Día 42, parte uno

Here is a list of things I'm fairly confident I can count on when it comes to practices in Chile:

1. Throw toilet paper in the waste basket.

2. Kiss people on the cheek the first time you meet them.

3. Weigh/Price fruit and veg in the produce section before bringing it up to the register.

As for (just about) everything else, almost as quickly as I think I have it figured out (whatever *it* is) it changes.

Small Example.* In my last blog post (a week and a half ago) I wrote about my observations of the nature of biking in Viña/Valpo (no helmets, only ride on the sidewalks, etc.). The very next day I saw more helmet-wearing riders than not, and every day since then I've only seen helmet-wearers and have seen more street-riders than not. 

Small Example. After a few times of getting to the register at the grocery store, realizing that I had forgotten to weigh the fruits and vegetables in the produce section, and then either a) holding up the line while I go back and get the produce priced, or b) forgoing them altogether, I had several weeks of successful grocery store fruit purchases.** So, I've totally got this figured out. This weekend the guy at Jumbo told me that I am supposed to bag them before bringing them up to be weighed. Now, either a) nobody told me this before because it was simply easier to bag them for me (although now that I think about it, I don't actually want the bags...I rarely bag the produce at home) as opposed to explaining it, or b) someone did tell me before and I didn't understand the Spanish.

In my real life, and particularly over the last few years, I struggled with developing a habit of not making too many assumptions -- of not creating a single narrative to explain someone's actions, of not creating a mold to explain someone's behavior, of coming up with a few scenarios to possibly understand someone's motivations. I did this for reasons. It either a) worked, b) is much easier to do when everything around you is new, and you haven't had more than a handful of experiences in a given situation, c) is easy to do with something multi-faceted -- like a country, or d) habits of mind spin the other direction south of the equator, because as soon as I say "this is how it is" I question it. In a good way, I think.

Small Example. The second Sunday I spent in Viña I called friends of a friend (I was told they didn't speak English, and my Spanish was/is rocky at best. That was a scary-yet-totally-easy-in-the-end call to make!) to see if they wanted to meet me on Tuesday. She asked if I wanted to meet that night (a few times) before finally saying "well, call me on Tuesday!" I simultaneously thought "oh, that's how it's done in Chile...call the day of..." and "it could be her individual preference to make plans the day of. What do I know?"

Anyway. On day 42 I realized that I'm cherishing this opportunity to question my assumptions (big and small), even though it's not always fun or easy. 

Weird. But that's life -- right?

*I can't wrap my brain around the "big" examples right now.

**It´s not all grocery stores all the time. I also stop at the fruterías and carnicerías along the way. Options are nice.