Chicken On The Nightstand

Chicken On The Nightstand- this is a new concept to me as a gringa. I’m told in Chile that there are hotels or hotel-ish places that will allow you to rent the room for a few hours. These places are for you to take your significant (or not so significant) other to during the afternoon for some “private time” along with providing a hot lunch (hehehe) which is where the chicken on the nightstand comes in (no pun intended). I guess these are open for more than just the afternoon but the chicken on the nightstand is the afternoon/lunch bonus.

To my knowledge these types of places are not available in the US. I know they exist in Chile and Colombia and I think I remember seeing a show about these in Japan. At first I thought that the reason they don’t exist here is just because we are too conservative but talking to a friend it dawned on me the other day. The reason is probably because of the whole living with mommy and daddy until the last minute possible when your spouse rips you away (yes, I’m exaggerating about the ripping away but this is still a foreign concept to gringo(a)s so I joke). I guess there are not a lot of chicken on the nightstand opportunities if living at home in a city in a city-sized dwelling with mom and dad and nana so you need places like this.

I know there are different levels of these ranging from the not-so-nice to very nice but I think no matter how nice the place is I would not get over the heebie jeebies knowing what goes on . I know it is the same thing with any hotel room you are in but I try to block it out and knowing these places have one specific purpose would bother me in terms of cleanliness.

Do these exist everywhere in South America? Where does the magical line stop between before getting to the US? Do these exist outside of South America and Japan?

This is totally unrelated but gringas reading might appreciate this. It will also put you on the bleeding edge of the latest pop culture in the US. If you are Chilean you probably won’t find the humor in this so my apologies in advance. This guy was on American Idol last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLc64JGbDE

I'm Chilly...No, Actually I'm Freezing

I've been a very bad blogger lately...my apologies. Happy New Year to all!

I sit here frozen but very excited about going to Chile next month. Thinking about being in Chile at the beach warms my soul even as I sit here and look out the window at this:

A Chileno and a Mono (my son E) and this also help to keep me warm in the 10 degree weather...

I promise to write a post with some more substance to it but just wanted to say hello again and Happy 2010!!

Chilean Education for Kindergarten Gringos

This week S and I are going to do a presentation of Chile to Kindergartners at our son's school as they are having a "Holidays Around the World" week. We are trying to come up with good material for them. The teacher realizes that Christmas in Chile is not that much different that Christmas in the US but wants the kids to learn about Chile in general.

We are supposed to take a food to share. We attempted to make empolvados today. I'm going to go off on a tangent here for a minute. This is my SECOND attempt at a recipe from a Chilean cookbook. The last time I tried it the recipe given was totally incorrect. I blamed it on translation errors but this time it was from a cookbook from Chile in Spanish and still incorrect!?!?! I am starting to wonder if the Chileans are sort of like some of the women from southern US who will give you the recipe for something but leave an ingredient out on purpose. We ended up having to experiment with the recipe and triple the flour/sugar/baking soda we were using. Anyway...this was my first time trying empolvados and while I thought they were pretty good wondering if they are not so great for the kids because sometimes the corn meal can be dry and hard to swallow. My backup plan unless I can come up with anything better is empanadas but apparantly just about every country has their own version of an empanada. Our son's teacher is from Sri Lanka and even they have something very similar there. Maybe I can just cut up a few Hot Pockets (just kidding). I'll share those while educating them that finders keepers, losers weepers is an ok philosophy.

I think we will also print out some Chilean flags for them to color. S is going to start working on the presentation for them tomorrow. This reminded me of a friend from Colombia who said that he was talking to some kids in elementary school in the US about Colombia. One of the kids asked "do you have colors in Colombia?" They weren't asking about crayons...the kid thought that everything was in black and white in Colombia. Not sure if he had seen some films from there in black and white or what but I thought this was really funny. When S was an exchange student he was asked if they have TVs in the jungle in Chile.

I'm trying to think of some cool ideas for the Kindergartners to teach them about Chile. If anyone has any ideas for this (including food items) please let me know. Gracias!

