Day to Day

Yes, it's true, we've been here over three weeks!  In some ways time flies, however short periods also seem to stretch out and feel like months.  We've done a lot here so far but in real time it's only been a short while (as our language skills still show).

Our day to day life here in Concepcion is probably very similar to yours back in the US.  I thought I'd give you a quick glimps into our daily routine. 

We wake up early during the week and catch the school bus to the Thomas Jefferson School at 7am.  They pick us up in front of our building!  It takes a while to get to school  (1 hour) because we pick up lots of other students and the morning traffic is pretty bad.  Once the second bridge is repaired (damaged by the earthquake) our commute will be much quicker!

Marcia makes sure the girls are buckeled in and Sergio drives us all to school.  I´ve been volunteering in the pre-kinder classes.  The kids don´t speak English and have been really helpful teaching me the basic Spanish school vocabulary.  The other teachers have been extreamly helpful teaching me the finer points of the language.  All in good time, it´s a slow process but we´re learning a few more words each day.




This is what a typical kindergarten classroom looks like, not so different from yours.

AnnaMarie is Mabel´s teacher (the one not holding Mabel in the striped apron.  Nicole, a techer in training is holding Mabel)

 Mabel  has been making friends, though the language barrier is greatest for her.  Though the teachers speak mostly in English, in her class all of the kids speak Spanish and Mabel tries to figure out what is going on.  So far she´s been a total trooper!  Hopefully some of this language stuff will start making sense soon.

After we arrive at school around 8am each class meets in a circle and takes attendance and goes over the days of the week and weather, etc... in English. Then there is a lesson of the day.  Lately we´ve been learning about spring. It´s strange to hear them talk about the spring equinox (Sept. 21).  The kids love learning and drawsing pictures of butterflies and flowers.


Then the kids can switch rooms for a free learning time based on what they feel like doing that day, math, gym, art, language, etc..  We eat a big snack (what we would call lunch but here the proper lunch is much bigger) at around 11am and then kids can go outside on the playground.

The playground is very basic with swings, a playhouse, and some grass around the corner

The little kids head home at 12:45 everyday but on Wednesday, which is an early day, everyone goes home an hour earlier.  Ella stays at school till 3pm and eats lunch in the big lunch room.  They serve hot lunch but Ella only chooses to have it once a week. She says it´s pretty good, healthier than what she would get at Paxson.  Most of the students in Ella´s grade speak some English so Ella has been able to communicate pretty well.

The Mall is right near their school so I´ve been there a few times picking up stuff for the apartment and our lives here.  It´s a huge Mall, bigger than Southgate in Missoula but what you would expect in a big city.

Fun sculptures in the mall.

Our local grocery store is a lot like the Food Farm (except for the beer selection).  It is located right at the bottom of our hill and on the bus route, very convenient.

Yes, it´s called Santa Isabel.  Occasionally there are more local folks outside the actual store selling their stuff.  I just purchased some artichokes today from these people.

We´ve also been trying some new fruits.  Both of which we´ve liked a lot.

Tastes a lot like cantalope!

Looks cactus-like with white sweet fruit.

There is a big effort to recycle.  All we do is put our glass, plastic, and cardboard by the garbage shoot in the apartment and it is taken away.  Everyone else uses these huge bins on the side of the road.  I´m not sure what the deal is with the rest of people´s garbage because it looks like in some neighborhoods they just throw it in the street.  Garbage does seem to be an issure here.

Recycle!

Some of you have recieved email from Ella, well this is what she looks like when she composes her ever so long messages!

So, we are still looking for a used car.  Hopefully we´ll be more mobile soon.  At the end of last weekend when we still had our rental car we finally found the beach near to San Pedro de La Paz, about 20-30 minutes away (much closer when the bridge is repaired).  I think we´ll be spending quite a few summer days out there.

