Things I will miss. And a few more that I won't.

Every time we move (and we do that a bit) a switch in my brain is activated and I somehow start keeping a mental list of all of the things that I will miss, and won't miss, about wherever it is we are leaving.  I will be driving through traffic and someone will turn right in front of me without signaling and I think, I won't miss this about CityX.  I am waiting in line at the grocery store and someone sees that I only have 2 things to purchase and they let me go ahead and I think, chalk that up to something I will miss when we leave CityY.  I see the forecast and think, I really won't miss winter in CityZ...ever.

And ever since we found out that we were moving out of Santiago way back in October, the voice that says, "you won't miss this..." or "I hope that Prague has this...", has been chiming in with its two cents worth.  Hoping to silence it, I thought I would give the voice a forum and write it all down.

And before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I have a bunch of disclaimers.  Yes, I realize that these are just MY opinions.  I also realize that Prague may be plagued with many of the same "won't miss" issues.  And they are in no particular order.  I am just writing them as I remember them.  And I know I am generalizing, but again, these are MY experiences here and others would have an entirely different list.  But here goes...

The things I won't miss:

• Not having a garbage disposal (try it for awhile.  It sux.  And nope...I won't have one in Europe either).
• The horrible air quality.  Second only to that in China.  Not, not an exaggeration.  It is the second worst in the world.
• Not being able to drive out of my driveway on days that the government declares that the smog is too bad.
• Concrete houses that never get warm (no matter how much expensive gas/kerosene you use to heat them.)
• Paying over $6 a gallon for gas.  (Europe is not going to fix this but at least this time I have learned to buy a Diesel car).
• The driving!  I don't mind if you are an aggressive driver but this is just BAD driving.
• The lack of using car seats or safety belts of any kind for children, and adults.  I don't care if the adults do it, they are making an informed decision, but to not buckle your kids in is child abuse.  Plain and simple.
• Screens on windows and doors.  If you open a window to get fresh air, expect the bugs to come flocking in.  And forget about keeping them open at night as you are just inviting neighbor cats, the random raccoon, bees, lizards, you name it, to make themselves cozy inside.
• The lack of customer service.  Complain if you will about the four hour window you get in the U.S. when you have someone make a service call but at least they show up in that window.  I can wait a week for someone to show up, they will then show up when I am not home and blame it on me.
• The fact that ever time I leave the house I am still afraid that no one will understand me.  Yes, my Spanish is pretty fluent and I can get through almost any conversation, but the fear is still there.  (Again, I know this will not change in the Czech Republic but more people will speak English there)
• The food.  I will not miss that lack of taste...Their national dish is a boiled hot dog, topped with mayo and avocado and wrapped in a bun.  Please tell me where the flavor is...Another national dish - a pie made almost entirely of corn!  And their spicy doesn't even approach mild.
• In the same vein, under cooked pizza.  All pizza needs a minimum of 5 extra minutes in an extra hot oven.  Soggy crust and barely melted cheese does not do it for me.
• Restaurants not opening until 8 pm at the very earliest.  Most not until 9.  I want to be in bed by then, not starting my dinner.
• Driving over my mail.  Since there is no mailman as we know it, my letters are brought by hired carriers and just thrown through my gate fence onto my driveway.  Even in the rain.
• The smoking!  About 90% of the women smoke (a much smaller percentage of the men) and not until last year was smoking banned in restaurants and bars.  
• Real aluminum foil.  Seriously, it is paper thin and rips constantly.
• Their parking lot logic.  There is none.  If going left makes sense you will surely be going right.
• I will not miss the marketing that makes no sense (as a marketing professional this one just grates).  The mascot for the gas company is a golden retriever, the song used for the sandals commercial is just whatever is popular at the time.  And don't get me started on using English in the campaign - the translation is usually wrong and makes no sense, not to mention it is grammatically incorrect most of the time.
• Corn on everything.  And I mean everything.  It is on pizza, in pasta and even hamburgers at McDonald's.  I like corn, I just don't need it daily.
• The fact that hot water can suddenly disappear, then reappear even hotter and then disappear again about 5 times during one shower.  And if you are upstairs in the kids bath, forget water pressure if you want warm water.  The pressure goes down relative to the heat of the water.  When it is finally warm enough for a shower, there isn't enough pressure for it to come up the hose and out the shower head.
• Having options when flying.  There are only so many flights to Chile in a day.  Miss yours and you are probably stuck until the next day.  If you are lucky enough to be re-routed, you probably still won't get home until the next day.
• It taking all day to do a load of laundry.  Washing is an hour.  Drying will take up to two hours.  All day to finish 3 loads.
• Hearing what we have dubbed the "Chilean National Anthem" every five minutes and for 10 minutes at a time.  "Chilean National Anthem" = house alarm loudly blaring.
• Having very limited flight options.  Have your flight cancelled or delayed and you are stuck for another day because it is usually the only flight of the day.

