By vgosalvez11
I wish there was some sort of invention or way for me to track and catalog how I have grown since arriving here in Santiago. Its amazing how things that felt so foreign when I first arrived feel so natural now. Plus, I can't even quantify the amount of Spanish and Chilean I have learned in the last few weeks. It's insane to think there was a time where I hadn't heard of piropos and gringos and so many of the other things I have learned about already.
Class is definitely in full swing (in fact, I should probably be doing readings right now). After trying out about 8 different classes, I think I have finally settled my schedule. I am taking two classes offered by GW, a Chilean culture/Spanish class, and a Historical Memory and Human Rights class, which focuses on the history of the recent Chilean dictatorship and the many human rights abuses suffered during that time period. In addition, I am taking two business classes through the best business school in Santiago. Unfortunately, these two classes are in English, but my classmates are from all over the world and the subject matter focuses on business challenges in Chile and Latin America.
The business school has been a wonderful asset to me so far, and I have met some wonderful and incredibly helpful Chilean friends! Finally, I am enrolled in two classes directly in our other host university. In these classes I am pretty much the only gringa (Chilean word for anyone from North America—its not offensive, I promise). One class is Chilean and Latin American film and literature, and the second is a theatre class! It is absolutely wonderful to be able to take these cool elective classes that I never get to take at GW! The Chilean classes have been a really interesting challenge so far, getting to be in class with only Chileans is really important for immersion. So far I am enjoying all of them, even if the three hour class blocks can be very very draining.
One thing I think people forget before studying abroad or moving to a new country is just how exhausting listening to a foreign language all day can be. Its amazing how much harder your brain has to work. Many of us on the program have discussed feeling exhausted when returning from class. It is an interesting balancing act of trying to learn and immerse myself as much as possible, but still remembering self-care.
I do feel like my Spanish is improving a lot everyday, and the complementary Spanish class is certainly great for improving my grammar (which probably leaves something to be desired). Recently I have a new goal in order to take things to the next level. I am trying to shift to reading books and watching TV only in Spanish. And I'm not talking about American stuff dubbed in Spanish—I am going full out with telenovelas and Latin American authors. Today, I am starting some Isabel Allende. I hope that this will be beneficial and help with my immersion, while learning more about Chilean and Latin American art and music. I'll be sure to come back with updates about how this is going! In the mean time, I'll toss in a couple pictures of my day trip to the beach town Vina Del Mar, as well as some of the other fun stuff I have been getting up to!