Walk Like A Chilean. Talk Like A Chilean. Be A Chilean?

Hola todos,

In Chile, the people generally are quite short as you all have gathered by now. For that reason, a lot of the girls wear heels. Therefore, there are a lot of heel sales. As mentioned, I am a giant here, but I decided to test out the trend. I went on a shopping "spree," as in a huge flea market where 50% of the stuff there was not that great. But, I bought two pairs of heels. A few weeks ago I had also bought a pair. So, I now have 3 pairs of heels with me, and the first pair I bought are  two inch red wedge sandals and surprisingly don't kill my feet. I like them a lot, but obviously when I wear them, I can see over an entire crowd. Comfort wise, they have some cushion in the front and therefore aren't too bad, but after a night of dancing, they do start to hurt of course.
I bought another pair of wedge sandals yesterday (apparently wedges are a lot easier to walk in). However, unlike the others, there is no cushion in the front, therefore my heel is lifted even higher. When I tried them on, I looked at the heel and they looked the same size as the first pair. Well, I was so wrong. They are 3 inches high. I went out last night and decided to wear them. I'd say after an hour into the night, solely walking, I thought my feet were actually bleeding. Understandably, because I am 5'11" in them. Then, it got even worse, because we all decided to go dancing and I figured, okay, I can deal with this. Wow. My feet are still in pain. I had fun and all, and was somewhat able to ignore the pain, but when the night was over and I walked back to my house just a block from where the cab dropped me off, no kidding, I was considering taking them off and walking bare foot. I mean the shoe are so thin in the front that I can feel the ground already. But, I dealt with the pain, made it home, pulled them off, and just sat down. It was late, I was tired, and I wanted to brush my teeth, but I just needed at least 5 minutes to just, sit.
The moral of this story is that, it's okay to buy heels if you don't mind towering over everyone else, but, but, break them in before you walk more than a half a mile. (In total I walked about 2 miles last night.) Either way, I did have a fun night, but those shoes need another few wearings to get used to. The other pair are short boots, and for those of you who don't wear heels, it is much easier to wear heeled boots than sandals.They're also not 3 inches.
I'm beginning to walk like a Chilean.
As I have most likely mentioned, Chilean Spanish is the most difficult Spanish of all Spanish speaking countries. This is because, they speak very fast, drop a lot of letters from words, and have a great deal of slang.  For example, words that end in -ado or -ada, the "d" is completely dropped, Ex: curado (cured) becomes curao. Ah! And even worse, similar to English, the "s" is a very important letter for pluralizing words. Here, they just decided, eh, do we really need the "s"? Therefore, instead of "gracias" (thank you), they say "gracia" and even worse, a common phrase, "mas o menos" (more or less) is pronounced, "ma o meno". This is just the tip of the iceburg, I could go on and on about how strange the Spanish is.
The most common thing people have told me here regarding the Spanish is, if you understand the Spanish here, you'll understand it anywhere, but, don't learn Spanish here because when you leave Chile, no one else will understand you.  At times like that, I think to myself, why in the world did I come to Chile?? Therefore, I have decided to not try to speak like a Chilean. As weird as that seems, because no one wants a foreign accent, but I really don't want to speak Chilean Spanish. Even when I hear people say "ma o meno" I still continue on saying "mas o menos". Whether this is a good thing or not, I don't know.
I an not talking like a Chilean.
Now, I think Chileans are great people, and I would love to be a Chilean, but, because I do not resemble a Chilean, am too tall to be a Chilean, and don't speak like a Chilean, I will never be a Chilean. I have accepted that I will never fit in. Though, learning how to walk in heels is always a useful skill to have, so I will have taken at least one thing with me when returning to the U.S.