Today was my first day at work, where I had a meeting with the folks at FASIC. I was very nervous about my first day of working in Spanish. So, how did I do? Well, the third Spanish word out of my mouth was the wrong word for “happy” and it was an embarrassing and totally predictable mistake. Later in the day, as a Chilean colleague introduced me around t
he office, everyone kept asking “Habla Castelan?” (that’s what they call Spanish here). Then, after a Chilean woman was talking to me in very rapid Castelan, I heard my colleague tell her, more or less, “He doesn’t understand Castelan very well, and that’s why he has that look on his face.”
Here's a picture showing how I felt the first day.
Still, at the end of the day, I felt great. We went for lunch at a restaurant called Torres, which is famous and frequented by the political elite, and after I walked along the Alameda just taking in the city. I was in awe, and thinking Santiago is the greatest city in the world. It is beautiful and clean and full of life. And here I am for three months.
