- Trying to keep myself straight about what month/season we are in. The changeable Santiago weather doesn't help, though it seems like summer has officially arrived here, with sunny days (is the sun actually brighter here, or is it just me?) and temps in the mid to high 80s (that means mid to high 90s in the metro, yuck). Despite the weather, knowing that it is November has me all screwed up. Everything I read from the U.S. (read: friend's facebook pictures, cooking blogs, Washington Post's Going Out Guide) screams of fall. And as it's my favorite season, I feel like I'm experiencing some sort of strange "phantom limb" syndrome about it. With Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season looming I feel it's just going to get worse.
- Halloween in Chile. Chileans are caught in a sort of limbo over Halloween. I couldn't get a straight answer from the Chileans I talked to about whether it's even celebrated. Some would say "Oh yes! Se celebra harto!* Everyone dresses up!" Others would tell me it's just for kids. How long it's been celebrated also seemed to be in dispute. Twenty somethings and sixty somethings alike claimed that the beginnings of Halloween's popularity in Chile lay during their colegio* days. There were certainly a number of costume parties advertised, and I saw a bunch of little kids running around in their costumes in the park near my house, but on the whole, the enthusiasm for Halloween is underwhelming. Besides that, as it's in its nascent stage as a holiday here, Chileans are stuck in that concept of Halloween as "scary." Every costume I saw was a dead something or a zombie something or an ax-murderer something.
Needless to say, they didn't quite get my costume: a Chilean nana.* A piece of background: in Chile, everyone has a nana, regardless of social status, and everyone makes their nanas wear uniforms. So, when the nana is out, doing what the nanas do here, which is everything (taking the kids to the park, getting groceries, walking the dog, cleaning the windows, mowing the lawn (no, Santiaguinos don't really have lawns, but it was a funny mental image)), the uniform marks the nana for all the world as a domestic servant. They actually have entire stores devoted to nana uniforms. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, one of these stores, where I wanted to buy my costume, was closed on the Saturday before Halloween. Luckily though, for the bargain price of 6 mil pesos ($12) you can buy your nana a spankin' new uniform at your neighborhood....grocery strore! Just one aisle over from the yogurts and the unrefrigerated boxed milk!
My friend took some pictures, and I will be sure to post one once she gets them up, but basically I wore a baby pink checkered smock-like dress, tucked a rag and some clothes pins in my pocket, and carried a plastic grocery bag as my purse. Of course, in true gringo-Halloween fashion, which "sexy-fies" even the most unlikely suspects, I wore heels and cinched my smock with a skinny belt.
- Celebrated my first out-of-town birthday with lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Santiago. Below is a picture of only round one of my desserts that day :)
-Starting to make plans for post-December 10, my last day of classes at Duoc. A beach vacation to Brazil or Colombia might be in the cards before heading back stateside. Click away on those links anyone who might be able to get away to the southern hemisphere between Christmas and New Years. You have the will of steel if they don't convince you.
Besos!
*It's celebrated a ton/so much!
* grade/high school
*housekeeper
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