Why I am so glad I didn't go to college in Chile

In the U.S. we are familiar with the idea of freshman initiation. This usually involves some sort of a feel good "Welcome to college!" type thing. In Chile, their freshman initiation is called hazing. That's right. All the universities participate in collectively hazing all of their freshman, without exception. Hazing at the local university looks something like this. It all starts first thing in the morning when the boys are stripped of their shirts and painted on with various words, pictures, shapes, and all that is ridiculous. All the freshmen must then smash numerous rotten eggs on their heads before being taken out into the street. Once the freshmen are all spread out on the various streets surrounding the university, the all must give up one of their shoes. All the shoes are then taken to a central location and the freshmen must stand out on the street all day with one shoe, painted bodies, rotten egg drying and simmering nicely on their noggins, and beg for money until they have earned enough to take them to the aforementioned central location to retrieve their shoe. Sounds like fun huh?

Last night my Aunt and I went over to one of her friends house for once (Spanish for 11, but also the name of the evening meal). This family lives in a surprisingly clean home that is about the size of my family's living room and kitchen combined. They are such wonderful and fun people, but they have had so many difficulties in their lives. The husband, Enrique, is an amazing graphic designer. He is entirely self taught, but because he doesn't have a college degree in graphic design he can never earn more than minimum wage. They have a 1 year old daughter named Anita who nearly died over Christmas. Though she is fully recovered, the whole family has to head to the capital of Santiago tonight on the all-night bus to do further testing. You can tell they are tired, but even so, they are just a joy to be with. My Aunt was able to help them get a plan together for their trip to Santiago. She's one of those people who speak truth into your life. A lot of the time this means you want to smack her because she's telling you something you don't want to hear, but at the same time you know she's right and you benefit from it. That is what she does for a lot of these people. She gives it to them straight and in return helps them to develop as people. As the newest gringa in town, I am usually the butt of all the jokes. This doesn't bother me and I'm able to laugh along with them and deliver a good performance, but it's a bother not being able to defend myself. Oh I can understand pretty much all of the conversation and the jabs in my direction, but all I can do is sit there and make faces. Even my Aunt takes these opportunities to tease me relentlessly. She admitted that she had to get her jabs in while she could before my language skills developed and I'm actually able to defend myself. Just you wait Aunt Barb. Just you wait. That's motiviation enough for me to learn the language.