La Moneda

Today we ventured back to the centro where we saw the famous La Moneda, which houses the seat of the President of Chile (as well as some cabinet members).  The outside is quite regal and well-guarded, and there is a really cool museum / cultural center underneath that we visited.  On the way to La Moneda there is a huge green space with the Chilean flag.  If you want to see pics, you're in luck, I remembered my camera today.

 

Steve and Sadie

Close up of me and Sadie (good belly shot)

Here is La Moneda - Sadie running off to the grass

Oh, but wait, there is a fountain, so there she goes

Enjoying the water view

Enjoying my family view :)

Below is the museum. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's very modern and well done.  There is a lot of cool art and interesting facts.  

 This is a maze.  Steve and Sadie went through it.

Sadie NAILED it.

Lunch at el Mercado Central (the fish market I blogged about awhile ago).  It was delicious! and the restaurant was empty because we went at noon, which is way before lunch time in Santiago.  Good for us since the food came fresh and fast - Sadie actually sat through most of it!

Vitacura

Vitacura is in the northeast part of Santiago, and it seems to be a nice, peaceful area.  Sadie and I went to a coffee shop in that area for a play date yesterday, and I could have sworn I was back in the states.  The cafe had a specific play area for kids (so the moms could drink coffee while watching them play from afar) as well as a little shop to the side that had a peluqueria for kids.  We had to take a cab there since it was fairly far from our hotel and not close to a metro.  Guess we'll have to try out the bus system soon enough!

The most important discovery I had about Vitacura was that on the way to the cafe I spotted one of my fave pizza chains: Papa Johns.  From now on, Vitacura will always be known as the place that I can get PJ's bread sticks...

A mind of her own

Every day Sadie does something that surprises me.  Today, she took all her books and threw them in her crib.  Then, she looked at me with her arms raised (i.e., "momma, i want to go in my crib").  I put her in, and she proceeded to sit down and read out loud to herself.  She NEVER wants to go in her crib unless it's sleep time.  It was a moment of astonishment because I didn't know what I should do.  So, I took a picture!

Also, she is obsessed with the outside.  All she wants to do is look out the window...

Pregnant pause

Yes, this exists.  And, yes, I almost bought it.

New friends

Sadie is one lucky girl.  She has made so many friends this week.  We attended a play date for expats at a community church yesterday (no religious affiliation).  This church has a large meeting room that contains tons of toys for toddlers under 3.  Every week (for the past many years is my understanding), people have been coming.  It's very conveniently located to my hotel, and there were lots of great moms, dads, and kids.  People were from all over - the US, UK, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Canada and Japan.  Pretty incredible that we all ended up in the same small room for a couple hours.  We will have to make this a weekly event.

This is a pic of Sadie after the playdate.  She was exhaustedly happy :)

We also went to another playdate at an expat's house and met people from the US, France and Malawi.  Such interesting perspectives and everyone has been so welcoming.  The woman from Malawi has a background in developmental economics, so I was pretty excited to talk to her.  It's not just all about the kids!

Ode to Toledo

For those who don't know (or don't remember), I studied abroad in Toledo, Spain my junior year of college.  That experience has been the foundation so far for my time here (based primarily on language).  So, when I was at the Jumbo today and saw the below, I couldn't help but get the warm, happy feeling inside. Yes, it is Spanish ham from Toledo.  Aw.

Ikea, is that you?

