Posted by Lisa on August 31st, 2005 — Posted in Misc
I didn’t post yesterday, I apologize. I went hiking in the morning, then went grocery shopping in the afternoon, and then went here…
Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of the store, but yes, you are correct. I went to blockbuster. As far as I can tell, it’s the only one in town unlike in the states where they’re around every corner next to the omnipresent CVS’s. Now my card back from the states didn’t work, so I joined and am now a member here in Chile. My friend Joanna was with me, thankfully. She was able to do all the spanish speaking for me. Well really, she did everything, and I just stood there looking pretty. But I digress. We can now rent movies whenever we want. How cool. And FYI, if you’re getting homesick, this is where to go to get the good stuff. They have american candy there, plus small bags of marshmallows. hmmm. So I rented my first movie, Diarios De Motocicleta- Motorcycle Diaries. It’s in spanish, but has english subtitles. We haven’t watched it yet, but will probably tonight. It’s supposed to be great. At Blockbuster they had all the american movies plus chilean, british and other movies too. I can’t wait to watch them all…
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Posted by Lisa on August 31st, 2005 — Posted in Misc
I don’t only want to blog about my daily happenings. I want to be able to share with you other things that we continually find in Chile. So today, I decided to tell you about Steve and I’s favorite breakfast bread. It’s called Queque Trenza Rusa. You can buy it at almost all of the local supermarkets, or at least some form of it. I’m not really sure what it is. Sometimes it reminds me of a marble cake, vanilla and chocolate, but it’s not chocolate, in other ways it reminds me of cinnamon buns, but it’s not cinnamon. And then occasionally you get a surprise in a bite, sometimes a piece of candied fruit, sometimes chocolate, but only occasionally. So it’s weird, but wonderful. Steve and I like to warm it up in the oven, and then melt some butter on top. Not very nutritious, but very very yummy. Steve usually eats some every morning with his yerba matte tea. Yes, tea. He’s stopped drinking coffee, though that may be due to the fact that we can’t get any good coffee here. No beans, no nothing. You can buy nescafe though 🙂 I prefer to have my yummy cakey thing as dessert. I was complaining that though i’ve started exercising, I haven’t really lost any weight yet. Well, this would be why. I’m an addict of some unknown type of cake/bread with an indescribable flavor. When you come to visit, you’ll become addicted too!!
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Posted by Lisa on August 29th, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Since Steve worked a ton over the past week up on the mountain, one of the benefits is he got to take today off. So like a good wife I got up early this morning and bought these…
Not as good as Crescent donuts or Krispy Kreme’s, but we’re in Chile, who can complain. At least I found donuts! YUM
After pigging out on donuts, I decided we needed to work them off, so Steve and I went on a hike. Plus it was a beautiful day out as well- mid 70s, sunny a little breezy. It was Steve’s first time hiking up the mountain and he did very well. Below is a picture of the view of our car from half way up the mountain, it’s the tiny dot.
Once we ate our delicious lunch of salad, Steve and I went off to get more flowers for our garden. It’s an addiction I think. I love going and looking at the flowers, and it’s cheap. Now since we’re in the middle of winter, I can’t even imagine how the flowers will look during the different seasons.
I know you were all thinking, salad for lunch, that’s too healthy, but tonight we are going to order pizza, drink wine/beer and watch movies. Life can’t get any better than that!
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Posted by Lisa on August 28th, 2005 — Posted in Misc
This week was the best mail week EVER! Not only did I get my People magazine, my Yankee magazine, and our Entertainment magazine, I got 2 packages. My awesome Aunt Pat sent me some much needed books, and my super cool mom and our super awesome cool friend Pat Tapper sent me a package. Well actually they sent their packages separately but they got combined in Tucson, anyways I digress. My mom sent me my favorite mac and cheese ever ( I already chowed down on a box), some chocolate chips (weird that you can’t buy these here), Bell’s seasoning (which helps me make a magnificent roast), some awesome looking tortellini, 2 books, and a puzzle type book that Steve and I really enjoy! Pat made these amazing chili pepper napkins (I can’t wait to have a dinner party and use!), and sent me 2 tortilla holders, very cool as well. So thank you everyone. I love you guys, and I definitely love my presents! yay for me!!!!!!
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Posted by Lisa on August 27th, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
As my grandma always said, red skies at night sailors delight. Red skies in morning sailors take warning. Judging by this beautiful view right now, i’d say tomorrow is shaping up to be a beautiful day 🙂
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Posted by Lisa on August 27th, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Steve has been up at the mountain this week for his science run. The 2 pictures below are from his last run, one is of the observatory, and one is of the mirror in the telescope. I thought you might enjoy seeing where he is. I’ve been keeping my self busy while he’s been gone. On Tuesday and Thursday was african dance, on Wednesday and Friday i hiked (other pictures were taken from the hike, it was finally sunny). On thursday night I had girls night at my house. I made awesome fudge courtesy of a surprise unopened fluff container I found hidden away n one of the boxes, and I made these banana oatmeal raisin cookies that I thought were horrible, but some people liked. We hung out and drank, ordered pizza, did our toes, and watched movies. There was seven of us, we had a great time. On Friday night I went to my first ever bunco night. It was at a chileans house, which by the way was gorgeous. It was a lot of fun to meet some other chileans. I went with my friends Joanna and Rikki. It was a semi IESA event, so there were other americans and brits there as well. Steve comes home on Sunday, hooray!!
