Observations of Santiago

So I thought it was about time that I actually wrote something about what I have learned about this country since I got here, apart from the fact that they speak "machine-gun" rapid slang-filled spanish and have a tendency to protest and party.

One of the first things that a foreigner has to notice about the streets of Santiago is that they are nothing like what you might expect. They are generally fairly clean and on a nice day the city has a European feel to it (if it is somewhat rundown in places). It is busy and noisy, but certainly no worse than Rome. The metro runs efficiently (most days) and the bus system is fairly well organised and extensive. The streets have many vendors selling their wares (mostly illegally on blankets on the sidewalks), but they don't hassle you like in Vietnam. There are tons of kiosks all the way along the streets, probably at least two per block and sometimes as many as 8, selling drinks, lollies, newspapers and other bits and pieces. This brings me to my second observation - there are an awful lot of people doing jobs that seem almost useless to someone like me.

By this I mean there are a lot of "parking attendants", official people who help you park your car and then supervise it while you are gone. They are basically human parking meters, though sometimes if you are lucky they will wash your car, and in summer some provide cardboard shades to keep the sun out. You are obliged to give them some change as you leave, even when they are obnoxious as the one in Pichilemu was the other week, insisting on kissing me and questioning the guy I was with as to whether this "guapa gringa" was his "pelola" (whether the cute gringa was his girlfriend). We saw this phenomen in Vietnam too, the "very busy" security guards. I guess it is all about people in jobs. Other such jobs include the people who sweep the pavements, by hand, when probably a machine would put 40 people out of a job. There are also tons of street entertainers, juggling, doing theatre, or acrobatics at the traffic lights. You are pretty much obliged to give them some change too, whether you liked the show or not. There are people who pack your groceries at the supermarket, whether you want it or not, and again you are obliged. There is the conductor on the long haul bus, who is actually quite helpful, but he needs some change, and the guy who puts your bag in the bottom, more change, even if you offer to do it yourself. I don't know much about the welfare system here (or lack of), but it looks to me that people will willingly do just about anything for a bit of change. People in jobs, people in jobs.

The third thing that is very obvious on arriving in Santiago is the number of street dogs. There are tons of them. And people don't seem to mind, in fact they are generally well cared for looking. As it is winter many of them now have coats on (often made of polarfleece and with a neck warmer like a mini scarf), and they have cardboard boxes to sleep in which often has some food next to it. Seriously, the dogs are better cared for than the homeless people! And these dogs know it. They sleep anywhere. It is very common for there to be a bottle neck at the metro exit in rush hour because there are a couple of dogs blocking the way and everyone is going around them. They sleep on the sides of the street and the cars and buses simply avoid them. They also sleep in shop doorways, often on the welcom mat, and people just step over them. They are experts at crossing the road. I thought dogs were colourblind but these ones know all about the little green man, and wait patiently to cross when it is their turn. Quite often there seems to be a sort of dog convention in Plaza Italia, the main roundabout on the main st, and you can see up to 20 cavorting around having a lovely time. Even the scary looking policemen stop and talk to them. I think in my next life I would like to be a Santiago street dog.


While I said earlier that the bus system was very good (which it is), it can also be a bit feral. A couple of times I have gotten on and there has been a full on latin band playing (5 people), with people dancing in the aisles. Yesterday I got on a bus full of football fans. They were singing and dancing and jumping and the entire vehicle was bouncing. There was also half a dozen people riding on the roof.... The buses are an education....

Another thing I was not expecting, was BAD BAD coffee. I thought with the proximity to Columbia that coffee here would be fabuous. How wrong I was. The drink of choice is nasty Nescafe. To be fair, there are grades of Nescafe here, and the gold standard I can actually drink. However, most Chileans drink the cheap cheap nasty burnt tasting stuff. They drink it strong, super hot, and often with 5 teaspoons of sugar. Its truely awful but as a nation they are totally addicted to the stuff. About the only place I can get a coffee that tastes like a decent coffee and doesn't make my tastebuds recoil in horror is Starbucks, and this makes both my wallet and morals recoil in horror!

