Turning 25

This past week I celebrated my 25th birthday. December 8th is a Holiday here in Chile. It is the Immaculate Conception, Mary’s, so we had the day off. We drove to Temuco and stopped in at Juanita’s to pick up a package from Jake’s parents. They sent us a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter for Jake and JIF for me. We also got some bite size Snickers, some Simply Sleep, lots of Jerky, and a box of brownie mix. Oh, it was a wonderful! Thank you!

We walked around one of the ferias (market) to finish up our Christmas shopping and then headed to lunch. We enjoyed a very quiet lunch and Ruby Tuesday, very quiet. We were the only people in the entire restaurant. Sadly, there was no salad bar. Jake was a little heartbroken but he enjoyed his trio plate of chicken, ribs, and shrimp. I had a burger, a real burger with cheese and stuff! There was even real honey mustard! Oh and for dessert we had chocolate tall cake, and it was actual chocolate tall cake. Ruby Tuesday used to serve this massive dessert full of chocolaty goodness, moose, ice cream, whipped cream, and crushed cookies. It was awesome! They no longer offer this item so when Jake saw it on the menu he jumped to have it again. Sadly Jake only had it one time before they changed the recipe. There was one alteration to the dessert; it had manjar on top which was an improvement! We ate way too much but it was a nice meal. We then walked back to the mall to catch a movie.

yummy tallcake.....





5 minutes later....







Jake truly loves me to sit through one of the Twilight movies. I told him going in that New Moon was going to be a bad movie, and that I wasn’t going to enjoy it, he defiantly wasn’t going to enjoy it, that he would lose time that he would never get back. He knew this going in and was still a little surprised at how bad it was. He asked beforehand if he was allowed to laugh and I explained that if he didn’t I was going to think something was wrong with him. We giggled our way through enjoying some Skittles.

After the movie we went grocery shopping at the Jumbo and picked up some more Mac & Cheese and found some more Root beers! We headed back to Pucon where I spent the rest of the evening with a killer headache. It might have been one or a combination of the following, the food, the movie, or the weather. It was an enjoyable 25th birthday!

The weather has been better for work but we still haven’t found much. Friday we did find the tip an arrow head and a very specific kind of ceramic. Hopefully we will get a lot of work done this coming week before we head home for a break.
Tomorrow is the Chilean election so everything will be closed tomorrow…..everything….In Chile you have to vote, if you don’t you get fined!

Mandy & Jake

Little trip

After church on Sunday we drove to the base of the volcano. The road, and I use that term loosely, that leads up to the base is very steep and narrow. The truck we are renting as no guts, it barely made it up the road. I couldn’t see how the other little cars made it up there when we finally got to the ski lodge. To my surprise there was a tour bus parked on the side, how they made it up there I will never know. I would have wet my pants had I been on that bus going up that “road”.



Anyway, it was neat up there. The lodge isn’t open right now, but the ski lift just sitting there was kind of cool to see. The volcano was smoking a lot! Turns out it erupted a little last night…..HA! We took a few photos and then headed back down. It was cold up there and we had on shorts and t-shirts. We had no idea what to expect to be up there. After driving back down we headed to Lake Caburga. It is always nice there and we had nothing else to do. The water had not lowered at all but had actually risen a bit. There were a few more people there than the last time we went but still not crowed as it usually is.

Well, the weather forecast claimed that there would be rain in the afternoon today, but the sun was shining when we got up this morning. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we thought maybe we would get some work done today! Oh, what a lovely thought. I was on the other side of the site drawing the maps of the first trench. We had been there about an hour when Jake showed me what looked like a few bug bites on his wrist. The first aid kit that we brought contains Benadryl gel. Sadly it was back at the cabin. He came back in a few minutes and showed me that the bites had spread up his arm. Needless to say they weren’t bug bites but Jake was having an allergic reaction to something. There were ugly red bumps all up his arm. We quickly decided that work would have to wait and we would have to get Jake some kind of antihistamine. We were back in the truck within 5 minutes. All the workers were trying to convince Jake he needed to go to the hospital and get a shot. By this time the bumps had spread to his other arm. The woman at the pharmacy had an antihistamine and told Jake that if it didn’t help and he felt like he couldn’t breathe to then go to the hospital in town and get a shot. She made him take the pill at the counter. There were a few of the bumps on his neck now. We got back to the cabin; Jake took a shower, rubbed the Benadryl gel on the bumps. Thankfully they stopped spreading and the itching lessened. The swelling has gone down a lot and he is now knocked out. No throat closing or eyes swelling. He is fine now, just asleep.

So, no, not any work done today. We have not had a full week of work since we got here. Crossing our fingers for next week!

Tomorrow is a National holiday, the day of Immaculate Conception. Mary’s conception. So, the workers have to day off and Jake and I are heading to Temuco to celebrate my birthday. We are going to eat at Ruby Tuesdays! Jake is so excited about the salad bar, I hope he doesn’t eat himself sick. We have about two weeks left with this trip. It is strange, it seems that time hasn’t really gone by that quickly but then at other times is seems to have flown by. We are excited to take a break and enjoy ourselves in our house, and sleep in our bed. The cabin is nice but we miss home. The United States is defiantly a country of convenience and we have greatly missed that.

Mandy & Jake

Learning new words

I learned a new word in Spanish this week, cerrajero, which means lock smith. Friday morning we had just gotten to the site and started working and Jake realized that he needed more ziplock bags. Any artifacts that we dig up have to be in a bag that is labeled where we dug it up. We had meant to get some more the night before when we went to store, but we forgot. So Jake left his workers there and we headed to the store. It is about a 15 minute drive from the site to where our cabin is. The cabin is basically across the street from the grocery store we use. Jake parked the truck, I jumped out and he locked the doors. We headed in and got the bags and some treats for his workers and walked out the door. As we got closer to the truck I said, “Does it sound like the truck is still on?”

