Fall in Santiago

It´s back-to-school time here. Actually, I think students started back almost a month ago now. I´m a little behind. Because there are more students running around, things change in the city. For starters, you can always find a crowd of young, impressionable smokers hanging out at every one of the high school and college campus. It´s as if they don´t actually go to class but just visit the building to smoke outside of it. It can be frustrating trying to walk through the crowds of adolescents making out while a heavy smoke reduces air quality drastically. Usually I try to avoid the schools. Unfortunately, Chile likes to group the same business together so where one school can be found, there is surely to be at least  four more within sight: two across the street and one directly after. Oh well. 

Speaking of school time, I recently learned of a custom here. Freshman or "Freshies" as they are called are stripped of their belongings and given rags for clothes to wear. They must walk the street to request donations to pay for their items. Once enough money is collected, they get their clothes and have enough money to throw a party. This trolling for coins lasts a couple of weeks. Students such as the one below can be seen in busy parts of the city requesting support. Since this is a well-known custom, the general population seems to be somewhat supportive and willing to give to the cause. 

Freshman collecting funds

More on the subject of school-age kids, I also learned of a game that is played here by youngins. Payaya, as it is called, can be compared to jacks. It is played with 5 small rocks. Players sit in a circle and take turns balancing the rocks on their hands, picking them up in fun combinations, or other stunts while tossing one rock into the air. It looks fairly easy, but I found out it was actually difficult. Think "contact juggling in the stone age". At least the supplies needed for the game are cheap. 

A couple of rocks = a round of Payaya

Semi-related vocabulary word of the day:

Torpedo - a cheat sheet. 

I went to the supermarket affectionately known as "Chanta Isabel" today. The actual name of the store is Santa Isabel. "Chanta" means "a fraud".  One reason for the name is that they never seem to carry the same products. What is there one day may not be there the next day. I often thought to myself, "Oh, I´ll buy that next time." Nope, you better get it while the gettin´s good. Don´t even bother asking for something either. I get an unexpected surprised look. It reminds me of a scene from The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda asks for some skirts. Her assistant tries to ask what kind of skirts (or were they scarves?) and everyone gasps. You don´t ask these people where the dental floss is or when more oranges will arrive. You just deal with what is available. 

Moving on, I found a funny looking eggplant pictured below. I´ll call him Ralph. I just had to take a picture of Ralph so that other people would believe what I found. After taking a photo, I was approached by someone in the produce department. In the great Chilean tradition of "you´re doing it wrong," she asked me to delete the photo and not to take anymore. Ooops. Lesson learned, kids. Don´t take pictures in the supermarket. They don´t like it. 

New friend, Ralph the eggplant

Although I didn´t delete the photo as requested, I did purchase the vegetable. Hopefully they don´t come to my home and fine me.

Patroling Pacos

 Finally, I´d like to present the Carabineros of Chile. "Carabinero" is a respectful and appropriate term for a police officer. They often ride on horseback in the city center because of the impossibly large traffic jams that are likely to occur. Motorcycles are also an appropriate option. They seem to be exempt from most road rules.

Just as the word "police" has many synonyms (some more formal than others) so does "carabinero". Hooligans can be heard referring to these guys as "pacos" (don´t get caught saying that within earshot of one) or "cops".

Border run

Because I had accidentally rejected a job that came with a Chile visa, I´m left with only a 90 day tourist visa. Two weekends ago, I realized that I was at day 84 of 90. The quickest and easiest way to renew the visa is to make a short trip to Argentina. For this reason, I traveled to Mendoza, Argentina early last week. I had to be back in Santiago for an English lesson Friday morning, so my trip would only be from Tuesday night to Thursday morning - one full day in Mendoza. Here´s how that went down:

First of all, I thought I had this whole bus-riding thing down after the first Viña del Mar debacle and another, more successful trip, a couple weeks later.  The process seemed to go well enough at first. I went to the station, asked questions and got answers (and even translated for an asian girl who didn´t speak Spanish), decided which bus I would take at what time, and bought the ticket. All good so far.

