It sounds like someone outside is training a whale to sing

By using a squeaky toy.  Very weird.  It's never quiet here in our new apartment!

You can't take a picture of the ice cream in the airport in Peru

But we did anyway!  What rebels we are!  But that's why it's blurry:

We wanted a picture of it because it was formed into the shape of castles, sort of.  But it's really hard to tell in this picture, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Happy birthday to our pal Rebecca!  Her best birthday will probably be in 2 years, for 12/13/14, but this one I bet is going to be pretty great too!  Rebecca we hope you have a great day and we can't wait to see you so soon!  We're sorry we're missing your birthday party, it's probably super great :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my mom!  It's definitely the best birthday possible this year (12/12/12), and some might argue the best of the century!  Happy Birthday, Mom!  I hope you have a great day!

Sam's parents are here!

They arrived late last night and we met them at the airport.  Today they're coming to see the museum and then possibly go on a tour of the city.  I think tonight we might go out for dinner at a restaurant recommended to me by Sarah, which is Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate).  We scoped it out last week and it looks great, so we just have to hope the food is great too!

Human vs. HAL: Microphone stand

This post is part of a series “Human vs. HAL” highlighting a peculiar trend we’ve noticed in Chile. There are many jobs here that are done by people that would be done by machines in the US. We are trying to take photos and notice as many as possible to document here!

As Caroline has already documented, we stumbled upon a very cool event with the Korean Navy when we were in Vina del Mar, which even included two renditions of Gangnam Style (of course).

Well, beforehand we had just been talking about the way many jobs here are done by people instead of machines, and so Caroline pointed out a hilarious example of it during this event.


This woman is reading her speech, and that's right, instead of a microphone stand, there is a person standing and holding the microphone to her mouth. Yes, a human microphone stand. To his credit, the guy was a real pro.

Santiago - a city of spontaneous culture!

There was a guy re-directing traffic so this group of bikers could take over the road.

I spend a LOT of my time in Santiago on buses. Most weekdays, I have a tutoring job in the far-flung wealthy suburb of Lo Barnechea. It's beautiful, but it is not easy to get to if you don't have a car. So, I take the extremely crowded Metro, transfer from the green line to the red line, then transfer to a bus and ride that for 30-45 minutes. It can be a long commute, and while it's a chance to see the city, it's not my favorite.

Three mornings a week, I volunteer at La Bicicleta Verde, fixing bikes. I enjoy that job, and I really enjoy biking to and from it. Biking is such a fun way to experience Santiago, and as summer has arrived, I've realized that there are quite a few Santiaguinos who bike around the city as well.

One of the cool things about biking in a city is that you can change your route whenever you feel like it, you aren't stuck like on a bus. This is great because Santiago has a lot of free, outdoor cultural events going on all the time. Sometimes I find myself biking by artisan fairs, music concerts, drum circles or other fun things.

Just recently, I was biking home from Bici Verde and I encountered a huge group of cyclists taking up the road. I knew that Santiago has a critical mass event, but I also knew that had just happened a few days prior, so I figured this was something else. Since I had a little time, I joined the group and biked alongside. 

I did my best to pull up to someone friendly looking and ask what it was all about. They answered, but I didn't really understand the response. I asked a few more people, and eventually pieced together that this was part of an "urban intervention" and that we were going to the GAM, a cool cultural center/museum.

After following the group a bit more, we did end up at GAM. People parked their bikes and then started participating in some kind of outdoor urban art project. I didn't have a ton of time, so I looked around a little and then went home. I did see a few especially cool things, you can check them out below:

This says "Before I die..." and then there are a bunch of lines that say "I want to..." and people fill in the blanks with chalk. It was fun to read ones that I could understand, like "Antes de morir, quiero un taco"

This says "Sin Bip! Sin Tarjeta. Soy feliz en bicicleta". It's backwards because it's for screen printing on t-shirts

The screen printing thing was really cool. The idea is that you bring your own t-shirt and the guy would print it for you. I almost had him do my shirt right then and there, but it wasn't a good one to get printed. The text is awesome. It translates roughly to "Don't need a metro card, don't need a bus, I'm happy on my bike!" but it also rhymes :)

This was one part of the public art project. There were many more things being painted and built too.

 Have you ever stumbled upon something cool during your commute and decided to investigate?