Grampa!

Elinore loves spending time with her grandpa! I think she's sucking her thumb in every picture we got of her that weekend.

Mom and Dad, I'm glad you came for a visit. We had a great time! 

Satisfaction

I finished my quilt today!! Yippee! 

More Sad News

Well, I found out today from Mom that Pebbles is in the beginning stages of renal failure and we are not sure how much longer she is going to be with us. I'm not going to lie, I feel like our family is sort of falling apart...at least the furry ones anyway. I'm very sad

Elinore, the trooper

Thanks for meeting us for dinner, Mom, Dad, and Cait. It was great to see you (and to have something to do for those boring 6 hours). As we told you, our trip to Thailand was great!! I've posted a bit more on our own blog site (follow the link to the right). Elinore was such a trooper. She learned how to sleep just about anywhere and spent a good part of everyday in her snuggly. All of the clothes you sent us were worn and we were grateful to have such summery things to dress her in. Kevin was especially glad she had a couple outfits that were not pink!

Giant Feet in a Small World

Considering this was my third trip to Chile, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect to "discover" very many things about Chilean culture. I guess I somewhat smugly assume that I am an "old hand" when it comes to Santiago. However, I was able to spend just enough time down south to not be overwhelmed by the differences, but be amazed at how I'd overlooked them on my previous visits.

#1. (And this was not so much a discovery as a confirmation/reminder of a previous discovery) US Rules of the Road DO NOT APPLY in Chile. Lanes are mere suggestions to motorists, and in fact, really have nothing to do with turning at intersections. You are free to turn left, right, or continue straight ahead from whichever lane you choose in Santiago. Rolling down your window while the light is red to inform the other driver that you will be turning in front of him or her is considered good etiquette, but is by no means necessary. One will use judgment however when deciding whether or not to turn in front of the big yellow micros.

#2. When Angela, Irache, and I went to the mall in search of wedding outfit accessories, the food court at lunch time was packed. (You'll notice the wonderfully traditional fast food joints that we could choose from) I followed as they searched out a table with 3 chairs and 1 old man sitting peacefully, finishing his lunch. My heart began to beat wildly as Irache sat down at the table next to the man, Angela pulled out a chair for me, and then Angela stood near the man waiting for him to finish so she could take his seat. I was appalled by my friends' rudeness in pressuring the poor man to choke down those empanadas, until I realized that this must be normal behavior. Knowing that Chileans and Americans have different concepts of personal space should have made this not quite so momentous, but it was a phenomenon that I somehow missed before.

#3. The world is not too small to meet the student who is currently staying with your host family (in CHILE, I might add) and find out he is from Naperville.

#4. Being an ambassador of the US Culture can range anywhere from refusing to be silent when it becomes clear that Chileans do not understand the "YMCA" (I was horrified to observe that those brave souls who did not walk off the dance floor when the YMCA began to play, all waved their arms around during the "Y.... M.. CA", but did not make the letters!!), to teaching your host brother the art of the S'MORE. (Everything was authentic except the campfire)

#5. (And this was shocking indeed) According to Chilean standards, I have GIANT feet. I don't mean to say large, I mean GIANT. Now for those of you who are scrolling back up to see if my feet have made it in any of the pictures, let me just say that I wear a US size 8. That's just about as average as they come. HOWEVER, while shopping for shoes in Santiago I was discouraged to find out in the first few stores that when I asked for a particular shoe in a size 38-39, the shoe attendant looked at me a little surprised and shook his head no. Angela ended up walking into every store before I even started looking at their shoes to ask if they even carried anything in a 39. When finally they would say yes, she would ask them to just bring whatever they had. Oh the shame! I eventually was able to find a winning shoe, but I will think twice before taking these colossal feet for Chilean outfitting again any time soon.

As Jen and Kevin recently said in reference to their trip in Thailand, the best travel stories come when things go wrong. I could tell you all about the wedding, the beach, the 90 degree weather, the ice cream, the sea lions, the kiwi, pear, papaya, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach, and cactus fruit nectar I got to drink on a daily basis, but that's not nearly as fun as recreating the moments when I found my inner-self shouting "What is going on?!"

Funny Story

This made me laugh.

So I went to Target a little while ago to get a new tote bag, as I have decided to deactivate from Delta Gamma, and can not use the bag with letters on it. I had seen some bags I liked at the Target at home for laptops, so I went to go see what they had. I found one I really liked it had a spot for the computer, things for pencils and what not it was perfect. So I grabbed it as well as some chips and stuff for that fantastic chili dip for super bowl sunday and then I checked out. When I got back to my house I was looking over the reciept and realized that the bag I had just bought rang up as a diaper bag. I was SOOO confused because I had gotten it in the laptop accessories isle, so I looked at the tag attached to the bag and read what the contents were: a changing mat, insulated bottle bag, a dirty diaper bag...I opened it to see there is in fact a changing pad, bottle bag, and dirty diaper holder. However, my laptop DOES in fact fit in the bag, and if I didn't tell you it was a diaper bag you would never know. I was expecting it to cost me somewhere around $25 but amazingly it only cost $6!!! What a find, I'll be sure to pass the bottle bag, dirty diaper carrier, and the changing mat to Jen and Kev when they return from Thailand.