The Story of the Christmas Tree Acquisition

With Christmas now less than one month away, we are pushing ourselves to get into the Christmas spirit, despite the rising temperatures and the magnetic pull of the swimming pool (instead of the mall). William and Jackson are particularly excited; William is hoping that Santa will bring him a black bunny rabbit this Christmas and has been feeding our dog and cat daily to demonstrate that he's responsible enough to have his very own pet.

Thus is the backdrop for the Christmas tree acquisition story.

Jeremy is particular about Christmas trees and refuses to settle for anything but a real tree. Unfortunately real trees are much less feasible in Chile (due to the climate they only grow in certain regions, mainly to the South) and 95% of Chileans have artificial Christmas trees. Determined, Jeremy has been talking about our "tree strategy" for weeks now and devised a plan to buy a potted tree from the nursery at the Sodimac (Home Depot equivalent) to use as a Christmas tree. As such, we ventured out last weekend to pick the tree before the rest of the gringos got the same idea. We spent close to an hour sifting through the wreck of nursery trees, trying to find one that was straight and bushy enough to make the cut to be our Christmas tree. After many debates, we decided on the perfect tree only to discover that we couldn't fit it in our car... so we needed to get it delivered.

We had a very detailed conversation with a sales person, in Spanish of course, about how this tree was specifically the tree we wanted. He put sign on it and assured us that it would be the tree that was in fact delivered to our house. Given how many times we have been burned by terrible customer service here, I gently suggested to Jeremy that we carry the tree to the delivery desk and reiterate the requirement that this specific tree is the tree that is to be delivered. Jeremy insisted that the sign and the diligent sales person had it covered and that I was too pessimistic.... so with two mischievous boys pulling at my nerves I reluctantly agreed to trust that the correct tree would be delivered.

Of course, when the tree arrived at the house the following Monday it was the most crooked (at least 30 degrees off the vertical), "Charlie Brown" tree you have ever seen... they must have searched the warehouse and pulled the worst one they could find to deliver to us. Our gardener was disgusted when he saw the tree and managed to work some magic to straighten it and trim it to make it look somewhat respectable. He then told us that we should have never bought a tree from Sodimac and that he has access to much better trees... but who knew! We considered returning it but decided that the hassle was not worth it.

In the spirit of not sweating the small stuff, we have a pathetic little tree - which has been made beautiful by our family spending Saturday morning decorating it together. It's a symbol of our will to survive here and determination to make the best of things that don't necessarily materialize as planned!

Chile - A Nation of Imports

I think we have progressed from the "overwhelmed" stage of our ex-pat experience into the "aware" stage. Rather than merely trying to survive the day-to-day, we are becoming keenly aware of our surroundings and taking it all in. Jeremy had an "Ah ha" moment the other day which sums it all up:

Chile is a nation of imports. The Chileans essentially shopped around for the best source for all their expertise.

For example, the military was imported from Germany - which was particularly apparent on the 200th Birthday of Chile on Sept. 18 when we witnessed the army goose-stepping to German marching music, in the traditional Prussian uniforms with feathered helmets, just outside our temporary apartment. The navy was imported from England. All practices relating to the navy are inherently British, including the uniforms, drill practices, etc. The police were imported from Italy. The police here are even called the Cabinero and they wear the same brown uniforms.

All this sounds logical and is obvious, but the real revelation for us was when we realized where they imported customer service from - France. Enough said!

Halloween in Santiago

A quick blog post on Halloween in Chile...

The concept of Halloween is relatively new to Chileans and is something that has only gained popularity in the last 5-10 years. As a result, the holiday is far less commercial than back at home and trick or treating is only common in certain areas of the city.

Although the candy selection was very narrow (mostly traditional hard candies and gummies), we loaded up on what we could find in preparation for trick or treaters - as colleagues and friends assured us that Halloween is celebrated in our neighbourhood (Vitacura). Sure enough, the trick or treaters arrived in droves starting around 6 PM - despite the fact that the sun was still high in the sky, and it was hot! A far cry from the dark, freezing Halloween nights that we're used to at home.

We hosted a dinner party with some of Alison's colleagues - a family from Houston with two boys about the same age as William and Jackson. The other mom, Karen, and I took the kids down our street to do some trick or treating... with a crowd of Chilean princesses as our guides.

The challenges trick or treating in Chile:

1) Walls: As I mentioned before, all the houses in Santiago are surrounded by high walls and gated, to prevent opportunistic intruders. As a trick or treater, this means you need to ring the gate bell and yell "Truco o dulces" ("Trick or Treat!") into the intercom, exactly when prompted, so that someone can come to open the gate and give you candy. It usually takes about 5 minutes for this process, so if the house is not participating it can be a bit of a let down.

