Tag Archives: carabineros

A Few Noteworthy Cultural Differences

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#1 Heart Attack Approaching

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have been driving these past few months only to look into the review mirror and have my heart drop down into my stomach and adrenaline course through my body because of the RED FLASHING LIGHTS coming up behind me.  In the U.S., this would signify

  1. ambulance / fire truck or other emergency vehicle approaching, move out of the way;
  2. police in hot pursuit, get out of the way; OR
  3. you just blew through a stop sign and now you are getting a ticket, pull over and start crying.

Here, as far as I can tell, the police / Carabineros drive with their lights flashing – ALL THE TIME.  I don’t really know for sure if all Carabineros do this or if it’s just the ones driving behind me.  What I do know is that it gets me EVERY time!  Pretty sure I’m losing precious years off of my life because of this particular cultural difference.

#2 Time Warp

When we started this South American adventure we knew that we would have to adjust to doing things on a different time schedule.  For example, lunch and dinner times would be pushed back a bit.  What we didn’t realize was how much later – although we should have since we’ve traveled to Europe and experienced this first hand.

Here lunch is at 2:00 or 2:30pm.  An early dinner is 7:30pm.  For the most part, we are still on a North American schedule:  lunch at 12:30, dinner at 6:30.  (Although at times, we have crossed over and not eat dinner until 7:30, 8:00, even one time we ate at 8:30.).  The challenge of not adjusting comes in when we want to eat out and restaurants don’t open until 7:30 or later – except for McDonald’s but the adults in the family will not eat there.  The benefit of us living in our native time schedule is that folks here don’t go to the beach until 4:30 (or later) in the afternoon – right about the time we are leaving.  Which leaves us with plenty of space to run around without the kids getting lost in the crowd or running into people.

#3  Maids Quarters

In the U.S. having a full time nanny or someone to clean your home is a luxury for most people.  Here, nannies are so common that homes and apartments / departamentos are built with an extra bedroom & bathroom just for the live-in / adentro nanny.  The interesting thing is the rooms for the nannies.  They are SO small – barely fit a twin sized bed, no room for a dresser (although the closets usually have built-ins) and certainly no extra room to call “home.”

Personally, I’m barely comfortable having someone clean my home for me when I’m fully capable, let alone have them live inside my home.  AND have them serve me lunch as I lounge in the back yard.  Which we have witnessed during a visit to a friends house.  We were all sitting on the back porch talking and our friends would just call out – “Gladys!  Bring me a drink!”  or something to that effect.  Now, although I’m uncomfortable with being waited on, I do see it as something I should strive to get accustomed to…you know…really dive into the culture…

Those are the top three things on my mind right now.  I’m working on a post that will cover the cultural differences in swim wear…hope to have that one out soon.