When I started to board the 3:30pm bus for Mendoza on Tuesday, I discovered that my ticket had been issued for Monday. Fail. After a short, stern conversation with the attendant in the station, I was able to exchange the ticket with a modest fee. Semi-success. The trip went pretty well for awhile after that. I was able to read a couple sections of  "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goldman. My copy was in Spanish and only showed Spanish language publication sites. I believe it´s available in English, however. If you want to learn more about how different parts of the human brain function, check it out. Back to the story, everything was going fine for the first three hours or so. We made it to the base of the Andes mountains.

There, it was expected that we would have a two-hour wait to be able to cross. There is a lot of construction in the winding road and only one lane is open at a time. Half of the day is reserved for Chile to Argentina travel and the return trip is open at a different time. That two-hour wait turned into something more of a six-hour wait. At least we were able to get up and walk around. The bus wasn´t extremely uncomfortable either.

Let´s jump ahead a bit. I arrived at 4am at the bus terminal, exchanged some Chilean pesos, CLP, for ARS, Argentinian pesos ($1 USD = $472.30 CLP = $5.11 ARS) and went to where I would be staying. I rested a bit and awoke later Wednesday morning to my first (and only) day in Mendoza.

A modern Argentinian bidet

The first thing I noticed was the additional micro tub in the bathroom. Bidets, as they are called, originated in Europe but are very popular in South American countries such as Argentina and Uruguay.  In fact, they can be found in higher end modern luxury hotels as well as in old homes. I didn´t ask my host for a demonstration, but rather did some research online. The free wifi at McDonald´s helped me learn some of the new city but wouldn´t tell me anything about this bathroom fixture. For some reason, a search term containing the word "bidet" is blocked in many places in the country. How strange. Anyway, there is free wifi among one of Mendoza´s main streets, San Martin. Check it out if you go there.

Danger. Don´t fall in. 

Unfortunately, there are also many large ditches that run along this street. The Spanish word for trench is "zanja". I found myself using it just because I liked how it sounded. As you can imagine, they are designed so that water runs through them. They are not covered and look a little dangerous to me. I almost fell in one while I was waiting on a stop light to change. As with many Central and South American places that I have visited, it is VERY important to keep an eye on where you are stepping. The sidewalk is not usually even, cars run wild, and Mendoza puts trenches in the way for you to jump over or avoid. Good luck.

Mendoza zanja

More regarding the streets of Mendoza - I noticed that the cars were generally not as new as in Santiago and other heavily populated places in Chile. Someone told me that this is because of the higher taxes taken by the Argentinian government - something to look in to if you´re thinking about moving there.

Zanjas everywhere

Taxis were different models than those used in Chile but they have similar "micros" as they are called. A micro is a bus used for public transportation. They can be quite large. I often want to call them "maxis" instead of "micros". I don´t think that would fly here. Check out the link below for a video of buses moving through traffic as if they were worms navigating a swarm of ants. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWBdPc4Ft8k

One thing that Mendoza had that I hadn´t seen in Santiago is electric street cars. At least, I think they were electric. They were connected to a cable above the street.

Typical house keys

As for the housing in the city, it seemed to be pretty similar (but not as modern in general) to Santiago. Perhaps the spaces were a little bigger as well. I stayed in an area with not many high rises. This building had nine floors, I think. The elevator had a door on the outside that each rider opened and closed themselves. One time, I found myself waiting for the car to arrive and wondering what was going on. Ooops, I just had to open the door. Keep this in mind if you see handles on elevators.

Elevator

Anyway, that´s about it for my experience in Mendoza. I walked the streets looking for something to do and didn´t find out that there was a zoo in the city until much later that night. By that time it was closed. I had to leave the next morning so I didn´t get to go. Maybe next time.

Luckily the bus ride back went a little better than the trip there. I´m going to leave out the part about losing my ticket in customs and having to fight with the bus company to allow me to pay for another one. Geez-ca-geez.

