Days 10-13 of Fun Employment:

Thursday, day 10, was quite busy in the morning, but ended up more chill in the afternoon. I had another doctor appt early in the morning-at 10am which is now considered "early" in my funemployment state. They were running behind though so they didn't end up seeing me until 10:45am....good thing I had my notepad with me because I started brainstorming restaurants to add to my favorite foods page. Once I finished there, I passed by a cute little tea store in the Mall Panoramico to buy a gift for our nana, who would have her last day with us the following week. As it turns out, she had really liked a Rooibos Chai Herbal tea that my dear friend Staci had given me on my trip back home in March. So I was on the lookout for a similar type tea to give to my nana. I went to Zoe, and although I couldn't find a rooibos tea, I did find a Green Chai tea. After picking out her gift, I headed back home and got ready for lunch that was planned with some ex-coworkers. One of these ex-coworkers had left the company at the end of 2010 and I hadn't seen him since. The other two ex-coworkers were my boss and another jefa on the team when I left earlier this month. We went to Baco, which is a French restaurant in Providencia that has an awesome wine menu.

Most of the menu included something with meat, however I asked for a Spinach & Cheese Quiche (Quiche Olivia as it was called). Everyone else asked for the filete a la pimienta (peppered steak), all cooked at different points. Then JJ decided to order a bottle of red wine to go with lunch.....to which I partook more than I probably should have!

(The four of us at the end of lunch.)

After another 3 hour lunch, I arrived home with puras ganas de dormir. And so I did....I took a 3 hour nap before getting up to have another once (a typical Chilean mealtime in the early evening) with B&E (my MIL & SIL), including more pompadour cake.

Friday brought about lots of movement: I had to drop off a radio that I had sold to an ex-coworker, then I had to go sign my finiquito (the document stating I am ok with my last paycheck and terminating my employment contract, which is signed in front of a notary), and right after, I went to Zumba class at the gym. In the afternoon, I had to continue packing up the house because on Saturday morning at 9am the mover was coming to move the boxes into its truck. Christian, on the other hand, had a soccer game to go play, so I was home with Dulcinea going crazy packing boxes upon boxes upon boxes and going through a million papers. To be fair, he had done stuff earlier in the day when I was off running my errands and going to the gym, so it was only fair that he had time to go play soccer with friends. Around 7pm, I started to take a break because my back was killing me, and Dulci and I just hung out in front of the gas stove to stay warm (I’ve previously discussed Dulci’s affinity for the gas stove in a different post). Once Christian got home, we went over to my mother-in-law's apartment in Recoleta for once and to drop off Dulcinea and then went back home to sleep. We figured it would be better if Dulci stayed in the other apartment that evening so that she wouldn't be in the way during the move on Saturday morning.

Day 12 brought about a very early start—up at 7am to finish preparing everything so that when the moving truck arrived at 9:30am all we had to do was take it all out to the truck. The original moving truck that my mother-in-law had booked was under the environmental driving restriction on Saturday and obviously couldn’t drive….so she found us a different guy all within minutes and basically the process was only delayed from 9am to 9:30am—time that we certainly needed. Once the truck came, with my sister-in-law in tow, the four of us (truck driver, Christian, Erica & me) started making various trips to get everything into the truck. Then Christian went with the moving truck and I drove our car to the apartment in Recoleta that my MIL owns. The reason we needed a moving truck in the first place is that our old bed, the dining room table (which belongs to Bernarda), and some other items needed to be moved to this apartment in Recoleta (in addition to our 6 or 7 suitcases filled with stuff as well as all of our food and other kitchen stuff that we haven't sold). It is a tiny one-bedroom which is perfect for when B&E need to come to Santiago to go to the doctor at La Universidad de Chile. We, however, ended up still have a ton of stuff despite our garage sale….and so the poor little apartment was stuffed full by the end of the move. We even filled up the previously empty storage unit. The move ended around 10:30 or 11am which is quite quick in reality. After that, we organized as much as we could with 4 adults and 1 dog in the apartment—which is to say that we basically put everything we didn’t need in the storage unit and stacked up everything else we did need in the bedroom & living room.

Next on the agenda was making some lunch. Bernarda had gone to La Vega (since we are a mere 3 blocks from it) in the morning to buy the items necessary for some chop suey. While we were moving and organizing, she was slicing and dicing all the vegetables to be cooked. Christian had to go run an errand before lunch and so he stopped to get some chicken for the carnivorous version of the chop suey. Once he got back, we feasted and it was delicious! Chop suey is seriously such an easy dish to put together. All the work is in chopping up the veggies, but cooking it all (especially without chicken) takes mere minutes! After lunch, we started to organize anything else that we could. I put the towels and sheets on a shelf that B&E had cleared out for us in the closet. We started to put away the kitchen items which were in several boxes.

In the evening, we wanted to treat B&E to a nice dinner out as a way to show our appreciation for all of their help and willingness. We decided to go to El Caramaño, which is our favorite Chilean-food restaurant (as you can see here).

It is located in Bellavista (a barrio within Santiago), on the street called Purísima.

It has all of the typical Chilean dishes, which are always delicious and relatively inexpensive for a Santiago restaurant.

(Me & Chris)

(Bernarda & Erica)

We started off with their yummy homemade bread & sopaipillas with pebre and Christian, Bernarda & Erica enjoyed some machas a la parmesana as well (I didn't get a pic of the machas, but here is one & a recipe if you want to check them out).

We ordered a 1.5 liter jug of borgoña to drink, which is red wine mixed with strawberries and sugar. I absolutely love El Caramaño’s borgoña and had about 3 glasses of it….and still wanted more which is probably why I don't have a picture of it--I drank it too quickly! Hahahaha!

For our main dishes we had the following:

Christian & Bernarda—Pastel de Jaiba, which is like a crab casserole dish basically filled with crab meat, onion, garlic, bead crumbs, butter, paprika, oregano and parmesan cheese (here is a recipe if you are interested).

Erica—Pollo al Trauco y Papas Fritas, which is a special chicken dish, but I don’t remember exactly what they cooked her chicken with. She had some French fries as a side dish.

Me—Ensalada Gran Caramaño y Papas Salteadas, which was a huge salad with red lettuce, watercress (P.S. I freaking love these in salads), sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and olives (which I proceeded to take out since I don't like olives-except for the green ones with the pimiento center). I threw on some balsamic vinegar and a bit of EVOO and mmmmm down the pipes it went! I had some sautéed potatoes as a side dish.

At the end of dinner, El Caramaño treated us to a bajativo on the house. Bajativos are digestifs in English, which are small shots of alcohol typically taken after a meal to aid in digestion. Christian had mint, I had amaretto and B&E had chamomile.

After such a nice meal, all we could do was come home and go to bed. We were all exhausted and having our bellies full just made us even sleepier. But not before a quick group picture:

Sunday, day 13, was a very simple day. Christian took B&E and Dulci back to Viña in the old car so that the car could be left there while we are using the parking space at the Recoleta apartment. I stayed home and worked on organizing, downsizing clothes, repacking suitcases, etc. We decided to send Dulci out to Viña with B&E for several reasons: 1. this apartment is super small and with all of our stuff it was already too small for 2 adults, let alone a dog too; 2. she has more room to run around in Viña as my in-laws’ apartment is much bigger; 3. we had too many errands to do which would have meant leaving her alone at home for very long stretches of time so either we would have been rushed in our errands or she would have suffered; and 4. she won’t ever be left alone in Viña because even if B&E have to leave, Papi Lucho (my FIL) is always home to be with her. It has been kind of weird not to have her around, but I know she is better off in Viña, being spoiled by the grandparents and tía. And to be honest, it has been a nice break just being with Christian alone. I’ll have to keep that in mind when we have a human kid, hopefully my Mom will like spoiling both human & dog children as much as Bernarda does! Hahaha!

Days 4-6 of Funemployment

(Me & Dulci on Saturday evening)

Friday, Saturday and Sunday marked days 4 through 6 of my funemployment but boy were they jam packed.

Friday morning was dedicated to updating the sale blog, sending out some reminder emails about our pending garage sale and getting ready for lunch. A group of ex-coworkers had invited me out to lunch since they weren't able to make it to my official despedida dinner. When they asked me where I wanted to go, I mentioned that pasta would be good. And lucky enough, Lorena knew of a picá in Barrio Italia called Da Noi Trattoria Ristorante. There were nine of us all together and we had a great three-hour lunch! From appetizers with pisco sours (or in my case a mango sour) to main dishes to desserts and tea. It was a very nice time and I greatly appreciate my colleagues taking the time out of their day to take me out to lunch! I definitely recommend Da Noi. It was very yummy fresh pasta and the mango sour was amazing! Here are a few pics from lunch:

(Antipasto Da Noi)

(Provoleta, basically melted cheese with EVOO & oregano)

