The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Now that I've been here for almost 4 months already, I think it's time to talk about the little nuances I've learned about Santiago that make it, well, Santiago.

#1 Piropos
This refers to whistling, hissing [yes, they do that], kissing noises, car honking, or any other form of cat calling. As a giant, white blonde girl I knew what I was getting into when I came here. No matter where I go I am obviously a foreigner. On the metro I can usually see over everyone's heads and people naturally try speaking to me in English before Spanish. A couple times guys have literally come up and said "I love you" in English to me. Blondes here are pretty rare too so the combination of my height and coloring can be bothersome [I'm constantly being referred to as "rubia" (blonde) on the street]. The bottom line of piropos is that if you have any self-esteem issues, then you should come to a Latin American country. I can walk around in sweats and without makeup and boys will still stop me and say "You are so beautiful". Why thank you, creepy stranger, I was really trying to impress you. The guys don't mean it to be creepy though; well, sometimes they do, but it's just part of the culture here. They like to show their appreciation of women, which personally I think American guys could learn from them in that regard. Chileans aren't afraid to approach a girl they are attracted to and I respect their confidence in doing that, but I do still get annoyed sometimes. My favorite piropo experience was once when my friends and I were on our way to a club, we were walking past an outdoor restaurant and all of a sudden practically the whole patio started clapping for us as we went by. Clapping.


















#2 Stray cats and dogs
Santiago has an ENORMOUS population of stray cats and dogs and it breaks my heart every time I see them. People here are immune to feeling bad for them because they're everywhere and if you spend time worrying and caring about them, then it just makes you depressed. My mom does dog rescue in California and if she was here I think she would have a panic attack. I've almost cried on several occasions when I've seen a starving dog on the street. I've heard that the dogs can be dangerous and attack you, but I've only witnessed them being super sweet. This morning for example I was walking to the metro and one started following me just because I looked at it and smiled. Besides starving for food, they're starved for love. Even a feeling of kindness makes them want to stay with you. If I could, then I would totally have a dog and cat shelter going on in my apartment. There are three cats that live in a field nearby my place and I like to feed and pet them whenever I'm walking by. Some of my other neighbors also leave food for them, which is really nice.
This is kind of a sad/funny story that relates to this topic. I had a few friends over a couple weeks ago  and we were chilling in the dining room when suddenly a black mass came through the open door and into my apartment. I immediately freaked out until I realized that it was a dog! It had followed my friends to my building and somehow managed to get inside [sometimes people don't latch the door completely], gone up the stairs, and decided it wanted to join in the party! We had to coax it back outside, but it was such a sweetheart and only wanted some love and attention. Definitely scared the bejesus out of me at first though.

#3 Mullets/chocopandas/rat tails

In the US these hairstyles are thankfully in the past, but here they're in full force. A chocopanda is the Chilean word for mullet and it's named for the street vendors selling the ice cream "Choco Panda" because they are usually guilty of having mullets. Rat tails are also extremely prevalent and just as strange to me. Another one that always surprises me is when a person has one or two dreads that seem to spontaneously grow from the back of their head [both guys and girls have these]. These...interesting...hairstyle choices are frequently accompanied by a series of piercings and tattoos, which are a lot more accepted here than even in the US. In fact, the whole punk movement is really noticeable here and I've decided to adapt myself to it in a couple ways. My parents weren't thrilled when I asked them if I could get my nose pierced so I made a fake ring that I like to wear on occasion. I've also started wearing darker colors and sometimes these things help me blend in a little more and effectively reduce the amount of piropos I get.

#4 The Metro

I tried to sneak a picture of the mass of people
coming off the metro one day

Santiago has an incredible metro system that goes all over the city. Since it's a huge place, having the metro makes traveling a lot cheaper and easier. However, during rush hour the metro is like hell on earth. First, you have to push your way onto the train [I've had to wait 5 trains before]. Then, once you've squeezed yourself into an extremely small space between people [ever played the game "sardines"?], you have to try not to move your arms so that you don't accidentally touch someone in an awkard place. And it's super hot and smelly because everyone is smashed together [word of advice--don't stand next to a sweaty man]. Since I'm usually taller than the majority of the other passengers, I wind up awkwardly spooning another person. Also, one time I had my butt grabbed on a packed metro train. Unlike the bus system where performers frequently board the vehicles and play music [I saw guys rapping once, which was cool/strange/funny], the metro is completely silent and I never know where to look. When it's underground you can't look out the windows so sometimes I make awkward eye contact with other people. Overall, I obviously manage to make riding the metro a totally awkward experience, but I still like using it because it's so convenient and actually necessary to get almost anywhere I need to go.

Well, this post is already pretty long, but there's definitely more things [like pisco, raggeaton, and salsa dancing] that I want to write about another time. One more little nugget of information is this parody of the Shit Girls Say video that's about gringas in Santiago. It'll give you more insight into some of what I wrote about and it's hilarious.
http://ilovechile.cl/2012/02/16/soltera-santiago-sht-gringas-santiago/48228