Transcultural vogueing

Afinando el español

2009-11-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

To find the perfect definition/translation English-Spanish/Spanish-English:

1) I look it up in wordreference, and see if there are any discussions about it, i.e. "cream of tartar", or squirrel/chipmunk (ardilla listada). And at this link, borgonyon explains "Estoy de acuerdo con fenix, se le puede llamar "ardillita" en el mismo sentido que llamamos "chinos" a todos los asiáticos, más como un nombre genérico." Beautiful! ;)

2) If I want to know whether the word is Chilean or not (I've lost all perspective), I look in up in the DRAE.

3) If it's a new word or something I don't understand well, often I'll look it up in the drae, or click on the "Spanish definition" in word reference. Often, a word that is more commonly used in Spanish will have a crappy English translation, or it will have one translation when there are really like 5. This is where it's good to read the definition in Spanish.

4) Also, if there are different translations for the same word like "rebuscado" can be translated as "far-fetched", "round-about", "overcomplicated", etc., obviously it's good to understand the different meanings related to different contexts, especially when the different words are in the non-native language. Again, I'll often look up the Spanish definition of each of these words.

5) If it's a complicated thing, a concept, a medical condition, or something that might benefit from a look at wikipedia, I go there next. For instance to have another look at the squirrel/chipmunk difference, here are some links to wikipedia (this was actually more complicated than I'd imagined because there are a ton of different squirrel articles in wikipedia.):

Tree squirrel - this is the squirrel I see in Minnesota. Once I look it up in English, I then click on "Español" to see what the wikipedistas have decided is the translation. Interestingly, there is no link to Español for this one.

Squirrel (in general) - This one doesn't have the Español link either, but it does have one in Esperanto and another in Gallego.

Eastern Gray Squirrel - I believe this one inhabits Minnesota as well. Finally, I find an article with a link to the Spanish article on the sciurus carolinesis (ardilla).

Then, the moment of truth as I look up chipmunk in wikipedia. I click on the Spanish link and find tamias minimus, also called the "ardilla rayada".

So Lydia wasn't far off explaining this difference to her students, at least in relation to wikipedia. ;)

This is my translation method, that mostly works, except when there is no translation, like for the word "vogueing" for example. But then, at least we know there is no translation.

"Tengo el poto como colador"

2009-10-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

Translation: "My ass is acting like a colander."

**Note: my ass isn't acting as a colander at this minute, I'm just posting this as a "travel tip"

Many of us gringos in Chilito have gotten food poisoning from time to time. It's to be expected. Whether the Augustian changes in weather screw you over, or you eat a typical Chilean delicacy sold in the street: canine shish-ka-bob, or you have fried fish at a market on a Sunday afternoon, or you ate the wrong piece of fruit, or your once (tea) the evening before consisted of quiche and beer, or you drank too much water right after arriving to Chile and before your body was acclimated, we all end up in the same place: at the porcelain throne.

It's a painful experience, your stomach & intestines seem to grow a mind of there own. Some of us experience this time and again, unfortunately. But we will get through. Hang in there. Have someone buy you some gatorade, and divide your time wisely between the bathroom and the bed. And if you ass doesn't stop acting as a colander in a few hours, it's time to go to the emergency room. I've got the magic pill that has kept me from the emergency room at least twice now. And some of you may have it too. It's Entero Micinovo (one of the few drugs in Chile that you need a prescription for, hehehe). A WONDER DRUG to stop the "churri-churri" as Don V (the one in the middle) calls it. hehehe. It was prescribed the first time I went to the ER at the Clinica Alemana in Valpo. And if you take it when you don't have the churri-churri, you'll probably be constipated for a month. It's that strong.

One of the sucky consequences of food poisoning is the sensitive stomach afterward. For the next week you have to watch what you eat and your diet will resemble this:

breakfast: galletas de agua con quesillo (crackers and tasteless "cheese")
té (tea)

lunch: sopa de pollo y arroz (chicken and rice soup)

dinner: galletas de agua con quesillo
té

It's an effective way to lose 5+ pounds in one week. Though I would prefer other, less painful, dieting possibilities to this one.

**If I find the "menu" or list of food that the Clinica Alemana recommended I eat for two weeks after being sick, I will post it here, as I don't doubt it will be useful to some other poor gring@.

Anyhoo, this is just one of the realities of living in the "third world".

R.I.P., and resurrected as of Aug. 26th

2009-08-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

RIP to my fave coa/chilensis dictionary : ( : ( Here's what's left of this dictionary that once had more than 10,000 Chilean words and expressions defined.