Indeed the truck was still on, and indeed when Jake’s hand went into his pocket to retrieve the keys they were not there. Now, in Jake’s defense the truck we are renting doesn’t turn off when you take the key out of the ignition. It’s weird, so when you get out of the truck, even if you have the keys in your hand the engine is still running. The sound of the truck still being on when we went inside wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Where do you even begin? If we were at home we would call AAA and they would be there super fast and we would be on our way. There are no public phone books, as they would be stolen, and there is no such thing as 411. Jake called Sonia, she is the woman we are renting the cabin from, and got her voice mail. Strike one.

Jake headed back inside the store to see if they had the number for a locksmith while I climbed in the back of the truck and laughed. He returned with the number and it turned out that he was really busy and couldn’t come and help us. Strike two.

Jake walked across the street to the fruit stand we go to and asked if they had the number of a lock smith, and bought some avocado while he was there. He came back to the truck with one of the guys from the fruit stand behind him. Apparently they have the card of a lock smith at the fruit stand but no one could seem to find it. Strike three.

Mean while I am sitting in the back of the truck eating a Gansito, which is kind of like a little Debbie cake. It has yellow cake, a cream filling, strawberry jelly filling, and is coated in chocolate with chocolate sprinkles on top. They are quite yummy and a recent discovery for me. After 20 minutes Sonia called Jake back and said that she was on a picnic and for Jake to call her husband. He said he would bring someone to unlock the truck. Jake told him that we were in the parking lot of the store, but we watched his white car turn down the road where the cabin is and Jake started walking. About 10 minutes later the white car pulled up next to the truck with Jake in the back seat, wait, with Jake scrunched in the back seat.
It took the guy about 2 minutes to use a screw driver to wedge the door open enough for him to stick a wire down and unlock the door. Yay! We are in the truck! It only cost about $30 for him to do that! Jake is in the wrong business I’m telling ya. Needless to say we were happy to be back in the truck and on the way back to the site. It only took about 40 minutes longer than it should have and wasted about 1/8th of a tank of gas and $30. Jake was able to laugh about it the next day.
From now on we will always lock the door with the key and not use the button on the inside of the door.

Mandy and Jake

Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We were thankful that the sun came out and we were able to get a full day’s work in! We went into town for dinner at a pasta place. We ate there last month and I was looking forward to something different for dinner. Jake got a 3 pepper steak and roasted potatoes; I took his word for it that the steak was awesome. I got a ravioli dish that was filled with puree pumpkin, cream cheese, and almonds. The ravioli was covered in a cream, butter, pepper, and nutmeg sauce and it was outstanding!




Even though it wasn’t turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, lots of bread, and pumpkin pie, we enjoyed our dinner and talked about all the things we are thankful for. The list went something like this…….

Central heat/air
Standard transmissions
Speedy internet connections
Milk that doesn’t come in a bag
Bagels
Water pressure
Electric stove
A sink that comes higher than your knees
Our bed
TV on DVD
Skype
Family Blogs/Websites
Facebook
McDonald’s(never thought I would say that!)
Being able to do our own laundry
Electric Blankets
Amazon.com (online Christmas shopping and general all around greatness)
Space heaters
Not to be working Retail on a Black Friday
Family
Friends
The gospel
Being able to be in this beautiful place


After dinner we used Skype to make some phone calls and chat with our family members in their various places. Even though the conversations were short it was nice to be able to talk with all of you. On Sunday the District President spoke and said that the rain is supposed to continue until January  Let’s hope he is wrong. It is raining today but it is supposed to be clear the rest of this week and continue into next. We will be finishing up with the first trench this week, if the rain really does in fact stop this week. We haven’t found much in this one, but we are hopeful we will find more in the next trench! Hope all is well at home!


Mandy & Jake

Thanksgiving

Well,

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all! We hope everyone enjoys themselves today and eats entirely too much good food. Even though we will be missing out on yummy foods and family funs we are thankful to be in a beautiful place. The sun finally came out today after having been hiding for the past week or so. This has been the rainiest “Spring” in a long time. All the workers, the land owner, people at church have said this is the wettest Spring they can remember. Awesome, just had to be THIS year when we are here trying to get this stuff dug up. Urgh.



Good news. Jake might get to teach a few classes this fall. If it works out it would really be good for our family. One other thing to be thankful for! Here’s to crossing our fingers!

Not much else to report since we haven’t been to the site much these past two weeks. On Sunday we had a strange visitor, or should I say unwelcomed guest. A puppy came right up to the side door of the cabin and started whining and scratching on the door. The puppy is a few months old and kept trying to get in the cabin like it was its home. We had no idea where it had come from or why it thought this was its home but we couldn’t listen to the whining all night so we gave it some bread and went to bed. The dog wouldn’t go away and it was small enough to fit right through the gate so we couldn’t even put it out and just wait for it to go on its way. It didn’t seem to be leaving and we couldn’t let it go hungry. The dog would just jump on the side of the house right outside our window in the bedroom in the middle of the night. It did this for a few hours before Jake had to go outside and yell at it to stop. All other dogs I have seen in this country will run away from you if they even think you are going to throw something at it. This puppy would just wag its tale and look up at you. It was awful, the dog didn’t know any better but we can’t take care of it. We will be gone for 3 weeks next month anyway. After a few restless nights we still didn’t know what to do. The thought of driving it somewhere and dropping it off just made us sick to our stomachs. Yesterday, when the rain let up for a bit we walked down the street to get an avocado for our dinner at the veggie and fruit stand nearby. The dog followed us and we decided that maybe it would go on its way if we got far enough away from the cabin. The big grocery store we go to is just across the street from the fruit stand so we decided to go in and walk around a bit. We went in one door and went out the other on the other side of the store. We walked right across the street and got our avocado and went home. We kind of feel guilty about leaving it, but it isn’t our dog. Well, it worked! We have been dog free since yesterday and we slept very well last night.