And moving onto food... it is all about the meat here. When we were at the beach the other week we had asado (BBQ). Unfortunately we didn't know that one of the girls coming was a vege, and the only thing that we could find for her to eat was potato chips. I am not kidding. She had a choice of beef, chicken, pork, or potato chips. We didn't even have any salad or bread. We had a few onions.... Also, the food is generally not spicy, at all. The only spicy thing they eat is pebre, a combination of tomato, onion, garlic and chilli, which I find totally delicious. Nothing else has anything like chilli in it though. Generally, it is just basic meat and veg, or pasta. Dad would love it (well the meat and veg part anyway).

I am sure there are lots more things that I want to put in here, but right now I can't remember them. Another day. Just thought I would share my observations so far.
K

Another week, another new experience

Another week of working, trying new things and general confusion. Actually it has been a good week, though it was quite busy.

I had another new class this week, on Monday afternoon for 3hrs with an intermediate lady at El Mercurio, the newspaper. This is all good but it is in the middle of nowhere. No metro or bus route - that means I had to tackle a famous Santiago colectivo for the first time. Colectivos are communal taxis, which travel on fixed routes for fixed prices. Basically it is a guy with a car, and when the car is full he goes. It is quite a good concept really, though timing is always a bit dodgy. Luckily Mercurio is on a fairly popular route. It does require a basic level of spanish though to communicate what you want. Luckily Jo had told me the number of the car I was looking for and it turned out to be quite easy. The ride out there was fine, I was holding onto my seat the whole way and was the only one in the car with my seatbelt on (they drive like madmen), but we made it in one piece. Coming home was more difficult, as you basically have to flag one down. I was first waiting outside Mecurio, then a couple of old ladies came, and then a man. Finally a colectivo showed up, but already had a person in it, so there were 4 of us wanting three seats.... At this point I expected the usual latin manners to kick in and the man to give way to the ladies, especially as we were all there first. How wrong I was! I forgot that when it comes to public transport all courtesy goes out the window, when usually these are the most polite people in the world. The man runs to the car and jumps in the back. I arrived about the same time as the old ladies, but I wasn't about to be rude and make them stand in the cold for another 15min, or worse still, split them up. So I ended up standing on the side of the road for another 10min until the next one came along. Apparently I have a lot to learn about colectivo ettiquette! And the second colectivo was filled with men, and I ended up in between two very fat men. Couple that with very fast crazy driving that doesn't slow for corners, and it wasn't the most pleasant ride. But it was good that I have finally tackled the famous colectivos. And class was good. Three hours one on one is fairly demanding, but she is a good talker so I think it will be OK.

So with this new class I have a lot of hours, I think including my private students I am up to about 28hrs a week which is quite a lot when you account for planning time as well. I look forward to the weekend! This weekend is a long weekend too (we haven't had a public holiday for nearly a month!) so I am planning on relaxing and organsing all my materials which have gotten quite out of control over the last few weeks!

I am of course going out to a party tonight. It was Naty's birthday (one of the Chileans) on Monday, so she is having a praty tonight. It is a fancy dress party (I think) but I don't know the theme, something about masks (I think). I (think) I have a ride there lined up, but absolutely no way of getting home as it is miles away. Hopefully it will be a big party (I suspect yes) and I can get the metro home tomorrow morning at 8. Otherwise I am crashing on the floor uninvited... The invitations were all verbal which is impossible for me as I can't compute things fast enough in my head. At least when they send me messages I can use my dictionary to figure it out, and I can read it three times until I understand. Anyway, I have a homemade mask, and if I wear all black I will look a bit like something out of the Mask of Zorro, so hopefully I will fit in. Won't matter what I look like after a couple of rums I guess.

Went to Cueca on Thursday, I am improving but its a slow process. Wasn't as fun as the week before because there were less willing male partners and our table was extremely female heavy. Thats OK though, us girls dance together too. I haven't managed to flick anyone else in the eyes, and I didn't stand on anyones feet, so I guess that is improvement. Its always a fun night out, though Friday morning is aways difficult. Luckily it is an elementary class who are working from a book so it doesn't require quite so much thought or preparation.

So not the most exciting week. Will see how this party goes tonight. It might be interesting to see how accurate my translation has been (or inaccurate!).

