Some other cool things about Chile:
1) In spanish, there are 3 words you can use for the word car: coche, carro, or auto. In Chile, all of these words have different meanings. Coches mean strollers for babies here, carro means shopping carts, and auto means car.
2) Speaking of autos, cars here drive ridiculously fast down the street. I remember when I first arrived in Santiago, and the taxi was taking me to Campus Oriente (where the EAP Study Center is), I remember feeling like the driver was driving really slowly down the highway, and thinking, "Good thing, that means the cars here drive slow, and I won´t have to worry about getting run over." (Then again, I had basically been up for 24 hours, and was super-jetlagged, so everything was in slow motion at the time). Not the case. People here drive like fucking maniacs, and will even beep at dogs to get out of the way. The first day was insane by the way. My luggage got lost, and the only clothes I had were basically the ones I was wearing on the airplane. Which was a tank top and sweatpants. And it´s summer in Chile, and it´s way hotter than pretty much anything I´m used to. Thinking about how I spent my first day roaming around Santiago, disoriented from lack of sleep, and schvitzing like no other (I´ve had a lot of grungey lows, but this took it to the next level), is now funny, but at the time, I was not having it.
3) Dogs: There are so many stray dogs here! It´s insane. If there are 6 million inhabitants of Santiago, 3 million of them must be dogs. They roam the street pretty much all day, and if a day goes by where you haven´t seen one stray dog, I suggest you find a map to see where you are, because you are definitely not in Santiago. The thing is, most of the dogs look pretty healthy, so someone, or lots of people, must be taking care of them.
4) Chileans LOVE Madonna. I asked my host mom what artists were popular here, and without hesitation, she said, "Madonna." What´s up with that crazy old, yoga-intensive, she-man that has Chileans going crazy for her?
5) Chilenismos: To ask if someone understands you, you say "¿Cachai?" instead of "¿Me entiendes?" "Guagua" is baby, instead of "bebé." "Carretear," instead of "salir," means to go out. "Copete," instead of "alcohol," means alcohol. They also drops the letter "s" like it´s hot. So they will say "¿Cómo ehtᨠinstead of "Cómo estás?" and "Graciah" instead of "Gracias."
6) Chileans love Obama. Or, for the very least, they´re glad that Bush is gone. One of the first things my host mom asked me was what my opinions were about Obama. When he won the election, my host mom said that people were celebrating in Plaza Ñuñoa (the plaza in my neighborhood). It feels so weird to see what´s happening in the U.S. all the way from South America, and to be able to see it, in a way, from the Chileans´perspective. I mean, I knew that this was an important election, and that Obama is an iconic figure, but to really see firsthand how far-reaching he is is incredible. How ironic is it though that when Bush finally leaves office, I´m on a plane to live in a different continent? Apparently, there are some gringos that own a sandwich shop right by Plaza Ñuñoa, and right after Obama won, they added another sandwich to the menu - The Obama Sandwich.
7) IT´S HOT IN CHILE. Damn, hace mucho calor. Being the wimpy northern California girl that I am, I´m still getting used to this non-moderate climate. I´m drinking roughly a lake every day, and still, that´s barely enough.
8) I´m getting more acostumbrada to the city of Santiago as each day passes, but I still feel like I have yet to discover so much more about it.
viernes, 30 de enero de 2009
Lo siento, soy gringa
Oh my god, I have a blog! It seems so fucking trite and cliché to do, but knowing my feeble memory (I barely remember what I did over the weekend, and pathetically, it has nothing to do with alcohol consumption), I figured this is a great way for me to remember my study abroad experience. This isn´t going to turn into an online Oprah Show though, kids, because I´m saving all the obligatory breakdowns that I will have for my journal at home, and my mom. (Sorry, mom). Then again, I am super sentimental, so you might get to witness a few mini-laments here and there on this website.