The beach has black sand and tons of rocks and what look like ¨moon¨ snail shells.  There are lots of fun creatures lurking in the tide pools which we had fun poking at (anemonae, sea cucumbers, starfish etc).  The rocks look like they will be great for exploring.  When at the beach we are looking right out New Zealand.  I imagine storms can be something fearce!

Chitons

Is is kelp or the head of Medusa?

Mabel´s big find!

So, life is good.  Though everyday we ride the bus we are reminded of what the people of Concepcion experienced last Fedruary.  Though they are working hard to repair all that was broken it is going to be a long time before the recovery process is complete.

On our bus route home.

The Chemistry building on campus.

The crack was formed on the banks of the Bio Bio during the earthquake!

We´ve been lucky to meet up with Anibal, Paula, and Benjamin who lived in Missoula about 5 years ago!  They had us over to their wonderful place and we shared a traditional Chliean meal (lots of great meat).  It was fun to talk with them about life in both places.  We look forward to seeing them again.

I hope all is well with you in the US.  We look forward to hearing from you all.  Have a nice Homecoming weekend!

Go GRIZ!!!

Notice the Griz colors!  The girls (and Mike) are cheering for the Griz, right now!

Life in and around Concepcion

Well, I told you before I didn't get much sleep due to the quakes at night.  Last week we survived our first 6.1 quake.  It scared the pants off me and woke Ella up.  Our whole building shook with a lot of force but not violently.  It was as if someone was shaking us awake with big pushes from side to side.  There was also a low but loud rumbling sound that you could feel in your belly (like a loud bass).  Below is the graph of the major quakes around the world.  When you locate Chile, the small red circle is ours and you might have guessed the big yellow one is the February quake.

Our quake is the smaller red circle in southern Chile.

OK, so it's been a while since you've heard from us.  Well, that's because we rented a car for a week (super expensive) and toured around the local area. The girls have the week off from school due to the Independence day holidays (Like our 4th of July).   It's been great to explore but the drivers here are CRAZY.  It truly is every person for themselves.

Tiny car with big price tag.

We are only allowed to cross the bridge to Concepcion three days out of the week.  Like everyone else our days to cross the bridge depend on what the last number is on our license plate.

So, as I mentioned,  it was time to head out of town!  Our fist trip was out to the water falls, Saltos de Laja (saltos means to jump, so the rivers here jump instead of fall).  It was a nice day trip into the country. 

Saltos de Laja

Is the river falling or jumping?

After walking around a bit we all felt a bit hungry so we headed for some food.  We ended up at a place without a menu.  They offered us some soup so that's what we ate, Caseuela (a traditional stew).  It came in two huge bowels and consisted of a huge chunk of beef with squash, potato, and broth.

Yummy traditional soup!

We also took a day trip to the Pacific Ocean!  It was time for Mabel to play in the sand.  We went to Playa Blanco but found the sand was not so Blanco.  There is a lot of black sand actually!  The water looked clear and felt cold!

Brrrr

After this day trip we headed to the Andes!  We visited the closest ski hill (No, unfortunately we didn't ski).  There was plenty of snow and people were skiing nice spring corn-snow.  The prices at this ski hill were more than any place we've been in Montana.  Since we arrived at the end of the season few places were open for business and those that were were out of our budget.  After some looking we finally found a cabana for the night.

Ski map

From here we started home and took some history lessons.  Right now everyone is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chile's independence so we went to the birthplace of one of their main revolutionaries, Bernardo O'Higgins (if you were wondering his father was not Chilean).  There wasn't much to see when we were there but I'm sure this weekend things are different.

O'HIggins

After the short lesson we were feeling thirsty so where should we head but the local Cervaceria, yes, local brewery.  This is not a common pastime here in Chile but apparently it is growing.

Though we couldn't taste any of the beer on site, we were actually lucky enough to catch someone there who showed us around the one room brewery.  We did purchase some for later!

On our way home we passed through Florida, who would have thought?!

A nice town for a picnic lunch.