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Posted by Lisa on August 23rd, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
Today, is my gardeners first day. After meeting with him and a translator, I found out what I needed to get him, mainly a spade, sprinkler, broom, and various plants. So I went shopping. I went to the Sodimac, which is basically like a Lowes and found what I needed. I was able to speak a tiny bit of spanish and easily made my purchases. This was a big step for me, because I usually find a friend to go with, but I decided to brave La Serena by myself. I then went to a local little flower shop to find my flowers, and dirt. The man working at the flower shop spoke a little english, and was eager to practice. I happily obliged, since his english was a thousand times better than my spanish. I was looking for tierra de hojas, bouganviella, hortensias, and primula. I was able to find what I needed, but unfortunately the hortensias which are hydrangeas weren’t in stock yet. I also bought a couple other little plants, not sure what kinds, but pretty. I also bought a bunch of seeds for an herb garden that he’s going to plant out in the back. It’s a gorgeous day out, so i’m going to sit outside and read my book- Blonde Like Me. The view from our house is much smaller then our previous view, but I do get to look at the ocean every day, and can still watch the sunset over it. Can’t complain. Wish me luck tonight, it’s african dance!
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Posted by Lisa on August 21st, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Today while Steve was working, I had a day at the beach. I went with my friends Jenny her husband Anthony and their 2 year old Xavier. Unfortunately my camera died, so I only have 2 pictures to share. On Sunday’s at 11:30, it’s the weekly ultimate frisbee match. It’s open to anyone who wants to play and they meet and hang out on the beach. For those that don’t want to play (me), we walk, or run, or skate along the beach and play in the sand and water. After the game was over, we went to Coquimbo, Anthony went to the fish market, and Jenny, I and Xavier went to the open air market. They sell anything from produce, to clothes, to hand crafted treasures. I bought some new flowers for my garden. Can’t wait until Tuesday, to see how they look. It was a beautiful day here in La Serena. It was sunny and in the 70’s. On Friday, my friend Joanna went to the fish market and bought a freshly caught fish. They cut it and cleaned it for her. It’s a corvina which I think is a chilaean sea bass. I can’t wait until I am able to go the fish market, order the fish, cook it and eat it, without getting sick :). Isn’t she pretty!
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Posted by Lisa on August 20th, 2005 — Posted in Uncategorized
Steve and I are officially moved into casa 22. Our land shipment came yesterday, hooray. As you can see from the below pics, the important things are finished, mainly the home theater system, thanks to Steve. I on the other hand finished the other important thing, I unpacked the kitchen. I do have to say, I like this house better than our previous house. We do have for now the most god awful mustard curtains, yes for all of my pals in Indiana I will say it again, curtains, with matching heinous mustard couch and chairs. In one of the below pics, you can also see the beautiful plaid couch. I think it was once maybe green and white, but it’s now more of a greenish brown plaid, yuck. I shouldn’t complain though, it is free furniture after all. Once we get our furniture more situated, I’m thinking about having the mustard yellow cushions recovered, and the ugly plaid couch taken away. We did hire a gardener who is starting tuesday, once our garden starts growing i’ll post some pics. As for Consuela, no news yet, but one of the couples on the recinto, their maid has a daughter who is looking for work. We’ll see. I still feel weird about having a maid, especially since I’m not working. I’m hopefully going to have some adventures next week while Steve is on the mountain observing, so stay tuned…
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Posted by Lisa on August 19th, 2005 — Posted in Activities
Yesterday, I had a very fun day. In the morning, I went to my very first african dance class. It ended up being a lot of fun and hard work. It looks much easier than it is. And not being blessed with a very pliable body, it kind of felt like I was throwing my body around. In the end though, I didn’t do too poorly. The owner of the dance studio even asked me if I had taken dance lessons before because I did well, haha. I think he wanted my money, but I’m going to pretend that I did awesome. I think I may even go again. Then in the afternoon, my friend Joanna and I went grocery shopping, then out on the town. We went to La Tabla for onces- which is Chilean tea time, but instead of tea, you get to have any drink. I had an emapanada de queso, and a pisquerina (basically, a yummy pisco sour like drink, without too much sour). Joanna had a pina colada, and camarones (shrimp in a white wine and butter sauce). La Tabla, is situated right on the beach, so we were able to relax and watch the waves and the seagulls. Unfortunately, it was gray and overcast, but it’s always nice to relax on the beach. After that we went to the casino, and played some slots. After some trouble, we were able to trade 4,000 pesos in for 40 100 peso coins ( which is a little less than $8). We weren’t big winners, we actually lost it all, but we did have fun trying. It was a fun spur of the moment plan. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera around with me, so no pictures today. And then my big news is… that our land shipment is coming today at 11:30. I can’t wait to get our stuff, and watch some TV. One of the other things I really miss is my microwave, I can’t wait. Because we didn’t know what time they were coming today, I skipped my morning hike, so hopefully I can motivate myself to do some type of exercise today. Once our stuff gets set up, i’ll take some pics of he new house. I did tell you that we moved to our new house Casa 22, right?
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