Chileans Say the Darndest Things

In Florida there is a small women's clothing botique shop across from where my dad lives that is owned by a husband and wife. They have become good friends with my dad and his girlfriend and everytime I am there I shop at the store and always find cool stuff and they give me great deals on it. They are really nice people.

I took the in-laws there to shop. I introduced everyone and at some point in the conversation the husband shopowner said that he needed to lose some weight. He is not totally overweight but a typical slightly plump gringo. Anyway, he asked my father in law what he did for a living to which he replied in english "I'm a doctor and specialize in helping fat people like you lose weight". I think my jaw dropped and the shop owner was stunned. I was really embarrased and had no idea what to say. I tried to play it off by reminding him that he mentioned being overweight earlier and that the father in law jokes like that. At least the part that he helps people lose weight is true as Vivi Kreutzberger just recommended him to people trying to lose weight but he could have left the "like you" part out. It was very uncomfortable.

This has sparked a conversation between S and I about the differences in how Chileans and Gringos perceive comments like that. Apparantly it's no big thing with the Chileans and it doesn't hold much value. Say that to a Gringo and it's a totally different story and we take it really personally. For the Chileans it is like a fact is stated but there is no emotion behind it. There is no way for something like that to have no emotion for a Gringo. I can't comprehend a comment like that having no emotion.

Another example is that his step mom calls his dad "Gordo". I can't imagine saying to S "Let's go fatty" and referring to him as "fatty" all the time never using his name. I've never heard S's mom call him by his name. It's always "Chancho" and he calls her "Vieja" in return. I guess it is all in the family so it's not as bad as the example above but still different.

I know that gringas in Chile have posted on this topic. Does one get used to this after living in Chile and take it with no emotion? If someone made a comment to me like that I don't think I could take it without emotion and I would react with emotion right back at them.

Queso Cheese

I am a little late blogging about this since we have been back for a while but better late than never. S and I had a wonderful time in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. His father in step mom were wonderful and we have a GREAT time with them. They even really bonded with my/our 5 year old who they met for the first time. Ft. Lauderdale/Miami totally exceeded their expectations but still their favorite thing was our 5 year old. They have grandchildren but he really sparked a special place in their heart and this was very special for me because he is not a biological grandchild of theirs and on top of that they are still getting to know me (have only met me 3 times). They were playing with him, hugging him, kissing him, and he really took to them too. At first I was worried because in true Latino style his gringo personal space was invaded right away. On the ride back from the airport right after picking them up they were in the back seat with him in the middle the questions firing right away and being very "close" to him. The next morning by the end of breakfast he was totally at ease. It was very cool.

Also during this trip I got to go out with my friend from high school who is now a "plus sized" model based out of Miami. I say that in quotes because apparantly a plus sized model means a size 6 or larger. She is not in any way plus sized but she is also not anorexic. Anyway....we had a fabulous time. We met for lunch at Bal Harbor shops which have only stores like Valentino, Chanel, and Harry Winston...there are no Gap stores or Foot Locker. This is an area where all the Europeans who look like they stepped off their private jets come to eat apparantly. It was fun to people watch. She gets invited to things in Miami daily and so we went out a few nights and she was able to show us some fabulous places. S's parents were blown away by the Miami lifestyle. They only got a small taste for middle USA until we took them to Wal Mart (which S and I skipped out on an invite from my friend for a private party at the Ferrari Maserati shop that was catered by Mr. Chow's as we got lost trying to find the Wal Mart).

When I visit places like this and then come back to Ohio I go through a slight depression for a few days trying to adjust back. I realize there are positives and negatives for both but just coming back from sunny Miami to cold Cincinnati is reason enough to be down let alone the great time we had and culture change. I'm not talking about the money and lavish lifestyle but people with experience outside of middle USA. When we arrived home we went to the grocery store to stock up on food and were waiting in line at the deli counter. A guy in front of me was asking the guy working there if there was any cheese he recommended for making cheese dip for tortillas. The guy behind the counter said "oh yea we have some queso cheese let me show you". If that wasn't enough to make me cringe I think he proceeded to take him to the aisle with the processed cheese already soft and not even heated yet and on top of it doesn't require you to keep it stored cool. Yes, we are back in Ohio again :) There are things I love about Ohio but if it wasn't for traveling I think I would go crazy.