But before you tell me that I am horrible for saying these things, let me list the things I will really and truly miss about Chile:

• The Chilean run preschool that my girls go (went) to.  Those women love my girls (and every child in their care) as if they were their own.  I don't think we will ever find a group of people that will take care of them the way Goldfish took care of them for the past 3 years.
• The neighbors.  Sure, she is Canadian but has lived here for over 20 years so, to me, she is Chilean.  She and her husband have been great friends.  First when we lived on the right side of them, and then when we moved and lived on the left.  They are one of a kind and we will miss them desperately.
• Empanadas.  Chilean empanadas win, hands down.  Some of the best in the world.
• Pisco Sours and Wine.  Again, some of the best in the world.
• The garbage men pick up my garbage 4 days a week (you have to when you have no garbage disposal) but it really is nice.
• My perfect gardener (Don Jose, you will be missed).
• The neighborhood park and trail and the workers who keep it clean.  They are out there every day, all day making sure that my kids have a safe place to play.  And they have exercise equipment along the whole 10K trail.  It is fabulous and they are in almost every comuna in Santiago.
• Fresh Palta (avocados), Frutilla (strawberries), Naranja (oranges) and Uva (grapes).  They are grown right in our backyard here and taste so much better here because they pick them when ripe, not days or weeks in advance, because they don't have to ship them.
• Eating out.  Unlike in the U.S., where they book you a table and then expect to turn it over in an hour, when you book a table here, it is yours for the night.  No one rushes you through dinner, no one makes you feel as if you are squatting...you are expected to sit, sip and enjoy.
• Heading out early (9-10 am) and being the only one there.  You can guarantee if you are at a location within 3 hours of it opening you will have it to yourself because no one will be showing up until at least 1 pm.
• Not needing a prescription at the pharmacy, for some things.  I can walk in, tell them the dose of my thyroid meds and walk out with it.  Same for the time my daughter had pink eye.  And the prescription doesn't expire - at least not in my experience.  I have been refilling the same scrip for the past 3 years with the exact same piece of dirty, worn out paper.
• Free gift wrapping everywhere.  Every. Where.  The grocery store will wrap anything you just purchased and even put a bow on it.  Free.
• My Spanish teacher, Jessica.  She wasn't just my teacher, she was my friend.  One that sat and listened to me for 2 hours a day, twice a week, while most of what I said sounded like a two year old grammatically.  And for teaching me enough those first two years to be able to have real coversations this last one.
• The gas attendant.  You do not pump your own gas anywhere.  I will really miss this.  Especially on rainy and snowy days.
• 80's music playing everywhere you go.  In English.  
• The office that supports my husband in his work and me in my life.  They are priceless.
• No censoring.  Yep, you would probably think that this would go under things I wouldn't miss but I have the opposite view on this one.  I will miss the fact that my kids aren't completely sheltered from real life.  We hear swear words on the radio, we hear them on local TV.  And that doesn't bother me, it just allows ME to control what my kids see and hear and not someone else.  It allows me to teach them right from wrong and not rely on someone else's views on the subject.  I understand that others would put this under their won't miss list but I really will.  
• Assigned seating in the movie theatre.  You pay for your ticket and at the same time choose open seats from a screen.  Every ticket has a seat number assigned.  It keeps you from having to show up super early to get a preferred seat at the newest blockbuster.
• My girls thinking they are Chilean.  Yep, they are both so completely immersed in the culture that they think they never lived anywhere else.  I WILL miss that they may no longer think that and have an identity crisis when we get to Prague.
• My pool.  I throw my girls in the pool ever single second that it isn't frozen over.  

