My first day in Chile, I went to a market place with some of the girls from the hostel, and we bought some fruit. Fruits here are extremely cheap, so looks like I’m going to be eating a lot more healthy foods while I’m down here. I hope my body doesn’t go into shock! After the market we went and climbed up a small hill, took about 10-15 minutes to get up, and it had a castle type building at the top of it. The view from the top was pretty great. You could see the whole city, the mountains, and the lovely Santiago smog.
Later in the afternoon we took a free city tour. It was actually pretty interesting, and I learned a couple things (well actually I learned a lot because I didn’t really know any of Chile’s history before coming down here). I really like the architechture here. All the buildings look very different from each other. There is also a good mix of short and tall buildings, so the city feels more open than Buenos Aires did. I like it.
One thing I did not do before coming down the South America was research the history of the countries I was going to be living in. Looking back, I should have done that, but it’s been really nice to learn a lot about both countries’ history while actually living in the city.
During the tour, I tried this strange typical Chilean summer drink. It's peach juice, with big chunks of peaches in it along with some sort of grain. It actually wasn't that bad.
Orientation lasted for a week in a half. It was everyday from 10:00-7:00, it was intense and sooo much information! Looking back at it though, pretty much everything we learned was really important. We got snacks in the morning and the old volunteers made us lunch and Once everyday. We ate like kings and queens the entire week and a half, and I loved it! Once (pronounced the same way you say 11 in Spanish), is basically snack time (eaten anywhere between 4:30-7:30), and you eat breads with butter, jam, or manhar (which is dulce de leche). However, they were more creative and we had a good variety of foods for our Onces. I’m always a fan of snack time!
Thursday, I went to my institution and met the girls I’ll be working with. They all seem pretty great. Their ages range from 2-16. I was only there for a few hours and was exhausted. I can’t imagine how I’m going to feel after working everyday for 6 hours during the week
I tried introducing myself to the girls as Liz and they didn’t quite get my name, so I said it was Elizabeth, but they still didn’t get it, so I am Eli (Ellie) in Chile as well. All through out orientation we have been told that Chileans are very blunt. They will say things like, you look fat today, are you pregnant, why did you stop working out, you look really skinny, etc. They don’t mean these things as insults, but merely as observations. While we were eating Once, one of the older Tias (one of the women in charge) asked if I have ever had plastic surgery and if my hair and eye color were real. I thought that that was funny. After snack time, the girls listened to music and danced. The dancing was so inappropriate! It was very sexual, and kind of sad to watch. The kind of moves the girls were doing were moves you would find in a rap video. That’s something I’m going to need to get use to. After visiting the girls though it made me really excited to start working there everyday!
Something that I learned during orientation that is kind of disappointing, is that I am not allowed to post pictures I take of the girls online. These girls have been neglected and/or abused, so it’s for their protection. So I won’t be able to show ya’ll pictures of the girls till I come home.
At the end of orientation on Friday we learned about Chilean foods, and got to try a bunch. Obviously, that was the highlight of my day! The foods were pretty good too. They have empanadas and alfajores here that are pretty tasty, so I’m glad I still get to eat those tasty treats! I learned that they have sandwiches here, which they didn’t really have a wide variety in BA, so I’m really excited about being able to eat sandwiches again. After orientation, I went and got a cell phone! It’s good to appreciate the small victories while I’m living in a foreign country, keeps me sane.
Friday night, everyone in the program went out to dinner. When we first sat down, we tried ordering tap water, but they were like, "No, we don’t have that." Then some people ordered some alcoholic drinks and then asked for tap water and they brought the water right out. So dumb! I was still able to get some free water though, so that’s all that mattered. Then when it was time to order, the waiter told us that they only had three available dishes for each pasta selection. Huh??? That was so weird. But again, I got to order what I wanted, so all was good.
After dinner, 12 of us went out to a bar and hung out for a bit. Then only about 5 of us went out to a club. It was sooo fun! I ended up staying out till about 4:30. The music was really good, and I recognized some of the Spanish songs that I had heard while in Argentina. Another big plus here is that the guys are not as aggressive and pushy with you. So when I would say, "No I’m ok I don’t want to dance with you," most of them would walk away. Or if I did dance with someone, once the song ended I would just say, "I’m going to go back to my friends," and they would let me go, no problem. So that was really refreshing. However, there was this one guy who crossed the line with me. We were dancing, and everything was fine, and then all of a sudden he asked me, “So is the party here or in your panties”…ew! I just looked at him and told him to leave. Later he tried dancing with my friend and she turned to me and was like, “Is that the guy from earlier?” And of course it was, so she shoved him pretty hard to make him leave. Ha it was actually pretty funny. But yeah, over all, it was a really fun night!
The following weekend everyone went to the beach. It’s really cheap to get a round trip bus ticket and the beach is like an hour and a half away. I have been traveling around a lot since Brazil, so I decided not to go. I just wasn’t really in the mood to travel again and stay in another hostel for a night. Orientation kept us super busy, so I hadn’t done much exploring of the city yet. I’ll save the traveling for when the city starts driving me crazy. Most people left Friday and came back on Sunday, but my roommates came back Saturday night. Isabelle left Saturday morning and came back Saturday night. So on Friday we went to this street that has blocks and blocks of really cheap clothing for sale. Isabelle was looking for a towel, and I was just going to check it out. There’s soooooo many clothes! It’s nuts! But it was fun to check out.
Saturday morning I went to this park that is near the apartment to take a work out class. Man oh man, I felt so awkward and so far out of my comfort zone the entire hour! Ha. The class was more so of a dance class, and well I’m not the greatest dancer. I don’t mind dancing in a club where it’s dark and everyone is dancing in a big, close crowd, but out in the day light, spread out...that’s very different. The majority of the people in the class were a lot older, but apparently everyone in this country is a professional dancer. So I just felt super self-conscious the entire time, but despite all of my uncomfortableness, I really enjoyed myself.
After the class I went on a mission to find hangers. Pretty early in the search I almost gave up. The map we all have of Santiago is not of the whole city. All the stores that would have hangers are further out of the city; therefore, not on my map. Also, all the streets are not on the map. It’s all kind of frustrating. I’m not that familiar with the city, so all the street names that were coming up I couldn’t find them. BUT eventually I did find one on a street that I knew and it looked like it was really close. Ha I was wrong again. It took me about an hour to walk there, and during that hour all I was thinking, “If this store does not have hangers I’m going to be pissed!” They had hangers though! I was so relieved! I ended up taking the bus back home, and it was only a 15 minute ride. I was quite proud of myself for finding hangers. Ha again, small victories are very important.
Orientation was very long, but it allowed all of us new volunteers to get to know each other and we became a small family. It's going to be a great 6 months here in Chile.
Until Next Time,
Liz
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