SUCK! Or perhaps this should be in Chilensis. Puta la wea por la cresta!!!! Pero CÓMO EN MIERA?!?!? To do this post really well, I should really re-subtitle the climatical scene to La Caída (Der Untergang), but that seems like a lot of work so I'm just going to patear la perra a little bit and get on with my morning, ya que el mejor diccionario del internet se fue completamente a la xuxa. Ya no sé dónde voy a buscar los significados de toas las chuchás que escucho en la conversación cotidiana acá en Chile. como la corneta la wea del diccionario. cagó. puuuuuta. internet reculío.

Edit August 26th: Okay it's back. Yay!

Another encounter with a mime

2009-06-24T13:56:00.001-07:00

I was heading to lunch at the little vega today. Walking, absorbed by my thoughts, I see I'm approaching two mimes, but I'm already 5 feet away when I realize this. Their "stage" is like 10 meters wide and 20 long and I'm very much on the stage with a whole crowd of onlookers watching to see how these mimes will huebearme (mess with me). Huebeando a la gente is the Chilean National Pastime, quite a fun one, when you aren't the object of the webeo.

Nothing left to do but play along. So one of them took me by the elbow, walking with me as a gentlemenly mime, then he took me by the hand. And then he stopped and exaggeratedly admired my butt. Here I saw my entrance, and I slapped him back side the head, and kept walking. Fortunately, they didn't follow me. But just as I get offstage, I think, "I should have gotten out my cellphone and taken a photo with the guy". Doh!

Check out these nifty fashion-related objects

2009-06-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

I so want one of these, and tried to order one, but it didn't work. Which is probably better because my Chilenized ego is telling me I could sooo make one for sooo much cheaper. It may just involve a trip to Galeria Rosas. If I do manage to make one that works, I will be selling them. Hehehehe. I'll keep you posted.

This is how you use it. And they could totally try to make these be styling, embedding them with rhinestones or something.

Love these. They are sooo Cute!! I happen to have some pretty beat-up angora that may find a new end as soon as I buy my sewing machine. Because upcycling is where it's at.

So there is an English library in downtown Santiago, sort of

2009-05-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post, I said downtown Santiago needs its very own English libaray. I was told that the "biblioredes" from the metro has a small collection of books in English at the Plaza de Armas metro stop. Miiiiiiitsch! So I donated a book in English, The DaVinci Code. I handed it in at Los Heroes and they will take care of getting it to Plaza de Armas. And I definitely will be checking out the English books there at some undesignated moment in the future. This should be interesting.

Edit July 26: So I went to the Plaza de Armas bibliored the other day and the only books they had in English were a couple of photography books. Mine had yet to arrive.

My map of downtown Santiago

2009-05-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

Traveling/and planning trips sure has changed in some ways with the internet. Facebook, peoples maps, blogs, google and other internet tools are excellent means for planning your travels.

I started to read this article, but have yet to finish because I got sidetracked with one of his piece's of advice.

I got to paragraph three where you can make your own google map. They look kind of like these: Here you can get a geographical depiction of Matt's drunken walkabout. While here, you can see the general vicinity of Mike's home in Taichung City, and here you can min carta over bloggvanner. You see how useful this tool is?

So I made my own map.
Ver my map of downtown Santiago . I'll probably be editing and expanding it as time passes.

Any other bloggers up for making a Santiago or other city map? Please send me the link if you do your own :) It seems they could be quite useful.

a little on education in Chile, spurred by Lydia's post

2009-05-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

To understand this, first you might want to read Lydia's post on education in Chile. I started commenting on her post, but it got really long once again so I'm just posting here.

I agree with you that Chileans cheat a lot. I think almost all Chileans have cheated in school. At first that was super shocking to me, but then I got used to it. I'm sorry it bothers you. Things here can be so different from the States sometimes. It's not worth it to judge it morally. In Chile, cheating just is.

But cheating is a part of the culture and I think it's hard to get around it.

A friend of mine teaches engineering here and when he gives tests he leaves the room on purpose to give students a chance to cheat. (His students have a lot at stake, so they can't afford being caught cheating. They wait til he leaves the room.) But I think students actually learn a few things this way. It gives them a chance to collaborate. Maybe you should test them everyday. hahaha. It's probably a great group exercise.

Before a really difficult test at the U, a good friend of mine showed me her "torpedo". (cheat sheet) It was a blank sheet of paper. I looked at it baffled. There wasn't one thing on it. How could it be a cheat sheet? She told me to look closer. So I held it in the light and looked really close. The whole page was covered with print, margin to margin, 9 font. She'd printed it in really light gray ink, so you couldn't even tell it was full of answers. It was a work of art.

Another friend of mine has monumental accounts of unabashed cheating. My fave of his stories is when he and his classmates were at a bar in front of the university after the test was taken and the T.A. ARRIVES, TESTS IN HAND! One of the students grabbed the tests from him and tried to start them on fire. The TA about shat his pants and grabbed them back. My friend then starting chatting with the T.A. to get his test back to re-do it. Eventually the TA said he could have his test if he took them all and brought them to the U the next morning to give them back, because I guess the TA didn't want to tote them around or something. So my friend gathered together a couple of his smarter friends and they all went back to his house to re-do the test. hahahahahha. He has hundreds of similar accounts.

