Lauren: Standing out.

So for the first time ín my life, I´m a racial and ethnic minority. I´ve always had friends that would tell me how it feels to stand out, or how it feels to look different in ethnically homogenous areas. But for the first time, I´m experiencing this firsthand. I´m so different looking from most people here and I´m constantly aware of it. It´s like I´m wearing my differentness all the time.

There is a small, but significant German and Eastern European population in Chile, but largely most people are of Spanish or indigenous decent, or some blend of the two. Walking around, I can just feel how much I stand out and I know that people notice. It´s kind of unsettling.

I don´t notice people treating me differently too much. Sometimes if I ask a question in Spanish, they´ll respond in English. And there was that one time in Valparaiso when the bus driver kept charging us more money because we were clearly from another country.

For the most part people are nice, though. I don´t get weird looks when I go into a store or anything like that, so in that way, being a minority here isn´t too bad. It´s just this constant out-of-place feeling that I´m experiencing for the first time.

-Lauren