Happy New Year Everyone!!

Good news: my bag arrived yesterday, so no more worrying about that.

Right now we are in the midst of preparations for my Dad's belated 50th birthday party. We're expecting over 50 people in a little over an hour. I should probably be helping instead of blogging, but after cutting 100000 slices of cheese and making enough guacamole for an army, I'm pooped.

Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I don't make resolutions, but if you do, I hope you reach all of your goals for 2010.

Eat, drink and be merry, but please drive carefully!

Air Canada: Como las pelotas

I used to be an AirCanada fan. They have nice airplanes, the flight attendants are cheerful, they have individual televisions with good programing.

When it comes to baggage, they SUCK. Because my baggage was incorrectly tagged at the Santiago airport, it didn't arrive to Boston when I did. They told me they would send it by FedEx when it arrived to the airport the next day. I understand there was a snowstorm and things were crazy, but HELLO we live in the Northeast. It's AirCanada, not AirJamaica we're dealing with here. So one of my bags arrived a day after she said they both would arrive. Then I got a phone call saying the second bag would arrive the day after Christmas. Okay, kind of sucky, but not so bad.

The second bag never arrived. It STILL hasn't arrived. I called today because I realized I might never get my bag before I leave for Santiago again. I wanted the FedEx tracking number so I could call FedEx and figure out where it was.

Get this: THEY DIDN'T ASSIGN A TRACKING NUMBER TO MY BAG!!!

Umm...hello? That means my bag is lost in no-mans land and I have no way to find it.

AirCanada: GIANT FAIL.

Random observations about being home

I was going to turn this into some sort of cohesive blog post, but the only time I really have to blog is after my family has gone to sleep, and by this point at night I'm pooped. So here I present to you some random observations about reverse culture shock and being home.

1. My house seems gigantic. The ceilings seem so HIGH and the upstairs bathroom just seems enormous. I even asked my sister if they had done something different with the counter, because I swear there's a piece of wall space that wasn't there before. Also, my mom rearranged my room while I was gone and it seems bigger too.

2. I sleep so much better in silence. My house is in the middle of nowhere here and there is literally no sound from anywhere that interrupts my sleep. I didn't realize how much the noise pollution in my apartment was affecting me until I got home and slept like a baby here. I thought my ears would ring from lack of noise, but it has been heavenly. I'm considering buying some of those noise-canceling earplugs for when I get back.

3. I'm the electricity nazi. My family constantly leaves lights on here. My Chilean host family taught me to shut off everything. Always. So I walk around my house shutting off lights. It's a great pastime.

4. I haven't had too many Spanish slips like I did when I came home after studying abroad, probably because I speak a lot more English now on a daily basis in Chile. However, I say all of my exclamations as if I were in Chile. Mish! Uuuuuf. Uuuuuy! Eeeeh! Pucha.

5. I don't eat very much in Chile. It's so nice to have someone cook for you, but now I understand why I've lost so much weight there.

6. People in Santiago dress up WAY more than people in Vermont. I went out with my sister and her boyfriend and his friends and I looked around the bar. Everyone was wearing old jeans and some sort of fleece or sweater. Of course I looked down and I was wearing the exact same thing, but to my credit, I don't think my luggage had arrived by that point. Or I was just trying to blend in with the locals. When in Rome...

7. I have a television here with 200+ channels and there is never anything on. This further justifies my decision not to have a TV in my apartment in Santiago.

8. I went to Costco today. I think that deserves its own post. But can I just say: 10 pound bag of chocolate chips.

Merry Christmas!

I've been a bad blogger, but with good reason. I've been spending time with my family and taking advantage of the precious moments we have together.

Christmas preparations are almost complete in our house. The presents are wrapped, stockings hung, tree decorated. Tonight my grandparents are coming to dinner, then we'll go to church at 10. Tomorrow we open presents and have sticky buns in the morning, and head to the other grandparents' house in the afternoon for Christmas dinner. On Saturday we'll get together with my Dad's side of the family for a family meal at The Three Stallion Inn in Randolph, VT, which I've never been to, but heard great things about.

So this was just a quick update to say Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

Back in the USA....err...almost

I’m writing this from the Toronto airport. There is a serious lack of outlets in this airport. Earlier I was sitting on the floor next to the payphones like a total sketchball.

My plane supposedly leaves at 11:35 for Boston. I’m hopeful, because unlike some other cities on the east coast (cough, DC, cough, cough), Boston knows how to handle a snow storm. The heaviest snow is supposed to stop by 12:00 and they’ll have an hour to clear the runways for us. Right??? I'm trying to have a positive outlook.

It’s weird to be around so many people speaking English. I legitimately went up to the lady at the news stand and asked for an “agua mineral” and she started talking to me in French. Oops. And as I’ve been walking around I keep thinking “WOW! So many gringos here.” Um, duh, Abby. You’re in Canada!

Oh, and I found out that according to US Customs, I’m a Chilean Resident. I told them that according to Chile, that wasn’t the case. The lady just glared at me and told me to change it on the form. I did, because I may or may not be carrying too many bottles of wine in my luggage and didn’t want her to mark my luggage to be checked because I pissed her off.

My first customer experience this morning had me thinking I was back in Chile, though. After a disgusting AirCanada breakfast (the dinner was good though), I was starving so I went to this little place to buy a muffin and coffee (the line for Starbucks was too long). The total came to $7.28 (ouch!) and I handed her exact change, in US currency. She started telling me how she’d have to give me change in Canadian dollars, asking me if I minded. I told her I had given her exact change so it shouldn’t matter. Then she explained to me about the exchange rate and how the US dollar was worth less than the Canadian dollar (thanks for the reminder, lady). I told her I understood. Then she said, “But you can pay with a credit card.” So I asked her, but what if I want to pay in cash? She said, yes, but I’ll have to give you change in Canadian dollars. “Okay,” I replied, “I gave you exact change. So, are you saying I need to give you more money?” She said, “Well, you can pay with a credit card.” OH MY GOD! So I calmly explained that I did not want to pay with a credit card and asked her how much I owed in US dollars. “Oh!” she piped up, “Let me just calculate that for you.” FINALLY. I owed 40 cents more. All that for 40 cents. Really?? One thing I have to say, though, is that although the whole exchange was very frustrating, she was relatively friendly.

Another observation, airport security has gotten waaaaaay more lax. Well, in Santiago it’s a joke, but it’s always been like that. When I went back through Security here in Toronto though, I had two containers of liquid outside my plastic baggie (one which is more than 3 oz) and they didn’t say anything. Maybe I was just lucky. I didn’t even realize myself until after.

OOOH! The pilot is getting on the plane! Good news folks. Here’s hoping I make it home relatively soon.

Bad Dream

So I don't know if you remember, but I started watching episodes of Lost a few months ago. Since I don't have TV, it's pretty much the only thing I watch besides The Office and Chilean online news. I'm currently on Season 5, which I don't like. I thought I didn't like Season 4 either, but I gave it a chance and decided it was okay. Anyway, that's not the point.

The point is, I shouldn't watch episodes right before going to bed because MAN do they give me bad dreams.

If you remember Season 5, it's when the island starts traveling through time. So my dream last night starts out and I'm in a car with a woman and her two children. I think I'm either the woman's friend or her babysitter, I'm not sure. We're in Chile (I think) because we're speaking Spanish, although we're definitley someplace in the South. The road is long and on either side are huge green fields surrounded by forest. The landscape actually reminds me of a French movie I saw once, so maybe we were in France. Who knows? So on either side of the road, in these fields, are cows. Not the Holstein cows of my youth, but big cows that looked like Brahman; something like this but without the hump:

Then, we passed a dead cow on the side of the road. The older kid, who was maybe 3 or 4, said (in Spanish): "Look! The cow is sleeping." The woman and I looked at each other and warily agreed with the boy. Then we passed another dead cow, and another. At this point, I started to try to distract the kids by telling them a story, but their eyes were glued to the windows, staring at the "sleeping" cows. I covered the younger girl's eyes so she wouldn't see.

We came upon a tractor that was going really slow, so the woman went to pass. I told her to be careful because I though another car was coming in the opposite direction. As we were passing the tractor, sure enough a car was coming right at us. I yelled at her to stop passing but she didn't listen. I looked out my window at the cows and saw the most disgusting sight. It was a field full of dead cows, standing up, with their hides stripped off. You could only see their meat and bones.* In that exact moment, there was a "flash" a la Lost and the next thing we knew we were in the woman's kitchen.

