Family lunch: six hours. Birthday party: seven hours.

Before I left for Chile, I was told that Chileans, as in many other cultures, have a different view of time than in the United States. I didn’t refuse to believe it, I simply wasn’t able to grasp the concept of a world where time is second to life’s simple pleasures: talking with family or friends. This is why a family ‘lunch’ at 3 p.m. often morphed into a family dinner ending at 9 p.m., and why a classmate’s birthday party lasted from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. In the first months after I arrived, I was constantly tired, a common symptom of cultural shock. These family meals and birthday parties seemed never ending, especially when I was tired. After a few hours, Spanish words would transform into an unintelligible stream of sounds. And then I would check the time. I quickly learned that just when I thought it was time to leave, one or two more hours needed to factored in.

The second biggest mistake in waiting is to set an expected time of departure. If that time remains known, then there are no expectations—no ‘that took forever!’ or, ‘that ended early.’ The biggest mistake in waiting is to declare passing time as waiting. Waiting, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “to remain stationary in readiness or expectation.” The reason waiting can seem so painful is because we make it a wait—we remain stationary. As opposed to categorizing a period of time before something is supposed to occur as ‘waiting,’ Chileans use that time. And if they get caught up in whatever they’re using that time for (usually talking), it doesn’t matter because there were no expectations in the first place.

By putting less emphasis on time, Chileans seem to enjoy their time more. Although even after 5 months in Chile it was difficult to forget about time, I am definitely more patient now. I don’t mind waiting in a dcotor’s office or waiting for a teacher to finish talking, even if the bell rings. At my school in Chile, there were no clocks in classrooms. No one seemed to know the bell schedule, and I think it changed on a daily basis, because no one was waiting for anything, or expecting anything. Things happen when they happen, and time is better spent when it is an uncounted passage of experiences, as opposed to numerals.

Patience capacity before living in Chile: moderate. Patience capacity after living in Chile: No clock necessary.