I know this list is not all inclusive.  I bet any one of my friends could add to it.  I could probably add to it if I sat here longer.  But I have packers in my house and if I don't get back to it, the dog will probably end up bubble wrapped and in a box...

A Visit with Santa

It is that time of year.  Time to scare the daylights out of Stinkerbell by taking her to see the big, jolly man in the red suit.  I'm kidding...I think.  The girls have been begging to go see Santa for the past 2 weeks and we finally had a free day on Saturday to do it.  This year, MadHatter wanted to go to the mall by our house since she had seen that Santa had built a WHOLE HOUSE in the middle.  She loved last years snow globe but this was totally new and unexpected.  She said she wanted a peek into how Santa lived.  And a peek she got...

Waiting to see Santa

Peeking to see if they could maybe catch a glimpse of the big guy.

Still not so sure of him, but at least she isn't crying.

(anyone else notice that his pants are too short?)

From above.  We were escorted upstairs to Santa's private quarters to see how he lives.

Santa's version of a play room.

His bedroom.

Where he makes out his naughty and nice list...

Saying goodbye to the elves!

The girls loved it.  And Stinkerbell didn't cry!!!  It's all about the 3 M's this time of year.  Magic, Milestones and Memories!  Ane we nailed them all!  I truly hope that this isn't the last year of MadHatter's believing.  I'm just not ready for that yet...

An American Thanksgiving in Chile

Celebrating Thanksgiving in a country far from home is difficult.  Mostly for the obvious fact that you have no family around to celebrate one of the most familial of holidays with.  Depending on where you live you may not even be able to scrounge up any Americans.  In our case, we live in a place where 2/3 of the population doesn't even know what Thanksgiving is or why we would be sad to be missing a family dinner (in their minds that is what it is and they do that every Sunday) and it is a tough holiday to be away from home.

But missing family and friends isn't even the biggest problem we American Expats encounter.  Because no matter where in the world I am on the third Thursday of November, I always have B and the girls with me and that is enough for me.  Throw in a turkey, some stuffing, cranberry out of a can and some green bean casserole and I might just forget that I am not in Kansas anymore Toto.  But therein lies the biggest problem - the turkey, stuffing and cranberry.  You can't find the half of the ingredients you need to make a traditional feast.  In the past 2 years it has gotten steadily better but it is still just one more reminder of how far away from your country you are at this time of year.

The first year we were here we couldn't find a turkey and had to make do with a very, very expensive ham.  Add to that the fact that making a green bean casserole involved cutting frozen green beans  to become french style and baking frozen onion rings within an inch of burnt so that they could be cut down to become French's fried onions and you start to get an inkling of what we were dealing with.  Then throw in the fact that you cannot get pumpkin or pumpkin spice to make a pie and you might understand a bit better where we were coming from.  But we had new found friends and that was what mattered!

Last year was a bit better.  Our grocery store had been bought out by Wal-Mart the year before and they were now importing a lot of Gringo items (translation - American).  So last year the grocery store was running a gringo special.  You ordered the turkey and they would cook it for you.  And they promised it would be just like an American turkey.  So my friend A, who was hosting the shindig at her house, ordered two.  Just to make sure we had enough.  She went to pick them up and found that they had indeed cooked them.  And then cooled them.  And put pineapple rings and glaze on them as if they were hams.  She declined the second turkey, took the one home, removed all traces of pineapple and glaze and warmed up the oven.  So much for providing the gringo Thanksgiving.  But at least they tried.  And once again we had a pot luck Thanksgiving with our friends.

This year we decided to not do a pot luck.  We decided that we would spend the weekend with one other family.  And we would do it at the beach. (Nothing says Thanksgiving like celebrating at the end of Spring at the beach, right?)   And we decided to do it traditionally and from scratch.  No outsourcing anything this year.   This decision was aided by the fact that our store now carried some of the essential ingredients we needed this time of year (though grab them quickly because once the gringos are done buying them for their holiday's, they will be gone).   But while they are now importing cans of cranberry sauce, stocking their freezers with turkeys, and making sure that there are crunchy onion toppings (though a German brand, funny enough) starting mid-November there are still some very important basics missing.  There is no pumpkin pie spice, there is no canned pumpkin.  I have yet to find the pork sausage for my stuffing.  Sweet potatoes are hit and miss....

