Its Been Awhile. . . .

Its alomst been a month, and we are still getting settled in. We have learned a few things-

We know whats its like to be foreingers, and it is tough!!

Barack Obama is a world icon. People shout his name out to us as soon as they know we are american (which is usually immedialty being blond haired and blue eyed!)
Living down here has been an eye opener, to see how the rest of the world watches the US. We talk more politics here than I think either of us ever have.

We didnt realize how much our life depended on electronics. To have no phone, cell phone, internet, or tv, has been challenging! (But we are making freinds at the internet cafes!)

This weekend we will reconnect with the US by watching LOST and watching the SUPERBOWL! Go Cardinals. We are pretty freakin excited! We will miss hot wings, chips and dip, and all the traditional superbowl party food! (For example, your delicous BBQ pork last year Diana!) However, we are excited to root for our carndials 5000+ miles away with our amigos chilenos!

Concha y Toro

We visited the most popular viña de Chile- Concha y Toro. It was a very touristy spot and pretty over priced for what it was. The wine itself was inexpensive at only $6 a bottle. It made us want to tour other smaller wineries in the area- there are a lot! You can´t find a bottle of wine in the store that is not Chilean. We´re not complaing though, they are all delicious. Below are some pictures from the tour...

Things we miss

One thing that we really miss about the states is coffee. Real, genuine brewed coffee! We finally broke down and went to one of the starbucks here and is was sooo good! We forgot what real coffee tasted like. Apparently though, Im the only Jessica in all of South America.


Next, we miss anything in English. We went to see Si Senor (or Yes Man) in English! It still had spanish subtitles but it was amazing- we bought a Pepsi and had the american experience. Kinda weird though because at times, we were the first to laugh, or the only ones to laugh because of the mis-translation.

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Cerro San Cristobol

On Saturady, we did toursit stuff. We visited Cerro San Cristoball which is the biggest mountain in the middle of the city. It is a huge parque where you take a cable car to the top and there is a huge statue of la Virgin Maria. You can also look out at the whole city. On a clear day, you can see the Andes in all directions. Unfortuantely, there was a lot of pollution, so you could vaguely see the mountains in the distance. We rode the finicular to the top, and walked back down- after getting lost... twice.

Comida

Food. This post is in response to you aunt Jill and everyone else who is curious about what we eat here. Every day we eat a small breakast, usually of bread, fruit and cafe instante. They eat a lot of fruit here. Lunch is the biggest meal. We usually have a salad, a main dish and dessert, which is almost always fruit. For onces, which is a light dinner, we have something small, like a sandwich. For dinner, we have another snack. We eat tons of avoados here as well.

Saturday, we went out to the trendy artsy district called Bella Vista and ate at a popular restaurant here called Como agua para chocolate. It was delicious. We had ceviche (it was so delicious that we forgot to take a picture until it was almost gone. Below is what was left) and delicous Pisco Sours (The most populat drink- think Maragirta, but better and stronger!) Our main dish was a fillet with mushrooms, onions and a rica vino tinto salsa on a delicious bed of potonos negros.

Espanol, Espanol y mas Espanol

Since we´ve arrived, there has been no break from espanol. It´s spanish all day and all night. If we want something, we have to flip the switch and try and speak. The spanish here is very different than la espanol mexicana we once knew. But I think we´re starting to get the hang of it. We start every day with a delicious breakfast-compliments of abuela, and head off to school around 9:30. We take 2 buses to get to school but it runs smoothly as their public transportation is amazing. The school is located in an upscale area by the business district. It´s a beautiful neighborhood with lots of trees and classic buildings. Below are pictures of when we flew over the 20000 foot Andes (Santiago sits at the bottom of these mountains), our room, one of the many parks where we like to study and a typical jugo de pina customario a Chile.

La Provendicia de Chile

Hola familia y amigos! We arrived safely to our host famlys house sin problemas.  They are a wonderful couple who has taken us in and even given us our own casita in the back.  At this moment they are filling up their pool for us to swim in,  as it is summer here and quite warm! We have taken lots of pictures and will try to post them from school this week.  

In the meantime, for those of you who thought were going to a distant country lacking many things, here are some thoughts 

1.  Ederly people here navagate the web like nobodys business

2. There is a Starbucks on every corner.  

3. Where there is not Starbucks, there is burger king, mcdonalds or KFC.

4.  The Wii is very popular and wii fit is in stock.

5.  Pulic transportation is easy, cheap and safe.

More to come later.  Hasta pronto

All packed

Well... it's finally here. After all the planning, frustration, tears, and more planning, we're hoppin' on a plane soon and flying 5300+ miles to begin our South American excursion. Thanks to our friends the Hills we have two sweet travel packs (we promise we'll take care of them) to bring. We'd like to emphasize, that the picture you're seeing below, is of all our valued possessions for 3 months (yes, 3 months Stievos, take notes). We'll be getting settles con nuestras abuelos en Chile this weekend. More updates to come when we start school next week (as long as there is internet access like promised!) Stay tuned.