4 Saturday 2010
WTF Friday’s? And what the H Ruby Tuesday? Why are you here?
Let me provide some background (although you have most likely already surmised that I have stumbled across a Ruby Tuesday and TGI Friday’s here in Santiago) information to this gesticulation (you’d have to be here to see said gesticulation):
We arrived in Chile as planned. What was not planned, however, was the $140 we had to pay for coming in and being American. Reciprocity affects the masses most unfortunately. Rodrigo, our director here, picked us up and took us to our house where we will be spending some time. I won’t say my whole experience because the guys here last year moved three times.
After lunches and meet and greets, we spend part of the afternoon unpacking and getting settled before heading out with Rodrigo again to tour a bit of Santiago – we live just north of the city. I will admit, I did snooze a little bit in the back seat (I had been traveling for 30ish hours, give me a break) but was fully awake while in the city. After asking Rodrigo a question about American (United States) influence (or, more loosely, Western influence), he directed us to a mall to see for ourselves. While I wasn’t terribly surprised to see the McDonald’s and some of the stores seemed to make sense with Chile’s geography (North Face, Merrel, etc.) what took me by surprise was the Ruby Tuesday and TGI Friday’s! What are they doing here? I was assured that an Applebee’s was close by as well. These restaurants go beyond typical pervasiveness I think. It’s weird to see them here. Okay, McDonalds and Burger Kings are one thing. They are, in a way, classic fast food or have made themselves so. But Ruby Tuesday? What is classic about this place? I always thought of it as a generic sit in restaurant – one, I might add, that I haven’t frequented since high school. Why is it here? Biggest surprise so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment