the Feria, Subway, and Downtown Santiago

We spent a couple hours yesterday at the Feria (pronounced Fadia) CHILEXPAT at expat.cl describes: 

Your local feria libre (farmers’ market) is THE place to buy your unpackaged and unprocessed groceries for the week: fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, fish, eggs and cheese are available at most ferias, and many also offer dry goods and some semi-processed items such as hot pepper sauce and pre-cut salads.  According to the newspaper La Nación, in Santiago alone some 30,000 vendors sell fruits and vegetables to 70% of the population at 120 markets around the city.

We took the bus until it got almost to the produce which covered another 1/2 mile or so down a side steet. The produce there is much cheaper than grocery store prices which were already 3-6 times cheaper than the US. The produce at the Feria is fresher and usually better quality. It was fun. We are eating a lot of fruit.

 This is winter, I wonder what will be available in the summer. The temperature here is like what we left in Idaho (in the summer). 

Today we spent 10.5 hours out and about with Susan who shows us around, speaks some Spanish and is great company. We used buses and the subway (which is called The Metro). We saw the presidents house. People here think that blonde hair is beautiful. They stare at our 3 little ones that have very blonde hair and blue eyes. One lady got a picture of herself next to Nehemiah and kept repeating something. I didn't know what she was saying so I just smiled. Susan told me later that she was saying, "he is so beautiful!". 

While out, we went to Susan's church meeting and then everyone walked to the mall to eat and talk. We went with them. Leon met someone with possible connections for work and I was invited to go to a baby orphanage this next week to hold babies, feed them etc. If you know me at all, you know that there is no place in the world I would rather go, except if it were home with my own husband and dear children. 

We were all so exhausted by the end of the day. I don't want to leave the house tomorrow and I told the children to sleep in as long as they want.