Steer clear of these

The larger bus companies sometimes try to make trips on long bus rides more exciting. Our "bus attendant" (if he can be called that) on the way back was very outgoing. He stood up to give an introduction of the bus, an orientation on the trip, and advise us on safety precautions. Unlike in an airplane, it is not expected that you sit back and pay attention. Think of it more as a Rocky Horror Picture show viewing party. He who makes the most/funniest comments wins. I wouldn´t advise throwing popcorn or getting up to dance, however.

The bus attendant typically visits the cabin to talk to people, help with customs forms, and ask for donations. Monies collected in the bus go towards two things:

Aduana - customs. 

1. Bribing the border officials for a quick trip through customs. Apparently a border crossing can be like a trip on the metro - a Russian Roulette. You never know what you´re going to get. A donation generally helps to expedite the process. It seems that our donation was acceptable on the trip to Argentina. We didn´t have near as much luck on the return trip. The process was much more involved and intimidating. I´m told that this is normal when entering Chile. Be prepared for an interrogation worse than in the airport if you travel by bus. Watch an episode of  "Locked up Abroad" to be ready for what you might encounter.

Ditch in disguise

2. Showing the motormen that you had a good time. Some try harder than others to make the trip enjoyable. Feel free to ask questions and get to know the driver and other helpers on these trips. Tipping is appreciated as well.

I wonder if they change this sign to a guy wearing pants in the winter.

In the end, I spent as much time traveling in a bus as I did in the city of Mendoza. Maybe one day I´ll go back and give it another look. I´m thinking Buenos Aires for my next trip though. Stay tuned.

Safely back home in the Santiago Metro

Silly Chile

Chile has a lot of coolness going on. For example, check out this beach below. I´m looking forward to going back a couple more times. I haven´t ventured outside of Santiago very much but I know there is a lot of stuff I should see. Hopefully I´ll be able to make that happen.

Some beach. Water, rocks, sand, etc.

Chile also has some really odd customs (compared to what I am used to). For starters, everything seems to have weird hours. Offices are typically open from 8 or 9 am to 6pm. This does not include financial institutions, however. The banks are only open for customers from 9am to 2pm Monday thru Friday. I don´t know how people find time to go. I´ve never been inside one but I always hear stories about long wait times and bad experiences. Combine this with the fact that is is very difficult to qualify for a bank account, and it doesn´t seem like something I´ll be doing any time soon. From what I hear, a lot of documentation is required to get an actual, factual checking account. Most options also charge a commission to keep your money. No thanks. I did learn of a very simple option recently that acts as a prepaid credit card with PIN. That might be the way to go.

From the top of my building, you can see this really fancy venue for parties. I´ve been a couple of times.

Back to complaining about explaining odd hours, retail stores close at 8 or 9 in the heart of the city. Grocery stores are open until around 10 or 11 at night. After this time, there are restaurants and bars open until 2 am during the week.

On the weekends, it´s a whole different story. A lot of places close early on saturday and almost every store is closed all day on Sunday. This seems very inefficient, and I´m still trying to get used to it. I asked people why they think that the stores are closed on Sundays. The main response is that people deserve time to rest. I completely agree with that, but it would be a lot more efficient if people had days off in the middle of the week and worked on weekends. There´s simply not enough time during the week to get chores done especially when commutes can eat up another hour on each end of the work day. For being such a developed country, I sometimes have trouble understanding how they advance. I´ll just keep my eyes and ears open to try to figure it out.

A pleasant street called London right by my building

Bars, restaurants, and discos take full advantage of the weekend. An early closing is 2am. Most dance clubs are open until 5am. When people go out on Friday or Saturday night, it usually starts with dinner around midnight. Seeing that the grocery stores and everything else closes around 10 pm, that late night time in which I would normally be getting ready for bed serves as a napping hour.

