My experience and thoughts about Chile... So far

As many of you have asked me what I think and how I feel here and how everything is going, I decided to write some thoughts and share with you how this experience has been, so far.

It has been five weeks since we arrived. In general, we are fine. People are nice and kind of well educated. The city looks fine. Like every relationship, I need time to know it better. I've started driving and started getting lost - a lot - but there is always a way! Driving has been... an interesting experience... I drive in the middle of the road, tempt to turn on the other side of ride, I feel am going to scratch my car on the left side when it is actually completely opposite. Poor, my brain is so confused. Joseph says that when I finally get to drive properly we will need to go and then I will be a disaster again as I will be used to drive the other side of the road. I guess he is not too wrong in his appreciation.

The boys are kind of happy. You probably know that my main concern with all this move was them. Joseph struggles with Spanish a bit but he's doing an amazing effort to speak it. They improve everyday and they notice it, you can see how they say proudly that they are speaking better Spanish than before. I second that. We arrived on a Sunday and, funny story, on a Monday the bell rings I open the door to find 3 boys asking for the "new boys". They introduced themselves and invited them to go downstairs and play with them football (you can add an image of a melted heart here). Since that day they've been playing together. Perfect welcoming for them and perfect way to start practicing Spanish. Funny that my boys have picked up some particular "Chilean" words that we don't use in Venezuela and it's really funny seeing them using those words. David is a bit confused as (bad me!) I used to speak with some not nice words in Spanish as no body could understand me in Australia I didn't care much about which words I was using! Now that he is speaking Spanish, he's started using "those" words and I'm like "no, you don't say that" and he is like "but you use it all the time!!" So I'm in the process of re-learn how to speak as a lady.

Below I've listed some impressions about the city and its people. 

1) Kisses. I consider myself as a kisser. Usually I give a kiss to someone, THAT I KNOW, someone close to me, a friend, when I say hello and when I say goodbye, but sometimes, I can just skip the kiss part. Here, everybody kisses everybody all the time, literally. For example, somebody that I'm  just meeting will give me a kiss. A teacher, a kid, and adult, the bank representative, the lawyer, it doesn't mater, they are friendly and kissers and they know it! For example, the taxi driver from the company that Michael works, gave me a kiss when he came to pick us up at the airport (I was like Wth!). The paediatrician in the first appointment, it was something like: -"hi Doctor nice to meet you", -'hi Virginia, how are you, mwa!". But seeing a man giving a kiss to another man? Imagine my face. That kills me, it is not always, but it happens when they are friends or relatives. Something different, never seen it. By the way I would like to see my dad's face if some other guy kisses him.

2) Not having a Chilean ID. Everybody, including children, needs an ID (a number called RUT) that you can only get if you are citizen or a resident. I don't have one yet as mine is in process, so I don't exist! I feel I'm a ghost. For everything that you want to do they will ask first for that $&@$; number! Even to buy online, to make an appointment, to whatever you imagine they ask for it and they get so out of shape when you reply, no, I don't have one. For example, I ordered the tag for the car. It is under Michael's name (of course because I don't have a RUT I can't buy a car). The tag was delivered, I received it at home. Few hours later the person emailed me and was asking for my RUT to be sent urgently as the driver forgot to ask for the copy. I replied back that I don't have one but attached copy of my passport and my driver licence. What is better than a passport as a form of ID? The answer back was: I'm sorry a foreign person can't receive the tag, it has to be someone with a RUT and as I need the copy, can you please ask a friend to make you a favour and send me your friend's rut? I couldn't believe it!!! So I did that :)

I will get mine anyway in some point, it is really annoying.

 

3) Giving tips. I forgot about this. In Australia this is simple, you don't give tip unless you want to. That's it. Nobody will see you bad or make any judgment about you if you don't give anything. Here you HAVE to give tip everywhere! In the supermarket to the person that put your groceries in the bags (yes, I also forgot about this type of jobs!) at the petrol station (again, forgot about this, there is someone that puts the petrol pump into your car, and does the job for you, so you don't need to leave your car), to the guy that delivers your fridge, to the guy that installs your fridge (which is a different one), Christmas presents to all the security guards of the building even if you just arrived 4 days before! Yes, and there are 7 security guards!

4) Landscape. The city reminds me my beautiful Caracas, the whole mountain just like "El Avila" covers the city. Opening the window of my room and seeing the majestic view amazes me every morning! I spend time just seeing through the window.

5) Spanish - these guys speak ultra-super-duper fast. They cut the letters at the end, they have particular words for particular things and those words don't exist, you can't find translation in google, it is the Chilean way to say it. Everything is referred to animals. Instead of saying 'don't be silly', they say 'don't be a goose'. To refer to a person instead of saying 'the guy', they say 'the rooster', and like that I can go through the whole zoo listing things. It is funny. 

6) Bed Time. right now is summer here, same as in Australia, the difference is that the sun comes down at 9ish. So my usual routine to send the boys to bed at 8 got completely ruined since day one, the argument given by them was totally valid: it is daytime mami!!! 

7) Schedule. Linked to the point above, timing here runs different, everything is later in comparison to Australia. For example invitation for lunch at 2pm. Dinner at 9 pm, finishing 1-2 am. Of course I've changed my sleep habits, finally the universe has found the way to make me go to sleep late. 

8) Where are you from? - that's an interesting question. If I say Australia they start wondering how I speak Spanish so well! (Duh!) if I say Venezuela then they start asking for the situation there, and lots of questions that I don't know because I haven't lived there the last 8 years. Or they ask why the boys speak Spanish with a "gringo" accent and are speaking in English between them? (Sigh...)

9) Weather. As I said before is summer (ha!) well it doesn't feel like. To me it is cold. It starts in 12/14 degrees, you can reach 32/34 during the day and drops again at night. They say it will be very hot from next week, I have to see that. But everybody has warned me that the winter is really cold. So it is true that it is chilly in Chile! I will cry, get wrapped and probably escape during winter, as you may know I am very tropical, that the cold affects me horribly!


That is all for now.  Till next time.

Ah and the boys start school in March! But David is doing a tennis immersion program, full-on, and Joseph has just finished sport camp.

I'll share some photos in the next post.

Bye! Muchos besos! ;)