This weekend we have been eating a lot of meat!  It is traditional to have a barbecue which consists of an appetizer of sausages then a few courses of different cuts of beef served with red wine and at the end some iceberg lettuce with lemon juice.  I have to say it all tastes really good if you like meat!

Our introduction to the holiday traditions took place at the girls school.  Mabel dressed up in the traditional dance dress and we took part in the festivities.

Watch out she knows the Cuaca!

Meat kabobs!

We've also seen lots of professional dancers.  It is amazing how everyone knows the classic dances, even at Mike's department cookout everyone ended up dancing the traditional dances.  This is a very nationalistic country.  It is fun to watch them celebrate!

Hanging out with the Gauchos!

They dance in these!!!

Check out the dancing by clicking the link below:

Well, I guess I should include some pictures based around why we're here in the first place.  We have had the opportunity to walk around the campus lately.  Ella's first comment was, "Wow, this is so much like home."  I think that speaks to how similar university campuses are, with all the  students walking around the well kept grounds.  The University of Concepcion is the second largest university in Chile (second to one in Santiago).  It has a big campus and lots of paths to get lost on (which we did when we tried walking to Mike's building).

Statue and fountain on the main square.

The main clock tower on campus.

Monica and Mike on campus.

In the picture above you can see Monica Sorondo, who has basically been our life line in Chile.  She has organized our whole trip down here.  We owe her a lot!!

OK, I have lots more I could include but I'll sign off for now and include more later.  Please keep sending messages.  We are having a great time but believe me we also miss you all at home!  When we are not distracted by some strange new sight we are often looking at pictures of all of you on our computers or in our photo albums.  We love you!!  Thanks for staying in contact, keep the messages coming!

Here are few closing pictures for all you biologists!

Lizard on campus. Notice the bug in it's mouth!

Big beetle that Mabel loves. Caballito

Pretty local weed that grows all over the place. 

Adjusting to life in Concepcion!

Hola,

We arrived in Concepcion on September 1st and have been busy getting settled in ever since!  The weather has been cooperating with us, it's been cool but sunny!  Since we have yet to purchase a car we've been hiking up and down a respectably steep hill to our apartment (9th floor).  Public transportation does not attempt the hill.

We live on the 9th floor of an 11 floor building.

We live in the building on your right.  Yes, we do have a glassed in porch that looks out over the suburb of San Pedro de La Paz.  We have already experienced one little quake a couple of nights ago.  Needless to say I didn't get much sleep but things have been quiet since then.

The girls have started school at the Thomas Jefferson school (http://www.thomasjefferson.cl/).  They don their uniforms every morning and are picked up in front of our building at 7am!  Two days into the routine and things are going pretty well (I think the uniforms help).

You can see our view behind Ella.

So far life here is going well.  We found peanut butter at the local grocery store so Mabel is happy.  We do see signs of the big earthquake last February ...

There are tons of these new signs telling folks where to run to next time there is a tsunami!  

I guess there are advantages for living on the top of a hill!  We've been admiring the different flora here.  It's spring and everything is blooming!  We've all enjoyed looking at the flowers and seed pods (from last year) of all the trees and plants.  Some look familiar and others are completely new to us.

Mabel with small palm-like trees.  We've seen much bigger ones all over.

Pink flowers that look like morning glories with clover shaped leaves.

Eucalyptus trees grow everywhere and smell great when warmed by the sun

These yellow flowers look like Scotch Broom (sp?) to me.  They are everywhere.

We've only been into the city proper once, last Saturday.  We visited the University and had a great lunch consisting of Empanadas.  Mike will spend most of his time here working with folks learning more about CO2 in the ocean down here.   

We're standing in front of the University of Concepcion's main entrance.

Everyone seems to be adjusting well.  We'll keep you posted on how things progress.  The only thing that has really changed for us is Mabel's hairdo and the lack of 1/2 and 1/2 for my coffee!

Notice the great desserts she's helping herself to!

We hope you are all doing well and look forward to hearing more about life in the US.

Adios!