Culturas Distintas

So here are a few things down here that are different from home that I haven't really told about. I'm almost accustomed to them all by now, but at first most of them threw me off.

1. Whenever you greet someone you know, meet someone new, or say goodbye to anyone, you kiss them on the cheek. Girls, guys, friends, family, teachers, everyone. Everytime we come home from school or anywhere our house mother Purita gives us a big hug and kiss on the cheek. I love that woman, but that is a whole blog entry in itself! Anyway, if when I get home I kiss all of you don't be surprised:)

2. Nothing here starts on time. Nothing. Most of my classes start anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes late. Everyday. When we are invited to someone's house, we know to show up a half hour or an hour after they tell us. At first this really annoyed all of us, but we are getting adjusted to Chilean time. The exchange students from Europe were even more annoyed with it than us.

3. Most people here get around using public transportation, either on the bus or in a colectivo. Colectivos are black cars with a sign on top labeling what area of the city they cover, they all go to El Centro (downtown Coquimbo) and then cover a certain section from there. So you just wave one down that covers your area. Everytime time you ride in one it costs 400 pesos, which is about 80 cents. So pretty cheap. This is how we get to school everyday. I think there is quite a percentage of families here that don't own a vehicle because colectivos are so easy to use. Also there are so many I would imagine it's how a lot of people here make a living.

4. Everyone that actually owns a car usually drives a compact car, I love it. If everyone in America drove the type of cars people drive here, global warming probably wouldn't exist. I think I've seen 2 minivans since I got here, and it's rare to see a SUV. Even all the trucks are little Nissan and Toyotas. Also, everyone here drives crazy, and yet no one ever gets in car accidents it seems. Colectivo drivers are the craziest, but somehow it all works out and everyone gets where they need to go and no one gets hurt.

5. There is grafitti here everywhere. Every house, fence, wall, building. It's ridiculous. Some of it is artistic, some is political, but most of it is just gibberish. The only buildings that I've noticed that aren't grafittied are the LDS churches. The few I have seen are surrounded by huge tall fences and gates to keep people out and keep the building clean.

6. There are almost as many stray dogs here as there are people. They are everywhere! Every type, size, color of dog you could imagine. This has taken me the longest time to get used to. Wherever we walk we see dogs wandering around, looking for food. It's so sad. My heart's been broken a few times because I wanted to take a dog home but couldn't. They each have a certain area, now that I've been here for a while I recognize certain dogs, there are a few we see everyday on the way to school, there is one I see on the beach a lot.

7. There is a saying in Chile that whenever a woman feels down or depressed she only needs to walk by a construction site. I experienced this my first week here, while walking around the city my roomate and I walked by these 2 huge buildings that were being built and no lie, every man on every floor stopped what he was doing to watch us and whistle and yell compliments and possibly vulgar comments to us. I couldn't understand most of it so I have no idea. It was so hilarious. But honestly, you don't have to walk by a construction site here to get cat calls. Whenever we walk along a main road we get honks and whistles and yells. It's rather annoying. My 2 guy roomates try to make us wear ugly clothes cause they get sick of hearing the whistles too.

8. Chilean people seem to have a staring problem. Ok, not really, but we get stared at wherever we go, by everyone who sees us. It's probably mostly my fault because of my hair, I hate that I stick out so bad here. But you know when you catch someone staring at you and they hurry and look away when you make eye contact with them? People don't do that, even if I look someone in the face they still keep staring. There are always lots of eyes following us. It's a little unnerving sometimes, but I'm learning to ignore it. I will be excited when I get home and can blend in again.

9. It seems like everyone here smokes. Especially when I am with a group of people my age, everyone of them usually offers me a cigarette and they all smoke. Before class one day, of course the professor showed up 30 minutes late so we were all waiting outside, every other person in my class was passing around cigarettes the whole time! Also you can smoke in the clubs and discos here. So I´m hoping the secondhand smoke doesn´t kill me before I get home.

10. I don´t know if this example was a one time thing or all Chilean people are ok with this, but we went to the mall on Sunday, and there was a lady just sitting in the middle of the shoe section breastfeeding her baby. She wasn´t covered at all, just totally hanging out for everyone to see, and the store was packed! I was a little mortified, but maybe that´s normal here.

Anyway, there´s a few things that I have picked up on, there are tons of others but they are hard to explain in a blog and I wouldn´t want anyone to get the wrong idea about the people here. But I have almost been here a month and am much more accustomed to how things are done here. I am already dreading coming home because I love this place and the people so much. But I know I´m lucky to be here at all, so I´m going to enjoy it while I can!