I’m learning to drive a manual car so I can drive here, and aside from the tiny curvy, hilly, streets that make up the city, one of my other fears is the pedestrian who really seems to care less if you hit them. In The US the driver owns the road. As pedestrians we wait for the walk signal, look both ways before crossing, wave and smile at the driver who slows down or stops for the measly pedestrian who doesn’t have a car(at in the places I’ve lived in the US). In Santiago pedestrians don’t even bother looking at the street as they cross it, they keep up their conversations or keep looking straight ahead, making the driver slam on his brakes so as not to kill the pedestrian. After all this the pedestrian doesn’t even bother looking over to motion a thank you. I wonder if it has something to do with the Spanish mentality of playing with death…like the bullfight?? (haha, probably not…) But, also there are quite a few drivers’ training schools in the city; one in particular always makes me laugh. It’s called, Mata. Yes, mata. Like the Spanish verb matar-to kill made into a command or conjugated as the 3rd person present singular he, she, it form. I’m not so sure I’d sign up for classes there, but I guess it’s really just the owner’s last name.
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