Lauren: Paying bills.

Another thing that was totally new to me here: how to pay bills. In Chile you pay your bills in person; it's not even possible to write a check and send it off in the mail.

I actually prefer this because you walk in, see the money leave, and have a receipt stapled to your bill when you leave. You don't have to worry about it getting lost in the mail, the page having a "server error," or something going wrong. You walk in, talk to someone, and know it's taken care of.

All around the city there are these ServiPags where you pay for all your services, gas, electricity, water, you can charge your metro commuter card, charge your phone (I think), and I think some places let you pay your communal costs for your building here, although ours requires us to go to a bank and pay.

This really saved Aneya and I because it's impossible to get a bank account here without five pay stubs (which is impossible to get without a visa), so we never got Chilean bank accounts.

-- Lauren