Lucho con la ducha (Battle with the Shower)

Okay, I try to stay positive about my experiences here in Chile because seriously I do love it here. The weather has been nice and HOT, there is always some place new to explore and visit and things are so much cheaper (2 pounds of fresh, juicy strawberries for 75 cents) But right now I really need to vent about my daily battle that makes me question if living here is really worth it. My enemy = the calefont!

Oh yeah, it looks innocent, doesn´t it? It is NOT. For those of you who have experienced a calefont before, I know you are on my side. For those of you who are innocent to how evil this machine really is, let me explain.

Chile is really a very developed country but when it comes to heating water, that´s where it all goes downhill. A calefont is used with propane gas to heat water when you need it for showering, washing dishes, etc. Sounds like a resourceful tool, doesn´t it? Well, don´t be fooled. My daily showering routine now includes twisting the cold knob a few degrees so that the water is tolerable for approximately 8 seconds before it gets too cold for comfort. I then twist the knob the other way, waiting for my 8 seconds of tolerable water again before it gets too hot. (Scalding hot some would say...) And it goes back and forth, back and forth until I finally decide to just give up.

Now, I´m not looking for sympathy. I know that I chose to move here and leave all those wonderful water heaters behind. I´m just venting in a public manner and reminding you to all be grateful for the water heaters in your lives. Treat them well. Give them regular check ups. And remember that it could be worse!

Say 8 Tag -- Thanks Lar...

Just a little tag-a-roo from my favorite sister Laura--Enjoy!

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. The Office
2. Ugly Betty
3. Private Practice
4. Arrested Development
5. NCIS
6. One Tree Hill
7. Casáte Conmigo
8. Amazing Race

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Olive Garden
2. Bajio´s
3. Craigo´s
4. Melina's
5. Rupe's Burgers
6. The Backyard
7. Mexivan in Rexburg
8. Chili´s

8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1. Made lunch (tacos) for the elders
2. Ate `once´ with Pablo
3. Helped Pablo with homework
4. Sent my resume to a bunch of different places
5. Chatted with Mark
6. Checked my facebook
7. Caught up on the watching The Office (www.surfthechannel.com)
8. Offered to wash my clothes but the lady I live with it did it for me

8 Things That I Look Forward to
1. Christmas package from my Mommy!
2. Something sparkly on my hand
3. Getting Christmas shopping done
4. Going to the beach on Monday!
5. Pablo graduating
6. Seeing my family again and meeting my new nephew that will come in Feb!
7. Working...
8. Seeing Twilight (gets to Chile January 1st)

8 Things I Love about Fall/Winter (Spring/Summer here...)
1. The cool evenings
2. The sunsets in Chile over the Andes Mountains
3. Eating ice cream that was only like 17 cents
4. Going to the beach
5. Eating Mote con Huesillo YUM!
6. Taking siestas
7. Planning your day around the cooler parts of the day
8. I´m just grateful it isn´t snowing!

8 Things On My Wishlist
1. Peanut Butter M&M´s
2. New bag/purse
3. a small little Bling-Bling on my hand
4. Only having ONE roommate who is not female
5. a JOB
6. my own apartment
7. A nephew
8. Lindor Truffles

8 Friends I Tag:
Katy W., Michelle Y., Hillary K., Teresa S., Lacey H., Shara H., Kayla G. and anyone else who wants to!

Weekend Fun!

Though I didn´t spend my weekend eating lots of Turkey and early morning shopping, we did have a fun weekend! Friday night was the Azul y Blanco (Blue and White) Stake Dance for all the YM and YW. I recently got called as the 2nd counselour of YW in my ward, and Pablo is the 1st counselour of YM in the Stake, so we had plenty to do to get ready for the dance. Most of the day Friday was spent decorating and getting ready and then Friday night was the dance. Here´s a picture of three of my 4 Beehives (and the grand daughter of the YW President who is from a different ward) Here´s a picture of Pablo with the 2nd counselour from our Stake and the President and other counselours of the Stake YM Presidency--they are all single, RM´s if any of you are out there looking! (wink, wink!) Notice that they are all wearing the same blue ties--just following the theme I guess!

Here are a few pictures of our humble Thanksgiving Day feast if you will! Pablo and I made chicken and rice ( pretty common Chilean meal!) I didn´t know how to make rice like chileans do so I got online and typed in Google--how to cook rice. And guess what--I found a page with step by step instructions, WITH pictures! Nice! (Click HERE if you want to try it at home!)
And don´t forget our scrumpcious deseret of ALFAJORES! Not home made, but one of my absolute favorite treats here in Chile. Seriously, how do Americans survive without them?! They are chocolate dipped, cookie-ish, with manjar (kind of like carmel but way better!) My mouth waters looking at the picture!
I hope you all had great Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekends--though mine was a bit different then usual, it was still pretty great! Now, onward and upward with Christmas shopping and Holiday plans!

Gracias a tí, Podemos Seguir

I have a few other posts that I need to make but I really wanted to share this with all of you today so I decided to wait on the other posts and tell you about the Teletón. I know a lot of times I share crazy Chilean stories, but I seriously love Teletón! Basically since I got here to Santiago, all the news, etc. has been about the upcoming Teletón--it´s a national fundraiser if you will for kids with special needs to be able to receive the help that they need. The money that the raise during these 27 hours is all for kids who need help and can´t afford it.
The cool thing about Teletón is that during these 27 hours (it starts Friday night and ends Saturday night) all of the TV channels show only the Teletón, the banks stay open all night so that people can donate money, all the big companies do things to help motivate the people too. For example, for every Happy Meal that is purchased at McDonalds, they donate so much money, etc. It is really kind of fun to watch the entertainment durning the day but even cooler are the success stories that they show through the day.
The guy who started it all is named Don Franscisco. He was one of the first animators here in Chile and he actually lives in Miami most of the year. But he comes back to Chile every year to do the Teletón. It is amazing to see a man who has so much love for the kids--he spends a lot of the time crying when they share the stories and it is really touching. Here´s a link to a video of the last 30 years of Teletón.
I know this may not be very interesting, but I wanted to share a little bit of the good stuff here in Chile. Having a National Fundraiser is a lot of work and it´s amazing to see this country come together to get money for the kids who need it. If you want to check out a bit more about Teletón, click here!

Christmas is coming...

Feliz Navidad! I know that most of you are making plans to celebrate Thanksgiving, but here in Santiago I am anxiously awaiting Christmas! I´ve never really been a big fan of Thanksgiving anyway, so I don´t really feel like I am missing out on much!

The other day I was itching to get in the Christmas spirit so Pablo and I talked his mom into putting the tree up and decorated! So we put on some traditional Christmas tunes and started trimming the tree! Even though we were smothered in heat, it did make me feel a little Christmas spirit in my heart! Anyone else have their tree up yet?

(Typical Pablo picture...and the bracelet with `saints´on it isn´t his! Feliz Navidad!)

HSM3

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Pablito (little Pablo)

This little guy here is Pablito! My very creative boyfriend had to make a miniature, 3D paper toy of himself for one of his classes. FYI Pablo is studying Publicity with a minor in Creativity. He is on his last semester and finishes classes in January and then will turn in his Thesis and officially graduate sometime in March or April. He is kind of a perfectionist when it comes to these things and he worked really hard on his little guy here--right down to the marks on the jeans and the tee shirt that he is wearing is one that Pablo has. Even the hat is exactly like one of his! I just wanted to show up a little bit of his work. (Oh and by the way, he did get the highest grade in the class!)