I think for Chileans cheating and not getting caught is a TRIUMPH. And if you do get caught and actually have to suffer the consequences, it's bad luck, but makes a good story. Of course, if you're not caught, it makes an even better story.

And I agree with you about the education here as well. It does seem to be about rote learning, especially in the less creative subjects. Even in literary theory, I remember one day we had to interpret a poem. Every student had the same historical interpretation except me. I did like an interpretation having to do with the sounds the words made when you read the poem and how it coincides with the action and what implications that had, etc. But I felt sort of silly at the time being the only one who didn't do the historical interpretation. Because here in Chile, homogenity seems to be emphasized and preferred. They must've thought I had a weird interpretation. But fortunately the prof liked it. wheew! hehehe. But I was shocked how everyone came up with THE SAME INTERPRETATION TO A POEM. Geesh!

At the same time, I like how their subjects have so much theory and tradition and they emphasize using good sources more here than in the US. I think both systems have their pros and cons.

But what I think is wrong, as you mentioned, is the professor/student relationship. The profs here are sort of like Gods sometimes and can fail people when they feel like it. And its totally faux pas to question what the teacher is saying.

Beyond that, profesors can make student's lives horrible. I've heard horror stories of people being royally screwed over in the education system due to internal fights between two schools of thought among the faculty or other faculty problems that have repercussions on the students.

I know of one student who had her final project ready to hand in (in her area of studies these take 6 months to a year), and the director of her field told her she had to do the project all over again, because she'd chosen to base her project on the other school of thought among the faculty. Apparently this faculty didn't have the power in the U, so the student had to start from scratch and use the school of thought the director wanted her to use. Unfortunately I've heard other cruel stories like this. They are more common than you'd think.

Also it seems, crappy University professors are never fired! They just hang around and teach poorly year after year. Personally, I had good profs at the U here. But judging from the stories I've heard from so many others, I was lucky.

Education is quite different here. Cheating seems to be more of an accepted behavior, and this might have to do with the quality of the education, which sometimes I think is great, and others not. I feel like it really depends on the professors. And the fact that the professor is put on a pedestal seems to cause more cheating. In general, this relationship doesn't help forward the student's education.

In Chile's favor, the universities here seem to be really rigorous. The students I've met seem to have a good theoretical base in their areas. It's actually hard to compare two different school systems as they are sooo different, and obviously cultural and socio-economic factors influence things.

Downtown Santiago needs an English Library

2009-04-29T20:01:00.001-07:00

Downtown Santiago really needs an English library. I have books to donate, but no one to donate them to. (I definitely want to be able to have access to them after loaning them.) The National Library will accept them, but only in the regular section, not in the part where you can take the books home, préstamo a domicilio. :( I've thought about donating a book in English to publimetro, but I doubt they would lend it. I have this idea it would disappear. But I should stop being so pajera and try it out and find out. I would donate most of my books in English if I thought people would eventually be able to check them out. So I'm going to donate The DaVinci Code and see if they actually make it available for checking out and take it from there. Meanwhile I have quite the stack of books.

Group post. Travel story: Bena, Minnesota

2009-04-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is a work-travel story. Perhaps we could call it a business trip. hahahahaha. So, one of the summers I was working road construction in Northern Minnesota, I was assigned as a flagger on Hwy 2. During this job, I spent a couple days in Bena, Minnesota. (Check out this link that shows their median incomes. I was blown away when I read this. I shouldn't be surprised I spose, but I was. All I can say is I hope they hunt and gather for food.) I was flagging like 16-hour days which could be a little dull, but this town was a great place to flag. It's 70% Native American, so it´s a totally different culture nestled within Northern Minnesota. (It's on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.)

I spent one whole day standing in the middle of town, stopping people and letting them go through when it was clear. Across the street was the gas station/mini market. At like 9am, somebody from the rez's brown buick broke down right in front of me. They spent the ENTIRE DAY trying to fix it. Something like 4 different people tried to figure out how to get it running. They left the car, came back, left the car, came back. Watching them sort of eased the long moments of boredom that I often experienced. At the end of the day, they ended up pushing the car across the highway and down a little road. I thought about how I would have handled the situation so differently in my town. And it never occurred to me at like 9am when the car broke down that it was going to be a day-long project. It was nice to have a little entertainment during the day and to see a slower-paced way of living.

Working on the Leech Lake Rez sparked my curiousity about the Native Americans living in and close to my home town. However, I moved to Chile soon after that. I'm thinking of perhaps taking some Ojibwe language classes when I move back, just to learn a bit more about their culture.

Check Kyle's post for a list of links to more travel stories.

God does not play dice with the universe...

