¿Cachai? con Kristin: One month in Chile

Hola! Como estai? This is the greeting I am now used to. You would think between cachai and estai, I should be used to this tense, but I still do a double take when someone asks me como te llamai? However, I am beginning to sprinkle po into my daily vocabulary, so I think that means I’m headed in the right direction with my handle of Chilean Spanish, or at least Chilean slang. Now, if I could only add a little more variety to my diet, I would be set for life here. I am currently searching for Chilean vegetarians to meet so I can learn the tips and tricks, like where to find goodies like tofu, hummus, and almond milk at stores and where to eat out and order something other than cheese empanadas. This weekend, my first free weekend in the country, I plan on making a point to check out the outdoor markets and the grocery store at the mall that have been recommended to me so far. Hopefully by the time I post my next entry, I will have improved my diet, but hey, I always say that as long as I have bread, cheese, and chocolate, I’ll be fine, and those necessities are not at all hard to come by here! And speaking of chocolate—if you’re ever in Santiago, head over to Barrio Lastarria and try the manjar blanco flavor of ice cream at Emporio La Rosa. This is equally as good as the dulce de leche I tried in Buenos Aires. It’s similar (manjar and dulce de leche are basically one and the same), but has pieces of chocolate and a bit of spicy flavor reminiscent of gingerbread. Also try the rosa flavor, if you don’t mind kind of sort of feeling like you’re eating a flower.

Despite some struggles with understanding Chilean Spanish and eating a balanced diet, and a stint with bad allergies (tip: don’t sleep with your bedroom windows open), I am having the most amazing experience here. So far, my list of touristy places visited in Santiago includes Cerro Santa Lucia, Cerro San Cristobal, Plaza Italia, Barrios Bellavista and Lastarria, La Piojera, Parque Bicentenario, and the Costanera Center mall that is part of the tallest building in South America. My favorite place so far is the pool at Cerro San Cristobal. Jumping into a huge, gorgeous pool makes walking halfway up a hill that might as well be a mountain in the strong Chilean sun well worth it, and from the area surrounding the pool, there are incredible views of Santiago on all sides. I’m also a very big fan of the Lastarria neighborhood in its entirety, partly because of ice cream, but also because of a beautiful park with a cute playground and lots of Chilean trees (because Chile is so geographically isolated by its desert, mountain, water, and ice sides, a lot of plants here are different from those growing elsewhere in the world), and because of the neighborhood’s general hipster charm. Luckily, this neighborhood is only a few blocks from FEN so I can indulge in it as often as I want.

My first view of the Pacific Ocean!

My list of places visited in Chile outside of Santiago is small at the moment, but Viña del Mar and Cajon del Maipo were good first experiences. I visited Viña del Mar for the main purpose of dipping my toes into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and I really enjoyed this cute beach town. Maybe it is because the town is somewhat of a tourist attraction, but it was interesting that while I was there, I didn’t necessarily even feel like I was in Chile—that beach could have been any beach in the world. I couldn’t help but get all the way into the ocean once I felt the familiar feeling of sand between my toes, and now I know it won’t be long before I’m off and visiting my next Chilean beach town. What was uniquely Chilean about that trip was the Chilean hospitality. The FEN buddy of one of the USC girls I went with is from Viña and was home for the weekend, and not only did he pick us up from the bus terminal, but he also gave us a grand tour, making sure we saw both the tourist attractions and a very cool, relaxed beach. Chileans being incredibly nice and welcoming and having fun showing me around has been a recurring theme here, and I’m loving it. I’m convinced that Chilean hospitality not only rivals but beats southern hospitality. As far as my other trip, Cajon del Maipo is not far outside of Santiago but is a cool, hilly (mountainous, I would say, but Chileans would disagree) area that many FEN students are rather familiar with. At the beginning of every semester, FEN buses its students to a park in Cajon for one day to hang out, barbecue, drink, and dance. The mechones, or freshmen, also compete against each other in challenges on this day, representing different color teams. For me, this trip was a fun way to get out in the fresh air, meet lots of FEN students, and learn to dance to reggaeton like a Chilean.

I also experienced Lollapalooza, an international music festival that sets up shop in Santiago for a weekend and entertains huge crowds of Chileans and foreigners alike. I love live music, so I had a great time singing and dancing along to both the small acts in Spanish and the big international acts. I also had a funny realization about living abroad while I was at Lollapalooza. When abroad, speaking English is something that can quickly bond you to strangers. Think about it—at a music festival in the States, you would never turn around and start a conversation with the people behind you solely because they are speaking English. But when abroad, it seems somehow normal to want to talk to people and ask where they’re from just because you overheard their language. I hope that someday I’ll connect with people speaking Spanish in the same way, with them asking me where I’m from or where I learned to speak Spanish.

Another memorable moment was orientation day at FEN, when we broke up into groups to go around the parts of the city closely surrounding FEN and competed to take funny photos with traditional Chilean things. At FEN, there is an International Student Association that plans events for international students, and after orientation, many of us went with ISA to Bellavista, and that was my first time ever enduring, I mean, enjoying friends’ karaoke performances. Most recently, I had a memorable moment at a Saint Patrick’s Day celebration at an Irish pub fit with all of the Scottish bagpipes and kilts you can imagine. I’m not sure if I’m the only one who found the Scottish/Irish thing so humorous, but to me, it was hilariously worthwhile.

Now, onto why I’m really here, the study in study abroad. FEN is great—each day I’m amazed at how nice and welcoming everyone is, how interesting my classes are, and how much I am able to learn inside and outside of the classroom. I mentioned earlier the FEN buddy program, and although I haven’t yet met my assigned FEN buddy, part of me feels like every FEN student is my FEN buddy. Between IBA cohort members, ISA members, FEN buddies of friends, and the students I’ve met in my classes, I feel as though I can’t go fifteen minutes inside FEN without running into some nice Chilean who is willing to offer a smile and whatever help I need. The FEN students are also great about wanting to speak both English and Spanish with me, and I’m always appreciative of the chance to practice Spanish. Actually, yesterday, I attended the first Habla Po! session, a weekly chance to sit around with Chileans and practice their English for one hour and our Spanish for the next hour, put on by ISA. When it comes to classes, I am most enjoying my two classes in Spanish, yoga and Economia, Humanismo, y Valores. These classes are unlike anything I have taken before and between the language and subject matter, I can feel that I’m being challenged. Especially in Econ, I am really gaining an insight of Chilean students’ opinions and understandings of things (well, from what I can actually make of their rapid-speaking participation). My two classes in English are also interesting, but are overlapping much more with things I’ve learned in the past. In those classes I have opportunities to meet other international students and cool Chileans who are interested in a cultural exchange with us gringos, so that has been beneficial. So far I have had a quiz in only one of my classes, and it was essay-style and open-resources (notes, class readings, Google, whatever we wanted). I really like that style of assessment, not only because it is lower-stress and prevents cramming, but also because it is much more like what life after college will really be like (sorry, all due respect, multiple choice). I am looking forward to the assignments and group projects that are to come in my classes and to keep learning more Spanish every day.

Until next time! Nos vemos!

PD (that’s what PS is here): Please excuse the missing accent marks in many of the Spanish words used in this post. New goal: figure out how to add languages to my new computer before it’s time to write my first essay in Spanish.