Monday, January 30, 2017
Street Art
Sunday, January 29, 2017
School visit
Isaac and Max are going to Montessori school in the foothills when school starts in March. We applied last year in the spring to get them in. Our friends' children go here and highly recommend it. The school wanted to meet the boys and administer some "tests" in math and english. We drove there our first week and the English teacher met us to administer the exams and show them around the school. They sent Chris and I away for a couple hours, so we found a market nearby to buy frutas y verduras.
The next week we went back again for the "parent interview" with the director. Thankfully he speaks English well and it was a fairly informal meeting. He showed us around and connected us with the people who could tell us about uniforms, payment, and class selection.
After we visited the school we found a spot for lunch. We were looking for a stand for "completos" (hot dogs with everything on them), but didn't have any luck finding someplace and there wasn't any parking to be found to look around. We drove around awhile and food a spot to park near a cafeteria that was serving almuerzo, a set lunch. Looked like mostly workers came here for lunch. It was a big meal and cheap. Boys got lasagna and Chris and I got pork chops and salad.
After lunch we found "Granjadventura", which was close by. It is an adventure farm with lots of goats (cabras), sheep (ovejos), un vaca, un cedro, and lots of climbing in tree forts. It was pretty hot there and fortunately there was some water boys could play in to keep us cool.
That night we got home and walked to Plaza Ñuñoa to get a drink and dinner. First Pisco Sours of the trip! And tried out a good sandwich place--unfortunately boys thought the hot sauce bottle was ketchup. Ooopss!
 |
| Drive to the school |
 |
| At the feria (market) |
 |
| New school! |
 |
| New school Epullay! |
The next week we went back again for the "parent interview" with the director. Thankfully he speaks English well and it was a fairly informal meeting. He showed us around and connected us with the people who could tell us about uniforms, payment, and class selection.
 |
| Assembly space/theater |
 |
| Checking out the school fish |
 |
| Fish watching with the director |
 |
| More of the school |
 |
| Fotball pitch! |
 |
| Looking up to the mountains from the schoolyard |
 |
| Play court |
 |
| Play space |
After we visited the school we found a spot for lunch. We were looking for a stand for "completos" (hot dogs with everything on them), but didn't have any luck finding someplace and there wasn't any parking to be found to look around. We drove around awhile and food a spot to park near a cafeteria that was serving almuerzo, a set lunch. Looked like mostly workers came here for lunch. It was a big meal and cheap. Boys got lasagna and Chris and I got pork chops and salad.
 |
| Big lunch! Working man's lunch |
 |
| Add caption |
After lunch we found "Granjadventura", which was close by. It is an adventure farm with lots of goats (cabras), sheep (ovejos), un vaca, un cedro, and lots of climbing in tree forts. It was pretty hot there and fortunately there was some water boys could play in to keep us cool.
 |
| random dog petting at the market |
 |
| feeding cabras |
 |
| feeding cabras |
 |
| Finding some water |
 |
| Cabras |
 |
| Isaac milks a goat |
 |
| Cedro grande |
That night we got home and walked to Plaza Ñuñoa to get a drink and dinner. First Pisco Sours of the trip! And tried out a good sandwich place--unfortunately boys thought the hot sauce bottle was ketchup. Ooopss!
 |
| pisco sours |
 |
| boys reading |
 |
| menu |
 |
| chris got the grande |
 |
| yum!!! |
 |
| fuente suiza |
 |
| park workout machines |
 |
| playground at plaza nunoa |
 |
| magic show |
Getting R.U.T numbers
Another big task was getting our government RUT #s (like a SS#). This number is needed for everything here in Chile, so it's important to get it! Fortunately we had assistance from the woman in Chris' department or we never would have made it through the system. We figured out how to get Metro cards and take the metro for the first time that day so we could meet her. Thankfully our friend told us children are free on the busses and Metro, I couldn't find information about that anywhere! We got to our meeting place early and took a quick walk around central Santiago. We saw presidential palace and some marching military (sort of like changing of the guards!). We met Carina at 8:30 at a Metro stop and we got to the building for our RUT cards in downtown Santiago at about 8:45 am and the line was down the block. Carina knew that you could get preferential #s if you had children with you, so we fortunately were able to jump up in line. It was a confusing process of paying for one thing in one line, getting in another to have them do the initial processing, take photos, give you official paperwork, and then walking about 30 minutes across town to another building and waiting in more lines to have them give you the official #'s IF you have all your paperwork in order. Thankfully she knew what we needed, stopped to get photo copies, and got our papers in order. Phew. So relieved to have that done. Felt awful for all of those that wait hours and hours to get through that system.
Boys and I successfully navigated taking the bus home from our location. Chris took Metro to the University. Busses here are fine, but more graffiti and more bare bones than the fancy red double decker busses in London. Thankful I have google maps on my phone to follow the journey because they don't have anything telling you what stops are coming up next.
 |
| palace guards (with random street dogs) |
 |
| Presidential palace |
 |
| Palace |
 |
| Chilean flag |
 |
| Military marching band |
 |
| Riding bus home |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)