The Quirks of the Chilean Household

Living with a Chilean host family is absolutely one of the best parts of this experience, and with a Chilean host family, comes a Chilean house with all of its quirks and wonders. I am lucky to live in a house in the Recreo neighborhood, which bridges Viña del Mar and Valparaíso. It’s almost like a little town within the city, and the streets are filled with brightly colored houses and lots of friendly faces—I say friendly because that’s how they appear to me, but the facial expressions could also be something akin to “aw look at that lost gringa”. Either way, the smiles are nice. My host mom has told me that even if she was rolling in money, she would still choose to live in Recreo because it is extremely diverse and friendly—sounds like Austin, eh? I may be biased, but I think that I have one of the most fantastic living situations a girl could ask for. Recreo is a bit far from the center of Viña del Mar, and thus a bit farther from most of the other students in my program, but closer to school, so the compromise works out nicely.

That's about right--and that's about the same facial expression that I have every day I am here

The house itself is fantastic! There is a loft which serves as my oldest host sister’s bedroom, then separate bedrooms for my mama chilena, my other host sister, and myself! There is no central heating in most Chilean households, so if you don’t find me under all five blankets in my bed, I am most likely sitting in the hallway by the estufa, or space heater.

My lovely pieza, or bedroom

And yes, Flops did come with me to Chile, and he loves it here too

90% of the house is exactly what you would find in the United States, the kitchen is large, which I love, with a table where we usually eat breakfast or once—the meal that usually replaces dinner—or lunch when I am eating early and chatting with my nana, Luisa. There is also a dining room, for most lunches, and a living room for entertaining. An interesting note—while I am used to having one central television in the living room around which the entire family gathers to watch quality programming such as America’s Got Talent or Love in the Wild, here each individual bedroom has its own TV with no central television. This makes for some entertaining night time viewing when we are all watching the Chilean version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire at the same time and shouting our guesses between rooms. Of course there are nights when we all pile onto my mama Chilena’s bed to watch a particularly juicy gossip story unfold, and talk about the day, but for the most part you’ll find me in my room wondering where in the world they find the voices that they use to dub over American television shows.

The other major difference between my house in the U.S. and mi casa here in Chile is the presence of the calefont. I am unsure of the exact inner workings of this machine, but I do know that if I want a hot shower, I had better turn it on—a lesson learned from experience, unfortunately. 

Only slightly less ominous than it looks

In order to turn on the hot water, I grab the matches, or fosforos, from the kitchen, tiptoe outside (at this point I’m usually in my pajamas, so I hope the neighbors can’t see me), twist the lower handle so it is perpendicular to the ground, grab the black knob emerging from that rectangular hole and push it almost all the way to the right, fumble with the matches until one is lit, insert the lit match into that black hole in the center there, and hope that the house doesn’t go up in flames. Congratulations! You now know how to light a calefont.

However, my absolute favorite part of this house is without a doubt, and beyond all other things, the backyard with the porch on which we eat all of our famous Sunday lunches (more on these later). My home in Austin has a huge back yard, and after being in various apartments, I cannot imagine living without one. Plus, and this is the best part of the best part, we have fruit trees in our backyard. That’s right, fruit trees, where I can walk outside and pick a fruit for lunch—a luxury I will most definitely be missing when I head back to the States. There is one orange tree where we get our oranges for juice, an apricot tree that should be blooming sometime soon now, and an avocado tree! If the day is nice and I’m not under all five blankets on my bed, I’m probably laying in the backyard looking at all of the clothes drying on the line, and soaking up the sun—a pastime that my host family finds a bit strange, but it’s worth every minute!

La casa Chilena is a wonderful place to be, I’ll tell you that.