First Impressions if Chile

This entry is part of a group blog that I found on Cachando Chile.

I first came to Chile when I was 17 in July 2001.  My family had hosted a chilean foreign exchange student, J.  I was headed down to Chile with him after his year in the U.S. had ended to have my own type of exchange.  When the plane landed in Santiago, over a hundred teenage chilean exchange students yelled "CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE  VIVA CHILE!"  Somehow I thought this was the normal thing that chileans said upon landing in Chile(I later learned on other visits that it is not.  I  simple "ya llegamos a Chile" is sufficient).  J. and I then got off the plan to proceed through customs and immigration (and of course before hand having to pay the $65 entrance fee for U.S. Americans---sheesh I hadn't even touched Chilean soil yet and they're charging me?!?!).  We were greeted by pretty much ALL J.'s family (extended family included) and I had no idea who all these people were that were hugging and kissing me.

After the airport, we all headed to Viña del Mar, where J.'s extended family lived.  I was so overwhelmed by all the spanish that I didn't speak and a lot of people thought I was really shy and/or didn't know how to speak spanish.  After a nap for a few hours, they soon learned that I was quite the chatterbox in my limited spanish.  We had an asado that night where I very quickly developed a love for choripan and jote (a mix of wine and coke).  

A few days later, we went to Copiapó, where J. and his immediate family lived.  Copiapó was quite different from Viña del Mar- no ocean, large city that rises up a hill/mountain that is breathtaking at night.  Just a dusty, dirty desert city that more resembled a town.  The family lived just outside the city in a town called Paipote.

I went to school with J., his sister (M.) and their foreign exchange student from New Zealand (S.).  All their classmates and teachers were soooo nice and talkative.  Often during breaks they would always ask me questions about myself and the United Stated and of course if I liked Chile.  I thought Chile was FULL of great people and soon fell in love.

As far as the language was concerned, I was reveling in how many words were different than what I had learned up through Spanish 4 (palta/aguacate, frutilla/fresa, durazno/melocotón, autobus/micro...the list goes on).  I was keeping a mental check list of all the different words to remember to use in my AP Spanish 5 class that fall to show off where I had been.  Mish.

Also, with being 17, I though it was pretty cool to go out on the weekends and drink.  Mmmmm piscola and jote.  I was officially cool like all the kids back home that smoked up marijuana during lunch and now had some street cred.

These were all just my initial impression of when I came at the age of 17.  Obviously when I came back when I was 23, I had some different impressions such as Why aren't people as nice as they are in the north? The sucki-ness that is Transsantiago, people's impatience when driving and how much chileans love 80's music.

Chilean Washing Machines

So awhile back I FINALLY got my landlord to put a washing machine in my apartment unit.  I was ecstatic, especially after having to send my laundry out to the Pronto Matic for 5.000 CLP a load...I had to be selective about what I wanted to wash (and wear!).  The washing machine is a nice used front loading kind, which I have heard are really good.  My landlord showed us how to use it, instructing me to use certain cycles as they use less water.  It seemed pretty simple...I mean how hard could it be to wash clothes?

Well apparently, it can be pretty hard.  First off, the washing machine doesn't have a very good spin cycle, so my clothes came out sopping wet.  Since then, my clothes have still come out really wet and covered in detergent (the powder kind) and I have had to run them through the wash again, which is of course not very eco-friendly.

So am I missing the boat on how to wash my clothes chilean style?

The Chilean Hugh Hefener

So today as I was flipping through channels, I came across something VERY disturbing.  On one of the music channels, a TV host was interviewing a not so attractive older "gentleman" surrounded buy scantily-clad, overly tan, dyed blond slender women wearing bunny ears.  Who could this be since it wasn't "The Hef" himself?  Well it was Ramón "Chocolito" Ortiz (I may not have the name right, that wasn't the part of the screen I was drawn to), a man who considers himself to be the Chilean Hugh Hefner.  Oh barf.

In the few minutes that I watched, all his "girlfriends" agreed that he was a gentleman and treated them very well.   Hmmmm...I guess polygamy and imposing unreal standards of beauty (ALL the women pretty much looked the same) are an excellent way to treat women, and to set example for other men and women to follow.  And even after all the work the "girlfriends" had done, they weren't even remotely attractive.  My favorite part was when one of the women was able to make her fake boobs "dance."  That is a skill that will lead her far in life.