As many of you know, Steve and I absolutely love Ikea.  Because we move around so much and need to mix and match to fill our new places (not to mention how our stuff gets banged up from all the moves), over 90% of our furniture and household items are from Ikea.  And, who can resist eating at the restaurant (french toast sticks anyone??) and getting a cone after making it all the way through the store in one piece.  Well, today I was taken to the Chilean version of Ikea: HOMY.  Now, to be quite honest, I have no idea if there is any kind of affiliation, and I could probably Google it and try to figure it out, but it doesn't matter.  The facts are that the store is laid out exactly like Ikea, you walk sort of a particular direction and pass rooms decorated and laid out with tags and prices.  There are little stations around the store that have paper rulers, little pencils, and forms to fill out of what pieces of furniture you like.  Then, there is a whole couch section, a whole table/chairs section, etc. The furniture is pretty modern, but there is a good mix. I have spent quite a lot of time in multiple Ikeas (a whole 7 hours in the one right outside of Chicago, which is a story for another day), so I'm confident in my comparison.  I even took some pics so you could see for yourself.  What HOMY doesn't have is a major cafeteria like Idea does, but they did have a cafe!

 

After HOMY we went to a huge park that had a rose garden, and I took a pretty pic of the Andes overlooking the rose garden.  Just thought I would throw that in there...

Vacunatorio en la Clinica Alemana

As you know, Chile is in the southern hemisphere, which means it is seasonally opposite of the US.  Because of that, and because of the excellent health system in Chile, there is a huge influenza vaccination campaign similar to that in the states.  Just like in the US, many employers provide the vaccine to their employees on a particular day on site, and for those populations who are more vulnerable (elderly, infants, pregnant women), the vaccine is provided for free (it actually may be free for others, but that is not clear to me).  The trick is that instead of a Walgreens or CVS pharmacy, you have to go to a vacunatorio.  The general process to get a vaccine is to go to a doctor, who then writes you a script, and then you take that to the vacunatorio where a nurse administers it.  My understanding is sometimes you need a script for a vaccine (like one for hepatitis A or something), and other times you don't (like influenza).  Either way, I went to my OB here, and he wrote a script for both me and Sadie (yeah both of us...) just so it would be easier for me (i.e., I wouldn't have to try to explain why I was there [as you know, my Spanish is still a work in progress]).

Once you arrive at the clinic, you take a number (like everywhere here - from the pharmacy [even if you're just buying diapers] to the cell phone store).  When they call your number it's like the DMV where it says "198 caja 3", and you take your script and passport to register.  After you check in you wait until you're called to the back (no one can pronounce Shaul, it's kind of hilarious), and you just get your shots.  Whole vaccine process from start to finish took us maybe 35 minutes.  Really not bad, but I imagine it could be much longer if it's more crowded.Worst part is you can hear all the babies and kids crying the whole time...

I bought Sadie her favorite snack mix in the vending machine, so she is in a good mood until she sees the shots... (snack mix is a combo of cheetos, ruffles and potato stix - really healthy I know...)

Another weekend of sun

This weekend was colder than it has been (it is fall after all), but still sunny.  We took the metro to one of the huge parks here (this city has so many parks and is very kid-friendly, thank goodness), and walked around.  We saw some random sculptures, lots of playgrounds, and lots of bikers.  In fact, one of the main streets in the park (which is along the river), was closed to just bikers (and roller bladers.  I guess that's still a thing).  It was great to see the city goers out and about and enjoying some recreational activities.  We also popped into the museum of art, which wasn't very big, but so crowded with all kinds of people (families, singles, foreigners, locals).  Great to see.  And, it was free.

Here is fall at its best, the main road is closed to bikers only.

Sadie pushing her new stroller in the park.

 

Sadie walking towards a completely empty park.  You can imagine her excitement, which is why I couldn't get her to turn around at the camera.

Steve is obsessed with these huge climbing structures, which are abundant in parks around here.  I'm actually happy Sadie is way too small to attempt to climb them because it looks terrifying... She is pretty curious though, as she stares at her dad in awe.

The art museum.  Gorgeous old building.

Sadie's first motorcycle :)  We were at a little cafe that was completely glass and right outside was this old bike (and side car).  I took this picture from inside the restaurant when Steve was walking around with her outside, so it's a little difficult to see.  Still, adorable since she's following in her Daddy's footsteps...

