Hello friends! Feliz Navidad!
My sincerest apologies for the late post –it has been a busy week to say the least.
Let’s back it up to the beginning of the week. We only had to work until Tuesday which was wonderful. On Tuesday, the school threw a party to celebrate the janitors and security guards. Everyone chipped in about $7 USD so we were able to give them each a nice cooler as a gift and buy a delicious cake. I’m glad we got to celebrate them; they do so much for us and they rarely receive proper credit or compensation.
Tuesday night, I went for dinner and drinks with some co-workers. We met at a restaurant in the center of the city –not the nicest area. While walking there, I actually walked through tear gas!! It seeped down into the metro, so when I exited, it started to become difficult to breathe. I thought I was having a panic attack, but I was confused because I felt calm. Once I exited the metro, I saw about 20 police officers lined up with helmets and shields. I must have arrived just after the protest ended. The air was hard to breathe and it felt like someone was cutting hundreds of onions because my eyes were stinging. I put my sleeve over my mouth and walked quickly out of that mess. Looking back, it was kind of a cool experience. I feel like a badass saying I got tear gassed ;)
We had the 23rd off so our first grade team got together to have a farewell party for our team member, Ann. She won’t leave until march but this was the only time we will all be together before the summer plans take over our lives and schedules. We went to Jose’s house to have a picnic and go swimming. The house was amazing. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was! We enjoyed watching our co-workers' little ones run around the yard playing.
^^ Her first icecream ever!
^^ The most beautiful wild rabbit ever!
I ended up spending Christmas with my adopted Chilean family. We went to Catholic mass around 8pm. It was a beautiful service because it was outside and there were so many people. I’ve been to many Catholic services, so it was funny to hear the same songs and prayers in Spanish. They had adorable little kids act out the nativity scene. Towards the end of the mass, a beautiful full moon began to rise above the mountains. It was beautiful!
After church, we hung out eating appetizers and drinking champagne. My belly was grumbling because we didn’t eat dinner until about 11pm! We had turkey, applesauce, stuffed peppers and potatoes. It was a delicious meal. For dessert we had cheesecake, fruit and some treats I brought.
After dinner, we opened gifts at about 1am. I was fading fast, my Gringa Christmases don’t go so late. I couldn't get over the fact that they didn't have a Christmas Tree in their house. They told me they had a tree, and pointed to the pine tree in the back yard. To me, the tree is one of the most iconic symbols. They also didnt have stockings.
My friends and their family were so sweet to include me in their Christmas, every member even got my a gift! I got a 2 beautiful necklaces, some awesome nail polish and a great tank top from H&M. We went one by one so opening presents took about an hour and a half. Finally, we went to bed around 2am.
^^ A pile of gifts without a tree!!
Christmas day was a little bit more laid back than Christmas Eve. We woke up late and made ceviche for the party later on. The other side of the family came for lunch and to go swimming. It was about 90 degrees! My hottest Christmas ever –I even went swimming. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all, but I hear it was pretty hot at home as well.
^^ It's not Christmas without Elf
Saturday night, I could barely sleep because my best friend Lexie was arriving to Chile in the morning. I picked her up at the airport after a sweet reunion. We accomplished a lot on her first day. We went shopping in the artesan market, had a delicious lunch, went swimming and watched the sunset atop Sky Costanera. Lexie brought me all my Christmas presents, but as lame as it sounds, having my best friend and a familiar face in town has been the best gift of all.
^^ I want one!!!
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and a has a Happy New Year!
Lex and I have many plans this week, stay tuned for our adventures next week!
Laughable Moments:
In her cute little accent, my co-worker innocently asked me, “Kim, what is the meaning of LMFAO?”
I overheard my co-worker talking about going to dinner, she said “ but the terrace will be closed” but I heard “but the terrorist will be closed”
At work this week I pointed out that all of our lesson plans say “bubble speech” and it should be “speech bubble”. My co-workers were amazed! They said for their whole lives they thought it was bubble speech.
Before going to bed, I placed my water bottle on the nightstand, but I accidentally knocked it off. Like a movie, it landed face down and open, directly on top of my power outlet strip. The power then shorted in the whole apartment.
At Christmas dinner, we were talking about how Chileans like the facial structure of Americans. The mom said “I like Kim’s moose” while pointing to her nose. Flo then corrected her by saying, “its not her moose, its her noise!”
Benja and Fran bought me a loose fitting shirt for Christmas. Flo commented that it looked too big, but Benja corrected her by saying “its fluffy” (he meant loose!)
Flo kept telling me that we were going to Christmas Math instead of Christmas Mass
A friend asked me, "So, do you Americans know that we're celebrating the birth of Jesus today?" -they don't think very highly of us...
At church, they sang happy birthday at the end because apparently it was the priest's birthday, but I thought we were singing happy birthday to Jesus
My dress got stuck in the escalator and there was a small moment where I thought one of those movie-moments would happen where the escaltor sucks up my whole dress!
^^ Got your nose Snoops!!
^^Thats me on the far right!
^^ Off to Space, BBL!
^^ Just popping in to say hi!
^^Chillin'
^^ And its SEGA!
^^ They trained her well
^^ Who doesn't want undies that have 'stress' written on the butt?!
Happy New Year Everyone! Can't wait to see what 2016 brings!