Small differences

Life has changed somewhat for me, us rather, since we moved here. I mean, it's modern, it's a big city. There are nearly 6 million people living in Santiago. It's fast paced. I have everything that I could possibly need here. It's just different.

For one thing, we have chosen to live in an apartment building. I used to think of apartment buildings as 2 or 3 stories. (Except of course if you live in New York). But here in Chile, that is not the case. Ours is a shorter building, the floors go into the teens. Many of those around us are much taller.

When we go outside to play, it looks something like this. Sometimes we take the motos (motorcycle), sometimes we take other toys.

This elevator isn't very big. I'm glad it has a window. It keeps the kids occupied.

Both of my kids have been begging me for a dog. Why? Because it's in their nature. Don't all kids ask for dogs? Well, could you imagine trying to train the puppy to go outside? Grab the dog, wait for the elevator....... and then ride xx number of floors down, walk outside.... yeah right. The poor puppy would have already finished on your leg, in the hallway, and in the elevator. That would be horrible. But somehow, people do it. My kids want a dog so bad, they even pretend to be dogs. My brother and I used to do this too when we were little. Here is a picture of Alexa being a dog. She corrects me sometimes and tells me that she is a puppy, not Alexa. *sigh* So no. I don't want to even think about what life would be like with a dog in this apartment building.

I am not sure that I have even spoken about our incredibly small ovens. But here is a picture of mine. I was baking some muffins. And yes, it's just a little wider than a 12 count muffin pan. I have some larger bake ware, and some other things that won't even fit. It's also been fun trying to convert Fahrenheit temps to Celsius.

Another thing I've had to get used to is seeing an actual grocery cart inside my home. We use it to bring the groceries up from the parking area, which is below the building. I'm thankful for it, because it would be a pain to lug up so many bags, back and forth. It's just weird.

While on Twitter the other night, @themomjen was talking about Oreos. I was desperate for some, thinking that I wouldn't be able to get any here. When we went to the store, this is what I found. A small package of Oreos. I used the pen as a reference for size. They were very good.

Now, I'm not going to go into the milk again. I've already discussed that in another post all of it's own. So if you are interested in finding out why I don't eat cereal while I am here, please click on this link and read all about the kind of milk they have here.

One last little bit. We don't take the trash out. Anywhere. We have a trash shoot inside of our apartment. Sometimes I worry that when I open the door, someone from the floors above me will be dumping some garbage, and it will come into my apartment if I open the door. Probably not, but I don't really want to take that chance. I always open and close our door very quickly. And it always makes a loud noise when going down and banging and clanging it's way all the way down to the bottom. You can hear the noise of the people above you throwing out their garbage as well. It's just a bit weird.

So there you have it. A peek into my life. I will be here for another year.