Por que por que

I now find myself asking one question quite a lot. Why do people move to a country when they're not fluent in the language? And now I've answered it. Because they think they know enough to get around, and that when completely immersed in it they'll learn very quickly. Then they get there, and they're stuck, lol.

Today was sooooo frustrating! I got food poisoning yesterday, or something, and haven't been feeling so hot. This afternoon, I was feeling much better and thinking I could venture out for some much needed necessities. Basically, I wanted to register at a gym and buy some more books to read. So, I headed up to Providencia to an english bookstore I had read about online and in some travel books. Lo and behold when I got to the address it no longer existed. This has been a running theme, and I was sort of prepared for it. But, what are you gonna do.

So I headed home and decided to get some food before heading over to the gym. After walking around nervously for a half hour, I finally just forced myself to walk into a cafe. I tried to say table for one, then just one, holding up a finger. Nothing. The lady just kept looking at me going que que que? So I left and got an empenada from the equivalence of a convenience store, or corner deli. Luckily, queso empenadas are delicious, or I might not be so happy to eat them every single day. After eating I still had 15 minutes to get to the gym, so I thought no problem. Well, of course, it wasn't there. I walked around for 20 min, and finally called and asked where it was. The guy kept trying to tell me in english, and I kept asking in spanish hoping he would just tell me in spanish. Needless to say I never found it and no gym for me. However, I randomly found another gym that I think I'll try, but I was just too frustrated to deal with registration.

Everything here is soooo hard! So far I haven't even successfully eaten at a restaurant, and half the time I ask for an empenada they don't understand me, so I point. Seriously, I must have a terrible terrible accent. Oh, sadness. Also, this is something that gets me everywhere I go, most of the waiters are men. In the U.S. almost all the waiters are women, and usually men are harder to find. Not that there aren't any men. I actually worked at a restaurant with mostly male waiters, but that's unusual. The fact that men are the waiters makes me feel less comfortable going in somewhere and sitting down. This is because the men always stare at me, a lot, and it freaks me out, so I basically just run away. If I could get a cameraman to follow me, it would probably be quite funny, but for now it's just making me really hungry.

On a happier note, I did meet Emily on Saturday at this great little coffee shop, and it was really nice just to talk to someone. She made me feel like I'm not a complete idiot for not understanding the spanish, and she agreed with my eternal hatred for the calefecon. Also, she's pretty tall, 5'10'' I think? (feel free to correct me Emily, lol) and people here are SHORT, so she gets stared at too. She said she didn't even question if I was the girl she was meeting, cause of the blondness and such. But we had a really good time, and even got to talk about things not pertaining to Chile, which may have been the best part. Honestly, Chile is starting to take up my whole life, which is sort of annoying. Blondie in Brazil, another blog I read wrote recently about how people seem to define her as the one who moved to Brazil. Right now I feel like I define myself by living in Chile! It encompasses everything, and makes me feel inadequate for the most part. But soon, I will acclimate! Or at least, I really hope so.

The Eyes of Chile

So, I've run into a little bit of a problem. Yesterday was a hard morning, but great night. I wanted to go get a phone, so I looked up the best plans, and then braved the subway and went on my search. It was a beautiful day, and if it didn't take so long to load pictures, I'd put them in right now, but I'll have to add them to the next post. So I walked to the subway, and braved that as well. Here, just like in New York, you have a card that works for the metro and bus systems. Only, there is no automated machine to give it to you, you have to wait in line. So, in my broken spanish I managed to buy one, in only a slightly longer time than it probably should have taken.

I got out in Providencia, where Avenida Providencia becomes Apoquindo. I walked around for nearly an hour trying to find this phone store, but alas, I couldn't find it, it must have closed at some point. So, by this time it's nearing lunch, and I was in a quite nice part of town, so I decided to eat at a cafe. And then, it began. The staring. I swear, this is not normal staring, this is like, boring into your soul staring. Everywhere I go, people stare at me. When I'm actively walking it's no big deal, because of course, I'm moving quickly. But while trying to find a place to eat, it seemed to be all I noticed. Anytime I slowed down I noticed people stopped their conversations, and just stared. For as long as I was in the vicinity of their eyesight. This is mostly men I'm talking about, which is why it's so disconcerting. In the U.S., I used to have some sort of sexual comment thrown at me all the time, but there is a stigma against staring there. People would yell these comments, and if they were near me, they would look, then look away, look, then look away. But here, it's not like that. Everyone stares and does not look away EVER.

