Posts Tagged ‘Chile’

Down here in the Southern Hemisphere, we’re sweating basking in the glow of summer. Last year, I spent almost every January and February weekend by a friend’s pool. As a self-admitted tanorexic (no really, you can be too skinny, but I’m not sure you can ever be too tan), pool time is a key feature of any summer.

This year, however, we have a problem. While most newer apartment buildings in Santiago come with pools, over this past year my friends and I all seem to have ended up in houses and apartments without. Obviously the lack of pool is a challenge to say the least. Enter the public pool.

Growing up in California, I never went to a public pool. I had my own in my backyard, as did many of my friends. In fact the only time I can remember ever going to one is in France, of all places. My family and a few others had rented a house in a small village, and when we kids rebelled against the monotony of days filled with the croissants, cafés and contemplation of slow-paced village life, our parents brought us to the local pool for an afternoon.

Club Providencia - ready for the sunbathers to arrive

Today I had my first semi-public pool experience. I say semi because I went to Club Providencia’s pool. The club is a gym and social club run by the municipality of Providencia, one of Santiago’s comunas. The fact that people pay to be members (the gym is members-only) makes me hesitate to call this a 100% public pool, but they do let anyone pay to visit the pool for one day. Works for me.

It seems like a lot (or even most) of the municipalities have piscinas municipales, but I don’t know much about them. I knew La Florida had a few only because they ran a promotion with the Santiago metro system last year offering discounts for charging your metro card with a certain amount. A quick search, however, reveals all sorts of pools all over the place!

Tupahue pool on San Cristóbal

Despite this apparent smorgasbord of aquatic options, there’s no doubt as to the best-known pools in Santiago. The two pools on top of Cerro San Cristóbal – Tupahue and Antilén – hold that title. They’re really big with fancy designs and great views, and they get packed in the summer. I’ve never gone in either, but after today’s first dip into the public pool waters, I’m starting to think I may have to have this quintessential Santiago experience before summer ends.

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

On Sunday, January 17, Chileans took to the polls to elect the next president. Businessman Sebastián Piñera Echenique beat out former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle with just under 52% of the vote. This victory marks the first time that a right-wing candidate has won an election in more than 50 years. More importantly, Piñera will be the first right-wing president under the democratic rule that followed Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990).

The ink on his thumb shows he just voted

Can you tell who won?

Of course the details of the election process are different from how elections work in the US. No electoral college and a second-round run-off if no candidate wins a majority in the first-round (held in December), for a start. A fellow Chile blogger has a great summary of the nuts and bolts of the process itself. I, however, would like to look at some of the little differences.

Ley seca – This literally means dry law. That’s right, no alcohol can be purchased from midnight the day of the election until the next day. Because elections are always on Sundays, this means that you’ve got to think ahead and stock up before your Saturday night parties. I don’t really see the point, to be honest. I can imagine they don’t want people showing up drunk to vote, but I can’t imagine that many people would buy alcohol on a Sunday morning anyway, and those who would just need to purchase slightly in advance.

The results come in so quickly! – I’m from California, but even so I’ll stay up plenty late on election night waiting for the results to roll in. I can’t imagine living on the East Coast waiting for the numbers from a time zone that’s three hours behind. I don’t know whether Chileans are more organized or what, but by 6pm the first calculation was out, and Piñera’s supporters were celebrating. US election officials, pay attention to this one.

They count all the votes on TV – I don’t really have a witty observation about this one, it was just funny to see the random people who’d been picked to be in charge of the voting locations (it’s like jury duty, just cross your fingers and hope you don’t get chosen) holding up each piece of paper for everyone to see and reading the name on it.

People write all sorts of things on their votes – A friend who once had to do voting location duty said that people don’t just write down their votes and call it a day. Comments range from poetry to diatribes against the political system. Almost makes it worth having to work the location!