Chile is as silly as fruit on your head

Now let´s talk about things that don´t make any sense at all:

-People water the sidewalk here frequently. I get that they might be cleaning it. I don´t understand why they waste so much water to do so. A quick spray maybe once a week or so should do. The guys with the palm fronds do a pretty good job of sweeping up (although there has got to be a more efficient way). Silly Chile

-Everywhere you go, you´ll see people carrying stuff. Some carry a purse. Others use a rolling cart. Backpacks are really popular, and often times there are attachés or briefcases. Those are the common items. The other day, I saw a fella walking happily down the street carrying only a plate and a knife. He seemed pretty proud of his dishes. For a second, I thought he was going to chop me up and eat me right there on the spot. He had the correct utensils after all. Silly Chile

-To be "on top of the ball" means that you are tipsy and on your way to getting drunk. I guess this makes sense when it is explained. If you were trying to balance on top of a ball, you might be a little unsteady or tipsy. Silly Chile

-"Number 10 guy" means "Number 1 guy". If you look at this on a scale of 1 to 10, I guess it would be logical to expect the higher number to be better. Still, it can be a little confusing. Silly Chile

-You wouldn´t inquire about someone´s last name by asking "Abram who?". Instead, it´s "Abram how much?" Silly Chile.

A cute little Coca Cola delivery truck

-The term "third aged" is used to refer to elderly people. We use the term "middle aged" to refer to, well, middle aged people. It would seem logical that there should be a term for people older than this. However, there is no such thing as "first aged" or "second aged." Silly Chile.

-When you ask someone "Where are we?" you aren´t referring to your geographical location but rather to the date on the calendar. This question is equivalent to "What is today´s date?". To ask "Where are we?" you would say, "Where do we find ourselves?". Silly Chile.

-When shopping for shoes, you might be asked "How much do you wear?" This means "What is your shoe size?" Silly Chile.

-Because there is not really a word for "it" as it is employed in english, phrases like "How´s it going?" "That´s me." or "It was him" become "How are you going?", "I am me." and "He was him." Silly Chile

-Almost no one likes cats here. How is that possible? The gringo internet was founded on funny cat videos and memes. All of these are lost on chileans. I have laughed at a couple for several minutes only to find that the locals explain it as "cute, but not funny". Silly Chile

I'm back

Schwoof. It has been awhile since I updated this thing. There has been lots of new stuff going on. Let's see if I can remember some of it.

While I´m settling in nicely, there are always new things that surprise me here. For example, I spied this can of Kem below at the bakery yesterday along side a pepsi. I have no idea what kind of drink it is, but the can is cool. Check out the octopus and macaw.

The people in this store, Castaño, are generally pretty nice. They call me "joven" or "young one" all the time. They also use the formal version of "you" when they speak to their customers.


The big adventure last weekend was going to mercado central. It´s a busy, smelly place where one can buy seafood of all kind. I saw octopus, a lot of fish, clams, oysters, and much more. Check out the pics below to see some of the fish.

ugly dead fish

He looks like he wants to tell me something

I went to the market with squid in mind. That´s what I ended up getting. Below is a picture of one that I bought. It was my first time preparing fresh squid. Their bodies pull apart easily, and you can check out their unique anatomy. What I didn´t know is that squid have quills. These are used to shoot their ink. They are not especially sharp but they seem pretty strong. I removed the quills out of a couple of squid thinking it was a piece of plastice that someone had put in there to preserve the shape of the squid. Nope, it´s all organic. It was odd because it felt and looked exactly like man-made plastic. Whodathunk?

getting ready to cook the squid

I´m constantly finding more english words that are being employed in Chilean spanish. Check out this package of cookies from Castaño below. I didn´t want to tell the manufacturer, but they spelled cookie wrong. No one seemed to mind. Also, no one seemed to mind that these kukies didn´t taste very good. I guess that´s a good thing. It´ll cut down on my craving for sweets. They don´t have butterfinger bars or reese´s cups here. Oh man, I wanted those. At least they have honeydew and cantalope here. Yumm. Fun fact- Chile is a main supplier for fruits in US safeway stores. Their cherries are amazing.

want a kuky?

