We plan to venture out of Santiago while we’re in Chile, and we need our own vehicle to do so. Renting would be cost prohibitive and restrictive, and so we opted to purchase our own car. Purchasing a car under normal conditions at home can be stressful, and purchasing a vehicle as a foreigner in […]

You know those scenes in Sex in the City where you see Carrie sitting at her computer typing, deleting, typing, deleting? That’s been me with this post the past few days. I’m trying to be positive. I really am but dang when it comes to the basics – water, shelter and food its hard. All […]

I’m overly pleased with the language learning app, Duolingo. I had low expectations, though I’ve been blown away by the effectiveness of the app to teach a language. I started about 30 days ago with no Spanish language background. I only knew a handful of commonly known words. The app has me somewhat comfortable with […]

Greetings! I’m just the transcriptionist. Wilson is telling about the choir audition process, and Jane will cover the first rehearsal with the children choir. The Audition (by Wilson) I was nervous about the language and that I wouldn’t understand what anyone was saying. I kind of didn’t want to go because I knew it would […]

I snapped a few pictures of the outside of our house today in Santiago. I would say the house location is solid, and that the location is the prevailing quality. We have relatively easy access to downtown (about 10 minutes away by Uber), and the house is within walking distance to supermarkets, cafes, and restaurants […]

Making friends can be tough, especially in a foreign country where you have no existing network, don’t speak the language, don’t know the customs, and stand out as a foreigner. Katie and I recognize that we’ve put our kids into a difficult situation, pulling them out of known environments and plunging them into an unfamiliar […]

One of our goals in our first week of arriving in Santiago was to climb to the top of San Cristobal Hill, a landmark in Santiago with a large statue of Mary at the peak and vistas to view the expansive metropolis. The hill is within Parque Metropolitano, the largest urban park in South America. […]

Our family speaks very little Spanish. Really very little. We’re excited by our immersion in the Chilean Spanish language spoken by a sea of six million Santiaguinos among whom we now live. Even within the home, we’re having to adjust to frequent Spanish language interactions. Daily chores like dishwashing, cooking, cleaning, and laundry are slowed […]

On Sunday we left our North Carolina home in the heat of summer, and on Monday morning we arrived in Santiago in the cold of winter. The southern hemisphere seasons are opposite of the seasons to which we’re accustomed in the north. On a July day, when summer temperatures topped 100F in North Carolina, we […]