First day in Santiago

Wow. What an adventure. I should have done this 20 years ago. After all the planning and the very long trip, I have finally arrived. It is exhausting trying to pay attention to all the new things here, but it has been fun so far. Here´s what´s new:

I actually surprised myself in how well I have been able to speak and understand Spanish so far. It helps a lot when you know the people. I´m fortunate to know some great people here. There is still difficulty speaking with strangers or discussing a complicated topic. For example, I went to a restaurant in the evening of my first day in the city. The waiter was very hard to understand, and I didn´t have a great idea of what I was ordering. There wasn´t really a menu in that place. It was more of a "you tell me what you want, and I´ll see what I can do" type thing. That works for me. Anyway, I thought I ordered a salad. What came is pictured below. Close enough. It was good, but apparently they thought I ordered two dishes. Oops. That might have not been the most cost-effective decision. At least I know now.

I was also schooled on some of the table manners in the city. It is apparently advisable to almost hover over your dish and keep both hands above the table at all time. Also, lettuce should be cut with a butter knife. Tap water is typically not available, and bottled water comes carbonated by default. yuck. Perhaps I had spent too much time in a small Wyoming town where such "elegant" practices aren´t mainstream. Lesson learned.

What came shortly after the dinner is sure to be the first of many embarrassing slip-ups facilitated by the language barrier. Those who know me personally are aware that I have been working to recover from a recent knee operation. At times, I still have some issues with mobility. We had to wait quite awhile for the bill (which is common), so I found it a bit difficult to find my balance and walk normally after standing up. I called out to my friend who had accompanied me, "Me tengo que calentar primero". This phrase seems to translate well enough, but what I failed to realize is that there is a strong sexually connotation in the words. Instead of expressing a need to warm up my knee a bit before I started walking, I let the restaurant know that I have to turn myself on (sexually) before I could continue.

My sort of humor doesn´t fully translate here. I have managed to provoke a couple of hefty laughs, but I still have a long way to go in that field. The major problem is that Michael Scott is not known in Chile. Almost any phrase can be instantly transformed by adding "That´s what she said" to the end. Unfortunately, no one knows or cares who "she" is. A lot of other jokes are lost in the culture as well. Don´t worry, I´ll pay close attention to the upcoming season premier of "Mundos Opuestos" and be up-to-date on what´s hot in no time.

The last picture is the view from a friend´s apartment. I still haven´t nailed down a specific place to live, but it could be there. Stay tuned.