Before I get too used to the Chilean culture I’m going to let you all in on some of the things that caught me by surprise.
I didn’t expect:
To like the food. There is a great mix of fresh fruits, veggies, breads, and meat. I can’t get enough of the super strong tea made with hot milk.
The mullets and the long rat tails. Some guys have a single skinny 2-foot-long braid. “Trenzas” with colored thread and beads tied in are also quite fashionable. I expected more of the suave, slicked back style but I’ve seen my fair share of dreadlocks. It seems that the beach-bum-hippie style is universal.
Shameless nose-picking.
So many people running and going to the gym. I guess I thought that was sort of an American luxury. However, I have lots of friends that have gym memberships and the beach is full of people running and doing yoga.
Graffiti. It caught me off-guard at first. Anything within arms-reach is fair game. I’m pretty used to it now and I know that graffiti-adorned walls don’t necessarily imply gang-ridden, shady parts of town.
The subdued colors. I definitely stick out when I wear light jeans and my cream-colored fleece. It might have a lot to do with the darker hair and skin-color but I feel like there definitely is a lack of variety in color here when it comes to attire.
English. I can’t escape it. Everybody’s wearing, everybody’s singing it, and everybody’s listening to it.
T.V. during meals. Don’t they know that it breaks down the family unit and causes most children to flunk out of school?!! Apparently not.
T.V. content. National news is a strange mix of celebrity gossip and what I would consider local news-worthy stories. They spend about 30 seconds talking about what’s going on in Tibet and then a good half-hour every day following the family of a little boy waiting for a heart transplant as they attend prayer services. Hmm.
To feel so safe. Granted, I try not to walk alone at night but I can walk all over town by myself during the day and I feel completely secure.
There. I’ll end on a good one. I gave you some conversation starters people, so I expect some emails! Sorry for the attitude, I just miss you all a ton!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Bienvenidos a Chile
Hello to everyone! I’ll have you all know that I’m safe and sound at mi casa in Vina del Mar. I’ll give you the low down on what I’ve been doing since I last posted…
My compañera Lisa and I met up at Seatac airport and made the flight together to Dallas where we met up with our travel buddy and body guard “Juanito.” We spent the night on the plane headed towards Chile and said “Adios” to English upon touchdown in Santiago.
We were chauffeured from the airport about an hour and a half away to our separate houses in Viña del Mar and spent the next day and a half with our host families, or in my case a host abuelita (grandma) that never stops talking—and that’s the nice way of putting it. Anyways, I can see myself spending a lot of time over at Lisa’s house playing cards with her little host brother and sister.
The next day we took a 15 hour-long bus ride south from Vina to Puerto Montt. There we stayed for two nights at a really beautiful, homey hostel (Hostal de los Navegantes). We made a day trip to Puerto Varas and found that the freest thing to do was to hike in Parque Phillipi. We followed that with a not-so-free trip to the island of Chiloe the next day. We forked out the pesos to take a three hour tour of Ancud and fulfill Lisa’s dream of seeing penguins in Chile.
From Puerto Montt we took the most gorgeous busride through the Andes to Bariloche, Argentina. If any of you were following my Facebook posts, it was here that we spent two nights in the Bob Marlyesque Greenhouse Hostel. Bariloche is set right on a huge beautiful lake and we arrived during the last week of South American summer vacation so the city itself was just packed with tourists. Lisa, Juanito, and I ended up hanging out with the hostel owners, spending the day on the “plajya” (Argentine for beach), and enjoying the slower-paced Spanish.
We crossed back into Chile instead of making the more expensive trip to Mendoza in Northern Argentina and we spent the next two nights in Valdivia, Chile which Juanito lovingly renamed “Fomelandia” (“fome” is Chilean for “lame”). The hostel we stayed at was beautiful (Albergue Latino) and we met people from all over. We shared a room with a guy from Spain, a chica from Sweden, and an older guy from Brazil. There were also girls from Austrailia and three guys from Israel. It was very cool to have people from everywhere coming together in broken Spanish. Beautiful, buena onda.
Being very much ready to leave Valdivia we hopped on the nastiest bus we had been on during the whole trip and 13 hours later ended up back at home in Viña. Since then, I’ve spent my time listening to my mama Chilena, avoiding mi casa, getting to know my way around the city, crying (I miss you guys! Se lo juro), somehow deleting all of my pictures from the trip, and getting ice cream with mis amigos. Tomorrow, gringo orientation starts and hopefully I’ll have dependable internet access.
Keep sending me emails and updates my friends! Hopefully the posts from here on out will be shorter and not so scattered. Besos a todos!
My compañera Lisa and I met up at Seatac airport and made the flight together to Dallas where we met up with our travel buddy and body guard “Juanito.” We spent the night on the plane headed towards Chile and said “Adios” to English upon touchdown in Santiago.
We were chauffeured from the airport about an hour and a half away to our separate houses in Viña del Mar and spent the next day and a half with our host families, or in my case a host abuelita (grandma) that never stops talking—and that’s the nice way of putting it. Anyways, I can see myself spending a lot of time over at Lisa’s house playing cards with her little host brother and sister.
The next day we took a 15 hour-long bus ride south from Vina to Puerto Montt. There we stayed for two nights at a really beautiful, homey hostel (Hostal de los Navegantes). We made a day trip to Puerto Varas and found that the freest thing to do was to hike in Parque Phillipi. We followed that with a not-so-free trip to the island of Chiloe the next day. We forked out the pesos to take a three hour tour of Ancud and fulfill Lisa’s dream of seeing penguins in Chile.
From Puerto Montt we took the most gorgeous busride through the Andes to Bariloche, Argentina. If any of you were following my Facebook posts, it was here that we spent two nights in the Bob Marlyesque Greenhouse Hostel. Bariloche is set right on a huge beautiful lake and we arrived during the last week of South American summer vacation so the city itself was just packed with tourists. Lisa, Juanito, and I ended up hanging out with the hostel owners, spending the day on the “plajya” (Argentine for beach), and enjoying the slower-paced Spanish.
We crossed back into Chile instead of making the more expensive trip to Mendoza in Northern Argentina and we spent the next two nights in Valdivia, Chile which Juanito lovingly renamed “Fomelandia” (“fome” is Chilean for “lame”). The hostel we stayed at was beautiful (Albergue Latino) and we met people from all over. We shared a room with a guy from Spain, a chica from Sweden, and an older guy from Brazil. There were also girls from Austrailia and three guys from Israel. It was very cool to have people from everywhere coming together in broken Spanish. Beautiful, buena onda.
Being very much ready to leave Valdivia we hopped on the nastiest bus we had been on during the whole trip and 13 hours later ended up back at home in Viña. Since then, I’ve spent my time listening to my mama Chilena, avoiding mi casa, getting to know my way around the city, crying (I miss you guys! Se lo juro), somehow deleting all of my pictures from the trip, and getting ice cream with mis amigos. Tomorrow, gringo orientation starts and hopefully I’ll have dependable internet access.
Keep sending me emails and updates my friends! Hopefully the posts from here on out will be shorter and not so scattered. Besos a todos!
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