Argentina: Part 2

We had only one full day in BA. We had to fly home the next morning. So we got up, ate and headed out to see the famous cemetery where Eva Perone (Evita) is buried (dont cry for me Argentina!).

 The Church by the Recoleta

 Gorgeous stained glass window in the cemetery

We kind of had to make the trip to the cemetery short and sweet. It was not the most kid friendly activity and Curly girl was getting loud and bored. So we left and headed over to the HUGE open air market. Curly girl ran around like the maniac she is and climbed trees.

We walked around and husband found a guy making leather goods by hand. He got himself and his dad some belts. They are the most gorgeous color leather and buttery soft. I snapped a picture of the guy stamping the belt holes in the leather.....

We watched him work for a bit and then took the belts and kept on going. There were vendors selling everything you can think of. Husband wanted a mate cup. Mate is very popular tea here. It kind of looks like pot, but they drink it like crazy here. You drink it out of these special cups they make from hollowed gourds and these special straws that filter out the tea leaves. The tea is not finely ground like you find in tea bags. It is super coarse and almost chunky? I like the way it smells but its not my favorite tea. 

This is not the cup Husband picked out but they all kind of look the same. The straw gets SUPER HOT. Its metal which is not the most ideal material for a straw that you use in boiling water in my opinion. Anyway so got one of these puppies and then found a lady selling birds she made from the same gourds that they make Mate tea cups out of. We got 2 for Curly girl's room. I am going to figure out a way to hang them from the ceiling. 

Isnt he cute?? I just love them. They are so whimsical and charming. 

So anywho that was our day in BA. We ended the evening with a dinner out with our friends and their adorable 10 month old. The girls both enjoyed being up past bedtime and the food was fantastic. All in all we had a great time. I wish we could have stayed longer. The flight was less than 2 hours so I am sure we will go back. 

As far as the eye could see there was this distinct line of clouds where they just couldnt get up and over the mountains. It was so cool. The Andes are big! 

Argentina: Part 1

For Easter weekend we went to Buenos Aires. We went for one reason: Curly girl and I were technically still on tourist visas and we needed to leave the country and re enter on our new official visas. It also happens to be a cool city that we wanted to see ;) Our tourist visas expired 4 days after we got home from our trip. Nothing like waiting till the last minute.
Santiago is nestled right up against the Andes. Crossing them was truly an experience. The clouds cant even come over the mountains. I will share another picture of our return trip where you can see the line of clouds that just cant make it up and over the mountains. It was bizarre!

Husband took this shot as we crossed over the tallest point. Quite the view.
So we got to Argentina right at Curly girl's bedtime-not ideal. But our hotel had 2 bedrooms and a sitting area so we whisked her off to bed and our friends that live in Buenos Aires came over with some tasty, tasty take out (read: STEAK) and we cracked open a bottle of malbec and caught up. This steak may have been the best steak I had ever had. If you are a steak lover, Argentina is the place for you. You cannot go there and not eat steak. The malbec was good. It was fine but it has nothing on Chilean red wine. We stayed at the Trianon apart hotels. If you go to Buenos Aires and you have small children this is right where you want to be. It is in Recoleta, close to tons of places to eat, has free breakfast in the mornings, has 2 bedrooms, a sitting area, a kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Magic basically.

communism in the kitchen

Everything in this apartment came with a learning curve. The washing machine, dryer, microwave and oven are all in Spanish. If I had a dishwasher it would be in Spanish too. My remote controls for the TV are in Spanish. And clearly I knew it would all be in Spanish. But knowing and understanding are two different things. I knew the washing machine would be in Spanish, but I didnt really understand what that would mean. It meant sticky notes everywhere so I didnt ruin clothes. I can happily report those sticky notes are now gone. I have also conquered the microwave and the remote controls. But the oven still gets me. Because not only is it TINY (I have to buy easy bake oven sized pans since my giant sized ones from the States dont fit. But the 13x9 pyrex does fit so all is not lost) but it is also in Celsius. Oh Celsius.
Last week Curly girl wanted to bake cookies. Bake with your kids they said, it will be fun they said. The following steps had to be taken in order to make said cookies.

1. I had to unplug the desktop computer from the transformer and move the transformer to the kitchen where my Kitchen Aid is. God bless a Kitchen Aid mixer, am I right?
2. Convert grams to tablespoons to cups. I am not a math person. I am going to buy a food scale. The butter here is marked in grams not tbsp and sometimes not marked at all!
3. Do more math to figure out what temp to set the oven. You win again Celsius. When I cook dinner I kind of just wing it in the temperature department because I cannot be expected to do math at 5:30 pm, but I figured this is baking. Be precise, Joanna.
4. Vacuum pantry because spices are sold in bags here and inevitably the baking soda spilled everywhere.
5. Locate muffin tin because my cookie sheets dont fit in the oven.

