La Despedida

In the last few weeks, everything has finished up. All my classes are done now, and all that’s really left is to buy some presents for people back in the States and to say good-bye to the people I’ve met over this journey. I always really hate good-byes, and I think Peter Pan sums it …

Up for an Adventure

I am taking a class called Introduction to Mountaineering and this past weekend I had an amazing opportunity to go on the class field trip. It has been a challenging class, but also quite fun and clearly unlike anything I could take at Hope. And part of the fun was that the majority of my …

Travels in a Thin Country

I’ve had a great time in Chile. With things wrapping up a bit, I’m reflecting on all the things I’ve done. I have made a lot of decisions since I’ve been here, and not all of them have paid off in the end. So this is my advice to you. These are things I would …

A letter to the next Host Student

Dear student: ¡Felicitaciones! You got placed with the lovely Laura as your mama this semester. Here are some things that I hope will help you along on your journey with not only this family but also your study abroad experience: Mama is still pretty new to CIEE, so she doesn’t always understand things that go …

Homesickness

It´s incredible what you don’t notice when you are caught up in yourself. I have been feeling a little melancholy recently for two completely opposite reasons: because I am homesick, and because my time in Chile is approaching the end. On the one hand, I am happy to be going home soon; I miss the …

Chiloé

Chiloé was breathtaking, just as I thought it would be. My friend and I caught a bus Monday morning that took us from Pucon down to Puerto Montt, which took about five hours. From there we took a bus to Ancud, a city on the island of Chiloé. The bus actually went onto a boat …

Pucón

This past weekend, my program organized a trip for all of us to a city in southern Chile called Pucón. We’ve been planning this trip for a while, so it was pretty exciting for it to finally arrive. The city is lovely, about 1.5 hours away from the ocean to the west, and 1.5 hours …

San Pedro de Atacama

Sorry about the flood of blog posts, but I was on a vacation, so I didn’t get an opportunity to write earlier! I just got back from San Pedro de Atacama, which is a city in the desert of northern Chile, and wow, I had a blast. Initially I didn’t want to go because I didn’t …

Festival de Mil Tambores

A week ago, I was a part of something awesome! There was a festival called Mil Tambores, or a Thousand Drums. It was a weekend long event, and it was so much fun! It’s been going on for fifteen years, and it’s just a celebration of happiness here in Valparaiso, Chile! Friday there were poetry …

Fiestas Patrias

September 18 and 19, Chile celebrates its Independence. Although most activities really take place on the 18th and 19th, school shut down two days before that, so I did not have class that entire week! It was quite a fun cultural experience. First off, everybody has asados, or “grill-outs,” kind of like Fourth of July …