School time!

First, in response to Laura's question, yes, we went to see Harry Potter 7.2. It premiered here the same weekend as it did in the U.S. Strangely enough, we might have been able to see it before y'all in the states: they had a "pre-premiere" on Wednesday night and then showings all day Thursday and Friday. The theater was a bit mad, we got there an hour early (even after they had had at least 12 showings in the same mall) to stand in line, and then had to rush to find seats. It was a bit reminiscent of the Beanie Baby days when we would stand outside of Hallmark with mom and then rush in to grab one of each kind... In any case, I agree with the many fb'ers who deemed it cathartic. I had a few complaints, but was moved to tears more than once and enjoyed the experience overall. I also enjoyed Daniel Radcliffe's interview on the Daily Show; if you haven't seen it you should look it up.

So we said a few times (to ourselves and also to dad) that today we are going to register April for school. We finally got it done on Monday. She had a nice interview with the principal who was super understanding, spoke slowly, and only asked easy questions. A few lucky things happened: #1, it turns out that the school is actually co-ed and April gets to have boy classmates! #2, they only made us pay half of the matriculation fee because she is only going to be here for half of the year. #3, the secretary that we were working with has a daughter in the same class as April. She gave us her daughter's number and we arranged a time to go uniform shopping.

Today was our arranged shopping date. When we met at the school, the secretary had a few used uniform pieces for April to try, enabling us to acquire two skirts, two coats and a parka for half price. The daughter, Cony, was a really awesome kid, she walked us to the uniform store and was a huge help. Neither of the Rasmussen sisters have ever gone to a school where uniforms are required, and it took a while for us to wrap our heads around the rules. There are two types of shirts that are exactly the same kind of cut, but of different fabrics. The "sport" shirts are only allowed during P.E., which is only once a week and you are required to change shirts after. The exception is during the winter when the students are allowed to wear sport clothes because of the cold; Cony also conceded that they probably wouldn't say anything to April since she's only here for a short time and shouldn't have to buy a ton of clothes. For bottoms during P.E. you can either wear loose shorts that work with or without leggings or tight shorts that don't work with leggings. The tight shorts are more versatile because you can (and are basically required to) wear them under a skirt or sports pants, but Cony doesn't like to wear them in P.E. because she feels like they show too much. The sports pants for some reason are not allowed in P.E. During the winter, most of the girls wear the sports pants with layers underneath, but we decided to only get one pair of pants, so Cony suggested we also invest in thick pantyhose and long socks in case the pants are ever dirty. The more-formal-fabric shirts come in long- or short-sleeves, but Cony said she only owns short sleeves: if it's super cold she will wear a non-uniform shirt underneath with the uniform coat over everything so no one sees the non-regulation clothing. Of the two used coats, one is exclusively for P.E. and the other can be used for P.E. or every day use. All the students are required to have white shoes for P.E. and black "school" shoes for every day. I'm going to lend April my white Pumas, but we have to go to a magical school shoes store to get those. I hope the friendly readers are just as confused as I was. All of this explanation was happening in a Spanish whirlwind around April as she was trying to find the correct sizes of everthing in the changing room; I think it was a bit overwhelming. In the end, I think we figured out all of the things we need and April is just about ready for the first day of school next Monday. Cony even offerred to sit next to her in class. :)

We were starved by the time we got back to Maria's, and shortly after we arrived we all ate a cazuela together. Cazuela is a typical Chilean dish for the cold months. It is like a chicken soup for lazy cooks; I once heard that in Japanese cuisine all of the prepared food should be bite-size, but this seems to have to opposite objective. In a big bowl of broth one usually finds a whole potato and an entire chicken thigh, Maria's version has shredded carrot, a hunk of sweet zuchinni, and rice; I've also seen it with whole chunks of corn on the cob. It's a novelty to cut your soup as you're eating it, but I really shouldn't say that cookers of cazuela are lazy chefs, Maria's is really delicious and my chicken soup, even with the chicken pre-cut, never tastes so good. April left the table after tea to hibernate for a while and Maria and I were left talking. She's a really, really great mother figure, and we talked a lot about our lives, sharing details that allowed us to understand each other just a little better. Again, I have to say that April and I are very lucky. In Chile we have found wonderful friends and an excellent family community.

P.S. Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. The sport that April's school offers for girls is competitive cheerleading. I think she should do it: it would be a memorable experience and she could make friends. If you talk to her, you should try to convince her.

