Nearing the end of the second day, solo in Santiago with William and Jackson, while Jeremy works at the Kinross offices nearby.
Key learning: "Cerrado blah blah dias Luna blah blah blah" loosely translates to "closed on Mondays" My Monday plan was to let the boys loose at Parco Araucano, the giant park nearby, with a few balls and some sandwiches, as a low-key start to our solo mission in Santiago. Not sure why it is necessary to close a park to cut grass, water plants, rake, etc. but thus is the Chilean way, so I rolled with it and opted for Starbucks, pool time and lots of Pinocchio.
Got into the groove on Day #2 - jumped on the Metro with the boys and went to Los Dominicos, to the massive artisan market. There were several pet shops, with baby ducklings, parrots, bunnies, etc. and a few giant cages filled with other larger birds, which was enough to facinate William and Jackson. I did some very hurried shopping while William commandeered the stroller through the narrow pathways, cafes and nooks of the beautiful outdoor market. I concluded that I'll need to return and actually do some real shopping - the Alpaca woolen scarves / hats / sweaters, native artwork, jewelery, etc. were amazing. After exploring the market we hit a nearby playground to burn off residual energy and eat our sandwiches, before heading back on the metro.
The novelty of eating out with the kids has officially expired. Tonight we are making use of our kitchen in our suite and eating in. The colouring, sticker books, activity books, trains, planes and automobiles are losing their novelty at dinner time and it has become more stressful than enjoyable eating dinner out with the boys each night. Some babysitting is long overdue - hoping to set up a few evenings in the near future so we can have dinner without screetching, fighting over toys and the general mahem of keeping little boys up late and behaving in restauants!
I start my Spanish tutoring sessions tomorrow - a friend of a friend has agreed to teach me some conversational Spanish. When I speak Spanish, which is necessary every day given that most people here don't speak much, if any, English... I typically get puzzled looks. Fortunately my charades skills and innocent face have come in handy at getting my point across. Older women still insist on starting conversations with me about the children - I feel rude but often smile without responding because I have no clue what they are asking me.
I'll post some photos with this blog once I get around to uploading again.
Key learning: "Cerrado blah blah dias Luna blah blah blah" loosely translates to "closed on Mondays" My Monday plan was to let the boys loose at Parco Araucano, the giant park nearby, with a few balls and some sandwiches, as a low-key start to our solo mission in Santiago. Not sure why it is necessary to close a park to cut grass, water plants, rake, etc. but thus is the Chilean way, so I rolled with it and opted for Starbucks, pool time and lots of Pinocchio.
Got into the groove on Day #2 - jumped on the Metro with the boys and went to Los Dominicos, to the massive artisan market. There were several pet shops, with baby ducklings, parrots, bunnies, etc. and a few giant cages filled with other larger birds, which was enough to facinate William and Jackson. I did some very hurried shopping while William commandeered the stroller through the narrow pathways, cafes and nooks of the beautiful outdoor market. I concluded that I'll need to return and actually do some real shopping - the Alpaca woolen scarves / hats / sweaters, native artwork, jewelery, etc. were amazing. After exploring the market we hit a nearby playground to burn off residual energy and eat our sandwiches, before heading back on the metro.
The novelty of eating out with the kids has officially expired. Tonight we are making use of our kitchen in our suite and eating in. The colouring, sticker books, activity books, trains, planes and automobiles are losing their novelty at dinner time and it has become more stressful than enjoyable eating dinner out with the boys each night. Some babysitting is long overdue - hoping to set up a few evenings in the near future so we can have dinner without screetching, fighting over toys and the general mahem of keeping little boys up late and behaving in restauants!
I start my Spanish tutoring sessions tomorrow - a friend of a friend has agreed to teach me some conversational Spanish. When I speak Spanish, which is necessary every day given that most people here don't speak much, if any, English... I typically get puzzled looks. Fortunately my charades skills and innocent face have come in handy at getting my point across. Older women still insist on starting conversations with me about the children - I feel rude but often smile without responding because I have no clue what they are asking me.
I'll post some photos with this blog once I get around to uploading again.
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