Naive or Not?

I have a new story to tell and if you were to ask my husband his version would be completely different from mine, but that's the glory of having your own blog.

Pete was amazing today as he wanted to take me to an early birthday lunch. Lunch around here is equivalent to dinner in the states. There was this restaurant that we had visited a few months back that I was totally in love with the uni hors d' Ouvers. Therefore we made reservations and went to eat around 2:30 in the afternoon. As we walked in, the ambiance was amazing and the place was packed. Pete and I sat at a table in the middle and as we looked at our menu's we ordered two pisco sours (the local drink in Santiago). I knew I was in for an afternoon of delight when Pete ordered a bottle of wine along with an hors d' Ouver of Uni soaked in tigers milk and an array of ceviche. The seafood here is amazing and although there might be a day that I will get tired of it, I hope that's not in this decade or century. Along with the appetizers we order a huge Chilean Crab to split between the two of us

Our waiter was amazing from the start. He was attentive, kind hearted and very eager to please. He spoke to Pete about the best wines on the menu as well as the favorites of the house. When our hors d' Ouvers arrived we wanted to take photo's and to be kind I invited the waiter into the photo with us. The same thing occurred when the meal arrived and after a few minutes the waiter felt like family. Of course Pete had to translate most of what was being said, but I was very aware that he had told the waiter that it was my birthday week and that I didn't like chocolate. When I confronted Pete with this comment he played dumb and told me that I was translating incorrectly. Well I knew better and a few minutes later when the waiter came by to ask my name I knew I was in for a song. Dang it... I don't like "Happy Birthday song's at the table." Anyhow, Pete continued to play dumb and he even went as far as to state that early in the afternoon the guy had asked for his name too. Well the dessert came and so did my "Feliz Cumpleaños" in Spanish. After my cheeks transformed from pink from red I enjoyed an amazing dessert along with a coffee.

This is when the story gets interesting. The waiter comes up to give us the bill and I ask Pete to tell him how thankful I was for the meal and the dessert. A conversation pursues into our lives and the waiter tells us that he has two kids (a daughter 5 and a son 7) as well as informing us that he lived in Spain for eight years. Well this automatically creates a comrade with Pete as he also lived in Spain and he wants to know more about this man. They talk for while and then out of no where the man tells us that he wants us to be his daughters God Parents. Now obviously this is a compliment, however I don't take it seriously as God Parents are very special and you don't ask total strangers to be the God Parents of your youngest daughter. I ask Pete to return the compliment with an open invitation for them to visit the U.S.. I suggest that we would love to host their stay and show them around Arizona. Well, after some exchanging of email addresses and Face Book information we all kiss goodbye and leave. On the way out Pete shakes his head and tell me that I am a true "American", which translates in my world as naive.

I may or may not be naive (especially after a pisco sour and a half bottle of wine). Regardless we had a wonderful meal and we made friends with another Chilean. Now as far as I am concerned if he wants to bring his family to the U.S. I would be more than happy to put them up in our Phoenix house and show them around beautiful Arizona.

All and all it was a beautiful afternoon. Great company, amazing food and lots of fun! What else can a girl ask for?

Yan Kee Way

Thursday was a holiday in Chile, therefore Pete and I thought we would take advantage and travel down to the “Lakes District” in Southern Chile. We reserved a few nights stay at a place called Yan Kee Way. During the summer moths (November thru April) the place is the #1 fly fishing lodge. The winter months are the off season and as it turned out, Pete and I were the only two customers staying on the eights hectors’ worth of land.

Have you ever been to a place where you were the only two guests? Until yesterday, I can say that I hadn’t had the experience. It has been truly bizarre. When we walked into the restaurant the Chef and the Garson were waiting for us. They had set a candle lit table in front of the fireplace and as we were taking off our jackets Pete got into a conversation with the Chef. The Chef asked what we would like for dinner. Pete wanted to know what was seasonally fresh in the kitchen and the Chef told him about some mushrooms that were picked just that morning. The Chef said that they were local mushrooms picked at the base of the volcano and that they only grew during a certain month of the year. Pete said that he would be happy with whatever was made and the Chef quickly walked into the kitchen to start our dinner. A few minutes later the Chef came out and asked if we would like to see the mushrooms before he cooked them. He took us back into the kitchen to show us a huge bag of freshly picked mushrooms. The mushroom were strange, but even more intriguing was the huge kitchen that we were standing in the middle of. As we left and walked back to the dining room I told Pete that there were extra luxuries that went along with vacations during off seasons. Our dinner was wonderful, Pete ate a steak with a mushroom accompaniment and I had a mushroom soup. We enjoyed a few glasses of wine and then moseyed back to the room.

As we left the restaurant it was obvious that the weather had started to change. The wind was blowing and yet the air was warm. Before we made it back to our room the rain started to fall and it continued all through the night. I am sure that most of you have experience the raining of cats and dogs. Well last night I wouldn’t be over exaggerating if I said that it was essentially raining elephants all night long. I loved being in our room and hearing the rain and wind outside. Multiple times I woke to hear the rain falling and the wind blowing. It lulled me back to sleep with a smile on my face. When we finally woke, Pete wondered if Noah’s Arc would be waiting for us outside the front door. I agree that it was a viable option, yet when we opened the door all we saw was a wet front porch and another adventure ahead of us.

