Monday, February 23, 2009

Chile, the City and a Birthday adventure!

Wow! I can't believe we have already been here for almost a week. There are so many things here that remind us of home that it almost doesn't feel like we are in another country. The landscape, just a little more dramatic here, the trees, the pitched roofs. The Spanish definately does not remind us of home, and has been quite a challenge with the change in vocab, and the tendancy to drop the last costantants or whole sylables. With a little more practice though, we'll be speaking Chilean Spanish with the pros. Just remember, it's not maiz, it's Choclo, and a Torta is not a large sub sandwich, but instead a cake. The tride and true Chicharos (peas) are now Alverjas.

We got in to Santiago early last Wednesday and then slept for the rest of the day. The flight was good, but I do not recommend 20 hours in transit. After we finally recovered from the flight and the 5 hour change in time zones (Chile is on the reverse daylight savings time as the United States) we ventured out into Santiago.

The buildings are amazing, the old architecture nestled in with the new. We went up the hill Santa Lucia where the first Spanish Conquistadors built their stronghold for defending Santiago. They shoot off a cannon every day there at Noon and we wanted to catch it, but we were caught off guard and it gave us quite a fright. Next, on our way to the Fine Arts Museum we happened across a shoe commercial shooting on the street. It was very cool, everyone dressed in black and white and there were some 20 models just standing around. We talked with some of them and sounds like most of them have day jobs. I'm not much of a shoe girl, but it was very exciting. We went to the Fine Arts Museum where they had sculptures, paintings, and a whole exhibition of Cartoons from Chile. It was so neat to see this side of Chilean humor and learn more about the country through the drawings.

The sisters here have been so nice, they're all so giving and wanting to help us with everything and also to hear about our adventures. We've been making it to evening Rosary and Vespers, but getting up for Mass has been a harder stretch. We are staying at the Mother House in Santiago just until tomorrow. It's not far from downtown Santiago, but you would never know it. Once you enter into the convent the pace is peaceful and calm, and they have the most amazing flower garden where we have been praying the Rosary every evening.

They have a large school attached that is old and beautiful with about 900 students. Matt and I are sleeping over in the old school dormitory/or nunnery two patios and several thick concrete walls away from everyone else. We thought for a while that there was a ghost in the old school as we kept hearing footsteps and doors opening and closing at night. We were ready for a juicy story, but turns out our ghost was just a night watchman! I think we will sleep much better tonight!

For Matt's birthday we went out to a lovely canyon not far from here called Cajon del Maipo. The Canyon reminded us a lot of Chelan and up by Leavenworth, only a bit more dry. It is just 45 minutes from Santiago and is where everyone goes for the weekend during the summer to camp, swim, hike, and relax. The cliffs of the canyon are beautiful and the Andes behind them are amazing. They grow a lot of grapes for wine and goat cheese is a specialty. We tried a lot of traditional dishes and finally got our first Chilean empanadas. They are all meat and vegetable filled here and kind of like a small calzone. Our really adventuresome dish was pastel de choclo which is a casserole dish with all sorts of meats, olives, a hardboiled egg and a sweet desert like crust made from corn that, believe it or not was quite spectacular. We stayed at a beautiful resort that had a hostel attached. Matt had lots of firsts for his birthday this weekend… for example, first birthday swim in an outdoor pool, first time there were leaves on the trees, and first birthday sun tan. All in all a very successful birthday. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to share it with all of you.

Pictures to come soon!