Tonight we will go into town and have dinner at a pasta place. We ate there last month to see if it was any good. Jake got a stake and he said it was really good. I got some alfredo pasta which wasn’t bad. They had some kind of pumpkin and cream cheese pasta on the menu that I thought would be good to try tonight. So after work we will head out and enjoy a dinner that isn’t turkey and dressing but will be something different.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all and have a slice of pumpkin pie for us!
Mandy & Jake

Short Update

Today there was rain in the forecast but it wasn’t raining when we got up this morning so we went to the site. We got about 5 hours in before it started to rain. Jake and I were digging today and there were only 2 other workers there this morning. Edwin and Christine were there but Aldo was sick and no one could get a hold of Julio. Aldo came to the sick after lunch feeling a bit better. In the trench I was digging in I found a piece of worked bone, this was the first bone we have found that wasn’t burnt. Jake also found a few pieces of ceramic that fit together, pretty cool. Jake also found part of a wall. He thought that the wall would be in the square he was digging in and he was right! This is the first thing we have found that gives Jake a base of reference. I worked on drawing the maps of each trench until is started to rain.

It is supposed to rain more this week, but hopefully not that much. Jake is going to the Colegio Liahona on Wedensday to talk to a class of students. The Branch President works there and asked Jake if he would come and talk for about an hour or so and that is was he wanted to talk to us about. No talks, no callings of any kind, just wanted him to talk to his students. Yay! The Colgio Liahona is a private school that was founded by church members but is not run by the church or anything like that. Jake will be talking to the high school age students about archeology in general and the work he is doing here as well.
Just a quick update today, hope all is well at home!

Mandy & Jake

Laugh or cry

Yesterday Jake and I were able to get into the trench and dig a couple of squares. In my square, a few feet from the surface my trowel hit something. It was a white ring….what could it be? Jake and I quickly worked to uncover this wonderful possibility and what did we find?........... It was a yogurt cup, no an empty yogurt cup, no wait, it was an entire plastic bag. Someone had a lunch of yogurt, a piece of fruit, (I think a peach), and some cherry jam, and they decided that this place was the best spot for it to live. It was too far under the surface to have simply been left and covered over time, someone had to have buried it for it to be that deep. With all the other crappy archeological practices we have been dealing with since the beginning of the project this didn’t surprise us. It made us question if were digging where the previous project had already been and dumped their back dirt. Since we have found a few pieces of artifacts here and there and the dirt isn’t soft everywhere Jake says that it most likely was just a where someone dug a hole to bury their trash. Ugh. A few more feet down I found another empty plastic bag.

On a different note, the guys working for Jake asked him how old I was. He asked them how old they thought I was and they said 18! I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The only time I wanted to be told I looked 18 was when I was 16! They thought Jake was 25, not that big of a stretch but for them to say I look 18! When Jake told them I would be 25 next month they said I definitely didn’t look my age. Sigh.

Not much else to say……..

Mandy & Jake

what is that in the sky?

On Sundays we go to Temuco as I have said before. This Sunday we had to go to several different stores to try and find some chaining pins or something to that effect to replace the stakes that were marking the trench, until they fell out of the ground around them. There aren’t that many places here in Pucon to find such items so we tried our luck in Temuco. There was none to be had by the way. We also went to the mall there to eat. We ate at a place called Frizt, which we have had a few times before. I had some cheese empanadas and French fries. A bit later and Juanita’s my head started to hurt and then my stomach started to hurt. I will spare all the details, I had the worst migraine headache I have ever had in my life. I spent most of the night with my head in the toilet. I was sick enough for us to stay the night at Juanita’s. We had to get up and 5:30 the next morning to make the hour and a half drive back to Pucon to get dressed and leave for the site. By the time we got back we were both not feeling well enough to work that day. We spent most of the day lounging about, eating lightly. If I was picky before about what I eat here, I will be terrible to live with from now on, sorry Jake :) For the past two days I have had fresh fruits and veggies, some bread, and rice and beans. I will NEVER eat Frizt again, and will stay away from empanadas in general for the time being. The verdict is still out on whether I got the headache from the food or not, but I don’t care!

Yesterday marked our first FULL day of work. There was this bright light in the sky when we left yesterday morning and to our great surprise it was the Sun! What a wonderful site to behold! It has been so long since we have seen the Sun we almost forgot what it looked like. The site is located on a cow farm. Yesterday the cows were in the field that holds the fenced in site. The wind was blowing nad boy did it carry that smell of cows to us all day long. Luckily they were moved to a different field today but the smell has lingered somewhat. I never had, and still don’t, desired to be a rancher. On a better note as the day went on the temperature rose and I was able to take a few layers of shirts off. I didn’t have to wear my sweater any longer than an hour yesterday morning. So two of the workers dug the trenches while the other two, Jake, and I, sifted through the dirt. Archeology can be very boring and mind numbing, until you find something interesting and yesterday we didn’t find anything terribly interesting. Most of the items we have found so far have been roof tiles (a lot), charcoal, a few ceramic pieces, some Lithics, and a lot of burnt pieces of bone (most likely animal). Jake sent his workers home about an hour early yesterday while we stayed a bit longer to photograph the site and cover it. We enjoyed a dinner of rice and beans and had an early bedtime. I might add the warm weather went with the sun and I was back to many layers by bedtime.

This morning we headed out to the site with some toasted noses and arms, even though we put on sun block. It was the same routine as yesterday, mind numbing and boring until one of the workers found a piece of a pipe. It was carved out of stone and just the handle remains but it was a really cool find. The rest of the day was filled with more roof tiles (a lot), charcoal, a few ceramic pieces, some Lithics, and a lot of burnt pieces of bone, and you get the idea. We came back to the cabin and enjoyed some sandwiches (all veggie for me) and baked French fries. I also made some peach cobbler for dessert, yummy. Now that the Sun has gone down so has the temperature, but it is supposed to get up to 69 degrees tomorrow and I am giddy! Finally, the warm weather is peeking out and it might be here to stay! Hope all is well at home and will send photos hopefully on Sunday.

