New Year, New Housewares, and Easter Approaching

So it´s nearing the end of March now.  Most people would disagree with the idea of it being a new year, but most Chileans here see the year as starting in March since that´s when everyone returns from vacation.

This month I invested in some new housewares.  I brought a Magic Bullet back with me from the States.  It worked well for a bit, but after using it for about 2 weeks the converter I use with it made a loud pop, and then smoke started coming out of the socket.  Luckily I got it out before it got any worse.

After getting some advice from people, I present my new Phillips 700 watt stick blender:

The motor is inside the metal part, and it comes with two containers.  Each one has a blade inside that blends the food.  It cost 80 bucks.  I normally don´t like to spend a lot of money on things, but after seeing how weak the blades on the Magic Bullet were I decided it would be worth it to spend more money and get something that will last.  I´ve been mainly using it to make smoothies like this one:

Today I experimented with making pancake mix using it, and it turned out fine.  A friend was over for a gringo breakfast, and it saved a lot of time and effort on the cleanup as opposed to mixing everything in a bowl like I used to do.

The other new item I´ve purchased is an ironing board:

Up until now I had been using a mini ironing board which was only about one third of the size.  I was shopping at Lider (one of the local grocery stores), and I saw that they had full size ironing boards as well as one that was about 3/4 size.  Seeing that the 3/4 size one was only 12 dollars I thought it would be a good investment.  I managed to carry it the eight block walk home with my groceries, and it makes ironing so much easier.  Looking back, I can´t believe that I had the mini ironing board for close to 3 years.

Beyond that there isn´t much new happening here.  A few weeks ago there was a protest that caused the usual police response of teargas and water cannons, and there´s another one scheduled for April 11th.  Classes have started up again with my private students, and it´s wonderful to see them again and to continue.

I was considering traveling for the Easter weekend (Friday is a holiday here), but I decided against it.  There are so many people traveling, and of course hostels and restaurants raise their prices.  Given that getting back up to a full schedule is taking a bit longer than last year, it also makes financial sense to stay put.

Well that´s all for now.  Have a Happy Easter everyone!