2) Pumpkins: Pumpkins are uncommon here, at least in October. We bought a very small one at a grocery store for over the equivalent of $10 US - one if 6 that were in stock. No one has pumpkins carved on display. Also, with the gated nature of the houses, there is no place to put the pumpkin so the kids can see it from the street. We placed ours in the bushes, lit, but we don't think anyone noticed given the blaring summer sun!

3) Religion: Most Chileans are Catholic and the idea of wandering spirits and festivities of Halloween is somewhat contrary to most people's religious beliefs. The princess gang that led us around our street had changed their chant to "Angels or Candy" and gave out little cards with a picture of the Virgin Mary, because their mother did not like the concept of Halloween but didn't want to stop her kids from participating in the fun parts.

In short, like everything else here, Halloween was an education for us. Next year we will know what to expect and wear light costumes and choose different decorations, that stand out when it is light outside!

Hope you enjoy the photos of our little dragon and devil :)

A Month of Darkness

Apologies for the long delay since our last blog post! It was difficult keeping up the blog without having internet at home. After a month of darkness we are now reconnected with the world and feeling much better.

October was a month of adjustment for the Weyland family. We have been working furiously to settle into our house and getting our lives more established here in Santiago.

Here is a brief summary of our progress:

1) Setting up: We underestimated the time and effort required to set-up our lives from scratch, using the bags of stuff we brought on the plane as our base of essentials. It has taken us many weekends to get this far, but our house is now furnished with the essentials and is really starting to feel like home. It reminded me of my first weeks living away from my parents after moving to university - when you decide to make a cake for the first time, for example, you actually need to have the forethought to plan ahead and buy the bowl, the spoon, the pan, the oven mitts, etc. in order to accomplish the task at hand. After many years of being established with all you need, it is humbling to be back in that situation once again!

We struggled with everything from getting our appliances installed, carpets cleaned, garden weeded, locks changed, etc. and now have our bearings on where to go for most of what we need. In the process, we have found some real gems in Santiago, such as the La Vega market (which is like St. Lawrence Market on steroids) and an amazing antique market in Barro Brazil.

Also, after deciding to buy a used Hyundia Terracon and experiencing a lot of challenges viewing used vehicles, we opted to make our lives easier and buy a 2007 Subaru Tribeca from another Canadian family. As a result, the buying process was hassle free but now that we have the car, we are having challenges getting insurance, the necessary transponders, etc. The drama never ends! Note: Incidentally, the family we bought the car from has been a great resource for all things on Chile and even has a lovely teenage daughter who loves to babysit.

2) Kids: The kids have been in pre-school for about 4 weeks now and are loving it - no more tears for Jackson each morning, but both kids are very excited to see Angelica (our nanny) when she picks them up each day at 12:45. William has picked up a fair bit of Spanish already and launches into full sentences in Spanish, without even realizing. Jackson is at the stage where he is a parrot - repeating everything he hears in a perfect Chilean Spanish accent - but only saying a few things on his own in Spanish. This has demonstrated how much easier it is to pick up languages at a young age! The kids' Spanish learning curve is exponential and picking up quickly, so they are bound to surpass us in the next few months.

Our nanny Angelica continues to work out really well. While the kids are at school in the mornings, she has been managing all the contractors/deliveries (furniture, locks, garden, phone, internet, cable, carpet cleaning, appliance installation, etc.) we have needed to hire for various things. In addition, the landlord has installed new windows in the house and is well underway in installing a pool in our yard (we have a giant pit and piles of mud everywhere!), so she is kept busy making sure all that activity is happening as it should, plus cleaning up after the contractors. As a result, she is much more than a nanny - more like our "manager of all things related to home" - so this has taken the pressure off us significantly. She is also wonderful with the kids and has been instrumental to them learning Spanish as quickly as they have been learning.

3) Work: Work has improved dramatically for me (Alison). I am now staffed on a project for a massive retailer here in South America and am working with a team of Americans, as the office here doesn't have much experience in the subject matter. I am learning lots and having to work in both Spanish and English, as we're interacting with a lot of American companies as part of the work, and some of my colleagues don't speak any Spanish. No longer am I the worst Spanish speaker in the office, which is confidence building and liberating! My Spanish is improving a lot as well - my written Spanish and comprehension (oral and written) is now very respectable, and I have come to realize how bad Google Translator really is!!! I am getting much better at speaking as well, but have a long way to go before I will be able to run meetings and make presentations in Spanish.

Work has required less of an adjustment for Jeremy, but he is now starting to transition more into his new role in Projects here in Chile.

That's our update for now! I'll post a few separate posts on Halloween and interesting Chilean factoids in the next day or so. Over and out!