My Santiago

Santiago… what I’m to talk about it? OK, in my opinion Santiago is a small city. Well, it’s not a short one, because its surface area covers about 750 square kilometers. But, if anyone compares Santiago, with many capital cities in the world (e.g. Bogota), our city is a small one. However I must recognize that many times, travel to one side to another of the city (like me when I come to FAU) it can get very boring and long. Anyway, I still feel that Santiago is small, and that’s one the things that I like about our city.

I believe that there are no more things that I really love in Santiago. Maybe there are more, but I don’t remember other. So I must say what I dislike of my city, and that’s a lot. First of all, it’s a gray city. Yes, all the big cities have things that make it boring and sand. Our city, on the other hand, is more worrying. Not only by the lack of green places of Santiago, such parks, or the bad spread of those that exists (because most of the big and beautiful parts are located in the East part of Santiago, and I’m a witness that if you go for North-West part of this city, or at least near of my house – I live in Cerro Navia – you would see a desert),besides, the people in Santiago always are angry and stressed, because they work and study generally in square places, and Santiago inhabitant is an envious one when someone win or make good things, making it a remarkable person. And we are boring, if you see the car colors that we choose, they are always the same: gray or white. Besides we destroy the green places, like Plaza de Armas when starts the construction of a subway station! I reached to see it plenty of trees, and it was a million times better than today.

Well, I have a large list about things that I dislike Santiago (polluted city, discrimination, bad neighbors, crime), but I passed the 300 words, so I must finish quickly. I would like to change a lot of things. First of all, the big prices to travel in public transport (I pay 180 CLP each time that I took the bus, but adults pay 580 CLP) the groceries, and gasoline (especially gasoline). Besides, Santiago needs a new way to live. We are angry, boring and stressed people, so we need to change that. More green places is a good idea too, and a more joined and unplugged community (I include myself in that) to fight against crime for example.

Tips for tourists: be prepared for everything in Santiago. You can see a sunny day in summer, but sometimes, it starts to rain. Besides, the heat in Santiago is dry (dry in the sense of the humidity, different than tropical zones), so you need lots of water, juice, ice cream and everything that calms your thirst. And, if you came here in winter, don’t forget to taste “sopaipillas”. And start to be used to Chilean language, don’t forget expressions like “Hacer una vaca”, which in Chile means Get Money or “Caleta” that it’s not necessarily a Cove, in Chile means too, a lot of anything.

Bye bye, see you later.