Chile gone dirty

Hey all!

The subject of today's post is all things that are, can be or will be dirty. Viewer discretion is advised:

The Air

Clearly I know that the smog exists but I had no idea how dirty the air was until I blew my nose today. I think it's a combination of the pollution, cigarette smoke and breathing in a decent amount of the stale metro air but still, I don't think the body is supposed to produce or emit anything black.

The Language

So, in my one day of exposure to chilenismos, I've found that Chileans take some of the most offensive visual images, label them with words and incorporate them into everyday speech. A couple examples:

La Raja, which literally translates to butt crack, is an expression used to describe someone who is the best at something or has a great personality or an even that is really fun! We questioned whether this slang was used by everyone, but our professor told us it was common and people of all ages use it in everyday speech. Don't worry, this explanation was accompanied by a rather graphic diagram of a puto (butt), on which the butt crack was highlighted in red.

El huevon, which means jerk, comes from the base word huevo, which means egg but can also be slang for a man's testicles when in the plural form. Yet the word huevon refers to the testicles of men in certain African tribes who stretch their balls until they drag on the floor. In my opinion, guys are usually jerks because they are over compensating for something, not because they are struggling to walk without tripping over their genitalia, but this is a different culture with different cultural norms.

The Dog

When I arrived last week, my host family's pet, Canita (translates to "little sugar") looked and smelled absolutely terrible. Marisol told me that the dog was dirty because she had gone outside and gotten dirty from rolling in the mud and playing with the street dogs. For the next few days, she was referred to as "la fea" (the ugly one) until someone decided to bite the bullet and give her a bath.

The Bathroom

Ironically, this is probably the cleanest place in the house. Marisol told me that I must leave the bathroom as clean as when I entered it. To assist me in this endeavor, there is a dustbuster on the sink counter which is used for vacuuming up stray hairs in the tub and on the floor. I can totally respect her wishes but the trade off is that I have to spend double the time in the bathroom just to vacuum up all the hair I've lost while showering. You'd think I wouldn't shed that much since I don't have that much hair to begin with, but the clandestine truth is that I might as well be a woolly mammoth with the amount of hair I leave in the tub.

Today's shout-out goes to anyone who isn't afraid to get a little dirty. Interpret as you wish.

Embracing the my down and dirty side,

Abby