There were a couple of words and a couple of phrases that I learned fairly quickly on arriving in Santiago a couple of weeks ago. For instance, Stacey taught me that the two most important words to know on the Santiago Metro are “Salida”, which means “Exit”, and “Permisso”, which translates to “Get out of my way before I knock you face-first to the ground on the way to the Salida”.

I also picked up a couple of phrases very quickly. The first phrase was “El Hombre Araña Tres”, which translates directly to “The Man Spider Three”, or indirectly to “Spiderman 3”. It was all over every billboard and bus stop during the weekend that I arrived, but has since been replaced by advertisements for the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. (J’s are pronounced as H’s in Español, so I guess Johnny Depp’s name sounds more like Honny Depp.) The other phrase I very quickly learned was “No Tengo Frio”. This translates directly to “I don’t have cold”, or (in other words) “I’m not cold”, and I’ve now developed a reflex response towards anyone who approaches me with the words “¿Tianes frio?”

(more…)

One thing I’ve noticed about Santiago since arriving has been that the drivers here are much more courteous to pedestrians than what I’m used to. When crossing a road at an intersection, turning drivers will typically give way to pedestrians even if there’s no pedestrian crossing. I’ve occasionally seen drivers flash their lights to indicate that they won’t flatten me if I walk out in front of their vehicle, and this morning I noticed people politely tooting at each other when merging lanes, to indicate to each other to go ahead. The notable place where this politeness doesn’t seem to apply is with emergency vehicles — drivers in Santiago don’t seem to give way to ambulances, and several times now I’ve seen an ambulance stuck waiting at an intersection where drivers are making no attempt to make space for it. I’ve been informed, though, that it’s only really an emergency if the sirens are going, and that flashing lights are only a semi-emergency, but not one that’s important enough for other traffic to give way. Supposedly all of the drivers know this too, so for now I might give this the benefit of the doubt.

(more…)