SHIT, IT'S A CRISIS

Avocado prices have gone up 50%! The season must have ended. So now I have been forced to stop using them on my cereal, and stick to sandwiches and ice cream. Boo. Also today at the supermarket I had the deli lady measure out some chicken breasts for me (I asked for two), and then she told me how much they would cost (like they always do). I kind of squished my face up and said "okay," to which she replied entendiste? (did you understand?). I think there was some confusion: I didn't contort my face as an indication of my inability to comprehend what was being said, but just because it's kind of a weird question. How am I supposed to answer that? "No, that's too much. Go ahead and cut that one into thirds for me." Still though, every time I think my Spanish is improving Chileans let me know that it isn't. Like I went into a restaurant today, told them what I wanted, and said "para aca" which means "for here" - at least in Bolivia and Peru. In Chile they say "para servir," so when she asked me that I got confused and thought she was referencing to condiments, which had happened to me a couple days before (I don't know the word for condiments), plus I thought we had already covered the for here/to go ground. So I just said no, and so she said "para llavar?" "To go?" Oh, no, para servir is fine... damn I look like a retard right now. Again. Also, I'm good at conversation rewinds, where two other people are talking, and ten minutes later I bring up what they said at the beginning of the conversation; and sometimes I just say things that make it abundantly clear I have no idea what's going on: Them - "Hey, can you help me push my car to the gas station?" Me - "Actually, I'm from Alaska!"



My "mid-shelf" wine turned out to be overpriced bottom-shelf wine. But the upside is that you can always use crappy wine to make jote (hoe-tay), which is 3 parts red wine and 1 part Coca-Cola. Doesn't that sound revolting? I thought it did, but then I tried it and it's actually not bad at all. It's not wine anymore, but neither is it Coke. It's a whole separate beverage. Plus, nothing says fun like mixing stimulants and depressants! I saw people in Bolivia do this with red wine and orange Fanta too, but I still am a little wary of that combo. I mean come on, orange Fanta? Sounds a little ordinario to me. Oh yeah, you can buy pre-mixed jote in a box that has uncarbonated cola. But that just screams instant hangover to me. It's next to the Ice beer.



Speaking of Bolivia, I've realized that that country, combined with Peru, has seriously conditioned me to avoid talking to people in the street. A couple of times it has happened in Chile that people want to talk to me, and this fight-or-flight reaction kicks in and I just face straight ahead and say "no!" and walk away as fast as possible. One day this guy, who looked homeless, started asking me something, sort of gesturing towards himself, and I didn't even say anything. But my reaction time is instant; my internal Spanish processing isn't. I got two or three steps away, after my body had already made the "flight" decision, and then my mind came around and realized he was asking what time it was. I felt like a jerk. Another time, a couple of cute girls asked me if I had a bus card, which was weird because they don't have those here (although they do in Santiago). Once again, the inertia of my reaction wouldn't let me stop to talk to them about what they needed, which I was kicking myself for a block later: definitely worth relinquishing some bus fare for the opportunity to meet cute girls! Of course, they were probably counting on my thinking that.



The culture here is just really different: it feels like much less of a free-for-all, and there's more of a feeling of unity. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that there is little in the way of distinct indigenous subgroups, like there is in Bolivia. In fact, in many ways the dichotomy between the indians and the mestizos is what defines Bolivian political life: there's very much a feeling of "us versus them," and a strong attitude of attrition. But here there's much more of a feeling that "we are all Chileans," and it's evident in different ways. One is in the way Chileans will tolerate using taxes to provide social welfare to the poor (Chile is one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, and also one of the most equal). Also, there's a new park going up near my apartment, and the sign proudly proclaims that the park is 100% designed and funded by the city. I'm not sure how to interpret that other than a sort of cheerleading for civic life - both in regards to public spaces and public officials. Even in little things it's more evident, like the way most Chilean pedestrians will always wait for the crosswalk signal, even with no traffic in sight, and drivers will always stop at lights and crosswalks (I'm not used to that, and have gotten several thank you-waves from drivers for my letting them pass. If they tried to have crosswalks without stop lights in Bolivia, I think the drivers would just laugh - pedestrian target practice!). Sure, this is all pretty anecdotal (like all of my observations), but there definitely feels like more of a culture of respect and less of a each-for-themselves kind of attitude. I even saw a car the other day that had those things on the doors that keep them from denting other cars - a product that seems to exist solely for people that want to watch out for other peoples property.



I think I've become accustomed to the climate here: it's about 40 degrees during the day, inside and out. I went and had coffee with a friend when I first got here, and she remarked how hot it was in the cafe, but I just thought "that's because it's 68 and there's only a handful of buildings in the whole city this warm," but now I catch myself thinking the same thing about heated buildings. It's also nice for cooking, because even if I don't realize it, my hands are so cold that I can use them to lift food straight from the frying pan without even feeling the heat.

Well, pretty much my waking life consists of eating, going to the gym, walking on the beach, and going to the clubs. Still no headway with my interview at the UN, but I'm going to Santiago on Monday I think (I need more pages in my passport), so maybe I'll stop by.