So the five minutes (that's all I could take) of this show got me to thinking about beauty standards here in Chile.  I have noticed a lot of women  dye their hair a lighter color maybe in the hope of trying to look more anglo.  Another thing I have noticed here is that women lack curves (or should I say a butt), but that is something not within their control.  People have said to me that gringa women are unkept, or "hippie" looking, meaning they don't take time to make themselves look good and some even go to say they're fat.  Hmmm that's a far cry from the standards of beauty mentioned above, especially when it seems they've been imported from the U.S.  While at other times chilenas are what some may describe as attractive and seem not to put a lot of time into their appearance.  

So no matter how hard I try to be comfortable in my own skin, I can't help but fell self-conscious, and sometimes even more so here in Chile.  I'm taller than most chilenas (I'm 5'6" size 8) which does consequently translate to being "larger."  By all means I'm not overweight (and I don't consider myself to be) but a while ago I was out to happy hour with a mixed group of people and a chilena told me I wasn't very thin.  I was pretty bothered by her comment, especially since she was technically heavier than me.  I have dark hair (almost black), pale skin, small breasts and apparently by chilean standards am not very slender.

So where does this all leave us, living in a world where it seems women aren't good enough unless they have prescribed to these limited standards of beauty?

Vendimias...I went, I tasted, I liked!

So as you all (very few of you that follow) may know, I have a HUGE obsession with wine.  So after going to some of the vendimias, I would write about what I thought!  

The first vendimia that I went to was Colchagua (in San Fernando) and it was probably my favorite.  It had a very good variety of viñas (as well as food and crafts), which brought out some of their good wines.  I really liked Caliterra Carmenere Reserva and the Santa Cruz Gran Chaman Reserva Syrah were very good.  I quite enjoyed the food as well.  I had some choripan, lamb brochetas empanadas and chicken tacos.  The only thing that irked me was that there were different prices of tickets: regular (3.500), reserve (5.000) and premium (12.000) and I of course bought the reserve thinking they would actually enforce it.  Silly me.  But at least I didn't get sucked into the premium!

The next vendimia I went to was Festival de Vino y Queso in Malloco.  Although it did have wine, It had MUCH more turn out for artisan stand than wine.  But all in all it was held in a nice area with plenty of space.  My friends and I got a tabla de quesos which was pretty good.  But one thing I have to mention is that Chileans like their cheese (and food in general) on the mild side.  And for this Wisconsin girl, I like my cheese to bring some flavor!  However, I did taste some wines that I really liked:  Viña Chocalán Selección Rosé Syrah/Petit Verdot and Terramater Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel/Syrah.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to Rengo due to my companion coming down with a bad flu :(

But I did make it to Isla de Maipo (today) for that vendimia.  Like the previously mentioned one, there was more turn out from other artisanal products than vineyards (there were only five vineyards).  There was HUGE turnout for this event and due to there only being a few vineyards, it was a typical Chilean clusterf**k to get a glass of wine (my #1 pet peeve with Chileans is that they don't understand the concept of a line or generally knowing who's in front of you).  But I did manage to get through unscathed and the wines that I like the most were Santa Ema Barrel Select Syrah (if you haven't already noticed, I LOVE Syrah) and De Martino 347 Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc.

So all in all I think my Chilean Vendimia experience was quite productive...and I think there's a few more left, so something tells me I'm not done blogging about it!

Why I came to Chile

Replying to a previous post by my friend Abby (and what seems a to be a popular topic among the gringas in Chile right now) is why I came to Chile..or in my case came back.  Well this story starts around 2000 or my junior year of high school when my family hosted an exchange student from Chile, J.  For as long as I remember, I have always LOVED Spanish and was considering doing a year of foreign exchange in Latin America.  My mom poured through a bunch of student applications and eventually we decided on a chilean, J.  The year that he spent with us was great, he really fit into my family.  When I got to the second semester of my junior year, my father was laid off from his job and we couldn't afford to pay for a program abroad for a summer, and J said it would be more beneficial for me to do a year. So J asked his parents if I could spend my summer with them and they agreed.

So in July 2001, I boarded a plane to Chile.  When I got here, I was literally welcomed into his family with open arms.  J's ENTIRE family was at the airport-mom, dad, brother, sister, cousins aunts and uncles.  We went to Viña and I fell in love with the city instantly.  A few days later we went up north to Copiapo where his immediate family lived and that's where I spend the rest of my time there.  I went to school everyday with him and sister, and their classmates were amazingly nice to me.  Oddly enough, even though I was only there for five weeks, my Spanish actually improved!  When it came time to leave, I didn't want to go home.

When I started my senior year, all I could think of was going back to Chile.  I decided that I wasn't really ready to start college the following fall, and doing a gap year would be a good idea.  And of course I wanted to go back to Chile.  J's family even said I could stay with them again.  But the foreign exchange program (AFS) didn't have an "18+" program for me, so I went to Costa Rica instead.

