Four days to go, so much to do, and not enough time to feel the happy-sad-confused that I usually feel while I'm awaiting my flight from the Santiago airport. I so desperately want to go home, see my family, sleep in my old bed and have a real pint of real beer. And perhaps some Bombay Sapphire. And some Chianti. So maybe I just want to go home to drink.
But I'm also sad to leave these new people that I just me. They're amazing, and inquisitive and funny. They can't wait to get to work, they play all of our stupid get-to-know-you games, and they don't complain. They come from all over the world. They are the epitome of what I always imagined this experience to be.
They also ask me to translate everything, and don't understand the use of the word "po". I explain to them that I often, especially in collectivos, pretend that I don't speak Spanish, or English. Most people think I'm German, and most people don't speak German, so that works for me.
I asked my friend at lunch last week why people think it's ok to interrupt any conversation that I'm having, in any language, to ask we where I'm from. I could be pouring my heart and soul out to someone in a restaurant, tears in my eyes, and a man at the table next to me will turn to me and say "Where are you from?" No "excuse me" no "sorry to bother you", just the basic presupposition that if I am speaking English, or poor accented Spanish, it is ok to interrupt me.
So my Peruvian friend set it straight: "Who are they?", he asked.
"I don't know, just people. Whoever," I replied, ever helpful.
"Men," he laughed at me. "So, they're 'joteando'."
He's right, of course. It isn't just random people on the street who want to chat (they generally just stare). It's the jotes. Jote means vulture, and is the way to describe the men who circle you on the dancefloor, or at a bar or, apparently, in a colectivo. And the interruption is a lame attempt at flirting. What I always wonder is: Does this work? What would I want to talk to someone who's so rude?
And yet, we talk. We don't want to be rude, we don't want people to not like us. We're foreign, strangers in this country and any attempt to communicate can be a welcome change from feeling isolated.
Unless you decide that you only speak German.
But I'm also sad to leave these new people that I just me. They're amazing, and inquisitive and funny. They can't wait to get to work, they play all of our stupid get-to-know-you games, and they don't complain. They come from all over the world. They are the epitome of what I always imagined this experience to be.
They also ask me to translate everything, and don't understand the use of the word "po". I explain to them that I often, especially in collectivos, pretend that I don't speak Spanish, or English. Most people think I'm German, and most people don't speak German, so that works for me.
I asked my friend at lunch last week why people think it's ok to interrupt any conversation that I'm having, in any language, to ask we where I'm from. I could be pouring my heart and soul out to someone in a restaurant, tears in my eyes, and a man at the table next to me will turn to me and say "Where are you from?" No "excuse me" no "sorry to bother you", just the basic presupposition that if I am speaking English, or poor accented Spanish, it is ok to interrupt me.
So my Peruvian friend set it straight: "Who are they?", he asked.
"I don't know, just people. Whoever," I replied, ever helpful.
"Men," he laughed at me. "So, they're 'joteando'."
He's right, of course. It isn't just random people on the street who want to chat (they generally just stare). It's the jotes. Jote means vulture, and is the way to describe the men who circle you on the dancefloor, or at a bar or, apparently, in a colectivo. And the interruption is a lame attempt at flirting. What I always wonder is: Does this work? What would I want to talk to someone who's so rude?
And yet, we talk. We don't want to be rude, we don't want people to not like us. We're foreign, strangers in this country and any attempt to communicate can be a welcome change from feeling isolated.
Unless you decide that you only speak German.
4 comentarios:
Probably jote although it happens to foreign dudes, too. Apart from gay advances, just curiosity of the foreign. In my experience I got stared and yelled at a lot in the Middle east, because there it's very obvious that i was foreign. In Chile I usually have to talk before people ask. You're right it'd probably happen a lot more if I were a girl.
It happens probably once a day, and it's crazy because I'm still so surprised by it. I understand the curiosity, but it always seems like people can't help themselves. I've started to completely loathe the question altogether. Or I just lie.
Yeah I'm totally over it too, although it hit you faster. I was only in the middle east for a month so it might have annoyed me if I stayed longer. Also it wasn't really sexual, it was just like wild screaming and taunting and teasing celebrating the fact that a pale blonde dude was walking around, and it happened all the time I thought it was hilarious, but I was just a visitor.
In Chile it's more subdued, and happens only in encounters where small talk is possibly appropriate. I'm more offended by the boredom of the dull, predictable exchange, than anything else. Lucky it's just boredom, though, being male I've got it easy. Anyway, have a great trip home!
You can always turn the table being a foreigner. I mean any social deviations you'd do with respect to their own set of values can be excused as they'd just reason out that you were only a foreigner and therefore is exempted from their ways and norms. So it is ok if you lie every now and then! Cheers! :)
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