I´ve had my first and second earthquake here in Chile. If you´ve never experienced one, this can be your first second-hand earthquake. Actually, I hardly noticed the earthquakes. They were around 5.0 on the Richter scale and more than 100 miles away. I was in the top floor of my earthquake-resistant building each time. As such, the floor just swayed back and forth slowly for around 30 seconds. It felt like my bedroom was floating on water and moving with the waves. That´s all.

In spanish, there are two words for this event. A temblor is a small rumble that causes little to no damage. A terremoto is a powerful, destructive earthquake.There are generally 1-2 terremotos every 20 years. Santiago experienced an 8.8 quake in 2010 that people still remember vividly. A coworker described her experience of the event to me in great detail. There was another one around 7.5 in March of 2012. We should be good for about 20 years on the big ones. For reference, the 2011 Japan quake that caused the major tsunami with world-wide effects was 9.0.

view from my floor

Next is a picture of $38,000 Chilean pesos. I think their money is pretty. It´s a little more water-resistant (and less smelly) than American dollars. In case you´re wondering, $38k CLP is equal to about $80.50 USD. 

Chilean Pesos - CLP

What do I do at work, you ask? Right now I´m working in an internship position for an international consulting firm. I compose market research reports for Canadian companies who are looking to import their products to Chile. It is very dynamic. I learn a lot about each of the clients so I can help them better. This position will end in about a month so I can start in a real job that pays real money. More info on that as it´s available.

how I use my computer these days

Well that´s about it for now. I´ll try to keep up with this more and write as things happen. It works better that way. Ok, stay tuned. 

You did it wrong.

There seems to be a common problem with me doing things wrong here. Darn it. I'm trying to learn. Luckily, you guys don't have to deal with my frustrations to learn about all the differences here. Let's see, what have I been doing wrong?

ELEVATORS - I know this might seem like a small thing, but I really haven't had much experience with elevators in my life. I seem to always press the wrong button or hop on the wrong elevator. People pile into elevators here. It's expected to hold the door for peeps. I think I have the idea down, but I always do it wrong. Don't most elevators open if they sense something in the door area? I keep trying to hold the elevator by pressing against the door. Apparently that doesn't work in all of the lifts here. You have to press the button on the inside. I've gotten at least one weird look for screwing this up.

BUS STATION - Geez-ca-geez. I did it wrong. This was an experience. For some reason, I expected to be able to take the metro to the bus station, hop on, and go to Vina last friday. It wasn't that simple at all. As soon as I saw the crowd, I realized that I should have expected this. There was an ocean of people and seemingly no order. It was like something that I've seen in the movies.

I followed a kid who looked like he knew what he was doing. I don't think I look lost though. We stood in line for like 20 minutes. After awhile a man came by shouting "Vina!". "Yes, that's me," I thought, "What do I do now?" He directed me to wait in another waiting area with a small crowd of people and some street dogs. I waited there another 20 minutes or so as he checked back in everyone once in awhile saying we were to leave very soon.

Finally, he returned and told us to move to another location to wait. This area was outside the normal bus terminal. It seemed a little weird, but everyone else was going with it. They seemed fine. A bus pulled up and everybody ran, literally RAN, to hop onto it. There was even a fence in the way that we all had to jump over. I was laughing on the inside, trying to act cool on the inside, and kinda nervous all the way around. I made it over the fence and onto the bus ok. It definitely wasn't built for North American bodies. Luckily, a lady let me sit in the aisle seat so I could put my legs in the walkway. Otherwise, I wouldn't have fit. The bus is what they refer to as a "micro".

When I recounted my story to the person I was meeting in Vina, he told me that what I had taken was a "pirate bus". Haha. Arrrrrrrgh. I learned that the legit buses are MUCH MUCH nicer than the pirated ride. I got to take that on the way back and everything was fine.

My new coin holder with Chilean pesos. I use the wrong change sometimes.