2009-04-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

he lets us do that.

Why I came and why we will leave... (a belated response to the group post)

2009-04-11T15:42:00.001-07:00

So I'm a bit behind on the group post, hehehe. When everyone posted, I was on vacation in Iquique (the sports capital of Chile, believe it or not).

At the age of 12 I got the travel bug, and I decided I was going to see the whole freaking world. One way to start seeing the world was to be an AFS student for a year. I decided to do this as a gap year before college. At 17, I was fed up with my little town and the snow and cold and tameness of it all, and decided to move my travels up a year or two and go for 6 months rather than a year. (I later regretted not choosing to stay the whole year.) I knew I would miss my friends, but I really wanted to travel. My heart was set on living in Puerto Rico for a semester where they couldn't possibly place me in a home far from the beach. Apparently I wasn't the only one who decided to go to the Reggaeton capital of the world, because by the time I applied, there weren't enough spots left in the program. All the families had been taken. :( So back to the drawing board. Brazil called my attention, but I wanted to learn Spanish and be somewhere warm and near the beach. That year there was a Chilean AFS student in my high school who I was friends with. She urged me to go to Chile telling me about Chilean carretes and how fun it is there, etc. So I gave up my dream of a year-round summer and chose to come to Chile, and I was off. It was a great time.

I came back to Chile for a month my sophomore year of college and visited my host fam. and traveled around Chile. My host father pointed out a masters program at the University he works at; it was a good program and inexpensive. I bore that in mind and came back in 2004 to do the program. After a year living in Valpo I met my husband. I finished school last year and we are currently waiting for me to be eligible to apply for permanencia definitiva so as to apply for V's immigrant visa to the US of A. We've got a while yet. Meanwhile, I'm teaching English.

Why we will leave: I want to go back to the States so V has a chance to live abroad, and get to know my country. I can't wait to travel vicariously through him and see my town, state and country through his eyes. Reverse cultural shock can be quite enriching! I also am excited to live near my family again for a while and watch my nephew and niece grow up and be a part of my family's lives again, beyond Skype. We are planning on installing ourselves in Minnesota, but you never know. Perhaps someday we'll move back to Chile. Or to Europe or Indonesia. Who knows?

I'm not against living in Chile, but I'm not a huge fan of Santiago. I like smaller towns and cities. I've liked living here however, I don't know how I'd feel if I knew I would be living here forever and ever.

To read the everyone else's posts, go to Kyle's post on the matter.

aphoristic thought 2

2009-03-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

It frustrates me to no end that I'm mortal.

Interestingly, frustrate is a synonym of crucify, at least in wordreference.com it is.

Chile and Perfectionism

2009-03-18T11:12:00.001-07:00

Here are some thoughts I have on Chile and perfectionism...

It must be something in the air, because Kyle talks about similar themes in her post today.

So I'm a bit of a perfectionist. You probably couldn't tell by knowing me, because I'm a perfectionist by my rules. I'm not your obvious perfectionist. I'm even quite a slob sometimes. But often I'm a frustrated over-achiever. I'm not going to get into explaining this because I could probably write chapters. But, to resume, no matter how much I do or achieve, it never seems to be enough. There's always something lacking. I'm programmed this way, and fortunately I know this, so I ignore it when I can.

Living among Chileans has made this aspect of my personality sooo much better. Like toned it down a ton! Because, in general, Chileans seem to be all about finding the short cut, and improvising when necessary. I've picked this habit up, and while I often have great expectations of what I can do during the week, I also have learned how to improvise and find the short cut, pretty much on a daily basis. It keeps me sane and actually it keeps me on track at the same time.

Also, so many things here are done soooo mediocrely* that there is no competition. I love cooking and dream of being an incredible cook when I'm a grandma. That's a goal I have, and I'm well on my way. Sometimes I get frustrated, however. V and I went to the Thai restaurant Samsara (in Valpo) when it opened. I ordered the yellow curry and it was excellent! It tasted just like my homemade yellow curry! *breathing on nails and buffing them on my shirt* Then we went to Ky, a Thai restaurant here in Santiago. V's red curry was absolutely to die for!!!! So, of course, I decided to make red curry. While it turned out quite well, it didn't turn out like the curry from Ky. Cuak. And I was upset about it. But then I think, "I do cook better food than most restaurants in Chile." And it makes me feel better. In fact most everything at Ky, besides the curries we ordered, wasn't very good at all. So having little or no competition actually disarms my perfectionism because I have nothing to compare myself to.

