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Cerro La Campana, transportation and fall comes to Chile (finally!)
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 25 May 2009
I'm torn here whether I should talk about Chile's national parks or Chile's unbeatable public transportation (at least in the central region, in which Santiago is located). I guess tons has been written about the national parks, and not that much about transportation (but lookie here, an article by yours truly lauding the Santiago Metro as the Cadillac of metros, and the Viña-Valpo metro as having one of the best views of any metro. And it does).
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Medical Records Management in Chile. A Maravilla. (and puppetry of the people, if you will).
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 20 May 2009
In keeping with talking about how modern and unbelievable Chile is (in this post about how we pay taxes), which makes at least one of my friends think that the whole shebang is part of a giant conspiracy, puppet-goverment style, I want to talk to you about medical records management.
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Pomaire, in pictures. But barely any terra cotta.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 19 May 2009
Welcome class! Yesterday we learned that she-donkey milk is still sold in Santiago, that it's high in good lipids, that Cleopatra bathed in it and that Emily could use your get well soon vibes after a very unfortunate incident which she summed up on twitter as "I braked with my face." I think she'll be okay though. Perhaps we should go find a she-donkey's milk?
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Donkey milk and raise your hand if you'd like an artichoke.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 18 May 2009
Leche de burra! (she-donkey milk), Leche de burra! This is what one of my friends heard as a child as the local she-donkey milk salesman peddled his wares. Now I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure this happened while he was living in the small southern (hexagonally-shaped, OMG, what a navigational nightmare for me) city of Coyhaique (Co-YI-kay), and not here in Santiago. Though people often talk about how Santiago used to be much more homey and countrified and provincial, I don't think anyone used to sell donkey milk on the street a short 30 years ago.
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Getting around in Santiago, with or without a little help from your friends
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 15 May 2009
Ever since the Transantiago overhaul, public transporation in Santiago has been, to put it politely, a bear. There's a whole long story about what's going on and what was promised and how the information was disseminated and how bad the crush is during rush hours. For a great discussion of what the metro looks (and feels) like during rush hour, I send you to Margaret's blog, Cachando Chile, where she give her impressions, as well as explains different concepts of personal space.
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Santiago: A Bagel-free-zone
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 14 May 2009
It is official. We are living in a bagel-free zone.
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Alex, I'll take beespit for 1,000. Or which way does the runny nose go in South America?
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 12 May 2009
Down, the runny nose goes down. Here we call it romadizo if we're in polite company, congestión if we don't want to allude to the nose blowiness of it all (or if none is necessary), or we talk about mocos if we're with kids or want to be a little yucky. You'll be happy to know that the word flema exists as well, and I'm not even going to tell you what it means, as I'm sure you can figure it out for yourself. (hint, switch out the f for a ph...).
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I see you, and I feel compelled to shout non sequiturs!
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 24 April 2009
As a woman in Latin America, or truthfully in many parts of the world, you get used to people shouting stuff out at you on the street. Everything from cute little "Heaven must be missing an angel" comments to things that would make your 18-year-old nephew (don't have one, this is poetic license) blush. I have a variety of reactions to these comments, based on how I feel, how lascivious they are, how much I was enjoying my day prior to being interrupted, etc. But today's jibbertyjab is not actually about men calling things out to women on the street.
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My city is a vision of safety. Except when it's not.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 23 April 2009
Santiago is outrageously safe, for the most part. And for the most part, I mean specific neighborhoods including Providencia, Ñuñoa, La Reina, La Dehesa, Lo Barnechea, Las Condes, Vitacura, parts of downtown and lots of other comunas (districts) that you'd probably never visit unless someone invited you over for tea (or onces, as they'd be more likely to call it, especially if they are not very upper class).
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Dr. Simi! What is that funny costume you wear?
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 21 April 2009
Price fixing. That's what my first legal temp job was about after graduating from law school. I worked in a windowless "war room" with several wannabe lawyers (whereas I just wanted to be working, and soon was, as a kind of legal journalist/law clerk), checking document after document for "compliance." We were looking for evidence of price fixing between several major agricultural giants, specifically on high fructose corn syrup. You rememember that stuff, right?
