That Was Aftershocking!

Chilean Carabineros (police) like to walk around all tac-ed out for no reason.

Today was the first day of orientation, but I'll get to that later. Here is a handful of anecdotes from my first weekend.

Sometime before midnight on Easter, I lived through my first aftershock here in Santiago, and I didn't even feel it. It was a 4.8 tremor and I literally had no idea until the others around me explained it. We were out in the courtyard of the hostel and suddenly there was a pounding sound coming from a fourth floor window. I figured it was simply someone who was trying to sleep and was banging the window to express their contempt for our loud jibber-jabber. Apparently people on the fourth floor felt it more significantly, which sent a large group of Chinese women screaming through the hallways as though Godzilla was after them. I'm sorry I missed such a scene.

Speaking of the fourth floor, that is where I am bunked. And there is no elevator. There have been at least five times already that I get to the bottom and realize I forgot something, and have to jog all the way back up. The plus side is the exercise, I suppose.

I woke up the first morning earlier enough to make breakfast. When I got down to the cafeteria all I saw was a basket of bread and trays set with little bowls of butter. Other than hot water for tea or instant coffee (the infamous Nescafe), there was nothing else. I looked to the other volunteers and asked if I had missed something. They laughed and said everyone so far had had that exact reaction. “I should have stayed in bed.” I grumbled.
They laughed and said that everyone had also had that sentiment as well. We weren’t sure if they were serving us lunch, but we weren’t willing to take chances with grumbling guts, so a group of us headed to the Plaza Armas which is where the national Cathedral is and where a group of shop-lined pedestrian streets converge. (While I was typing we randomly lost power. Go South America!)

Since it was Easter Sunday, the Cathedral was packed to the seams and, though I haven’t confirmed this, the President of Chile himself might have been in attendance for mass. Mass wasn’t a very worshipful experience since I had no idea what was going on, and the place was so overrun that all you could really do was stand in the back and snap a few photos. It was a great look into Chilean culture, however, and worth popping in for regardless.

Outside the Cathedral, in the Plaza, the national police force known as Carabineros had their band set up and was giving a concert that was….pretty bad. The brass section was overwhelming, and there was just a general lack of, let’s say, musicalness. As they went on, they improved, but we all agreed they should stick to policing.

Near the Plaza, we found a grocery store and I got my first Chilean shopping experience. Apparently you had to weigh the fruit yourself and print a sticker for the cashier to scan, and not knowing this led an interesting cross-cultural interchange as I attempted to buy my avocado.