by Eileen | Apr 3, 2013 | chile, haha, language
You may recall that not that long ago, I went to Suriname. I was thinking about this today because I really want to go to French Guiana. If you know your geography, that’s not a free-association, so much as it is a geographic connection. But despite the capital...
by Eileen | Mar 8, 2013 | chile, language
My efforts to speak the best possible Spanish (for me) are far from over, and I just want to think a little bit here about the word effort. Last night I was at a photo exhibit launch at the improperly named “Mall Sport,” which should be called “the...
by Eileen | Feb 25, 2013 | chile, feria, food
Un atado. Now repeat after me: a-TA-o. Atar is to tie. An atado should be a thing that is all tied up. And it kind of is. It’s a mess. Tengo un atado= I’ve got a mess. But your life is not necessarily all tied, up, it can also be tangled, because...
by Eileen | Jan 27, 2013 | chile, feria, health, santiago, shopping
Comingback from vacation brings me back immediately to two important things. Laundry and the feria. Today’s feria foray smelled like basil and melón calameño (cantaloupe) and ripe peaches and sometimes tomatoes. And occasionally, fish, but I speed past that part...
by Eileen | Dec 26, 2012 | chile, language, travel
¡Fuera! is what you shout at a dog (if you don’t shout ¡Sale!) when you want him to go outside. Fuera (no exclamation points) is also what we say when it turns out you aren’t, or won’t be where you normally are. BTW, this is about fuera, which is...
by Eileen | Dec 4, 2012 | chile
There used to be a bridge over the river in Talca (the Rio Claro), but it got old, and fell into disuse, though you can still find beer bottles and the occasional tombstone (no, I’m not kidding). After a while, a new bridge was built, shiny and with metal...
