From Santa Teresa to Cervantes

“Medieval walls? Santa Teresa de Jesus? A 16th century home?” were questions that were going through my head as I toured the nearby cities of Avila and Alcala de Henares. I could not contain myself when I found myself face to face with thousands of years of history. What topped off the experience was that …

Some Final Words for My Beloved City

It was about 2 weeks before I left and I was already ready to leave my second home in Santiago de Chile.  I was anxious to see my family and friends and to be able to wake up under my own roof again.  As much as I loved living with a host family for my …

First Birth – Appreciation for Life Forever Changed

One of my most impactful moments in Chile was during one of my shadowing shifts in a local hospital. I shadowed an OBGYN in a maternity clinic. Initially, I did not know what to expect but I must say that it was definitely a fast-paced experience. After we were shown around the clinic for a tour, we …

Un Paraguay en Chile | A Paraguay in Chile

  As I blogged in one of my first blogs, “It’s Hard to Immerse And Why It’s Okay” I talked about my difficulty finding friends of my age that I could relate to other than my IES classmates. Though I was taking classes at a local university, I only really made acquaintances which was fine …

Chi Chi Chi le le le, ¡Vamos Chile!

I’ve never been prouder than when I saw Chile make it all the way to the finals of the Russian Confederation’s Cup. It was a Sunday morning full of excitement as all of the streets were full of vendors selling merchandise for the game. The game was scheduled at noon so I thought that I would …

¿Dónde empezar?

So much has happened in the past few days that I feel a gallery of photos would better express my excitement for the wonders that I had the privilege of beholding.  The enormous Palacio Real (ironically, the king and queen do not live here), the beautiful and monumental Almudena Cathedral where the current king and …

Love At First Flight

   It felt like love at first flight when I first landed in Madrid.  My first time being outside of the continent of North America gave me unbearable happiness.  I could not help but release some of this joy through expressive eyebrow raising, dramatic gasps, and oh-my-goshes as I watched my dream unfold before me. …

How I Got Lost in the Atacama Desert

Saturday morning started like any other would in the driest desert in the world.  Yes, I was in the Atacama Desert of San Pedro.  It was as if the desert had a thirst so severe that could never be quenched even by its recent heavy rains.  Its travelers feel the same as water is hard …

Health Studies Program in Chile

As I blogged in a previous post, I was part of a health-studies clinical observation program as a part of the IES Abroad program.  In this program, we have a Medical Spanish course that meets 3 times a week, a biweekly public health seminar course and a weekly field placement. My field placement was under …

My Pluscuamperfectos: Si Hubiera… “If I Had…”

So one of the tenses a Spanish student will learn is called the Pluscuamperfecto which is as complicated as it sounds. The structure of this tense usually requires that the user use the past perfect tense in the first clause (I would have…) followed by a conditional perfect tense in the second clause (If I …