I’ve been saving up more quirky Chilean facts to try and pass along…here are some more of the things I’ve come up with.

1. Continents — I had always been taught that there are seven continents. Period. We probably had a song to list them back in kindergarten. So after a lifetime of brainwashing, I was shocked to hear my Chilean lit professor mention the six continents of the world. Here in Chile (and around the world), there seems to be much more dispute as to the number. It appears that the majority of Chileans count North and South America as one continent, and my classmates seemed slightly annoyed that North America didn’t want to share its name with its southern sister.

2. Americans — Along the lines of the previous comment, “americano” here refers to anyone living in the Americas, not just people from the United States. General terms for Americans here are “estadounidense” (United States-an) or “norteamericano” (North American). Though we Americans are accused of ethnocentricity for calling ourselves such and forgetting about the rest of the continent (or two continents), I have to wonder at what the justification is for excluding Canada from the description “North American.”

3. Sucks to be a Chilean cat. The life expectancy here is shorter: only 7 lives instead of 9. What a rip off!

4. Prince Charming in Chile is refered to as the “principe azul” (blue prince).

5. Characters in Chilean fairytales don’t live happily ever after (well, they do, they just say it differently)…there doesn’t seem to be one standard phrase, but my favorite is “y vivieron felices comiendo perdices”  (and they lived happily, eating partridges).

6. Gringos — the term here isn’t at all offensive. It merely refers to anyone who has light skin and hair. It can be used to refer to Americans, Canadians, Europeans, or Chileans who meet the description.

7. Children who lose their teeth are visited by Raton Perez, a mouse who leaves coins in exchange for molars and bicuspids.

8. Colors symboism — In the U.S., the color green usually represents envy or jealousy. In Chile, it represents hope. I was also told that you should never give a yellow rose to a Chilean girl, because here it means that you are jealous or suspicious of her. In the U.S., a yellow rose usally means friendship.

9. These huge bumble bees are, according to my host mother, extremely good luck to have in the house. For a while in the late spring, we had jars all over the house trapping these bees, waiting until they died so that Jacqui could pin them above the doors, like this poor bugger:

The good-luck bee above the door

Here's a close up of the poor guy

10. Colds — I know this rant of mine is getting old, but it still drives me nuts. Colds here are considered crippling diseases. If you ask someone who has a bit of a sniffle how they are doing, the will tell you, in a voice that would lead you to believe they were dying of cancer, that they caught a cold last night. This debilitating disease is then treated with every kind of remedy imaginable.

11. Most Chileans are surprised to hear that we don’t have a national dance in the U.S. Chile’s national dance is the cueca, and kids grow up dancing it from elementary school. I think it shows how dance is so much more central to life here.

12. Chileans love to dance, and they love to dance late. Parties on the weekend start around 1 am and continue until daylight. I usually wimp out early…my American inner clock can’t handle the late hours. Plus, I actually like to be awake for part of the following day.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Hope you enjoy!