Culture Shock

I never really experienced culture shock during my time in Chile. I feel like not much is different, but I am gonna dedicate this post to listing some interesting cultural observations I have made during my time here. I feel like I haven’t written about that much, and I know I have mentioned some of this before, but it merits some elaboration. Whoop! Vamos..

Most importantly, FOOD- There is guacamole and mayonnaise on everything. One of the most popular fast-food items/ late night snack is the “completo.” It is basically a hot dog in a bun drowned in mayonnaise and guac…ewww. Honestly I can not even eat that thing when I am starving after a night out at 5 in the morn…seriously. Observe the picture/

The exchange rate actually isn’t that great. Grocery shopping (especially fruits and veggies) and public transportation are the only things that are cheap. I go to school in a shared taxi called a “colectivo” for about $0.80. But everything else is more or less the same price, except books. Books are so expensive..there is a crazy high tax on books…that leads to my next observation..

The ridiculous printing system in universities is just that- ridiculous. At first, students would line up in front of the printers with printing paper in hand. And then when it’s your turn, you put in the paper in the printer, run back to your computer, and press the print button. Unfortunately, there is always someone in line who wants to print out a textbook..arghh (note: nobody owns textbooks because they are way too expensive). Luckily the library has textbooks, which you can take to the copy window and stand in line to get copied. All of this in blatant copyright violation. Now, my university has decided that we can only print out 50 pages a month, and that they will provide the paper- all in the name of saving the environment. It is actually just a pain in the ass. So I just read all my texts on my laptop until my eyes start bleeding (not literally).

Talking about the school system, I have enjoyed the tendency of the Chilean students to help each other with classes. For almost every class, there are chapter and lecture summaries floating around, taken by some very astute student in the past. Also, as an exchange student, if I ask someone for their notes, they will happily let me copy them (I guess they feel bad). Also Chileans students love studying together, for almost every major test, and I have also found this tradition to work in my favor.

The TAs at my university are not necessarily grad students. Also some of them don’t even go to my school. They are given a tremendous amount of responsibility, such as making the reading quizzes (note: before now, I had not had to take a reading quiz since elementary school!) and they also grade our exams. I don’t know how I feel about this, but it is how it’s done here, so whatever.

I am very impressed with the cultural diversity in Chile. Not just because I hang out with a bunch of exchange students, but there are many Chileans whose family background is Swedish, Italian, and especially German. German everything is highly respected in Chile..you will find some restaurants with German in their name, and they don’t offer anything close to a German dish (they actually just name the menu items after different cities in Germany). Also German is a very popular language to study among university students.

I have noticed a fascination with the extraterrestrial. After I told 2 different people that we had done some star-gazing in the Atacama desert, the first question they both asked was “So did you see a UFO?” And they were serious.

I have a wonderful nana who cleans our apartment and cooks for us three days a week. She is really a sweetheart, and like a mom to me here. My roommates were the ones who hired her, and they told me it’s pretty common to have one here. I am still not used to it at all. Sometimes my nana will reprimand me if I attempt to make some tea for myself.

Ladies, an observation about Chilean men- most of them have very bad haircuts. This is so very unfortunate because sometimes I’ll be sitting in class listening to a presentation from a Chilean classmate who would be pretty attractive if he would just cut his hair in the back. They tend to cut their hair short in front and let it grow in back. Oh nooo. Either that or they just resort to the mullet..tragic. Conversely, the girls here have excellent hair that never seems to get frizzy at all. I must learn their secret..

The wide acceptance of PDAs in this country takes some getting used to. You can not even comfortably sit on a bench in a public park by yourself cause a couple will sit on the opposite end of the bench and start making out, and then you look around and every single bench is occupied in a similar fashion. And then you notice the little children running around, and I am just like WTF?

This is more of a political issue…I was very surprised when talking to some Chileans and finding out that they wished that the former dictator of the country, Pinochet was back in power. It must be noted that Pinochet was a horrible dictator who was responsible for the torture and death of many people who dared speak against him. So I was naturally surprised, but they explained that the economy was amazing during Pinochet’s reign, at least a lot better than during that of his predecessor Allende. I can’t help but feel that this is another case of time healing wounds and erasing memories.

The current president of Chile, Bachelet is in my opinion a great lady. Despite being atheist, separated (in her marriage), socialist, and a WOMAN (all sins according to Chilean norms), she succeeded in getting elected, and I think she’ll get reelected next year. Unfortunately many Chileans do not approve of her because she has done many things to further women’s rights. For example, she tried to make the morning-after pill available in public health centers, but the courts shot her down and decided to make it available only with prescription, and now it is ‘the rich woman’s pill.’ Good gracious.

Pretty much everything in Chile is centralized in Santiago, especially the major commercial sector. My business professors lament this often, and say that if business was spread out throughout the country, everyone would be more prosperous and unemployment would be lower (currently 7%).

I do not see many homeless people in Chile. Unlike in DC, where they usually live in the parks, they can not do so here because the parks are occupied by couples..duh. Actually, I think poor people here actually try to earn their money instead of begging for it. There are always street performers (jugglers, contortionists, clowns, mimes, living statues) or people selling things on the sidewalk. They usually get a good bit of money as a result of their efforts.

The dominance of soccer as a national sport is overwhelming sometimes. I have gotten out of class early many a time, due to a soccer match. The best ones are those between South American countries.

Although this is a very Catholic country (about 70%), only a small percentage are active/practicing. 

People only drink instant coffee here, and they love cappuccinos and espressos. But these also generally come from a NesCafe machine. I miss chai : (

There is a pretty big Goth presence here, especially among the young ‘uns. There are also people called ‘Pokemones’ who have spiky hair like Pikachu’s head. Haha

In most places, in Vina at least, there are only gas stoves and water heating systems. And there is no general heating system.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but there is a lot of 80s music played here, all the time…too much! What is also popular is the hard rock scene, namely Iron Maiden and AC/DC. I think they are both gonna be here next year. My roommates and most people at my Uni listen to alternative though..stuff like Radiohead and Coldplay which I don’t mind as much.

In my business classes, we almost exclusively discuss American businesses. All of our cases are courtesy of the Harvard Business School. I’d like to learn more about Chilean business, but I have learned that when it comes to business, the U.S. really is dominant. I know a lot of classmates who hope to work in a major U.S. firm one day. Also, everyone always tells me how lucky I am to attend university in the U.S., because apparently the education system there is the best in the world. Hmm..I had never really considered how lucky I am to have been born in the U.S. because of all the opportunities that are granted to me as a consequence.

Wow this one was long…