Driving around the city honking is apparently THE way to celebrate – I’m not particularly happy or sad about the result. It was pretty clear that Piñera would win. Frankly the left-wing Concertación made the mistake the Democrats made back in 2004 – they thought they didn’t need a strong candidate to beat the right-wing and that any warm body would do, and they were wrong. But oh my god, if the Frei supporters are quiter then I wish he would have won! For HOURS after the results came in, people were driving around waving Piñera propaganda and Chile flags, HONKING. It’s like they all turned to each other and say “honey, we won – let’s grab the kids, get out the flag, and go for a drive!” Not something I’ve ever thought, I have to admit.

Although I was here in 2005 during the first round of the last election, this was my first run-off in Chile. And aside from the honking, it was pretty interesting. What are elections like where you live?

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

Even a seasoned expat is always learning new things about her adopted culture. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t know about the US, so I definitely don’t expect to have Chile 100% figured out after 3 years. It turns out that the 28th of December is Día de los Inocentes, or the Chilean version of April Fool’s Day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashawolff/ / CC BY 2.0

Yesterday morning, I walked into the office to some serious gossip. A coworker told me that according to Facebook, our colleagues were having some major life changes – one was apparently leaving the company, and the other was going to become a father. We agreed that it was kind of crazy that two people would share such big news on the same day, but we could also see how someone who’d been working really long hours would leave the company and how someone in a long-term relationship would decide to have a child. In fact the strangest part of it all was when I saw the supposed dad-to-be and asked how his weekend was – not even the slightest mention of his new family member.

Wanting to respect his privacy – other coworkers were around, maybe he didn’t want them to know yet – I said nothing. And I’m glad I didn’t because it turns out that both the baby and the new job were totally made up. Feliz Día de los Inocentes!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yxejamir/ / CC BY 2.0

I just Googled information on this day, trying to find out more about its origins and am now even more confused than before. It would appear, at least according to Wikipedia, that this day of pranks relates back to the Massacre of the Innocents. Way back when, King Herod ordered the massacre of all boys under two in Judea in an attempt to kill the newborn baby Jesus. This massacre supposedly took place on December 28, although both the date and the factual nature of the incident itself are questionable.

So what do martyred little boys known as innocents have to do with pranks? I still have no idea. Wikipedia doesn’t either, and searching for “historia día de los inocentes” got me no closer to a conclusive answer. All I can tell you is that if you happen to be in Spain or Latin America next December 28, don’t be too quick to believe everything you hear. Oh, and definitely don’t lend anyone anything – supposedly money and possessions lent on Día de los Inocentes never have to be returned.

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

That’s right; I said it. The “C” word. Not Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings, but Christmas. Here in Chile, we don’t go in for PC, diverse, inclusive messages of holiday cheer – it’s straight-up Feliz Navidad.

Outside La Moneda, the seat of the executive branch http://www.flickr.com/photos/consumerist/ / CC BY 2.0

My dirty little secret is that I like it. I come from the San Francisco Bay Area, a bastion of all that is, well, PC, diverse and inclusive. I don’t remember when I was taught that it’s better to say one of the non-religious wintertime greetings because I think I always knew. I understand that the thinking is that while I celebrate Christmas, you may not, but I have to say I find it a little silly. If someone were to wish me a Happy Hannukah or Kwanzaa or Ramadan or whatever, I’d take it as their way of wishing me well rather than an attempt at converting me.

That’s why being in primarily Catholic Chile at this time of year is refreshing. Although the weather may not have me thinking Christmas, most apartment and office buildings have a decorated tree in the lobby. And it’s festive, damn it. I like that magical elves (or secretaries, close enough) decorated our office with garlands that have a decidedly red and green bent. They may not encompass the personal beliefs of every person in my office, but they sure brighten up grey-blue cubicle walls.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mojodenbowsphotostudio/ / CC BY 2.0

I’m not by any means saying that everyone should celebrate Christmas. I’m not religious, so I can’t get too excited about the real reason behind it all, and if you have your own favorite holiday then I wish you a very good one of those. And if I bump into you on the street, I hope you’ll understand what I mean when I say “Merry Christmas.”

