A Very Special Christmas

Hi friends!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and you're all looking forward to the new year.

We had a really nice Christmas, although as I mentioned before it was very different.  I decided to jump into Christmas decorating, so we bought a tree and some other things to fill our little apartment.

Plastic, but it looks pretty good.

Subtle, but sweet.

I even found some stinkin' cute stockings!

I also got more into the holiday spirt by spending time in, of all places, the mall.   I always enjoy shopping for gifts, and I like the Christmas music and the decorations.  Call me a sap, but I love it.  I also love seeing all the little kids lining up to see Santa... they are always so excited!  This mall had a huge snow globe with snow whirling all over the place for the kids to see Santa.  Again, it's an entirely different world than the hot summer outside, but whatever. 

No kids at this point, but
a few minutes later it was packed.

We went to Viña del Mar to spend Christmas with Eduardo's family, and it was really wonderful.  We had lots of good food, and the weather was great.  Well, mostly.  On Monday we washed several loads of clothes and hung them out to dry, and then went to the grocery store to buy 1500 pounds of food.  When we came out of the store, it was pouring rain and our clothes were soaked by the time we got home.  Still, the weather was hot and sunny on Christmas day so the clothes re-dried quickly.

This is what we woke up to on Christmas.

After exchanging gifts and having a delicious Christmas lunch, we went on a little mission to play Santa Clause.  The day before, we had stopped into the post office and I saw piles and piles of letters from kids to Santa, or Veijito Pascuero.  The post offices in Chile will put them out for people to read and send presents.  They aren't all from poor kids, but you can pretty much tell from the address.  We read a letter from one girl who was just asking Santa for a nice Christmas dinner for her family.  That one really broke my heart.  We also read letters from kids who wanted a Wii, a laptop, an X box, and a cell phone.  Then there was the little girl who had a list of 19 items, all of which were "Monster High" dolls.  She wrote at the bottom, "I want them all, but if my mom buys them, then no."  I'm not entirely sure what "Monster High" is, but I think it may be some sort of cartoon?  We saw a lot of Monster High dolls in the toy stores, and they are basically un-dead Barbies.  (I think this zombie thing has gone too far.)  We ended up taking a letter from a little girl named Estefania who is 5 years old.  She wrote that she had been "muy vien" that year, (instead of muy bien), and that she had gotten very good grades.  She was even learning English, and she had gotten an award in her class.  Then she asked for either a doll called "la la lo si".  We didn't know what that was, but some other girls in the post office told us it was a doll names Lally Loopsy, or something.  We never saw it, so it's still a mystery.  Estefania also asked for a "Li Do Es Pecho".  Again, we turned to the girls in the post office, and they told us she wanted a little animal from the "Littlest Pet Shop".  It was so sweet, because Estefania is just learning to write so she did the best she could, and to her, it sounds like "li do es pecho".  We bought two Littlest Pet Shop animals and wrapped them up with a bunch of candies.

We drove to her address, and the apartment was in an ancient social housing block.  We met her grandmother there, and she told us that Estefania was down at her other grandma's house and we could go meet her if we wanted.  She led us down, and we walked through the poorest area I had ever seen.  Estefania came out, and she's really adorable.  She was shy, but her face lit up when we told her that Santa had delivered her present to us by mistake.  She said that she really likes math and English, and she enjoys school.  She's obviously really bright, so I hope we made her Christmas a little bit memorable.

After our delivery, we went to the beach, which was the weirdest thing to do on Christmas, but it was awesome.  It was warm and beautiful, the sand was hot and the water was absolutely freezing.  It was a really nice afternoon.

We came home that evening to skype with my family and open a few more gifts.  We sat in front of our twinkly little tree, ate some cookies and enjoyed our Christmas.  We're drawing Christmas out until tomorrow, when we'll get together with my family down here to open gifts and grill some burgers and play in a kiddie pool.  We're combining traditions, I guess. 

All the best for 2013! 

It's beginning to look a lot like... Navidad.

Hi everyone!  I've been a bit behind on updates, despite my promise to update more regularly.  Oops. Well, there's no time like the present, so I'll try to fill you all in on what's been happening.

