

On Monday, during my Spanish class, I did a presentation on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, which I only then realized is actually this week. (I think the anticipation for Thanksgiving is directly related to the anticipation for time away from the children.. in the past). The reaction of all the foreigners in my class to the concept of Black Friday was hilarious.  

Also, I described the distance of something in "kilometers" to a girl in my class... what is happening to me??

I decided today that I wanted to bake something "Thanksgiving-y" , so I went on an adventure to find canned pumpkin, pie-something, not sure, but needless to say, I was denied. Not having a kitchen of my own to destroy while baking, I needed something not terribly complicated. We left the store with the fixings for an AWESOME turkey sandwich for tomorrow and some chocolate chip cookie mix.  It isn't Memaw's house... but it will do :).