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.
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
If you don't believe it, check out my status page. Woohoo!
A million thanks to Jen and the kids for not killing me, and even more thanks to them for actually going out of their way to give me time to write. They are currently shopping after having gone to a movie. The movie only got 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, so this surely is a sign of their love.
If any of you are wondering, no you can't read it. At least not yet. I haven't even read it yet. I just felt the need to brag.
Ellie and Ben helped a friend celebrate his 5th birthday last weekend, and in the process we were introduced to a great new park in the heart of Santiago!
In a circle starting from Ellie: Ellie, Julian (birthday boy and church/school friend), Ben, John (embassy kid), Nathan (Julian's brother), Riley (another brother), and Patrick (embassy kid)
Ben and Ellie learn the ropes.
The world's coolest swing--part rope swing, part teeter-totter.
No Chilean playground in a well-to-do neighborhood would be complete without a vendor hawking cheap toys. This is also an organ grinder.
Last week I got to participate in a Santiago Economic/Political Section tradition--the offsite. We headed out to the rarefied Errazuriz vineyard about 1 1/2 hours from Santiago for a serious discussion about the next year's goals and how the section is working, followed by fun: a tour of the vineyard, winetasting, and fabulous lunch.
It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
Mountains in the background at the vineyard.
Senior Econ Officer Sasha, Intern Jake, and Presidential Management Fellow Marianna in front of the Errazuriz estate.
Another view of the beautiful setting.
The E/Pol team (or at least most of us): Office Manager Anni, Desk Officer (based in DC) Leah, Me, Law Enforcement guru Patrick, Presidential Management Fellow Marianna, Senior Econ Officer Sasha, Section Chief Juan, Intern Jake, and Assistant Erica.
We invented a new bedtime game: Jammy Surprise. The kids go get themselves dressed in their pajamas all by themselves, while I try really hard to guess what pajamas they'll put on. Somehow, when they come to show me, I've always guessed wrong! They love fooling me and are eager to get themselves dressed.
All good things must come to an end, and apparently so must our school search. We've spent the last week visiting Nido, having Ellie examined at TIPS, making appointments for Santiago College, and today visiting St. George for one more interview.
As it turns out, the interview at St. George was about two things. First of all, they are a little concerned that Ellie doesn't really do the kiss on the cheek thing that is expected in Chilean culture, and she doesn't really like people she doesn't know hugging her, touching her head, etc. They said that we need to work on this with her because to a Chilean these things make her seem somewhat mean or hostile, or at least overly withdrawn.
The second thing they wanted to tell us was that this was particularly important, as they would like her to start Kindergarten there in March! Woohoo! All that work, mostly on Jen's part with a few small efforts from me, finally paid off! Her contacts called people, her doing Ellie's hair in pigtails, constant fretting about where she would get in, all of that has come to an offer which we have accepted.
Later in the day, we got a call from TIPS offering Ellie a position, and Nido has also accepted her, so we've now got three schools offering her spots. It is nice to have them, but we're committed to St. George. If we weren't committed, we would have dropped out of the process long ago. What a pain.
Now we just hope that it is as good as everybody says it is, if we wind up transferring her to Nido we'll sure feel like dopes.
We had a chat with Ben and Ellie a few nights ago about their futures, and Jen had the foresight near the beginning to grab the camera. This is a bit longer than many of our videos, but we hope it is worth it for you.
Ellie standing at the St. George main gate on the day of her interview.
Yes, I admit that we are looking for any possible advantage we can find, hence the adorable pig tails which Ellie usually resists.
We are in the midst of the Great School Soap Opera here in Chile.
A big part of the reason why we wanted to do one more overseas tour before heading back to the US, and why we wanted that tour to be in Latin America, was so the kids could get a strong foundation in Spanish. Sure, we don't speak Spanish at home, and we're not planning on getting a full-time nana (a typical way that gringo kids here pick up some Spanish) but surely in a country of 16 million people, 99.9% of whom speak Spanish, it shouldn't be that tough. And putting the kids in a high-quality Spanish language school should be easy. After all, Chile is known for its good education, the embassy is willing to pay big bucks for our kids' tuition (starting at kindergarten), and we have the cachet of being native English speaking diplomats. Who wouldn't let us in, right?
