Market, money and some Jetlag leftover

The longer I’m here in Santiago the more I realize how BIG this city really is. For a girl like me, that comes from a rather semi big city (300.000 inhabitants) and who lived in a pretty small city (100.000 inhab.)  for the past two years it is not really imaginable how a city of 7 million people would feel like. 

Slowly but steady I see different sides of the city and discover how awesome life can be here despite the sometimes pretty big differences to home (Europe in general :P ). On Wednesday me and Fabian (my best friend from Maastricht) went to La Vega – the food market here in Santiago that is basically open 365 days a year. As I said before, supermarkets are at least as pricy as German or Dutch ones, which shows that Chile is not the cheap Latin America one imagines. Anyhow on the market it is possible to find fruits, vegetables and especially grain and nuts pretty for a little less and fresher as well. I was surprised when I saw the price for Chia seeds and Quinoa and decided to buy that there more often. Further the scent experience was one of a kind. Especially smelling the fruits was amazing, even though the part of the market, where meat and fish was sold, was rather unpleasant – scent wise. Another thing that is very different here is the animals on the street. I’ve heard before, that there was a decent amount of street dogs around here, but seeing them for real is just a bit different. On that market we also found a lot of cats around and one in front of a grain stand was extremely adorable. Despite my urge to cuddle them to death I didn’t because you never know what hides in their fur. Something that is really nice is that none of them ever bothers you. Most of the dogs don’t even take a look at you.

So now – exactly one week in Santiago I will move to my room here, get to know my two chilenian roomies and continue enjoying life to the fullest. Yesterday I went out, and lucky as I am, despite the one of other pisco sour and piscola, I don’t have a hangover. Good thing about the night going out? I lack a bit of sleep atm so once I go to bed tonight I probably won’t be that tired in the early evening here anymore :P

But what do I do here despite going on partys?? A LOT! 

First of all we went on the hill Santa Lucia in the middle of Santiago. 

It is one of three spots in Santiago where you have a very nice view on the skyline. At the same time you get a bit of a feeling how big the city is, because despite the hight of the hill you can’t see the end of the city. One week in there is still so crazy much to discover and the more I visit friends in different districts the more I see the versatility of the city. Therefore I’m even more curious to get to know the whole county which is probably one of the most diverse ones in the world. After this little trip I went to an after office party with Tatjana and Julio – after office is a pretty interesting concept: around 7/8 pm you go to a rooftop club, get drunk and dance until like 1/2 am because you need to work the next day. Sadly it was pretty Europeanized, but as I’m here for like 6 more month there will me more than enough reaggaton parties I can go to. 

Thursday this week (28^th July) we had two introduction and Orientation days at the university. We learned about a lot about the country, university and in general about Latin America. We were allowed to learn dances from Peru, Chile and the Easter Islands. Most of the students being in my exchange program are from Spanish speaking countries, which if perfect for improving my Spanish. 

After all I can say, it’s not dangerous here. If you’re not acting stupid (like leaving your bag unwatched or not being a attentive with your stuff in general), nothing will happen, the most dangerous thing that could happen is pocket picking or stealing in general. Other Latin cities are a lot more dangerous, Santiago basically is “just” a big city with around 7 million inhabitants and districts you just shouldn’t go to (especially not when you’re obviously a foreigner).

No matter where you look you can't see the end of the city - not even closely

In the end I experience the different currency as a bit challenging still. 

1€ = ~700 CLP (Chilean pesos)

This rate makes prices here really big and also a bit hard to see how much you spend, because paying one Luca (1000CLP) it feels like 1€ even though it is like 1,37€. Further there is a pretty decent similarity with Euros in case of looks and sizes. The 500CLP coin looks like a 2€ coin and the newer 100CLP looks like a 1€ coin. The bank notes look really pretty, as they have Chilean nature on the back. As far as I know the biggest bank note you can get is 20.000 – that’s more or less 28-30€. Due to this it seems like everything could be cheap but as I said before it’s not even though going to the market makes a differences (price and experience wise).

For the rest I can't wait to explore the city and the country more soon, so there is more exciting stuff to tell then just everyday life. Conclusively – life here has been really great so far and it probably will be a bit difficult to go back to Europe in half a year. But also due to living in the Netherlands and not coming home often I figured there is something you will always miss in another country but even more you will adore in you new surrounding.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie

P.S.: more pictures will hopefully follow tomorrow - as I'm a bit spoiled with Dutch internet, my patients has reached a max and for now I really rather sleep than wait for pictures to load up with crappy internet :P