Culture shock

Yesterday afternoon, I moved in with my Chilean host family and realized (think face into a brick wall) how sheltered I´ve been over the past month in Santiago de Chile. For the most part, I´ve been speaking English, taking teaching classes in English, and living in a hostel with other young gringos. It´s been busy and sometimes overwhelming, but has mostly felt like vacation or college.

Now, I´m in the real Santiago! Even though our orientation leaders repeatedly reminded us to throw away our expectations, apparently mine didn´t go in the trash with the paper I´d written them on. Every unexpected thing is throwing me off. My new casa is on a cute street named Pasaje Cabernet (next to Pasaje Riesling, of course!), but the house is tiny. My room is right off of the main living area, which means my bed will always be made and that my comings, goings, and attempts at alone time will be unavoidably obvious.


My host mom was the only one there when I arrived, so she gave me the tour and explained the food, laundry, etc. to me. With my limited Spanish, I was able to catch only parts of it and probably mixed up several "dos" and "don´ts". She´s very patient and told me to tell her when I don´t understand something. In turn, I explained that the difficulty is that sometimes I don´t know that I don´t understand! She laughed, which hopefully means she understood that I don´t understand much.

After one evening and one morning, I feel absoulutely exhausted. Thinking and speaking in Spanish is so hard and I´m already feeling an acute loss of freedom. Chilean families are very tight-knit and Chilean parents show their love in ways most young people in the US would consider rather overbearing. Already, my host parents have expressed disapproval that I prefer cold drinks (water & juice) to coffee or tea even in winter! My host mom seems to be very well-read about what makes people fat, too. Apparently, drinking juice with a meal will make me fat -- but before or after is fine. And when eating a big piece of bread, I should pull out the midde doughy part lest I become fat.

There´s so much more to say after just a few hours in my new living situation, but my time at the internet cafe is up, so off I go! Chau chau!