So, I decided to just buy an empenada from a supermarket. I got a few other things I felt I was lacking, and was quite happy with my purchases when I went to leave. I even bought my first bottle of Chilean wine. When I went to pay, I was just about done when a bagboy at the register next to me bumped into me. He apologized, and then he looked. He went, oh-ho, and immediately started bagging my items. In Chile you tip baggers, and I wasn't about to get suckered into that, so I told him no. He stopped, crossed his arms, gave me a lilting smile, and stared. He didn't move, which meant I had to like push past him. And he just kept staring. And smiling. Like I was gonna throw him on the conveyor belt and start making passionate love to him. I got so flustered that I forgot my empenada. Luckily that's maybe 2 bucks, but still! I was so upset that I let those kinds of things affect me, when it's something I obviously have to get used to, with the blond hair and all. So I slinked back to my apartment in the blazing hot sun and sulked for a while.

Luckily, my mother knows someone who works for P&G Santiago, and he and his wife were taking me out to dinner. J, the husband, and M, the wife, were wonderful! They picked me up in their car, and I got to meet Bella, their adorable little white dog who was so sweet. They take her everywhere, in her own little carrying case. She's very cute. So they took me to a mall, Paris in Las Condes, a much more international area. I didn't get stared at so much, but Bella got quite a bit of attention! I bought a local phone, and a heater for my room. The phone plans here are outrageous, nearly 40-70 cents a minute, min, but what are you gonna do. Technology here is often more expensive than in the U.S., which is outrageous considering the average salary. Not to mention I'm not sure I even know how to function without a phone anymore, lol. But, I got a very cheap phone, with minimum minutes, which should work well while I'm here.

We then went to this pizza place for dinner that was AMAZING. The appetizers were delicious, and we got the camaron pizza, with shrimp on it that was truly just, superb. They served the pizza with this spicy sauce, with olive oil, fresh basil, red pepper flakes, garlic oil, and other deliciousness that was just wonderful. J and M are great, J is half chilean, born in California, but his parents sent him to Chile for high school so he would learn spanish and connect with his roots. He and M met in college, and lived in the U.S. for 6 years, just returning to Chile a year ago. M also works for P&G, both of them on the business side of things. Their very fun, and we got along wonderfully. J's dad was in the navy, just like my father and his family, so there was a connection there, and our senses of humor were just wonderful.

After dinner we went to starbucks while waiting to see Indiana Jones. All the guys working there wanted to know where I was from, what I was doing. When I told them I was going to med school next year to be a doctor, they looked dumbfounded, lol. I don't know if being a female doctor is rare, or if the dumb blond stereotype exists here in Chile too, but either way, they just couldn't believe I was a science nerd. They were very nice and very polite, and didn't stare! Lol, it made me feel a little better. Anyway, I had a wonderful time. And they're going to get me in touch with people at P&G my age, who can take me out on the town. And we might go to this little artisan village tomorrow, so we'll see.

Tonight I have to meet Emily, a girl who also has a blog on this site, who has lived in Chile for a few years. Her boyfriend is Chilean, and she moved for love. She's always seemed really nice, and when I first contacted her she told me I could always ask her for anything, and anyone who can make me feel a little less lonely is great. So, we're meeting at Cafe de la Barra, very close to my house later tonight. I'll write more later, but I've got to clea my room, Chao!