Mandy and Jake

Ranch...mmm mmm mmm good

Here in Chile everyday is a different Saints Day and today is Santa Sylvia. I think it is an appropriate day to officially start Jake’s excavation of the site which is named Santa Sylvia. The only thing is that it is too rainy and cold to actually do anything. We started digging on the 3rd but he officially got his permits yesterday making today the official day to begin. We couldn’t dig yesterday because of the rain either so we have spent that time in the cabin. It was 34 degrees this morning and the grocery store we go to down the street had up their Christmas decorations already, so I feel like I am at home….sort of.

We went to the store this morning to get some more bread, milk, and a few other odds and ends. While Jake was getting some ham for him and thinly sliced turkey for me from the deli I was roaming around the cheese case and to my great pleasure what did I find? Right before my eyes there were packets of sour cream! Small and pricey packets of sour cream but sour cream no less. Oh this made me so happy for I had brought with me Hidden Valley Ranch dip and dressing packets and to be able to finally use them made me giddy. We returned home and I immediately opened a pack and began stirring them together. The sour cream pack was not enough to make the entire ranch packet but it was enough to last me for a little bit. After having Jake taste it to make sure it wasn’t nasty I began to make my lunch. The only bread that I like to eat from the store bakery is basically homemade hot dog buns. They are really the only soft ones. I sliced a fresh bun open and placed some turkey, some cheese (not Swiss cheese but it wasn’t bad), some avocado, and drizzled some of my precious ranch dressing on top. I closed the sandwich and took a bite. It was good, oh it was good. It had been two hours since I ate it and I am not sick! That turkey was the first meat (I am not counting McDonald’s as meat because it is the same as at home) I have eaten and I didn’t get sick! Oh what a glorious day! Remember, Remember the 5th of November. The turkey, cheese, and ranch. I see no reason why the soft breaded sandwich should ever be forgot.

Hopefully we will be able to go to the site tomorrow and dig up something exciting, but until then we will wait for the rain to stop and watch Firefly. We enjoyed seeing lots of photos of everyone’s Halloween. Hope everyone is well at home.


Mandy & Jake

Halloween

Well,

Since we can't start digging until Tuesday morning and it has been raining all the time we have done little but sit indoors and watch Supernatural on the computer. We have been here a month and have already watched all 4 seasons of it. Like I said, it has been raining a lot!

Last night we spent Halloween watching V for Vendetta and enjoying a nice meal of rice and beans, which we have about 3 times a week here. The rice and beans are super cheat and so are the avocado that we eat on top of them. Avocados here cost about $2 for 4 pounds, not like they are at home either. They are so soft, like butter :)

They do not celebrate Halloween here, so no trick or treaters or costumes. We went to bed at about 10:00 and were awoken at about 11:30 by the sound of a live band. The cabin ins on the outskirts of town and normally is very quiet. Apparently there was a party going on in the barn across the street from our cabin. It continued until after 1:30am. The base was so loud that we could feel it. Needless to say we were both a bit irritated. I tried to listen to my Ipod to drown out the loud crappy music, but it didn't work. Ugh.

This morning we went to church and held our breath to prevent ourselves from smacking a small child. He runs around the room..... and talks..... and sings...... and yells. His parents do NOTHING about it! It was testimony meeting today and there were only about 25 people there today. There was a lot of dead air so to speak that was filled with that little boy's yells. Oh.... After church the Branch President came up to us and asked if he could talk to the both of us. We are going to meet with him on Tuesday evening. I hope that he is just asking us to speak in church and not trying to call us to something. As far as I know he can't but doesn't mean he won't try.

Amanda's little boy had a seizure last week and he is doing fine. He has his appointment to have an EKG in November and to see a neurologist in December unless the appointment can be moved up. He feel on his hands and knees and just started to tense up and not respond to anything. The ambulance shoved up and packed him up and he was just crying until they got to Vandy and then he started to talk to Amanda and stopped crying. Hopefully it is nothing but Amanda said that there are people in her husband's side of the family that have had seizures and one of his cousin's (I think) has epilepsy. Hopefully it is just a one time thing but the tests will make sure.

Hope all is well at home!

Getting ready

We headed out to the site on Friday morning thinking we would be able to start digging once we got the call giving us the go ahead and Jake was ready to go! We got there and saw where the site had been excavated back in the 80's and the trenches they dug were still open to the elements. That is a big no, no but not much we can do about it. It is kind of cool to see what they did though.

We marked where we are going to start digging. We will be doing a few of these trenches in different spots on the site. We will start actually diggin on Tuesday morning, but we will see if that happens.

More Photos

That is Hail!

The hail was not tiny....

But after the storm there was this.......

The truck Jake can drive!

Fountain in Valparaiso

Some photos

Our Cabin









Sea Lions.....he is HUGE!










See, we ARE alive!









Lake Cargurgua










Beautiful lake!

Saturday

This morning we took a trip out to Lake Caburgua. We took a trip out there when we were here this past February. That was the trip where Jake took a wrong turn and we got lost. This trip was much better. Since it isn’t quit summer here yet there was almost no one there today. It was beautiful! The water there is the clearest I have ever seen. When we were there the last time there was this concrete bridge that extends out far into the lake. This time the water was so high the bridge was almost completely underwater. Since the water was so clear you could see the bridge under the water. It was scary cool to see it.

It has been an enjoyable lazy Saturday. This has been the first day where we haven’t had to get something done. Not much else to report right now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Mandy & Jake

Trips

Yesterday morning we headed to Puren for Jake to pick up some of his advisor’s tools. Tom is letting Jake use his tools, which is VERY nice of him. Tom has worked in Peru and Chile for over 30 years and has had a lot of funding from the NSF (National Science Foundation) and he has tools stashed all over the place. He also had a truck, which would have been great if he let Jake use it, but no dice. Tom will be visiting in January just to check and see how things are going.
It took us about 3 hours to drive to Puren from Pucon. Puren is a very small town. You could blink and you would miss it. The place where Tom keeps his tools in a house owned by a man named Don Fernando. His house is an old hotel that Jake thinks was built in at least the 1920’s. The house was, “leaning”. You could see how the frames had shifted from some of the doors and windows. It was really dark inside and it smelled like mold and wet… Yuck. Jake said he stayed there once in 2006 when Tom was doing a project there. I was happy to leave after 10 minutes; I don’t think I could have stayed there an entire night.

