“Fast food” is not a term in Chile, especially referring to the world fast. I am not saying it a bad way at all. I mean it on the contrary. I think that it is very fascinating the way that Chileans approach fast food style restaurants. I have been only in two: McDonald’s and KFC. Also, I saw Subway and Dunkin Donuts as well but I have not been there and honestly not really planning to, since Chile has amazing local bakeries and cuisine restaurants.

First of all the menus are different. For example, bacon is not that popular here like in the United States, but on the other side avocado is huge here. This results in that McDonald’s has much less burgers containing bacon and more having avocado. I actually had a sandwich in KFC where the fried chicken had mashed avocado on it. Instead of ketchup and mustard.

Secondly, one waits good 15 to 20 minutes after you order for your food. One enters the fast food and has to grab a ticket number (This system is very popular in Chile). Fast food workers always call a number. When one’s number is called, one goes to order the food. Usually you have to wait 5 to 10 minutes even for your number to be called, so you can place your order. Then you wait another 15 to 20 minutes for the food, so in the end, in a “fast” food restaurant you wait 30 minutes for a burger with fries and Coke. The first time it was kind of a shock because we were really hungry, but the second time we went to McDonald’s, we just took it with humor and laugh at it.

Santiago has population of 7 million people, yet the bus system, which the majority of people depend on everyday, do not have set times or a time schedule.

A big majority of Santiago’s working class uses a bus or metro to get to and from work everyday. Many times the metro does not get people close enough, so they have to use bus after taking metro. Surprisingly enough there is not a set schedule for people to plan their day and life in general. There is only an application that tells one how far away is the closest bus from the station that person is standing.

My assumption of why Santiago does not have any bus schedule is for two things: culture and Santiago.

The Germans or Japanese are well known for being exact and on time, but Chileans are the complete opposite in this regard. For example if people decide on a meeting at 3:00 p.m. the unspoken expectation is that people are starting to meet after 3:20 p.m. This is Chilean culture, so I am assuming that if people work from 8:00 a.m. every day and sometimes they come at 8:10 a.m. and sometimes 8:30 a.m., it is not much of a problem.

Secondly, Santiago itself is many times an organized chaos. There are so many unexpected things, people and cars that it is really hard to predict a certain routine for the buses. For example, every working days from certain hour, I think 8:00 a.m. for 2 or 3 hours a direction of cars change. What I mean is that on the big roads (3 lines and more) the direction that is going away from the city changes to towards city as well, so there 6 lines going towards city. There are not policemen or anything. Chileans just know it, so it is not a surprise that in 5 weeks I saw 2 crashes in the line that changes its directions because people were driving the “opposite” way. They were driving the right way, but they did not realize that it was after 8:00 a.m., so the direction changed from away to towards city center.

I was sleeping and suddenly I woke up around 6 in the morning and everything was shaking. Honestly, I thought that I was hallucinating. My bed, night table, doors, and windows were all shaking for good 40 seconds. When it stopped, I felt the whole building moving left and right. I live in the third floor of an 18-floor apartment building, so that is why I felt the construction moving.

At the first moment, I was really shocked because there is nothing I could do. The feeling of helplessness is just awful. When it happen I was very sleepy, so I was not fully realizing what just happened, but when I woke up, I googled: “Earthquake Santiago, Chile.” The epicenter of the earthquake that I experienced was 150 miles away, far from me and Santiago. It was not devastating, which I really hope that will not happen, but it had force of 4.4, so we still could feel the shaking.

As, we were told in the emergency meeting, construction business is extremely expensive in Santiago because the buildings have to be prepared for earthquakes, so earthquakes are usually not a life-threatening thing in Chile. Actually, Chile had this year (2016) already 1,070 Earthquakes. The most dangerous place to be during Earthquake in Chile is the cost because of the tsunami, which is where most people die from earthquakes. In 2010, Santiago got hit with earthquake of 8.3 and 14 people died. Only 1 of them died in the Santiago in very unfortunate death and rest of them died on the cost.

So what to do during earthquake? It is called Triangle of Life.

The chances of experiencing another earthquake during my stay in Santiago are high, so there there is only way to deal with it. Face it and be prepared when it is going to happen because nobody knows when next earthquake is going to happen.

It is called a Triangle of Life and here is what one does:

The Triangle of Life is a protection if one is in the building, but if one is on the streets then s/he musts stay away from any glass windows. If one on the coast, run to the hill.

Manjar is something very delicious and very Chilian. It is only available in Chile and the closest thing is dulce de leche. People in Chile put manjar almost on anything. Donuts, cakes, pancakes, crepes, bread. Most people have love-hate relationship with manjar. It is truly delicious, but it is really unhealthy. I mean it has a lot of sugar! It has three ingredients: milk, sugar, and vanilla.

If you want to make manjar, here is a recipe:

The instructions are simple: Heat up the milk, sugar and vanilla stick until it is boiling. When everything is boiling, lower the heat so the milk does not spill. Keep stirring the milk until the sugar and vanilla dissolves. When the sugar and vanilla dissolves, set the heat on low and keep stirring until the mix is more thick, not solid.

This fall semester of 2016, I picked to study abroad in Santiago, Chile, and so far it has been an unforgettable experience. Over the period of weeks that I am have been in Santiago, I have experienced a lot of positive, fun, and negative things, which are part of the living in a country with completely different culture, values, and mentality. Chile has been an amazing and highly valuable experience with full of ups and downs.

Talking about the downs, it is part of experience, going out of the comfort zone, and eventually personal growth. I will be talking about DHL, earthquake or stolen phone, which were unpleasant experiences and I want to make clear that study abroad has been a fantastic and life changing experience. I do not want to make it sound as complaining or negatively talking about study abroad, Chile, South America or Santiago because these things can happen anywhere. On the contrary, I would strongly recommend study abroad and visit Chile to anyone!