Chileans are not averse to a long workday.
My host mother, Rosita, works every single day at a department store from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Though she gets home late and is usually pretty tired, she always comes into my room, plops down on my bed and chats.
Then she retreats to her room, watches a Spanish soap opera, goes to sleep and repeats her long, hectic working lifestyle the next day.
She also never fails to ask me when I’m going out to a carrete, or “party,” nearly every evening.
To sum up a small portion of the Chilean lifestyle, I have discovered that work all day, party all night is a recurrent theme.
I thought IU partygoers had stamina — until I came here.
Students often attend parties Wednesday night through Saturday night, and the evening is still young at 3 a.m. Most partygoers here are seen as weak if they can’t party until the 5 to 7 a.m. range.
It was at one of these carretes during my first week in Chile that I met Javier, a Chilean student at La Católica. He was surprisingly outgoing when meeting my friends and I, standing in stark contrast to his fellow Chilean friends, who pretty solidly ignored us a good portion of the evening.
I am currently taking a class called Seminario de Cultura Chilena, or Chilean culture seminar. In this class, we’ve been comparing religion, family importance, wage differences and personality traits of Chileans to that of Americans and those of other Latin American countries.
From the beginning, our program coordinators told us most Chilean students are shy, and if we want to make Chilean friends, it would be our responsibility. My professor in this class said the same and showed me various charts and graphs depicting Chilean’s often shy natures.
Though my friend Javier stands out as an exception to this rule, he said the same exact thing to me and the other extranjeros (foreigners).
“Go make more Chilean friends,” he said. “You’ll wish you had if you don’t.”
Aside from his outgoing nature, what surprised me most about Javier was his flawless English. I asked him where he learned to speak it so well, and he said he studied. I assumed that meant he had studied abroad in an English-speaking country, so when I proceeded to ask where, he laughed.
“I don’t have the money to study abroad,” he said. “I study very hard here. It is my dream to go abroad one day, so I’m working hard to make that dream happen.”
On top of diligently studying English and French, well on his way to reaching the same advanced level in French as he is in English, Javier also studies civil engineering.
Though he dreams of studying literature and history, civil engineering is the career that pays, so after attaining a degree in civil engineering, Javier hopes to one day be able to afford his dream and travel the world.
As I am lucky enough to get to spend my semester studying abroad here in Santiago, I have already learned so much about Chile, Chileans and their culture. I have learned they are dedicated, hard-working and enjoy life in their own way, whether that’s hanging out at the park after a long day of work or partying all night at one of the many clubs or discos lining the streets of the city.
Though we have been taught that Chilean’s shy nature is a result of colonialism and tough governments, I see people bursting with life and a constant thirst for knowledge.
As my host mother dedicates her life to her job, as Javier yearns to live abroad, as the millions of adults here work hard to provide for their families and as students excel in their studies while still keeping up with the fun at carretes, I can’t help but feel a stirring sense of respect for Chileans as I watch the everyday hustle and bustle of their lives.
And though it can be tough breaking into a new group of people, even in the United States, I intend to take Javier’s advice and push myself, shaky Spanish and all, into Chilean students’ lives.
Judging from the few Chilean friends I have already made, I know I am going to meet even more fun, interesting people full of lively conversation, eager to help me improve my Spanish.
When I leave Chile, I am going to leave with no regrets. I am going to leave with new Chilean friends close to my heart and a thriving respect for this long stretch of land on the coast of South America.
