Getting Settled

Hi all,
Its been a while. What can I say, we've been busy.

A couple weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be able to go skiing in the Andes! We took a bus up to the slopes (39 hairpin turns, pure misery) and had a beautiful day of sunshine and powder. Chileans like to ski on-piste so there was tons of relatively untouched powder on the backside of the mountain right up to the last run. We're talking knee deep powder here :) After the really sad ski season we had in Colorado last year (exposed rocks and trees all season long!) it was fantastic to ski some fresh powder. Look!

We also visited a winery just outside of Santiago called Concha y Toro. They are the 2nd largest winery in the world and produce many varietals including Carmenere- a varietal exclusively found in Chile (its delicious so if you like wine you should try it sometime). The winery was big and beautiful even though it's winter and we took a tour that included some samples. 

This week was the Fiestas Patrias, Chile's big national holiday. As a result we had the week off and took a little trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.  These are two towns an hour and a half outside Santiago on the beach. We had nice weather and explored the towns, hung out at the beach and ate fish :) The view from our hotel was really pretty:

The towns are kind of opposites, Valparaiso is old and hilly and has tons of graffiti everywhere and Vina del Mar is more like nicer parts of California. Valparaiso is the kind of place you would expect to find salty sailor types and they had many random stray dogs and people selling excellent goods on the street- who knew you could buy toilet paper from a guy on the sidewalk! Or underwear for that matter. On that note, here's one of us on the beach (still too cold for swim suits): 

Other than that, we have been working a good amount. Our jobs are going well and we enjoy working with our students. The adjustment to Chile has been a little difficult, especially for me as my knowledge of Spanish is pretty non-functional. I'm getting better though and have started some Spanish lessons (yay). We've been enjoying some Chilean specialties like Empanadas, Mote (peach tea with barley and a rehydrated dried peach), and custard apples (there are no words to explain a custard apple- its got a texture like fish, smells like skunk, and tastes really good when mixed with orange juice) Also we have a new addition to our host family- a little poodle puppy named Almendra- she is cute and fluffy! Spring is on its way and today the weather is beautiful- warm and sunny, birds are singing and the air is the clearest we've seen it yet. We're looking forward to nice warm days for a while. 

-Tracy