Last time I wrote I was still in Kassel, visiting and working.  It feels like ages ago because so much has happened since then.  I left Germany at the end of September and flew to the US for almost a month.  Upon arriving in Providence I had a fun filled couple of days visiting (and surprising) family for birthdays and other events.  I managed to fit in a trip out to Martha's Vineyard too, which is always a pleasure, and then I flew to California for a week.  Two of my very good friends from Boston were getting married in San Diego, and I was asked to be in the wedding.  It was an honor, and a whole heap of fun.  I had never been to San Diego before, though I had heard great things.  Well, I wasn't disappointed.  San Diego is a super fun city with lots to see, and amazing weather.  Probably the best part was staying in a gorgeous beach house for a week with 15 of my closest friends, but the city seems to have a lot to offer too.

After returning from California I had one more week in Providence to relax and spend time with friends, and then it was time to leave.  The two months that I was outside of Chile seemed so long at times, but I was on the move so much it also seemed to fly by.  When I think back on everywhere I was able to go and everyone I was able to see, I realize that these two months were basically a tour through the major periods of my life.  I visited with friends from high school in Rhode Island, university in New Jersey, friends in all of Germany, friends from Boston (albeit in California), and family.  With the exception of my friends from Washington DC, I spent time with them all.  Without sounding too cheesy, I am incredibly lucky.  To have had the experiences I have, and to still keep in touch with the people who made my life so rich is incredible.  So, thank you to everyone who took time to see me while I was in your neighborhood, it meant a lot.

I returned to Chile at the end of October, just in time for the start of summer.  I'm thrilled of course, because I don't think I've had a proper summer in about three years (German summers don't exist, and therefore don't count).  It's wonderful to have sun and warm weather, and to finally dig out my shorts and summer dresses, but it's also a little bit difficult to adjust.  I've been flying in and out of so many seasons, I don't really feel like I've experienced them.  When I got back to Chile in October, everyone was gearing up for summer, but my friends in the northern hemisphere were excited about sweaters and leaves and pumpkins and apple cider.  I missed that, literally, and it made me feel sort of wistful.  Still, at this moment, most of you are cold, and I went to the beach yesterday, so there.  Neener neener.

November was a busy month too, we went to three weddings, visited Eduardo's family in the north, and bought me a mountain bike.  The actual biking has been great fun, although I had to take a two week break after having lasik eye surgery.  I've been using glasses or contacts for about 15 years, so waking up in the morning and seeing clearly is still a thrill.  The surgery was pretty painless, and the recovery was too, but they  performed the procedure on my eyes on different days, so for about 24 hours my depth perception was waaaay off.

So now here we are in December, with the Christmas season upon us.  About a week ago we went to a Christmas program at the school where my cousin's children are studying.  Hannah was in the girls chorus, about seven girls,and they were really talented.  The entire ensemble chorus had about 30 kids singing, and they were really sweet.  My favorite part was when the sang "Angels we have heard on high" and when they got to the "Glooo-oooo-oooo-ooooo-oooo-ria" part, all the kids opened their mouths wide and just yelled their little hearts out.  Priceless.  There was a play too, written by one of the teachers, and it was all really wonderful.

Apart from Hannah's Christmas program, I sort of feel like I'm in some weird alternate universe.  It's been difficult for me to get into the Christmas spirit in the summertime, and it's especially weird seeing the Christmas decorations laid out next to the pool supplies and patio furniture.  It's extra weird too, that most of the decorations are just duplicates of what they sell in the US, so there are little wooden Santa Clauses with signs that say, in English, "ho ho ho! I love snow!"  You're out of luck down here, Santa.  There are decorations in the stores too, and there's music playing, but hearing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" just seems to be mocking me.  What's difficult, I think, is that the whole notion of "Christmastime" has just been imported from the US, and there's no local traditions or songs or anything, so it feels sort of forced, or fake.  Maybe families do have their own traditions, but I'm not privy to any of them so it feels like the entire country of Chile is just acting out a US Christmas play.  Today I saw a man dressed as Santa Clause, in the full fuzzy suit and hat, sitting under a beach umbrella with a snowy reindeer backdrop behind him.  He was there for kids to take pictures with him, although I didn't see any kids.  The guy must have been boiling from the heat, and the whole thing just looked absurd.  Still, Christmas is my favorite holiday, so if the Chilean Christmas traditions are hidden, I'm just going to make my own.  That's what becoming an adult is all about anyway right?  Tomorrow, I'll head to the stores, buy a tree and decorations, and make our little apartment look like Santa exploded in here.  Maybe I'll grab some pool supplies while I'm there.

Summer is promising to be jam-packed and full of fun, so I'll do my best to keep updating on a more regular basis.  We've got some travels planned, and some visitors coming, so we're sure to have some adventures.

Until then, Merry Christmas and enjoy the snow!