Wrong. Turns out that public schools here are pretty terrible, so our options are really limited to the relatively few private schools favored by the wealthy. In Chile, the private K-12 school that you go to is of the utmost importance. It's the basis for lifelong friends and networks. Chileans routinely list their elementary school on their CVs. And no wonder, the school that you attend speaks volumes about who you are. Far from embracing diversity as U.S. schools do, Chilean schools embrace very specific identities, and look for families--not just students--who fit those profiles. Each schools is associated with a particular social class, religious view, and political view, as well as being known for particular strengths (athletics, music, art, English, etc.)
Not only that, but schools can afford to be very choosy. There are about 4 applicants for every spot at the good schools. And it's very difficult to transfer in. Classes are formed pre-K, and almost no one transfers out, so it's almost impossible to transfer in. In fact, we've learned that Chileans who are transferred out of the country for work but plan to return after a few years will still pay tuition for those missing years at the school--which can be anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 a year per child--to keep a place for their children when they return. Plus, schools charge a very hefty one-time initial registration fee ($2,300 at St. George, $8,000 at the school most embassy parents use), so once parents have plopped down that money, they're unlikely to want to pay another school such a large amount so their kids can transfer in.
Almost all Embassy kids here go to Nido de Aguilas, which we toured yesterday. It's an absolutely beautiful facility (and at $15,000 per year, it ought to be) and if you want your Chilean child to learn English, that's the place to go. Nathan and I were amazed at how many signs were up insisting that the kids talk in English. It reminded of history lessons about how we beat Native American kids who spoke in their native tongue. Many of their teachers starting at grades 1 or 2 are Americans or other expats. The curriculum seems good, but even aside from the Spanish thing, it doesn't seem like a good fit for us. For one thing, Elena would be one of only 2-3 native English speakers in her class, and by their cutoff dates would be one of the oldest kids in the class. They told us that for her to start in July (they follow a more or less American calendar), she should know some of her letters and her numbers, so that by the following July (July 2010), after a year of instruction at Nido, she can count up to 50 and know some sight words. Well, she can already count up to 100, knows all her letters, writes her own name, and knows some sight words. Add to that that "Nido de Aguilas" means Eagle's Nest and makes Nathan and I think of Hitler's alpine hideout, and it just doesn't seem like a good fit.
So most Chilean private schools here are in two groups. One group--members of the Association of British Schools--really emphasizes learning English, and so nearly all of their instruction in the early years is in English. Which makes perfect sense for Chilean parents wanting to give their kids a heads up in a globalized world, but isn't going to help our kids learn Spanish.
The other group of private schools are the religious ones--by which here in Chile I mean Catholic. We're not Catholic, but we have no objection to the kids going to Catholic schools. After all, faith is important to us too and in the states lots of Protestant kids go to Catholic schools and it's no big deal. Not so in Chile. Here, politics is very polarized between a very conservative Catholic right--which many of the wealthy are part of--and a more or less secular left, hence Chile's openly agnostic Socialist president. (Who would have thought a year ago that I'd write the words "openly agnostic"? Doesn't seem like a phrase you would ever hear in the US. Somehow the comparison to "openly gay" in the U.S. seems to accurately convey just what a big deal that is here.)
So most of the Catholic schools here serve that very conservative Catholic base. To get in, it's not enough to just be a smart student and have parents who are willing to pay, you have to show that you fit their profile. We just about got laughed out of the first Catholic school we visited. We explained that we had heard good things about the school from friends and that it was close to our home, so we wanted to come in person to learn more. Who were these friends, the admissions officer wanted to know, and what school did they send their kids to?. And she made a point of deriding the location criteria, saying that choosing a school was about much more than location. She told us that in order to apply, we would need to present our marriage certificate to show that Nathan and I had been married in a religious ceremony (it went without saying that children of single or divorced parents need not apply) and to present Elena's baptism certificate. Seemed rather odd, but at least we had those things. But when she found out that we were American Protestants where the wife works and the husband stays home with the kids, she just about fell off her chair. This was not just a Catholic school, this was one identified with the Schoenstatt Catholic movement, a very conservative, Marianist "renewal" movement within the church. Not only were they not interested in accepting Protestants, they really weren't interested in accepting most Catholics--just their particular brand.
We get the same story from many other Catholic schools here, nearly all of which seem to be run by one conservative Catholic group or another--Opus Dei, Legion of Christ, or Schoenstatt. And not only do they not want us, I don't think we really want them either. If you don't like other types of Catholics, forget celebrating religious diversity enough to embrace us Protestants. And emphasizing traditional gender roles seems to be very big. Many of those schools are single-sex, and where they are mixed, boys and girls are in separate classrooms starting in first grade. Apparently one of the things girls are taught is how to knit. Nothing against knitting, but I think I'd rather have my daughter learn math.