(Panzotti with pomodoro sauce)

(L-R: Me, Andrés, Estela, Cecilia, Fabiola, Patricia, Héctor, Manuel & Lorena)

After lunch (I got home at 4pm) I started to scramble to get the house ready for our garage sale that was to go on Saturday and Sunday. There was a TON to do. The idea was to have all of the items for sale in our living/dining room as well as our bedroom (since our bed was still for sale and we had some clothes & shoes to sell too). That meant taking everything that was not to be sold out of those two rooms and leaving it in another room. In addition, in the 3rd bedroom, I had to group all of the items previously purchased by people, but not yet picked up, so that when they came by to pick up their items, everything was ready to go. Needless to say I was running around from room to room all afternoon and evening. Poor Dulci had no idea what was going on and kept following me all over. Finally when Christian got home, we went to eat at El Huerto, which is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in all of Chile.

Saturday we woke up early and while I finished prepping the house, Christian went to the farmer's market for some fresh bread, farm fresh eggs and some fruit. Everything was laid out for the sale, although we were missing price tags at first. Then Christian went out and got some post-it notes which solved that issue and definitely helped sales! We had also printed up signs about our garage sale to put outside the apartment building and surprisingly we got several visitors from those signs. Everyone else who came were people who we are connected to in some way shape or form. Saturday until about 2:30pm-ish was quite busy and then after that it died down. Luckily we had bought some hummus to bring home with us from El Huerto on Friday night and that was pretty much our lunch. We still stayed around the apartment until 6pm--I read on my kindle and Christian was on his Ipad2. After 6pm we took down the signs and relaxed a bit. We had no food in the house so we ended up going out for dinner. We wanted to go to Vietnam Discovery since we have heard so many good things about it, but it was packed and I couldn't get a reservation. So we ended up going to El Ciudadano, which was a good option since I had been craving some pizza. Plus I wanted to make sure we ate at El Ciudadano before we leave Chile because I think it is a great little restaurant! We had a nice bottle of white wine to accompany our dinner and it was a great night to close out the busy day.

(Our appetizer of fried fish & calamari, called Frito Mixto)

(Christian with this crab ravioli dish.)

(My pizza which had arugula, mushrooms and cheese.)

(Our yummy dessert called "El Ciudadano", basically a brownie, vanilla ice cream and a caramel whisky sauce!)

Sunday we got up and got ready for the garage sale, but the morning started off quite slow despite the fact that we hung up the sign on the sidewalk again. It was nice to have a slower morning though because it let us catch up on stuff we needed to do. Around mid-day people started to stop by and come pick up things and we finally were able to sell the bed! That was one of two of the large items we still had available going into the garage sale weekend, since all the other big items had been sold during the previous 2 weeks of internet sales. The one large thing we have left is the stove, but I would much rather that the stove is left than the bed. Beds are just hard to store whereas stoves are not as hard. Luckily my suegra has a storage unit at her apartment in Santiago where we will be able to put the stove until it sells.

Between the visits on Sunday afternoon, I made some pumpkin bars to take with us to our friend Brittany's apartment to watch the fútbol game. Chile was playing in the Copa América against Venezuela, but unfortunately they lost. I am not a big soccer fan, or sports fan, in general, but I do like the social aspect of the games. So I am all for getting together for games and having snacks and whatnot. It was fun to hang out with Brittany and her pololo Hugo. After Chile lost, we headed home with Dulcinea and watched some House MD. We are on season 2 and trying to catch up to the current season, which I think is already season 7.

And that was our weekend in a nutshell. I am SO happy with how well our garage and blog sale went! We sold probably about 90% of the things we put up for sale....and everything that is left (besides the stove) are small items. We will have some other things to sell right before we leave, but they are things we are still using right now so I am not counting them in the 90%. The plan is to put this money aside and use it for the household things we will need to buy when we get a place of our own in the U.S.

I liked having a garage sale in my house. It reminded me of when I used to help my grandparents with their garage sales when I was little. This was Christian's first experience with a garage sale...he kept laughing at me when we were trying to price the items and how I carried around the money in the front pocket of my hoodie. I had a little purse to put the money in, just like when I was a kid and we had those banking bags with the zipper!

How was your weekend?

Happy 30th Birthday Christian!!!

Just a little shout-out to my husband for his birthday!!! I love you!!!! Here's a kiss just for you, from the night we shared our first kiss:

Still Here

In case you have been wondering, yes I am still alive. Things have been busy and mostly I haven't had any ganas ("want" or "inspiration") to write when I actually have the time, but of course, when I don't have time I could write a million posts. And so that is why I haven't posted in forever.