Living in South America still feels so overwhelmingly surreal. Everytime I think about the fact that I´m living in another continent, no lo puedo creer. Obnoxious casual language drop count: 1. Anyway, the first week, I´m not going to lie to you, was super hard. I think I was so preoccupied with the issue of how to navigate being queer in Chile that I didn´t even think about the obligatory stresses that come along with studying abroad. Literally 2 hours after I landed here, I already missed my friends and family back home. And it was something that I was expecting to happen, but I wasn´t expecting to feel it as intensely as I did. I think when you are dropped into an unknown situation, you crave the familiar. And that, coupled with the fact that I am one of few people that don´t have internet at my host family´s house makes it really hard to communicate with people back home. I know, I sound like a spoiled gringa right now, I´ll own up to that - but I really didn´t realize how dependent I am on the internet to go about my daily life. I mean, I´ve called my mom a couple of times from my American cell phone (I got a cute pre-paid Chilean cell phone here since it´s cheaper to call people in Chile from it), and my mom literally had to cut me short in the middle of my cryfest because it was costing too much to talk to her. Things are slowly getting better day by day though. I mean, it really feels like freshman year all over again, where you go into this situation where you know barely no one, and it feels overwhelming and isolating at times. And I have to remind myself that friendships take time, just like they did my freshman year in college. So I´m just trying to be chill right now (or tranquilo, as Chileans love to say) and take it one day at a time.
On the other hand, it has been absolutely amazing discovering Santiago. It´s such a big city, and it´s such a cosmopolitan city. Their public transportation system is absolutely incredible. Many of the neighborhoods here that I´ve visited so far in Santiago are super cute and European-esque. The food has been super rico, and their national drink - the Pisco Sour - is absolutely delicious. Me and Cass actually tried to make one back home in the States, and we managed to skillfully fuck up a seemingly straightforward and simple recipe, so I have been pleasantly surprised that Pisco Sours are super delicious. It´s basically the Chilean version of a lemon drop - it´s made with lemonade, Pisco (their national liquor), sugar, and egg whites. Which sounds hella nasty, but you don´t even taste the egg white. What´s also fascinating here is picking up on the little -isms and cultural differences here. I know, I´m such a nerdy anthropologist. For example, PDA is super big here. The funny thing is, the Chileans that I´ve talked to have said that they don´t even have this concept of PDA because the way couples act around each other in public here is so common and normal. One of the Chileans I know, who studied at Davis last year, said that when he was living there, he thought American couples were super fríos (frigid) since they weren´t making out all over the street up in everyone´s business. It´s definitely something that kind of (amusingly) took me by surprise when I first arrived here. Many people think it´s because Chileans live with their family until they are about 25, 26, so they can´t really be super all over each other at home. Another interesting thing is that Chileans fucking love ¨manjar,¨ which is caramel spread. It´s basically their Nutella here, and I can´t stop eating it. I know it´s all going to go to my ass, but I don´t really care, it´s amazing. Chileans are also obsessed with bread, and they have it at every meal. I mean, I love bread too, I´m basically the anti-Atkins spokeswoman, but even for me, it´s like, whoa, hold up on the pan. Chileans also have different eating patterns. Here, it´s 3 full meals a day (well, breakfast is a lot lighter, but lunch and dinner are super huge). And I´m totally used to eating smaller meals and snacking up the wazoo all day, so I´ve been trying my best to keep up. My host mom is super cute - literally the first minute I met her, she kept repeating to me, "¡Ya mi niña! which means, "You´re my daughter now!¨ And she calls me ¨Mi amor¨all the time. Chileans love that phrase - even my teacher for my intensive language program calls the people in my class ¨Mi amor.¨Chileans also love dimunitivos, so they say niñita, pancito tecito, gordito, which basically when you add -ito/a at the end makes it kind of a more endearing term.
I also love the fact that most of my day consists of the phrases, ¨¿Otra vez?¨ "¿Qué?" or "Lo siento, pero no entiendo." It´s a hot gringa mess.
Anyway, I have to end my blabbing...or is it blogging? Probably both. Nos vemos, chicos.
