Mom visits Chile!!

Come visit us! My mom did...
In my time in Chile I have had the privelage of hosting a few visitors and showing them my fair city but none was as special as having my mom come to see my new home here with my wonderful man. Unfortunately she was only here for a short 4 day visit, but we took advantage of every moment, showing her our life and our surroundings. Cristian took her to see a basketball game that he refereed for and I took mom to class and introduced her to 2 Venezuelan ladies who are PhD students in forrestry. Mom got to see my conversational class style and I think we all had fun, I know my students did, becuase they were asking after her in the next class.

It was really interesting to have mom here and seeing her expereince things as new, becuase I have become so accustomed to life here that I don't find things that remarkable any more, they are just part of life. For example, we went to the vegetable fish market that comes to our neighborhood every Saturday, and for me, I know some of the vendors, I go every week and it is just part of my weekly shopping, but mom was so intrigued by it and was taking lots of picutres and questioning how clean things are. It has never occured to me to take a camera there, or to question the cleanliness, I mean I clean my vegetables and fruit of course but I dont see it as dirty. But, like I said, it was fun to see things through mom's fresh eyes.


Mom will have to speak to the highlight of the weekend for her, but I know that the highlight for me was just watching how much fun Cristian and Mom had talking, they are both talkers and I felt a bit like a speactator to thier conversation and it was awesome. I know that mom came to see me and Chile and all but lets be honest, she wanted to check out who this man was that I was making this bug fuss about, and I think she understands me better now which is a wonderful feeling. The 3 of us really did have a great time being goofy and introspective (of course, we are talking about my mom here) and a little adventurous.

We took mom to a few beautiful spots on the coast becuase as far as I am concerned, the ocean is the best landscape, okay thats an oxymoron, ocean, land, but you get the idea. Really I am just going to post pictures, but I hope that this continues to serve as a brochure/advertisement to come to Chile and that many more of you will come to visit me in the future. I will be breifly absent from the coutry from June through September, but the northern hemisphere is a better place to be during those months anyways (except for those skiers out there, sorry).

This is a polypropelene plant for which Crisitan designed an advanced heating system


This is from the area around a musem which was originally the private home and collection of the man who owned the first coal mine in Chile

Amazing oceanfront Estate gone park musem, I love those places, sampling the rich life

Mom, capturing the beauty of the moment

Mom was even lucky enough to have a run in with the super heros. Amusingly enough, during a very interesting lunch in which my mother met Cristian's mother and Cristian's sister, it was revealed that Cristian has an alter ego, Centella. Centella is aparently a superhero from a Japanimation series from the late 70s/early 80s. Cristian was so inspired that when challeged by local bullies to ride down a big hill on a bicycle, he transformed into Centella, complete with cape and cap. He actually made it down the hill in one peice but bullies being bullies were annoyed with the superhero's success and had to shove a stick in his wheel in the runout which sent him flying. So being the superhero that he is, he flew but when he hit the ground he lost his superpowers and broke his collar bone. But luckily for him, many year later another super lady super hero has come to save him. I am not sure if its a super disco lady or a super heroess, but either way she has saved him. And I think her mom approves.