After we got the tools we picked up some bread, yogurt, and some Mankekes (basically a yellow cupcake with Manjar in the middle of it). Outside the store a woman was selling some Merken, which is a kind of chili powder. It is really good. We brought some back with us last trip and we bought 2 bags to bring home this time. If we are lucky we won’t have used it all before we come home!

So, we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car yesterday. Ugh. We had to get up at 6:30 this morning to leave Pucon in time to get to Valdivia (2 hours away) so that Jake could talk to Mario Pino. Mario is the Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile that is giving Jake the adjunct Professor position. He is a pretty funny guy. Mario has worked with Tom for almost the entire 30 years he has worked here.

After we left Mario’s office we went down the street to the museum where Leonor (Jake’s counterpart Archeologist for the project) works. She wasn’t there today, so we walked around the museum until one of the people in charge could get out of their meeting. Leonor also keeps some of Tom’s tools, so we were stopping to get them and also for Jake to update her on how things are going. The museum is the old house of Van de Maele, who was some rich guy who moved there from Germany in the 1800’s. His house was huge! The bottom level is set up with the furniture and portraits that have been there since the house was built. The upper level is more like a modern museum with glass cases full of artifacts and things. We weren’t allowed to take any photos, stink. After walking around the museum we went outside to wait for the meeting to be over.

When we were there last year there was a group of sea lions that were chillin on a floating dock thing. This year they had migrated down river just a bit to right in front of the museum. There was this huge sea lion that had a face that looked like one of the creatures from “Where the Wild Things Are”. He apparently didn’t like the one of the other sea lions touching him because he let out a roar and tried to bite him until he moved over.

A bit later we were able to get the tools and we put them in the truck. We walked a little ways to across the river. We had lunch at McDonalds before getting back in the truck and driving the two hours back to Pucon. When we got back to the cabin it was cold enough for a fire and some hot chocolate that I had packed for us. It was quite cozy sitting by the fire, sipping hot cocoa.
Jake bought an internet card USB thing for us to be able to use the internet in the cabin. It is very slow and apparently doesn’t work with Skye so we will have to try and see if we can figure out how to get that to work. I tried calling Jennifer last night, I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. Normally a 20 minute call to the states has cost about $0.10. Trying to call Jennifer and talking probably about 2 minutes cost more than $0.20. I wasn’t able to try Google talk so that may still work, hopefully.

Anyway, hope all is well at home. Heard it was 48 degrees in Nashville today, bet you are glad to be driving my car Jennifer :)

Mandy & Jake

Pucon

Well, we made it to Pucon in one piece! Through much nashing of teeth, sweat, & tears we were able to rent a vehicle in Temuco for the next two months. We were very hopeful as we walked through the car lot to find not one, but TWO automatic vehicles. There was a Jeep and a Kia, both would have worked beautifully. They both had space in the backs to carry the tools and luggage. We were tempted to try and buy one of them and then return it when we were done here in April-May ish. The monthly payments would only have been about $300-$350. There was hope in that Jeep, there really was. Jake talked to the man working at the car place and that hope was shot DOWN! The Jeep and Kia were cars that they were sealing for individuals who couldn’t sell their cars on their own and the car would have to be financed through a bank in order for us to buy it. In Chile they have a Route Number which is basically like our Social Security number, if you don’t have one you can’t buy anything like a car. You can’t even have a bank account here without one. So, we had to go talk to the manager of the company. They have two locations in the city of Temuco, so the manager was coming to pick us up and takes us to the main office. I felt like the mafia was coming to grab us and takes us to some empty lot outside of town to steal all our money and just leave us there. She and Jake were talking in Spanish the whole time so I really had NO idea what was going on.

She was going to let Jake rent a Truck, and not just a little truck, but a 4 door, diesel, Chevy truck. This made Jake just about cry out with joy. The only downsides were that it was a manual transmission and it would cost about $1000 a month to rent it! I couldn’t believe it would be that much to rent a vehicle. The cabin we are staying at costs less than half what the car is costing us. Jake assured me that it was a deal to be able to rent a TRUCK for that much. The other companies he had been in contact with were going to let him rent a car for about the same amount. After Jake filled out all the information they wanted him to take it for a test drive before he signed anything. The only place to take it for a test drive would be to pull right into the busy highway where the office was located. I think I held my breath for two full minutes. One of the mechanics was in the front seat and I could just feel Jake’s nervousness seeping through the seat and back to me. Jake has had issues in the past with Manual transmissions. Anyone who has ever learned to drive a stick knows the frustration of killing the car, over and over, and over again. This happened many times on our last trip here. I believe I mentioned that I feared for our lives, so having Jake pull into traffic right off the bat made me want to pee my pants.

He did wonderfully! Apparently Jake has no trouble with a manual car, he just doesn’t have the leg room to be able to drive it! The truck has made a significant amount of difference! He was able to ease right out onto the road and turn the truck back again. He stopped a few times and didn’t kill it! He signed on the dotted line and we were off! He headed back to Juanita’s where we packed up all our stuff and we headed to Pucon. Over the past two days he has only killed it twice, and that was because he had to stop on a hill, which is not easy! The last time we were here it took him a good 10 minutes to get the little car out of the rental parking lot! He has done a great job this go round. He had no problem driving the truck around. YAY! I do not fear that we will be pulling into busy traffic and the car will die and then we will too! I am very proud of him!

We have also been waiting for the Chilean Government to give Jake his permits so that we can start working on Monday. They have been emailing him asking for this and that, all things they could have told him about 3 months ago! Anyway, they said on Tuesday that they needed a letter from one of the Universities here stating that they are supporting the project. They didn’t tell Jake that he needed this when he started so Jake just about had a heart attack. He emailed him advisor (Tom) at Vandy who quickly got to work to get him the letter. Jake got news yesterday that not only were his permits approved but he had been made an adjunct professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile! He will be able to teach a few lectures there during our time here and he can continue that for as long as he wants! He could continue for the rest of his career if he wanted. He would have to renew the position each year by giving a few lectures or even teaching a class. YAY! He was jumping up and down and dancing to the “Song of Joy”!
The cabin we are staying at in Pucon is very nice. It has high ceilings so Jake won’t bonk his head on anything. (He ran into a road sign Tuesday) There is a stove, refrigerator, sink, and microwave, HOT water for baths and to clean dishes! This area is usually only busy in the summer months, so there is only a little wood burning stove to heat the great room area. In the bedrooms and bathroom you are on your own for heat. It is still quite cold here at night; it hasn’t made it to the warm spring and hot summer nights yet. We sat by the fire last night and watched some “Flight of the Concords” before going to bed. This morning it was cold enough to see your breath, and that was even before getting out of bed!

I will write more tomorrow about our trip to Puren today, it is very late and we have to get up early and head out to Valdivia tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Photos of everything to come later!

Mandy & Jake

Temuco

This morning we left our room in Hostel del Rio to go down stairs to get some breakfast. The lights in the breakfast room were out, but the door was open. We went inside and turned on the lights. All the tables were set, one of the hotel people came in and said that someone had to got and get the bread. Breakfast at EVERY hotel here consists of some sort of bread, butter, jam, gouda cheese, coffee or tea, and juice. Since we don't drink coffee or tea they always bring us hot milk and we put sugar in it to sweeten it up a bit.

Anyway, back to this morning, we were waiting and this guys comes in and asks if he can sit with us. There is no one else in the room and there are plenty of other tables, but OK. So he sits down and then asks if we are from The States, in English. This guy totally looked Chilean but he was to tall to be Chilean. Turns out he is from Germany and he is doing research for his Thesis to get his Bachelor's degree back in Germany. He will be in Chile for 6 months studying the effects of sun burns on apples. He said that he was studying about agriculture and wines, etc. His name was Martin and he was a very nice fellow. He said he was from Stuttgart in the south. He is 25 and has 3 sisters back home.

The hotel woman came back in with this kind of pie (Jake and I are only guessing it was a "pie") that was the color pink that doesn't occur in nature. It was kind of a pink gelatin filling in a think crust. I don't really know what it was. It has almost no flavor, but she wanted us to have something to eat while we were waiting. Soon after the bread arrived and we ate and chatted with Martin. We mostly talked about the Soccer game that took place on Saturday. Chile won the game and they are going to be able to place to possibly go to the world cup. After they won the game on Saturday night they entire town went crazy. From our hotel room we could hear people honking their car horns, yelling, whooping, & hollering for a least 3 hours after the game was over. On Sunday morning the plaza was covered in trash and bottles from the party the night before. South America and their football :)

After we left the hotel we headed to the bus station to caught a bus to Temuco that was supposed to leave at 11:00, or so the website said. It was a liar. The bus didn't leave until 12:15 and we had to cross the street and go to the other bus terminal. The "other terminal" didn't have many places to sit and was much dirtier. It smelled more like a meat market than a bus station, but we only had to wait an hour.

Our bus was just a little bit late, and our sets were in the back of the bus right next to the bathroom. IT actually gave us a bit of entertainment because someone got themselves locked in :) It took a few minutes of them trying to lock and unlock the door and someone on the outside to pull on the door really hard to get them out. I will never be using one of those bathrooms any time soon. The bus ride was about 6 hours, so we were really excited to get off the bus.

We arrived in Temuco about 6:00 and we went straight to La Casa de Juanita. This is still the greatest place in all of Chile. She was building new cabins when we were here last and they are all complete now. They are clean, and have private bathroom. Each room has its own wood burning stove, which is wonderful for tonight. It is quite cold here right now. The farther we move south the colder it is getting. It will only last til the end of the month or so, and then we will be wishing for the cool weather. What is also great about this place is the Juanita lets us use her washer and dryer! We will have clean clothes tomorrow! Juanita is a really nice lady. She lets us use the kitchen when we want and she invites us into her home to sit and talk. La Casa de Juanita is my home away from home here in Chile. We will be here just a few days for us to get a car and then we will be heading to Pucon!

Everyone here is telling Jake to just buy an car and then sell it when he leaves instead of renting a car. This might work out better in the long run but Jake is only given a certain amount of the money at a time and buying a car for $6000 and then selling it back when we leave will only work if Jake can spare the $6000 up front with the grant money. We will be walking around Temuco tomorrow trying to see what the best deal will be. Wish us luck!

We will be praying for Trent so that he will get better soon! Hope everyone at home is doing well!

Mandy & Jake

Visiting....no one

Well,

When we got to the hotel last night we were pretty tired from being on the bus all day. We had to lug our suitcases up to the second floor, but it was all worth it. This room has a queen size bed and an immaculate shower that has no right to be in this country. I enjoyed a HOT shower :) We came to Talca to visit with some of Jake's friends, but when we got to church they were either out town or sick. This was kind of sad on one hand because we didn't get to see any of them, but good on the other hand because I wasn't feed any meat that I couldn't identify.

We had our first McDonald's last night when we got to town. Still the same. It was the first meat I have had since I got here, if you can count a McDonald's hamburger as meat. We will be heading to Temuco in the morning. We will be renting a car there and then heading out to Pucon to where we will be staying until we leave. We will be taking a few day trips this next week to gathering the tools Jake will be using from the various places they are being stored here. Jake's advisor is allowing him to use his tools which will save Jake a lot of money and hassle of having to bring his own tools.

Hope everyone is safe home.

Mandy & Jake

Oh joy

During my last semester of school I took a swimming class. During that swimming class I pulled a muscle in my neck. I didn't pull it while actually swimming, I sadly pulled it while I was putting on my very tight Speedo swim suit. Go on a laugh. The reason I am telling everyone this that every now and then, when I am doing strenuous activities, it acts up and feels like I have pulled it again. These strenuous activities I mentioned have been brushing my teeth, drying my hair, or sleeping which was the case of last night. I awoke this morning to the lovely felling in my neck and shoulder. Oh joy. Jake went down to breakfast while I took a very short hot shower.

After breakfast Jake headed out to his conference and I sat outside our room in a sitting area on our floor. The room was cleaned after an hour and then I went back inside. Even though my neck is not very happy with me, Jake and I needed to do some laundry. Laundry, until we get to the cabin, is washing our clothes in the sink or bathtub and hanging them up to dry. I filled up the bath tub and washed some clothes with a bit of Tide sink detergent and they are hanging up on a line in the bath room, hanging up by the window and other various places in the room. Hopefully everything will be dry by tomorrow morning in time for us to leave. I also hope that my neck is better by the time we need to leave or it will make and interesting walk with all our bags to get to the train station. I see a taxi trip for us in the morning.

Nothing else much going on. I am happy to get out of this town. There just isn't much for me to do here while Jake is in his conference so I have been a little bored this week. What with the homeless stares and even some one taking a photograph of me, I will be happy to be in a different place. Yesterday morning while I was sitting in the plaza waiting for Jake to come back a group of teenagers was walking around the plaza taking photographs of each other. One of the boys was sitting on the fountain in front of me pretending to take a photo of something behind me, and then used his hand to hide the camera as he took a photo of me. I don't get the fascination with Americans in this country. Oh well, anyway, I hope everyone at home is doing well.

Mandy & Jake

Not much going on

Hello everyone, Well, we are in Valparaiso until Saturday morning. Since I can't go with Jake to the conference I have to sit in the near by plaza for a few hours until I can go back to the hotel. They have to have time to clean the room so in the mornings I sit and draw, read, or listen to music.

Yesterday morning I was sitting listening to Harry Potter 3 on my Ipod when this homeless man who was wearing a bright orange Gator's sweat shirt came up to me. He stood less than a foot away from me and just stared at me. It was a little unnerving. He stood there for about a minute, then he walked off. I grabbed my bag and headed back to the hotel. Ugh, creepy.

Not much more to tell, we will leave on Saturday morning and head out and travel to the site. We will stop and visit a few friends along the way and pick up the rental car/truck. We may be able to rent a truck this time, but we will see.

It was cold enough this morning that I could see my breath. I decided that was enough cause to bust out two of the hot chocolate packs that I brought. Man I miss having my coco motion. Hope everything at home it going well.

Mandy & Jake

Breakfast of Champions

This morning we went downstairs to have our free breakfast from the hotel. I got the “Light Breakfast” which was fresh juice, a bowl of seasonal fruit, and toasts with cream cheese and jam. Well, the juice was really good and was actually fresh there were strawberry seeds in it. The “toasts” was bread that wasn’t crunchy and get was burnt. The cream cheese wasn’t cream cheese. I don’t know what it was; it had the consistency of tofu. The jam was good, I think it was apricot. I actually never got the fruit bowl. Jake got the “Continental Breakfast” which was toasts, scrambled eggs with ham & cheese, and fresh juice. His “scrambled” eggs were in a little white bowl and where sunny side scrambled…..looked like a bowl of snot.

After breakfast we walked the three blocks from the hotel to where Jake’s conference is being held. I wasn’t allowed in so I sat in the plaza that was across the street. I sat and sketched for a little bit. It was too cold to sit for longer than an hour and a half. It didn’t seem that cold when we left, but I really needed to have my jacket. I walked back to the hotel and sketched some more from the view our of our hotel window.

Jake was back to the hotel at about 12:30 for a lunch break. We walked a little ways from the Hotel and stopped in a place called “el guaton” which means “The Fatty”. Jake had a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, and sour kraut. I had a “grilled cheese” with Gouda and was on an oversized hamburger bun. We split some fires…they were a little greasy. Jake will be heading back to the conference in a bit. After he is done we will take a walk around the city and find a grocery store. There is a little fridge in our room so we are going to get some milk and some cereal to eat for the next week. Hope everyone is doing well at home.


Mandy & Jake

We Made It

Hello everyone,

We made it safely to Chile on Friday morning. We haven't really been able to get to an internet cafe.

We took a bus from Santiago to Valparioso this morning. This is a tourist town and is very expensive......It is a pretty town but it is definitely more than it would be in any other place. We are going to be here until Saturday for Jake to go to a conference that is being held here for all the archaeologist in Chile. He has to go and make nice with all the Chilean Archaeologists because they don't like Gringos very much. The hotel we are staying in is nice, meaning clean and has wifi. With the wifi we will be able to talk more easily this week.

While we were in Santiago we stayed in the Hotel Los Arcos, which is they one we stayed in the last two times we were there. While we were in Santiago Jake was able to find a Chilean book he really needed for his dissertation that he had been unable to find the last few times he had been here. We also bought a cheap pay as you go phone for me so that we can call each other while we are here if we need to. If you need to get a hold of us quickly you can call me on this number

First you have to dial 01156

followed by the number

7964 9964

There is also a voice mail set up so if I don't answer you can leave a message. I don't know if you will be able to get through but you can try if you need to.

Yesterday after we had been walking around...ALL....DAY....LONG we had to wait a few minutes when we got back to the hotel for the cleaning lady to be done with our room. We sat in some chairs by a little table down the hallway. Jake was playing with the new phone and I was looking at the magazines and books that were on the table. There was an English copy of the "The Road". I picked it up and read the whole thing last night. If you have never read that book, you need to. Tracie has been telling both Jake and I to read it for months. Oh it was great, disturbing, and will mess you up at first. I have never been so creeped out and enthralled at the same time.

We hope that everyone is doing well at home. We have been praying for Autumn and are glad to hear that she is doing better. We will email more updates later.

Mandy & Jake

Marvel I say

Jake and I enjoyed the day together on Memorial Day. Jake didn't have to work which was a plus! This was the first Memorial Day I haven't had to work in years. We spent most of the day building an exposure unit for me to use in working with silk screens. After a few trips to Home Depot and a few calls to Jake's Dad we were able to get it finished in one day.