Since I'm a WASP, a white, anglo-saxon protestant, I have it drilled into me that good work ethic makes you a good person. It's not so much about appearance (like it seems to be here in Chile), but about achieving results. I used to judge myself by how much I got done in a day, if I finished my to-do list. (Don't do that, it's not worth it.) It was in Spain where I first realized how crazy it was to judge my self-worth by how much I got done on my to-do list. Here in Chile I've only honed my relationship with it. I still have my to-do list, but it no longer is a prueba of how perfect I am. It's now a tool that orients me in the direction I want to go. While before, I was sure to get everything I possibly could on my to-do list done ASAP, now I don't. Some things never get done, as they end up being totally irrelevant, other things get done normally, and some take longer, and probably some things don't take as long. I don't know if it's my ripe age, haha, or Chile, but I seem to pace myself even more realistically then I did before living here.

So I guess I'm using [what I consider to be] a cultural flaw to offset the bad effects of a character flaw. - to borrow a conclusion from John Perry's essay on procrastination.

*I know "mediocrely" doesn't exist as an adverb, but it should.

Anyone have a turistel they could lend me?

2009-03-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

I'm specifically looking for the turistel for el norte. Anyone have one they would lend me for a week or two?

Updates

2009-02-27T06:29:00.000-08:00

I've updated EFL blog: Chile, for anyone interested, though I still need to find a way to put documents on there that users can download. And I've also started again on my Chilensis blog.

I'm not a slob, I'm a horizontal organizer.

2009-02-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

All these years I've thought I was a slob. It's not true. I'm just a horizontal organizer in a vertically organizing world. It's a sad plight.

Check out this essay "A plea for the Horizontally Organized".
He also has a fantastic essay on Structured Procrastination. This is how I came across his website. I stumbled upon his procratination essay. I'll give you one guess what I was doing when I came across it.
I'm particularly fond of his logic in his "On Becoming Bilingual" essay. Might I add he has an incredibly intuitive essay on Procrastination and Perfectionism.

I highly recommend http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/ for your reading pleasure. Pure Genius.

Dude, John Perry rocks. He needs a fan club on facebook. I would totally start it, but would it be lame to be his only fan if it occurs to no one else to be a fan? Or would it be incredibly funny and original to be the only fan in someone's fan club? hahahaha. That makes me want to start a fan club for some random friend on facebook. Hilarious.

By the way, does anyone else identify with any of these essays? Any other perfectionist procrastinators or horizontal organizers out there?

Money does grow on trees

2009-02-23T11:13:00.001-08:00

It's not that money doesn't grow on trees, it does. The problem is figuring out which trees it DOES grow on and climbing up and picking it. The other problem is getting over the fear of falling out of the tree and breaking your neck.

in search of my money tree(s)...

LensCrafters es como el forro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-19T05:57:00.000-08:00

My e-complaint that I sent to the Attorney General of Florida, Bill McCollum:

“I bought some lenses and frames at the Sawgrass Mills Mall Lenscrafters store on March 6th, 2008. The scotchgard coating on the lenses has wrinkled and thus I see blurrily through them now. They are ruined. I called Lenscrafters to have them replaced and they told me I would have to pay half the price of the lenses replacement because, as Gonzalo, the general manager told me, "Lenscrafters doesn't make the lenses." Apparently this means they don't guarantee their replacement. My question to you is, how is this legal? I live in Santiago, Chile, and here in the "third world", we have a consumer rights agency that protects us consumers from these kinds of sales practices. Despite what the companies here tell us about their policies, they have a legal responsibility to repair, replace, or refund faulty products up to 6 months after the sale. Since the United States of America is the "first world", I thought we might have a policy like that good for a year.

Is there a law that protects me against this sort of sales trick? The 30 day moneyback guarantee is all "show" to try to get the consumer to trust the company. And then the real guarantee, the one I'm counting on, ends up being a sales trick. I buy one pair of lenses, and I'm forced to buy the second pair at 50%. That sounds more like a sales tactic than a guarantee.”

I've forgotten the last paragraph of the e-complaint, but that basically sums it up.

(I love this third world/first world terminology. It’s so great at provoking shame and it works in both directions, pitting one theoretical world against another. E.g. “Here in the third world, consumers are better protected than there in the first world.” “Once again, we got typical third-world customer service.”)

If you only have “about an hour” (which is never about an hour, it’s more like a day) to buy glasses, you may be in a hurry and not read the back of the receipt that says the guarantee is horseshit after 30 days. You awe the consumer with the 30-day absolute, no-questions-asked complete refund guarantee. And we don’t even ask about what happens after that. I’ll tell you, your lenses break and you have to pay HALF of their replacement. What a great “buy-one,-be-forced-to-buy-a-second-pair-at-half-price sales model”. Kudos to whoever thought that one up.

My recipe for bringing down the box store:
Everyone go buy a couple pairs of lenses from Lenscrafters and then return them during the 30 day money back guarantee.

Did David Browne just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to sell crappy products. When they break, the consumer will have to pay to get them replaced.”? So ripping people off is the secret to success. And what's with the super Christian website? Geesh. I'll tell you a secret: find some self respect.

