Beaches and Baking

I just made some banana bread, and I didn't even have to come up with alternatives for any of the ingredients!  It turned out pretty good.  I made cookies about a week ago, and it was slightly more challenging than the banana bread was.  Mostly because the recipe called for brown sugar.  They don't have that delightful, moist, molasses infused, joyous sugar here in Chile.  I thought it wasn't too big of a deal because I could just get molasses and make my own.  Except they don't have  molasses either.  So I needed to find an alternative to the alternative.  And thanks to the internet, I found one.

Azúcar y Miel = Brown Sugar Alternative

Yes, honey is an alternative for molasses.  So, instead of using brown sugar in my cookies, I used extra white sugar and honey.  They turned out pretty good, but they definitely tasted different.  They seemed sweeter and not quite as moist.  I am not sure if I had the ratio right.  The Chileans loved them though, so that was really all that mattered. 

I went to the beach with my new flatmates last weekend.  It was chilly, but the chill didn't take away from the beauty of the coast.

Chilean Coast

 Despite the fact that it was rather chilly (I had on my hoodie and scarf), I still had to put my feet in the Pacific.  Everybody thought I was crazy for wanting to put my feet in the water, but that didn't stop me from being the crazy gringa that I am.  I didn't do much frolicking though.  I will save that for Beach Time when it is warmer out.

Freezing in the Pacific

We stayed in some cabins just outside of ConCon, and of course, there were some strays.  We fed them,  and then banished them from the porch.  Although, they kept coming back up... I wonder why...

Dog Scratching Himself- How Manly

 Peace and love!

Current Tunes: Camera Obscura (I am still sad I didn't get to see them when they were in Iowa City.  It was hard enough to get people to go to The Envy Corps with me though, and I don't think I could have pulled off getting people to go see music they didn't know two nights in a row.)

So Fresh, and So Clean, Clean

I want to make sure everybody is aware that they need to say "so fresh and so clean clean" in the same manner that Outkast says it.  That being said...

It rained!  It is amazing how clear things get after the rain.  I was going to walk up Cerro San Cristóbal and take pictures to post for everybody back home, but I got part way up the hill yesterday and found out my camera was out of battery.  So, sorry guys.  You are going to have to wait longer for clear pictures of the city.  It really is amazing how much more clear you can see things after the rain.  I live not far from Cerro San Cristóbal, and when I stand in Plaza Italia, the top of the hill is usually hazy.  But not yesterday or today.  I could see clearly now the rain had gone.

Another note on the rain: The drainage system here in Santiago sucks.  Last night it rained pretty good, so there was water everywhere.  By the time I got back to my apartment, my legs were soaked up to my knees, and I had to lay my shoes by the fire (aka my heater) to dry.  I love the rain though, and I loved that made Santiago so fresh and so clean clean.

The other thing that got so fresh and so clean clean yesterday was my laundry.  Self-service laundromats are not the norm.  Instead, you take your clothes in and have the employees there wash/dry them for you.  It cost me a precious peso*, and I normally don't like when other people do my laundry because I have been doing it myself for close to a decade, and I like it done my way- This is MY house!  But my clothes were so amazing when they came back! They were perfect!  They were folded so nice and in such a neat pile.  I just stared at them for a bit.  Then I put my face in them, inhaled, and thought, "Damn, these are so fresh and so clean clean!"  The lady was also super nice and helpful when I didn't fully understand the process of getting my clothes cleaned.

Can you spot the stray?

*It was really not that expensive, I am just kinda poor right now, and I didn't want to spend money on taking my clothes in to get cleaned.

Small Talk and Strays

I always find it interesting when people tell me about their pre-conceptions of Americans and when I hear about/learn of common conceptions of Americans.  So far, I have encountered two instances of this, and I thought both were kind of interesting.

The first was during my training when I was informed that Americans are good at small talk.  We are able to open up and talk to anybody about anything at any given time.  Carlos was saying he found it facinating to watch the Americans interact during our training sessions because we would act like friends.  We would chat about what we did that day, the weather, exchange numbers, how long our flights were, where we were from, go get lunch together, etc.  This is apparently something that Chileans don't do, and they find it really interesting when Americans do it.  They like to see it, and they want to learn how to engage in small talk.  During training we were told that it was important to be ourselves, including engaging in small talk, because 1. It is culturally relavent to the language the students are learning; and 2. They want to learn more about it and see it in practice.

I find this conception of Americans really facinating for a couple of reasons.

First, I am not good at small talk.  I am awkward and weird, and I never know what to say.  (However, I will say that as soon as I got on the plane to come here (and maybe even before that) I told myself I would be more outgoing.  I told myself I needed to be more proactive in my socializing in order to not spend the next six months completely isolated from everybody and everything in Santiago.  I think I have done pretty well for myself since my arrival, considering how terribly self conscience I am when meeting people, and even after meeting people.) 

Second, I feel like this is a strange idea to have of Americans.  It is not something I have ever really thought about, and I still don't know if I really agree that Americans are really that good or participate that much in small talk.  I could easily be wrong.  I guess I hadn't thought about it much, so when I was told that Chileans have this conception of Americans, I thought it was strange.

I don't know- What do you think?

I don't know if you have heard, but Santiago is full, and I mean full, of stray dogs (and a few cats here and there).  I have decided to occasionally include pictures of some of the strays I find.  I feel like it is appropriate because strays are popping up all over my life in Santiago, so my blog about Chile should have strays popping up in it  now and again.  

Strays (and pigeons!) by Palacio de la Moneda