You get the drift.

We did what we could.  I still had one can of pumpkin puree hidden in my pantry that my mom had brought a with her a year ago, along with the spices I needed so I could a traditional pie.  I purchased the green beans (frozen but no cutting needed), the mushroom soup and the onion topping.  I bought a 6 kg. turkey (about 13 lbs).  My friend A was making the sweet potato casserole, the potatoes, she had some cranberry dressing and we both brought a supply of munchies that we would need through out the day.

We were definitely on track for an awesome Thanksgiving.

And then we realized we had forgotten something.  We had forgotten the fact that we were in a rental house and not in our own, well stocked, kitchens.  We started cooking and fount that we had no measuring utensils, no rolling pin, no American sized oven.

This was going to get interesting, fast.  We were just going to have to wing it and wing it we did.

I cranked out a pumpkin pie by using what I figured was an 8 oz glass as a measuring cup.  I also rolled the crust by sandwiching it between two pieces of plastic wrap and rolling it with a wine bottle holder (we had no flour or rolling pin).

I marinated a turkey with whatever spices were in the house and a little bit of butter and salt.  We then squished him into a too small oven and covered, uncovered, and covered him again a few times to make sure he wasn't burning by touching the top of the oven. (Yep, that small)

I made stuffing based on my mom's recipe but I had to guess at amounts and had to hope that the sausage we used wouldn't overpower the other ingredients (there is no such thing as pork sausage, without added flavoring, here in Chile).  I mixed it all up in a huge bowl, threw it in the oven and hoped for the best.

One thing we did have was all of the ingredients for green bean casserole.  Except for the green beans that were still in my freezer in Santiago.  Scratch that one off of the list.

We did have a 2 perfect cans of cranberry dressing though.  Nothing says Thanksgiving like cranberry dressing that still looks like the can.

And we had A's sweet potatoes casserole and her mashed potatoes which were made ahead of time so no fear we could always carb ourselves into a coma if the rest of it didn't pan out.

And we had wine, champagne and Champin (no alcoholic champagne for the girls).

And, finally, after a day of snacking, beach walking, football watching and champagne toasting we were ready to sit down and enjoy.

And guess what...

We nailed it.

The turkey was juicy, the stuffing was flavorful, the cranberry came out of the can without a scratch. But that isn't even what I am referring to.  We nailed the feeling and emotions of a real Thanksgiving.  Because everyone worries if their turkey will be juicy.  Everyone worries if their mashed potatoes will be too lumpy or that the pie is going to have just a bit too much spice.  That made it feel all the more real.  But also being just the 8 of us and being able to sit around one table like one big family - that made it feel real.  We sat around the table and said what we were thankful for (butterflies in some instances), and all of a sudden I felt like I was 6000 miles away.  Back in the U.S.  Back with my family.  And there is no better feeling than that.

Thank you A and G (and the little's) for sharing the day with us.  Thanks for being friends that are more like family.  Thanks for keeping us grounded in a place that can make you feel lost sometimes.  And thanks to my family back home, who I am sure missed us as we missed them, but that also understand the need to live this crazy life we live.  And to all of our friends, thanks for being there for us.  Always.

This last Thanksgiving in Chile was definitely one to remember.

I put this guy in the oven...

We started the day drawing on the windows while the adults drank some coffee.

Snapped a picture...

And headed out to the beach...

Pretending to eat seaweed.

Checking out the waves before hitting them.

Re-enacting the Chariots of Fire run...

I was there - just behind the camera with my feet losing their feeling from the freezing water I had to stand in to not shoot everyone from behind.

Not so sure about getting wet...

She was soaked from head to foot by the time we were done.  And smiling the whole time.

We came home and watched some football.  Yep, on an i-Phone but you can't miss the Ohio game...

Still just home from the beach I was cooking all day - and got a little love from my little...

This showed up in the kitchen and I had to catch it on camera...

Finally, the turkey was done...

The table was set...

And we were ready to toast, give thanks and eat!!!

 And then - this happened...But that is a whole other post...

Has the date of Christmas changed?

Already?

There are still 12 days until Halloween.

40 days until Thanksgiving.

And then, only then, comes Christmas. 

(66 days from now)

I felt like screaming, "One holiday at a time everyone.  I can only deal with one holiday at a time!"

And then I realize, at least here in Chile, they are only dealing with one holiday at a time.  And Christmas is the next official decorating holiday.  Yes, the gringo's here celebrate Halloween but, even though it is catching on, the Chilean's don't treat it as a big deal.  We get the day off because it is a religious day - Reformation Day - and together with All Saints Day on November 1, it gives us a four day weekend this year.  But there are no special decorations for either of those days.

And, obviously, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving.

So, between Dieciocho in September (the biggest celebration of the year) and Christmas there are 98 days with nothing to market to shoppers.  Nothing to fill the seasonal aisles.  Except Christmas.  It's probably a miracle that they waited this long to put the tinsel out so you could start decking your halls.  

Portillo

A couple of weeks ago we had planned to take a weekend ski trip to a resort about an hour from the house.  Due to unfortunate circumstances we had to cancel at the last minute.  We were all a bit disappointed that we would not be skiing this winter as the ski season was coming to a close.  As I was unpacking the suitcases, I got to the one that I had put all of the outerwear in, and it hit me.  We don't have time to go skiing but we can still go to the snow.  A day trip was born.

We left yesterday morning with that suitcase, still packed, in the trunk of the car.  We were heading about 2 hours NE of Santiago to one of the oldest ski resorts in Chile - Portillo.  

The road to Portillo is pretty modern and well kept.  I was glad we were travelling at the end of the season because no matter how modern, or how well kept, this road, covered with ice, would have been treacherous.  

This was our view most of the way.  Trucks heading over the Andes and into Argentina are plentiful and slow and it is hard to pass on the winding roads.

And with road signs like these, it makes you think twice about doing anything other than following slowly behind the truck in front of you.  And this sign is on one of the flatter parts of the route.  Because about 10 km (6.3 miles) from the resort you hit these...

Better shown by my GPS...

And, in the midst of all of the weaving back an forth, this is all of a sudden in front of you, or above you, as it may be.  We stopped to take a picture of it because I almost couldn't believe it.  This ski lift (and the run it services) goes over about 5 or 6 of those hairpin turns and it goes straight up.  Right up over those rocks and the roads and all of those trucks chugging their way up the mountain.  Did I mention it goes almost vertical?  I think it would terrify me to be on that lift.  And these pictures don't even do justice to how steep and long this lift is.  Though the one of the pole support anchored at such an angle, when it should be straight up and down, does give you a bit of perspective.

And all of a sudden we were there.  Really, it is all of a sudden because there are no markings to their entrance.  And you don't want to miss it because your next turn around is the Argentinian border 3 miles away.  When you hit that you have a bit of explaining to do before they turn you back around.  Our friends had missed it on their last trip up so we knew to keep our eyes peeled and listen to Juanita (my GPS) when she said to turn down an unpaved, rocky road that looked like it was a turn around area.  She was right, as usual, and we had made it.  

This is it.  The whole shebang.  There is only one hotel, 2 smaller lodges and some ski lifts.  The maximum capacity at one time is 400 guests and each stays for the full week (there is no weekending here).  They are a full service/all-inclusive resort and with 450 employees on staff, they really do mean full service. Very, very different from what we as a family are used to in the U.S.  Here, there is no town, there are no TV's, there are no stores and if Portillo doesn't have it on hand, you can't get it.   But it does have powder for days (literally, for days you can still find powder after a snowfall because there are so few people skiing at a time), heli-skiing and some incredible back country terrain.  It was also here that the 200km speed record was first broken.  It is the destination of choice for most of the world's ski teams for summer training (their summer, not ours).  And it is usually ranked in the top 10 of ski resorts in the world by Ski Magazine and the Travel Channel.  As we didn't get to ski, I will take their word for it but from what I saw, it was spectacular.

The first thing the girls did was hit the snow patches in the parking lot.   Even before they would let me dig out the boots and mittens and hats.  Which was OK.  It was warm enough that we decided to have lunch in the restaurant first, see the Laguna del Inca, and then get bundled up for sledding.