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

It’s November, and that means that we should be sweating down here in the Southern Hemisphere. This year, however, not yet, much to my dismay.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsalgado/ / CC BY 2.0

In fairness, last summer stuck around a bit longer than usual. So I could forgive an extra week or two of winter. September 18, Chile’s independence day and time for long weekends and general merry-making, is usually considered the start of spring. After that date we still get plenty of grey, chilly days, but it’s usually heating up more or less definitively by mid-October.

But this? This seems like overkill. This morning was overcast, and I froze in my 3/4-sleeve jacket, wishing I’d opted for fuller coverage. Sure, by the time I got out of work it was decent enough, but by no stretch of the imagination was it hot.

Most Chileans I know are similarly frustrated by this shy summer, but they’re not too worried about it yet. That’s because unlike me, they didn’t hear about the Northern Hemisphere’s awful, cold, wet summer. As soon as I saw raindrops fall in California in JUNE, I started hoping Chile wouldn’t get hit with its own weird weather during what should be the warmer months.

I’m not giving up hope just yet. We’ve had enough nice, warm and even hot days to give me hope that this might just be a fluke, and by this time next month I might be missing the cool mornings and downright cold nights. But I will say that I’m starting to get worried. Weather gods, if you’re listening, please bring a little summer to Santiago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsalgado/ / CC BY 2.0

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

I originally started blogging to replace the mass e-mails I’d been sending to family and friends detailing life after the big move to Chile. It seemed like a good way to let people keep up with what I was doing without cluttering their inboxes. As it turned out, barely anyone I actually knew read my blog – or if they did they never commented. But thanks to the blog, I met several fellow gringas in Santiago, some of whom have become close friends. I’ve also found other people whose writing I really enjoy, even if we haven’t met in person quite yet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/ / CC BY 2.0

Cachando Chile, written by Margaret Snook, is one of the purest Chile-focused blogs I read. Margaret’s from the US but has lived here for years (18 if I’m not mistaken!), and she’s got some interesting insights onto both the little and big quirks of life in Chile. Plus, if you like her style, she’s now got a radio show on Santiago Radio, and you can listen online.

Bearshapedsphere, brainchild of Eileen Smith, is well-written, well-photographed, and just plain funny. Eileen’s post on 5 places she’s biked from Santiago cracked me up, although I am very glad I didn’t have to take those trips!

Kyle Hepp is back in Chile – yay! I suppose I should add that this is the first Chile blogger I met, and she just so happens to be both my wedding photographer and an honorary bridesmaid. All bias aside, however, the girl’s got some good stories about Chile and the photos are AMAZING.

Abby chronicles her adventures as an English teacher in Abby’s Line. Although I’ve never taught English, I’m in the minority among gringas, so if you’re considering a move down here and want to get an idea of the lifestyle, definitely check out this blog.

Leigh of Crooked Compass is a less regular blogger, but I found her latest post about birth control in Chile really interesting.

Rounding out my list is Colchaguino, written by property agent, house remodeler and funny Brit Matt. He’s recently moved from the coastal city of Valparaiso to the wine country town of Santa Cruz and shares the occasional ensuing confusion. Plus he can help you buy a winery!

That should be enough to get you started on some Chile blogs, but if you’re looking for more, check out my blog roll. And if you find a new one – or are yourself a Chile blogger who I haven’t met – please let me know!

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

I’m currently in California for a quick trip, and as always I’ve been taking advantage of a chance to stock up on essentials. My fancy contact lens solution doesn’t exist in Chile,  pants fit my long legs better in the US, and books are far cheaper (and in English).

Because I’m only home for a week – and in the interest of my wallet’s health – I haven’t spent much time or money on extras. I wasn’t going to go into my local Whole Foods at all, for example, even though I love browsing the aisles to see what kind of crazy organic/vegan/gluten-free/fair trade product they’ve come up with this time, until it turned out that they were the closest store to carry a product I needed. Even though I entered with a mission, I still managed to be overwhelmed at all the choices in front of me.

Seriously, how many kinds of sustainably grown coffee are there? Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamwoodruff/ / CC BY 2.0

In “personal care” you can find natural and organic versions of everything from toothpaste to deodorant, shampoo to body lotion. It’s paraben-free and SLS-free and doesn’t involve animal cruelty and will probably prevent all wrinkles and cure cancer. I’m not sure about that last part though because it was just too much information to take in. There were so many options!