The flash seemed to have affected our mental abilities, because both kids were filthy dirty and sitting in disgusting highchairs. The woman was making "pancakes" with a blank look on her face, which involved her pouring the entire contents of a bag of flour into a bowl and then adding water and stirring. I realized that we were both going crazy, but I couldn't do anything about it. I just started laughing uncontrollably at the entire situation. The kids started crying and saying they were hungry and I just kept laughing and laughing while the woman mechanically stirred the pancake mixture and stared off into space.

And then, thank God, I woke up.


*In case you think I'm mentally disturbed for having dreams like this, I think this is a scene I saw in a movie once, but with buffaloes. I can't remember exactly, but maybe Dances with Wolves?

The cold white north

As I sit here in the heat* it's really hard for me to imagine that in three short days I will be blasted by cold winds, ice and snow. Right now it sounds heavenly, but after reading Lydia's post about getting into the car and trying not to move until the heat kicks in, it brought me back. Back to days when I would wait for the school bus in 10 below weather with wet hair and my boogers would freeze. Or the early winter mornings when I woke up at 5:00 am to go feed the calves and my hands would all but stop working because they were so wet and cold.

In a few days I think I'll realize what I winter wimp I've become. Santiago has thinned my blood.

But for now, as I sit here sweating, I'm looking forward to walking into a freezer when I step through the doors of Logan Airport on Sunday morning.

*Apparently it's only 70 out right now. Inside my apartment, however, it's probably 80. Yesterday the high officially got to 91, but I think it was higher.

Suffering from serious lack of motivation

If I had a personal assistant who worked for me out of the goodness of his/her heart instead of for the (non existent) salary, I would have him/her do the following:

1. Plan a midterm exam review for my low-intermediate class. Hello, present perfect! Ugh.

2. Give an oral exam tonight at 7:30. Specifically, take the metro at rush hour from Manuel Montt to Los Heroes when it's 90 degrees outside and 100 and humid inside the train. UGGG. I'm considering leaving now to avoid the rush.

3. Go to Servipag and pay my gas and water bills. Pay my rent. I'll give you the money, just go stand in line for me.

4. Do laundry and pack my suitcases.

5. Clean my bathroom.


What will I be doing meanwhile? Oh, I don't know. Just being RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED TO GO HOME. I swear, it takes up all my energy.

Elections in Chile: Some observations

The voting for president, senators and diputados (representatives) is winding down here in Chile today. The first preliminary results have been posted here. It looks like Sebastian Piñera, the center-right candidate, is leading overall, followed by Eduardo Frei of the center-left, Independent Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Communist Jorge Arrate.

I talked before about some differences in the voting systems between Chile and the US, but here are some more observations.

1. Once you're registered, you must vote. The only exception is if you are living 200km or more from your mesa (voting table). If that is the case, you must go to the local police station and register there to prove that you were not able to vote. Unfortunately, a lot of young people in Chile don't register to vote so they don't vote. According to this NY Times article, only 9% of voters between the ages of 18-29 are registered.

2. As far as I know, there are no absentee ballots. If you want to vote, you go to your mesa, which was assigned to you way back when you registered. I'm pretty sure you can change your mesa if you move to a different city that's far away. I'm not sure what you do if you're living abroad.

3. Elections take place on a Sunday. This makes a lot of sense to me, because people don't generally work, so they have time to go vote (considering it's obligatory).

4. Ley Seca (Dry law). You can't buy or sell alcohol the day of the elections (starting at 12:00am). Last night there was almost nothing open. Everything closed early. I guess this is to prevent people from voting with a hangover? Today when I went to the grocery store, the alcohol sections were covered over with black cloths.

5. A few weeks before the elections, a list of people who must work at the mesas collecting votes is published. These people are called vocales de mesa. If you are on the list, you must arrive early and stay all nine hours until the voting closes, registering and collecting votes. Then, you must stay and count the votes. If you don't show up, you can be arrested. In case not all the vocales show up, the first person to arrive to vote is automatically a vocal. Most people hate being vocales and this year various people were arrested in Maipu and other places for refusing. Voting can't start until there are the correct number of vocales.

