viernes, 30 de enero de 2009

Yo Quisiera un Obama Sandwich, Porfa

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.

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