Mom's Visit!

www.origamichile.cl

Happy Chilean Independence Day!  Well, next week, officially.  Mom came down for a visit during the holidays (because I don't have to work the entire week), and we decided to take the opportunity to enjoy some relaxing outside of Santiago.  I'm a little disappointed we're missing out on the Fiestas Patrias in Chile, but from what I've heard, it probably would have held our interest for a few hours and then we would have had enough.  While the official Independence in on September 18, Chileans start celebrating as early as the 13 or 14 with outdoor festivals in parks and other open areas called "fondas."   While I can't give exact details as I've never been, it sounds a lot like Oktoberfest in Wisconsin!  There's a lot of drinking (terremotos), sausages (choripan), and dancing (the cueca).  Granted, the details are a bit different, but it's basically a big festival where more than a few people get drunk.  I've posted a picture from a Chilean blog.  One of the concierges here really wants us to go to a fonda, and reminds of us them every time he sees us (there is one still today that will go until about 10:00, but we're a bit tired from our travels).  It's a great time to get shocked into Chilean culture all at once, and I hope that I'll be able to experience it sometime, but I'm very glad we went to Mendoza this time.

Mom actually arrived Wednesday the twelfth, and I still had a few days of school to get through before the start of the holiday.  Luckily for me (but not so much for my students), it was testing week so I didn't have too much to prepare.  Of course, now I have a bunch of grading to do, but that's another story!  I started a new incentive system in the form of coupons to use as extra points on the tests, but unfortunately implementing the system has been more complicated than I anticipated.  I'm preparing myself for lots of "but it's just not fair!"  But that would happen whether or not I had a good grading system.  As you can see, I'm not really looking forward to going back to school quite yet, but I still have four more days to get used to the idea.

www.duoc.cl

Anyways, Mom got in early in the morning while I was at class, but I'd left my keys for her so that she could get into my apartment.  I came home between classes to meet up with her after her long trip.  I was really excited to see her--we hadn't seen each other since last Christmas!  She greeted me as I walked in the door, and almost immediately showered me with gifts.  The best one was a Kindle reader that Mom and Dad had gotten me for my birthday.  It arrived just in time, too, because I had just finished my very last book the night before.  She also gave me some really beautiful earrings, and some tea from the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado.  I gave her the gifts I'd been saving from Easter Island.  After our exchange, we decided to head out to lunch at the mall so that she could see my school at the same time.  She even got to meet a couple of my students (who even spoke to her in English).  After that, she was definitely feeling the effects of having traveled for nearly an entire day, and went home to rest while I finished up the rest of the school day.

The next day was also pretty uneventful as I went to class and Mom tried to get rid of her jet lag in time to start traveling again on Wednesday.  She did have a bit of excitement, though, when she went up to the rooftop deck to relax and saw one of the housekeepers sweeping on the other side.  She went over to say "hello," but the woman was so engrossed in her work that she didn't notice Mom walk up and nearly jumped out of her skin when Mom reached out and touched her shoulder.  Of course, the episode became instantly famous throughout the building, and I heard about it upon my return from the concierge before I even had the chance to see Mom!  But now she and the housekeeper are friends (of course)!   And the fame doesn't hurt either.

Other than that bit of excitement, it was a pretty quiet day, relaxing and getting ready for our departure to Mendoza early the next morning.  Dad had sent us an email from LAN saying that they were changing their electronic ticketing systems and that travelers should get to the airport 4 hours early in case of delays due to the change.  We were nervous at first, but then I looked at my e-receipt and saw that our flight was through Iberia, so we ignored the warning.  I should have looked a bit closer...