Valentine's Day 2007 (part one)

yesterday was a great Valentine's Day (kind of intense but still fantastic).
It happened to be Dennis's day off and he didn't have school as he had previously thought so we went to the Chilean Consulate in Los Angeles, to renew his passport and to have our marriage officially recognized in Chile, among other things.
The Chilean consulate in L.A. was probably the most anticlimactic office ever. We could have missed it as it was an office located in a big building among other offices. It had one main room and was kind of like a doctor's office with one chilean flag, a picture of the Chilean President, and some old Chilean drawings. But everyone spoke rapid chilean spanish and it was kind of clear that it was Chilean, it's just that I was expecting an embassy type look with lots of flags and decoration. We met some interesting people who were also waiting to do various things- an old lady who has been in the US since 1957 (she moved her with her Portuguese husband when she was 29); a single mother and her 14 year old daughter who will go to Chile to be with her dad for a while- the 14 year old taught me about a chilean drink that is basically a mix of Fanta and Cristal (Orange soda and Heineken). And we were "married" again according to Chile.

It took hours and by the time we were finished we were starving so we went to the Farmer's Market. I had a camera but took few photos. The best way to describe it is as a place to buy meat, bread, cheese, and basically any type of international food- they had french food, greek food, kosher food, german gummy candy, spanish tapas, brazillian churrascarria, italian food, chinese, japanese, korean, singaporean, indian, ethiopian, and of course american- american like hamburgers and then american like barbeque. We ended up eating quiche (I had broccoli and BRIE oh I love Brie!!) and then we saw chorizo later and I was kind of sad. (Hey, I love food).
Photos were taken of the outside the main food court, as it was set up to be a reminder of old Los Angeles (and as we were driving away we realized we were within walking distance of CBS studios). So that will be "part two" (batteries need to be recharged).

As far as Valentine's Day goes, I gave dennis his card and his pajamas and he said "stop buying me pajama pants" and I said "I can't help it. I collect them." And he gave me a really really great card and some chocolate, which is exactly the kind of low-key thing I wanted, and we were quite lazy in the evening. I did buy things to cook but in the end, we ate cheese and chocolate covered strawberries (I bought them on Tuesday from a group of students going to Nicaragua for Spring Break- so let's see, we've donated to team nicaragua, team panama, and team florida....) Tonight I'm probably going to make a better meal (beef, asparagus, risotto). But yesterday was a great day to be really sluggish.