Chaochao,
KiwiKaz.

The not so nice side of living in the developing world

So this afternoon on my way home from class I witnessed something that really made me stop and think. Since arriving in Chile I have seen many things that have made me open my eyes, but I have been genuinely surprised by the lack of glaringly obvious poverty. To be fair, I live and work in the nice part of town, and do not venture into the other parts (because I have no reason to and my friends have warned me that it isn't particularly safe). I see homeless people on the street, but you see them in Melbourne too, and they are much less aggressive here than in Melbourne. However, everyday for the last three weeks I have been walking past this protest camp down by the river Mapochu. It is to protest the poverty of the poorest people, and has been steadily growing for the last few weeks. There are maybe 70 people living there - its quite big. It is a bit of a novelty, and while I suspected it would be very cold, I didn't really think very hard about the true implications. There is always a cordon of police supervising their activities and apart from banners and the like it all seemed quite orderly. Until today.

Today it started to rain. And it has been raining fairly solidly all day. Again I didn't really think about this on my way to class, though there were definitely more police around and more barriers. When I left class and was attempting to come back across the bridge the roads were all closed, the riot police were out and two water canons had arrived. This isn't really much to get alarmed about either. However, upon standing a bit longer I realised that they were evacuating all the people because the river was flooding. This in itself is a good thing, but the people they were bringing up to the road were clearly extremely distressed. At this point one women went running across the road and tried to jump over the wall back down to the river - its a fair drop of probably 6-7 m. A policeman managed to grab her but we watched as a tent with shoes and clothes tied to the roof went hurtling down the river. I guess that was almost everything she owned. She collapsed in the policeman's arms and was loaded into an ambulance. Other people were burning everything, I guess as a last sign of protest before it all got washed away, and were generally fighting with the riot police and refusing to come up from the river. The people looked cold, wet, and defeated. I just felt so sorry for them.

The whole situation was a real eye opener for me, especially as I have been walking past these people for weeks without sparing them a thought. I guess the reason there are so many protests and they do get so heated is because the conditions are worth getting upset about. It became clear to me today that this is about more than just water canons and tear gas.
K

Lack of sleep

Well it has been a little while since I updated this. To be fair, I have sort of been holding it ransom in the hope that my Mother might send me an email, but seeing as it is nearly the weekend again I thought I had better get around to doing it (though I am still without said email...)

Last week was a standard teaching week without any major dramas. I was late to a couple of classes because there were some crazy protests going on in town and the metro station I needed was closed so I had to walk. And I managed to walk INTO the protest instead of away from it... But they were clearing it from the other end of the plaza so while all the people were heading towards me, the water canon and the riot police and horses were still a wee way off. And there was no tear gas so it wasn't too much of a problem. It was very noisy though, with lots of whistles and sirens and yelling and things... Anyway, that is all pretty normal now. And there seemed to be a bomb scare or something near the office another day and they closed the main street and I had to do a massive detour to get to class. Again, lots of police and plenty of rubber-neckers, but not a lot of action from what I could see as I scampered past.

Thursday night was Cueca dancing (see a previous post on Cueca). There was quite a large group of us as one of the girls from the office came with her friends, Shawn brought a couple of gringas who are staying with her, and there was the usual suspects there too (my Chilean friends). Every time I go I improve, and other people apart from those at our table are starting to ask me to dance which means that maybe I look like I half know what I am doing! Was a fun night as always, and I got home very late, and had to struggle out of bed for my 9am class..... Though I shouldn't complain as Naty is a teacher and she doesn't teach in town. Her classes start at 8am in Maipu, so I am guessing she probably had to be on the metro at 7am, which probably means a maximum of 3hrs sleep....

