case dulce casa en santiago

Spending some quality time w/ kitty cat (before she runs away). I'm trying to teach Vivi "nice," which I think she understands but doesn't like. She would rather grab fur. Poor Bunny. She knows that when I say, "Kitty cat!" she'd better look out for little hands.



















Exploring all that there is to see-outlets, heaters, and all.












Playing in the living room. It has a nice big window that Vivi likes to pound on and the cat likes to look out. We have used the 2 couches to make a baby-containing area. When she gets tired of being in there, she stands at the corner and hoots.












Hanging out in the front yard. A gardener comes every day to spruce things up.

















Bunny checking out yard of house we're staying in. It's actually part of a hotel, but it's nice to have more space.











Bunny reading up on doing some sightseeing.













Having desayuno at the hotel. Vivi likes to flirt w/ the waiters. I encourage it. It gives me time to get my coffee.











Eating oranges in the stroller before we bought a highchair. Very, very, very, very messy.

pix from the move

Bunny roaming in our (sadly) empty Pasadena apartment. It was pretty small, and not structurally perfect, but it was home for 7 years.











We crammed all of our stuff (that wasn't on the slow boat to Santiago) into our car, fit the carseat in, stuffed the cat under the seat, and headed to LAX. Vivi seemed to think it was just another car ride, but Bunny somehow knew that something more ominous than just a ride up the street to the vet loomed.











Vivi and Bunny (in black bag next to stroller) and all of our stuff, ready to be loaded on the plane (after we re-arranged stuff in our suitcases, we only had to pay $300 for extra and heavy bags).











Vivi took the opportunity during our 2 hour layover in Atlanta to roll around on the floor in the airport. We encouraged it. We were hoping she'd work off some energy and sleep during the 9 hour flight to Santiago.









The cat was not so exuberant at the airport. We offered her food and water, and she looked at us like she would rather kill us than eat. But, she made it okay, with the help of some kitty prozac.










Ah, the power and wonder of Benadryl. Others, in horror: "You drugged your baby?" Me, matter-of-factly: "Damn right. Read my lips: 9 hour flight"

Visiting the Persa

Last weekend we went to the Persa. It is a giant, giant, giant flea market that makes the Rose Bowl flea market look like a yard sale (though it's not in as nice an area). It is four blocks long, and two blocks wide. Warehouses, and some small shops, contain everything you could probably ever need. We mostly looked at furniture and clothes, and then decided that we wouldn't want anything made of cloth (couch, chairs, etc.) from there, because those things would smell like the place, which is a combination of dirty water, cooking food (people walk around w/ shopping carts that have big buckets of cooking oil, and they put a grill across the top of the shopping cart to cook meat), smoke, and lots and lots of people, some of whom bathe regularly. There are also tools, pets (we heard them but never saw them), electronics, car pieces, belts, shoes, toys, perfume, soaps, and, well, basically everything. You can also get a haircut, but the guy who does them doesn't sweep the floor until the end of the day, so you have to sit amidst piles of black hair on the floor.

Most things aren't market w/ a price, but some are. Bargaining is expected. We just walked around and took it all in. Vivi LOVED it, because there was so much for her to see. People talked to her constantly, and one lady even took her picture (should have charged her a quarter).

It was fun, and I'm sure we'll go back. It will probably take us the two whole years we are here to see the whole thing.