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missin this streeeeet in santiagoooo

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torres del paine

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that lettering tho .. 

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penguin island

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glacier grey

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en route to antarctica

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torres del paine, 6am

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Jean-Claude

I met a man named Jean-Claude last week. I had just sat down on the concrete on my walk home to write down a thought I was thinking which was, long story short what does it mean to be a human? And I didn’t want to forget what I thought it meant.

Jean-Claude stopped as he was walking by, we'd coincidentally made eye contact as i looked up from my scribbling. Usually I try to avoid conversations with random strangers but he introduced himself and started asking me what I was doing in the city. Jean-Claude was missing a few teeth but made up for it in his smile, which made me smile too. He called me "Beauty" and he continued to speak to me in French even though the only french I could tell him was “je parle trés peu francais”. Trés peu.

He told me to be careful and he told me about his kids who lived back in Boston, one of which was also called jean-claude, who plays college football. I wondered why he was so far from them.

Soon he kept walking after we shook hands, I told him, “enchanté” and I saw the vacancies in his mouth once again.

  Then yesterday I was walking home, on the other side of the street, I don’t know what I was thinking about this time but a voice snagged my clouded skull. Of all the people on the crowded sidewalk in their after-work rush, i turned and there was Jean-Claude again, waiting at the bus stop. He greeted me with a warm “Beauty!”, and again that smile.

This time he talked to me about love and how it isn’t easy to find. He had come to Santiago for a girl, he said. It didn't work out. He said to hold on to the good things when you have them. 

His bus came and we wished each other well, and I meant it. He waved to me from behind the bus window and I walked the rest of the way home, thinking again about what it means to be human?

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yo no hablo chileno

this post is long overdue and i'm writing this at 3 am which is kind of unnecessary but i just wanted to tell whoever reads this that spanish in chile is actually not spanish. it's a distinct idioma i'd like to call chilean-po'. ok, so the language thing would've been an issue for me regardless, given my measly 4 years of high school spanish (aka suffering through many a painful skit & forced participation), most of which was overwritten by attempting to learn italian during study abroad. but seriously, when i first arrived I could literally understand .. nothing that anyone said to me which was quite discouraging/humbling/bewildering and left my face in a permanent blank expression of confusion and panic. Soon came to find out that this was happening for 3 fundamental reasons:

1. Well turns out my Spanish was pretty much crap when people talk in real life v. in my head.

2. Chileans use a very distinct vocabulary than "regular" spanish (if that actually exists .. seeing as everything i thought was true was a lie !! )

3. Chileans speak reallyreallyreallyfast and don't pronounce the ends of the wor   . or just shorten them all together. Ex. Por favor = por fa

Ya so i've been pretty lost but have learned enough to be able to teach ya'll some things so if you ever encounter a chilean you can be a little more street smart than i was (aka not at all)

1. Palta.  Want one of those delicious luscious nutritious avocados being sold everywhere you go? Guess what, they don't call it "Aguacate" like you learned in school. For whatever reason, you gotta say "Palta"

** just one example to represent many a vocab swap

2. Po'. This one I really don't get, but it's pretty fun-po' i guess-po'. No one can explain to me why-po, b/c they don't even know-po, but you can add the word "po" (which means nothing) to the end of other words, just cause you feel like it-po. Common examples include: "Si-po!" "Ya-po" "No-po" "Miercoles-po" "una piscola-po weon!"

3. Piscola. This one is a V.I.P. of Chilean vocabulary. It's just the name of a strong alcoholic drink, simple but effective: Pisco + Coca-Cola on ice. But it means so much more than that. Everyone drinks piscolas, it runs in their veins like blood, it's usually the cheapest thing you can order at a club, and some people admit to loving it more than they love their own family. 

4. Weon(es)/Weona(s)/Wea. The "Weon" thing is another po-like occurence that doesn't totally make logical sense but it's a staple of Chilean convo. "Weon" essentially means "Dude" (Weona... dudette ?) but can also be derogatory depending on the context. "Wea" is more like "thing" or "stuff" and i'm pretty sure you can also say "weonando" which would be the verb form of being a Weon. (i might be making that up..). the point is you could say a whole sentence using weon-isms and confuse the hell out of anyone that didn't know what it was, a.k.a. me. 

5. Pololo/polola.  Boyfriend/Girlfriend. Not to be confused with Novio/Novia as you may have learned --- this actually means something more serious like fiancé if you say it in Chile. Ex. (if an unwanted someone is hitting on you in a club) "Weon! Tengo un pololo." or "Una piscola para mi polola, por fa."

6. Cachai. Last but not least! This one is my favorite. It basically translates into "you know?" or "get it?" and can be answered with "si, te cacho--" if you cachaste, cachai? fun to say, to the point, and quite useful. can be dragged out to cachaaaaaiiiiiii? for greater effect. 

Okay these are just a few examples, I don't want to overwhelm you or myself but it may be too late. There is also of course a varied selection of curse words to choose from but maybe i'll get to that another day. 

Enjoy , chao weones.

***** DISCLAIMER, let it be known that Chileans also confuse fluent spanish speakers from other countries, (ex. Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico) which makes me feel a little less alone in the world and will hopefully emphasize the point of needing to address the distinction between Spanish and Chilean-po !! let ye be warned *****

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tourist taking picture of tourists taking pictures of other tourists

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