That was a horrible experience.
The stores were so crowded with after-holiday shoppers and the food was so different we didn't even know what to buy. Chileans eat a lot of pasta and a lot of hard bread. There is no canned food, no chocolate chips, and no spices. But I won't go into that today. For now just imagine a confused tall white woman in a store pushing a cart with a baby seat (it took up the whole cart) while her son follows with a cart full of food and her husband (who may be brown, but is tall) brings up the rear with a toddler and more food. And also there are two other children running around and getting in other customer's way and asking what everything is. And also imagine the store is rather crowded and we have no idea what anything is.
Yes, it was that bad.
After a few painful hours we finally checked out. But when we got to the car, which is a used, shiny, red explorer, we realized we only have like one foot of trunk space and somehow have to get laundry baskets and big cartons of eggs home. Mando somehow shoved it all in and I "ran" into another store to buy a hair dryer. After a few unsuccessful attempts at Spanish I came out an hour later with a bouncy seat for Sam, measuring cups and spoons, and an iron.
We'll revisit stores later because we've learned more since then.
Sunday we went to church for the first time. I know you will be surprised, but we walked in a few minutes late. No worries, church hadn't even started yet. People sort of casually drifted in and children screamed and ran all over throughout the whole Sacrament meeting. I picked up a few words here and there but it takes concentration for me to understand Spanish and I was trying to keep my kids all quiet most of the time.Although it is warm outside during the day, it gets really cold at night here. In Chile, they only heat the Chapel in the church buildings. The rest of the church is freezing cold, which I didn't know beforehand. My girls were in their Easter dresses and sandals and none of us had coats. I didn't even pack tights and closed shoes for us or sweaters for the boys.
After Sacrament meeting we tried to figure out which class the kids would be in and decided to send the older three all together so they wouldn't be as confused. Now may be a good time to mention that they can't speak or understand Spanish. The Sunday School classes for primary were broken up into three groups: 18 months to 3, 4 to 7, and 8 to 11. Mando went with Becca to Nursery, which was about the size of the cleaning closet at our old ward; Paul, Joseph and Isabelle all went to the 4-7 year old class even though Paul is almost 9; And I hovered in the hall with Sam and peeked in the windows to make sure everyone was okay.
As far as I could tell, they had no lesson. The kids just ran around and screamed. Sharing time was just about the same. I peeked in and saw Paul with his arms draped protectively around Isabelle and Joseph, a horrified look on his face. They did sing some songs and the kids settled down a little so I'm sure at some point they did have sharing time. Isabelle and Becca only made it through the first hour before they were too cold and too scared and joined me in the hall in a small patch of sunlight from the door.
When we got in the car after church I asked the kids how they liked primary. Paul said he thought he learned some new Spanish words. I asked him which words and he replied, "silencio."
But amidst all the freezing and confusion, it was a great experience. I realized that I can carry on a very basic conversation in Spanish and met a few people who speak some English. I also was air kissed on the cheek many, many times by a lot of very nice women. Everyone was very kind and welcoming and I think that with a few additional layers of clothing and a few more Spanish words in our vocabulary, we will all enjoy church here!
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