2. First week of school

I’ve been in Valparaíso a week now, and I’ve learned a lot. A lot about purple bacteria. A lot about the Spanish language. A lot about how sometimes, when you find yourself feeling comfortable in a new country, it’s a sign of terrible things about to happen.

Do you see anything missing here? I didn't!

            I’ve spent some time outside the US before, and often been surprised at how different things are. In Chile, however, I arrived and was most surprised by how normal everything was. Part of it may be that I’d never been to South America, and was preparing for everything to be VERY different. But my expectations of culture shock have largely fallen flat – there aren’t any water fountains, but I’ve dealt with that before. I’m staying in an apartment just like one I could find in Houston, with a professional landlord instead of a scatterbrained music teacher. If I need a plumber on Sunday, I can find one.

            So it may be that I’ve let my guard down a little bit too much, but there have been a few things that have really surprised me. Spoilers, if you’re still trying to figure out the above picture: there are no rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom stalls. Fortunately, this one had some by the sink (maybe it’s actually for hands, but it looks like toilet paper and I haven’t been corrected so far). There’s also a lot more arithmetic involved in daily life, because the dollar trades for about 670 pesos, so all the bills are 1000 pesos, 2000 pesos, 10000 pesos. Things normally come out cheaper here than in the US, but all these huge numbers make me feel like I’m hemorrhaging money trying to buy groceries.

            The other weird thing is that this year, Chile has decided not to come off of daylight savings time, apparently without telling Google. So for the first couple of days, I thought we were one hour ahead of Houston, when in fact we were two hours ahead. So when I showed up at 4:03 to my meeting in the international office at school, I was in fact just over an hour late to my meeting. The lady at the office kept saying she thought I wasn’t going to come and how glad she was I’d made it before she left, and I apologized and told her how I’d left early but got off on the wrong bus stop, all the while a little confused about how being three minutes late made her think I wasn’t going to show up at all. Just as I was leaving it became clear what the error actually was, and realized just how very nice she was being when I had in fact arrived at 5:00 on a Friday. I will omit the pictures, but you could’ve fried an egg on my face, winter or no. I was glad I’d discovered the mistake at the international office though, instead of elsewhere; she said she’d had one student earlier in the week who came to his appointment THREE hours late. I had manually set my clocks to the correct hour, but I’ve gotten everywhere on time since.

            Including my first meeting with the Rotary Club in Quilpué! Iván and René drove into Valparaíso with the car and brought Yandee and me both to Quilpué. We had a wonderful time with

Presenting the Memorial-Spring Branch Flag to Iván Hernandez, left, and
René Zuñiga, right.

all the Rotarians, many of whom speak perfect English and were able to help me out when my Spanish wasn’t quite cutting it. Valparaíso, it turns out, was the first city in Chile with a Rotary Club, and RC Quilpué is also quite old, founded in 1938. They even have their own song they sing to start meetings! We exchanged flags, shared some stories, and talked a little bit about sustainable water treatment. I believe they have a member who was not there this week who is involved in water systems and treatment, who is familiar with the water and waste situation in the area.

            I say “I believe,” because while my Spanish has improved enormously, it’s still very difficult to understand everything. Chilean Spanish is spoken very fast, and they “eat” the ends of the words and some of the sounds from the middle, too. They also use a lot of different words than the Mexican Spanish I’m more used to – instead of “novios” they say “pololos,” and when you go to work, it’s not your “trabajo” but your “pega.” I can understand almost everything now without a struggle, and my speech is also much, much better. It’s been a little difficult at school, however, because I’ve been reviewing the literature on my project, which means reading and writing in English. There are also a lot of English words and phrases in the science lexicon, and when I speak with the folks in the lab they will sometimes give me the word in English if I look confused. All this code switching has been exhausting on my brain, but I’m getting used to that, too. I still have to stop to search for the word I want sometimes, but not as often, and my tongue doesn’t trip over the sounds anymore. In fact, at the end of the Rotary meeting I stood up to introduce myself and talk a little about my studies and projects, and found public speaking is actually WAYYY easier in Spanish. All my awkwardness can be explained away as foreignness, and therefore there is much less of it. Next time, dear reader, you find yourself haranguing multitudes, I highly recommend you do it in a language other than your mother tongue. It’s great practice, besides!

Next time: Purple photosynthetic bacteria, and a trip to the beach.

Previously: Travel and first impressions