Goodbye Vale, hello Jeani

Today I say goodbye to my Chilean maid of honor Vale, to fly to my other maid of honor who lives in Seattle.

It was interesting to observe the daily life of a normal Chilean family.

In Chile, parents can choose whether their children should go to school in the morning or in the afternoon during the first three school years.

Since it was vacation time in Chile when we arrived, the days were very relaxed. As soon as our friends' children woke up, they were given a delicious hot chocolate. After spending about 2 hours watching TV with their mother (the father had already gone to work), they came to the living room to continue watching TV. Eventually, we understood that the hot chocolate also served as breakfast. After the TV-filled morning, we had lunch around 12:00 pm. And then suddenly, we were in a hurry to go to activities because we were often running late. I would have liked to help my friend by cooking, but her children only ate what their mother put on the table. Nevertheless, I cooked, and my friend also cooked for her children. Eventually, they also tasted my food. We didn't see them again until around 7:00 pm. In the meantime, I cleaned up and tidied up, the children played with other kids and did school work, and Christian taught and did what he usually does.

When Vale came home with her children, the central square in her neighborhood was already filled with children. So they played with the other kids. When they didn't feel like playing anymore, they went inside the house and turned on the TV. They went to bed around midnight.

We were very surprised to see that the routine hardly changed when school started again.

We believe that Chilean children must be the cleanest in the world. They are bathed or showered every evening and morning.

In conclusion, Chileans are extremely friendly towards tourists. Unfortunately, they have a negative opinion of their fellow citizens and are very suspicious of them. Trust is not extended outside the family. The family is of great importance in Chile. All festivities are celebrated together, and they also go on vacation together. I never saw any friends. Even the children are not allowed to play at their neighbors' homes if their parents do not know them well enough. They also don't lend anything. Neither 1 liter of milk nor a flashlight during a power outage. Everything has to be bought. So you have to take money to the neighbor and buy a bag of milk. Or during a power outage, you go to the neighbor and buy a flashlight. The news only shows robberies on loop. There is intensive reporting on how unsafe the area is and how threatened the residents feel. We suspect that the news mainly contributes to the insecurity felt by Chileans in their own country and their lack of trust in each other. This is also evident from the fact that every house is protected by at least one fence, if not barbed wire. Also, one gets the feeling, especially in Santiago, of walking around in a big rubbish dump. Only two upscale neighborhoods are an exception to this. The accumulation of trash is completely incomprehensible to us, as waste disposal collects any kind of waste, including furniture, free of charge every day. But Chileans prefer to throw their things on the roadside.

In the many weeks we spent in Chile, I never saw anyone with a water bottle. Even at IKEA, where we ate, you get sugary drinks for free with your meal, but you have to pay for water. In the supermarkets, water was pretty hidden, and the water bottles were more expensive than Coke or Fanta. The advertising for these sugary drinks is ubiquitous in Chile. Obesity is a big problem in Chile. Therefore, food with high sugar or calorie content now carries corresponding warning labels. Unfortunately, our friends, whose children are four and six years old, also only had juice. So we think it's not an intellectual problem but a cultural one. We also don't understand why everything is so expensive in Chile. We are also concerned about the fate of our machine gun-wielding uncle. At the moment, he earns about 1000 euros a month with his work, which he says is enough to support his family. In five years, he will retire and will only receive about 300 euros a month. This makes him look fearfully into the future. He is already considering where he will work after retirement. And this is just one of many stories we have heard here.

Our friends are really unhappy in Chile. After comparing it to Argentina, we can understand it very well.

We will be sad when we leave Chile because it has grown close to our hearts. We also don't know when we can see our friends again because Chile is unfortunately not around the corner. They are like family to us, and it was great to be with them.

The day of departure was very well planned so that nothing could go wrong. Our plan was to do absolutely nothing on that day. Although our flight was not until 9:45 pm, we didn't want to take any risks. So we planned to leave for the airport around 6:00 pm.

Well, that's not entirely true... Because Heike had the spontaneous idea to schedule a hair appointment for Mattis and a mani-pedi appointment for herself on the day of our departure. The hair appointment was supposed to be at 1:00 pm, and her appointment was at 3:00 pm. Heike was supposed to be back by 5:00 pm. When Heike arrived at the hair salon with Mattis at 1:00 pm, they were told that the appointment had been rescheduled for 3:00 pm. When Heike and Mattis came back and it was clear that Mattis hadn't had his hair cut, Christian already had a bad feeling...

At 3:00 pm, when the appointment was supposed to take place, Heike and Mattis left home to walk leisurely to the hair salon. When they arrived, the hairdressers were having lunch. They took their time eating. Finally, it was Mattis's turn. This time, Heike left the haircut to the hairdresser. It wasn't as risky as it might sound because the three children who had their hair cut before Mattis all had the same haircut. The hairdresser also gave Mattis a typical soccer player haircut. Shaved high in the back and gelled in the front. Eventually, the woman who was supposed to do Heike's nails also arrived.

It's always interesting to go to the hairdresser in other countries. Here, we were bombarded from all sides. The hairdresser chattered from the right, children played loudly from the left, and there was a music box behind Heike playing salsa music. Apparently, Heike thought that wasn't enough. So an employee turned on the TV for Heike and put on a horror movie. After about half an hour of watching with the lady doing Heike's nails, Heike got bored. When she tried to turn down the volume and accidentally turned off the TV, the employee had a change of heart and put on a romantic love movie.

And so time passed by. Around 5:00 pm, Vale wondered where Heike was. Around 5:15 pm, she said that her father, who had finished work early, would be there in about half an hour to drive us to the airport. Christian couldn't wait any longer and went to the hair salon. He lovingly and calmly (and not stressed at all) told Heike that everyone was already ready and just waiting for her. This news didn't cause any stress for Heike either. So she didn't scold Christian afterwards.

Vale's father arrived as arranged at 5:45 pm. We loaded the luggage into the car and were about to leave. We were just waiting for Heike. She finally arrived at around 6:15 pm. Everyone said we were finally going, but Heike still had to change her clothes.

Then we drove to Vale's mother, who also wanted to say goodbye to us. We arrived at the airport shortly after seven. Vale's husband Pablo was also there to meet us.

The whole family, including the children, said goodbye to us. It was a truly moving scene. After spending so much time with Vale and her family, saying goodbye was not easy for us.

Check-in and the flight went smoothly. The only drawback was that the seat spacing was so tight that sleeping was impossible. Only the children, who spread out on us, snored contentedly.

Three movies later, and completely sleep-deprived, we arrived in Houston at 4:00 am. Since we only had carry-on luggage, we were able to go directly to border control. That was really advantageous because shortly afterwards, a long line formed behind us.

When we walked to our next gate inside the airport building, we were happy to have arrived so early. Unfortunately, it turned out that the gate had been changed during our flight, so we had walked half an hour for nothing. So we walked back exactly where we had gotten off before to check-in at the neighboring gate. The connecting flight was even worse this time. We were seated in the last row. In the last row, you can't recline the seats, but the people in front of us can. So it was even tighter than before. In addition, Christian's tray was taped shut, and the seat in front of him was patched with tape. That means Christian had to place the food on the seat next to him, which was luckily empty. When you sit in the last row, you also become aware of who else is still on the plane. You also immediately notice by the smell if the toilet door isn't closed. The seating experience in the last row is only topped by the olfactory experience.

Despite all the adversities, Christian and Heike were so tired that they still fell asleep.

When we arrived in LA, we first looked at the monitors to find our new gate. We were flying with an airline we weren't familiar with, so based on our previous flight experiences, we didn't expect anything special. But actually, the next flight was in a class of its own.

The seat spacing was enormous, the seats were comfortable, and you could watch movies on your phone or tablet that were available. In addition, the flight attendants were so relaxed and funny that the atmosphere in the cabin was very lively. Alaska Airlines can be recommended.

We arrived in Seattle in a good mood. Our friend Jeani picked us up, and we drove home with her. Jeani lives on an island called Vashon. So we had to take a ferry. The 20-minute crossing was very beautiful. We saw the snow-covered Rocky Mountains.

When we were supposed to go back to our cars shortly before the end of the crossing, Heike and Flora had to use the bathroom. For Christian, this was nothing new, but it was still exciting for Jeani. Because her car was the first one in line and had to start driving immediately after docking. So we waited for the two of them. But unfortunately, they didn't come. The first announcements were already being made to start the engines to make the car ready to go. But Heike and Flora still hadn't returned. Then Jeani decided that Christian, Jeani, and Mattis should go to the car and wait for Heike and Flora outside the ferry. On the way to the car, Heike and Flora greeted us excitedly. They had already walked ahead to wait at the car. But unfortunately, they didn't tell us anything about it. When we were all happily sitting in the car, we were finally able to leave. The island is about 20 km long and roughly the same width. Everything here is very green and wooded, and there are only single-family houses that sit on huge plots of land. A really nice place to relax.