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On knitting your own weekend
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 20 April 2009
This weekend I played cultural philistine, and purposely avoided several big events happening in Santiago.
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A desert full of wonders – San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Blog: velvet escape's blog - 16 April 2009
A desert full of wonders – San Pedro de Atacama (a page from my Travel Journal) A very good friend of mine persuaded me to visit northern Chile. I was quite hesitant at first because it’s a desert region and I’m not a big fan of deserts! They’re very dry and extremely hot; elements which [...]
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Expat life, those pesky and repetitive questions.
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 10 April 2009
Inspired by the blog of a France-to-Canada expat who's an adult TCK (third culture kid) which I found through someone I don't know (@expatify)who started following me on twitter, which is maybe less serendipitous than the fact that I met an exboyfriend's exgirlfriend at a party not too long ago (oh! and did we have things to talk about). But that did not inspire a blog entry, so back to this one.
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On the informal economy
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 8 April 2009
In a recent guest blog post over at Travelojos in which I talk about the contrast between formal and informal morality in Chile, I mentioned that there are two economies here, the formal and informal.
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On accents
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 6 April 2009
It drives me batty when people imitate what they percieve to be an American accent in Spanish. If they did it well, or reliably, or if they actually sounded like what Americans sound like when they speak Spanish, or if I myself had a strong accent in Spanish, perhaps I would take to it more kindly, think it cute. Instead I've got my blood cells jumping up and down in a jumpity motion we call boiling.
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My day in the hinterlands, a story by Eileen Smith
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 31 March 2009
Say you want to do as we do. We being your new best friends who live here in Santiago. Well, first you've got to get together a group of friends. Take these for instance:
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The law of contrasts
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 24 March 2009
The contrasts between old and new, practical and superflous, modern and old-fashioned never ceases to amaze me. Maybe that's why I find in Chile an utterly endless supply of blog (and other writing) fodder. Today's lesson is about regulation, rules and the following thereof.
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The what and where of Santiago, trickier to find than you'd think!
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 20 March 2009
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Who really knows Chile?
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 19 March 2009
Every year, on the fourth Thursday of November, like many other families in that somewhat misshapen landmass of a country we call the United States, my family gets together for Thanksgiving. For the first three years I was in Chile I dealt with my weather sickness (November is warm, and nostalgia-rife), searched the Vega (main fruit and veg market) for overpriced hand-harvested sweet potatoes that would still be good at this time of year, and moped.
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A tale of two trees
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 13 March 2009
Everyone in Chile is crazy about the alerce (a-LEHR-say). The alerce is Chile's redwood, its giant sequoia. A huge hardwood tree that was overharvested almost to extinction. It grows gigantically tall and hugely round and for a thousand years. It fills an important ecological niche, is present only in a few isolated stands and rooves the old cottages and houses with a characteristic shingle that doesn't podrir (rot). In English it's the false larch. Which to you means nothing.
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Por Dato
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 6 March 2009
Datos are facts, as in information. Hechos are also sort of facts (El hecho de lees mi blog me agrada mucho/I really like the fact that you read my blog), but hecho-as-fact is not part of today's linguistic equation.
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The connection between bread and civil unrest. Not as tenuous as you might think!
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 5 March 2009
On March 29th two years ago, there was a giant bread conundrum. Giant! People were rushing from store to store, begging for bread. Do you have bread? Hay pan? Only sliced bread. Pan de molde? Yeah, sliced bread. Bueno, es lo que hay. Okay, I guess it will do.
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Is there convenience food in Chile?
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 3 March 2009
Your newgringostomach may occasionally ask you please ply it with yummy crunchy fresh-from-the-oven pizza bites or whathaveyou. In my case, I never really ate much of that food in the states, tiny quiches from Costco at the occasional novice art opening notwithstanding.
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Walk this way
Blog: Bearshapedsphere - 27 February 2009
Every city has its own walking rhythm, it’s own choreographed set of steps that let you get from point A to point B without obstructing traffic, or getting mashed by your fellow pedestrians.
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Santiago Dreaming
Blog: Aerohaveno: A Travel Blog - 19 December 2008
As a travel writer, I'm a firm believer in keeping a detailed daily diary of my impressions while on the road. The result is often a lively piece of writing that evokes the feeling of actually being there that day.
