The Honeymoon Stage

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 
― Eleanor Roosevelt

    I decided to study abroad to be more than just a tourist. I wanted to become fluent in Spanish, become part of a Chilean family, and have new experiences. 

    But now I know all international experiences have way more to them than just learning the language. Studying abroad is about learning a new culture; the way people live, what they eat, how they greet each other, body expressions, history, politics, opening your mind and just simply being a Chileno. 

    I have only been in Chile for a week and I learned so much. In the first week I have already gained so much more knowledge, I have learned so many new words/phrases in Spanish, experienced a new culture, have become more independent and with all that, comes maturity. I call this the "honeymoon stage" because everything is so new, exciting, and awesome. I am not homesick and when someone asked me what I miss most from the United States, I did not have an answer. I have made so many new friends and I love my new family. The hardest part for me right now is the language. I can understand people mostly only when they talk slower and directly to me. Communicating has been going well since if I don't know a word in Spanish, my family knows just enough english for us to understand eachother.

    My daily schedule consists of waking up at 6:30 to take a shower. Even taking a shower here was a learning opportunity for me. So, the first day I arrived in my new home I took a shower and had hot water. Then the next day, Sunday, I started showering and the water was freezing!!! I could not figure out how to turn the hot water on. Then mi mamita (mummy) came knocking on the door saying, "Livy, Livy! The water! You are going to get a cold!" (But in Spanish). So then I proceeded to learn how to turn on the hot water heater by lighting the pilot that is in the kitchen. I was the first person in my family to take a shower that day so that's why the water heater hadn't been already on like it had been the first day. So even showering here is different than it was for me in Colorado!

    Then I leave the apartment with mama at 7:30. We have to take two migros (buses) to get to her office. Then at 10 in the morning, I walk the two blocks to the building where our class meets. My Monday- Fridays during the first month in Santiago are with the other exchange students. There are five other exchange students in Chile with me. Hannah from New Zealand; she is spending a year here and she has already graduated from high school, Sally from Vermont who is also spending five months here and is 16 like me, Nela; she is from Germany and is spending six months here, and Gabriel who is also from Germany and he is spending five months here. (After our first month in Santiago for classes and sightseeing, we are all going to different towns to live with our final host families and go to a local school.) During our days, we have Spanish lessons with our very funny and friendly Chilean teacher, we also learn the history, geography, and politics of Chile. The most exciting part of our day is when we go on bike tours around the city, visit tourist attractions, go to local ferias (an outdoor market) that sell locally made items, meet and converse with Chilean high school students (we went to the mall with them after class and are now all friends on Facebook!), and also just simply going to buy lunch during our breaks. We leave the office at around 5 and head home. 

 

 

These are pictures of Santiago from on top of Santa Lucía Hill with Gabriel Profe, Gabriel, Hannah, Sally, Nela, and me.

Santa Lucía Hill entrance

A street in Santiago that has very old Spanish and French architecture. Most buildings in Santiago are huge, new and all glass because once the older buildings fall down in earthquakes, they build buildings that are earthquake proof. That's another thing! The earthquakes! Apparently there is an earthquake every day just you can't feel most of them. There has only been one earthquake that people could feel in the past week I have been here... and I didn't even feel it! 

A sculpture park.

We watched the changing of the guards infront of the Monera Place which is like the White House. The whole "show" gathered tons and tons of tourists and locals and it lasted over 15 minutes.

    All the other exchange students mothers have their kids use the metro and public transportatin by themselves. But my mamita is very protective and careful (she reminds me of my mom in Fort Collins!!!) so she doesn't want me going on the buses by myself yet. Which I am very thankful for, because I would for sure get lost since the two buses I need to take have confusing routes. BUT, Friday after class, I was with my mamita at her office and I would have stayed with her another three hours so instead she taught me the bus system and gave me a quick map that she drew and I was on my own. I had a hard time finding a supermarket to add money to my BIP card (bus/metro card) so I ended up going down the stairs into a metro station. Then I stood there at the bus stop while the bus I needed to go get on just drove past without stopping... Now I know, after watching other Chilenos that you need to wave the buses down for them to stop at the bus stop. Then, I needed to transfer buses but first I had to find the other bus stop that my next bus was at. Finally, after two hours I arrived back in my neighborhood. (Usually the bus rides has a total of 30 minutes.) Independence is hard sometimes!

