I suppose you'd like to hear about my trip. It all started with a plane ride from Minneapolis to Detroit (I wish I could tell you more about Detroit but that has to wait for another time), then to Miami, Santiago, and finally Concepción, the most fertile city in the world, located in the southern half of Chile. It's a really big city; almost a million and a half people live here and in the surrounding suburbs. Here the toilets flush the opposite way and believe it or not, summer is just starting. Crazy, I know.
My host parents are named Pepe and Kena. Those are not there real names--everyone here has a nickname, so far I've been introduced to people as "Gringo." Pepe and Kena are gradually introducing me to Chileno customs, like drinking a glass of wine at lunch and taking a nap afterwards, tearing apart a biscuit into bite-size pieces when you eat it, greeting women with a hug and a kiss, and not planning anything ahead of time. It's cool.
My neighborhood resembles a pastel-colored, much denser north Minneapolis. It has a lot of cool graffiti (some of it even says gringo, which I appreciate) and stray dogs. I live in a small, cozy two-story house. For heating, we have space heater powered by propane tanks similar to the ones you use for grilling. It seems dangerous but so far nothing has exploded and I haven't felt lightheaded. I hope this trend continues.
The food here is really awesome. They put lemon juice and salt on every vegetable so it doesn't taste like a vegetable and put guacamole on their sandwiches instead of lamer condiments, like margarine.
A list of things about Chile that might make you exclaim, "Oh! That is so different from our culture."
- People actually drink mineral water. A cold glass of mineral water goes great with coffee. This is true.
- Mayonnaise is sold in bags
- A guy on a music video show on TV was wearing a Healthy Choice shirt (you know, the terrible processed health food brand)
- At parties and bars most people who dance are actually good at it
- There are Canadian food restaurants
- Couples passionately make out in parks, at the mall, on campus, and in caves (ok, not really the last one. I just thought it would be appropriate time to joke about misconceptions that some people have about countries outside North America and Europe)
- A guy in the park was wearing a shirt that said only, "100% PORNO"
- There are at least three, usually five, channels that show soccer all the time
- I have not ate any chile yet
Hopefully I'll be posting pictures soon so you can see the what the place where your relative/friend/guy/tag team partner is living looks like. Post a question if you are pondering something, or write a comment (but only if it's insightful or funny). I´ll hopefully be updating this once a week, so check it out if you want more great puns and tales of exotic locales.