Living in South America still feels so overwhelmingly surreal. Everytime I think about the fact that I´m living in another continent, no lo puedo creer. Obnoxious casual language drop count: 1. Anyway, the first week, I´m not going to lie to you, was super hard. I think I was so preoccupied with the issue of how to navigate being queer in Chile that I didn´t even think about the obligatory stresses that come along with studying abroad. Literally 2 hours after I landed here, I already missed my friends and family back home. And it was something that I was expecting to happen, but I wasn´t expecting to feel it as intensely as I did. I think when you are dropped into an unknown situation, you crave the familiar. And that, coupled with the fact that I am one of few people that don´t have internet at my host family´s house makes it really hard to communicate with people back home. I know, I sound like a spoiled gringa right now, I´ll own up to that - but I really didn´t realize how dependent I am on the internet to go about my daily life. I mean, I´ve called my mom a couple of times from my American cell phone (I got a cute pre-paid Chilean cell phone here since it´s cheaper to call people in Chile from it), and my mom literally had to cut me short in the middle of my cryfest because it was costing too much to talk to her. Things are slowly getting better day by day though. I mean, it really feels like freshman year all over again, where you go into this situation where you know barely no one, and it feels overwhelming and isolating at times. And I have to remind myself that friendships take time, just like they did my freshman year in college. So I´m just trying to be chill right now (or tranquilo, as Chileans love to say) and take it one day at a time.
On the other hand, it has been absolutely amazing discovering Santiago. It´s such a big city, and it´s such a cosmopolitan city. Their public transportation system is absolutely incredible. Many of the neighborhoods here that I´ve visited so far in Santiago are super cute and European-esque. The food has been super rico, and their national drink - the Pisco Sour - is absolutely delicious. Me and Cass actually tried to make one back home in the States, and we managed to skillfully fuck up a seemingly straightforward and simple recipe, so I have been pleasantly surprised that Pisco Sours are super delicious. It´s basically the Chilean version of a lemon drop - it´s made with lemonade, Pisco (their national liquor), sugar, and egg whites. Which sounds hella nasty, but you don´t even taste the egg white. What´s also fascinating here is picking up on the little -isms and cultural differences here. I know, I´m such a nerdy anthropologist. For example, PDA is super big here. The funny thing is, the Chileans that I´ve talked to have said that they don´t even have this concept of PDA because the way couples act around each other in public here is so common and normal. One of the Chileans I know, who studied at Davis last year, said that when he was living there, he thought American couples were super fríos (frigid) since they weren´t making out all over the street up in everyone´s business. It´s definitely something that kind of (amusingly) took me by surprise when I first arrived here. Many people think it´s because Chileans live with their family until they are about 25, 26, so they can´t really be super all over each other at home. Another interesting thing is that Chileans fucking love ¨manjar,¨ which is caramel spread. It´s basically their Nutella here, and I can´t stop eating it. I know it´s all going to go to my ass, but I don´t really care, it´s amazing. Chileans are also obsessed with bread, and they have it at every meal. I mean, I love bread too, I´m basically the anti-Atkins spokeswoman, but even for me, it´s like, whoa, hold up on the pan. Chileans also have different eating patterns. Here, it´s 3 full meals a day (well, breakfast is a lot lighter, but lunch and dinner are super huge). And I´m totally used to eating smaller meals and snacking up the wazoo all day, so I´ve been trying my best to keep up. My host mom is super cute - literally the first minute I met her, she kept repeating to me, "¡Ya mi niña! which means, "You´re my daughter now!¨ And she calls me ¨Mi amor¨all the time. Chileans love that phrase - even my teacher for my intensive language program calls the people in my class ¨Mi amor.¨Chileans also love dimunitivos, so they say niñita, pancito tecito, gordito, which basically when you add -ito/a at the end makes it kind of a more endearing term.
I also love the fact that most of my day consists of the phrases, ¨¿Otra vez?¨ "¿Qué?" or "Lo siento, pero no entiendo." It´s a hot gringa mess.
Anyway, I have to end my blabbing...or is it blogging? Probably both. Nos vemos, chicos.
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