But good news the semi muffin shaped cookies turned out pretty good! If I were more intelligent I would have written down the answers to the 5 problems above and filed it away for the next time, but you know I didn't.
End of story: the metric system sucks. So do spices not sold in containers with lids that either screw on or snap shut.

winery review #2: Concha y Toro

Concha y Toro is one of the most famous wineries in Chile. It even has its own legend that put Chilean wine on the map. I even went down into the “Casillero del Diablo” (Devil’s Cellar).  The tour was great. It was kind of touristy, but lets be honest thats what I am so I enjoyed it. It is a huge winery. While Casa del Bosque was small and quaint this one is BIG. The entry gates are grand and beautiful. There are multiple cellars and vast vineyards. At this one you can even eat grapes off the vine and they have the vines labeled with what grapes they are. I was so surprised that all of the grapes do taste differently. Curly girl had so much fun running around the vines and picking and eating grapes. It was magical. I learned that you can make white and red wine from red grapes. Hey, learn something new every day right? 

I love that view of the mountains from the valley. It is so beautiful. This winery is located in the Maipo Valley. This tour was great because it has multiple cellars. It just makes it more interesting. They have one cellar where they store their absolutely best wine and it is only for the owners and share holders. I would love to get my hands on that!
The breakdown:
Scenery: Beautiful. Grand. I loved seeing the old owners plantation and the view of the mountains is lovely. Overall very grand.
The food: AMAZING. We ate at their restuarant after the tour. We sat outside in the courtyard and they had a band and traditional Chilean dances. The dancers did the Cueca and it was wonderful to watch. Curly girl even got up and did some dancing.
The Wine:
Sauvignon Blanc: Its not great. I mean its good and I would not turn down a glass, but it is too tart. Its not bright and refreshing like I prefer my SB.
Carmenere: In the words of my Chilean friends, esta muy rico. Oh my goodness. It is velvet and smooth and wonderful on the tongue. It is simply devine, in my opinion. I hope I can find it back in the States. I have seen their Cab in the States so I am hopeful. If you can find it where you live go buy a bottle.
Cabernet: It is very good! It is what they are famous for. Its heavier than their Carmenere but not in a bad way. It is rich and full. Overall a very good Cab. I have had this one before I came to Chile, but it tastes better here.
All in all this winery is fantastic. They really do a good job explaining the wine (English tours!) and really do justice to the Chilean wine industry. It was really fun.

These are the stairs down into the Casillero del Diablo. This cellar is really cool. The bricks and mortar and made from a special mixture of egg white, sand and grass and it keeps the cellar the perfect temperate. This is also where the special cellar is that houses the owners/share holders only wine. Yum!
Side note: husband is amazing and wrangles Curly girl when she starts to lose focus so that I can enjoy the tastings. Hes so good!

Winery review #1: Casa del Bosque

Living in wine country is fantastic. I want to start reviewing all the wineries we go to so I dont forget about which ones I liked and this way I can recommend ones to people we may know traveling to Chile.

First on the docket, Casa del Bosque.
Gosh this one is gorgeous, isnt it. I mean it truly is picturesque. This was the first one we went to. And let me tell you, the wine from this winery is still my favorite that I have had in Chile. I mean it is just that good.

 It is nestled in the Casablanca Valley and about an hour from Santiago. With the valley and the mountains all around you kind of forget you are even that close to the city. In my limited experience with Chilean wine I have found that most of the best wines come from the Casablanca valley, especially the Sauvignon Blancs. The Colchuga valley is awesome for Carmenere. Anyway, It was just a perfect morning. We did the tour and the tasting (yumm) and then had a picnic lunch provided by the restaurant while Curly girl played on the playground. The wineries all have playgrounds. Its awesome.

Breakdown:
Scenery: It is perfection
The food: eh, it was fine. Not great but fine. But we didnt really come here to eat, right? ;)
The important stuff, the wine:
Chardonnay: eh, it was chardonnay. I dont love chardonnay so I might not be a fair reviewer of this one.
Sauvignon Blanc: Sauvi B is my favorite kind of wine, hands down. And I ADORE SB from New Zealand. In my opinion it is the holy grail of SB. But back to Chile. This one from Casa del Bosque is fantastic. It is the closest to the product of New Zealand that I have found here. Oh you Kiwis are good, but this one is not far behind. It is my go to wine and I have been known to go completely out of my way to get it since it isnt sold at the grocery store close to our apartment. It is light and crisp, slightly fruity and acidic. It is everything a good SB should be. I will miss it when we move back to the States.
Carmenere: I LOVE CARMENERE. It is exquisite. And if you arent familiar with the story of Carmenere go google it. Its a cool story. This one is delicious. It is velvety and smooth. It is full, but in good way. I do not typically like a full bodied red, but this one is awesome. It isnt my favorite Carmenere that I have had since coming here but it is certainly up there.
Cabernet: I thought I liked Cabernet but then I had Carmenere. I can still appreciate a good Cab though. This one is fine, it tastes like any other good quality Cab to me. But they served it slightly chilled in the tasting and I really enjoyed that. This Cab is smooth and slightly sweet. It is light, which I appreciate in a red.
Syrah: I am not a fan of this one, but I dont like any Syrahs really. The way I feel about Syrah is the way I feel about Chardonnay: unnecessary.
They also do make a Merlot, but it wasnt on the tasting menu the day we went. If I go back and they do have it I will report back.