Bauzá and Barricades

It has really been a crazy week here. It's hard to know where to begin. First, I guess I'll give an update on the dog. Who knew transporting pets internationally would be such a headache? Actually, I'm pretty sure that that is just common sense - moving with pets anywhere is a hassle, and when you throw in more than 20 hours of flight, three international airports and customs in multiple countries, hassle is an understatement.

Do y'all remember the volcano that exploded in Southern Chile a few weeks ago? The ash thankfully didn't affect Chile, but did travel to the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires. Our plan was to send puppin via Contintental Air PDX to Houston to Buenos Aires. A friend of a friend had agreed to help us in Argentina and transfer the dog from Continental to LAN Airlines for his flight to Santiago. The first problem was the cenizas (ash). His flight to B.A. was cancelled three times and he had to stay in a kennel in Houston. I was told that he was well cared for, but I had only left him with 2 days of "just in case!" food. When he finally got to B.A., our friend had a ton of trouble getting him through customs because his paperwork didn't thoroughly demonstrate that he was in transit. As a penalty we had to pay a ton of fees to import him to Argentina so he could pass through the terminal to the other airline. LAN Airlines was a no-go, so our friend found a flight on Gol, a Brazilian airline. This whole process took a number of days, but he was finally set to arrive Tuesday night, almost a week after we had left him at PDX.

Manuel and I drove to Santiago at 1am to meet him only to find out that this flight had been cancelled as well. The cargo people told us there was fog in Buenos Aires. We are now holding a bit of a grudge against the Ezeiza airport... We did, however, meet a very nice lady at the Santiago cargo office who gave us her number so we could call and confirm the next night. His flight was on time on Wednesday night and we picked him up Thursday morning, skinny, smelly, and shivering, after spending a few hours with the (extremely helpful and arguably much more efficient than in Argentina) Chilean customs offices. So Bauzá had quite an adventure, but he is here now and happy. He had three dinners last night, and two breakfasts and a lunch today, so hopefully he'll fatten up soon.

During this whole ordeal, we went on living in Viña. Tuesday night April came over to help me get through the stress of my dog-in-peril while Manuel was at work. She watched the fútbol game (and commentated it for me) as I continued to clean the apartment. [Side note: Manuel has sooo much clothing and a million pairs of shoes. My stuff takes up about a quarter of the closet. I'm helping him minimize, though.] After the game she told me gently to stop being so boring and leave the house. We went to a local café where April got to experience the wonder of street sushi. We chatted with the sushi vendor about our banana bread business and she told us that we probably don't need a permit - so long as we keep moving around and don't loiter. After she left, a girl at a neighboring table turned around to quiz us about where we're from. It took us a while to communicate that April is here to study.

The girl was a University student, and admittedly middle class. She explained to us about the student protests we had been seeing in the city. According to the protesters, and this girl, Chile has one of the most unequal education systems in the world. All of the middle class families pay a lot to go to municipal schools and the rich families pay even more to go to (excellent) private schools. The poor families are stuck sending their kids to the very poor quality public schools. As an example of the quality disparity, of the 100 best schools in Chile, only 5 are public schools. The public schools are now on strike and the students are demonstrating almost every day.

[Mom, don't read this next part:]

Manuel's mom advised April not to go to Valparaíso alone for fear of the protesters; luckily she doesn't have a reason to go there. The news has been sorta crazy, too. On Tuesday after the game, Chileans celebrated in Plaza Italia in Santiago. The celebrations got out of hand with people throwing rocks and ended in apparent police brutality. It reminds us of the civil rights movement, but maybe should be taken with a grain of salt; (as Jon Steward reminds us) the news tends toward sensationalism. We heard a story of a reporter who was jailed for taking incriminating photos of policemen that suggested that they were the first to throw rocks and incite violence. They have also been covering the story of a youth who started a fire in his school as a protest act and ended up with burns on 54% of his body.