KABUM

Have you ever experience déjà vu but in an untraditional way? I think I did last night. Now mind you I have lived in Chile for ten months and we have a bi level flat. Separating our top and bottom level floors are eight wooden stairs. Everyday I walk up and down those stairs and there have been times when I have thought to myself, “I had better be careful. These are pretty slick.” Well déjà vu caught up to me last night and I crashed and burned.

I was upstairs watching a moving on my laptop. It was late and Pete was already in bed as he had an early morning meeting. The lights in the house were out to save precious resources and I needed to run downstairs to check my work computer to see if someone had responded to an email. I thought (as I passed the light switch) that it would be smart to turn on a light, but then I was already three steps ahead of myself and I figured that I would be downstairs before I knew it. Half way down the stairs my socks slipped and I was flying through the air. I knew I was going to crash and burn hard. As I landed a fresh though came into my mind, "Why don’t they make adult socks with those little suction cups on them?"

Lucky

I know that a I am a very lucky lady and tonight I was given the confirmation that I may or may not have needed. As I sat outside on my back porch playing a game of hearts on the computer and drinking a wonderful glass of wine, I heard trouble that really disturbed me. We live on the side of a mountain, per say, and the street outside of our flat is very steep. I love to walk it on a daily basis as it gives me a great cardio climb as well as starting me off with a strong heart beat. Often in the past I have heard vehicles outside the window or on the balcony that struggled with the grade of the hill that is in front of them. Tonight that same hill came into a strange perception for me.

I heard a vehicle trying multiple times to climb the hill. When I could finally see through the trees to view who was trying to reach the top, my heart sunk. On the side of the vehicle I saw the words ambulance/hazmat. I counted at least 6 tries before the vehicle hit the top of the hill and there were at least as many attempts before they made it into my sights. I can only wonder about the people in need and if those extra few minutes could have made a difference.

I don’t have the answers, I can only hope that it's never me on the other end waiting for that ambulance to climb the hill.

No Espanola/No English

I had another surreal experience in Chile। Our internet wasn’t working therefore Pete had to call the phone company to request assistance. As usual the service was unable to send anyone to the house for a few days therefore Pete was unsure of when they would actually arrive. Well of course they came while Pete was at work and as you all know my Spanish is truly limited to a few words. I was able to point to the computer and tell the tech person that it wasn’t working. He unplugged a few things, call the office and reset the service. As he was walking upstairs to phone in the completion of his visit I realized that the connection to my work link was lost. This was where all of my issues had begun a few days back and I ran up the stairs to tell him that I needed his assistance again.

Right then I realized that I had no way to communicate my problem effectively। I motioned for the guy to stay and quickly called Pete at work. Unfortunately, Pete was in a big meeting and was unable to talk. I begged him to stay on the phone long enough to explain the majority of the issue. Pete spoke briefly to the tech guy and then hung up the phone. I motioned for the guy to follow me back to my office and he asked me to restart my computer. As I did this the silence began to put me into a state of panic. What was I going to do? How was I going to show him that my connection was not working.

I absolutely hated the silence and as the sweat was starting to roll down my neck I came up with a bright idea. I opened up my home laptop and typed in Google Translate. I then typed out a message that was translated into Spanish so that the service tech could read it. He smiled at me a little funny and then typed a return message so that I could read it in English. It turns out that we communicated like this for about 45 minutes and by the time he left my connection was working again. Whew!

Hiking and Canopying

This past weekend went hiking in the mountains with some friends and we saw a few Condors as well an Eagles. After the hike we had a wonderful BBQ (yes we are always eating) but then we did something new. We went Canopying! For those of you that don't know what canopying is (I didn't until this weekend) it's actually a mellower form of a zip line. I am now addicted and can't wait to do it again.

We're Home (#2 that is)

Pete and I made it home safe and sound. The trip from North to South was fairly uneventful. Our biggest concern was Pete's carry on bag as he decided to bring his humidor from Phoenix to Chile. For those of you that haven't seen his humidor it is a beautiful (but huge) wooden box that barely fit in his carry on bag. I had made a friendly wager with mom that it wouldn't fit in the bulkhead above our seat and I have to be the first to admit that I was wrong. The bag fit and once we were seated we were on our way to Dallas. Arriving in Dallas was uneventful as Pete and I have both spent at least half a dozen lay overs in that airport and we only had a two hours to wait. This may seem like a ton of time but in reality it isn't. I did get the opportunity to visit the admirals club (since we were flying on Pete's package and going business class). The club was nice but not as nice as when I had arrived from a 10 hour overnight flight and was getting ready to jump on another flight to Baltimore. That time I actually took advantage of the showers and it was the nicest thing since the creation of Velcro.

I had been excited to fly business class on the way home not only for the comfort but because I would be sitting next to Pete. I had imagined eating a nice dinner, watching a movie and having a wonderful conversation as the miles between North and South America flew away. Unfortunately this didn't happen as my lovely husband was exhausted from the weeks of vacation and fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane. He even choose to forgo his dinner and dessert. I on the other hand was wide awake and after a nice dinner, movie, and dessert I noticed many of the other passengers were nodding off to sleep. I wasn't sleepy therefore I put on a good book and listened for a few more hours. By the time I actually fell asleep the sun was starting to rise in South America and breakfast was being prepared by the stewardess. All and all I believe that I ended up with a few hours of sleep which in turn plagued me with some intense jet lag later in the day. Fortunately this wasn't too big of a deal as we had the weekend to acclimate.

Well as you can see I am back to my usual goofy blogs. I hope they bring you a bit of entertainment.