Advertisement
Published: January 10th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Although this is my second day in Chile it feels more like the first. Yesterday I, along with perhaps thirty other American students, arrived in Santiago. There was no shock and awe to this experience for several reasons. One, I was among English speakers. Two, we were greeted by the USAC director at the airport. Not only does he speak English, but he had arranged for a bus to take us to a hotel in Santiago. The third reason why I was not overwhelmed was because everything looked more or less the same.
Santiago is surrounded by mountains, which surprisingly reminds me of Durango, CO, a city near the national park I worked at last summer. Like most large cities Santiago is polluted. Perhaps it is because I do not visit Los Angles or other large California cities very often, but for some reason the air quality in Santiago appears to be worse.
There were a few social differences that I did pick up on almost instantly. Chileans personal space is different than that of Americans. Several times already I have had near-strangers grasp my elbow while engaging in conversation. Most stores are much tighter than in the United States. While in stores I constantly get the feeling that I am in somebody’s path. After looking around to observe others I noticed that this is common.
Aside from the people looking different and speaking a different language Chile (or at least the parts I have seen thus far) is not much different than the United States. Because California is diverse I do not find it unusual to see Latinos everywhere. I am sure I stand out as a foreigner, but I do not feel as alienated as I thought I might.
At this point I have not had a true test of cultural shock. I was among Americans yesterday, and I have been with my host mother all of today. I have simply been along for the ride. I have already had some interesting experiences thus far…
Numero Uno
Yesterday I went to withdrawn Chilean pesos from an ATM machine. I was aware of the exchange rate, but I was not aware that the symbol for pesos is the same as the symbol for dollars. I also did not consider that instead of using commas to represent thousands Chile uses periods. So instead of withdrawing $150.00, one hundred and fifty US dollars, I withdrew $150.000, one hundred and fifty thousand pesos, equating to nearly three hundred and fifty US dollars.
Numero Dos
Even though I know a decent amount of Spanish things can still be complicated. It is not simply because I do not know all the vocabulary, but because of the context. Consider the following. In Spanish if you want to say “your university is downtown” you say tu universidad está al centro. If you want to ask somebody “is your university downtown” you say tu universidad está al centro. It is the exact same sentence for both a question and a statement. The only difference is the tone of voice. This is the reason why it is difficult for foreigners to detect sarcasm.
So when my host mother told me that my university is downtown, I thought she was asking if my hometown university was in downtown Chico. I responded by saying no, pero está cerca del centro. Instead of thanking her for informing me where I would be attending school, I told her that no, it is not downtown, but it is, in fact, close. Of course I realized my mistake instantly, but unfortunately I did not know how to explain this to her so I remained silent, hoping I had not just offended her.
Numero Tres
A few hours after arriving at the house my host mother took me to the mall. We went to an internet café where I got photocopies of my passport. Two black and white copies probably cost just a few cents. I think it was just 180 pesos. Unfortunately since I had exchanged money at an ATM the smallest bill I had was 5000 pesos. I knew this was going to be a problem before I even reached for my wallet. The cashier asked me if I had anything smaller. All I could say was no, sorry I do not. Later I realized that it was like paying for something that cost a quarter with a ten dollar bill. The worst part was I knew it was going to happen, but there was nothing I could do about it, nor could I even explain myself.
Numero Cuatro
Next we went to the metro station so I would know how to get to school. I already knew that I needed to purchase a metro card, and then I needed to refill it with money so I could continue to ride the metro. With my host mother I went up to the ticket booth. My host mother explained to the cashier that I needed a ticket. The cashier told me that it was 1300 pesos. I understood this, but I also knew that I needed to pay more in order to have credit to ride the metro. It was very noisy in the station, but I thought I heard her say that it would be an additional 700 pesos. Okay, I thought, that would make 2000 pesos. She continued to say something, but she was behind a glass window, and she spoke very softly considering that a train was pulling into the station. When she saw that I did not understand she held up a calculator that showed 3700. Wondering where the other 1700 pesos came from I simply handed her the money.
Although my lack of Spanish made the situation difficult I think that even if it were in English I would have struggled, because I could not hear anything she was saying. I swear that my host mother could not have heard her either, but maybe she did. Either way I managed to look like a fool, and hold up the line.
All in all not too bad for a first day and a half.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.041s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Alvaro M
non-member comment
Good Blog
hey, i was just doing some surfing and found your blog, it sounds cool dude. i am chilean and live in Providencia... maybe we could do some language exchange? let me know. all the best.