A little piece of paradise…
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 🙂
While the boys are gone the girls will play…
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!!
Mi Jardin
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!
Beach Day
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!
Mi casa es su casa
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…
Day on the town
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?
¡Feliz Cumpleanos!
Today is my super cool, best friends birthday- Janet. I’m so excited that I get to see her in a couple of weeks for our annual Nags Head trip. Happy birthday Janet. Love you !!!!!
Happy Birthday
Today is a very special day. It’s my soon to be brother’s birthday, and it’s also my kick ass cousins birthday too. So happy birthday Adam and Kim. I hope you had a wonderful day. Love you guys!!!
Elqui Valley
Today, was very foggy and cold in La Serena, so Steve and I decided to go on a road trip to the Elqui Valley. That’s one of the nice things about living here, you can drive a half hour out of town, and be in the sun. Once we got into the Andes, otherwise known as the Cordillera, to non gringos, it was a perfect day- sunny, blue skies and in the 70s. We drove through Vicuna, and up to Pisco Elqui. Pisco Elqui is 1,247 meters above sea level, on the steep southern slope of the Rio Claro canyon. The picturesque hillside village of Pisco Elqui boasts the best tourist infrastructure of any village in the area and a variety of activities varying from souvenir hunting in the artisans’ market to pisco tasting and horseback riding (per my moon handbook). Steve and I opted to walk around, shop and we went out to lunch. We went to this fabulous german run restaurant/hotel, El Tesoro de Elqui. We each got the chicken special- which was a chicken breast in a creamy orange, mango and tomato sauce. It was delicious. I looked for a recipe to post, but I haven’t been able to find one. The picture below with the pink flowers was the view from our table. I look forward to going back and spending the night in town, and going to a pisco tasting.
