Da' club.

Up to this current juncture, I had only ever considered the following elements as interrelated within a family wedding context:

-Lindsey
-dancing
-middle-aged men
-80's and 90's music played not ironically
-getting hip-checked by 40+ year old women

Ha. Well, fear not, my experience at "Da' club" (not actually named as such) changed that all. One fateful Saturday night, four young women, including myself, unwittingly payed an over priced cover (even after trying to bargain it down) to get into a bar-discoteque located very close to my house. Turns out that club is the middle-aged dance scene hotspot. Uh, sweet? It was rather humorous, especially when one of the four of us got whisked away to dance which left the defense formation a little weak. So, on to middle-age slow dancing for all it was. It might have actually been "Stairway to Heaven", come to think of it. Anyways, fun: In that awkward 7th grade dance but with unattractive older men sort of way. Oh, and you know, in Spanish with blaring 80's hits in the background making all conversation virtually unintelligible.

So, that unto itself makes me laugh, but it also speaks to the general question mark that punctuates my daily life here: What the hell is everyone's obssession with 80's and mid 90's US-British music? (File that under things that were unsuspected prior to arrival in Chile) I wish I could say I were joking, but I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Morrissey or The Cure from time to time, but the complete barage of 80's music in nearly every club, bar, or house party, results in a rather bewildered, slightly-amused, but increasingly-less-amused Lindsey in Chile. But mostly bewildered.

Lisps: still idiotic in the naming.

So apparently the word for lisp in Spanish is ceceo and the verb is cecear.

Those words using English pronunciation are said "say-SAY-o" and "say-say-AR", which, much like the English equivalent, lisp, is quite difficult for someone to say with said speech defect. Oh, language, why don't you ever learn?

On the subject of pronunciation and language confusion, a subject on which I could expound at length referencing only my own personal mishaps, (and likely material for a forthcoming entry), my favorite little blunders of late on the part of my Chilean friends are the following two: One friend consistently confuses the words "nipple" and "nibble". You can imagine what a request for a nibble ends up coming out as...! And, several people end up saying "bitch" instead of "beach", which results in entertaining sentences that sound ridiculous out of context like "yeah man, it was a great bitch."

Those two pale in comparison to my numerous daily blunders, but nonetheless you've got to take the little giggly pleasures out of life and savor them, no?

Would you like a bag with your bag?

Just a quick note: much as in Guatemala, where everything was in a plastic bag...in Chile, everything is still in a plastic bag. And by that I mean (best items seem from both locations): yogurt, milk, mayonnaise, coca cola poured from a bottle, fresh orange juice, olives from a jar, fried empanadas hot enough to melt said plastic bag (and that do so), tomato paste, jello, purified water, ice cream, one pound bags of flour, coconut juice, and so on.

Anyways, aside from sometimes puzzling packaging choices, there is the - let me stick that in a bag for you connundrum: You're at the check out counter with the following: a loaf of bread, margarine, a bottle of wine, some slices of cheese, a can of tuna fish, and a couple avocados. Didn't you know that every item on that list, except the margarine and can of tuna fish together, deserves its own plastic bag? Or at the produce store: two onions, a red pepper, two apples, an eggplant, and some grapes. Also clearly another opportune moment to give every single item its own bag, right? It drives me crazy.

So, I bring my reusable beat up shopping bag around and try to minimize the amount of bags used. Reactions? Complete and utter confusion. And better yet, people bag the margarine, the loaf of bread, the cheese, etc separately, and then stick it into my reusable bag. Thanks guys, that really helped.

So, that brings me to this (a comic called made by this woman, Kelly Vivanco. It's called "Patches" and I love it):


http://hingos.com/patches/index.php?pt=080327



It pretty much sums up the past year and a half of my life.