One week in country.

Well, it's been a week since we left our home in Colorado and make the trek to Chile.

It was a long travel day and I didn't sleep much on the flight from Dallas to Santiago.  I did meet an awesome mom in seat across the aisle.  She was chaperoning a youth mission trip to another part of Santiago with a group of 40 kids (looked like 10 years old to 18) from a church in Washington.  Her daughter was on her fourth year of making the trip and it was the mom's first!  The mom and I had great talks and it was awesome to meet a sister in Christ and share some of the goodness of God.  For a little while, I was a bit offended that no one tried to save me at the gate or on the plane, come on!  Forty kids on mission with their adult helpers and not a single attempt at salvation???  Once I got over myself, it was great getting excited about what HS is doing around the world.

One of our old friends from Aspen (Renato) now lives in Chile again and met us at the airport with Claudia's father.  It was good to see him again!  Great memories with him and cool to meet a friend's dad!  He was a really loving guy and so sweet I just wanted to take him home!  I bet Claudia does too - how hard it must be to go so many years without going "home".

We had a weekend filled with Kiko's family.  His sister, her husband and their three children met us at the airport and then came over for a lunch at Cecy's apartment.  We settled into our rooms and the cousins played.  Martin and Tristan are only a few months apart in age and they are great buddies - even if they don't speak the same language.  They are determined to be friends and it works.  Maybe there is a good lesson there, eh?

On Sunday, I slept through church!  So bummed.  We are going to visit the English speaking churches in Santiago and there is a Spanish speaking church I want to visit as well.  This Sunday will have to be #1.  We are going to check out the Santiago Community Church.  So looking forward to it.

We did have a great surprise - Kiko's dad took a bus overnight to surprise him!  He had his daughter's high school graduation on Saturday and then took a 9 hour bus ride up to Santiago to see his son (and family!)  I cried.  I think both he and Kiko did too!  It was an awesome  surprise!  We had a long asado (bbq) - and then I crashed out taking a nap with Tanner in the late afternoon!

It was a long but fun weekend.  The four hour time difference was just enough to get me and the kids slightly "off" on our time for sleep.  They were hungry for dinner at 10 pm and not ready for bed until 11:30 or 12!  It took us all a few days to get right.  They are now fighting off colds so praying for healing and protection.

We have taken a few walks, visited a skate park nearby, checked out the local mall and grocery stores and are getting oriented to our part of the city.  Kiko got to go to the opening day of friends' motocross track and will be able to ride his own dirt bike there tomorrow.

Last night we visited Ruddy and it was so nice to see him - he came to see us years ago in Aspen.  His English is great now - and my Spanish is actually worse than it was when we were here in 2009.  Tristan and I are both going to start Spanish lessons next week.  I loaned someone a copy of my book, "Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish" and don't remember who it was!  I am going to have to buy it online for my iPad as I found it to be the most useful book I read.

Products here are about two to three times the cost of the same item in the US and that really bothers me.  The ships are coming directly from China and yet, the retailers are really gouging the Chilenos.  Shame.  And it keeps me from eating much processed food as I refuse to pay so much for it!  The produce is amazing and tomorrow I am going with Enrique to the market where he buys produce for the week.  Very excited!

I am really grateful for Kiko's friends.  He has amazing friends.  I am super fortunate that I married into a great family and such a network of terrific friends.  Very cool for me!

A few funny cultural things:
1.  Tristan asked yesterday if Vale, the nana, is an apartment servant and why we have one.  She comes in the morning to clean Cecy's apartment, makes them lunch and makes dinner and leaves it for Cecy and Enrique.  In the afternoon she goes to Pao's to clean and make dinner there.  Tanner is warming up to her, very, very slowly and Tristan is totally unsure about it all.
2.  At the mall Christmas display everything was in Spanish and it somehow surprised me!  Norte Pola and Feliz Navidad!  The kids are excited for Christmas but a little thrown off with the seasons and it being Christmas in summertime.
3.  Kiko and I keep mixing up English and Spanish.  For instance, telling someone to turn on their lights last night, I was saying it in Spanish and HE was saying it in English!  I was yelling, "Las Luces!" and Kiko was yelling, "Your lights!  The lights!"

I really will post some photos.  Really.  Ok, I might.  Soon.  Ish.