Emporio la Rosa

Today was really quite wonderful! Yesterday was full of not a whole lot besides looking up maps of chile, reading a few articles about my research project, and checking a whole lot of mail. Oh! and at lunch I tried tuna! No no, the spanish word for tuna is atun, with an accent on the u. Tuna is a fruit, like the prickly pear, that is DELICIOUS. You can't touch the outside, and you slice is 4 times longways and then sort of peel the skin off. Anyway, it's very fruit, and has tons of little seeds inside. It's sooooo good. So then after work yesterday I walked to the supermarket in the rain. It was really gross. But I tried this weird pudding thing. It's like pudding, but it's almost like thicker, so that it's not smooth like pudding, and it's in a syrupy liquid, so it's a little much for me, but it's still very good.
So, on to my glorious day today. One big difference between Santiago and New York. Both Santiago and New York have a bit of rain, but in New York, the rain seems completely unnecessary. In Santiago, the rain leads to a beautiful sunny day that is clear and beautiful, and displays the mountains quite prominently, which I see each day on my way to work while crossing the bridge.
Today I got to do real work. I did an RNA extraction, and ran a gel to test the RNA's strength, so to speak. I won't bore anyone with details, but basically we want to understand the mechanism by which changes in nitrogen levels in soil affect the genes within plants. My partner and I are working with a specific gene. Jose Miguel is the guy I work with, and he's wonderful. We have a very similar sense of humor, and we get along great. It makes the day go very fast. Anyway, I've done RNA extraction before, but never with plants, so it was quite different. We were actually quite pleased with the results, so yay for a successful day!
Since it was raining so hard yesterday, I didn't get ice cream, but today was beautiful! Emporio la Rosa is on my way home from work, so I stopped in. I ended up right behind two American girls, so I tried to make friends and asked them how to order in spanish. They were very nice, they're from California and here for school, but they made no effort to make a connection with me or even ask me to sit with them. So, after that slight disappointment, cause I'd love to be able to have english speaking friends to go to clubs with, I got my two scoops of ice cream, one pistacchio and one castanas, or chestnust. DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness, all the hype about this place is true. And it wasn't ridiculously crowded. So, I walked home quite happy, and when I got home, the lights when out! Everyone came out into the hall, and I actually understood some stuff!
Anyway, then one of the ladies in the house, the one with the baby showed me how to have a hot shower. I have to actually use a lighter to light a heater, to heat the water. I'm gonna come home without a hand for sure. But, now I am warm, clean, and well fed. All in all, a pretty wonderful day. More tomorrow on interesting tidbits about Chile, like how everyone loves Seinfeld as much as I do. Chao!