The Search for a Magic Stroller

This post is likely not interesting to the majority of people reading it.  Like the name suggests, it will be about a stroller.  However, not just any stroller, one that has taken us what seems like years (or a week and a half) to find.  As I mentioned earlier (I think).  Baby stuff here is expensive, not abundant and generally lower quality than in the states (there is no Babies R Us or the like to run to). Ever since our first weekend, when we realized there were few elevators in the metros and lots of stairs in most of the attractions around Santiago), we have been searching for a very small, light-weight and cheap umbrella stroller (or coche paraguas - clever name, I know.  As an aside, cars here are called autos and strollers are coches).  You would think, oh just run to the nearest Target and buy a cheap umbrella stroller, but no Targets around.  We have been to many stores, etc, and finally one of my friends called me to say she found one at none other than Lider.  What is Lider? Well, it's WalMart.  Literally. As in it is owened by WalMart and they sell Great Value brand items.  Well, of course that was obviously where we should have looked first... Anyway, the stroller has changed our lives in that we can now move about the city and all its sights easily and efficiently.  So, bottom line, in a big city with kids? Get a cheap very light weight coche paraguas.  There are no pictures in this post, but in the next one you will see the amazing $20 purchase.

el dia de las glorias navales

Today was el dia de las glorias navales (or Navy Day), a public holiday.  The best part for me was that Steve was home from work, so that meant a day to explore another part of the city.  We took the metro to el cerro Santa Lucia, which is an old fort turned into a park on a large hill in the middle of the city.  It seems much of the original fort is in tact (or at least has been preserved) since the 1800s, and there are lots of stairs to get around (which was not great for the stroller... again).  However, there were some gorgeous views from the top, and the view of the Andes over the city skyline was really impressive.

 Castillo Hildalgo on Santa Lucia Hill

The Andes, towering over the tallest building in South America.  Our hotel is actually very close to it.

Sadie having a ton of fun seeing all the sights.

Sadie passed out after a grueling walk up the hill. (Steve actually carried both Sadie and the stroller, thank goodness...)

I don't often get a chance to see Sadie in such a calm and stationary manner, so I enjoy it when I can get it!

Next, we walked over to Plaza de Armas, which was pretty disappointing only because it was under construction.  As in the entire plaza was completely fenced in by huge temporary scaffolding.  Too bad, so no pics.  The upside was that we found a fun place for Sadie to play in, HappyLand.

After HappyLand, we went to the Mercado Central, which is the world famous fish market.  Pretty impressive, but I didn't get any pics of the fresh fish.  Very crowded and the smell was... well... fishy, so naturally I let Steve go exploring while Sadie and I went to the center of the market where there are many restaurants and good ambiance.  If you are ever in Santiago, definitely a good stop.

Learning about general logistics

The past few days have been very informative, and it's crazy to think we have been here almost a week. This post is about what we are learning about every day necessities.

Grocery stores: There are plenty in the city - from small corner convenient type stores (one is called "Big John" and I keep wondering why they didn't just say "Juan Grande") to huge groceries (one even owned by Walmart called Lider).  The Jumbo is a huge chain that I'm frequenting that I would rival any grocery store in the states.  In addition, it is similar to Target, in that it has lots of household items, including clothes and baby stuff as well as electronics like TVs, but definitely less so.  The good news? They sell lots of chocolate.

Diapers:  Size G diapers in Pampers are size 4 in the states.  On the package they say G, but when you open them, they have the "4" on the back of the diaper just like in the US.  I was surprised to see this and wish they would have just put it on the package so I didn't have to convert Sadie's weight to kilos. What I'm still trying to find are night diapers... more to come on that.

Eating an early dinner with a toddler:  Everyone eats dinner here late, and restaurants typically don't even open until 8.  This is difficult when your child's bedtime is at 7 or 730.  The advice I have received and through our limited experience here are to frequent the restaurants in hotels since they are open all the time.  There are also quite a few cafes that sell salads, sandwiches and the like that are open for early dinner.  There are also apparently a lot of companies that do delivery options from a plethora of restaurants at all times of the day, but I haven't tried that yet.  Sounds like a good option!  Tonight we went to the restaurant in the W Hotel, called Coquinaria.  It was pretty good and great ambiance - Steve compared it to Kramer Books in DC with fewer books and more cooking supplies.

 

Hospitals:  While I haven't gone myself yet, I have heard by many that the best two are Clinica Las Condes and Clinica Alemana.  The latter of which someone said was Chile's Mayo Clinic.  Both are apparently world renown, but I'll judge for myself when I take the tours.  The best part about both are that there are specific departments dedicated to catering to international patients.  You simply email the address on the websites and within 24 hours someone gets back to you.  I have had this quick turnaround with both hospitals, and both places offering to help make appointments, find the right physicians who speak English, etc.  Clinica Alemana does charge a fee for this service, but Clinica Las Condes does not. So worth it when I'm not fluent in the language! 

Sadie's latest: Last night I noticed the 4 canines coming through (FINALLY!), so she has been a little cranky, poor girl.  However, she is starting to talk much more and recognize things and their names.  Her newest words are bus and bird (both mostly just b sounds), but she gets so excited when she sees them.  Best part of the day? When she demanded to eat peanut butter by the spoonfuls straight from the AlGood PB jar.  Yes, I spoil her.  She is in front of her favorite cabinet in the kitchen (that's empty), which she loves to climb in and out of and play peek a boo.  Pretty adorable.

La Vega

Today we braved La Vega, which, as far as I know, is Santiago's largest market, selling everything from fruits and veggies to chicken feet and squid to dish soap and toothpaste.  They also have a ton of little cafes and restaurants hidden among the stalls with sales people trying to corral you to the tables. It was very impressive.  We bought some bananas and strawberries, the former of which I'm pretty sure I got taken advantage of, and the latter of which the man was very honest and nice.  What was so crazy about the market was that the veggies had to be the largest I've ever seen.  The celery and green onions were especially huge, and I have to wonder why.  I took some pics to capture their enormity, but they don't do it justice. When my Spanish gets better I'll have to come shopping here for real because the prices are really good.

 

Mote con huesillos

Today we left our neighborhood and went to see some more of the city.  The big day trip was to a part of the city called Bellavista, which is where the Chilean University Law School is located.  The zoo is also there as well as a gorgeous statue of Santa Maria at San Cristobal hill.  To get there, we took the metro, which is pretty clean, easy to figure out, and efficient.  The problem was lack of elevators and the fact that we of course had a stroller in tow.  Boo to that let me tell you.

On the way from the metro to the hillside, we went over a bridge covered with little padlocks.  We had no idea what it was until we got back to the hotel and saw this on CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/05/16/pkg-foster-lovelocks-in-uk.cnn&hpt=hp_mid&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F). Guess this is a thing I have never heard of, but is pretty timely.

To get to the top of San Cristobal hill you have to take a tram up a pretty steep hillside, and at the top there is a great view of the city (see pics below).  Again though, even after the tram, lots of steps + stroller = very annoying!  We should have brought a very cheap umbrella stroller or a baby backpack (neither of which are sold here under twice of what you would pay in the states as we learned today...)

 

On the tram up the hillside

 

Lots of trees and foliage, so it doesn't even look like we are in the middle of the city!

 

At the top, the city was difficult to see in the pictures (of course I left my camera in the hotel and had to use my phone)

 

Family pic

 

View from the top.  Note the layer of smog and you can barely see the Andes in the background.  This made me realize how huge Santiago really is.  It just kept going.

Last but not least, our treat of the day - mote con huesillos.  Everyone was selling them and drinking/eating them at the top, so we had to partake.  It looks completely disgusting, but it's actually sort of a dessert and not bad. Sadie loved it.  (It is basically a sweet peach-flavored drink with cooked oatmeal at the bottom.  The brain-looking thing is a full peeled peach with the pit still inside).

