10 Things Part II

When I first arrived in Santiago, I made a list of ten things you might not know about the city.
With my time here dwindling away, I thought it was time to write a new one! Keep in mind that
this list is for people back home and not for you Santagüinos who are reading this, because most
of these things are things you & I learned many moons ago. Without further ado:

Ten Things I Bet You Didn't Know About Santiago Part II

1. Chile runs on a 24 hour clock (you know... military time). This has significantly improved my addition skills.
2. Nobody uses dryers. After washing your laundry, you hang it outside on a clothesline. This was awkward when I lived in my homestay the first month and my underwear hung outside of my host brother's window, but it's all good now that Rachel & I have our own private balcony :) 


3. An overwhelming majority of movies at the movie theaters here are American films which are played in English and have Spanish subtitles. You actually have to go out of your way to find movie theaters that play Chilean movies. I never realized how prominent the American film industry is all around the world. If a movie is popular enough, like Harry Potter or something, it may be dubbed in Spanish. This strikes me as odd, since most of the Americans I know refuse to watch movies with subtitles and/or in different languages. What an arrogant country we are.
4. According to a Chilean friend, even though Christmas is in the summer (when it is over 100°) they still celebrate the holiday with candycanes and fir trees and snowy decorations. Crazy, huh?! I thought it might be a beach party. 
5. Girls in K-12 are not allowed to wear makeup to school. No wonder makeup seems less prominent here, even among college students! They don't need it though -- the girls here are seriously so naturally beautiful. 


6. People here don't like warm sweets. This came as a big shock to me, because I bake a lot and I know from experience that most Americans love their pastries right out of the oven, all gooey and melty and delicious. For example, I made peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies one day for a friend's BBQ and the first batch of cookies was gone before the second batch came out of the oven!!! Keep in mind, it takes cookies about 10-12 minutes to bake... But the Chileans that I live with look at me like a nutcase every time I try to feed them a warm cookie or cake. "We like our cake cold," explained my landlord. Yeesh.
7. Maybe this is a bold statement but I don't think a "middle class" exists here. People are either very tight on money or have a whooole lot of it. I've complained a lot about how expensive the city is, but I think the truth is that it is expensive to try to live what we Americans consider to be a middle class lifestyle. We could live dirt-cheap like a lot of people here do, but that is not how we are used to living. And the hard part is, the humble luxuries we were able to afford in the U.S. cost literally double the price and are simply no longer within our budget.
8. You know how in the U.S., there are a few businesses that are not opened on Sundays? Like the post office, the bank, etc. Well in Santiago, it is the opposite -- there are a few businesses that are NOT closed on Sundays (ex: Starbucks, grocery stores). I live on a pretty busy street so Sundays are always eerily quiet and slow. I like it though :)


9. In Chile, just like every other country in the world besides the U.S., people stay out all night to party, or as they call it "carretear".  One of my friends went to a club at midnight (which is late by American standards) and was thinking about leaving around 1 AM because nobody was there. "Maybe we came on a bad night," she thought. She decided to stick it out a little longer and by 2 AM, the club was in full swing! It is not uncommon for Chileans to return home from a long night of dancing as the sun rises in the morning. I have yet to "transnochar" but I still have time :)
10. I have noticed that people here pronounce the sound "ch" differently. For example, some people say CHile while others say TZile, as though the "ch" has been replaced with "tz". You can also hear this when people use the common phrase, "Cachais?" (which means, "do you understand me?"). Some people say caCHais and other say caTZais. Isn't that weird??? I have heard from several sources that the difference in pronunciation depends on the person's social class. This makes sense to me, because  I always hear the TZ pronunciation while I am at school, which is the mecca for upper-class Chileans (or cuicos as they are known as here.)
♥ ♥ ♥

I hope my list gave you a little more insight into life in Santiago! 
Weekend 3 of 6 was pretty tame... 
Thursday night I watched the entire season of Khloe & Lamar in one sitting. Don't hate. 
On Friday at my internship, the kids were protesting the government's hydroelectric plans for Patagonia!! I wish I had brought my camera because it was the coolest thing EVER to see all of these little five year olds with their faces painted, shaking posters and pompoms, and shouting out chants. They start 'em young here. I passed out in exhaustion once I got home and I honestly don't remember what I did that night haha. Fatigue-induced black out. 
On Saturday Lara & I went to a soccer game at the Estadio Nacional, had pizza with her Chilean homestay family, and then drank a few artisanal beers at a cool bar called Budapest. It was freeeeeeezing but I had a good time, as I always do with that girl. Can't wait for our vacation!!!
Sunday... can you guess??? Homework day @ Sbucks, per usual. Except I have yet to actually start any homework... But how can I be expected to concentrate with the end of the semester so close??? 

10 Things I Bet You Didn't Know About Santiago

1. Water here automatically comes "con gas" (carbonated) unless otherwise specified. You have been warned. 

2. The sun sets around 8:30/9 PM. Totally unsettling when you're used to it setting at 5:30/6 PM.

3. The transportation system here is pretty awesome. After you get over the initial annoyance of not being able to drive your car anywhere, anytime, you start to appreciate the leisurely drives through the city.

4. Speaking of transportation, everybody here drives crazy (including public transportation!). 60 mph on tiny little one way streets when there are people all around. Oh and did I mention that at certain times of the day, the direction of the one-way traffic reverses???

5. The cat calls/wolf whistles/all other animalistic noises made by men in the street are off. the. charts. Memorable moments: a man yelling from across the street to ask if I would go to lunch with him, a couple of friends and I actually getting applauded while walking home from school, and a musician serenading me on the bus.

6. Anybody who is not a native Spanish speaker is called a gringo. I am, of course, familiar with the term, but I have never ONCE been called a gringo in my life. To tell you the truth, I kind of enjoy it hahah. It lessens the pressure. 

7. People will assume you are Chilean if you appear at all hispanic, but will realize you are a "gringo" as soon as you open my mouth to speak. Recently, however, I have been getting a lot of compliments on my spanish from Chileans. But maybe they are just humoring me :(

8. The friendliness of Chileans astounds me. I have never before heard of a major metropolitan city with friendly inhabitants. After they chuckle at my inability to speak Spanish, they are incredibly accommodating and helpful.

9. Chileans don't speak spanish... They speak some sort of distortion of the spanish language. Not only do they speak 10x faster than any of my Mexican family, they also drop syllables like nothing, and even have entire books that list all of their slang, widely known as "chilenismos". Side note: the call the language "Castellano"...something about the word "Spanish" referring solely to the nationality.

10. Chile is Chile and Mexico is Mexico. I realize now how naive I was to think that this trip would help me get in touch with my Mexican heritage. What I have learned these past two weeks is that Latin America cannot be grouped together as one because each country is so entirely unique. I think it is safe to say that Mexico is as foreign to Chile as the U.S. is.