On a Lighter Note

2 Truths and 1 Lie

Well, I had this all ready to go before the earthquake, so to lighten the mood a bit, let’s play a game. It’s called 2 Truths and 1 Lie, and you play like it sounds: out of the 3 points, two are true and one is a lie. Try to decipher the lie. The first half of the sentences are what “they” (guidebooks, friends, my study abroad program, the ever reliant wikipedia, etc.) told me about Santiago before I arrived here. The second series are things I was not told. Can you figure it out? A ver…

What they told me before I left:

1a. Chileans do not wear bright colors.

2a. It is easy to travel around Santiago on public transportation.

3a. Chileans drink lots of wine.

1b. The food in Chile is full of fish and red meat.

2b. Internet is hard to come by, especially wi-fi.

3b. There is very little presence of Air Conditioning.

1c. Chilean Spanish is the hardest to understand.

2c. Brewed coffee is a rarity.

3c. The women are beautiful, the men not so much.

1d. Smoking is a popular hobby.

2d. Going out for an evening of dancing and drinks lasts until 4am.

3d. Books are expensive to buy.

1e. There are 4 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, once, and dinner.

2e. The beach towns are close and easily accessible from Santiago.

3e. Pick pocketing is common in the city.

What they didn’t tell me before I left:

1f. Water is not automatically heated.

2f. There are many, many Chinese restaurants.

3f. Chileans are typically not very direct.

1g. I would have a swimming pool I my backyard.

2g. It would be very cold in the summer.

3g. Boys here have mullets.

The Answers (don’t you peek)

1a. Chileans DO wear bright colors! They have a great, loose, hippie sense of fashion here which I love, love, love.

2b. Me and all of the other gringos in my program all have wi-fi in our houses. I don’t even have wi-fi in my house in the states.

3c. Lies! There is plenty of beauty in the men to feast my eyes on and be quite full indeed. ;) Don’t worry mom, just looking!

2d. Going out lasts until 4am on an early night. Most clubs and bars don’t close until 5am. The night I went out with my sister and her friend, we got home at 6:30am.

1e. We still have three meals: breakfast before school/work, a big main meal at lunch, and once at around 9 or 10pm. My body still needs to adjust to the time gaps.

3f. Chileans are direct! My family corrects my Spanish, my manners, my views all the time in a very straight forward way.

2g. Actually, it’s rather hot. Rather, rather hot since there is not AC (stuffed metros and buses are not so yummy). But beautiful at night!

Surprised? Me too. If you got them all right, let me know I’ll get you a prize. Ha!