6. Women and men vote separately. I was walking to the grocery store today and noticed that I was walking with all women. There wasn't a man in sight. Then I realized that one of the colegios was a voting place. And then I remembered that women and men vote separately here in Chile. I don't know why. I remember asking a Chilean once why this is, and they said something about statistics, about knowing who women voted for vs. men. But that didn't make much sense to me, because in the US we have those statistics too, from exit polls. Anyone have a good answer to this one?

7. Once you've voted, you're index finger gets stained with purple dye so you can't vote again.

8. If no one gets a majority, there's a run-off vote. Right now it looks like there will be a run-off between Piñera and Frei on January 17th, because Piñera only has 44% of the vote (he would need 50% plus one vote to win outright).

Has anyone else noticed any other differences?

Gullible no more

When I was a senior in high school, I won the senior superlative for Most Gullible. I believed one friend was adopted even though she looks exactly like her mother. I believed another went to the Olympics for juggling. For juggling. My friends loved making me believe whatever they could.

I liked to think of myself as trusting. I trusted that the words that came out of my friends' mouths were true. As a child I was taught that humans are mostly good and can be trusted. For example, in the small town where I grew up, we never locked our doors at night. We left our cars in the driveway with the keys in the ignition. It wasn't until my Dad's old farm car was stolen that we started taking the keys out. I'm not sure if started locking the cars and the house at that point. Maybe, maybe not. I would routinely leave my car unlocked with my purse in it as I ran into the gas station to pay for gas. It's just the way we did things in Small Town, Vermont.

Living in Santiago has changed me.

I don't like it.

Now, I'm the opposite of trusting. I'm wary of any stranger who comes up to talk to me on the street. Usually they just want directions, but I always check my pockets after to make sure my cell phone and wallet are still there. This weekend in La Serena a little old lady asked me to help her cross the street. I said sure and helped her across. Then, and I hate myself for this, I checked my pockets. It was habit. Of course that little old lady wasn't going to steal from me, but I still doubted. I never would have done that before.

Of course there is reason to have this attitude. There is a man who hangs out near Pedro de Valdivia who is a scam artist. He's tried to get me many times. There's the man in Ñuñoa who goes around asking for money for a taxi because his car stalled. And in additon to these, there are simply a lot of pick pockets in this city, and soccer fans who act on group mentality and rip purses off shoulders. There are people who steal your locked car when it's parked for 5 minutes outside your in-laws house. It's a jungle out there, folks.

Maybe it's not just Santiago. Maybe it's any big city. And maybe you wouldn't call me untrusting, you'd call me "street smart."

When I think about my future, whether I want to go back to the U.S., or stay here in Chile, or go somewhere else, these are things I think about. I like my life in Santiago, but do I want to live with my guard up forever?

I guess only time will tell.

Odds and Ends

I haven't blogged much in the past few days, but I've had a good excuse. One of my best friends from college was visiting me for the past week and we went to La Serena to visit another friend from college. We were very busy eating ice cream, making friends (both canine and feline), spending time at the beach in La Serena and getting confused for cruise boat tourists in Coquimbo.

Delicious helado

Walking the beach in Serena

Our new kitty friend

The dog that adopted us

Oh no! The ship is leaving without us!

But now I'm back to "normal" life for 10 days until I head off to the States next Saturday for two weeks. Things are slowing down in terms of work, which is okay with me considering the last few months have been fairly busy.

Additionally, I just wanted to explain why I've enabled comment moderation. It's not to censor anyone. I'm all about expressing opinions, even (especially) when they are different than mine. You can disagree with me all you want, I think that's a good way to foster discussion. Being open to diverse opinions is how we all grow and develop as human beings.

What I will NOT tolerate are mean spirited comments whose only aim is to bully and be cruel. We're all (mostly) adults here and I don't need to receive playground taunts that I would expect from a seven-year-old.

So, that being said, comment away!! I promise to publish all comments, unless they are unnecessarily rude, cruel or inappropriate.

Here's to you, Daddy

Today my lovely Daddy turns 50 years old. I know you're all thinking: that's it? Your parents are young!! It's true. My mom was 23 (my age) when she had me, and my Dad was 26. Also, my Dad looks amazingly young for his age. People will routinely see pictures of him and ask, "Is that your brother?" or "Is that your boyfriend?" (Gross.) If you don't believe me, take a look.

