Just twelve little hours by plane...

After three relaxing weeks in the states, I am back in Santiago and about to start my second semester of teaching. While at home I was, not surprisingly, constantly reminded of the differences between the U.S. and Chile. Of course, there are tons of ways that living in Chile is different than living in the U.S., but here are a couple of the things that, perhaps oddly, stood out most to me:

Points on the board for the U.S:

• It was nice to be reintroduced to the customer service culture. To approach a salesperson or cashier and have them drop immediately whatever he was doing (since, after all, there was a live, paying customer standing right in front of him, duh) and attend to my needs, was a wonderful feeling. Chilean management should take a page out of the U.S.'s book and train their employees in this...business would benefit from it. 
• Nordstrom. Urban Chic. J.Crew. South Moon Under. Old Navy. Forever 21. And the list goes on. I have a new goal: find some way around whatever astronomical duties there must be to get decent clothes into Chile, and go into the import business. After 5 months of being either a) less than impressed with the fashions or b) dismayed by the prices of what was actually cute, I was like a kid in a candy store.

And a couple things that made me say "maldita oosah!" (Damn you, USA!)

• Besides rent, I feel like everyday items cost relatively the same in Chile as in the states. I realized on this trip home that I had forgotten one key category: transportation. Never again will I whine about paying for a cab or curse having to recharge my Bip card for the Santiago metro. Sitting in cabs in DC, watching the meter leap up, what seemed like every two seconds, it was all I could do not to ask the cabbie if he had rigged it. And, next to the DC metro's charge-by-distance system, Santiago's flat rate of 580 pesos (about $1.10) is a godsend. Plus, Santiago's metro is faster, more reliable, and cleaner. Sorry DC. 
• This is an obvious one, but, no Spanish! After months of serious mental effort, trying to force my brain to instinctively say "gracias" instead of thank you, and "disculpa" instead of pardon me or I'm sorry, now I was having to do the opposite. I definitely got a few weird looks from cashiers and people I accidentally bumped into when they heard a pale, red-head blurting out Spanish words. Besides the practical, there are words and phrases I've picked up in the past month that I just love using. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever be able to drop them. In general, living bilingually (is that a word?) is just a lot more interesting than operating in only one language. I missed it a lot.

And things that were, in the words of one very impartial and diplomatic professor of mine, "not better or worse, just different:"

• Unsolicited attention--in the form of staring, muttered com(pli)ments, and, only rarely, catcalls--from male strangers. On the one hand,  I'm inclined to think this is offensive. Though, in honesty, it's rarely actually offensive. More like sometimes annoying, and often a little off-putting. But, and independent women of the world don't scorn me, back in the states I found myself thinking, "Wow, I must not be looking too good today." Silly, I know,  but trust me, more than a couple girls I have talked to here agree.
• Better produce vs. better packaged food. In Chile, you have two choices: buy whole foods, like fresh (phenomenal) produce, meats, etc, and prepare it yourself, or buy packaged crap that's terrible for you. Grocery shopping back home, I was reminded of how much variety we have in the states when it comes to prepared foods. And, how good the quality of some of them are. I think that the food industry in the U.S. is doing a really good job of creating healthy, tasty options in packaged food, although, of course, these items are going to hurt your wallet a little more than Lays and Oreos. I don't know what I'd rather have really, Chile's amazing fruits and vegetables, or the United States endless supply of increasingly wholesome and healthful ready-to-eat options.