But I figured I should stop by and let you all know that things are going good. Christian is recovering well from this surgery. His English classes are going well and I am trying to talk to him only in English (although really it just depends on the topic, mood, etc.).

The most exciting news is that one of my best friends is coming to visit this Friday!!!! Staci and I met freshman year in college and lived together our junior year. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding and is an awesome friend. I can't wait to pick her up from the airport on Friday morning!

Domingos de Dulcinea: She's In Trouble

This is what happens when my husband and Dulcinea have too much time on their hands:

{Original photo here}

Domingos de Dulcinea: Keeping the Fur-Child Warm

It is no secret that we have had quite a cold winter this year. There were two weeks in July that were just frigid if you ask me. Now, while the temperatures may not reach Colorado-winter levels and maybe there isn't any snow in Santiago, the fact that the majority of houses don't have central heating makes a HUGE difference in just how cold a winter feels. I find winters to be much more colder here than in Colorado. In fact, growing up I hated to drink hot tea. Any time I was sick my mom would tell me to drink hot tea and I refused. I seriously despised it. But when I came to study abroad, my breakfast and afternoon snack always included tea and since I was always freezing, I drank it right up. That year taught me to love tea. Now I do quite enjoy a cup of tea, my preference being the berry or fruit flavored herbal teas.

One of my biggest worries last year when we got Dulcinea was how to keep her warm during the last bit of winter and in the spring. Luckily she came to us at the end of August so spring was right around the corner and since she slept with us in bed, we didn't have many issues. This winter was much more of an issue since it has been much colder. We have come up with several different ways to help our little one stay warm because despite all of her hair, she gets cold really easily.

Stay Warm #1: Doggie Sweaters

I started putting clothes on Dulcinea when she was a puppy so that she would get used to them and not try and chew them off. My parents' dog Dunkun will not wear any type of clothing to save his life and I wanted to be able to dress Dulcinea up. Yes, that was my original reason for putting clothes on her from an early age, but it has been very useful when it comes to the sweaters in the winter because they really do help keep her warm. Her first sweater was the pink and white one in the middle that her gringo grandparents gave her for Christmas. She was wearing that sweater during the earthquake too which greatly helped keep her warm when we were in the car for hours waiting for things to calm down. The two stripped sweaters are from Jumbo and fit her perfectly and the World Cup red on was a gift from my friend & coworker Gaby for Dulcinea's birthday. The red & white sweater on the left and the purple & white sweater on the left were made by Dulcinea's Chilean grandmother. My suegra knitted both of these sweaters for Dulci, using the pink & white one as a pattern. She did an awesome job and these sweaters definitely keep Dulci warm.

Stay Warm #2: Sleeping Under the Covers

Dulcinea loves to get under the covers when sleeping in bed with us. She always likes to be touching us when she curls up, whether it is by our legs or our side. Sometimes she takes turns sleeping with Christian or with me, and sometime she sleeps in the middle of us. When she gets hot, she will climb above our heads and sleep on our pillows for a while.

Stay Warm #3: Heated Rice Packs & Blankets

I made Dulcinea's first rice pack last year before we had got her. I thought it would be a helpful way to keep her warm and she loves her rice packs. My mom made Chris a rice pack for Christmas and with the freezing weather we have had, he decided one rice pack wasn't enough for Dulci and gave her his rick pack too. We pop them in the microwave for 4 minutes on high and then put them on the bottom of her bed before we leave for work. We also reheat them during lunch so she stays warm in the afternoon too. She loves them! When she hears the microwave beep she goes running and starts to bark to let you know to take them out and put them in her bed. We also cover her bed with two blankets made out of the polar fabric. She loves to get under the blankets and lay directly on top of the rice packs.

Stay Warm #4: Keeping Warm By the Fire

We have a gas estufa in our living room that is built into the wall. When we are in the living room, we light it to help warm up the area and Dulcinea loves curling up underneath the fire. I was worried at first that she would get too close and burn herself, but she is really good about staying a certain difference. Plus we scold her if she gets too close so that she knows not to do that. Sometimes if we are in the living room and we don't have the estufa lit, she will curl up under it as if to tell us that she is cold and wants us to light it. Yes, she tells us when to turn on the heater! Hahaha....

And that is how we get Dulcinea through the winter in Chile!

Domingos de Dulcinea: She Arrived 1 Year Ago!

