Advertisement
Published: September 13th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We eat well here. A standard lunch consists of three to four courses, always starting with soup - cream, never tomato. Next is a salad with lettuce, carrots, celery (my family loves celery) and corn. One of my very few complaints about the meals is the lack of ranch dressing. The standard dressing is oil with lemon and salt. I’m going through a bit of a ranch withdrawal. The main course usually has a meet, either chicken, steak or fish. The fish, of course, is excellent. Valparaiso relies on the fishing industry. We eat a wide selection of vegetables and fruits as well. Each meal comes complete with a selection of bread. Bread - they just can’t get enough of it. All kinds of bread, at all times of the day. And of course, there’s wine with every meal.
If we have desert, it’s usually ice cream. I don’t know if Chile recently discovered ice cream, or what, but they’re obsessed with it. You can’t walk the streets without a vendor trying to sell you ice cream. Every store sells it, and everyone wants it. I can’t complain, I love it too.
Food and drink are incredibly cheap. For
lunch you can buy pizza and a beer for 900 pesos, the equivalent of $2. The standard price for any mixed drink with liquor is about $4, similar to the U.S., unless you want pisco, the national liquor of Chile; that runs about $2 per drink. Pisco is very sweet and strong, and the usual drink is a Pisco Sour. Beer only comes by the liter and costs about $2. World famous Chilean wine costs about $3... per bottle.
My favorite Chilaean foods so far are empanadas and chorrillana. Empanadas are the same as in the U.S. - a hot pocket filled with cheese, chicken, beer, vegetables. Chorrillana is a greasy mountain of french fries with hot dogs, and cheese. Delicious.
The Chileans don’t really do dinner. Lunch is always so big they aren’t interested in having much of a dinner. They stick to bread, cheese, crackers, a slice or two of ham, and tea. They love tea, but they never drink water (in fact, neither I nor anyone else in my class has ever seen a Chilean go to the bathroom. I think it’s because they never drink water). My homestay mother makes sure I eat a
large dinner, however. She reheats a large portion of our lunch for me at night. There’s no such thing as being full here. As much as I say ‘‘Estoy satisfecho,’’ I’m still told to keep eating. I guess they must think I’m underfed, ironic because I’m the tallest person in this country. No exaggeration, when I walk the streets of Valparaiso, there are hundreds of people, and I can see over everyone. I’m a giant here. I wish they played basketball; I would dominate like Sheed.
For as much as Chileans like to relax, drink wine, and talk, they sure love to get places quickly. The common modes of transportation are the Micros (two-thirds sized buses) and colectivos (taxis with a specific route). Both cost about $400 pesos and run all day and night. The roads are steep, and wind up and down the city’s hills. The Micros have handles for a reason, and you damn well better use them or you’ll wind up in the drivers lap. They whip around these steep corners in a hurry. The faster they get you to your destination, the sooner they can get more passengers. I’m not sure if they are regulated
by the city, but I know I’ve never seen someone receive a speeding ticket. Getting pulled over in Chile wouldn’t be a fun experience. The police or ‘carabineros’ ride dirt bikes, dress in full army uniforms, and carry heavy weaponry. I’m pretty sure they’ve got bigger things to deal with than Susie Garcia driving 5 over the limit. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a posted speed limit.
It’s been an eventful week in Valparaiso. (Disclaimer: parents, please don’t read, it’s only going to increase your blood pressure). On Thursdays we have class in a lecture hall in nearby Santa Maria University. This past Thursday the students broke out in a spontaneous protest of their rising tuition. Nothing gets Chileans going like a good protest. Coincidentally, the protest began just as we were heading into the school. Everyone was fine, but a few of the girls experienced tear gas for the first time. Lesson learned? When near a protest, always head in the opposite direction.
That same night we went to a popular club in Valparaiso called "El Huevo" (The Egg). It's a four-story dance club on the ocean. The top floor is an open balcony
with a dance floor and bar. We were on the balcony when all of the sudden the music stopped and everyone was told to leave immediately. Apparently a drunken teenager saw his ex-girlfriend with another guy and decided to jump off the side. It was front-page news the next day, and we were sitting no more than 20 yards from him.
Other than that Thursday, things have been calm. Classes started, so did reading and homework, etc. I have four hours of Spanish class each day, but I can't complain because I need it. It's hard to function in an entire country of people you can't communicate with. I'm starting to get the hang of it, though, and I’ve gathered that my homestay mother doesn’t like George Bush.
At least once a week, we go on an excursion to a new location in the city. This week I went to the home of Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Award winning Chilean author. We walked to a nearby outdoor museum of murals on the walls some houses. The Chileans are very proud of these murals, but they have no security around them. As a result these famous murals are covered
in graffiti. No one seems to care much. That's kind of the Chilean mentality.
This weekend marks the beginning of the five-day celebration of the Chilean Independence Day, September 18th. We get Monday through Wednesday off school to celebrate with the Chileans. I imagine I’ll get a complete taste for the Chilean way of life.
As they say in Chile, Chao.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.139s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 4; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1006s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
pablo
non-member comment
land tuna
hey there. another great and insightful blog. just one thing. what you picture as a chilean tree is actually a mexican import. that type of cactus, called nogal, is originally from mexico. and its fruit is called tuna (the fish is called "atún'' in spanish). as you'll find out, a lot of the trees and plants in chile are foreign (like the eucalyptus tree, which is everywhere in central chile). ¡feliz 18!