First Impressions of Chile
I'm writing from the 16th floor of an office building in Las Condes, a district of Santiago. It's in the Northeast of the city. Everything so far has been great, and the main possible pitfalls have been safely avoided-- my host mother and her children are very nice and helpful, and I like the people in the office. If either of those had not turned out to be true, it could have been a disaster. The Chileans speak a fast, clipped Spanish that is hard to get used to. They conflate any syllables that they can, and almost never pronounce the letter 's'. I live in "LaConde", for instance. It makes it hard to tell the difference between plurals and singulars, but I'm getting used to it. They have other ways of implying plurality that are hard to describe, but you just kinda get it. My spanish is better than I thought, especially listening comprehension. I brought some Spanish textbooks with me, and am going to be working on them at nights when I have the energy. I have always felt that speaking a foreign language encompassed two distinct skills, because understanding others and expressing yourself are very different talents. For the former, until you're absolutely fluent the key is to understand their speech as a whole, without getting sidetracked if you don't understand the occasional word or phrase. For the latter, you just have to build up your vocabulary. I find that using books is easier than trying to remember every time someone teaches me a new word. When I look it up in the dictionary, it sticks.
Santiago is a very smoggy city, and apparently it is much worse in the winter. I don't think that there is more pollution here than other places, but due to the combinations of the mountains, elevation, and wind patterns, it hangs in the air. It is still beautiful, and the mountains are truly impressive. I haven't explored Santiago at all yet, and probably won't have time to do so much during the week. The office is literally across the street from my home. Most people spend more than 30 minutes commuting, so this is a true convenience. The working hours are going to be roughly 9-7, but it will depend on the workload. I arrived Monday afternoon, spent the day unpacking and getting to know my host family, and went to bed early. I walk across the street to work, home for lunch, and then will come home at 7 or 8.
My host mother works in a private school. She is very nice, is extremely catholic, and was recently divorced. This is quite a novelty in this country, and has only been legal for 2 years, so that should demonstrate that she's a pretty independent and interesting woman. At the school, I think she does a combination of teaching and secretarial work, but it isn't clear. She has three children, a 21 year old daughter, a 20 year old son, and a 12 year old daughter. Her eldest daughter, Maria, is in her first year at the Catholic University, she's studying international politics and is interested in Asia specifically. She's very knowledgeable about it from our conversations, and she wants to spend some time in Japan. The son, Nicolas, is doing construction engineering. I think he is in the process of getting a technical degree, which people normally do before going on to other schooling. Right now, he's working full time on a construction project. They are either building or rebuilding a huge underground tunnel for cars and the subway. He works as a supervisor of sorts, and on site he works on safety and environmental aspects of the project. The 12 year old is in a K-12 private school, and is very nice. She's a little chubby, and so we don't have any sweets in the house which is fine with me.
The family lives in a 10-story apartment building across the street from my work. The apartment is big. It is on the corner of the building, and is surrounded by windows and glass doors that are always open.It has 5 bedrooms, including the mother's room. It is common here to have "paying guests" that rent a room in your home, and at least 2 of the bedrooms were designed to be such. I am living in one of them. It is small but comfortable, with a bed, desk, and closet. From my room, I can access the porch that encircles the apartment building. Everything is green, green, green, lots of chirping birds and honking horns. The apartment has lots of art in it, mostly paintings by the mother and her sisters. They are not poor, as their kids are in private school and university, but they live a very simple life which is actually quite soothing to come home to. They have one, small TV and a computer, both in the same small TV room. On the TV, they have cable. Most of their channels, to my initial shock, are simply in English with subtitles. We get most major american channels and programs here, the same day they air at home. However, there are some that are dubbed in Spanish and some with subtitles. The dubbed shows are reruns. The subtitles are usually very simple, and don't do a very good job of conveying the dialogue, because the Spanish audience has to be able to read as fast as the words are spoken on TV. So, as a result, the dialogue is dumbed down, even more so than the original sit-coms are. The dubbed shows can be quite funny. As I ate breakfast this morning, I watched Power Rangers in Spanish and laughed a lot.