We had a grill out at Philip and Tracie's. Jennifer grilled some shiskabobs and hot dogs, I made sweet corn tamale cakes, and Tracie made a yummy jello cake. It was a good meal and pleasant enough weather. It wasn't raining but it was muggy. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Below are some photos of the exposure unit we built. Marvel at our excellence!

I don't want to but I want to

So it is official....Jake and I are looking for another place to live. I was doing laundry and pulled out some of my shoes that are in my closet and they were covered in mold. I then pulled everything out and saw why my shoes were ruined...... We told the complex that there was a little water damage in the closet from the last flooding issue we had last summer. They were supposed to take care of it while we were in Chile....They didn't. They have YET to clean up the carpet or fix the molding and rotting wood. Jake had to take photos to the front office and speak to the manager who simply sighed and said it would be taken care of immediately....that was yesterday morning.....still nothing.....Well, they did come look at the damage, I know this how? Oh because they LEFT OUR DOOR UNLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I came home and it was unlocked and I almost had a heart attach right there. So, as sad as I am to move, I am DONE with these people and this place. We will be looking around hopefully on Saturday and be able to get everything set up so we can move out in August when our lease is up. Below are some photos of the damage.

I had to throw away 6 pairs of shoes, including my tennis shoes :( it hurt me to have to get rid of them. They had been molding for months, no wonder I have been sick for the past two weeks! I hate the idea of actually having to move all these BOOKS, but I hate the idea of having to stay here even more so I guess I will tell my self that as I am lugging boxes of books up and down stairs.

Who's the Colonel?

A lot has happened since my last post. Our furry friend hasn't been back! The maintenance guy for our apartments placed a trap outside where "the raccoon" has been getting in and out at. There has never been anything in the trap so our guess is that he wasn't in the walls when they placed the trap outside and he just couldn't get in. FINE BY ME! It has been great, my sleep hasn't been disturbed! Well, if you don't count when I sat straight up in bed the other night and mumbled something. Jake then claims that I said "I don't understand. I'll have to ask the Colonel." I don't remember this at all, but Jake laughed quit a bit at me. We still don't know who "The Colonel" is, but it has quickly made it's way into our everyday speech. If I don't know the answer to a question I simply say "I'll ask the Colonel".

We woke up a few mornings ago to a wet floor in our bedroom. This happened last Summer as well. Our bedroom is under the ground so when it rains a lot the ground water sometimes gets ahead of the sump pump that is supposed to prevent flooding........it didn't. The last time this happened it ruined our chest of drawers which we just replaced last month. This time it ruined Jake's night stand! The apartment complex of course doesn't cover any of that. It would be something we would have to claim with our renter's insurance. The problem is that the furniture isn't worth the price of our deductible so we are just out of luck! I am so close to wanting to move, but I doubt we will find a place as big as ours for the price of ours. I only worry about what if this happens while we are in Chile and our bed or shelves full of books get ruined? DAH!

Jake had to present his prospectus for his dissertation at Vandy. He passed of course! So now he can get his application for his permits turned in soon and we will be able to reimburse ourselves from the last trip! Hopefully.

One of Jake's friends is leaving the country for 8 months and was getting rid of some stuff and she gave me a bike! I was so excited, I haven't had a bike since I was 10. It is a nice bike too! She gave me a bike lock for it and it is outside next to Jake's. I took it for a spin the day we got it, I have never had a 10 speed bike, so when Jake yelled across the parking lot "down shift" I had no idea what he was talking about and almost hit the parked car next to me! Apparently there are really cool bikes that you can shift up or down to help you peddle. Who knew? It has rained everyday since then so we haven't been able to take them anywhere yet. We might get to this week, fingers crossed.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's we know! We are having a grilled lunch at Tracie and Philip's tomorrow after church. Some grilled chicken and fixens if it doesn't rain. We will also have a Publix cake, they are so good! It has been raining so much this past week that we will be lucky if we don't spend the afternoon swimming around in the yard. Hope everyone has a good Mother's Day and is appreciated by their families!

Living with nature

I have enjoyed living here in these apartments.......until now. We have a furry little friend who has decided to spend his nights crawling around in our walls. Such a fun experience when you are awakened by the sound of little clawed feet digging into the ceiling above your head. We have brought this problem to the front office several times and still have had no results.

I am very close to taking my hammer and busting a whole in the wall and snatching that thing out of there and placing it on the desk of the slow moving office worker. We think it is a raccoon. We saw one last year on our roof and heard it in the wall in the living room. It was gone after we told the front office about it, so we figured it would be quickly taken care of this time too. We have heard it a few times ....talking....then a few nights ago it was dragging something around in the ceiling in our bedroom. (Dragging what?!?!?!?!) It seems to like it in there, for every night this past week it has been up there....keeping me awake. Jake can sleep through most of it. Last night I had had enough and Jake got out of bed and started tapping the ceiling, which just made it scramble into the vent and wait it out.

Jake is going to go back to the front office today and talk to a manager. We have brought this problem up several times in the last two weeks to the same girl. She just takes down the apartment number and we still have our friend burning the midnight oil and I am sick of it. If it isn't gone by the weekend I am getting my hammer!

My ears!!!!!

This past Sunday was our first Easter as a married couple. Jake has actually been to the last 3 Shafer Easter get-to-gethers. Easter was the first time Jake was thrown to the wolves so to speak with my family, so Easter is always special to me. Jake and I made each other Easter baskets, I had planned on getting up early Easter morning to hide jelly beans in the house for Jake to find. That is was they did when he was a kid, but the warmth of the bed overpowered me and I stayed there for another hour.

We went to church with the whole family taking up 1 and a half rows while Jake sat up front to translate the meeting for the Spanish speakers in our ward. He was also right behind the two musical numbers we were "blessed" to hear that morning. He had to keep a straight face while one woman was belting out "HIS HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!" into the microphone for nearly a ten minutes. Jake sent me a text that read "DAMN! My ears!" It was hard to keep a straight face. I don't understand why musical numbers in the church have to be a night at the Rhyman and can't just be a hymn. I guess that is a curse of living in Music City.