When I started college in the fall of 2003 (majoring in Latin American Studies and Spanish) I knew I wanted to to study in Chile for a semester.  My university (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) didn't have a program in Chile and so I signed up for a summer program in Mexico and continued to look at other programs and eventually found one in Valparaiso.  I set up a meeting with my academic advisor who was excited for me to go to Chile to go over the program and course equivalencies.  Then I went to talk to Financial Aid...and that's where I got shot down.  They type of aid I had was not applicable to non-UWEC study abroad.  So I decided to go with the university's program to Valladolid, Spain and spent a wonderful semester there.

But something was STILL pulling me back to Chile.  In my last semester (fall 2006) I started weighing my options after college.  All my friends were moving to the Twin Cities area, and while it sounded quite nice, I couldn't help but yearn to go abroad again...and this time it would HAVE to be Chile.  I found a program online that places native speakers at schools in Chile and applied.  I soon moved back home to live with my parents (oh joy!) until I was secured a placement.  I finally got one in late June 2007...to go in July.  So I quit my job, packed my bags and came back to Chile!

The following year had its ups and downs, but it was a great experience (I reconnected with J and his family).  The only thing that wasn't was my job.  I was at a HORRENDOUS school teaching 1-6 grade English.  By the second semester, I had had enough.  I hemmed a hawed over my options but eventually decided to go home.  Right after I decided to go home, things started to develop between this chileno I had been crushing on, M.  What started as a good-bye fling soon turned into something else and I started to have regrets about going home.  But we said good-bye and I went home in May 2008.

M and I kept in touch and I realized I really did have strong feelings for him.  I though with time they would wear off and for a while we fell out of contact.  Then I started missing Chile.  Terribly.  And That's when I decided I had to come back.  Again.  I looked for institutes online and applied to a few before taking a job at one of them.  I was set to come back in September 2008.  I e-mailed M and he was really stoked about it.  He started talking about how we could finally be together, that he wanted me to meet his family and even offered for me to stay with him until I found a place to live in Santiago.  

We saw each other as soon as I got back.  He came to visit me in the hostel and we went out for some wine.  Within a short amount of time, he commented on my weight (I had gained a few pounds) and a little while later he said something about his ex calling him...and I knew what that meant.  After that I got a few texts from him and a phone call, but that was it.  He dropped me just like that.  It took a while for me to get over it and eventually I met someone else...who turned out to be even worse (that's an entirely different entry).

As far as the second part about how long I'm going to stay here, I'm not entirely sure.  I love Chile but there are things that I don't like (the smog, transantiago) and despite my experiences with the men, I'm not running to a plane..or the border.  But I guess there's still some little part of me that's hopeful when it comes to love...but who know what will happen!

Vendimias 2009

So as a mentioned, here are the dates to some of the vendimias.  I have only been to a few in the past.

• Colchagua- held in San Fernando (NOT Santa Cruz in years past!) March 14 and 15
• Buin- March 14 and 15
• Santiago- held in Centro Cultural Estacion Mapocho March 18-22.  Cost: 8.500 at the door, 7.500 previous ticket sale.
• Curico- March 20-22
• Fiesta del vino y queso- Camino Melipilla km 31 Malloco.  March 20-22 www.fiestadelavendimia.cl
• Isla del Maipo- March 28 and 29 in the Plaza de Armas.  3.500 for 4 tastings
• Rengo- March 28
• Fiesta del vino Pirque- April 3-5 in Parque Vicente Huidobro.  5.000 www.fiestadelvinopirque.cl
• Alonso de Cordova- April 12, Vitacura

Ok so that's all I've found for now!  If anyone knows any other info, let me know :)

New Blogger

So I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing.  But here it goes.  After living in Chile for about a year and half now, I thought it would be a good way to talk about my experience here.  I do have to say I love this country with all my heart (why would I have been here so long??), it does have its quirks that can be kinda irritating but for the most part aren't too bad.  

So if someone asked me what my favorite thing about Chile is, I would definitely say the wine.  You can't beat buying a great bottle of wine for under $10 (or 5.000 chilean pesos).  Since coming here I have been fascinated by it.  I am constantly reading about it and drinking it with some of my friends.  I am a huge fan of reds (syrah and carmenere) but recently a friend of mine has gotten me on a sauvignon blanc kick!  I can't wait for the vendimias coming up in March (wine harvest festivals--super fun!) and will be in attendance for as many as possible!