once

once.  (pronounced:  own - say)
I believe it's the equivalent to once: 11
Similar to the hobbits' elevensies!
once = Tea Time!

You would think once is served at 11am?  errr.......wrong!
Once is eaten around USA dinner time: 4-7pm, when people get off of work here and need a snack.
Welcome to Chile!
(dinner begins somewhere in between 8-10pm, bedtime snack time for Minnesotan standards)

What consists of once?
 - tea or coffee with/without milk and choice of many specially designed sugar substitutes
 - toasted fresh baked bread - the reason for living for most Chileans
 - sliced cheese
 - sliced ham
 - butter
 - a big bowl of smooshed up palta (avacado) - the reason for living for Rodolfo
 - salt to sprinkle over your palta
 - occasionally some kind of sweet cake
 - fruit
 - little paper napkins

You take all of these things and put them out on little plates all over the table!  

(I don't know why this is so satisfying to me, but it is...my favorite meals with Rodolfo have been leftover meals, when we take all of the bits left in tupperwares and bottles in the fridge from the week and kill them all at once....I love it!  It's so satisying!  Eating!  Cleaning!  All at once!...yes, I may have a problem....)

How to eat?
open faced sandwich style (just bread on the bottom), spreading and putting on whatever you like, as much as you like!

Everyone digs in at once (hee hee...once...) talking about their days, stuffing their faces with their favorites!  Having as much or as little as they like until they have reached thorough contentment, all while sipping a hot beverage.  You can almost literally see the stress disappear from people's shoulders as they eat.  The tension and fatigue seem to melt away!

Is once the definition of happiness or what?!?
I think it's a meal I'll have to incorporate into my life permanently!