We did find two schools that seemed like a good fit for us: St. George, a progressive, well-regarded, Spanish-language Catholic school, and Redland, the only school in the British Schools Association that teaches in Spanish. (The Jesuits also have two schools in Santiago which are also well-regarded progressive Catholic schools, but they are boys only.) We applied at both, thinking that surely we'd get in to one, and we were hoping for St. George, as it seems to have a great curriculum, we like the faith basis, and the students there are known for forming wonderful caring communities. Just what our gringo kids need in a Chilean world.
We've done everything we can to find out about the school (and I mean everything--had American teachers and a monk over for dinners, made contact with the one other American family there, found out which of my work contacts have kids there and who knows the priest who runs the place, etc. Happily, a lot of the folks we've met are really cool people we'll want to stay in touch with whether we get in or not.) After all this, and after applying more than a month ago, last week we endured an interview there. Ellie was interviewed two on one by the school psychologist and the kindergarten teacher, while Nathan and I filled out a "questionnaire" that was actually a 9 part essay exam that we had to fill out simultaneously and without talking with questions ranging from "Describe your child, including positive and negative traits" and "How do you deal with your child when they break family norms?" to "Describe your relationship with God", "Describe your activities of the past weekend" (coming, of course, after a weekend where I hosted a delegation of 8 members of Congress and 18 assorted hangers-on, and so we didn't go to church...), and "What meaning does the Eucharist have for you?". My personal favorite was "What happened last year in Aparecida, Brazil?" I'm hoping that we got a pass on that one, as gringo Protestants who shouldn't be expected to know about some Latin American Catholic bishops' conference that happened when we were living in Cambodia.
We just got a call yesterday from St. George and we (Nathan and I, I think--I need to clarify) have been invited to an interview. So I guess maybe we cleared the first hurdle, and we're on to the second. We've already had a lengthy conversation with the admissions director, written an essay about why we want to get it (on the application), had Ellie go through tests with the school psychologist and kindergarten teacher, and filled out our 9 part essay exams, so I can't imagine there is much more to know about us, but we'll come in and say it all again. Keep your fingers crossed!
Two weeks ago we decided we needed a fun family activity--particularly since the craziness of the Codel would seen be upon me and make me scarce from family activities for a while. We gave the kids a long list of choices of museums and other fun places to go--a list we would have killed for in Cambodia. They chose the one place they had already been--MIM (Museo Interactivo del Mirador). A little disappointing for the grown ups, but who can blame them? It's one cool place...
The fun starts outside with areas where you can run through lots of plastic tubing (perhaps more fun than it sounds).
Enormous bubbles are always a big hit.
We paused for a portrait inside the kaleidoscope.
And Mommy and Ellie made quite the impression here.
Finally, it was time for Ben and Ellie to take place in a construction workshop, where they put foam bricks on the outlines of a house under the guidance of a museum staff member, then made an earthquake and cleaned up the ruined house so it was ready for the next group.
For anyone who had any doubts, here is visual evidence that we all have a few screws loose...
Making scary faces...
...and silly faces
Ben has turned his art skills towards pseudo graffiti--clalk drawings on our black driveway gate.
Ben loves squirting himself with the spray bottle Mommy got from Grandma Phyllis
Ben and Ellie decided that they would become superheroes by decorating themselves with face paint. (Who said face paint was only for faces?) Before you ask--Yes, it looks like Ben drew a cross on his belly, and no, I don't know why.
Ellie and I played soccer yesterday in the back yard, but Ben decided it was a lot more fun to play with the goal than with the ball.
So...those of you who know us well know that Ellie's birthday was actually more than a month ago. Well, since we're still settling in to our house, it took us a while to actually plan and have her birthday party, and then a couple more weeks to get photos up. But here they are! And kudos to Nathan for being in charge of birthday party prep for the first time and pulling together a fun party that Ellie loved.
It was such a nice day that we started off the party playing outside. L to R: Ben, Asher (an Embassy kid), Elizabeth Tesman (from our church, with her son Julian barely visible behind her), and Ellie.
Later on, Ellie's friend Henry (an Embassy kid from school) was playing on our driveway. The blur seems to capture Henry well.
Then we played hide and seek. Here's Ellie hiding inside a play tunnel...
And Julian peeking out from under the dining room table.
Finally, the piece d'resistance, Ellie and her birthday cake. She choose the design--one of the least artistically involved ideas I found on line, which consisted of making a rainbow out of M&Ms and clouds out of marshmallows.
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.
