Five Days of City Life

We have arrived in Chile!  From Seattle to Vancouver by car, Vancouver to Toronto by plane, and from there airborn again all the way to Santiago, it was a long trek southward.  The trip itself was a simple one without a single delay, and even the journey to our hostel was relatively easy and direct.  Arguing with Chilean taxi drivers over how much one plans on paying them for their services is a good way to jump right in and flex one's Spanish language skills, and apparently I flexed those command forms of each verb as effectively as could be.  We paid fairly and correctly, and he drove quickly and directly--dumping us with a performative 'Bienvenidos a Chile!' directly in front of our hostel.

And thus, here we are.  Bienvenidos a Chile.  Feeling welcome in a foreign country isn't always a sensation readily available, especially when the language is either just outside our entirely removed from one's mental grasp.  Since arriving here, however, I haven't so much noticed the feeling of being entirely welcome, but I have certainly noticed a lack of feeling like a complete outsider.  If that makes any sense at all.

In other words, Andrew and I are, in every sense of the word, Gringos, but I do not feel the same social distance as I did when visiting, for example, West Africa.  The color of my hair and skin;  the accent in my words; both denote the distance between Chile and my place of birth, but there is a warmth behind every interaction we've had so far that indicates an even playing field.  A friend currently studying abroad here  informed me last night that some Chileans loathe Gringos with such strength that violence is occasionally the result.  That may be the case, but thus far, Andrew and I have had the incredible luck of encountering everyday people willing to give directions, recommendations, or even a story to two eager but lingually-awkward tourists.  Given that this is my first experience traveling without the infrastructure of an exchange program or educational institution planning my every move, I feel as though I have had an incredible amount of success.  And for this I am very grateful.


To recap in detail all of our adventures thus far would probably take pages, so since I'm treating this post as a little introductory 'hello' from Chile, I'll leave it to later posts to delve into specific instances or thoughts.  As a general overview, however, I will divulge the following highlights.  After arriving in Santiago we immediately hiked a small off-shoot of the Andes through orange poppies, yellow mustard blooms, and scores of succulents I'd never seen before.  Since Monday was a holiday, all of Santiago trekked up the hill too, and the summit provided not only amazing views of Santiago, the Andes, and beyond, but opportunities to people watch and consume some local festival fare.  

Hostel life in Santiago offered little stimulation as it was completely full of Aussies, Brits, and USA'ers like ourselves, so naturally we holed up in our room to read and play Scrabble whenever we were not out exploring.  Explorations took us to Plaza de las Armas at the city's center where we witnessed artists, young folk, and even a local political protest occupying and animating the square.  Then on to the Museum of Precolumbian Artifacts (El Museo Precolumbino) before venturing onward to the National Public Library.  A stop in a park brought the opportunity to speak Spanglish with two enthusiastic Chilean poets, the result of which was a lunch of Conger per their recommendation.  Delicious.  As a side note, I'm loving the availability of cheap and fresh seafood here.  Surprisingly, sushi is one of the cheapest meals to be had.


Currently, we're staying in the neighborhood of Concepción--Valparaíso's main and safest district.  My schoolfriend Theora is studying abroad here, so naturally we've been taking advantage of here connections to the city, to Chileans our own age, and to the general ins and outs of navigating Chilean Spanish.  Last night was spent in the company of both Chileans and students from Lewis and Clark, complete with boisterous triumph as we watched Chile beat Ecuador in a football match, as well as more American club music than I've heard since graduating college.  Like nearly everywhere else in the world outside the United States, nightlife starts late and siestas are a must.  We've been eating late and napping daily.


Tomorrow will begin with a trip back to Santiago in order to board a bus bound south toward Ancud.  The trip will take 15 hours from Santiago in total, so Andrew and I are considering purchasing beds instead of reclining seats.  Regardless, I'm more than ready for the journey.  City life has been exhausting, and although we've been pretty thrifty with our dollars, it's hard to live cheaply.  I'm also looking forward to the opportunity to live with a family so as to get more language practicum than simple menu navigation and requests for directions.  Andrew's only used his German on a couple of occasions, so I think we're both ready to plunge in and actually practice our language skills on a more varied and daily basis.



I'm unsure as to what our internet access will be like once we're on the island, but I'll do my best to update again soon with a more interesting post than this general overview.


Hasta pronto--