Arriving to...Uh oh

Well, it´s been quite the few days. I´m currently writing this at work with a spanish keyboard, which is surprisingly hard to use. Anyway, I´ll give a quick recap of my getting into Santiago, which I don´t really want to rehash all that much. My flight was fine, I did manage to sleep almost all night, altho is was also 2 hours late, and the meals were free. My flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago was great, mostly because they served a full free lunch for a 2 hour flight. Delicious. So when I got to the airport I was lightly upset to see the price for US citizens to enter has been raised from $100 to $131. Boo on the dollar. Once I finally got to my bags and went to the area where my taxi company was (I made a reservation in advance), they told me where to go...in spanish. I was very confused, but whatever. So I go down there, and none of them speak english, and they were all yelling at once, which was really difficult.
So finally I get in a cab with maybe 7 other people and we´re on our way. Well, the scenery is gorgeous. There are HUGE snow capped peaks everywhere! I think Colorado ain´t got nothing on Chile. And I mean everywhere. There are mini mountains even in the city, and I would call them hills, but really, they´re more like the appalachians. There is a huge river running through the city, Rio Mapocho, which is the dirtiest thing I´ve ever seen. It´s very fast moving, so it´s very brown and very muddy. Grossness. Also, there´s trash on either side of it everywhere, and usually a stray dog or two drinking from it.
Anyway, so my cab driver drops me off in front of a delapidated building that is padlocked. I think it´s quite obvious that this is the wrong address, but he tells me to find a hotel and leaves. Now, you have to remember I have 4 bags, so I can´t really walk anywhere. I decide to see if my phone works, but dusk is falling so I´m already feeling a little nervous. My phone doesn´t seem to work, so I decide to try using my calling card. I pulled up my mail to write down the numbers, but as I do so, my stupid touch screen reacts to my arm and the message gets moved. Now I´m freaking out, and when I find where the message was moved to, it won´t open. I have now decided that I am stuck in Chile forever and am going to die, so, I start crying. I try walking down the street a bit, but I just have too many bags. So, I try my phone again in depseration. It works! I get a hold of my mother, and she starts making some calls. Unfortunately this is Sunday, so nobody is at the office of the company which got me my apartment. So, I sit there waiting, and a guy on a bike comes up and in perfect english tells me, you don´t want to stand here, you´re going to get mugged. Awesome. Great. I´m so happy at this point. Then while again talking to my mother, who has had her spanish friend Carolina call my landlady for me, since she doesn´t speak english, a creepy guy with very long hair walks by and gets in my face, waving at me. So, I lose it and just hail a cab. Luckily, Carolina has found out they gave me the wrong address. I live at 291 Bellavista, not 0291. Well, my cab driver literally makes a circle and takes me back to the same place. For 6 dollars. and then after talking to Carolina twice, realizes where I´m going and takes me there.
My landlady, Jaqueline is very nice, but I have a very hard time understanding her. The house is really quite beautiful, with oak everywhere and very wide walkways, although all the actually rooms are very, very tiny. So, I unpack, realize I have no internet, and give it up for the night.
The next day I wake up, exhausted, and having decided not to go to work, take quite a bit of time working up the nerve to venture outside and buy things which is not in my house, like: a towel, toilet paper(i know) and food. I go to the grocery store, and it´s a beautiful day. I live right on the river, so I cross it to get everywhere, and it´s really quite a pretty sight. The day is beautiful and sunny, I´m hot in my sweathshirt, and even though I can´t read any of the signs in the supermarket, I manage to get some things. I also went to a towel store. Yes, a store just for towels. The stores here are very small, and you don´t shop, they have everything stacked up behind the counter and you tell the worker what you want, and they give you a ticket to take the the cash register. Anyway, I got a pretty blue towel, and headed home. At this point I´m feeling great, I was able to speak enough spanish to buy a towel! So I get home and try my key. It´s not working. I keep turning and turning and turning, literally bruising my fingers trying so hard. My fingers are still bruised actually. So of course, I start crying again. I suppose I was a little fragile. Anyway, I call my mother again to call Carolina to call my landlady and tell her my keys don´t work.
So I get and meet Mother and Baby. Mother does her best to help me, but speaks no english so it´s very difficult. Baby is actually cute, never cries, and smiles all the time. So when I finally get into my room I collapse and nap for an hour. I wake up, sort of feeling trapped, but decide to take a shower. The shower is freezing. I mean freezing. Like it was painful. But then I couldn´t feel anything, and then it got even more painful. It´s very odd to not be able to feel anything with your hands for a full minute while trying to get dressed. It makes for hilarity if one is not already on her last nerve. Anyway, my landlady came over, turns out I´m not an idiot, my key actually didn´t work, so she gave me hers. Problem solved. I watch friends with Mother and Baby, meet nearly 7 other people who live here, and learn that Baby loves me. Won´t stop climbing on me. Oy ve. I finally get my internet to work, and then just roll into bed.
The next day (this is yesterday) I use the other shower, which has some sort of heater attached to it that you turn outside of the shower. I apparently am doomed to be cold, cause I had to take another freezing shower. But finally, a ray of light. Jose Miguel, the guy I`m working with came to meet me at my house and he speaks english! not perfect, but really good. Finally, I am safe. Work was fine, although I can´t understand anyone and they can´t understand me. I finally have real food, rice and beans called lentejas that was delicious. And I get walked home, so everything is going better. As of right now I am feeling ok. It´s exhausting trying so hard to talk to people and failing, and it´s also quite lonely, but at least I´ve been fed and can walk to and from work just fine. After work today I´m going to try ice cream from Emporio de la Rosa, which is famous, and right on my way home from work. It´s a little cold for it, and it´s also raining, but I think I´ve earned a little treat. Wish me luck for today!

