... So apparently I'm tall? "La chica muy alta" more or less means "that really tall girl". I've been called this on several occasions, its hard to try and describe in my limited spanish that in Canada I'm totally average height, I just seem gigantic here compared to the average woman (or man, for that matter, I think I've met maybe 3 guys total taller than me so far?).
Other than people commenting on my freakish height, its been a great week here in Chile! I've been keeping busy at the university doing some DNA isolation and PCR, as well as working on my Spanish in bits and pieces. On Thursday, Liliana (my awesome supervisor) took me to her home in La Serena for coffee, and showed me around the city (and where the mall is). I've been frequenting the fruit and vegetable stand near our house and eating almost inhuman amounts of pineapple (it's just too good!!) On Friday I spent the day with Aly, she made a big lunch and then she and her boyfriend took me to Lider (Chilean version of Walmart) where I bought some sweaters (it's colder here at night than i was prepared for) and a bike! Although while biking home I think I rode over something sharp and now my tire is completely flat and it's proving difficult to fix when I have no idea how, and I can't take it anywhere and ask because my Spanish skills still suck. Hopefully this week I'll get that sorted out.
On Friday night I went to Aly's friends house to watch the football (and by that I mean soccer) game. Chile won, and when the game was wrapping up around midnight I assumed this meant it was home time. Was I ever wrong. Apparently, here in Chile people go TO the bar after 1 am, and bars (called discotheques) stay open until after 5!!! Crazy. So we went to Ovo disco, which is in the beautiful casino, and danced. And danced. Then danced some more. Apparently, people don't go to drink, or talk, or meet friends, or sit down... Just dance. For several hours. Needless to say, by 3:30 am my feet were dying, and I was relieved when it was home time. Although at some points throughout the night, they would have dancers come on to the stage and teach the crowd a dance, or professional dancers performing very impressive numbers. It was definitely an interesting experience!
Saturday, I met Consuelo (and Anna, an exchange student from Russia) in La Serena. We had a supremely awesome day of shopping, walking around the city, checking out some beautiful gardens and local markets, and it ended with having some traditional Chilean food on the beach! I ate my first empanada, and tried pisco (an alcohol made from grapes that they make into an insanely strong drink). Sunday, my host family took me to their relative's house for lunch (which here means a meal in the mid-afternoon). It was interesting to see a different part of the city (they lived across the street from a field that literally had cows in it, I have pictures to prove it). Everyone has been so great and welcoming, even though it's hard at times for me to communicate with the languge barrier.
One thing I've been trying to keep track of is things that I find really interesting/different here in Chile compared to Canada, and I thought I'd share a few of those with everyone. Firstly, when you greet someone, whether you're meeting them for the first time, greeting a relative you haven't seen in a long time, or just saying hi to someone when they arrive back home from the day, you exchange hugs and kisses on the cheek. As a Canadian who is very accustomed to having a large amount of personal space, this caught me VERY off guard at first. The next thing is "collectivos" - Chilean hybrid between a bus and a taxi. It's a taxi car, that drives around a specific route, and picks up people on the side of the road and drops them off at a select destination along the way. Sometimes convenient and cheap... Sometimes frustrating when you don't know the route or don't know where you have to walk to catch one... And sometimes just plain uncomfortable when you're stuck in the middle seat between two large strangers. Third thing- dogs. Everywhere. Literally, everywhere, I'm not joking. From what I've been told, it isn't super common to spay or neuter pets here, and many people will have a pet and then just let it go for a variety of reasons. So there's dogs everywhere, but for the most part they seem friendly, and I feel bad for them because they just want some food and some love. Kind of sad to think about. Four- tea, people herre drink lots of tea. And, more on that, something I really like here is that when people take coffee/tea, or eat meals, it's something they do with friends or family, I don't really see people grabbing Starbucks and eating on the go... Mealtime is to be enjoyed and is an oopportunity for families to come together. Definitely something I really admire in the culture here.
Well, those are pretty much all my thoughts for right now. I think this weekend I might be going on a quick trip to viña del mar to meet up with some other exchange students, so hopefully that works out! I'll try to keep adding to my list of differences for next time I write an update.
¡Chau!