    It has been hard to post everyday since I have been SO busy. ( And in the honeymoon stage!) I get home after an adventurous day and I am exhausted and intend to go right to bed. But my family always has different intentions, like eating and talking. Chileans stay up late even on weekday nights... So I always end up going to bed at one. Chilenos/Chileans (the people of Chile) value all the time they spend with their family and friends especially by talking until late hours into the night. 

      I have become very good friends with the four other students and I only met them a week ago, yet it feels like I have known them forever. The Germans speak very good english so we communicate in English and Spanish. 

This is the five of us students and one of our bike tour guides when we were touring the city via bike! 

From left to right: our other bike tour guide, Hannah, me, Sally, Nela, and Gabriel. 

 

 

    Alright, I have so much to say and so many experiences to share with you guys. I'll start with what I did today, Saturday. OFFICIALLY A WEEK IN CHILE! I went to the feria with my mamita and sister. The feria is like a outdoors market, almost like a garage sale. There are ferias that sell just locally made things for tourists mostly, but this feria was packed with local people selling old clothes, jewelery, literally everything you can think of was sold here. Each family sets up a different tent to display their things. There are also tents with fresh fruit, vegetables, natural medicines, tea, soap, and other necessities.  I was super surprised when I saw a huge Colorado flag hung on a side of a tent!! Representin' CO! 

 

    On Friday, my sandal broke, so during break our teacher sent Hannah and me on a mission to buy new shoes. We finally found a zapatería (shoe store) after asking people where we could find one. The shoe sizing here is the European sizing. We found tons of shoes that were size 36 and under but it was so hard to find even a 39. I ended up buying size 37 when in reality I think I am a 40. All the shoes are in huge pins and people just rummage through them. Hannah and I also spent 20 minutes looking for the left shoe of this sandal that was size 38, (the biggest size we found that wasn't a high-heel). Then we finally saw the sign that said the right shoe is only on display and you have to go to the counter to have an employee get you the left shoe from the storage room. They clearly do this so there are no thefts. Once we gave an employee the sandal to give us the left shoe, he came back empty handed so I ended up having to buy the 37s. But hey, at least I got sandals because I needed them for that day of walking!

The new sandals :)   

 Many of my friends and family back in the United States are wondering about my phone situation. With my group of the other students and our teacher, we have gone to get Visas, travel authorization stamps so we can leave the country after the five months, and also cellphones for our stay! My iPhone 5c luckily had the compartment on the side of the phone where I could change out SIM cards/chips. Thanks to having T-Mobile instead of At&t!! (At&t has it so your phone will be locked and you can't change SIM cards/chips). I bought a chip through "entel", a Chilean phone service. The chip is pre-paid and has 10,000 pesos on it for texting and minutes. It also has some data service. Sally, Nela, and Gabriel bought the cheapest Nokia phones instead that are also pre-paid since their smart phones didn't let you change chips. I still have i-Message since it's over the internet but I still don't have my Colorado phone number so I can't reply to phone calls or texts; in fact I don't even get phone calls or texts that are sent to my other number. For future international travelers, YOU MUST keep your phone on airplane mode so you don't get charged with international phone calls and texts. I took mine off airplane mode since now I am using my Chilean phone number. 

    There are obviously many differences in Chile compared to the U.S.. These are some differences that may not be so obvious. 