Ay Chihuahua

We have a new family member!!





His name is Pepé. I am far from Ms. Animal Planet but this little guy won us over. I love other people's pets but with the combination of the amount of work an animal requires, having a really keen sense of smell, and keeping a very clean house (yes, I have been told that people felt like they could eat off my floors) a dog didn't exactly fit in to my plan but things change.

About 1.5 years ago my 5 year old E won a goldfish at a carnival and named him Pizza (a logical name for a fish coming from a 5 year old). Recently Pizza had become very sick and E was devastated. After learning more about goldfish I realized that it was probably not the best choice of pet especially learning that the 3 gallon tank we had was not big enough and that one small goldfish should be in a 10 gallon tank. I have no interest in opening a Sea World just to house one little goldfish. I was torn on how to let E deal with this fish being on its way out other than replacing it with another animal. I have posted previously about thinking about getting a cat or other animal but it wasn't until Pizza being sick that we have seriously considered it again.

About a week or so ago I was reading the LaChlienguita blog and noticed cutest picture of her Chilean Salchicha. This dog was so adorable and was the type of dog that E wanted and we even had a perfect name picked out for one "Completo". I started browsing around at Dachshunds but was a little leery about the size of them (it is hard to judge how big they are going to be and I didn't want anything too big that would shed hair all over). S and I were going grocery shopping yesterday and in the same plaza is a small non-chain pet store. We went in and they had 2 Dachshunds but they weren't that cute and were kind of big. We put them back and then sleeping sandwiched in between two other sleeping dogs we saw the cutest little Chihuahua. It was love at first sight...he seemed perfect. The owner of the pet store is the one who owns the mom and dad of Pepé and said that Chihuahuas are either playful or cuddly and this one was cuddly. We could see that right away with the sleeping arrangement he was in.

We surprised E by putting Pepé in a Christmas box under the tree for him to pull the lid off (yes, I have our Christmas tree up already...I love the season). He was so excited! E is really enamored with him.


Sadly yesterday also the day that Pizza died. We noticed shortly after we gave Pepé to E. His final resting place was inside his pineapple house (we had an underwater pineapple house that was a Spongebob aquarium decoration) and E didn't seem to notice since Pizza had been laying around a lot lately. It was cute though because E was talking to his Grandmother who came over to see the dog and was petting Pepé saying with tears in his eyes "Nana, Pizza is not doing so good...he has that disease and the medicine is not working." They talked about putting Pizza into a pond that she has and E decided that would be best for Pizza. So, we told E that Pizza would be dropped off at Nana's house today and he was fine with it. It is cool how things work out perfectly sometimes and it has nothing to do with your planning.

P.S. Does this officially make me Legally Blonde?

It's Not Easy Being Green Except on Halloween

As S and I were lighting the pumpkin getting ready to pass out candy to the kids on Halloween I asked him if he had gotten the mail and he said no and went out and checked it. Lo and behold it was his GREEN CARD!!! YEAH!!!!! We are so happy to finally have it.

The marriage interview was pretty easy. The officer hardly looked at our evidence during the interview, he just kind of went through the evidence like it was a animation flip book. I guess they are used to seeing all kinds of things during the interview so I guess we seemed pretty "normal". It was nothing like the officer from the movie "The Proposal" :) The only problem was that their system sucks and it took FOREVER to find out the results but just glad now that it is over.

Anyway, we were chit-chatting with the lawyer while preparing for the interview and she said that one thing that will get you deported is stealing. She said that you could commit a murder and they wouldn't deport you but if you get caught stealing even the smallest thing that is grounds for deportation. Thankfully S doesn't buy into the "finders keepers" philosophy that Lydia blogged about being so popular in Chile otherwise we would be in trouble :) The idea that you could get deported for a lesser crime like stealing seems crazy but we were talking about it more and it's probably because for a crime like murder they probably want retribution for it whereas with stealing it's not worth the threat/time/effort to have that person in the society. That was our only guess to the reasoning.

Anyway that was a nice Halloween surprise and happy now that we are green :)

And here is a pick of the first pumpkin that S carved (I was impressed):