My host mother is used to hosting people like me. Each night, she cooks food for the following day. As is the custom, we all return home for lunch, but at different times. So, in the fridge each morning is a plate for each of us which we are to microwave whenever we're home. At night, we all sit around the table and eat dinner together, and it's a bigger portion of the same meal we had for lunch. So, it's like eating left overs ahead of time. She is a perfectly acceptable cook, if no frills, and this arrangement does a good job of accommodating everybody. On the weekends, when everyone's home, cooking is more like normal, where she will cook in the late afternoon and we'll all eat together when it's ready. She's very nice and maternal. She came in and kissed my forehead last night when I got in bed, and she's excited that I'm here.
I hope to explore Santiago on the weekends, but during the week I basically go to work, come home, eat dinner, spend an hour or two with the family talking, and then go to bed. I hope to travel some while here, but definitely not going to start making plans until next Monday is over. Monday, we receive a delegation from California, and we're trying to convince them that their climate policy should include the kind of trading that we do, where developed countries reach their emissions targets through a combination of regulations in their own countries and sponsoring projects in the developing world.
That's the update for now. The women are beautiful here, almost glamorous. Nicolas has promised to take me out with him this weekend, which I'm looking forward to.
Only other news is that I've decided to leave my computer at work during the week so that I spend more time talking and practicing Spanish while I'm at home. From now on, I will probably write most of my emails to people back home on the weekends. I plan to take photos soon and post them here.
That's basically the whole update. I'm developing a deeper appreciation for the Spanish language... its intricacies and delightful surprises.
For instance:
1) A daycare center is called "un jardín de niños"
2) In Spanish, estar means "to be" in the temporary sense, such as "I am at the mall." Ser means "to be" in the permanent sense, like "I am a doctor." So, in the grammar-subconscious of this language, there are cool relationships between these words.
Example: "Listo"
Estoy listo: I'm ready (as in, I'm ready to go to dinner)
Soy listo: I'm clever
So, another way of looking at it is that, subconsciously, in this language to be clever is to be permanently, perpetually ready. Clever people are always ready for anything. I love that.
To be perpetually bored is to be boring. Also true.
3) "To taste" and "to know" have the same root
Chao
Santiago is a very smoggy city, and apparently it is much worse in the winter. I don't think that there is more pollution here than other places, but due to the combinations of the mountains, elevation, and wind patterns, it hangs in the air. It is still beautiful, and the mountains are truly impressive. I haven't explored Santiago at all yet, and probably won't have time to do so much during the week. The office is literally across the street from my home. Most people spend more than 30 minutes commuting, so this is a true convenience. The working hours are going to be roughly 9-7, but it will depend on the workload. I arrived Monday afternoon, spent the day unpacking and getting to know my host family, and went to bed early. I walk across the street to work, home for lunch, and then will come home at 7 or 8.
My host mother works in a private school. She is very nice, is extremely catholic, and was recently divorced. This is quite a novelty in this country, and has only been legal for 2 years, so that should demonstrate that she's a pretty independent and interesting woman. At the school, I think she does a combination of teaching and secretarial work, but it isn't clear. She has three children, a 21 year old daughter, a 20 year old son, and a 12 year old daughter. Her eldest daughter, Maria, is in her first year at the Catholic University, she's studying international politics and is interested in Asia specifically. She's very knowledgeable about it from our conversations, and she wants to spend some time in Japan. The son, Nicolas, is doing construction engineering. I think he is in the process of getting a technical degree, which people normally do before going on to other schooling. Right now, he's working full time on a construction project. They are either building or rebuilding a huge underground tunnel for cars and the subway. He works as a supervisor of sorts, and on site he works on safety and environmental aspects of the project. The 12 year old is in a K-12 private school, and is very nice. She's a little chubby, and so we don't have any sweets in the house which is fine with me.
