Did you know they make the beds upside down in Chile? Bet you didn't. The actual beds are right-side up, of course. But there they were: my Sesame Street alphabet bedsheets made upside down on my Chilean, right-side up bed. An inconsequential observation, until I noticed the faded backwards alphabet visible through the thin fabric. Kinda symbolic of my study abroad experience thus far. They see ABC; I see CBA. Which just sounds like the acronym of some metaphoric TV channel that I've never watched. One with sitcoms of upside down sheets, backwards flushing toilet water, and a language barrier incredibly difficult to overcome. I think I need to stop looking at my sheets.
But these are the crazy things you notice while abroad. Things that appear so opposite to one's own culture, and with connotations you couldn't even begin to express to a local. Okay, so upside down sheets aren't that crazy. But a swimming school in Ecuador called "Duran Duran." Grown men and women living with their parents until marriage. Coffee shops with scantily-clad waitresses for middle-aged businessmen, scattered about Santiago - cafes con piernas, they're called. Perfectly normal things, to anyone from South America. But to this little gringo? Not so much. But how can one remain objective in a foreign country? How can one ultimately appraise their own culture without first comparing it to another? Yes, being from a country that values independence above everything else, living with your family until the age of thirty does seem strange to me. But could I honestly say that moving away from your family, the people that love you most, is a better alternative? You tell me.
But not everything is so different here. Trends and music reminiscent of the United States remind me daily that we truly do live in an integrated society. And if they haven't hit the states yet, I'm absolutely positive that jodhpur pants are coming back with a vengeance - they're everywhere! But globalization has affected more than just culture. While Chile has been estimated by the Ministerio de Hacienda as the fitfh most prepared country in the world to combat the crisis (what that really means, I couldn't say), the economic situation is universal. The construction of the Costanera Center, a skyscraped projected to be the tallest building in South America at 300 meters high, has been suspended due to lack of funds at only 22 stories high. As of now, it's just a concrete skeleton ominously referred to by Chileans as la cicatriz - "the scar"- de la crisis economica. Guess we're not so far away as we thought.
Chilean Slang of the Week:
Bacán: Awesome, dude
Cachar: to understand ("Cachas?": Do you get it?)
Terremoto: The literal translation is "earthquake," but the tastier version is a liter of pipeño (sweet, fermented wine) with pineapple ice cream. You'll understand the name after drinking it.
-Christina Lacy
Pictures (Right to Left): Empty seats in Montevide during Carnaval, reserved for 300 Uruguyan desaparcidos; Futbol game in Ecuador between Cuenca and Venezuela Cuenca won); Evita Peron's gravesite in Buenos Aires
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