[Mom, still don't read:]

We were on our way to Santiago, already shaken up about the dog drama, when we witnessed a crazy car accident. We were behind a Hyundai in the left lane and there were two semi trucks in the right lane. As the Hyundai, at high speed, was about to pass the semi, the truck driver put on his blinker and moved into the left lane. The Hyundai screeched his brakes, but wound up trapped between the truck and the center barrier. It was like slow motion as we watched the truck (that we noticed had an Argentine license plate, Argentinos culiados) press the car further into the barrier and drag it along a few hundred meters. Por suerte (luckily), Manuel is an excellent driver and slowed down at the first sign of danger. We easily went around the accident and, afterchecking that the Hyundai driver was okay, continued on our way. After counting our blessings, only a few more kilometers down the road we saw fire on the highway on the other side of the barrier. It only took Manuel a few seconds to identify the burning garbage and tires as a barricade - a classic tool in the Chilean protest repertoire, as I know from my Sociological research. The barricade was most likely related to the student protests, but it was cleared up by the time we were on our way back with the dog. It was a really crazy drive to say the least, and we are so lucky to have avoided both problems.

[Okay mom, you can start reading again:]

The dog has been sleeping a lot to recuperate, and we stayed home on Thursday, selfishly leaving April in the dark about where we were. Today is April Day, we got all of her papers printed out and are currently eating lunch - lasagna, Manuel is a master chef, and in Chile lunch is the big meal - before taking sister to enroll in Catholic girls' school! Wish her luck in her interview! Puppin was walking downtown with us and he is fascinated by the pigeons. I can't decide if he was a man in his past life or a cat... Walking down the street I'm quite content with my Chilean life; I finally have my dog, my sister and my man at my side.

Las Hermanas Rasmussen

My sister and I had our fourth day in Chile today. This time is a bit different for me than study abroad and my winter vacation. I'm working on actively moving my things in, and I have my sewing machine. I feel almost like a pro in Viña, but unfortunately that means that I'm not as curious and go-get-'em as April is.

I told April we could meet around noon to explore today, but I still wasn't really awake when she Skyped me at 11:45. "Do you want me to walk there?" she asked. "I'm feeling restless again." It was a good enough plan and gave me time to get dressed, even if I didn't actually use the time to put on street clothes. Surprisingly, the concierges stopped her from getting on the elevator. She wasn't exactly sure what they were asking her, so she called me again. "They won't let me up." When I told the concierge that she's my sister, he responded with a tone of realization, "Ahh, yeah. She looks like it."

I fed April a sopaipilla - essentially fried dough, the closest thing I can think of is a Mexican tostada, but they are much softer - and gave her tea, a thing she remarked made me seem like a Chilean mother. Our quehaceres (to-dos) for the day included 1) buying a cell phone and 2) a hair dryer, 3) riding the micro, and 4) checking out the artesan center.

We got a super good deal on the phone and found a cheap hairdryer... still it hurt a little to spend so many bills in such a short time. We actually ended up going into two artesan centers. As always, I love the sort of stuff they have in them. I spoke briefly with a lady who crochets, and also had a nice conversation with a metalworker. He suggested a Chilean movie for me and I complimented his work. The necklace I liked only cost $6, but April is a really good influence on me; I didn't spend the money. Instead we splurged on some honey-roasted peanuts, arguably a necessary cultural experience.

April has been getting along pretty well with her host family, who is also conveniently Manuel's family. We've been eating lunch there together - Manuel, April and I with Manuel's mom, Maria, and his brother, Pato. In this manner April has been tasting a lot of extremely well-prepared Chilean food and I've been able to spend a lot of time with everyone.

I think I should also mention the barbecue we went to on Friday. I'm not sure how I got the impression that we were going to have an asado at Diego's house as a sort of welcome party for us, but I was wrong. The asado was put together in order to watch the Chile vs. Uruguay fútbol game. We weren't too disappointed: fútbol is more important than a lot of things here, and we got to eat Manuel's famous steak anyway. April got to meet everyone, we reminisced a bit about last year with the other gringos, and of course I had a few piscolas.

Really the only thing that is missing now is Bauzá. Because of the volcanic ash over Buenos Aires, Continental cancelled his flight a few times. He is now in Buenos Aires, and we're waiting for a friend to help us send him here. Hopefully he'll be here tomorrow! It's going to be a busy week: we have to pick him up in Santiago tomorrow, and on Tuesday and Wednesday we'll be getting April ready for school. It's amusing to think that she'll be going to a Catholic girls' school, but I think she'll make friends quickly and be too busy for me soon enough. Hopefully the summer comes quickly, it's almost too cold to do anything here! Despite the cold, we're so happy to finally be in Chile.