METRO TICKET COUNTER- I can´t seem to figure this one out either. I did it wrong. There are different prices during the day depending on traffic. I think I understand that part. What I haven't been able to figure out is why it's like $600 one day at 5:15 and $520 the next day at 5:10. I try to have the right amount ready and wait for change if I need it. They always look at me funny like I"m doing it wrong. It's impossible to talk to these folks because there is so much noise and they have absolutely no patience. I just try to give them as little as possible and be on my way. I should really buy a card that I can reload and swipe at the entrance. I'll get on that this weekend. Thanks for the reminder.

MAKE PLANS - Because I'm not very good at talking on the phone, I don't have wifi when I'm out and about, and I don't know the city that well, I try to make plans to go places or meet people beforehand. Apparently this just isn't done here. I´m doing it wrong. I was almost yelled at one time for trying to set up a time frame to meet the next day.

It's also not appropriate to ask people what they're up to on any given day? The response is "Why? What do you want from me? I don't owe you anything" I'm just trying to be nice and practice speaking. Sorry.

WORK LIGHT SWITCHES - This would seem easy, wouldn't it? Well, I keep doing it wrong. The switches are opposite here. I guess that makes sense because I'm on the bottom of the world. They flip down to turn on and up to turn off. The ones in my apartment are installed sideways. I always flip the wrong switch and/or in the wrong direction.

the lightswitches that I always do wrong.

ORDERING IN RESTAURANTS - I go out to eat as infrequently as I can, but it still happens every once in awhile. I always do it wrong. I haven't been able to understand a single word that any waiter has spoken. Usually, I have no idea what I am ordering and am always surprised by the bill. I have got to figure this one out.

Hydroponic lettuce. Just because.

WATCHING OUT FOR TRUCKS - There's a lot of construction in my neighborhood right now. I learned today that they don't go BEEP when they back up. Oopsie doopsie. I crossed the street right behind one while he was backing up. It was a bit close, but I didn't get hit. I did it wrong.

PALABREAR - This is a chilean word that means "to joke around with friends". My company this weekend frequently referred to each member of the gang as "Fatty" although none of them were. I don't know if I speak well enough to start accusing people of being overweight in a joking manner just yet. I don´t want to do it wrong.

A random reciept. I probably did it wrong when purchasing whatever I did here.

Finally, something they do "wrong". When taking a picture, they sometimes use the english word, "smile". However, it's pronounced "esmee-lay". I don't know if they do this on purpose or just don't know how to say it correctly. Either way, it's funny.

I hope you learned lots. Bonus for the day : http://youtu.be/nr8H6Lx4YNI This music video was filmed a couple blocks from where I live. I was just there today. Stay tuned.

Let's go to the beach, beach. Let's go get away

Can you guess where I went this last weekend? If you guessed the port city of Valparaíso and beach town of Viña del Mar then you´d be correct. Yup, I was invited to sail away for a weekend excursion. I headed out Friday almost directly after work and came back to dear Santiago at 1AM on Monday morning just in time to sleep a couple of hours before work. The actual traveling portion of the trip will be discussed in a later entry. How was the weekend, you ask? Well let me show and tell you.

Blending in with the street sign

Here we are in Valparaíso. Most of the city is built on a hill. As you can see pictured above, one will encounter lots of stairs and slanted pathways while touring the area. They have elevators that go diagonally a la those of the Luxor in Las Vegas. I took a quick walk up a billion and two stairs to check out this quiet area. I was able to see some hooligans artists spray painting a wall nearby where the picture was taken. Hopefully their project turned out nice. I think they were painting a bird over some existing artwork.