Any hackers out there with time to kill, please go to http://www.lenscrafters.com/
and crash their site please. Pretty please, with cherries on top.

So after googling LensCrafters (what I should have done in the first place), I found other customers who weren’t pleased with the store.
Here
ripoffreport
LensCrafters or how I wasted a whole weekend
a report of LensCrafters on a forum
as well as a Sarah Palin, a LensCrafters model, and
on the BARF forum
Suck it, LensCrafters
why I think LensCrafters sucks
I guess working for them is no fun either
LensCrafters sucks ass.
and it can eat dick too
I'm not the only one who wanted to know who is the current CEO of LensCrafters.
Here's an interesting tidbit I got off wikipedia: LensCrafters maintains "corporate headquarters in Mason, Ohio (near Cincinnati), along with Sunglass Hut International; but, in fact, both firms are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Italian-based Luxottica. Luxottica also owns Pearle, Target Optical, JCPenney Optical, Sears Optical and EyeMed Vision Care."
I must concede that some customers are satisfied; apparently this doughy, middle-aged guy liked the store.

I've learned in the future I need to do my homework BEFORE I buy glasses. Cuak! This has not been my customer service month in either the "first" or "third" worlds.

Your average customer service in Chile

2009-02-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

debo reconocer que en comparisión, EEUU, por lo general tiene mejor servicio, porque, a menudo te topay con alguien que te quiere ayudar, y INCLUSO que se pasa ayudándote, porque sí no más.

Nuestra experiencia comprando 2 pasajes en avión, lamentablemente, es MUY TÍPICA acá. Todo el mundo que vive en Chile ha tenido que tramitar weas de esta manera. Es una paja, pero qué se puede hacer? (ojala tuviera un junior, yo cacho que me sería mejor que una nana)

Pasos para comprar dos pasajes en avión Santiago – Iquique:

1) V trató de comprar los pasajes en lan.com con su tarjeta Ripley
2) no funcionó porque no tenía la clave de su tarjeta Ripley
3) se metió a Internet para encontrar un clave
4) allí dice llamar a 600 600 02 02
5) el número no funciona
6) llama de nuevo
7) el número no funciona
8) repita pasos 6 y 7 hasta aburrirse
9) V vuelve al trabajo
10) yo repito pasos 1-7.
11) voy a Ripley
12) me dan mi clave
13) voy a la casa a comprar pasajes
14) hay un problema con el pago a través de la tarjeta Ripley
15) Vuelvo a Ripley ya que el numero del servicio al consumidor no funciona, y tampoco el otro número para comprar
16) en Ripley me dan el número *super secreto* de Ripley, el cual es: 6941000 extensión 1755, por si alguien más no ha podido contactar con esta espléndida empresa
17) llamo el número super secreto y CONTESTAN ALTIRO
18) me arreglan la situación de no poder pagar la wea.
19) intento comprar pasajes de nuevo
20) no funciona el modo de pago
21) llamo a Ripley
22) me aseguran que no es culpa de la tarjeta, que mejor me contacto con Lanchile
23) llamo a Lanchile. decido comprar los pasajes por telefono
24) me sale 20 luka más para cada pasaje
25) llamo a Lanchile para hablar con la gerencia de Internet (ya que la señorita no me pudo conectar con la otra area)
26) marco la opción de hablar con la gente de pago por Internet, o algo por el estilo. hablo con la señorita. Necesita mi número de confimación, la cual nunca anoté porque no había pagado nada aún. No puedo retroceder en el sitio de Internet. Nos despidimos.
28) me meto a la pagina de lanchile de nuevo y hago otra reserva en otro horario porque ya han subido las tarifas y estan agotados los pasajes de vuelta para la hora que queríamos. (porque entre V y yo ya teníamos como 6 pares de pasajes de ida y vuelta reservados, pero no se podía entrar a “mi cuenta” ni ná para cachar que la wea estaba reservada) Asi que, nuevamente hago reserva, esta vez para dos semanas más tarde que lo que habiamos hablado.
29) llamo nuevamente, le doy el código de reserva, no se puede pagar con tarjeta Ripley. Me da la dirección de la oficina de Lanchile más cercana.
30) Imprimo hoja con la reserva y voy a Lanchile a completar la compra.
31) Espero unos diez minutos para que me atienden. En quince minutos más me tiene los pasajes.
32) Voy a Ripley y pago la cuenta Ripley.

Y todo esto en solamente 4 horas de mi tiempo.

A todo esto, debo decir, que toda la gente que me atendió fue buena onda conmigo. Solo que no se debe demorar 4 horas para comprar dos pasajes en avión.

Comentario de V al respeto: “Fue más fácil desbloquear el iphone.”

