First Graduate

This post is part of an ongoing series of blog entries by Anjie D (FG3), a Junior at Barnard College writing about her experiences studying abroad in Chile. Here's an excerpt of her latest musings.

Consider this your fair warning: If I intend to do the past week any justice, then this blog entry is going to have to be epically long. I suggest that you make yourself an iced tea and get comfortable.

The Other Side of the World is Really the Other Side of the Mirror

The following is a recipe for San Franciscans wishing to adjust to the Chilean physical and social environment.

Take everything you’re used to and gently turn it 180 degrees, making sure none of the contents shift in the process. Add drastic changes in daily winter temperature, Chilean Spanish (no substitutes), and a fully open capitalist market. Skim off from the top the adherence to the stated speed limit; remove and dispose of immediately. Serve with a side of parallel politics.

Everything here, with the exception of the added ingredients mentioned above, is familiar. Chile physically seems to mirror Northern California. San Francisco is “The City by the Bay”; Vina del Mar and Valparaiso, then, must be “The Sister Cities by the Other Bay.” Central Chile’s hills and Mediterranean-biome plant life mirror the hills and plant life of the Bay Area. Like most of northern California, the winter isn’t all that bad. (Yes, it gets really cold at night, even after what felt like a Spring day, but that’s because in Chile houses are not kept artificially warm with central heating like they are in the U.S.) Valparaiso has ascensores to climb the hills for you; San Francisco has cable cars for the same purpose. The ocean sparkles in the sun here the same way it does in northern California. Even the politics have things in common.

To read the full post, please visit please visit Anjie's blog on IFSA-Butler site.