From the top of the hill, you can see the cargo and cruise ships hanging out in the bay. It´s a really busy place for commerce and tourism. At any given time during my stay there were at least five large (ginormical, actually) barges waiting to dock.

a cute little house behind some plants

I´m not sure what kind of people live in the houses in this area. The very few people I saw walking around were either tourists from England or visitors from Santiago. Perhaps the climb to the top of the hill exhausts the residents and they chose to leave as infrequently as possible.

a blue building

Here´s a picture of the town square right by the harbor. A Celebrity cruise ship was parked in the water this day, and there were a lot of people out and about taking pictures. When one goes to Valparaíso, it is almost obligatory that they check out these statues and have some seafood. I went with the flow and did both. After taking some pictures you see below, I had some sort of fish at the restaurant on the right side of the picture below. It´s the white building with umbrellas outside. Go there. Everyone else does.

Check out what else was happening in this area that day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewCPTxzlIUo 

Resting at the monument

Here I am hanging out is the aforementioned statue area. It´s the "Monumento a los heroes de Iquique". or "The Heros of Iquique Monument¨. Chilean peeps, correct me if I´m wrong but I believe that Iquique is a town in the north of the country that originally belonged to Peru. The people depicted in this statue played a major part in winning that land. Apparently they lost the specific battle that inspired the monument, but they got the job done in the end. I forget the guys´ names and don´t have pictures of them. If you´re really interested, come visit me in Santiago and we´ll take a trip over there to check it out again.

Friend, Miguel posing with one of the hero peeps

Ok, so this picture above didn´t turn out quite right. It was supposed to seem like the statue guy was attacking Miguel like the infamous Ronald McDonald slap happy pics. Instead, it looks like the statue is in front of him and he´s looking down on it. In reality, the guy is larger than life size.

Checking out the bell

That´s me above just hanging out in the little monument area. You can see how big the guys are from here. 

Monumento hereos de Iquique

The beach at Viña del Mar

more populated area of the beach

Even the street dogs liked to come to the beach. Some would just sit to listen and watch. Some would run around playing with others. In the picture above, you can see some of the cargo ships in the distance awaiting their turn to dock.

Harbor at Valparaíso

Aside from having a beach and a harbor, Viña had at least two shopping malls. They were quite big. Well, they were a lot larger than anything in Wyoming. I went on a Saturday and saw a lot of sailors hanging out. At first, I thought they were dressed up for a performance or that they just liked the clothes cuz that´s what kids were into these days. Nope, they were real life sailors, and lots of them. Silly me. I was in a real life port city after all. Too bad I didn´t get a picture of them.

Some nice apartments at Viña

Viña also has a casino near the water. I would have gone to check it out, but I was pulled back because you have to pay to get in. There was a cover charge for a lot of the bathrooms too. If anyone is thinking about an entrepreneur possibility in Chile, come on down and open up a fancy private bathroom on the beach. You could probably get like $1.50- $2.00 USD and have a line most of the day.

Miguel at the beach

Along the beach was a boardwalk with a lot of activities going on. There were people relaxing, a turbo kick routine being taught (which made me sad that I couldn´t join in), people skateboarding, guys working out, and kids playing. By accident, I stepped into the path of a small child on a tricycle. One of the wheels bounced over my foot and she ended up tumbling over. Oopsie doopsie. I don´t know if her caregiver saw me wreck her, but they did see me helping her up. No one sued me, so I guess we´re good.

On the way back from the beach, I got to try out a new concept that I hadn´t heard of before - a disco cafe. It´s like a regular restaurant that serves food and coffee during the day. At night, it´s turned into a dance club. It was a nice experience. They even had fancy stuff like hydroponic lettuce. I had that with some chicken. Yum.

Speaking of food experiences, I also got to try out my first street vendor that night. I was so hungry and it was the only option at 5am. I learned that a "completo" is a hot dog. What a weird name. Also, I learned the meaning of "italiano". A person can request their food be prepared this way if they want avocado,  mayonnaise, and tomato. The colors are green, white, and red just like the Italian flag. Finally something makes sense in this place.


