This kids now have choir practice in a new location, one that is about a ten minute walk from our home, in a direction we don’t normally walk. Between our home and practice, a McDonald’s. I could smell it while I waited for practice to adjourn. I decided to surprise the kids with a pitstop […]

At least twice a week I vacuum, dust, and wet mop the floors of our rental house in Santiago. We have a strict “no shoes in the house” policy mostly due to the dog poop everywhere in the city but also because of the black dust. This black dust, dirt, pollution, (?) is everywhere. I […]

On Wednesday afternoons, Wilson has skateboard class for two hours at the park. Jane and I walk him down to the park, make sure class gets underway, and then go for a run/rollerblade/jog together. Sometimes we listen to a podcast, sharing the ear pods. We both love “How I built this.” Mostly we just talk. […]

Wilson adores salsa. There aren’t any good options that we’ve come across in the grocery stores here, so I decided to teach him to cook his favorite snack, salsa, and make his favorite drink, lemonade. We used a very basic recipe. Tomatoes, purple onion, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper, lime juice and a jalapeno. However, […]

I understood that living in Santiago was not going to be cheap. Chile is not a low rent country, and Santiago is a city larger than Los Angeles. However, I’m taken aback by the high cost of living in Santiago, especially when incomes for average residents are so low. It gives some perspective into the […]

Wilson continues to excel in skateboarding, trying and failing and trying and succeeding. Each time we visit the skate park, which is once or twice a week, he improves. He continues building on the skills he’s developing, even when it means pushing through the pain of a hard fall. Here’s a video of Wilson learning […]

In recent weeks, Spanish is coming more naturally to me and, I think, all of us. When we first arrived, I felt we constantly had to tell people we don’t speak Spanish or understand something they said in Spanish. Now, about four months into our immersion here, we can carry out many daily interactions in […]

Though it didn’t make the news, the sprinkler scandal of Vitacura rocked out little world. Our home has a high wall around it. The wall creates an inner courtyard containing a patio, lawn, pool, and driveway. Outside the wall, there’s still property belonging to this home, and there are strips of grass, bushes and trees. […]

Santa Clause in Chile has the persona of Viejito Pascuero or Papa Noel. With November coming around, Santiago is beginning to burst with summer Christmas. At one of our nearby malls, Open Kennedy, the kids and I waited for Katie outside of a store while she finished some secret Christmas shopping. In the central area […]

I’ve mentioned in the past that one of my small joys in the evenings is to watch hikers descend the mountains over Santiago. Each night, at sunset, the headlamps illuminate the summit and begin filing down the mountain trails at dark. We joined up with another family to make the hike ourselves last weekend. We […]