After the initial goofy banter that is common in our unique friendship, I couldn't help but notice that Mike seemed a little uneasy. I shrugged this hunch off and went straight to the window of our 8th floor Airbnb to admire my first view of Santiago, Chile. It was beautiful. The city is backdropped by the scenic Andes mountains in almost every direction.
After taking in the view and catching up, we decided to head to the bohemian neighborhood known as Barrio Bellavista for dinner and a beer. When we opened the menu we were immediately hit with culture shock. As we fumbled through the Spanish menu, a waiter hurriedly mumbled, "buenanochequeestatomandoweon?"
"Que?" I replied. I thought I spoke Spanish pretty decently but I had no idea what this waiter had just said to me. Mike and I assumed he was taking our drink order so we each ordered a beer by pointing to the menu and saying "cerveza". It seemed that the waiter understood our Spanish, so why couldn't we understand his? And what were these strange words on the menu? Palta? I've never seen that word before. And did that waiter say "sipo" after we ordered our beer? What is a "sipo"?
Now I knew why Mike looked a little uneasy earlier. Did we just move to a city we knew nothing about? And a country we knew nothing about? Do they speak a different language here?
The answer to all three of those questions is yes. It just hit us that neither of us really knew much about Santiago or Chile or Chilean Spanish (or Chilean food, or Chilean beer, or Chilean people, etc). We got our first bit of culture shock and began to second guess ourselves.
Then our food and beers arrived. A plate of french frieds covered with grilled onions, steak, avocado (That's what palta means!), and topped with a fried egg. It was delicious, and so were the Kunstmann beers!
Things started looking up. Our optimistic personalities kicked in and we put to rest any doubts. Sure we didn't know much about Chile, but we were excited and open-minded, which is all you need when experiencing a new culture.
Our next day in Chile we began apartment hunting. What an adventure that was...
When we learned Spanish in school, we learned phrases like "Donde está la biblioteca" or "Donde está el baño". Sure these phrases can be useful, but as Mike and I began our search for an apartment, I began to wish I had learned even more practical phrases like "Do you have a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, furnished apartment available for rent?"
After entering over 20 apartment buildings throughout various neighborhoods of Santiago with no luck, we finally decided to use a booking agency called home urbano. At this point we had narrowed our search down to the hipster neighborhood known as Bellas Artes, full of personality, unique bars, amazing restaurants, and close to our coworking space. We saw a few apartments that were listed on home urbano and ultimately found the perfect apartment. Despite a mix-up that almost resulted in the booking agency giving us the wrong apartment while another group took our apartment, we prevailed and moved in just 5 days after we landed in this foreign city.
(View from the rooftop of our new apartment)
These first few days in Santiago were definitely not what we were expecting. They were full of ups and downs. We hurried to a government ID office to arrive near opening hours, only to wait 4 hours and have their computer systems go down and have to return another day. We nearly signed a lease for the wrong apartment due to a mistake by the leasing agency. Processes to get a bank account and become a legal resident were longer and more painful than the DMV. The cell phone signal around the city is intermittent and mostly 3G. We weren't in San Francisco or New York anymore.
Despite this culture shock and rude awakening, the Chilean people were far from rude. We immediately found many Chilean friends in Start-Up Chile and through mutual friends from the states. Every person we met from Chile was very excited to share their way of life with us. Hearing the locals express similar frustrations made us feel less foreign. Our new friends started inviting us to asadaos, teaching us slang, introducing us to business contacts, and helping us assimilate.
After we truly got to know some Chilean people, we realized we made the right choice. Despite our initial culture shock and hesitations, we now knew that moving to Chile was the best decision we ever made!
