One of my Tues/Thurs classes ended last week, so I had a lot of free time today. After class (or, I should say— after succumbing to bureacratic impositions by hurriedly running from downtown to Providencia, collecting papers, dropping off papers, jumping through a flaming hoop to the gratifying sound of applause from sidewalk observers, speed walking to class, and calmly recollecting papers after class) I lunched with some friends. … As a side note, these friends are a couple. However, I agreed to marry one of them in the interest of dual citizenship. When we divorce, I’m quite excited about taking the cat. In any case, it was a pleasure to see the little gatito today. I’m on the verge of illegally smuggling in a cat to my apartment. It wouldn’t hurt anybody.
Where was I…? Right. So after lunch, having ample time to do anything—or nothing—I took a long walk home. The weather isn’t SO bad. I wasn’t cold or anything. I still couldn’t see the mountains through the smog, but, that’s to be expected during the winter. As I walked, I realized that being in Chile gradually feels more and more natural. I suppose it’s just getting used to understanding their crazy modismos (i.e. things that they say in Chile and NO WHERE else) and getting comfortable with not understanding every word—as well as admitting, from time to time, that no entendí. When you parse it down, living in Santiago is just living in a big city. The only element of “developing nation” that I encounter daily is when I pass people selling bandaids for a living on the stairs of the metro. Other than that, Santiago is very well-dressed and proudly progressive.
However. Today, near the end of my walk, a bus passed me, full of people. And by “full”, I mean the doors wouldn’t shut and people were hanging out, hanging on to whatever or whoever was nearby. … I can’t picture this happening in Seattle. We’re just a bit too orderly to permit it.
On one hand—when a bus reaches its capacity and has riders hanging out the doors, safety alerts start ringing in my ears. On the other hand—no one fell out. If it gets the job done—perhaps there’s no problem?
It left me wondering if “development” is more bureacracy and less efficiency. But then again, real efficiency would probably result in everyone having a proper seat on the bus. I don’t know. It was just an observation.
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