Anna's Chilean Adventures: 2025-09-07

Nothing crazy to report from Chilean high school today, so instead I thought we could dive into a few pieces of Chilean culture, starting with "once" (pronounced OON-SAY)

I'm going to keep using the quotes to help your brain out because if you're like me you keep reading that word as once, and not OON-SAY.

Before we truly begin, something that you should know about Chilean meals in general is that they always include bread. Bread, bread, bread, with everything, all of the time. I definitely ended up in the right country.

So guess what we have during "once"? You guessed it. Bread.

Typically this meal starts around 8pm. This timing could be a little bit earlier or later depending on the schedule of the day, but the noteworthy part is that "once" is traditionally much later than the time we Americans eat dinner.

For this meal it is a little less important that everyone sits down together. Lunch is actually the biggest here and it is much more important that no one misses lunch than "once".

A little bit of elaboration on that, when I say lunch is big, I mean it's literally huge. I've had a stomach ache after eating it almost every day, simply because my body is not used to consuming that much food at 3pm. Oh yeah, lunch is later here too.

Anyway, for the most part we all sit down together and eat "once" as well. By we, I am referring to Abuela, Claudia, Gonzalo (my host dad, not my brother), and sometimes if he's not busy, Ignacio. Gonzalo, my host brother, rarely joins us because he works nights as a police officer, and Isaac lives with Sara so obviously they eat on their own.

Now let me set the scene. On the table, there is always a little plate for everyone and a knife as well. No forks because you don't need them. I bring out the napkins, Abuela's sucrose for her tea, and whatever toppings we are using on that evening. Additionally each person had their own specific mug that I bring out once Claudia fills them. Oh, and how could I forget. The bread. We always heat it up in this abnormally large toaster oven, so it's perfectly warm and tastes fresh.

Next comes all of the condiments. The Chilean's are big fans of decorating their bread, and I am becoming quite the fan myself.

There are always a few staple pieces on the table, avocado, butter, ham, and cheese being the regulars. In addition to all of that, sometimes we have this sweet caramelized fruit pulp that is seasoned with cinnamon. The melon type plant grows in the front yard and Abuela blends it all together. It's called alcayota and it's delicious. Don't knock it till you try it.

To drink we always have tea as well which is brewed from the actual leaves and then strained. I need to start doing that at home because I swear to goodness the tea tastes ten times better.

Then we sit down and the meal commences.

The right way to do it is to cut the bread in half, select your condiments and then make a little sandwich. Sometimes though, I like to try a bit of everything so I keep my halves separate.

We always watch the news, or some type of Chilean television. I don't mind it too much, although I'm not numb to all of the violence that they show because I never watch the news at home. The silver lining is that I get to ask Claudia and Gonzalo about current events in Chile and learn a little bit more about the inner workings of the country.

When all is said and done, the meal lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

And that's it. That's "once" and even a little bit about lunch. There's no point in mentioning breakfast because it basically doesn't exist. I always eat something in the morning though because if not, I get hangry.

Thanks for checking in on me, that's all for now :)

Love love love,

Anna

This weekend was eventful to say the least.

Let's start from the beginning.

I finally got to sleep in! On Saturday morning I woke up around 9, which I do feel a little bad about because...well I'm not really sure. I feel like I should get up early and take in all that Chile has to offer, but then again this is a marathon not a sprint. I need sleep like any other human being much to my distaste. My host family didn't seem to mind though so all is well.

After I got dressed and ate some breakfast, I hung out in the restaurant for a while and did some homework. It will come as no surprise to any of you that I am just as much of a procrastinator here as I was in Salem. Some things never change I suppose. (I know it's a bad habit, I swear I am working on it....)

A little before lunch time, let's say at 12 ish, I went over to the house because the restaurant gets busy and I don't like to be in the way.

Wait. Side note. Did I forget to mention that my host family owns a restaurant and a water park? It's actually so cool and the food is wonderful and I can't wait to see it in the summer when everything is fully up and running.

Continuing on.

Shortly after I headed back into the house, Isaac showed up with his friend Sebastian. They had grocery bags and told me that they were going to be barbequing lunch if I was interested in hanging out with them. Barbeque is better than homework no matter where you are in the world so of course I said yes.

Turns out, Sebastian has actually been living in Australia and New Zealand for the past three years and this was his first time back. He and Isaac were really close during grade school, so it was only fitting that he paid the whole family a visit. I chatted with both of them for a while and tried not to cramp their style too much. Sebastian's English was pretty good, although he tried his best not to use it unless necessary upon my request. He also likes to listen to the same country music as I do, so we really bonded over that.

Just before the barbeque was done, Gonzalo, my host brother (I did ask if the whole junior concept exists in Chile and Claudia said no. Basically, we all just have to deal with the two Gonzalo's.) came back from the gym. He had asked me earlier that morning if I wanted to go on a run with him and I said sure why not. I figured I could use some physical activity since being a foreign exchange student got me pulled out of Physical Education and placed into a history elective.

So that is exactly what we did. We went for a 25 minute run with a distance totaling about 3 km.

Does anyone know that conversion off the top of their head?

Yeah, I didn't either. But now I do. 3 km is approximately 1.86 miles. So I ran 2 miles is what I'm telling myself.

I kept pretty good pacing right until the end, which I was proud of because Gonzalo is a lot taller than me, and he's also in very good shape being a police officer and all. He did tell me however that he smokes a fair amount, so sometimes when running he starts huffing and puffing. I was kind of surprised to learn this, but he is 28 and it's much more common to smoke in Chile than it is in the U.S. He joked and said that it's okay that he smokes because he takes such good care of himself otherwise. I kind of wanted to say that cancer doesn't really care, but I didn't, because I didn't know how to say that in Spanish and also because I didn't want to be rude.