Day Of

Sunday I graduated. Well, I had my first graduation anyway. The way NYU does their graduation is by having a graduation for each school, mine is College of Arts and Science, and then having a graduation for the entire University as well. We had our school graduation at Madison Square Garden, in the Arena, which was pretty cool. We were right in the middle of the floor, which was amazing. It was a pretty emotional day. I think college graduation is so much more significant than high school. Going from college to the real world is huge. You no longer have anyone looking out for you, no parental support, nothing. You are a real person, with completely your own life. I mean, it's a huge deal. Of course, I'm choosing to ignore the real world for a little while longer. Although, in a few ways my year off is a even more in depth look at the real world. Anyway, I got there, and we were separated by last name, just A-L and K-Z, but it meant I couldn't sit with S. my boy. I did get to sit with a lot of my best friends though. I never cried, but it was very emotional. The ceremony itself wasn't that amazing. Our President gave the worst speech ever, as did our faculty speaker who used the time to make a political statement. Our valedictorian gave a wonderful speech tho, and it was probably the most appropriate. We then finally got to walk up. It took forever, what with 1700 students, but it was wonderful to hear our names called and walk across the stage. It was all so fast. After the ceremony, my parents were supposed to come for picture time and to finally meet S's parents. He hadn't wanted them to meet originally because his parents don't approve of us dating, long story, but he had said that morning it would be good. But, my father left early to go get the car, without a cell phone. Turned out we had remembered the wrong street by 2 and he walked around for two hours, found a pay phone and called my mom. Of course she was frantic by this point and I got no after graduation pictures and the parents never met. I was beyond distraught. I mean, streaming tears upset. Not with my father, I would have left too, but just at the situation. I felt that I was at the only time in my life where this huge scary wonderful transition was being recognized, and I wasn't even allowed to have it, it was made to seem unimportant. However, after a few hours I was able to stop being upset and laugh it off a bit. It's just such an emotional time, leaving S, all my friends for that matter, the first city I've really loved, my whole life. I spent most of that night sleeping and crying-I was exhausted. However, it was a good day, if an emotional one.

The Day Before

Well, it happened. I graduated. I've been super busy, so I'm going to just give posts day by day. So, for the day before. My parents came in and I decided to take them to the zoo. My mom has always wanted to go, so I wanted to take her. We went to the Bronx Zoo, and it was amazing! It's a huge zoo, with tons of exhibits and animals, and we went to every single one. We saw pretty much ever animal you could thing of. Lions, tigers, bears, flamingos, condors, zebras, tapirs, monkeys, gorillas, SOOOOOO many. And of course, because I brought my boyfriend, the good luck charm for all things zoo, they were all active and happy. In fact, it seemed to be mating season, for we saw quite a few animals getting it on. My favorite were the turtles. You see, the male turtle gets on top, and then opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out...the whole time. It's quite a spectacle.
We even went to the petting zoo!! I got to feed llamas and goats and sheep!! It was so much fun. And then that night we had a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Laila's. It's right next to campus, and serves great Indian food with an American flair. After a delicious dinner we went to meet up with some of my friends, where we went out for a night of margaritas, which apparently were a little too much for some! And that concluded my wonderful day before graduation.

Only One More...

Well, that's it. I have one final left, and it's tomorrow. After that, I'm officially done with school. I'll be a college grad. I'm so nervous! It seems like such a huge transition, being an adult. I actually packed tonight. Granted, my room isn't even close to being cleared out, but still. As of Sunday I will only have enough things to finish out half a week. And then I leave New York, possibly forever. I feel like there are so many things I wanted to do in this city that I never did. I mean, every grad feels that way, we never take full advantage of the city. But I have my spots, my restaurants, my pieces of the home I've created. I suppose I'll miss them, but generally I have very little attachment to places or things. I'm really gonna miss the musuem of natural history. I'm REALLY gonna miss Blockheads, the cheapest, but most delicious mexican food and margaritas in this entire city. My parents are getting here tomorrow, I plan on taking them on a walk through the village to Magnolia's for some cupcakes. Then, I plan on getting my digital camera! I know this is probably the worst post ever, but I'm just so wiped from packing and studying. I'll post tomorrow about my day, but I just have to finish packing.