The family lives in a 10-story apartment building across the street from my work. The apartment is big. It is on the corner of the building, and is surrounded by windows and glass doors that are always open.It has 5 bedrooms, including the mother's room. It is common here to have "paying guests" that rent a room in your home, and at least 2 of the bedrooms were designed to be such. I am living in one of them. It is small but comfortable, with a bed, desk, and closet. From my room, I can access the porch that encircles the apartment building. Everything is green, green, green, lots of chirping birds and honking horns. The apartment has lots of art in it, mostly paintings by the mother and her sisters. They are not poor, as their kids are in private school and university, but they live a very simple life which is actually quite soothing to come home to. They have one, small TV and a computer, both in the same small TV room. On the TV, they have cable. Most of their channels, to my initial shock, are simply in English with subtitles. We get most major american channels and programs here, the same day they air at home. However, there are some that are dubbed in Spanish and some with subtitles. The dubbed shows are reruns. The subtitles are usually very simple, and don't do a very good job of conveying the dialogue, because the Spanish audience has to be able to read as fast as the words are spoken on TV. So, as a result, the dialogue is dumbed down, even more so than the original sit-coms are. The dubbed shows can be quite funny. As I ate breakfast this morning, I watched Power Rangers in Spanish and laughed a lot.
My host mother is used to hosting people like me. Each night, she cooks food for the following day. As is the custom, we all return home for lunch, but at different times. So, in the fridge each morning is a plate for each of us which we are to microwave whenever we're home. At night, we all sit around the table and eat dinner together, and it's a bigger portion of the same meal we had for lunch. So, it's like eating left overs ahead of time. She is a perfectly acceptable cook, if no frills, and this arrangement does a good job of accommodating everybody. On the weekends, when everyone's home, cooking is more like normal, where she will cook in the late afternoon and we'll all eat together when it's ready. She's very nice and maternal. She came in and kissed my forehead last night when I got in bed, and she's excited that I'm here.
I hope to explore Santiago on the weekends, but during the week I basically go to work, come home, eat dinner, spend an hour or two with the family talking, and then go to bed. I hope to travel some while here, but definitely not going to start making plans until next Monday is over. Monday, we receive a delegation from California, and we're trying to convince them that their climate policy should include the kind of trading that we do, where developed countries reach their emissions targets through a combination of regulations in their own countries and sponsoring projects in the developing world.
That's the update for now. The women are beautiful here, almost glamorous. Nicolas has promised to take me out with him this weekend, which I'm looking forward to.
Only other news is that I've decided to leave my computer at work during the week so that I spend more time talking and practicing Spanish while I'm at home. From now on, I will probably write most of my emails to people back home on the weekends. I plan to take photos soon and post them here.
That's basically the whole update. I'm developing a deeper appreciation for the Spanish language... its intricacies and delightful surprises.
For instance:
1) A daycare center is called "un jardín de niños"
2) In Spanish, estar means "to be" in the temporary sense, such as "I am at the mall." Ser means "to be" in the permanent sense, like "I am a doctor." So, in the grammar-subconscious of this language, there are cool relationships between these words.
Example: "Listo"
Estoy listo: I'm ready (as in, I'm ready to go to dinner)
Soy listo: I'm clever
So, another way of looking at it is that, subconsciously, in this language to be clever is to be permanently, perpetually ready. Clever people are always ready for anything. I love that.
To be perpetually bored is to be boring. Also true.
3) "To taste" and "to know" have the same root
Chao
posted by George at 4:48 AM
1 Comments:
Very nice!!!!
sounds unbelievable dude, and what a great entry. I think a month in Missouri chilled you out a bit; this entry is much more relaxed than usual, in fact I'm amazed considering the excitment of newly arriving in Chile! You've lost none of your spice and insight, however, so just keep thinking and writing.
-I
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