One year ago today our little Dulcinea arrived to our home. We had found and met her over a month and a half before she could come home with us because we had to wait until the Chile Kennel Club went to the breeder's house to register her and her sister.

We had spent the weekend in Viña to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday and I finally decided to call the breeder one last time before we got on the bus to come back to Santiago. I had been calling on a weekly basis since we had met little Dulci and I got the feeling I was bugging the breeder, so I waited about two weeks before calling again. The breeder was so happy to hear from me, she said "Oh Dulcinea has been ready for about a week now, but I couldn't find your phone number to call you." Whether that is true or not (because she had my email address too) isn't important. What was important was that my baby was ready and I was beyond excited!

I couldn't hardly keep calm the whole bus ride home. The breeder brought Dulci to our house (since we didn't have a car in that time and Dulci is from Lampa which is a good 25 min drive from where we lived). She was so tiny and scared. For those of you who don't know Dulcinea, she is quite shy at first and then once she warms up to you, there is no going back. So she was so calm and just trying to figure out what was going on. All I could do was hug and kiss her. She was soooo cute!

We played with her, showed her around our apartment, showed her where to go potty and gave her a present--her first toy ever:

She was so tiny she couldn't even make the dinosaur squeak!

We tried to get her to sleep by herself from the beginning (my idea). I had her sleep in her bed right next to me, but she just cried and cried. So I picked her up that first night and put her on my chest to see if she would calm down (kind of like the picture below). She fell asleep quickly and that was the end of Dulci sleeping by herself...hahaha.

My two favorite beings in the whole world:

My family has pretty much always had dogs in the house so I didn't think it'd be very different to get my first one living on my own, but having Dulcinea has really been life changing. I was never the primary caregiver when I lived at my parents' house, but with Dulcinea it is different. She depends on me and Chris so much and she is like our little baby. We have had a lot of fun with her and even though it is a lot more responsibility, it is totally worth it!

I love looking back at these baby pictures of her. She was so tiny and cute. Now she is much bigger and has blossomed into quite a beauty. Her attitude has multiplied 10 times bigger than her actual size, which at times is annoying, but that is just your typical dachshund attitude. Here are some examples of her classic behavior:

Her new favorite habit is to wake us up at night with kisses when she needs to go potty. When the alarm clock goes off in the mornings, she also comes out of the covers to wake you up with lots and lots of kisses.

Her favorite place to be aside from in bed with us is at the Parque Bicentenario where she can run free and play with her park toys. She has a special boomerang and kong toy that she can only play with at the park so when we go, all she wants are her toys.

She loves it when we heat up her rice packs to keep her warm. She treats her toys like her offspring sometimes and protects them from us. She loves to push around her food bowl with her nose and spill her food. She also pretends that she doesn't like some of her food, but then she eats it anyway.

She thinks she is the owner of the 11th floor of our apartment building because she barks every time she hears the elevator arrive. She goes crazy when the neighbor gets home too. She gets so excited to go out for walks that she barks at anyone who gets in her way of getting out of the building. But once she is outside she is happy and all she wants to do is run, which is why Christian has started jogging with her.

She also thinks she is a model. Anytime Christian sets up his camera to take pictures of her, she pulls out the attitude in a heartbeat. For evidence, just take a look at these images that he took.

That is my little guachita rica....

Domingos de Dulcinea: Princess Dulcinea

I am sure you can tell from this blog, and if you know me in real life through that experience, that Duclinea is one little regalona (spoiled puppy). Christian and I just can't help ourselves. She is just too darn cute!

Yesterday we took her to the park to run around and burn some energy. The weather was amazing, 22ºC and sunny. She loved every minute of it! We met some new salchichas and it is inevitable that one always falls in love with Dulci. This time, it was Gerónimo, a standard tan 2 year old dachshund. Luckily instead of just trying to hump her like the other enamorados (the other dogs in love with her) do, he at least tried to seduce her. We would throw her toys and he would just follow her around everywhere. After a while, she actually started interacting with him which was just too funny. At one point she just gave in, rolling herself onto her back right next to him. I couldn't believe it! We were cracking up. When Gerónimo's mom said it was time for them to leave, he was sooo sad to be parting with his Juliet.

Today the weather is yucky--cloudy and maybe 14ºC. No park for us. And so Christian thought it fitting to take some pictures of Dulcinea instead. What did Dulci have in mind? Well princess pictures of course! So without further ado, I present to you Princess Dulcinea!!!

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And now for a close up....

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