I had class all day and then we left for Pichilemu straight after my last class. We arrived at a reasonable hour, and after doing the shopping other people started turning up. We had asado (BBQ) and quite a party. Shawn brought her two girlfriends with her on the bus, and they actually speak less Spanish than me (one of them none), so I could see just how much I have learned. About 5am in the morning we decided to go to the beach. Everyone will be pleased to know that I managed to remain fully clothed and (mostly) out of the water. My pants got a bit wet.... Probably for the best because I had a ridiculous cold that meant that I had had next to no voice all week. I don't imagine the cold air and water (think Dunedin styles) would have helped it too much... I think we went to bed about 7am, and I was up again at 9.30am because the kids wanted to play with me. I tried unsuccessfuly all day to have a nap, but could not sleep. It was annoying. We went to town and had some fresh ceviche by the sea. It is a peruvian dish which is very popular here in Chile, made from fish and lemon mushed up together with a dash of Chilli (if you are really lucky - Chileans don't eat hot food). This ceviche was clearly really fresh and quite delicious. We went to the feria and bought a whole lot of veges to make an enormous pot of soup to feed everyone, always fun shopping with the chileans. Everything is so disorganised and it takes about half an hour even to make the most simple decisions. Seriously, its like working on island time. Lucky I don't have a problem with island time!!

Saturday night was another grande fiesta. We had Churipan (chorizo sausage and delicious maraqueta bread) with pebre (garlic, chilli, tomato and onion pureed and it actually is spicy) just for me. It was my special request, and I had about 3 or 4.... We had navegado, a type of mulled wine, with orange in it heated on the BBQ. LOTS of people turned up, I think there were probably about 30 people, and it started to rain. I don't really know what happened then because I went to bed (around 3.30) as the lack of sleep and naps totally caught up with me and I found myself no longer able to comprehend either Spanish or English. I believe the party wound up about 7am again... When I got up there was mud everywhere and they were using a tractor to pull the cars out. Reminded me of a one-day event we had up a Quigley's actually... So I felt right at home wading through the mud to take my bag out to the car! The car driver was a bit tired so I had to talk to him all the way home, in Spanish, with no voice (my voice had disappeared again by this stage). It was amusing for him I think. It took me until Thursday to catch up on sleep... everytime I sat down I fell asleep. I was late to my class on Monday morning because I slept through my alarm (but my students were later so it didn't matter), and late to my evening class because I fell asleep on my bed and didn't wake up...

Seriously, I don't know how these Chileans manage it. Take Nataly for example. She was out dancing Cueca with us on Thursday night - around 3hrs sleep. Friday night she went out in Santiago and danced all night then her and two friends got in the car at 6am (without going to bed) and drove 3hrs south to Pichilemu, pitched a tent and had a couple of hours sleep. She was up again at 11am though - 2hrs sleep. She managed to party much longer than me on Saturday night, and was heading to bed around 6am, but was up again at 9am when everyone started to leave - 3hrs sleep. Then she had to work on Monday at 8am in Maipu, which means leaving her house at 7am, which I assume means getting up at 6.30.... And they wouldn't have gotten back to Santiago any earlier than 10pm on Sunday night.... I do not know how they do it!!!

Anyway, talking to the others last night it seems I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake this week so at least I know these people are human! Last night was Cueca again, and it was the most fun I have had yet. I am actually getting the hang of it, and I danced with lots of different people. It helped that our table actually had an even number of males and females rather than being female heavy as it usually is. We danced until the place closed (around 3.30am), and I hardly sat down all night. I am finally understanding something in this crazy country! For so long I have been useless at everything - the language, the dancing, the customs... but it is beginning to become clearer to me, though I still wouldn't say I dance well!

Anyway, I have to go to class. There is a whole lot of other stuff I want to put in here, but I don't have time right now. And the photos will ahve to wait until the next post too because I don't want to be late to class, and it is pouring with rain so I have to find my jacket etc.

Mas pronto,
KiwiKaz

Just another week

And its Sunday again. It seems to come around so fast!

I have had a good week, just teaching during the week, and trying to stay warm to fend off the impending cold. Teaching is quite busy for me at the moment, especially as I had quite a few classes changing around their times for various commitments this week. Am getting more used to the workload, and am getting more organised with my preparation. My chef cancelled his last three classes and then wanted a 3hr marathon session on Friday afternoon before flying out to Malaysia on Saturday. Given that our 1.5hr classes are usually quite difficult as he loses interest quickly, I was quite surprised by the request, and overjoyed about having my whole Friday afternoon taken up with potentially the most difficult class of the week... It turned out to be better than I expected, though I was still exhausted at the end of it and in need of a very large beer!