Although in Chile I often bemoan the lack of easily available earth-friendly products, I was surprised by the variety offered at my local supermarket. Now sure, Whole Foods isn’t just any supermarket, and in the San Francisco Bay Area we’re probably at the forefront of turning the green ethos into luxury lip balm. But still…wow.

It’s not just environmentally-friendly products that come in far more varieties here, although the difference was particularly noticeable in this area. In general I see more options in the US than in Chile. It makes sense: Chile’s surrounded by mountains desert, ocean and glaciers at the end of the world. Until recently, there wasn’t a lot of outside influence or accessibility to imported products.

I see the effects of this in the way my fiance will refer to wanting a soda rather than a specific brand – sure, he has his preferences, but if it’s sweet and bubbly it’ll fit the bill. The same happens with my mother-in-law, who buys ice cream without bothering to check the flavor because hey, it’s all ice cream, what’s the difference? I don’t see as much of a culture of personalized coffee drinks and detailed ordering a la “When Harry Met Sally.” Why bother being so specific unless you have 20 brands of organic shower gel to choose from?

I'm sure Sally would have known exactly which cruelty-free conditioner she wanted

As the world becomes more globalized and Chile’s economy grows, variety has increased and will continue to do so. I enjoy local, traditional products, but sometimes I bemoan the lack of certain options. I’m already seeing a slow but steady movement toward more green products, and I’m excited about it. But I think after my recent experience I’ve realized that in some ways, having fewer options does have its advantages. After all, how would I ever have the time to test all those shampoo varieties?

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

One thing I really enjoy about living in Chile is that I eat much more seasonally and locally. In the US, sure, I understood that tomatoes tasted better, strawberries were bigger and stonefruits fell off the trees in summer. But beyond that, I couldn’t tell you when celery was in season or where my lemons came from.

In Chile, by contrast, eating out of season is harder than consuming in-season prodcuts. The bigger supermarkets do now tend to stock produce year-round, and I’ve traded the “product of Chile” stickers in December for “producto de California” stickers in July. But when I have the option of spending a bundle for a rock-hard nectarine that’s traveled thousands of miles or for the same price coming home with a bag full of oranges from a few hours away, the choice is pretty clear.

Imported products are also expensive. It’s a long, skinny country, so I suppose technically not everything I consume is local even if it is domestic. Most milk, for example, is produced between the 9th and 10th regions in the south – about 10 hours from Santiago. But that’s still more local than products whose ingredients are flown into US processing plants from around the world, and most fruits and vegetables come from farms relatively close to the city. Plus, the short distance from the coast to just about anywhere means that fresh, local sea food is always available.

Yum!

The difference in price and availability has made me much more aware of what food grows when. Not surprisingly, in-season produce is not only cheaper, it tastes better too. I’d rather really enjoy delicious, juicy peaches for only a few months each year than force down a hard, flavorless one in the middle of winter. It’s also made spring more exciting, as the open-air markets burst into color as myriad fruits come into season. I had my first strawberry the other day, and not only was it delicious but it made me excited for the advent of summer.

We usually buy our groceries at the supermarket for convenience. Nothing can compare, however, to taking a weekend trip to the Vega Central, Santiago’s main open-air market, and seeing stall after stall stacked high with fresh produce. The colors and the smells are enough to tempt me into making the trip, and the products taste better than the industrially produced stuff that hits supermarket shelves.

Clearly I'm not the only one who likes to shop at la Vega!

Chile certainly can’t compete with California in terms of the organic movement, and there isn’t much awareness of the enivronmental benefits of eating locally and seasonally. That said, the simple fact of the matter is that it happens, regardless of the reason, and I for one am appreciative that living here makes it so easy for me to make what I consider to be better food choices.

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

As an expat, it’s easy to miss all sorts of things. Friends, family, customs and regular hang-out spots may come to mind first, but if you ask anyone who’s lived abroad for a while, they’ll probably mention something else: food.

