Ellie Performing for Your Pleasure

This is the season of Christmas programs, and also of end-of-year festivities at schools around Chile. We have a few videos, first from the end of year program at the kids' school, and then from our Church's Christmas program. All are relatively short. Ben doesn't appear in any of the videos because he has issues with participating in such things. He refuses to attend Sunday School, thus isn't in the church program. The preschool program started at 7:30pm, and since he had refused a nap that day he fell asleep before it even started.

Ellie and friends John, Henry and Julian do a traditional American dance


All the kids in the big finale. They all had interesting costumes,
some from their home countries, some not. And yes, the child
with the big hair and animal skins is in blackface. Chile isn't quite
as progressive as the US in terms of race issues.

This is only a small part of the full program, but it was the
only part that Ellie was in. I apologize for the occasional
crazy swings of the camera, but Ben was trying to make
his presence felt as well.

La Bicicleta Verde

I took the Friday after Thanksgiving off and told Nathan to prepare for a morning date involving moderate physical activity. His surprise was that we took a bike tour of the city courtesy of a company called La Bicicleta Verde (The Green Bicycle). This one focused on the bohemian Bellavista neighborhood, some of the main markets in town, and the Plaza de Armas (main town square).

We had a great time and learned about the city, though I think my estimate of "moderate physical activity" was a bit generous. The company offers other tours, and in fact we plan to go on their afternoon "Parks and Politics" tour with Nathan's parents when they come to visit for Christmas.

Jen enjoying the tour

La Vega Central Market--home to the freshest fruits and vegetables in Santiago.

Nathan and our tour guide chatting at the Plaza de Armas.

Old meets new--Santiago's cathedral juxtaposed with a modern office building.

A Lot to Be Thankful For

We hosted a fabulous Thanksgiving a few weeks back, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, Jen's famous cornbread stuffing, a fabulous asparagus dish (hey, it was spring here!), canned cranberry sauce (sadly, no fresh or frozen cranberries to make homemade cranberry chutney), and a homemade lucuma pie. No pumpkins in Chile, so we improvised with this Peruvian fruit, which yielded a pie which was similar to pumpkin, but not really the same.

We invited several of my colleagues who wouldn't have celebrated Thanksgiving otherwise. One family had to cancel at the last minute due to some urgent bullying issues at school that they had to deal with, but we were very happy to host our secretary, Anni, who is Finnish-born and doesn't normally go to the trouble of making Thanksgiving for herself and her daughter Iida, and our Economic/Political Assistant, Erica, an American married to a lovely Chilean named Nico who had never experienced Thanksgiving before.

Anni, Iida, Nathan, Jen, Ben, Ellie, Erica, and Nico