Friday night I joined Shawn and Tyra to see some friends of Shawn's play. They are in a Led Zepplin cover band, and I was dubious heading into it. They were pretty awesome though, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After them was a Doors cover band, who were also good, so we spent most of the night singing along. Then we went back to the band's house and continued on singing etc... until I had nearly no voice left... at which time we retired to Shawn's to sleep (7am). Was a great night with lovely people.

I was woken at 10am by my housemate calling to ask where I was. I am not sure if I should be flattered or worried that he cares so much. I don't remember any of my previous housemates keeping such close tabs on me.... He also spent most of last week trying to convince me to go to the doctor because I had the beginnings of a cold - but was't actually sick... I think he thinks he is my mother, except he is more annoying (sorry Mum - your only annoying sometimes). Anyway, I answered the phone "Halo", and only a squeak came out, so I tried again with not much more than a whisper. Oh dear... no voice, that's a small problem. So I spent Saturday trying not to talk. Then on Saturday night one of my Chilean friends called to ask if I wanted to go and watch the football at a friends house. Picture this, we are on the phone and I don't understand what he is saying, have no idea what I want to say, and can't say it anyway because I have next to no voice... It would have looked (and sounded) like a comedy skit show, but was really quite frustrating. Eventually I managed to get the details sorted, and joined the others for a spot of football (Chile beat Paraguay 2-0 so it was celebrations all round). I am always the entertainment, but last night it was even funnier for everyone because my voice was so squeaky that everytime I opened my mouth we weren't sure what was going to come out. They were delighting in the fact, but we had a really fun night with just a small group of people.

I feel like I have had a bit of a breakthrough with the language. I have managed to actually have short conversations where necessary, and I understand a lot of what goes on (though definitely not all). The ferria is easier because I usually understand what they are asking me, and even the supermarket isn't so daunting. I even understand about a quarter of what people are saying to me on the phone (which is a quarter more than three weeks ago). It is so frustrating that I can never say exactly what I want, but at least I can say something. Even if it is as ridiculous as "Shawn wants to eat Mauro" which was completely not what I meant to say and has all sorts of overtones that weren't lost on the Chileans... (and was the joke of the night last night).

This week I am going dancing Cueca again with the same friends - they are determined that I learn before September. I wimped out last week because it was cold and I worked until 9.30 and was trying to hold this cold at bay, but they made me promise I will come this week so I guess I have to. And at the weekend I am off to Pichilemu again with the whole crowd which will be tons of fun. I don't think that Shawn is going, so I might be the only English speaker, which will mean a gruelling weekend, but lots of practice. And I love getting out of Santiago, and I love Chilean asado so there is no way I am not going!!

Anyway, I hope that my voice comes back soon, as it is going to be very difficult to teach without it - lots of listening exercises maybe... Luckily I only have one class on Monday and it is in the evening, but it better be OK by Tuesday because I have 7hrs of talking that day...

I think these posts are probably getting less interesting as life falls into some routine. Things like the riot police cordoning off streets and closing the metro station I want to go to seem quite normal to me now, and not really worth mentioning. The people having a road-rage fist-fight in rush hour with cars whizzing past don't really rate talking about, and the undercover police officers who pulled a gun on the guy just along from me on the metro the other night were merely a passing interest. One of the Uni campus' has been closed for the last month because there is a big student protest going on there, and there are about 50 people camping in tents down by the river in the freezing cold protesting the impoverished conditions that the poorest people live in, but because I walk past both sites at least twice a day it all seems quite normal. I guess by NZ or Aus standards both these things would seem fairly outrageous to me, but by Chilean standards if it isn't a riot with a water-cannon it isn't worth mentioning.

Anyway, I am going to spend the day NOT talking trying to stay warm.
Chao chao,
KiwiKaz.

Chilean government have it all under control

The work minister for the Chilean government clearly has the financial crisis and rising unemployment all under control. On Saturday La Tercera ran with the headline quoted directly from said minister:
"If you don't have a job, but don't need one, please don't look for one".
A smart man I tell you....