First play date :)

How lucky we are to have a network here in Chile.  Just two days after we arrived, Sadie and I had our first play date.  In the morning we met for coffee and amazingly delicious chocolate croissants at a great bakery that I don't remember the name, but I will definitely be finding it again soon, and then we walked around the city and found some parks.  Along the way, I got tons of good advice and great company.  Here is a pic of Sadie on a swing for the first time in Santiago.  I was pretty impressed by the parks and the fact that they have baby swings, Sadie's favorite :)

Then this afternoon we were able to see our old friends from Manitowoc who are here in Santiago.  They have a beautiful home in sort of a suburb of Santiago with a trampoline (Sadie loved it - wish I had a pic!) and huge yard. To top it off, their nana made some delicious authentic ahi de gallina for dinner, and we ate like royalty.  I've been pretty happy with the food here so far!

I need to start thinking in Spanish...

Today was a very eventful day, and I got to use my Spanish-speaking skills much more than yesterday.  Unfortunately it was pretty depressing to see how difficult communication is.  I'm very out of practice, but the Spanish here seems to be a little trickier than I'm used to.  I really need to brush up.

Top event from today.  We bought a high chair! (our third total high chair, which is ridiculous, but one is in transit here and the other one won't clamp to the table in our hotel without knocking the whole thing over... I don't know either), and with a 16 month old, a high chair is a complete necessity.  In fact, Sadie loves it so much that one of her favorite things is picking it up and moving it around her room and sitting in it.  Pretty adorable!

For those of you who are interested, we got the only high chair in the entire store (thank goodness it was pink!) and it wasn't as cheap as you would think...  I'm quickly learning that everything here seems to be on par with pricing in the states (or more).

The hardest part of the day was getting cell phones.  Because we don't have RUT numbers, which are basically Chilean identification numbers (kind of like social security numbers), we can't buy plans. So, we got prepaid cell phones (Samsungs with Android technology that we are used to thank goodness).  However, it took me a good 2 hours going to various places and talking to people figuring out how we needed to do it since it's very complicated.  I'm learning that things aren't straight forward like you would hope for in many ways, and it doesn't help that my Spanish is lacking.  For those of you ever moving to Chile, you have to buy a prepaid phone at a department store or electronic store, then go to the provider store to get that phone activated (and find out what the number of the phone is) then go to a pharmacy or grocery store to put minutes/data MBs on it.  Then, you can use it, but, it's again, not as cheap as you might expect.  One text is roughly 10 cents!  Guess I won't be doing that much anymore :(

Oh, one exciting thing I learned is that the peanut butter we bought was actually made in the US...

Bienvenidos a Santiago

After a very long flight from Houston to Santiago, we are here!  While the flight was tough at times with a 16 month old on an overnight flight, Sadie was such a trooper, and we were really lucky to get two rows to ourselves.  We did get her her own seat, which was a huge help and we brought her car seat on board, which also saved us a lot of hassle (even though lugging it around was a hassle, but worth it).  When we finally arrived, I was very pleased to find that Chileans are very good to families (those traveling with kids).  We completely skipped the long line at customs (twice - before and after you get your luggage) because there are special lines for families.  It was amazing.  Here is a pic of Sadie on the way from the airport to the hotel, just chillin like she knew she was in South America!

We are so lucky that the hotel we are staying at is in a great location, Las Condes.  It is a very nice area, and I told Steve that I'm surprised how clean it is and how there are no stray dogs.  Everything is very modern, and all the people very European.  Reminds me of Spain, actually.  And, thankfully, I knew how to buy the right kind of milk from my experience studying abroad there.  Leche entera for Sadie and descremada for mama.  Mostly, I was excited to see this on the shelf :)

I will close with a picture of all our bags.  Note to all, when traveling abroad, you don't always get 2 bags free per person for international flights.  Apparently it depends on your destination.  So, we completely overpacked and paid a hefty price!