acostumbrandome

Sometimes I start to think that I'm really badass for living in Ecuador (or Chile) instead of within the comforts of the U.S., but then I realize that I tend to live in fairly similar societies. Obviously I always have not only electricity, running (occasionally hot!) water, and indoor plumbing but I can easily get internet, even wifi. Quito is the capital of Ecuador, and is truly an international city. I have my choice of malls, home decor stores, international cuisine in the Mariscal (touristy section of new town), and the Megamaxi offers everything from Safeway Organics whole wheat pasta to Kraft Mac n' Cheese, even if the whole wheat pasta costs $5.60 and the cheesy mac costs $3.05. (Oddly enough, I can't seem to find almonds or dried fruit in either the Megamaxi nor the Supermaxi.) Although they almost always come with a heafty cost, my cravings don't have to go unresponded. Still, despite this international metropolis (I ate a BAGEL at a gringo's breakfast place on Saturday...a gringo needs to capitalize on that in Valpo!), I realized that there are some definite Latin American oddities to this city that I've just gotten used to.

1. Milk in everything but a plastic jug. I buy my milk unrefrigerated in a tetra pak (I know, crazy!), but you can also buy milk in a flimsy plastic bag, not unlike a bladder. I don't like this kind of milk because you have to have a good container to keep it upright in once it's in the fridge, and it's hard to control as you pour it! Yogurt can also be bought in similar packaging. Oh, and while we're talking about yogurt, don't even think about finding anything remotely Greek-like- everything is so liquid it's drinkable (and people do so frequently in public).

2. Beer comes in liters. This was true in Valpo as well- I remember when I first got there to study abroad, my new classmates and I all went out to a bar and we all ordered individual beers, only to realize that they came in liters not 12 oz bottles or cans. Most people here (and in Chile) commonly share a liter (in glasses, not out of the bottle) and then go on to order more as the night progresses, but rarely do party-goers drink their beer individually.

3. Things that we think of as "sets" are commonly purchased individually here. For example, I buy eggs by the single egg ($.10) rather than by the dozen. You can buy a single cigarette, single serving "packets" of tomato sauce, I even bought my broom in separate parts- the pole and the swiffing broom-part screwed on to the bottom were sold separately. As one who is currently cooking for one (a horrible dilemma), I'm a major fan of this individual purchasing. A dozen eggs? Just for me? I just need a single one for breakfast! Why do I need all that tomato sauce if it's just going to go bad in my fridge? OK, so the tomato sauce option probably isn't the most economical- economies of size certainly have their advantages- but if you can buy a dozen eggs for $1.20 or $.10 per individual egg, I'm going for the individuals!

4. Mullets (not just in Chile!), fanny packs, the prevalence of "terms of endearment" (mijita, mi reina, mi vida, mi niña, mi amor, mi querida) by everyone from small store owners to secretaries to professors, car alarms constantly going off and no one caring, an utter lack of pedestrian crosswalks and lights despite a significantly larger pedestrian population, and a lack of punctuality by anyone. And these are just a few!