Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

We hope that you all have had happy holidays! We celebrated Christmas here in Santiago with our host family.  It was fun but also very different. On Christmas Eve we had  turkey and beef and mashed potatoes (strange for me but not for Ryan) and then went to search for Santa Claus- but he came while we were gone! In Chile, presents are opened at midnight on Christmas Eve so we opened presents and then went to bed. On Christmas day we went to a friend of our family's house ( a British man married to a Peruvian woman) and swam in their pool and had Peruvian food (yum! Peruvian food is amazing).
It was really strange for us to have a warm weather Christmas- it didn't really feel like Christmas without cold weather. It was also strange to see all of the typical Christmas things in warm weather- Christmas trees and reindeer and Santas sweating their eyes out in full suits and hats ( in 90+ degree weather mind you). I feel like Santa needs a break- maybe a short sleeve shirt and some shorts with flip flops and a Santa hat or something like that. A Christmas photo of us and our host family:

After Christmas we wrapped up our classes. Our classes/jobs are still going well and I am still taking Spanish lessons which has been really helpful. I can now have a conversation in Spanish as long as I don't need any future tenses/ imperatives/ conditionals. I still definitely express myself more accurately in English and I'm tending to mix the two in an attempt to make myself clear. I'm mixing in less French than I was- I need to practice my French more because its starting to disappear with the acquisition of a third language.

We're still really enjoying Chile and enjoying learning more and more about the culture. In general, people are much more open than in the states and don't like spicy things. On Christmas one of the girls we live with accidentally got a tiny bit of yellow chile sauce on her fork and then cried b/c it was hot. We miss spicy food- or even food with spices like pepper. People continuously tell us how spicy plain ol black pepper is. I especially miss pico de gallo and sriracha sauce. The food here is good but simple. Things will randomly contain entire hard boiled eggs (always an unpleasant surprise). In general, people eat a lot of bread, ham, cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, chicken, mayonaise (on EVERYTHING) , and hot dogs. So many hot dogs! One of the most popular foods is definitely the hot dog with a variety of toppings- tomato, smooshed avocado, onions, cheese, sauerkraut, really vinegary relish, fried egg, mayo, you name it it goes on a hot dog. People also like empanadas a lot- which I refer to as hot pockets :) Its like a hot pocket but higher quality and different fillings like beef and onions ( with a hard boiled egg of course), ham and cheese, or seafood if you're close to the coast. The empanadas by the coast are definitely better than those in the city ( you can't really beat freshly made shrimp and cheese empanadas).   There are a variety of Peruvian sandwich shops in the center of town and those are the best- there is no sandwich better than a Peruvian sandwich. I cannot begin to explain how good these sandwiches are but its like really good quality bread with delicious spiced meat and yellow chile sauce and veggies (fried sweet potato anyone?) and its so giant you have to eat it with a knife and fork. Often they also have excellent fresh made juices to go with your awesome sandwich. So good. I think a trip to Peru is in order. Also Mexico because I miss tacos- when I'm homesick I want tacos. When I'm not homesick I want tacos. I basically always want tacos :)

A completo (aka hot dog with mayonaise, avocado, mustard, tomatoes, chucrut (sauerkraut), and salsa americana (vinagry relish thing ( i say its icky but ryan likes it)) :



After we finished our classes we went to Papudo on the coast for New Year's with some friends of ours. It was a wonderful weekend and we had such a good time with our friends! We went for walks along the beach and visited nearby Zapallar and Catchagua and swam in the ocean  (so cold!). It was beautiful there. We went down to the beach for fireworks and they were huge and there were so many of them. We didn't take part in many of the Chilean new year's traditions. Before we left my students told me I needed to wear yellow underwear (to bring money), pull out my luggage and walk it around the block ( to make sure I travel in the next year) and then sit on top of the luggage with a coin in one hand and a grain of rice in the other (to make sure you have money and food respectively). I really didn't feel the need to drag my luggage around the block at midnight- I'd rather watch the fireworks and have some champagne. Here's a few photos of the awesomeness:

Ryan at the beach- it was really cloudy the first 2 days we were there. Also, I can't get the photo to roatate- sorry!

Aloe vera plant- so big! 

Having delicious seafood with our friends Renan and Vero:

On an adventure through the rocks along the shore:

Ryan playing paddles with Cristobal at the beach:

Beautiful beach at Zapallar:

On Friday we are off to Patagonia for a month long epic adventure! We are going to Punta Arenas where we will see some penguins (100,000 penguins to be more specific) and then to Torres del Paine National Park (said to be one of the best national parks in the world). and then we will take a boat trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Mont and visit Chiloe. We're going to Parque Tantauco which is said to have the best hiking in Chile and sea otters and hiking and all sorts of other awesomeness. We'll be out of touch for a while so  we'll look forward to talking to you all again sometime in February!