So as I'm here for almost two weeks now there has been quite some points coming up in my mind, that are somewhat different here in Chile (yet it's not that much of a shock as exspected)
Heating:
Something
that just does not exist here are proper heating, how I know them from Germany
or the Netherlands. Even though it can be really cold as well, especially at
night, there are no central heating in the apartments. The only way to get
yourself warm is using multiple blankets and/or one of these tiny portable
heaters that burn you to death when sitting close, but don’t warm you when you
sit further away. In the end I’m glad I knew this before and brought a hot
water bottle. This is also something you learn to appreciate more once you're back I guess. Still I should complain, as winter here has been easy on us so far.
Health
warning stickers on food:
People told
me there is a bit of a health problem here in Chile, as a lot of food is either
processed or even fried and people tend to get pretty fat. Therefore the
government decided to have health stickers on processed food with “high in
calories”, “high in sugar” and “ high in saturated fats“ to make people aware of what they
are eating. To be honest, I guess this is a really good idea and also helps
myself a bit (even though with most products it’s no surprise to find a “high
in sugar” sticker on it - yes choclate I’m talking about you).
Palm
trees and the Andes and breathtaking sunsets:
Something
that people living here in Santiago (or Chile in general) probably don’t
realize anymore: The skyline with the Andes (especially with good weather and
little smok) framing the city and the one or other palmtree here and there make
me feel like I’m on constant vacation for half a year here. Also there is like
so many types of palmtrees, tall and thin, small and fat, “standard” ones,
really lovely! In addition to this there is great sunrises and sunsets that just take your breath away and block your storage on your phone, as you can't stop making "just one more picture, because it got even better".
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| Cannot get enough of this! |
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| Got a room with a view <3 |
Metro
experience
(prices, rush hour, different prices):
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| Good luck, trying to fit in :P |
Oh dear, as my schedule from Uni is like
having university at 8:00 almost every day I need to push myself into the metro
during rush hour. Do you know the pictures from Japanese Metro workers with
white gloves, that push people in? Well The exact same thing is happening here
between 7:00-9:00 and 18:00-20:00 – perfect because I need like one hour to university.
Luckily I’m not claustrophobic or anything, otherwise it would be kind of
challenging arriving at destinations on time. Normally you wait one or two
metros, until you’re the first to “enter” (rather push yourself in where there
is no space anyways). But there are mornings where it seems to be impossible to
fit in, especially at stations where you can switch lines, yet many people
enter anyways and once the door closed you’re good to go. Wondering where to
hold onto during the ride? You don’t, as there is no space for more people,
there is also no space for you to fall anywhere ;) Summer will be fun, now it
already feels like going to the sauna, because you wear a jacket but summer
must be even better!!!
University
life:
My
university in Maastricht is pretty good organized. Every new period you receive
your timetable online, where you can daily check where and when you have
classes. Here stuff went a bit different until now: it’s the first week of uni
and we got our “horario” (timetable) Tuesday.
Many courses were already full so
we kinda needed to arrange ourselves with the leftovers of courses.. Classes
here are pretty small and we don’t really have lectures bigger than 55 people. Psychology
seems to be a rather small study over here.
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| Again the Andes contouring the neighborhood of my university (Las Condes) beautifully |
Catcalling
(being blond in a country dominated by darker hair, skin and eyecolour):
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| 3,50€ for 1,5l of wine? Soon I'll be a Somm :P |
As I read a
lot of exchange reports before going to Chile I was already expecting to get
some more attention than my dark haired friends, but that it would be that much
was not in my expectations. During the day in the metro, supermarket and all
public situations in the city center there is no up to not much calling you “bonita”
or making weird sounds. Yet on the local market here in my neighborhood it was
kinda much, when I went there for the first time with Tatjana and Lara.
Apparently they couldn’t handle so many blondes at one time :D But well, also
today, hungover and without wearing any makeup you get a bit more attention
than you’d like going to the market to get yourself some fruits to restore the
damage the wine had done last night. (Fun fact here – everything is expensive
here EXCEPT wine!! And it’s so good over here. Even crazier is to “share” a
bottle of wine because they contain 1,5l over here :D)
Plastic
bags:
Recently in
Europe they decided to make people pay for plastic bags, in order to help the
environment. That is a really good idea and apparently is already helping, but
when you see what’s going on here at the other side of the world you’d see that
we are far ahead in that matter. Here in Chile you get all groceries packed by
a student at the end of the cashier. The problem here is, that they don’t get
paid and you’re supposed to give them some pesos for packing your stuff. That’s
in such a way a problem for me, that I actually don’t want to get my stuff
packed. I like to do it my way and with the bags I take with me from home.
Still it seems like living here for half a year, it probably won’t be possible
to make a way around that.
Spending a lot of time with people from South America really helps my spanish to improve. Besides that I discover a lot of "latina-sides" inside of me. With a lot of stuff I am more patient than I thought I would be even though on some days it's really testing my patients when you want to order something, for example, and it takes ages even though there is a huge line. Those Chileans don't loose their chill :P
