Chilenismos

I have been in Chile for two days now and am starting to feel a little more comfortable. It didn't really sink in that I would be living here for almost six months until I was getting on the plane on Thursday night. I have never felt so many things at one time. I am so excited to be here but at the same time very nervous, since this is an experience like none that I have ever had.

I am living in a part of Santiago called Providencia with my Chilean host mom, Claudia, who is teaching me a lot about Chilean culture. Being here has made me realize how different it is to speak Spanish in class versus in everyday life. There are a lot of words and concepts that I don't understand unless they are explained to me. Many of these are called Chilenismos. Chilenismos are words or phrases that are unique to Chile. There are a lot of them but Claudia is always willing to explain them to me until I understand.

One of the first Chilenismos that I learned was palolo. Palolo is the word that people in Chile use for boyfriend. The word that we have always been taught is novio but its not really used here.

Some other things I have learned about Chile so far:

In grocery stores everything is sold in much smaller quantities. The largest bottle of orange juice that you can buy is smaller than the smallest container you would find in an American store. I don't know if this is universal in Chile but it's what I have noticed so far.

Also my host mom thinks that I don't eat enough. Although I love the food so far I can never finish the portions that I am served. Mealtimes are also different. Breakfast isn't a big deal but lunch is the largest/most important meal of the day and is eaten later than I am used to in the US. We also eat dinner really late, and it isn't the big meal of the day.

Today when we returned to the house after being out all afternoon, we found that the lock had broken when we closed the door and we couldn't get inside! We went to the neighbors house and the man who lives there along with his son had to take off the window from the outside so that we could get inside. I'm not really sure what this means in terms of leaving the house since the lock is still broken on the front door but the whole experience reminded me of the many times that things have broken or gone wrong at home. It was an oddly familiar experience!

It is definitely hard to think in Spanish all the time and I have to pay close attention all of the time to understand everything that is going on. There are many times when I just nod and say "si" but I think people catch on that I don't understand. However, even though it is an adjustment I am having a lot of fun!