Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Santiago's toll on my feet

My feet are not very pretty in general. Unfortunately, I inherited my dad's feet which not only means two ugly big toes, but foot problems as well. Then, I didn't help things by breaking both feet (at different times) so badly I had to get pins put in in them to correct the break.

So, the point is that my not so attractive feet also hurt me a lot because I refuse to wear tennis shoes around all the time. I LOVE cute flats and sandals and wedges (although I broke my foot wearing wedges so I seldom take them out of my closet here on these sidewalks), but since I walk so much in Santiago, I am constantly comparing the cuteness to comfort ratio before I walk out the door and I always carry backup band-aids just incase.

I thought I was in heaven when I found a pair of adorable Puma flats that were both comfy and stylish, but they turned out to offer zero support and I felt every uneven step in the city. Walking down Paris or Londres near my apartment just killed me. So, lately I've opted for a newer pair of flip flops, but my feet get totally destroyed in them and I get very grossed out when I step in unidentified liquid knowing it hasn't rained in forever. I went to get a pedicure once and the woman spent the entire time scolding me about neglecting my feet when I'm actually very good at giving them extra care in the summertime--they just suck!!

So now after a day of opting for cute flats even though I knew I had a lot of walking ahead of me, I'm suffering enough that it prompted me to dedicate an entire post to my feet woes! I'll use better judgement tomorrow.

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sidenote: I'm doing pretty well on my resolutions so far. I'm farther along in Cider House Rules and loving it of course, I've been good on my diet except for Saturday at our asado (yummmm choripan!), and my man and I have a movie date tonight with our usual snuck-in wine and home-popped garlic popcorn.

8 comments:

Sara said...

I love you post on Santiago's toll on your feet. Disgusting but true, a friend and I were talking about how our feet never smelled bad before but a few weeks of walking around Santiago and they did. What does that???

Anonymous said...

Unless you have real high arches, I have found Naturalizer shoes especially their "sport" model to be unbelievable comfortable and cute. I even wore heals for 6 months while hiking the hills in Valpo-- even worse than stgo-- without much pain.

lydia said...

@ sara.. seriously? haha i thought i was nuts or had way too high opinion of myself (as i think my boyfriend did when i told him) because i have NEVER EVER in my life noticed my feet, socks or shoes smelled distinctly bad before Chile, aside from playing soccer in wet grass. It doesnt even make sense to me!

I thought i must've changed my opinion in hindsight just to have one more thing to complain about.
i now this blog post as a consensus supporting my claim.

Mamacita Chilena said...

You can always buy something of those arch support pads to stick in the shoes if they're not comfortable enough!

Abby said...

My mom bought me a whole pedicure kit before coming here because she remembered how shitty my feet were after coming back home the first time. I think I'll have to start using it, like, tomorrow, if it's going to have any effect at all.

Amanda said...

My shoes and jeans last so much longer here in Texas than they did in the Northeast or in Chile. In the NE there was that corrosive salt everywhere on the roads. In Chile there is the black soot. Here, I can't believe how new my shoes look all the time. I love it!

I wore my flip flops around Santiago a lot. My reef ones. Comfortable, but they screamed gringa and required periodic pedicures. I'm not usually girly like that, but there was always like black lodged into my skin in the summer and horrible dry callouses.

Isabel said...

Sara and Lydia- i didn`t mention smell in my blog hoping not to gross people out but i totally know what you guys mean!

Clare and Kyle- thanks! i never thought about either option, but that`s a really good idea. i`ll head on over to Naturalizer once i get paid

Abby- I wish I had thought about that because I think I`m going to have to get a pedicure if I want to be able to take my shoes off and not be embarassed by my santiago soot heel

Amanda- I know what you mean about the gringa alarm with flip flops. i just dont care anymore, though! oh, and i burn through shoes like crazy here when i generally keep the same shoes forever in the states but i also have a car there and not here.

Maeskizzle said...

Yeah, my feet have radiated odor for the first time in my life here in Chile. It could be all the walking, but I'm not sure. I went backpacking for a month in Canada once, not showering that whole time, and I don't remember my feet smelling. I'm not sure what it is.