Since writing last I have acquired a bike (and a helmet of course) and have been biking around town as my main form of transportation :) I love to bike so I’ve been quite content pedaling my way to and from work, town, etc.
In the weeks before Christmas Sarah and I were busy making Christmas cookies. Here in Chile they do not have the tradition of making cookies for Christmas. Pan de Pascua (Christmas bread aka a type of fruit cake) is the main Christmas sweet here but people generally do not make it at home, instead they buy it at the grocery store or a local bakery. So in order to keep the US tradition alive and share it with our Chilean friends and families Sarah and I made a variety of cookies including frosted sugar cookies, peanut butter kiss (actually chocolate stars) cookies, peanut butter balls, Mexican wedding cakes, melting moments, ginger snaps, snickerdoodle and biscotti. We frosted the sugar cookies with a group of Chilean friends who had never decorated cookies! They all had a good time and I think they may do some cookie decorating of their own in the future :) Our baking extravaganza ended in cookies being distributed and enjoyed by many Chileans and gringos alike. We even got many recipe requests as well as people asking if we sold the cookies! Maybe in the future… but for now we were just keeping the tradition alive.
On December 21 we had the re-inauguration of the library at Domodungu. There are many reasons why it was the re-inauguration including the fact that the library was damaged during the earthquake and also that Domodungu won a grant allowing them to buy over 150 new books (books in Chile are extremely expensive due to a special book tax). The re-inauguration did not have a huge crowd but seeing as it was almost Christmas and everyone was busy, there was a decent turn out. The re-inauguration consisted of a few short speeches, 2 songs but the choir group from Domodungu, a group circle dance, a slide show and refreshment.
In the past couple weeks I got my year long Visa, registered with the international police and filled out paperwork to get my identity card. So after many trips to the city center, waiting in several long lines and getting all my finger prints taken I will have my identity card in about a week more :D
Tennis has been going pretty well but I’m really enjoying playing so that’s what’s important. I played in a tournament a couple weekends ago but it didn’t go very well at all… I mean I had only played three times before the tournament so I couldn’t really expect too much but I still wish I had played a little better… oh well, next time I will do better! Unfortunately tennis is now over for the summer because the coach goes back to his hometown.
Christmas Eve was spent with my host family and some of their extended family. First we went to Milton’s house (my “host brother” who lives with his girlfriend) for dinner and gifts. Dinner consisted of roast beef, salads, potatoes and wine. It was all delicious and everyone left the table stuffed. We then sat around talking until midnight (dinner started aroun10:30/11:00 so we didn’t sit around too long). At midnight everyone went around giving a hug and kiss to everyone else wishing “Merry Christmas.” Then it was time to open gifts. After all the gifts were passed out everyone just opened their gifts all at once, it was a much faster process than what we normally do but you also didn’t get to see everything that everyone else got. After all the gifts were opened we went to my host mom’s sister’s house for a secret santa exchange. In addition to exchanging gifts we spent about two hours talking and snacking before heading back to Milton’s. In the end we got home around 6:00am.
Christmas Day I was woken up when Maruja called me around 11:45 saying they’d be a little late picking me up because they hit traffic. It’s a good thing they were late and she called because clearly my alarm for 10:30 am didn’t help much in waking me up! 45 minutes later we were on the way to the beach where I spent Christmas day. Ted, Maruja and their daughters always go to the beach on Christmas day (they have a friend who live there), what a different tradition (at least for those of us who live in the land of snow and ice)! After enjoying a barbeque lunch I went to the beach and napped with Ted and Maruja’s daughters while the “adults” went on a walk down the beach. When I got back from the beach I was able to talk to lots of family celebrating at both grandparent’s houses :D It was great to talk to everyone on Christmas!!
On New Year’s Eve I had dinner with my host parents at 11:00 pm (Evelyn was invited to spend New Year’s with a friend who lives out of town so she wasn’t home)… after dinner we put out snacks in case any visitors came (nobody came this year but in past years people have come visiting). We stayed home talking and listening to the radio until about 1:45 am when we left to go visiting. The first stop was at my host dad’s brother’s house. We stayed and talked for a little while and then left (with the brother) to go to another relative’s house where there was a big group gathered in the back patio dancing, talking and having a good time. We didn’t stay too long but did get some dancing in. The intention was to return after visiting my host mom’s sister because her family would go to bed earlier. In the end we didn’t make it back to the other house because my host dad started falling asleep… in his defense it was at least 4am at this point but probably later. It took awhile to find a taxi at this hour and by the time we left the sun was already up and we made it home around 6am again. All in all it was a good New Years although I was hoping we’d make it back to the “dancing house” again…
The following are pictures from around town, the beach from Christmas day and Christmas cookies.
