pièce de résistance

I have kept you waiting for months. I'm sure you check this post regularly just hoping I have finally gotten to the climax. Today is the day! You finally get to see the planting of Olivos (olive trees).

A little Spanish lesson first. Now I'm no expert, as you know, and I don't know if this is consistent with every tree, but here is what I have been told. Masculine and feminine is a big deal with languages other than English. In Spanish the masculine form quite often ends with an O, and feminine ends in A or E. Manzano is an apple tree, manzana is the fruit. Olivo is the tree, olive is the fruit. Oh yeah, remember Popeye? His girl friend was Olive Oil, cause she was feminine. She was not Olivo Oil.

I am well aware that the simple planting of a tree is no big deal, but when you have on opportunity to stand on a small mirador (overlook) and gaze at acres and acres of perfectly aligned rows of trees, a view that literally stretches for miles, it leaves an impression in your  heart. So as you watch this little video, just imagine doing this six million times.

Just a few parting shots. I don't want to spoil the magnificence of the planting, but we made a run to Santiago this last week. Barbara ended up needing a doctor for a few things, nothing serious, but a doctor (doctor in English, explained later) that came highly recommended was at a clinic on the east side of town.

The doctor was awesome. He has lived in Boston and done research at MIT so he was high on our list. When he invited us into his exam room I said,"Would you like to practice your English?" He smiled and said, "Let's give it a try." We came away with two prescriptions that seem to be helping.

Part two of your Spanish lesson. Cognates. Whether you are a Spanish speaker or not, you already have a rather large Spanish vocabulary. The word cognate means from the same root or parentage. Since many languages are based on Latin, there are many similar words. In fact there are over 25,000 words in the English language that are cognates with other languages. I bet you could tell me in just a second or two what this next picture says.

It is true about cognates, look it up in the dictionario. (Also, remember doctor)

We left the clinic and headed downtown to one of the largest malls in Santiago. We saw some interesting things along the way.

Interesting architecture.

Notice the wedge on the upper left?

A slice of home!

And now the tallest building in Süd America. I believe the Church Office Building in SLC is 26 stories high, and it is impressive to look at. I have never been to Chicago or NYC to look at the real big buildings there, but this was an impressive site. With 62 floors, it kind of stands out on the landscape.

There is a terrific mall all around the base of the tower. The food court was a bit of overload, McDonald's, Burger King, Johnny Rockets, Tony Roma's, Cinnabon were a few that got our attention. And as much as we would have loved an American hamburger, we walked right passed all of them to an interesting place that features Peruvian and Chinese. It was amazing.

Here are the last two and I'll let you go. If you want a job with a good future, come to South America and sell push brooms. I have yet to see a push broom. Things get swept up, but this is usually how it happens. Zoom in if you can.

You can see about half of the concrete apron and it was all swept like this.

The date was October 10th. We went to San Antonio for a little shopping at Lider (WalMart). My first thought was, "For heaven's sake, even in South America they can't get Thanksgiving out of the way first." Then I realized how stupid I am.