LSU Teaching in Chile 2017: "Did You Take Noche?" by Erika Baumann

My title quote is from the adorable Haley Englade in reference to Tapsin, my new favorite thing ever. It's basically a hot toddy + DayQuil/NyQuil in a powder form!! I've been taking Tapsin daily, because I'm slowly dying, as are my host sister Moira and my teacher Cecilia :( Although I'm totally not surprised because I'm literally always sick (thats what chronic illnesses and disabilities do) and I saw it coming from a mile away... It doesn't suck any less! This trip already isn't long enough, and compound that with laying in bed all day + sleeping all the time = I'm super bummed. I need more time! Moira and I have so much on our to-do list that we haven't done yet, I haven't gotten enough time with Cecilia either because she's been out from school with bronchitis, and I feel like I'm just starting to get to know/become friends with the rest of the gringos. The last 2 weeks have flown by so fast that they just feel like a blur. I need this trip to be 6 weeks long instead of 3, and I need to come back every year. I guess that means I just have to move to Chile! 🤷
Enough with the whining... I love this place. I posted many pictures of the food in my blog post last week, so I'll try not to focus on that too much. But it's hard not to get fixated on the food here because it's all SO GOOD, although it could definitely use more seasoning! Unfortunately I forgot to pick up some Tony Chachere's on my way out of Baton Rouge, but I was able to find Tabasco at Lider (AKA Walmart) to hold me over. However, I've discovered that I LOVE Merkén, which is a dried chili pepper seasoning from the same family of peppers that are used so much in Louisiana like in Tabasco and Tony's. I bought a big container of peanuts con merkén on my first weekend here and devoured it within the first week, and then I found kettle chips seasoned with merkén too! 😍 My host family thinks it's hilarious because it's too spicy for them, but my host mom Liliana bought me a bag of just merkén since she noticed that I love it so much. I've also been eating avocado toast with Liliana's homemade whole grain bread, and an egg on top for breakfast... I don't think I've ever thought to eat avocados with eggs and it looked interesting the first time I saw it but it's absolutely delicious and I've been having it for breakfast almost every day.
My next favorite thing about Chile is the language. I've been wanting to learn Spanish and move to Latin America for years now, but Chileano is so unique among Spanish dialects that many people say it's much harder to learn or even understand as a Spanish second language speaker. As a result of that, I've been pretty anxious about trying to learn and keep up with the locals. It doesn't feel like Spanish, so I forget a lot of simple words that I already knew and fail to make the connection between my prior knowledge and what people around me are saying. But I LOVE the Chilean slang!! I've always loved colloquial language in general, so Chile's unique dialect actually appeals to me more and motivates me to learn Spanish. Even though I've been working on Duolingo for a while, the words I've learned first have been the colloquialisms. My favorites are "cachai," and "po," as well as the curse words 😂 (oops). But the fact that everyone also curses in English even if they speak 0% English otherwise is hilarious. They code switch A LOT here, even between two Spanish monolinguals, like saying "hello" or "allo" instead of "hola." I also like how they drop S and sometimes E endings off of words, which is weird because I expected it to bother me as a grammar nut! But I find it's actually easier to pick up and follow. Finally, I love the intonation and expressive voices that Chileans speak with. They sound so dramatic and funny all the time, even when they are like fussing at their kids or students I still want to laugh because it almost sounds like they're gossiping or telling a juicy story with how they put heavy emphasis on certain sounds and then drag out certain vowels and combine words together. I love it so much, I'm always smiling and laughing when they talk even if I have no clue what's being said! It's also funny how fast they speak, even when they're speaking in English, but thankfully they slow down when talking to a gringa so it doesn't get annoying.