No News

We don't really have any news, but it has been a while since I blogged...

We have been having a ball welcoming our new friends here in Santiago. Anni likes to walk, which is nice for me, as I don't always like to walk by myself. Maggie and Iida are already fast friends and nearly inseparable. They ride their bikes around the neighborhood every spare moment. Plus, Anni is allergic to animals, so Iida likes to play with ours.

I will start my new job on Monday and I am a little nervous. I have already started a few things going: the knitting club met last week and will now meet every Sunday afternoon. The new book club will start this Tuesday evening at my house. They are small steps, but lots of people seem excited.

Aidan started his new swim lessons today. His occupational therapist recommended a swim teacher who specializes in patience and we think he is great. He speaks very little english, but Aidan's spanish is coming along and they can use body language too. Aidan did great with his first lesson today, spending a great deal of it with his face in the water and working on relaxing. It was amazing to watch. He is really making a supreme effort and the teacher really is gifted.

Doug and I are due at the neighbor's house 15 minutes ago, so I am going to run!

Snow is Falling!!!

Hooray! It looks so gorgeous and it is going to clean the dust out of the air!! I wish the kids were going to be home any minute, but they have activities today, unfortunately.... They will see it when they come. It isn't sticking on the ground in our yard, but it is sticking to the hills all around us.

In other news, I read that we had a small earthquake today, that I did not even notice. I guess it was a 5.0 and made the buildings downtown sway. Maybe we live in a particularly stable valley? I'm not sure.

Also, we have spent the last couple of days welcoming the new family at the embassy that we are "sponsoring". Over the weekend, we got food and house ready for them. Then, yesterday morning we picked them up from the airport and got them settled at home. I took them to the school for a visit (8 year old daughter is fabulous) and then they both came to dinner last night. This morning I helped with more needed items, a transportation contract for school, etc. and this afternoon we will take a trip to the grocery store. They are very nice and it is a joy to try to help them land softly here in Chile. It is also a bit of a shock to be reminded of how overwhelming it is to arrive in a new country and get started on a new life!

What else? Oh, I found a fresh cheese that makes fabulous paneer and we ate a very yummy reasonable facsimile of Malaviya Palak/Saag Paneer last night! I had the maid chop the onions and tomatoes and wash the spinach -- so it was even easy to assemble. What a cool thing.

Okay, gotta do a couple things before everyone needs me all at once!

Cliff-hangers and other forms of torture

Okay, now we are on page 502 and it is more and more difficult to resist the urge to read ahead. I think this one is really good. It keeps us filled with anxiety and laughing at regular intervals. If Harry weren't such doubting Thomas, well, then he wouldn't be Harry, but he wouldn't be half so annoying.

In addition to reading the book today, we managed to do the weekly shopping and do some preparatory things for the family that we are sponsoring. They arrive on Tuesday, so we walked through the house and made sure everything worked and wrote a short list of things for the housing folks to fix. We went to the store and got them their staples too. Tomorrow, we will get flowers, decent ice cream and make them a quiche. Tuesday, we will pick them up from the airport, drive them about (school, etc.) and have them to dinner. Wednesday, we will do more of the same and over the weekend too. We are pretty excited about this -- it is so nice to do this stuff for a new family, as we felt so well taken care of when we first arrived. We have all been looking forward to doing it for someone else.

On the other hand, did they have to arrive so soon?? And right in the middle of #7??? What were they thinking? Actually, it is Amazon's fault, as we got our book two weeks late! Usually, I am such a fan of a place that makes me happy on such a regular basis....

Our only other cliff-hanger at the moment is the List. More about that tomorrow.

Ah-ha -- my own cliff-hanger....

Number Seven

We are have having a wild and wonderful, family-togetherness Saturday of ---- just reading! No, not all sitting in the same room and staring at our own books. Not that. Our final Rowling book came in the mail on Monday and on Tuesday we started a family adventure of ending the series together. We decided to read it aloud as a family. With only one copy, we had thought that we were going to have to take turns, but this is so much better. During the week, we managed 167 pages, after dinner until bedtime and after breakfast until the bus came. Today, we have been reading for hours and hours. We started a tradition of taking a break at the end of each chapter during which we do -- wait for it -- calisthenics. Yup, push-ups, jumping jacks, squats and sit-ups. It breaks up all that sitting around. So far, Doug has been very generous and done ALL the reading. I knit, Maggie draws and Aidan runs in circles.

That's all for now. Gotta get back to the book.

Oh, did I forget to mention that our massage therapist came by the house this morning? Yeah, well, our lives are very, very hard.

Finally Blogging

I have been back more than two weeks now, so I guess I should be feeling settled. I guess I am. I have acclimated myself to winter to the best of my ability. It is very odd to leave for work in the morning and have it be 30 degrees outside – in August! It doesn't feel like any August I remember. I keep thinking that this weekend is the village festival, Harbor Days, in my hometown of Elk Rapids (where we spent our R&R). It makes my head hurt to try to put it together with where I am now.

I am already missing Elk Rapids, as well as all the people in it. I find I am terribly frustrated with not having made enough time to connect enough with all my important people there. That isn't to say that I had a bad time! I had an incredible visit. I just have several things to learn about managing my time while stateside. As with everything in life: live and learn.

