Spot the difference!

The first thing that my parents asked me when we skyped for the first time was "What's different in Chile?" and I suppose I should've been more prepared to answer that question, it being an obvious question, but for whatever reason, I was completely caught off guard. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that I had only been in chile for a few days, but probably I was more foccused on the fact that my rotary counselor had just come in the door and was waiting for me in the next room.

Anyhow, as I'm waiting for everyone else to come home from school, I'm prepared to make it up to you all now:

I suppose that's the first big thing: school doesn't end until 6 o'clock here. Most days Franco and Max don't get home until 7 or 8. Although they do get a longer break for lunch, and everyone goes home to eat.

Which leads me into the next big difference: lunch is the most important meal of the day. And I mean that; it's huge. Only in the last two days have I been able to eat my whole meal, and for that I am incredibly proud of myself. There's a first course, usually salad and bread, and then a main course. Breakfast here is normal sized, usually two halves of an English-muffin type thing with butter or honey. And then dinner is small, if there is any dinner served at all. So that took a ton of getting used to.

I was really worried that food here would be really spicy, but it isn't really. Well, a little spicy, but not bad at all. That's not to say it's bland though--here, everything is either super salty or super sweet. Salad: salty. Nuts: salty! Ice cream: I can barely eat it, it's so sweet. then there's this thing called manjar, which is like peanut butter or caramel, and is made from sugar and milk. And it's the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. It's alright on an apple or banana, but my brothers will eat it on everything, or just a huge plateful of it plain. I think that if you brought manjar to the U.S., you could probably use it to torture people. "Tell me what you know or I'll force feed you straight manjar." And then there's the drinks--I haven't had water or regular milk since I got here: with lunch and dinner it's juice, and for breakfast you have chocolate milk (hot or cold) or coffee. If you ask for milk, you'll get chocolate milk. It's all either sweet or salty!

Then there's the heating. The main source of heat in the house is a stove--estufa--that is used expressly for that purpose. The main stove for cooking is out in the yard. In the morning, it's nearly impossible to get out of bed, it's so cold. All the floors in the house are wood or tiled, so you have to wear shoes or slippers, or freeze, because the floors are the coldest.

Nannies are really common. Ours is named Anita and she's super nice although I don't undersand a word she says. It's weird to have someone cooking and serving all of your food, and doing all of your laundry, though. Also, I wonder if it's like an international rule that nannies and maids must watch soap operas. Because I always imagined nannies watching soap operas, and here, all the nannies and maids actually do.

Lastly, when you greet someone, you kiss them on the cheek. Pretty much you do this all the time, when you are saying hello, when you say good bye, before you go to bed, when you meet someone; all the time. Except for sometimes you don't, and I haven't quite figured it out yet. I am just glad that I'm not a guy, because then sometimes you kiss someone on the cheek, and sometimes you shake hands, and I have no idea which you do when. One less thing to think about.

Oh, actually, one last thing. Every school has uniforms here. I'm actually really enjoying this fact, because all the little kids look REALLY cute all dressed nicely, plus, it's one less thing to worry about in the morning.

Thats all for now. Chao!
-Gracie