I Miss Efficiency

For some reason, the past few days have been incredibly frustrating. I don't know if it's just delayed culture shock finally hitting me full-force (because I definitely thought that we dealt with that a few weeks ago...) or me just not putting enough effort into this experience, but the past few days were just bizarre. But not entirely bad, either. Just not entirely good. I think this post will require a list...

Las cosas buenas



Isla Negra

Another one of Pablo Neruda's house. This one is about an hour and a half south of Viña y Valpo, and is definitely way prettier than La Sebastiana. This house overlooks the ocean, with an incredible view (I feel like I'm always saying that), and the house was designed by Pablo to look like a boat, with curved ceilings and narrow doorways. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but below are some of the pictures of the rocks outside (the best ones I've climbed on in a long time) and the house itself. 'Twas a good day.



Also, in the town of Isla Negra, me and four other girls were waiting for a bus back and some guy pulled over and asked us if we were from there. Looking for directions maybe?

. . . . Have you seen me? Or heard me speak? Of course I'm not from here. But it was nice to be asked anyways. Even though we could barely tell him "no" in Spanish.


Earthquakes

No, no; don't flip out, parents. But we had an earthquake seminar a few weeks ago on what to do. And then the other night, I was talking to my host family about it and they were saying that tremors are really common here.

I'm SO DOWN with that. I think that'd be pretty sweet! Provided that it's not bad and all that jazz. . . I'm just a fan of extreme weather!


Desserts/ Food in general

These Chilenos know how to do it. I'm constantly eating FANTASTIC foods.

• Aflojores: Chocolatey covered cookie goodness. It's like two cookie/cakes stuck together with caramel type thing then dipped in chocolate. It also goes by the name of "heaven" and "delightful."
• Empanadas: Grilled cheese spruced up to the max. It's a light shell of bread dough that's filled with whatever you want (my favorites have cheese, corn, tomatoes, onion, and oregano), then they're either baked or fried. I honestly can't explain it - - it sounds so simple, but it's so so delicious.
• Tortilla de espinaca: Spinach quiche - type thing. A thick egg omelet that's baked with whatever you want in it (my favorite has spinach)
  
• Anything the nanny cooks. Even her rice just tastes fantastic. But they don't boil rice here; it's cooked in a pan? I'm trying to figure out the science behind that.

Now time for list two . . .

Las cosas malas.

• Not being able to understand and communicate effectively. I honestly didn't expect this part to be easy, but I feel so bad making everyone repeat things twice... thrice.. fourteen times before I finally might understand what they're saying. And then even though I understand, I don't always know what to say. It's also hard because I love to tell stories about things that happened to me during the day, but I can't always do that. And it's so hard to communicate humor in Spanish. That's the worst. I can't wait until I can get to the point where I'm telling jokes and being more like me, but just in another language.
  
• Standing out. It was kind of funny at first, but now I'm sick of getting pegged as an extranjero. I know there's no way to cover it up . . . I have light brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Sometimes I wish it just wasn't so obvious. For example: Yesterday, I had to go get notebooks. And a mother honestly came up to me and asked me if her son (about five or six years old) could just look at my eyes. He hadn't seen ojos claros before, and she wanted him to. WHAAAT?!
  
• Speaking in English. I mean, it's such a comfort to be able to talk to my friends and stuff in English. But it's infuriating when we go to a store or a restaraunt and ask a question IN SPANISH, and the people look at each other, and run to get someone who speaks English. I may not speak Spanish well, but I can communicate with you to a point.... if I'm asking if you have hot chocolate, there's no need to run and get someone to translate. And if I talk to you in Spanish, answer me in Spanish!
  
• Mullets. I do not understand who came to Chile and told everyone that mullets are in right now. But they need to go. NOW.
• Not knowing when classes are cancelled. They told us during orientation that it would happen. That our classes would be cancelled, and we would have no idea. BUT I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD HAPPEN THE FIRST DAY. So energetic and ready-to-learn Colleen shows up to adolescent psych and there's nobody there, except two other extranjeras who clearly also didn't get the memo. Since we have no university emails or anything, we never know. BUENO! (All my classes this week are cancelled, by the way. Guess I start on Monday??!)
• I want to carry my coffee again. It's still bizarre to me that there's not really anywhere I can go to get a cup of coffee to take with me somewhere. It's just a culture thing. Americans are always so hopped up on caffeine and eager to take on the next task. Chilenos are more likely to stop in a cafe, chat over an espresso. This is not how I work. I'll have to adapt! Caffeinate at home...
• Being conflicted over US rules and Chilean rules. My entire ASB experience, when I worked with the homeless and all that jazz, most definitely made me more sympathetic to the plight of most homeless people. Even when I got back to Nashville, I was more likely to talk to someone on the street, at least smile and say hi. And I can't decide what I'm supposed to do here. My common sense side says stay away; it's a different country, you don't want to get hurt. My other side (and I think my nonsensicaly side tends to win) says that certain things don't have geographic limits, and I should still be nice to people. I just don't know.
  
• People don't laugh as much as I do. I mean, I laugh a lot. And why not? Life is far far too short to take things seriously (funny - - this seems to contradict with this entire post?!). But I don't think Chilenos laugh as much as I do. I guess it's another American thing. So. If I want to fit in, I need to stop laughing and stop being nice. Problem solved.
  

Okay, that list ended up being a lot longer than I had wanted it to be. Regardless of the frustrations and the troubles that I've been having, I'm still enjoying myself immensely; you couldn't pay me enough to go back to the US right now. Not with my Spanish still the way it is!

I guess I just wasn't expecting culture shock to actually bother me. I feel like I'm prety adaptable, but I've also never really traveled anywhere before. And I know it's give and take. I just wish Chile would give a bit more :)


Every now and then I have these moments where suddenly I think "I am south of the equator. I am in Chile right now." And it's just a moment of awe, when I realize where I am. And that seems to excuse some of my struggles at the moment.

Moral of the story? I wouldn't change my situation for the world. I'm just going to have to adapt!

Love to all!
C