flights and arrival

Flying with a 7-month-old and a cat was not as bad as I had anticipated. The key to this success was drugs. Benadryl for the baby (1/2 tsp. for a 21 lb. baby, if anyone is interested) and vet prescribed kitty valium for the cat. Vivi slept most of the whole night, and the cat only made a little noise when we were almost done w/ the second flight.

I usually don't use a travel agent, and now I remember why. She originally booked us flights with an hour layover in Atlanta, which seemed too short. So I had her change it so we had 2 hours, but she didn't book us in seats that time. So we had to beg people (por favor, por favor) to change seats so we could sit together.

The asshole SAG guy didn't want to let poor Bunny into the country when we went through customs because we didn't have one particular form. I was pissed, because I called the Chilean condulate, the USDA, and SAG before we left, and no one ever said a damn word about this form. So I freaked out on him, he quickly tired of me, and called over some other guy who didn't care and let us through.

We are living in a hotel suite, which is basically a small 3 bedroom house, until we find an apartment. Stuartt's work is paying for it, so that's nice. They are also paying someone to take us around and show us how to do stuff, like buy a car, get an apartment, and even buy cat litter. It feels kind of excessive, but if they want to pay someone to wipe our asses for us, who am I to complain?

Yesterday we went to the supermercado to get groceries. It is mostly cheaper here, but some things, like baby carrots, are a lot more. The bread and produce has a special counter for being weighed before you go to checkout. There are also lockers, like at amusement parks. My Spanish wasn't good enough to explain that I wanted to sign up for a discount card, but I'm working on it. Peope speak more English than I expected, though, so I may have to insist that they speak in Spanish so I can get better.

Today we went to the mall to get pictures for our Chilean ID's. We also bought cat litter and a scoop, cat food, and some stuff at the Mac computer store. There is a TGI Fridays and a Tony Romas at the mall, and a lot of the same stores that there are in the US. The mall is very nice, and very clean. The people who are helping us with stuff insist that it's not more expensive to shop at the mall, and until we have a car, we won't be able to do much price-comparing.

Tomorrow we go apartment-hunting. Hopefully we will find something that suits the needs of us, the bebe, and la gata.

Mas Tarde,

Jenn