I have been in Chile for almost two months now (its hard to believe) and I´ve made several oberservations about the language, lifestyle, and food. Ill start with my dictionary, "How to Survive in the Chilean Jungle", by John Brennan- an encyclodepia of Chilean slang complete with photo demonstrations and diagrams. This book translates all the R-rated english curse words, but more entertainingly it defines the "Chileanismos" or the slang terms that are only understood here in Chile. A few of my favorites include "perro muertro", which translates to the act of dinning and dashing and "A lo gringo", which means you´ve forgotten to put on underpants. Why Chileans would relate the Gringos with forgotten underpants is beyond me. This brings me to the word "Weon" (pronounced WAY-OWN), which Brennan describes as, "Chile´s prized addition to the Spanish language". When you call someone a "weon", youre calling them an idiot, but its used more like the words "dude" or "man". I couldn´t even count how many times its used in simple conversation, but literally every sentance begins and ends with "weon" and for girls "weona". And of course its used in various contexts, for example, you can descirbe something as being "weonismo"or say "estoy weando" (im just kidding). I have been told by my host parents, friends, and even teachers that Chileans speak a very poor version of the Castillian language. For example, they conjugate some verbs in "tu" form differently. Instead of "hablas"or"estas" its "hablai" and "estai". Moreover, everyone finishes words and phrases with "po", which is short for "pues". For example,"sipo", "yapo", "no sépo". I find myself saying "po" a lot and everyone thinks its hilarious to hear the gringo use the Chilean version of Spanish. We heard a presentation in school the other day and the girl next to me pinpointed the speaker as a Venezuelan just by the way he spoke. I started paying attention to these variations after we watched documentary aboot the linguistic differences between Canada and the US (I was the only one laughing).
The food is delicious and im finding dishes that I love, but im also missing things that were otherwise my staple back home. Ill start with the Completo. At first I thought this was disgusting, but now I am an absolute fan. The completo is baiscally a hotdog, yet its bun has slightly higher sidewalls to carry all its condiments. The basic ingredients include: diced tomatoes, a thick layer of guacamole, lots of mayonnaise, and too much ketchup, but you usually have the option of adding onions and mustard. It takes two or three bites of pure condiments before you get to the hotdog and they come in various sizes depending on your appetite. On another note, Chileans don´t like peanut butter-they sell it in stores, but very few people eat it. I try to convince my hostmother that its not used like regular butter, but she keeps on putting it on the table in case I want to add it to dinner. My father is warming to the PB&J and he likes the idea of "ants on a log", however, my hostmother refuses to eat it. Although I am surviving, Chileans dont sell pretzels - I cant think of a day thats gone by where I havent eaten pretzels (with hummus). But the empanadas I absolutely love- theres a place called Los Molinos (the windmills) down the road from school where we´ll eat lunch every once and a while. I usually come home for lunch becuase the Nana cooks. The only downside to this is we will eat the same dish for dinner and so, more often than not, I find myself eating lentils for lunch, dinner, and then leftover lentil soup the following day. Nevertheless, I have gained weight, and so maybe the freshman 15 doesnt apply only to first year college students...
Yes, this actually happened. Take a good look at this picture and make sure you are seeing everything correctly. Nevermind the decent rainbow trout, there is a hook lodged in my upper lip! Believe what you will for this is afterall a fishing story (possibly my best), but I can assure you im not exaggerating. I suppose every fly fisherman hooks himself at some point- this was my first...
On friday, I was invited to go fishing with Thomas Schalchli and his father, who are both avid fly fisherman. Excited to inaugurate my new rod here in Chile, I couldn´t wait to get going. On saturday, I went over to Tom´s house to organize gear for our sunday morning departure. Once we gathered everything, Mr. Schalchli showed me his giant fish freezers, his private fly tying room, and tons of pictures from past fishing excursions. The following morning, we drove one hour south on the Pan-American highway and then some distance east toward the mountain range. Mr. S, like every other person in Los Angeles, works in forestry and was pointing out all the plots of land that he managed. To acsess the river we drove on the forest maintance roads dodging fallen trees and giant pot holes. The first few hours of fishing were wonderful, however, the wind was fierce! And so on an unfortunate back cast a gust wind whipped Mr. Schalchli´s hand tied Caddis right into my upper lip. I had caught myself. Full of embarassment and as helpless as the fish I had previsouly caught, I stumbled down river to where Tom and his father were casting. We managed to cut the line, but the barb was inbedded deep in my skin and so 
attempting to remove it would have been difficult. Mr. S said we´d better drive back to Los Angeles and visit the medical clinic. I knew trying to remove it right then and there would only worsen my predicament, but a part of me wanted to keep fishing. Moreover, I felt awful that I was the reason for our early return. Not exactly sure how express myself, I proceeded with the comic approach and said things like, "I was just really hungry..." and "looks like I caught the biggest one today, eh?". I spent the entire ride home outlining this entry in my head trying to restrain myself from touching my accidental lip ring. In the clinic waiting room, I couldn´t do anything but laugh at the looks I recieved. Luckily, the removal procedure was quick and painless, however, with all this anesthetic in my lips right now I cant exactly speak, let alone roll my Spanish R´s. My host parents are in Santiago for family reasons and wont be arriving until later tonight. I can´t wait to try and tell this story in Spanish over dinner...