1.  Saturdays and Sundays are for relaxing since Chileans work really hard during the week. I am not used to this at all because in the U.S. people do a lot of activities on the weekend as well. 
2. EVERY Chilean eats their bread by tearing off one piece at a time rather than taking bites of the whole piece. This is different than the U.S. but there are also some people that are exceptions, like my mom in Fort Collins, I guess she just has Chilean manners!
3. A kiss on the cheek when you say hello or goodbye. This is all the time and with everybody you first meet or have known your whole life. (Men don't greet each other with kisses, though.)
4. I don't know about other big cities in the U.S., but here there are mostly only one way streets with cars that go extremely fast considering all the pedestrians. I have yet to see a speed limit sign. 
5. Chileans stand on the very edge of the sidewalk when waiting to cross despite all the cars going so fast and so close to them. (People from the United States stand like a foot a way... but maybe it's just because I am in a big city and coming from a medium sized town.)
6. I also learned that when you say "I am Amercian." some Chileans will say, "I am too." Because they are. (My friend Sally learned this the hard way.) Americans are from North America AND South America. I have to say I am from the United States. 
7. I am not used to turning on the water heater before a shower.
8. In markets/grocery stores, they don't sell ginormous bags of chips. 
9. As for fashion since I am a teenage girl and I notice peoples' clothing: I haven't seen anyone wearing boot cut or flare jeans, I have just seen a lot of skinny jeans on women. Wearing pants everyday is probably a city thing since most people in the city are going to work, but when you wear shorts you stick out like a sore thumb. And gringos stick out no matter what they wear. (I don't mind sticking out, this is just something I observed.)
10. All the family time Chileans spend together can be different than some families in the United States. Since the houses here in Santiago are much smaller than houses back in Colorado, you are constantly with your family. There are family gatherings at least each weekend, with every member of the extended family.
11. Kids don't move out of their parents houses until they are married, normally. And they also might move back in with their parents later. No one lives alone, you always live with at least one person in your family. 
12. People here are so much more relaxed. Life is not as fast speed throughout the day, and there is a stereotype about Chileans not being punctual, some people do fit this stereotype.
13. One huge difference that I noticed right away after everyone from Chile, Germany, and other places in the world asking me what my WhatApp number is. Sally, the girl from Vermont and I were like, "What's up? Not much, what's up with you?" We did NOT understand until someone explained that this is an App that EVERYBODY uses to text with. Since the phone contracts for texting here are very expensive, people use WhatsApp to communicate. Grandparents, parents, teenagers, teachers, kids, governors, everybody uses this app. So I downloaded the app and now this is how I text with my Chilean friends here and our teacher texts us the times we need to meet up. Apparently, The United States is very behind in terms of this technology because the whole rest of the world uses this except us because in the U.S. everyone has unlimited texting. So, everybody reading this should download WhatsApp!
14. The meals. There are four main meals in a day, breakfast, lunch (the biggest meal of the day), once, and dinner. Once, which is pronounced like the number '11' in Spanish, is between lunch and dinner. People eat once when they come home from work. It consists of a sandwich and tea, or something similar to that. Since I go to bed earlier than the rest of my family, I end up not always eating dinner since dinner is at around 11 in the night here. 
15. Overall, Chileans seem to enjoy life. 
16. Money is not as important to Chileans. The important things are not how successful you are in your life; they are your relationships with your family, friends and spending your days working but then sharing your day with your family. 
17. When I open the refrigerator here, there is a very noticeable less amount of food in it compared to fridges in the United States.  This clearly depends on the family but I think I can say truthfully that less food is kept in the house in Chile than in the U.S. 
18. Chileans have exactly what they need and what they like, but nothing more. 
19. If you were in New York City nobody would walk up to you and call you pretty, beautiful, or hot. "Here, the men like everything that moves, talks, and breathes." Says my sister, Javiera. Construction workers especially, but all men, will whistle and say "guapa", "hermosa", "bonita", "que linda" to girls and women walking by. My mamita notices all this a lot more than I do and is very careful and protective of Javiera and me. Yet she also jokes about it and says she likes bringing Javiera and me to the ferias because then we will all get free samples of fresh cut fruit from the venders. I am a gringo with blond hair so literally everybody stares at me and the four other exchange students in the street. 
20. Another difference! The word "gringo". It is not offensive here and it doesn't have a bad connotation. Just everybody who is white, so from the United States or Europe, is considered a gringo or gringa. 
21. Everyone in my family smokes cigarettes, I don't mind but it is different for me.
22. In our apartment, you can go into any ones room; everyone is very open. Like tonight, we ate dinner in mama and papa's big bed because the table was being repaired. During the winter time, since most houses do not have Air Conditioning or heat, families sit and talk in one of their beds. 

Ciao for now!

Besos, Olivia 

P.S. -

Tonight there was a phenomenal sunset over Santiago! This picture was taken from my bedroom window.