Okay, maybe the hat makes him look especially like a teenager (Taken in 2006)

Taken Christmas 2008

My Dad loves grocery stores. Whenever we went on vacations as a family, we always had to check out the different grocery stores. He hates sprinkles. When we go to the creamee stand he orders a small twist, no sprinkles. He's pretty handy around the house. He built the raft we use out at camp and he and I together built a ring/paddock for my horse. He loves animals and walks our two crazy dogs every day in the woods.

My Dad is the oldest, just like me. In fact, in many ways we're very similar people. We both like to argue. We don't get mad very often, but when we do, watch out. We both love to watch funny (some think stupid..ahem..MOM!) movies and laugh at silly dirty jokes.* We both fall asleep watching television. He loves to tease everyone and so do I. Despite this, we are both easy to get along with and friendly! I have his ears and his smile. We both like reading the newspaper (albeit different ones!)

Unfortunately, we have different political viewpoints which sometimes causes us to have long arguments about everything from the War in Iraq to Global Warming to Social Security Benefits. Despite this, I respect his opinions because they always make me think and analyze my own view points.

Most of all, my Dad is so supportive of everything I have wanted to do while also making sure I'm making the right decision. When I told him I wanted to move to Chile, he didn't freak out. He said, "Okay" and helped me figure out the best way to do it.

I love you, Daddy! I wish I could be there for your special day, but I'll be home soon.

Happy Birthday.

My College Graduation, 2008

*My favorite: A pirate walks into a bar. He has a steering wheel on his crotch. The barman asks him, "Why do you have that on you're crotch?" The pirate responds, "I dunno! But it's drivin' me nuts!!" HAHAHAHAHAHA

Group Post: How to Alienate a Chilean

Margaret at Cachando Chile proposed a group blog on things that alienate Chileans. I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon because I had other things to blog about, but here goes my interpretation. Check out Margaret's post (especially the comments) and these posts for some other great ideas. I also wrote two posts on Chilean courtesy which are here and here which address many of the same issues.

Don't call me gringa
Annje
La Gringuita Diaries
A Gringa Living in Santiago
Transcultural Vogueing


As Margaret mentioned, Chileans LOVE their sandwhiches. And the concept of the sandwhich is very different here in Chile than in the US. Go to places like La Fuenta Alemana, Dominó or Dónde el Guatón and you'll get something that looks like this:

This is a Churrasco Italiano, which is thinly sliced steak, with mayonaaise, mashed avocado and tomato slices on pan frica, which I don't know how to translate, but it's like a high quality hamburger bun. There are other variations, on this sandwhich. You can subsitute the meat for pork or thicker steak or even chicken. You can subsitute the condiments for sauerkraut, salsa americana, green beans, cheese, onions and eggs. Don't ask me why it's called salsa americana. I've never tried it, but it looks like this and is maybe kind of like relish? Anyway, these sandwiches all have special names depending on what condiments are used. My favorite name is the Chemilico, which has fried onions and an egg.

Salsa Americana...looks...delicious?

Anyway, soon after I arrived in Chile for the first time, I went to a friend of a friend's house because it was her birthday. There were four of us sitting around, chatting: three Chileans and me. For some reason they started talking about sandwhiches. At this point in my aquisition of Chilean Spanish, I was definitly in the "listening" stage. I didn't talk much. However, my friend wanted to involve me in the conversation, so he asked what my favorite sandwhich was. So I started describing it: good whole wheat bread...WAIT! My friend yelled out. WHOLE WHEAT BREAD? How BORING!! Um...oops?? I thought, but he encouraged me to keep describing. Okay, good whole wheat bread, smoked turkey, lettuce, tomatos, sprouts, cheddar cheese and honey mustard.

The Chileans stared at me. And do you eat that hot or cold? They asked. Cold, I replied. That's so boring!! They all proclaimed then started describing various versions of the sandwhich shown above. At that point, I'd never tried anything of the sort and it sounded kind of gross to me, but they all promised me they'd take me to Fuente Alemana some day to see what a real sandwhich was like. I should point out that this conversation was all in buena onda, as in, we were all laughing as I was unsuccessfuly trying to laude the merits of a US-style sandwhich.

I have to admit that a good Churrasco Italiano is now one of my favorite types of sandwiches. Yes, it packs a punch in terms of calories, but oh man is it delicious. Apparently, I really didn't know what I was missing! Now when Chileans ask what my favorite sandwich is, I don't miss a beat. Churrasco Italiano, of course!