One of the things I am missing most about ER is walking around. I don't think there is a more beautiful and walkable place to live. It is so incredible to walk from main street to my parents' home – gorgeous sights and sounds in all directions – river, lake, harbor, flower gardens, breeze. Here, I have to drive half an hour for a pretty walk and I can't incorporate it into doing my daily errands (dentist visit, post office, eye doctor).

The kidlets seem to be settling into school pretty well. They both like their teachers so far (and, as far as we can tell, they are very good and warm teachers). Maggie was sick three days this week, so she hasn't has as much exposure to her teacher. (She is all better now.) Aidan has already presented a Power Point on himself to his class! Both kids have had the great good luck of being placed with their best friends – hooray!

I went back to work last week and managed to work two days this week too. I still haven't started my new job. I have a lot of loose ends to tie up at my current job while I await my security clearance for the new job. In the meantime, I have announced the start of a book club and will soon kick-off a knitting group, even though I haven't started my job yet!

With regard to knitting: I have continued to work on sweater projects with a brief foray into baby hats. My beloved niece is expecting a baby and wanted me to teach her how to knit a baby hat. I had to knit one in order to remember how! It turns out to be such a quick and easy (2-3 hours) project that makes an incredibly adorable item. My friend and I are hoping that the knitting group, when it starts, will want to make items for donation – maybe picking an organization (like an orphanage) that we can donate to regularly. That way, I can make as many baby hats as I like!

We arrrived!

Michigan! It is hard to believe, but it is even more beautiful than we remembered! At the same time, it is exactly the same as we remembered. We are so happy to be here! On our very first day, we were met by both sets of parents, several siblings and nieces and nephews (cousins) at the airport. Traverse City airport is a pretty small place and we just let our kids run ahead of us, through the crowd to their family and the family let up a great big cheer. All the other folks walking through the airport gave us happy glances. Everyone settled us into our cabin on Elk Lake and then my parents had us and Doug's folks and all of the rest of my family over for a big cookout that same evening. The next morning we woke up to cousins dropping by the cabin and bringing extra boats and playing with us. As Aidan says, "so far, zero disappointments!" Other accomplishments so far: breakfast at the local diner, visiting friends from previous jobs, Doug had dinner with his old Rotary club, a lovely trip to the village library where Maggie got her library card, lots of American foods (raisin bran! english muffins! pretzels! klondike bars!), a bonfire on the beach with s'mores and swimming in the lake. Can you believe we have only been here three days??? Actually, not quite three days??!!

More on Smog - technical

My associate, Bonnie Quezada, and I spent some time yesterday morning doing some basic research on air quality. We wanted to share some of our results with others who may be interested. Here is a version of the email we sent to friends and associates (I wasn't able to keep the charts, so you will have to look at the links). I know this is messy, but we are in a hurry to leave the country!

Overview
Terminology:

• Several abbreviations are used that can be confusing – Here are some of the terms used and what we believe (based on our research today) they mean:
• AQI = Air Quality Index (calidad del aire): this number arises from an analysis that looks at both particulate matter and ozone content; here is a brief explanation.
• PM10 and PM2.5- Particulate Matter – of the inhalable variety has a range of sizes. PM10 refers to the largest that are inhalable (10 microns across) and PM2.5 refers to the most dangerous PM as it is only 2.5 microns wide (very small). The annual geometric mean of particulate matter is called the ug/m3.
• O3 and PPB – O3 refers to ground level ozone and PPB refers to the annual mean of ozone.
  Advisories and Warnings using AQI Different Indices are difficult to compare as they refer to different standards. The U.S. AQI is a composite index using ozone, particulate matter and many other pollutants. The EPA has a good explanation of their AQI composite index at http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=static.aqi. This page also shows the chart used by the EPA.

In Chile

How do you find out the current air quality according to Chilean authorities? You can see their reporting here. If you are interested in the history of smog in Santiago, go to statistics on air quality. Their Chart is based on a rating figure called the ICAP, explained below. This index seems to be based only on particulate matter. Chilean authorities gauge the ozone levels separately. The Chilean Advisory Chart looks like this.

Their definitions used in defining their ICAP (Indice de Calidad del Aire Particulado):
ICAP: Indice de Calidad del Aire por Partículas. Es un indicador creado por el artículo 1, letra g, del Decreto Supremo 59, de 1998, del Ministerio Secretaria General de la Presidencia y la Resolución 369, de 1988 del Ministerio de Salud, basado en la cantidad de partículas respirables (PM10), medidas en microgramos, presentes en un metro cúbico. Derivado de la función lineal segmentada definida por los puntos 0 ug/m3 = 0 ICAP, 150 ug/m3 = 100 ICAP y 330 ug/m3 = 500 ICAP.

As a basis for real comparison, the EPA also has a chart for quantities of just Particulate Matter: It seems that the U.S. EPA has a much higher standard based on this chart. The U.S. standards do not even reach 300 (Chilean Pre-emergency), nor 500 (Chilean emergency levels).

Other Good Sources of Information:

Ministry of the Environment (Ontario, Canada)
American Lung Association has some very clear fact sheets:

• Fact Sheet on Ozone
• Fact Sheet on Particulate Matter Pollution
• Overview of Information on Outdoor Air Quality

U.S. EPA

• Air quality guide for Bangkok levels are based on PM and are well below Santiago, currently.
• China -- Beijing is currently at 194 based on particulate matter.
• Mexico City – skies are currently much clearer than here in Santiago.
• The Indian air quality index and standards.