Victoria Gosalvez – Page 2 – GW Blogs from Abroad

Finding "Una Buena Onda"

AdminFebruary 27, 2017December 14, 2018

This last week was defined mostly by the exciting new experience of moving in with my host family on Tuesday. I was eager to get settled and to meet my family, but nervous about the prospect of leaving the security of our orientation hotel where all the members of my program were staying together. In reality most of these feelings were outweighed by my burning desire to unpack my suitcase and get myself organized.

Of course my host family is absolutely lovely. I am living with older retired couple, native Santiaguinos who have been living here their whole lives. They have an adult son with two small children of his own (18 months and 4 years old) who come over to play often. This has been a lovely set up for me as I am able to enjoy some peace and quiet as well as many years of knowledge from my host parents. But I also get to play pretend and chase the babies around the yard. As you can see, they love to take selfies . . .

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Arriving and Working towards "Thriving"

AdminFebruary 22, 2017December 14, 2018

By vgosalvez11

I have now officially been in Chile for four days and have been trying to soak up as much of the country and the city of Santiago as possible.

Things are of course a bit overwhelming. Minutes after arriving after arriving into the busy Santiago airport, I was met with the challenge of navigating the busy terminals with (admittedly a bit too much) luggage. I then spent two days on my own settling and exploring before our four day group orientation. This short time spent wandering the city gave me the time to notice my surroundings and begin and catalog my thoughts on the new city.

My observations so far

1. Chilean Spanish is a language in and of itself - I was warned this was going to be the case, but I had no concept how “foreign” it would be. I was raised around many Spanish speakers (as in Spanish from Spain) and while wasn't really fluent I always understood the vast majority. In addition to this, I spent a semester in Madrid for and became more comfortable with Spanish. However, Chileans speak a Spanish that is incredibly different; their dialect is full of slang words and colloquialisms that I am not familiar with. Furthermore, their accent is distinct and unique from others I have heard. While this is a challenge, I think I am catching on pretty quickly, and hopefully I eventually won't notice the difference. I am pretty sure the on "Chileanismos" given to us by our group leader is going to become my new bible.

2. Chileans are NOT shy about PDA - Our hotel is near a grassy little park type area and you cannot walk 10 feet without seeing a couple lying in the grass “canoodling” (as my mother would say). It would be enough to make many Americans blush or complain. For my part, I really don't mind and find it rather sweet.

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Planning to Pack and Planning to Plan

AdminFebruary 13, 2017December 14, 2018

By vgosalvez11

Yup, I am still not gone yet. I have become convinced that I am the only one left not in school or at my study abroad. While many of my friends were rushing to order textbooks or trying to cram a last pair of shoes into a carry-on bag, Chile still felt like a far-off dream to me.

To be honest, it still feels kind of like a far-off dream. I leave in three days, and then my program orientation officially starts two days after that. After that, it is a week of orientation, and then I don't even start classes until the first week of March. This is definitely an unconventional schedule, as I won't be done with finals until early July, rather than early May. Due to the fact that Chilean students are currently celebrating their Summer Vacation on the other side of the equator, they will be starting their fall semester in March rather than August.

These last weeks have been both restful and difficult; I am starting to get my first taste of something I know I will deal with all throughout my semester . . . FOMO. As many of my friends can tell you, I am practically the poster-child for Fear Of Missing Out.

Without being sappy, I can say that I love GW. I love my friends there, and I also love the activities and clubs I am involved in as much as I love DC. Okay, you got me . . . obviously, I don't love late nights in Gelman, but generally I have a lot of fun.

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