So that is Casa del Bosque. I cant wait to take my mom here when she visits! She is a white wine lover so this one will probably be her favorite as well.

The Chile Experience

I have been humbled. My rose colored glasses were snatched off my American face. I still love Chile, I do, but things are hard here (duh). Things I didnt expect are really hard. Why didnt I expect it be hard? Silly, silly me. I am starting to get frustrated and irritated and lonely. I know this is probably normal for anyone who moves to a country where they dont speak the native tongue or know anyone. But the lack of meaning-full interaction is getting to me. I dont have anyone that I can just sit down with and talk to. I hate that I took for granted all the wonderful, silly conversations I had with my friends in the States. I miss being understood and feeling connected to something. I miss not being exhausted after a 10 minute conversation because I am so focused on what is being said. The language barrier means that I am always one joke behind and a little out of sync with everyone else in the conversation. I am not funny or witty or charming in spanish. I feel like this duller version of myself. I was doing a good job of looking for joy or fun things in unexpected places for our first several months here. But I have hit a wall and have been in this horrible pity party mode for a couple weeks now. And in the process I have been completely humbled.

When we got here I was all sunshine and rainbows. I was smug and thought that I could just waltz into Chile and boom, poof, be ok. Not so fast. I was so arrogant. Oh my goodness. I thought "I am brave and adventurous and I totally got this". Being completely immersed into a new culture and country is hard. OBVIOUSLY. And shame on me for thinking it would be otherwise for me. I only hurt myself. But now with a new attitude and perspective change I am doing better. Isnt it funny what a little perspective can do!? Turns out being embarrassed and feeling dumb everyday can actually be a good thing. I have learned to let go. I am not in control here and all I can do is the best that I can do. And turns out that the States isnt all that. I am really starting to appreciate the pros of The States and the cons, as well as the pros and cons of Chile. I have learned a lot about myself. Turns out being quiet and listening is good. Who knew?? Not this chatterbox. You know I met someone the other day at the playground (an American!) and she is really nice and has a daughter Curly girl's age. Their family has been here for 3 years and her daughter doesnt speak spanish and they mainly only hang out with other gringos (I can use that word since I am one here). And it hit me in that moment I needed to change my perspective and get out my funk before that was me. Dont get me wrong, they are lovely and their children will be wonderful friends for Curly girl, but no. I dont want to look back on my year and think about all the things I missed out on because I was scared or was worried I would feel or look stupid. I dont want Curly girl to not speak spanish (no fear there she already is better than me) and I dont want to have completely missed out on what makes Chile, Chile! I am brave and I can do this. I know that much.  I need to follow my very brave daughter's example. She was really struggling and having a hard time at school and now she is blossoming here. She is speaking spanish and laughing with friends at school. This year will probably be one of my hardest yet. But sometimes the best things and the experiences worth having are hard. I need to remember that everyday. I am proud of us for not choosing what was easy, but instead embracing possibility. 

knock knock who's there

Last week Curly Girl and I had ourselves a little adventure. We got locked INSIDE the apartment. Yes, inside. How you ask? Let me tell you.
We had just gotten home from Jardin (preschool). She was eating her pbj and I was about to take the trash out. I went to open the door and while the handle did indeed move down in the correct motion nothing happened. First thought: did I lock the deadbolt? Frantic search for keys ensues, keys are finally located, dead bolt is not actually locked. hmmmm. OK. I proceeded to mess with the door more and probably made it worse. I texted husband. He does not respond. I attempt to call downstairs to concierge. Oh but thats right, I speak terrible spanish and he cant understand me. hmmmmm. (insert pacing and mild panic). Also let me add that it was 94 that day and my apartment has no AC. It was getting super toasty. I maybe was extra hot because I was sweaty with panic. But it was hot. I texted a friend who is bilingual. She calls the concierge for me and calls me back and says they are sending someone up to look at it. Dude comes up and says "La peurta no se abre?" to which I respond "si" I desperately wanted to say si po which is, like, totally Chilean but figured this was not the time to practice my slang. He knocks (??) then says something I cannot understand and leaves. (INSERT MORE PANIC). I like living on the 14th floor, however, in that moment all I could think was what if there is a fire? Damnit why dont we live on the 2nd floor? Top floor schmop floor.
2 hours later a locksmith shows up. He proceeds to completely remove the entire lock system from my door with a small power tool. (INSERT MORE PANIC).
I internally shouted "Give us us free!" as he opened the door. (Amistad anyone?) Turns out our fancy double deadbolt broke in half, but dont worry the new one is better and that shouldnt happen again. I am reassured....?
take aways:
1. I am terribly glad that Curly Girl was with me.
2. Must get better at speaking the spanish.
3. I am glad there was no fire.

Curly girl barely noticed our captivity.