Our lunch was delicious and I think we had about 20 of those 450 employees just for our table.  And the views were unrivaled.  The main dining room overlooks the laguna and on a day like yesterday, you could see ever ridge and swirl of snow covering the mountain peaks.  The water of the laguna was a unearthly blue. Stunning but it means we didn't get to see the legendary emerald...

The legend of the Laguna del Inca states that way back when the Inca's ruled Northern Chile there was a common man named Illa Yupanqui.  He met and fell in love with the Inca princess Kora-Ilé, the most beautiful in all the empire, a princess whose eyes shone like emeralds.  He won her heart and they were married on the shores of a lake high in the Andes.  Still dressed in their wedding clothes, the bride and groom were making their way down the mountain when Kora-Ilé slipped and fell into the void.  Illa rushed down to her but found her dead.  In his grief and despair, Illa decided that his bride deserved a singular tomb.  He wrapped her in white and buried her in what is now called Laguna del Inca.  When her body reached the bottom the clear water miraculously turned a rich emerald color, the exact color of the dead princesses eyes.  And to this day, you can still hear Illa's tortured cries for his dead wife.

The view from the sitting room inside the hotel. (shot through the glass)

The view from the patio.

With everyone's belly full and having explored the beauty of the lake we were ready to get suited up and do some sledding.  The girls were very quick about getting their suits and accessories on, but it was a bit more slow going getting to the hill.   Because of course we had to stop and play, throw, taste and mold each pile of snow we came to.

Oh, that is COOOOLLLD.

Finally, we hit the mountain.  Since there is no official sledding hill in Portillo, you kind of just have to pick a spot and go for it.  They told us we just had to stay away from the lift lines.  As you can see in the picture above, we headed away from the hotel and lake and up into the hills...to where the snow cats live when they are not working.  It was perfect.  The trail was groomed, the slope not too steep for the little ones, and we were in no danger of encountering cars.  The only thing that could have posed a problem is that we were on private property, but when the snow cat drivers came out, they waved, so we figured we were safe to keep sledding.

Since B had never been sledding in his life (he grew up in South America after all), and the girls had only been on the small snow hills out front of my parents house in Colorado, it was up to me to guide the sled and make sure everyone was safe and happy.  As I grew up sledding on hills that probably had no business being sled upon, I was well exquiped for the task.

After watching for 2 runs, B couldn't stand it.  He had to get in on the giggling fun.  So up he went, sled in hand...still hoping I wasn't crazy for saying that a sled didn't need brakes...

 We stopped to make snow angels...

And just look cute...

And then it was time for the girls to make a run without an adult.  They were so excited they couldn't stop laughing and screaming the whole way down...

After that run Stinkerbell called it quits for a bit and just wanted to play in the snow.  Not so for MadHatter.  She wanted to run one all by herself.  I was torn.  This is where my head says nothing will go wrong (like her going off the side and hitting the rocks) and my heart says, but it could.  My head usually wins, as it did this time.

I told her if she was big enough to sled by herself, she was big enough to get the sled up the hill by herself.

You coming, Mom?

So ready to go!

They decided that they wanted more of a challange.  They wanted to go up and sled down the "big" hill off to the side.  What the heck, if I could get them up it, I could get them down it.  It proved that the getting up it part was harder than it looked.  MadHatter didn't have snow boots on (just boots) and kept slipping.  I had snow boots but not a lot of traction...We tried anyway.  I only got her about half way (that was one sttteeeeep hill) and then let her go.  Think she loved it...

And then I did the only thing I could think of to do to get back down - I tucked.  I slid.  I felt like a kid.

And it looked like so much fun the girls wanted to try.  But I told them they would have to get up there by themselves.  And they did.  And then they slid down...

It was getting to late afternoon by this point and we had to head back.  But not without a stop to play in the snow by the hotel again.  And for me to get a picture or two...

 Those are some happy faces of some happy little girls.

 Of course, we had to have a picture of the infamous Margot.  She is the hotel's dog.  And she is beyond sweet and kind and HUGE.  Everyone falls in love with this lazy ball of fur and Stinkerbell was no exception...but I think Margot fell just a bit in love with her too.

 It was time to head back.  We had 194 km to go, numerous hairpin turns and two very tired, but happy, little girls.  Saturday's don't get any better than this!

 

And a few iPhone snapshots for Instagram...