After the run, we all ate some really delicious Chilean barbeque. New York, I love you. But this may have been the best barbeque I have ever had in my life. I tried to make mental notes so maybe I can replicate it when I get home. We shall see.

Once we finished eating, Sebastian, Issac and I all just sat around for a while and chatted. Or rather, they chatted, I tried to understand, and every now and then I would join in on the conversation. I didn't mind because I knew this was one of their only chances to catch up. Sometimes I think it is good for me to just sit and listen to Spanish, even if I don't know what's happening.

That night I ate dinner, or "once" with Abuela because everyone else was getting ready for the 80's party happening at the restaurant at 10pm.

After we ate I called my New York family for a little while, and then walked with Abuela over to the party. It's safe to say that Latin America knows how to throw a fiesta.

Obviously, the music was all from the 70s and 80s, therefore the demographic was older than me by a fair amount, but let me tell you that did not stop them from busting it down. South America just makes you want to move your hips, cuz I was standing in the back just watching with Abuela and I couldn't help but bop along to the songs.

I have a theory that goes a little bit off topic but it's interesting so just hear me out.

I think that old people are healthier and more with it in Chile because they are still included in daily life and culture no matter what.

It's honestly quite marvelous to see. These ladies and gentlemen were moving and grooving without a care in the world, and to further support my claim I would like to tell you a little more about Abuela.

She's approximately 83 years old, has trouble getting around because her knees aren't great, and a perpetual cough that she has to take medicine for. But let me tell you, that woman will do anything she sets her mind to and you best get out of her way.

She is responsible for a variety of chores around the house and she takes them very seriously. For instance, I was just offering to help her with the laundry about 30 seconds ago and she told me to sit down because she has her routine and folding laundry is part of it. She is whip smart and loves to give directions, which I appreciate because half the time I have no clue what's happening. But the part that I think really keeps her together is the fact that the family treats her the same as anyone else. They pick on her a little bit now and then, and they talk to her in the same manner as they do to me. (Okay now that I'm thinking about it, that may be a bad example because Claudia and Gonzalo definitely have to dumb down their Spanish when talking to me) Whatever. My point is, she feels wanted and needed in the household. I think that is missing a lot of the time with elderly people in the United States. They lack purpose or community and that causes them to succumb to illness faster.

Anyways, enough with that rabbit hole. Hopefully what I said makes a little bit of sense.

This next part is where Abuela yells at me for wanting to go to bed.

The clock is creeping up on 11:30 and I've been at this party for almost 2 hours so I start thinking to myself "Okay Anna, we still have to shower and pick up your room a little bit, so if you want to go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour, now is the time to make an exit"

Wrong.

When I asked Abuela if she was ready to head back to the house, she looked at me like I was crazy and said "Before midnight? No, we have to stay at least until midnight." I have a lot of moments here in Chile where I just think to myself "what even is my life", and that was one of them.

So yeah. I went to bed late that night.

The next morning I slept in a little bit again, but I felt less bad because everyone slept a little more because of the party. Oh and also because the clocks jumped forward an hour here. Unfortunately there is now a time difference, but it's really not bad.

After I ate breakfast, I kinda just hung out in the kitchen because Ignacio had mentioned taking me with him to his rugby game. However, something you should know about Ignacio is that he really is a man of few words, in English and in Spanish. I wasn't sure if he'd meant it when he asked me or if he was even being serious. Low and behold though, he came into the kitchen and asked me if I was ready to go, so off we went.

Just kidding. We stopped by the restaurant first to pack some lunches and I'm so glad we did because Isaac was there with the most delicious dulce de leche cookies courtesy of Sara. She's honestly my favorite.

Turns out, we weren't taking a car to the rugby game, instead we were getting on a sketchy tour bus that Isaac dropped us off at. Did you know that you can ride in the back of a Chilean car legally without a seatbelt?

Please don't. More on that later.

When we got to the bus stop, there were a lot of rugby dudes there of varying ages and sizes, and when I say that, I mean it. There were two or three boys who looked to be my age, and the oldest players looked to be in their mid 50's. All of them were messing around and teasing each other, just like what I imagine the teenage boys who play football for Salem-Cambridge do before a game. I'm telling you, people are people everywhere.

I would like to note that there were other females there, they were all just the girlfriends of players. I was very much an outlier with my foreign-exchange-student-younger-sister title. I just sat in a window seat and listened to the chaos. I can safely say that I learned some new swear words.

The game itself was really interesting and I did enjoy watching it. I looked up the rules beforehand so I would have some idea what was going on and it truly is quite similar to American football. Just minus all of the stopping. And the shoulder pads.

On the way home the guys chatted me up a little bit more, which was fun. All of the players were more relaxed, even though they had lost the game. Ignacio kept an eye on me the whole time which I appreciated because after all, I still was just an 18 year old girl squeezed into a bus with an entire Chilean rugby team.

I will say that I feel like Ignacio thinks I am naive at times. He often explains safety concepts to me which I appreciate because I am new to city living, but I also wish I had some way to prove to him that I am actually quite independent and capable. But from one eldest sibling to the next, I do see where he's coming from. I suppose I have 10 months to set him straight.

We got home pretty late from the rugby game, but just in time for once/dinner. We ate, and then I headed to my room to do some homework after saying goodnight. You will be happy to know that math kicks my butt in Chile just as much as it did in the U.S

That is a wrap on my weekend, and now I'm starting my second week of school.

I'm not aware of anything crazy eventful that is happening to look forward to, however I am planning on writing a few short posts that dive deeper into Chilean traditions, my family, and things that I am learning so far. So stay tuned if you're interested in peeking into my brain.

Missing you all like crazy. Please know I'm sending hugs back to New York.

Much love always,

Anna