I have another blog

that's all about breastfeeding. I'm drawing from my other life as a volunteer lactation consultant and trying to share what makes breastfeeding easier. http://www.breastfeedingiscute.blogspot.com/

I am forcing myself to write something. I wish I had a new picture to post, but I screwed up my computer and now I can't access my photos.

I have been enjoying this song lately, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpVwc0kS1Dw&feature=related Ever since Chile I love Enrique Iglesias, I never even noticed his songs before. I had only heard the English versions, but hearing him in Spanish is so much better! All of a sudden, I am loving the energy of his music, he is so earnest and sad, yet hopeful in all of his songs. When I am on one of my many challenging drives around town, I crank my boy Enrique and feel a lot better about life.

Its been hard lately, I don't even really want to be around people that much, I don't want to talk about it--I am not entirely loving my mom life these days and its rough. I'm not going to feel sorry for myself, I have a lot of blessings, but I need lots of sleep and lots of exercise to manage these days. I am going to take charge of the things I can control and let go of the things I can't control and hopefully that will help.

I apologize if this is boring...

but, as the trip fades a little into the background, I want to jot some of my impressions of Chile:

-Rastafari is pretty big with young people (don't I sound old saying that?)
I saw many dreadlocked teens waiting for buses, walking down the streets etc. I love dreaded people, I had Rasta roommates in college and I did have dreads for awhile too.

-The food, all whole foods, nothing processed where we stayed. All of the vegetables and fruits taste so much better than here.

-The wine is mad fruity and strong. The young stuff stays in Chile mostly and the rest is exported. Compared to Italian young wine, the Chilean wine is really flavorful.

-They love babies there. Pregnant ladies everywhere, everybody holding babies in their arms, not in buckets as much as you see here. Public breastfeeding is normal and attitudes are relaxed.

-Credit is really pushed on folks in Chile. Every store has a credit card and everyone around us in line at the mall, at the grocery store--were all using credit. I bought a $12 camisole and was asked how many payments did I want to make.

-Chilean Spanish is not easy to understand, it flows fast and letters are dropped off of words where you least expect it, making your head spin if you happen to be a "Gringita" like me.

That's all for tonight!

Highlights

First, the Cathedral of Santiago. Then, days later, a vineyard right in the city limits, Cousino Macul. The wine samples are not the teeny drops you get in a winery here, but a big full glass of wine x2. We were the only ones with kids on the tour and that made the tour guide give us more and more wine, which was pretty funny when you saw the other people's faces.

Are boys born defective? Only in America...

http://addwriteblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/fighting-for-foreskin.html

This is a great blog post about a man who keeps his son in one piece even after his OB's office actually made him and his wife listen to a sales pitch about cutting up their baby. Circumcision is such a business in this country that getting the real facts about how unnecessary and harmful it is, is really hard to do here. Chile is one of the many countries that doesn't cut their babies and I think its pretty weird that its considered normal and routine here.

We went out to eat in Santiago one night, to meet my newly married Godmother's daughter and her husband. We had a plan to sit outside and live it up with lots of good food and Chilean wine. I was still not 100% well, but we went anyway and had a great time. The funny thing is that we found the only Chilean vegetarian restaurant, totally by accident because I stopped in to use the bathroom and the kids thought it looked cool. We had fabulous food there and a band randomly set up across the street and played, the baby danced. Those 2 handsome men are my husband's oldest friends and our hosts.

More scenes from our trip

Easter Sunday in the Andes. A Chilean style cook out, kids playing in the fountain and a little human fussboll.

http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/

Tricia, the new mom of the sweetest preemie little girl, who has CF and was awaiting a lung transplant... has gotten her new lungs! Please keep her in your prayers as she heals. http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/

We survived! We're back...

Here are some photos of the house up above Santiago: