Practical Spanish 101

Learning Spanish in a classroom can never really prepare you for life in a foreign country, especially doing biology fieldwork every day. I have begun to put together a dictionary of my own most commonly used Spanish phrases from sitting on a hill everyday, using telemetry to track radio collared degus, watching owls and foxes, and walking around town. Here is a sampling of the collected works:

Oh chasquido! = Oh snap! As in, “oh snap, owl! You just tried to eat my degu!”

Oh Chasquido! (proper noun) = name given to said burrowing owl

Tu travieso pequen = you naughty burrowing owl (usually in reference to Oh Chasquido)

Phantasma degu = ghost degu (we think he was eaten by Oh Chasquido a few days ago)

(Searching Oh Chasquido's burrow for the remains of Phantasma Degu, who we are now quite certain got eaten)

Cortecésped degu = lawnmower degu (his radio signal sounds like he is mowing the lawn)

Extraterrestre degu= alien degu (sounds like an aliean)

Taxista degu = taxi driver degu (we pick up some taxi driver static on this degu frequency)

*For fantastic drawings of our favorite degus, check out Morgan's blog!!!

El zoro = the fox

Bocando = snack (update. Apparently in Chile, "snack" is also used, as is aperitivo which is harder for us to say and thus not as popular).

Perro con Manoplas = Mitten Dog (the oldest, fattest dog who has incredibly fluffy paws that look like mittens)

Juliano = Military Dog (not really vocabulary, but actually his name. We know that because he has a military name tag sewn onto the back of his military dog jacket. He also usually wears a purple scarf, depending on how cold it is).

Play time!

(We bought light up Chile horns to wear during their match, even though we couldn't watch it. We did, however, listen to the end of it on the radio driving home from the field. A true test of Spanish vocabulary is listening to the radio!)






In the last week I have spent almost every day in the field, doing radio telemetry and tracking degu movements. In the time off from the field I have watched as many World Cup games as possible (adios Chile, England, and USA :( ). We discovered a fantastic pizza place with trees growing through the building. We also tried the "national soda", Pap, which has the most unfortunate name ever, and a color and taste to match. Yuck.

Morgan and I had an exciting night involving soccer, pub food, dessert with absurdly large utensils, a grocery shopping trip that resulted in a giant bag of mustard which was a) chosen not only for its giant size and amazing cheap-ness, but also because there is a picture of a fried piece of chicken with a face drawn on it with mustard and b) when asking some local colleagues what to do with a giant bag of condiment once it is opened, were informed that those are for restaurants and not normal houses. So now we have about 6 months worth of slightly weird tasting mustard in a bag that cannot be resealed in our fridge.

Also on the way home from our very exciting game/pub/grocery store/riding the metro night, we arrived in front of our apartment to find a small crowd of people taking pictures of some guy. So we naturally decided to take a picture as well, because clearly he was famous or something. One of the guys from the crowd came over and asked if we had taken a photo. Morgan replied yes, and asked who the person was. Guy was surprised we didn’t know, and explained he is the singer from the Screaming Trees, a grunge band from the 80s. Seeing our blank looks he added- “from Queens of the Stone Age” and we said ohhhh, we’ve heard of them! So we had a semi-famous person sighting to top it all off!

San Cristobal

Last weekend we went up the big, BIG hill, San Cristobal, in Santiago on a funicular railway!

Michael, Morgan, Monica & Tina

Monica has palm tree hair!

The semi-clear day

The giant statue of Virgin Mary you can see from most parts of the city

He was so cute!

I Finally Saw a Degu!

Tina, Loren & Michael looking for degus

Sunday was our first day in the field. We got the truck, it stopped raining, and there was no riotous football on the schedule. All of us new kids went out with Loren to Rinconada, which is a little less than an hour from downtown Santiago. It is an interesting matorral (equivalent to the chaparral of California) landscape with acacia trees and some really large cacti. It actually looks a lot like parts of California.

Degu burrow with "runways"

We saw lots of degus running around and their burrow systems with little “runways” between holes. We practiced our radio telemetry skills by hiding a little radio collar like the ones that have been put on some of the animals and I got to “be a degu” and run around the field while Morgan tried to track me. Michael also decided to be one with the coruro (the subterranean rodents he and Monica are studying) and was crawling on the hillside for a better look.

Michael sneaking up on coruro

In our field site we saw a couple of eagles, a ton of hawkish looking birds called caracaras and even a burrowing owl! He was cute and very grumpy.

Morgan with the radio tower to track degus

Chilean Food Update

I have discovered my new favorite Chilean food. It is called patatas duquesas. They are little fried mashed potato balls- like mashed potatoes inside a French fry and reminiscient of a Cheeto cheese puff. Amazing.

Also, Morgan ordered the biggest sandwich I have ever seen. Called the Frica Gigante, it was advertised under the heading “tengo hambre, mucho hambre” and boy were they NOT kidding! It was pretty much the best thing ever!

Mágico

On Friday we spent all day in our coffee shop (@SNS) right across from Universidad de Catolica. It is the best place because they have wi-fi we can use for free all day, giant flat screen tvs that show all the World Cup matches, really nice people working there (we know all of them now since we are there every day) and really tasty fresh fruit juices (jugos). We watched the exciting USA game and the not so exciting England game, went out for dinner with the whole group, and got home pretty late.

Tina, Michael, Monica, & Morgan at the cafe

When we came home something seemed strange. Our shoes by the front door were in a different place. Our floor looked… shiney. The blanket on the couch had been folded, the couch itself looked… vacuumed. Someone had come in and… cleaned? Naturally we ran all over the apartment (and checked to make sure everything was still there. It was) and exclaimed in awe at the novelty of having an unknown and wholly unexpected cleaning person. We emailed our landlord and found out it is part of our rent. Awesome! So we took a lot of pictures of our clean place, and figured the apartment would be sparkling again in two weeks.

Morgan is confused by the clean apartment

And then tonight we came home, walked in the door, and I said- did we move our shoes again? And, with more confusion and slightly less delight, we realized our apartment had been cleaned AGAIN today. And it is only Monday. So we are back to not understanding pretty much everything that goes on in this country again.

In Search of Cuisine de Chile

What foods define Chile? The tour books give unsatisfying answers. Seafood. Empanadas. Dishes borrowed from Peru and Argentina- namely ceviche (raw fish cured in lemon juice) and steak. Potatoes and pisco sours, which are jointly claimed by Chile and Peru. Chile is gaining renown for its wines, which I am sure are quite good but thus far beer and booze seem to be generally favored.

Unfortunately, the unsatisfying answers seem to be generally correct. The United States has a reputation for huge portions and unhealthy eating habits, but the Chileans seem to have taken this concept and run with it. It is like they borrowed some of the most popular (and fattening) options from many different cultures and put them on steroids. The lunch portions served here are enough for an average family of four. Fast food joints are ubiquitous. Plenty of McDonalds, Burger Kings, Kentucky Fried Chickens, pizza places, and then the hot dogs. Known as “completos”, these beasts are covered in chopped tomatoes and guacamole with a squiggle of mayonnaise decorating the top. Which is another thing- mayonnaise is definitely the condiment of choice here. In the supermarket there were 3 choices of mustard, 2 of ketchup and hot sauce, and over a dozen kinds of mayonnaise including a few in bag form (I will take a picture next time we go shopping. I think I was in too much shock and awe last time). Many little shop fronts “specialize” in completos and ice cream.

It is common for the fast food type places to display plastic renditions of the items on their menu. Tina and Morgan and I have gone out of our way to check out as many of these as we can find. There are slices of pizza covered in crazy toppings- what appears to be an entire can of sliced mushrooms, dozens of oysters or mussels, chopped up hot dogs, an inch thick layer of sliced meat. The toppings are odd, but the sheer quantity is mind boggling. Anything called “vegetarian” is bound to include fish, chicken, ham, or a combination (the only thing missing would be the red meat).

All this isn’t to say the eating experience hasn’t been enjoyable. The seafood is really fresh and there are plenty of restaurants to show it off- sushi seems to be really taking off here now, which kind of makes sense. Empanadas (similar to small calzones) are usually a tasty option and both gelato places we have tried have had delicious and inventive flavors. Raspberry with mint, green tea with mango, wild honey, pineapple or orange with ginger, a dozen kinds of chocolate.

And of course, the steak is fresh and delicious. That’s right, I had steak last night- for the first time in 14 years! We all went to an Argentine restaurant, and well, when in Chile. My first thought was “wow, I remember now what steak tastes like”. I didn’t think it was gross, but I didn’t love it. I ate about a quarter of it (and all of my potatoes) but that was about all I could handle. I made a cucumber lettuce sandwich for dinner tonight and was much happier!

Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!

Viva Chile!!

In our "acclimation time" before starting work in the field we are watching a whole lot of the World Cup, aka Copa Mundial or just Mundial. Outside of the United States I think everyone loves football, so I was thrilled to find out I would be in Chile for it this year. The World Cup is one of my favorite things ever, and it has been pretty easy to convert the rest of the crew to fandom.

Today was extra exciting because Chile played their first match and beat Honduras 1-0. We watched in a big tent set up at the university where they had a projector and some seats. It was still dark out when it started at 7:30am, but the streets were alive almost all night with honking and horns and cheering fans. It is so fun being in a crowd that is so passionate and loud! I would bet the whole country was watching this morning, and there was some serious celebrating after the victory. We stayed away from the main plazas in the city because it isn't uncommon for police to break up big groups with tear gas and rocks. No thank you. Instead we saw some officers chase high school students around the parks a little bit. Ole ole!
Pedestrians taking over the Alameda, the main street downtown

A Clear Day in Santiago

It rained on Sunday night which meant the perpetual haze temporarily cleared on Monday. We took advantage and climbed up the smaller of the two hills in town, Santa Lucia. From the fort like building on the top we had incredible views of the valley with the city of Santiago, as well as the Andes to the east and the smaller mountain range, the cordillera to the west.

Tina, Michael, Monica, and Morgan

Morgan and Tina climbing up Santa Lucia

Street Dogs

The dogs of Chile are an endless source of fascination for me. What do they do all day? Where do they go at night? Why are they all so seemingly well behaved and not interested in people? Are they pets, or strays, or something in between? These silent sentries of the city roam the streets, usually solo, occasionally in pairs but rarely with a close association to one another. They sleep curled up on the sidewalk, sprawled out in the squares and pedestrian thorough fares, unmindful of the thousands of pairs of feet passing within inches of their prone bodies, too busy basking in the sun to notice. There are at least a handful of canines on every block, and while some are clearly garbage hounds, others are decked out in shirts and scarves, but running just as free as their mangy brethren. The dogs do not beg, they are not rude or aggressive, they just calmly go about their days, the city streets belonging as much to them as any of the bipedal pedestrians.

The dogs obey the traffic laws. They sit and wait for the little man to turn green, and briskly cross the street with the throngs of people. Some claim to have seen a solo dog wait for the light to change and then proceed to cross an avenue by himself.

This evening there was a dog, waiting at the crosswalk. When the light changed he became excited, but made no move to cross to the other side. We wondered if this dog didn’t quite understand the system, but then an older man, wheeling his wares to set up on the street corner (probably consisting of TV antennas and chocolate bars, which seems de rigur for the neighborhood) arrived on our side of the street and the scruffy poi dog greeted him happily and followed him into the crowded sidewalk. Is this a daily ritual? Does the dog follow the man home at night? Does the man even feed the dog, or make sure he is sheltered when it is cold out? Or is it just another city friendship, two old pals meeting up as usual, an unspoken commitment between equals?

Santiago de Chile

After the commotion of arriving, we found ourselves tumbled into the city of Santiago. Never having been to Latin America before, there really aren't any meaningful comparisons I can make. It is busy but not frenetic, old but still modern, polite but not super friendly, and for the most part pretty clean and safe. The parks are well kept, the streets are cleaned every night, there are a lot of police but aside from a riot van that we see every night, their presence isn't overwhelming. There are shiny, busy supermarkets no different from those in downtown Boston (though you have to weigh your own fruit and stick the label on your bag. Our cashier was not impressed when we failed to do this). But there are also little hawker stands down the main streets in the evenings, selling TV antennas, shoe insoles, pantyhose, and wool hats. Dogs wander everywhere, which has really caught our interest.

I am sharing an apartment with 2 other girls, Morgan and Tina. We are in Centro, the downtown of Santiago. Our apartment is on the 12th floor with Southeast facing windows with views of the Andes. On the roof there is a small gym, a swimming pool that has been drained for the winter, and a BBQ area. The first day we explored the building, going up and down the elevators and stairs, much to the amusement of the guys at the front desk, who we later realized monitored the camera footage constantly streaming from all parts of the building.

Arriving in a Spanish speaking country, you are really thrown into the language. Everywhere else I have traveled, including Asia, it has been pretty easy to get around speaking only English with a few words of the local language. Not so here. Chilean Spanish is also a whole different beast than classroom Spanish. People speak FAST, there are a lot of different words for common things, and accents are thick. We get on ok in restaurants and shops (for the most part) but we had to go enquire about getting internet access in our apartment, and I felt like I had run a marathon by the time we walked out. What we found out, though, is you need a Chilean identification number (kind of like our social security number) in order to get a phone line, which is necessary in order to get internet. We are hoping our apartment service can find a way around that, but til then it is internet cafes.

Flying

Delta, above all other airlines I have flown, must do special R&D to get the mood of their flights, start to finish, just right. It takes a slight and sparing hand to get that perfect mixture of frustration, panic, tedium, discomfort, and inconvenience. My flight from San Francisco to Santiago via Atlanta started innocently enough. I booked well in advance, had a nice (window) seat assignment, and was even allowed to check in online, which seems unusual for an international flight. Wanting to double check my departure gate, I called my new Sky Miles number (yes I even signed up for their club) and was told beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was to report to the international terminal to check in. Seeing as I was flying first to Atlanta and then changing planes, this seemed odd. Seeing as I have flown on Delta before, my mother agreed to accompany me to the check in, just in case I had to lug all my stuff to Domestic. Which of course I did.

After their tedious bag drop lines, a crowded gate with a broken PA, and over an hour of sitting on the tarmac before lining up to take off, only to pull to the side for a technical malfunction, we were on our way.

We arrived in Atlanta over an hour late, and as it is Delta’s hub everyone had a connecting flight they now had about 10 minutes to catch. This kind of situation really brings out the best in people, and shoving and some name calling ensued.

Rushing to the next terminal, I was a little relieved my flight to Santiago had been delayed. At least they are consistent.

The flight, once we took off, was pleasant and not crowded. We landed, met the one member of our group who had flown American (he had arrived early) and from there everything proceeded smoothly. Until the last of the luggage was delivered, neither of my pieces among them. Apparently the baggage from San Francisco never left Atlanta.

Oh Delta, how do you do it?

A New Adventure

It's been about 9 months since returning from the land down under- high time to stuff the backpack and set out again! This time I will be going to Santiago, Chile, because apparently I'm one of those people who wants perpetual winter. On the plus side, I can always find good end-of-season sales.

This trip is about more than "just for fun" (though hopefully there will be a good bit of that in here too!). I'm going to work with a team and research the degu, a burrowing rodent that lives in the wilds of Chile. I will be working for about 5 months, then doing some traveling on my own for 2 more. After months of planning and a few hours of last minute packing, I think I am ready to go!