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