25 things about me

2009-02-08T10:09:00.001-08:00

so I've received this forward a bit and here are mine:

1. I want to start a business that sells quotidian things (cosas cotidianas), like food, clothing, cleaning products, what you need to live, basically. I imagine it like the old almacenes from the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s. Really good quality products, being as close to the source as possible, polluting as little as possible, as thrifty as possible. Clothing that lasts 20 years. Perhaps I'll eventually put myself out of business, because people won't have to buy any more clothing.

2. I perhaps will learn from the indigenous people, like for example, the Incas were masters at making fabrics. (White) people used to make there own clothing too, in the United States. President John Adams sported homespun threads.

3. Estoy peinando la muñeca con el tema este. Se los juro. Llevo 5 años pensando en esto. He pelado harto cable ya. Asi que cambiamos el tema. jajajaja, o intentamos...

4. I have sooooooooooooooooooo many business ideas and writing ideas, I could give them away. My aunt just told me the other day that Jack Londan gave story ideas to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

5. I can tell I'm a writer because I could never decided what I wanted to study...in college I took some RANDOM classes including C++ computer programing. I wish I would have known then that my interest was more experiential, than applicable. Duh. I almost bombed the dang class. And I love doing things for the experience of it, if for nothing else: trying out weevil-filled oatmeal, for example. YUCK! I didn't know there were weevils (little grain beetles) when I bought it. Cutting costs can be risky sometimes. I bought the oatmeal wholesale, for half the price per kilo as they sell in the supermarket where I shop. Probably won't do that again...but you never know!

6. I wish the gym I recently enrolled in had a hip-hop class. I would like to be part of a hip-hop troop some day.

7. I want a garden.

8. And fruit trees.

9. I have pastoral dreams.

10. Because I'm from a small town.

11. I think weed should be legal to grow for personal use. And hemp too.

12. Reading the book "Rich dad, poor dad" has almost made me go conservative (republican). The only bastion of right-wing thought I cling to as truth is the idea that education should be free for all, and food too - for those who study. Okay, so, I'm still a democrat, never so mean, but mostly because I think there are so many soul-less business people in this world who take advantage of workers and have no sense of ethics. It's sickening. All they think about is money, the dumbfucks. Could we be a little more creative please? And maybe enjoy ourselves now and then? Rather than chasing the buck non-stop...all the time. Until you die.

13. I'm writing an EFL book specifically for teaching English in Chile...we'll see if I ever finish.

14. If I had a restaurant in my home town, I would have “fictional things” on the menú…(to make it a bit more literary.) For example, The Up-North Roll: a sushi roll with walleye and raspberries, rolled in wild rice and drizzled with a mix of soy sauce and maple syrup. hahahahahahahaha. And the best part is that I might even try to make it.

15. I could also have a crappie roll and a Northern roll. eeewwww. I only say eeewww, because supposedly Northern tastes nasty, though I’ve never tried it.

16. I want to go home.

17. And have a huge pumpkin patch.

18. And prepare venison cazuela, with deer my brothers have shot, and pumpkin from my patch.

19. And start a blues band.

20. with Vuko on lead guitar.

21. I’d be on piano and vocals.

22. I’d have to take voice lessons again.

23. I like singing.

24. I dream about babies alot.

25. I refuse to believe my biological clock is ticking.

26. No, we aren’t planning on having a baby any time soon, so stop asking. or don't.

EFL Blog: Chile

2009-02-06T09:34:00.001-08:00

I've started yet another blog, this one of the EFL variety. The idea is to share resources, tips, whathaveyou. If you are interested in contributing, let me know.

Tip of the day: Use America's Finest News Source as a reading for your intermediate/advanced students. Chileans appreciate humor. Who doesn't?

Jacques Torres ate my heart out!!

2009-02-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

So the brownies aren't even done yet. But they smell so good I think I'm going to faint. The batter was spectacular! And actually the brownie mix is reasonably priced at $12.95 (that is if you live near the store...I got it as a gift from my mommy). They should import this brownie mix!!!! Specifically for the American expat community here in Chilito. It would sell like soy sauce does in China, like vino bigoteado in the Plaza Echaurren. Eeewww! Okay, I grossed myself out. I think I just ruined the post.

Now that the brownies are almost ready, and have a REALLY SHORT life expectancy, poor things, here, I figure out how to plagiarize this recipe.

Me, on the chocolate business:
Okay, so included in the brownie mix was 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) of REALLY good chocolate. Here in Chile, that runs me 4.500 pesos ($7.25)-at the grocery store. The mix costs $12.95. I think that leaves it clear that Torres isn't making money off selling brownie mix. He's making it selling chocolate, and, perhaps off these hummers. I would love getting into this industry. You need to cut out the middle man and get to the source. Check out this article which I have already posted, but I'm posting it again.

Food budget in Chile

2009-02-02T01:23:00.000-08:00

So Kyle's last post is about how much she spends on groceries a month in Chile. She said she was getting emails from people asking her that. I started commenting and realized I should just write my own post. Anyone else who's interested in blogging on your food budget in Chile (or elsewhere, I suppose), please do. We could make this topic into a group post if people are interested. I'll post the links to the other blogs on my entry.

So I'll be guesstimating. But I have been saving my receipts for the last 4-5 years, and when I get around to looking at them and figuring out what my food budget has been I will probably get back to you all. Back in Valpo, I easily spent 80.000-100.000 a month in groceries, but V and I were drinking lots of milk and eating lots of yogurt in those days. And we used to eat tons of chicken and beef. Now that I've gone flexitarian, I'm probably spending between 50.000-70.000 a month in groceries. Although I will know better if I ever organize my finances.

As Theresa in Mérida commented on Kyle's blog, this number will depend on what people eat. So to give you an ideea: I will cook cazuela de ave, for example, or porotos granados (apparently called cranberry beans?) (1500 the kilo-pelados, peeled) and those dishes will last us like 3 days. Plus, if say, the green beans are out-of-season, I won't put them in the cazuela. I mostly use in-season food, which makes my cooking better and more economical. Another thing that makes my cooking much more economical, is that I cook lots of Chilean dishes, so I almost always use Chilean ingredients: zapallo (300 pesos the chunk), porotos granados, porotos verdes (can't remember), choclo humero (10 in 1000 pesos), etc. I even use typical Chilean ingredients in my own concoctions.

Also, when I get a chance, I do my shopping at the vega, which makes fruit, veggie, chicken shopping a bit more economical. And when I don't have time, I go to a market/vega that's a bit closer to home.

I also, am not a fan of chicken. I will eat it, if that's what's for lunch or dinner (hence flexitarian), but I think about the fact that it spent it's whole life in a cage and that it's been injected with hormones, and I would rather eat more pesticide-covered corn and pumpkin, rather than hormone-injected, cage-grown chicken. (Let's call a spade a spade.)

Other foods we eat a lot of and their current prices in Chilean pesos:
we eat bread (pan pita integral, 800) and avocado (1500 the kilo), or oatmeal (1300 the kilo), bananas (450 the kilo), yogurt (300 pesos for like 150 grams, I believe), fruit,
mote con huesillos or without huesillos (dried full-sized peaches, about 3000-4000 the kilo). I also like to have mote (can't remember the price) with coconut milk (1,100 the can) and pure maple syrup. Yummy. Speaking of, I go through a lot of coconut milk. (The maple syrup was given to me by my mom who was just in Chile. I don't buy maple syrup here.) Sarotti chocolate - 1400 for 100 grams, but waaaay more satisfying than Sahne-Nuss (1000 pesos for 180 grams). Although I still get a Sahne-Nuss fix from time-to-time. I do wish my supermarket would get this brand to try it out. I like getting my products as directly from the source as possible.

We also eat a fair amount of nuts. I just bought 2 kilos of cashews for 16,000 pesos. We eat almonds too, but I can't remember what they cost.

We eat lots of quinoa too, although not lately. (Over a year ago I bought 25 kilos for 25,000 pesos from a dealer in Parque Forestal - there was a bicycle culture festival, and people were selling things like quinoa and vegetarian empanadas). Normally quinoa costs (for quinoa negra) around 2000 pesos for half a kilo, if I'm not mistaken. You can get it at the tostudaria talca. Its uber-expensive at the grocery store, like 2000+ pesos for 200 grams of white quinoa. But 25,000 pesos for 25 kilos is quite the deal, even if we don't finish those last 5 kilos before they go bad.

We also eat pasta, beef, rice, beans-black and tórtola (perhaps around 2000 the kilo), garbanzo beans, crackers (300 for 180 grams or so), quesillo (around 1000), olive oil (maybe 5000 the liter?), regular oil, and lots of spices. When the corn's not in season, I get frozen corn (2000 the kilo?). These last prices I don't remember as well.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm sure we eat other foods as well.

Other gringas on their food budgets:

Kyle (the person who started the topic)
Katina

terribly terribly cynical. so cynical I'm laughing

2009-01-29T18:26:00.000-08:00

I think Chile is REALLY getting to me. Because I now find morbid things HILARIOUS. That is the trademark of the Chilean sense of humor, cracking jokes at funerals (even if it's just a light one), breeching topics unsuitable for your grandma's ears, right in front of her, humorously subtitling the most dramatic part of a movie about the fall of one of the (if not the) most notorious people of contemporary history. I swear they have a BLACK sense of humor. Basically it's all about making fun of anything and everything that you shouldn't. P.C. is non-existent. In fact, its almost like the less p.c. you are, the funnier it is. (I'm going to be a pc-wreck if I ever go back to the States. My family and friends will shun me.)

Anyhoo, I saw this article on the Santiago metro news station and then googled it to find out if it's true. So I'm going to end this blog right now. Bye.