Settling in to Santiago

Though I am still not sure when (or if) this city and myself will start to thaw, I am beginning to settle into a routine in my temporary home. The more I discover within Santiago, the more time I want to spend just wandering its streets and learning about as much as I possibly can. Some initial observations:

1. The smog: Santiago sits between 2 mountain ranges - the Coastal Mountain Range and the Andes. Because it sits in a valley, and this is a city of 7 million people, it is almost always smoggy. Apparently several times a year the government restricts the number of people on the road and imposes huge fines for those who don't comply. On the bright side, if you can get above the smog for a clear view of the mountains, it's pretty spectacular.

2. The people: for being a major metropolitan city, I have been continually floored by the genuine kindness and positive attitudes that accompany nearly everyone we have met here. People are patient with us as we try to work through conjugating Spanish verbs and deciphering the "Chilenismos", and aside from being a social culture, people of all ages have gone out of their way to get to know the gringos from D.C. And it's not just us - this is how they interact with each other as well, even in the crazy, packed streets of downtown.

3. American influences: They're everywhere. In conversation especially, English words and phrases are thrown in regularly. My favorite is the phrase "super bien", used for pretty much everything. Have a super bien evening, the weather is super bien, this food is super bien, etc. Also, at least half of the music played on the radio, at stores, and in the bars/ clubs we have ventured to are popular American songs. I think it would be such a different experience growing up to hear both Spanish and English music and have this be the norm, but maybe it contributes to the fact that many people from other countries are able to speak English much better than we are able to pick up on other languages. Maybe.

4. Street performers: This is incredibly entertaining. Usually taking place downtown, performers will run out into the crosswalks of major streets while cars are stopped at the lights and put on some kind of 30 second show, and then proceed to walk through the lanes of cars asking people for money (usually a few will roll down their windows and give them a few pesos). We've seen everything from break dancing to knife juggling to ukulele playing. Sometimes they try to sell candy as well.

5. Student protests: We were told before coming here that there are frequent student protests over the high cost of college education, promised by the president of Chile to be lowered during her term in office. However, as the end of her term is nearing and nothing has changed, these protests happen frequently. As the oblivious and privileged Americans that we are, we got within a block of a protest before we realized that the "heavy smog" was tear gas and our throats and noses began to burn. According to our professors, they aren't usually violent, but it only takes one student that goes too far for them to start spraying tear gas. It was a different experience to see large, armored police vehicles rolling down one of the main streets of the city while it was completely empty due to the protests, as opposed to watching something similar on the news. Even if I wanted to, it is illegal for all of us here with a student visa to participate in these protests, so don't worry - I'm fine. But all part of the experience, right?

 Throughout this past week, we have wandered through many different sectors of Santiago, and are taking in history and culture everywhere we go. We visited the President's palace, referred to as "La Moneda".

We strolled through a large marketplace with an overwhelming amount of fish, and enjoyed fresh seafood in the process.

We visited the El Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino.

We toured Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's famous house located in Santiago. He named the estate "La Chascona" which means messy, unruly hair in honor of the woman he had an affair and fell in love with, who shared the house with him (and had crazy hair).

And, we are getting accustomed to the local nightlife. This is just a quick sample of the wonderful things I am getting to experience here in Chile. Everyday I get to see and learn more about this beautiful country, and make more mistakes as I try and pretend that I can speak Spanish. One word we have managed to nail down: la cerveza.