Sin reirse y sin hablar.

A few comments on things chilean:

Chileans are a mix of indigenous and Spanish blood, but can often times be very white. Especially in Osorno, where there is a lot of french and german heritage. That being said, I don´t stand out too bad as a gringo. So I was surprised when a guy came up to me in a bar the other night, and asked me wher i was from in english. Apparently he did a "intercambio" in Utah and knew I was american. I asked one of my coworkers if without speaking, I could pass as chilena. "Sin hablar y sin reírse." -- without talking and without laughing. So my laughter gets me in trouble again...

Healthy food doesn´t seem to be of concern to anyone. Bread with cheese and ham is appropriate for any and every meal. Salt, sugar, and oil are used generously on everything. This country supposedly consumes more bread per capital than anywhere else in the world (a statistic often repeated but yet to be confirmed ) and no one has heard of whole wheat, or grain. And of course theres plent of beer. Not surprisingly, there are issues with obesity. The funny part about all this, is that after a diet like this, most chileans insist on putting sacarina or some sort of fake sugar in their coffee. That thats going to make up for all the rest of the bad eating habbits. Yeah, right.

In Chile, I have to kiss everyone I meet. Women kiss women and men, but two men will usually shake hands. What I find funny about this is that the kiss always comes before the introduction and sometimes in place of one. Many times I will kiss someone, and never learn their name. You also kiss someone every time you see them, and say goodbye. It really makes it seem like we´re all friends in this country. There´s this wonderfully handsome guy in my office, and it still surprises me that we kiss at least twice a day.

Money here cotinues to surprise me. Yesterday, I bought a delicious nectarine for 50 pesos, which i think is about ten cents. Then today I tried to buy another one but it was in the center of town and he charged me 100 pesos. I felt ripped off, but then remembered the difference was a matter of pennies. You can usually buy an empanada for like 350 pesos, or a little more than 50 cents. But one scoop of ice cream costs 750 pesos, a little over a dollar. The bus I will take today to a lake town nearby will cost 1 and a half luca (1 luca = 1,000 pesos). Thats less than $3 for an hour long bus ride. Then somethings, are just as expensive as they are here. I bought shampoo, conditioner and soap (american brands) and spent a few thousand pesos. I could buy bags and bags of nectarines with that amount of money, but my hair would probably be all dried out.

We joke about Jewish time, and Wesleyan time, and choose-your-own-ethnic group time, but Chilean time is something more profound. Samantha, the woman who organized my trip down here, seriously thinks that the Chilean tendency to start things late is a serious impediment to the country´s development. I still get to work on time everyday, but usually just to wait around for at least 45 minutes until we´re done kissing each other hello, and something finally happens. Yesterday I had to wake up an hour early to get to the office at 8am so I could get in the car to head to the country for a meeting with a community. After an hour of checking my mail, we finally left. We also get a luxurious hour and a half lunch break, and take lots of chatting breaks. this is definitely my kind of office. Since I don´t have any other skills to offer, I will continue to demonstrate my ability to arrive places on time, even if it means waiting outside until someone opens up the office (which it often does...).