Been here a little less than two weeks now. It's winter - pretty cold but not snowing. Real hazy at night and smoggy during the day. I'm interning at The Santiago Times - a local English news publication (mostly online) that is, to say the least: janky. It's a good experience though; I'm learning things, my writing's improving and I'm getting published. Unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to read full articles online, (which makes absolutely no sense to me in this publication's case) but if you email me I'm sure we can find a way to extend the access a bit.
I spent the first few days living in the worst conditions - on the couch in the office. A place not fit for working in, much less living in, but it was free. On the brighter side I just moved into an abode of my own a few nights ago. Nice enough place on the 18th floor of building in the center of town. Great location - has a neon beer billboard on the roof so it's easy to find stumbling home after a night on the town - a cheap drunkard's north star. Has a cool view of the city which will be great in the summer when the smog clears. My roommates are a couple of Chilean law students. One of them, Ricardo, speaks perfect English and just got back from studying in Maine for a semester. The other, Anita, is real nice - that's about all I got regarding her so far.
Santiago suits me a lot better than Koga (Japan) did. Feel much better after a week here than I did after a week there. Most people I work with are decent human beings (from what I've gathered so far) and down for a good time. Lots of stuff going on in the city. Metro's easy to use - the buses are usually packed or empty. When they're packed, there's usually some type of entertainment or peddling to the captive, cramped audience. Some guys sell pens and candy, others play guitar or rap, while some are sob stories with a disease or disorder begging for help (money).
The beer's pretty average - wine's great - food's not healthy and usually meat-based - things are cheap - I like it.
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Stories from Japan and Chile.
- Adam S. Fuller
- I am a social media professional, writer and photographer from Phoenix, Arizona. The Gaijin Report is the travel blog I started while living in Japan and Chile. Please visit http://adamsfuller.com to read my current blog: Fuller Creative.
Santiago Slurring
- Not many people on crutches, but a hell of a lot of limping
- A meal "a lo pobre" is rich in taste, high in cholesterol and not for the poor
- Ya does not always mean yeah
- Always beware of the upsell
- No place to learn, practice or fine tune Spanish speaking skills
- I've never eaten more hot dogs in my entire life
- If you're 15 minutes late, you're a day and a half early
- If it's broke, you can't break it
That's Japan
- There's no way to say you miss somebody in Japanese
- Latest set of 2nd Grader vocab words: advertise, industrial, nuclear, waste, dump
- Same word is used for "absent" and "vacation"
- Logic, compassion and enjoyment are sacrificed for tradition, respect and control
- The more pain you're in, the more respect you're showing
- If you are efficient you are lazy
- Same word is used for "different" and "wrong"
- When someone says somebody is "nice" it means, "I hate him/her"
- There's a fine line between amusement and annoyance here
- Same word is used for "funny" and "interesting," which is pretty interesting and kind of funny
- They're not bad drivers, just rushed and inconsiderate
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