Well, that was pretty much the weekend.This was less of a cultural lesson and more of a review of my weekend. The next blog entry should be more educational. Stay tuned.

bonus - Them silly people wearing a black belt with brown shoes

Out and about

I finally got to act like a tourist and see the city a bit. I wanted to check out one of the big hills in town, but they were closing it down just as I got there. Oh well. There was much more to see. In no certain order, here are some pics from activities around Santiago

Morsa - Walrus

There are a lot of chinese and sushi restaurants in my neighborhood. It´s pretty popular. It´s also a bit funny to hear chinese people speaking spanish. That reminds me of a place in Laramie. What´s different from Laramie is that most of these restaurants are medium-fancy, at least compared to the surrounding establishments. Pretty much the same Chinese food options available in the US are enjoyed here. Strangely enough, it remind me of being back in Wyoming. Everything was partially familiar except for the language the waiter spoke.

"Sushi" is the same word in English and Spanish. However, it´s pronounced "sut-tshee" here.

The "dollar" store

I found this store when I was out shopping with my tailor for some fabric. As of Jan 17, 2013, it can be translated to the "$0.82" store. What a bargain. Since I can´t find any pants here that are long enough, my tailor going to make me some pants for work. I picked out a grey fabric with light blue checks and a dark red number. Hopefully they turn out well and aren´t too "extreme" for the office.

Normally people dress pretty nice here. There are exceptions, however. Today I saw a lot of brown belt/black shoe (or visa versa) combos. Come on, people. You know better.

Statue at the hill

Since the upper part of the hill was closed, Marco (tour guide) and I walked around the lower portion. There are a couple of statues and lots of plant in this area. Above is Marco sitting on the lap of Jose Victorino Lastarria. Ain´t that cute? I forgot to read why he has a statue. Oops. Mi trick knee was giving me fits on the uneven surface.

Speaking of people and their names, I introduced myself to the cleaning lady at work and asked for her name. She replied bashfully, "Anabelle Anita Santa Jose de la Ovalle Rodriguez Paz del Sur" (or something along those lines). Luckily she´s cool with just "Anita".

Corner of something and something

I was just walking around and saw this building. I don´t know what it is or where I found it. That dog was cute though.

Chevy Spark

This car is ubiquitous here. I think it´s planned for the US but hasn´t arrived yet. In fact, a lot of small cars are introduced in this market before the US. I´ve seen some pretty fancy small cars. Mercedes has one here that´s not available up north as well. Whereas we have full size cars like crown victorias for taxis in the US, they use compact cars like a Hyundai Elantra or Toyota Camry. Another thing about the cars here is that they are almost all manual transmission. I´m not sure why. Almost all newer cars have some sort of backup, rearview camera option. This is more of a luxury item in the US, but very common here. It´s necessary for the tight parking jobs.

I´ve ridden in a couple taxis here. They are generally cheap and the drivers don´t demand a huge tip. One night, some friends and I were waiting in a busy area for a ride home. All the taxis were being used by other people. A guy pulled up in his own ride and asked us, "taxi?" I guess this isn´t unheard of here either. It was an unmarked car with a very young man driver. Normally, I wouldn´t hop into a stranger´s car into the middle of the night. There were three of us and only one of him. I figured we would be alright. Sure enough, he took us home safely and only charged us about $6 USD.

Statue on the hill

This is what it feels like to be in the metro. Actually, it´s probably a little tighter.
Speaking of the metro, I tried to use my student ID to get the advertised student discount. I showed the lady a the ticket counter my valid card and she litterally LOL´d me. She showed the card to her friends who laughed at it and me too. I tried to ask her what was so funny and why it wouldn´t work. I couldn´t hear a word she said though. Those people are behind glass and it´s very loud in there. Oh well. At least I tried and she got a good laugh.

statue on the hill

Marco is giving water to the dog in the casting.

Swollen horse

Just because it was there, I took a picture with this horse in the park. Hopefully in a month or two, I´ll be well enough to go running in this park. It´s a popular place to do so at night.

Well, that´s about it for today. Here´s one last picture to end the day. Stay tuned.

 

 

fountain/statue at entrance to hill