Call me crazy, but I specifically miss cheese. Sure, Chile has cheese and plenty of it. But most of it’s some form of mild and light yellow – gouda, mantecoso and chanco being the main options – with the other two major categories being quesillo/queso fresco (white, soft and even milder) and goat cheese (not the spreadable chevre style, this stuff has the consistency of provolone).

This is just about every variety of cheese available in Chile, source: www.visitingchile.com

There are other options, ranging from parmesan to gruyere to edam, and you can easily find camembert and brie. What’s the problem then, you may be wondering. Here it is, in a nutshell: no cheddar. Don’t count on finding any of the other typical US cheeses either. I didn’t realize just how often I used cheese, from sandwiches to quesadillas, until none of the stuff available to me tasted quite right.

I’m half English, so maybe that’s where the cheese obsession liking comes from. The English do their cheeses well, and it seems like every little town has its own delicious variety. Coming from that to a land with no Lancashire or Wensleydale and not even a cube of Monterey Jack isn’t easy, and there are times when I’d kill for a slice of Swiss on a sandwich.

Friends and family you can call on the phone. Customs you can attempt to recreate on your own or with other expats. And you’ll make new hang-out spots. But food? If the ingredients can’t be found then you can’t recreate it, and often customs regulations make it hard to import your own supplies.

It explains why when I go home, I plan out what I’m going to eat to make sure I satisfy all my cravings. Why a friend’s mom brought her US candy and Goldfish crackers. Why that same friend earned herself some serious brownie points when she shared the goods with the rest of our gringa friends. And why I was once the thrilled recipient of a two pound block of Tillamook medium cheddar brought by a visiting friend. Luckily for me, Chilean custom agents have no problem with pasteurized cheese.

Delicious, source: www.tillamookcheese.com of course

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!

Sunday was día del niño or children’s day here in Chile. While spending 20 minutes waiting for an ice cream along with what seemed like every child in Santiago – hey, I was killing time waiting for someone, and it’s a really good ice cream place – I started thinking more about what the day means.

Let me say off the bat that the whole idea is crazy to me – isn’t every day children’s day? I mean, it seems like if you’re doing the whole parenting thing right, then for the most part your chidren are wandering around in self-centered bliss, happily enjoying their childhoods with the occasional after school ice cream and unexpected new toy. The idea behind mothers and fathers each having a day is that kids learn to take time out and appreciate all the good things their parents are doing for them.

If this were a day highlighting the plight of children who don’t have such exemplar families or the rights of children, then I could get behind it. According to Wikipedia, that oh-so-scientific of sources, children’s day was originally related with the World Conference for the Well-Being of Children held in Geneva in 1925. Universal Children’s Day, proclaimed by the UN in 1954, is celebrated on November 20 and aims to promote understanding among children as well as children’s welfare. The UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child and later the Convention on the Rights of the Child were both adopted on November 20.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26636506@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

Now, have you ever heard of anything being celebrated on November 20? If you live in the US probably not – I certainly haven’t. Although there is a history of national children’s day dating back to the 1800s, and Presidents Clinton and Bush Jr. both declared specific children’s days, the US hasn’t ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The only other country not to have ratified it is Somalia. No comment.

I doubt many Chileans have ever done anything on November 20 either. Here, día del niño is celebrated the second Sunday in August, and it mostly seems to promote consumerism. Between the fast food lunch, day out at the park, afternoon ice cream and the crash that  comes after the sugar rush accompanied by a tantrum thrown because it’s time to go home, I don’t see a whole lot of welfare promotion. I did, however, see a child no more than two years old being gifted cotton candy literally half her height. Happy children’s day, your parents got you the gift that keeps on giving – diabetes!

Source: D Sharon Pruitt, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ / CC BY 2.0

I remain a bit mystified by the whole thing, honestly. Christmas and birthdays sound like enough time to spoil any future kids; I’m not sure that another day where every child in the country descends upon all open spaces and sweet things is strictly necessary. But hey, I’m not a parent yet, so you never know.

Is children’s day celebrated where you live? I’d be interested to hear about more traditions around the world!

Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!