SDMoose: First days in Santiago

First off, we had to do the basic things like unpack all our bags and get our cell phones set up. The boys got used to their new rooms (have we said how thankful we are that we could just land at our friends apartment? Kids rooms all set up for kids). We walked to the closest place to get our phones set up the first day, the closest mall! It was a bit of a hot and long walk but once we got to the mall there was air conditioning. It was a bit confusing figuring out who and which store would be able to help us. Chris did a good job figuring it out. The store that finally did help us was very Chilean...in that one guy helped us at the counter, we paid the woman at the other counter, then another guy packed up our stuff and gave it to us at another counter. A similar store in the U.S. would have had one person doing all of these tasks. Chris says it is a way to cut down on shoplifting. It reminds me of when I was in China, and I think it's more of a way to create more jobs. That night Chris followed suggestions from our friend Paulina and got roasted chicken from down the street and a few items from the small food shop.

The second day we braved driving the car for the first time and finding the big grocery store. The streets around here are mostly one way. We figured out that the small arrows on the street signs tell us if it's one way or two way. And the line between traffic is double white if two way and just one white line if one way. Takes some getting used to. Also, they have a lot of speed bumps, even on bigger roads. You have to see the yellow BUMP sign and hope the bump still has yellow paint on it so you will see it! The big grocery store close to the apartment is about 1.5 miles away and is called Jumbo. It most certainly IS Jumbo! Not at all like our little Tesco in London. This store reminds me of a Meijer/Costco mix. We made our way through the store noting that the food items were not that different than home--except the eggs are not refrigerated and neither is the milk. It is hard to find good quality yogurt here, as it mostly has lots of sugar and gelatin in it. To buy bread from the bakery or fruit, you have to bag it and bring it to the spot in the store that labels it and puts a price on it. We made it through check out somehow, a few things were confusing, such as asking us if we wanted to give to your "quota" (? something like paying part of the bill today and putting the rest on the grocery credit, with interest).