Yesterday I had one long Chile moment. We have been planning for months to travel to Mendoza, Argentina for Thanksgiving. Of course, it's not a holiday here in Chile, nor in the country to the east, but we have other American friends there who invited us to come over. This would mean a five or six hour drive over the pass through the Andes and back again on Sunday, which I was really looking forward to.

Yesterday, however, I happened to glance at my carnet de identidad, my Chilean ID card. It expires today. That wouldn't be a problem, except that it also means our travel visa has expired. We sent in our visa papers for the next step in our quest for a permanent visa about 30 days ago, on the first day we were allowed to apply. We still have not received the papers that say that it is in process.

So I called around. Turns out that we can stay without any trouble in Chile for the next 60 days, even if we don't get the papers that we need. But we can't leave Chile until we get that paper that says they are working on it. They have another 15 days or so, so they say.

I guess it will be Thanksgiving in Santiago, then. At least we can get what we need here. Pumpkin comes in cans, and cranberry sauce, too. No sweet potatoes in Chile, though. For our turkey, we will probably grill turkey breast because it's easier to find than a whole turkey. Who wants to get up at 4 AM to put the thing in the oven anyway? Besides, it's almost summer here. A barbeque will fit right in. Maybe we will go swimming while the turkey grills.

Hah! I couldn't help but laugh. Mark and I have been talking to Rachel about watching out for cars as we walk around our neighborhood. "You have to check all the gates to make sure they are closed before you run by them!" Here every house has a front fence between five and seven feet high, usually iron painted some color that matches the house. Every house.

So today I was telling Rachel that when I grew up at Nana's house (that's what she calls my mom) none of the houses had fences or gates in the front. "You could just run across all the grass of all the neighbors all the way down the street if you wanted to," I said.

Her response, with a confused tilt to the head: "When you took walks with Nana, did you have to stop in front of EVERY house?!"

When we moved into this house we rented a year ago, we didn't think we would be moving so soon. It's a nice looking house with a few minor issues, but this is Chile, right? Well, the minor issues are bigger than we thought. Isn't that always how it works? And now we are moving.

It didn't occur to me when we gave our required sixty-days notice, however, that we would have to be showing the house to potential renters and buyers for the next 60 days. In Chile it is common for people not to put a house or apartment in the paper for rent until it is soon to be vacated, or even already empty. However, we seem to have the only landlady in town who thinks it is a good idea to put the house for rent early.

This has two consequences: First, we have to show our house to "potential" renters and buyers a LOT. Almost everyday we have four or five sets of people coming through to consider the house. It's hard for me to get ready to move when I have to keep the house clean enough for visitors all the time!

The second consequence is that all of these "potentials" are used to the common practice of waiting until the last minute, so they all are looking for places that are available now. This means that they all come and look, but then can't rent here because they need a place sooner. Meaning I have more and more people coming all the time!

The one time that it would be convenient for things to go the Chilean way!

Rachel's birthday party qualifies as a Chile Moment. She's turing four, so our house rule is that she gets to invite four friends. The problem is that she has five friends. They are all little girls from different aspects of her life here in Santiago: two American friends have parents that work with Mark and me, two Australian friends are from our church, and one Uruguayan girl is from the preschool. An international birthday party for a four-year-old! I thought it would be a great idea.

Well the problem turned out to be that while all the girls speak and understand Spanish, Rachel and most of the friends prefer English. The poor little Uruguayan girl wanted to play with them, but Rachel was giving the rules of all her games in English. So the little girl and Rachel took turns for the entire party running outside and crying by themselves. The lifesaver was that the little girl's mom stayed the whole party. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had a clue how to manage the whole thing.

Funny, though, after everyone left and we were cleaning up, I asked Rachel if she had a good time. "Oh YES, Mommy! I had ALL my friends here!" It's a good thing kids forget easily!

Rachel is turning four this Saturday, so today we took treats to share with her preschool class. Her teachers wanted me to come at 10:30, so I made strawberry muffins and brought them. Jenna tagged along, but wasn't very impressed with all the three- and four-year-olds who wanted to kiss her or hug her. The teacher made all the kids sit in a circle, then lit the round "sun" candle. Rachel got to hold the globe and walk around the "sun" in the middle four times slowly as the teacher told the story of how Rachel was born and grew up to be four! She pointed at the pictures of Rachel as a baby, as a one-year-old, when Jenna was born, last year celebrating her birthday at the same preschool, and last month. It was great. I was thinking, Rachel is really fitting in here! Then they sang Feliz Cumpleaños for "Raquel", and the teacher asked the kids (who were pretty bored by now) if they knew what language is spoken where Rachel is from. It was the only answer all the kids knew really well: ¡inglés! Then all the kids went off to eat their quequitos, little cakes. I know I am seen as really weird: I'm the only parent who makes homemade birthday treats and doesn't invite every kid in class to the party. Parenting is definitely one of my most gringo things!