The journey to Chile was a fun, sleepless, and relatively stress free experience. I arrived in the New Orleans airport with two friends on Friday night, waiting for the flight to Dallas-Santiago-Concepcion to begin. It took everything I had to be patient and enjoy the journey as much as I knew I would enjoy the destination. I had made good contact with my Chilean family before I left and prepared myself as much as I could for the complete culture shock I would soon submerge myself in. Nothing could have prepared me enough, I realized, for the immediate excitement that would come the moment I stepped foot in Concepcion.
I walked off the plan directly into the loving embrace of two of my Chilean brothers, Cristian and Lucas. Their mom, Luz, and their pug, Charly, were waiting outside for me. We hopped in the car and headed straight to a local restaurant for some delicious empanadas. The boys ate quickly, but I took my time, savoring every bite. It was a great first taste of Chile.
Immediately after eating, I went to a power lifting competition with Cristian. The competition took place at the local school which is near the school I would be soon teaching at. When I entered the gate of the school, I was greeted by two stray dogs. In fact, I was greeted by about a hundred stray dogs, but two of them had been informally adopted by the school. I later discovered that Concepcion has dogs like Baton Rouge has squirrels. They´re everywhere. The competition was a blast. I was introduced to many of Cristian´s friends, and they all marveled at my English, asking me thousands of questions about myself, my journey, and Los Estados Unidos. I had inifitely more questions to ask them, but I had such diffulty communicating that I decided to wait and experience the country myself.
When we finally got home, I was showed to my room. It was generously lent to me by Pablo, the oldest brother in my Chilean family. One of the main observations I have made about Chileans is they are very space efficient. When I explained this to my family back home, I used the best example I could think of: the door frame. The door frames in the U.S. are unnecessarily wide. In Concepcion, the door frames are just wide enough to serve their purpose. Chileans are also extremely efficient with their food portions. The plate sizes are much smaller than those in America, preventing us (me) from overeating. I always knew Americans were superfluous in the way we use consume, but I did not realize the extend to which we waste basic things.
Overall, this experience has been exceptional! I am excited to complete my first week in school and blog about it some more later. The schedule ahead looks like it should be full of adventure!
¡Chao!
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