Aneya: Things I Miss

So living here in Chile has brought up lots of memories of living in France (hence the constant references to all things French). It's the only other foreign country I lived in (I also lived in England, but that hardly counts as foreign) and yet my experiences here have been completely different from those in Europe.

For one thing, I'm an adult here, I'm living on my own. In France, I was a child, a teenager, really, and I lived with my family, and they took care of everything. My only concern was school, my dance classes and walking the dog. Here, I've had to do absolutely everything on my own- lease an apartment, buy a cellphone, buy groceries, find my way around the city, understand the metro and bus routes, find a job. All in another language I don't know very well. Lauren's been a great help, of course. But still, it's been a challenge, one I've never had to go through before in my life.

One thing that commonly happens when living abroad is that you start to get homesick. You start to miss things about your home country you didn't even really think about while you were there. This was incredibly hard for me in France. I was a teenager, so I was already miserable and grumpy most of the time. Being in France only made it worse. I hated France! I missed absolutely everything about the States, from the junk food to Pop Culture, from TV shows to movies (which did eventually come to France, months later).

I would lay in bed at night, thinking about Pop Tarts and Oreos, about Snapple and Chips Ahoy! I'd think about Sonic Burgers and peanut butter (not together, obviously) Basically every fatty, nasty food they didn't have in France, I wanted. Never mind that I was living in the land of amazing pastries, of fresh, incredible bread and cheese and wine. No, that didn't interest me. I wanted my Dove bars, dammit! When my brother and I would fly into the States, we'd stand in the Cincinnati airport (our go-to transfer airport to get to Vegas), breathing in the intoxicating smells of CinnaBun and Pizza Hut. We were home! The sounds of American voices filled our ears and we rejoiced! Finally, real people, real food!

Well, I'm happy to report I don't feel any of those strange urges for junk food here. I think that may have been an adolescent phase, because I don't crave those things in the States, either (except Dove bars. I do love those). I really don't miss that much about the US yet, to be honest. I mean, it's only been a little over 2 months, and I lived in France for 6 years, on and off, so there's a big difference. But still, there are some things I do miss.

There's no particular food that I can think of (Lauren, on the other hand, says she misses her European beer Chimay White on Tap, to be precise, And the entire contents of Trader Joe's) But I do miss flavor. Nothing here has spice, taste, herbs, it's all so bland. I also miss food coming with something. If you ask for a ham sandwich here, you're getting two pieces of toast with slab of ham on it. That's it. No condiments, no toppings, no side of fries. Nothing.

Honestly the thing I miss most is watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I watched that show religiously, and it's incredibly difficult to find full episodes online. It's so frustrating! There's all these copyright laws where they can't show episodes from certain companies because of the "country you're currently in". How do they know where I am?? Oh, Internet you're so sneaky sometimes.

In any case, living here in Chile has been a growing experience, for sure. There are things I miss (mostly people, like my friends and family) But Skype and Facebook has helped with that. This trip so far has been completely crazy, in the best way possible. And I'm thinking it's only gonna get better from here.

Aneya: American Culture in Chile

It's quite prevalent, actually. I'm still surprised by the amount of American movies and music I see and hear everyday in Santiago. "Sherlock Holmes" and "It's Complicated" (or, Enamorado de mi ex, as it's called here. Ah foreign translations, how I've missed you!) both came out at the end of January, which is not far behind the December release date in the States. I've heard everything from Lady Gaga to Katy Perry, from Beyonce to the Beatles, I even heard Keisha's hit single "Tik Tok" the other day. Now, that's current! Most of these pop songs can be heard blasting through the speakers of some hip bar or club, or a high end fashion mall.

Now, the radio here is a different matter. I've heard everything from very traditional Latin music to old school American rock and roll. I even heard Carla Bruni's hit single "Quel qu'un m'a dit" (Miss Bruni, for all you non Francophiles, is the First Lady of France, as well as a recording artist, model, fashionista and all around badass.)

Lauren and I finally turned on our TV the other day, and we were slightly confused at what we saw. There was some crazy telanovella-like soap on, with the strangest looking people. All the men were old and ugly, all the women young and beautiful. The men always seemed to be yelling, the women, always crying. Neither of us could follow the story line, but there was lots of dramatic exits and hospital kisses. Very bizarre. The other channels were streaming music from some big concert, another channel had some dating show on (again, the people on these shows looked nothing like the people I see on the streets every day).

There's also a plethora of American fast food restaurants, which is both depressing and a sign of globalization at it's best. McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks. There's even a Ruby Tuesday's down here! That I found very odd. Everything at McDonald's has avocado on it (they love their palta here!) and I tried a "McNifica" which was quite good.

For some reason I figured American culture wouldn't follow us all the way to the end of the world. But, alas, it has. I bet I could find a Whopper in Antarctic, if I tried hard enough. If only the good things about the States could be shipped around the world, and not the bad. But what are you gonna do? People love their fast food, and we're more than happy to give it to them.

- Aneya