I’m not sure if it is possible to sum up; the incredible experience I had, the friends I made and culture I came to love, in one blog post. However; I’m going to share a little bit of my experience with all of you. I spent fall 2014 in Santiago, Chile living with a beautiful and amazing chilean family. This is the first thing I want to talk to you about is my living situation. I lived in a little apartment in Santiago with my host mom, dad and two sister who are ten and fifteen years old. These are kind, generous, loving people who included me in all aspects of their lives (and honestly those words alone do not do them justice).

By living with the Diez family I learned about chilean culture. We went on outings together, I was introduced to all their family and friends and really learned how loving a family can be to an almost complete stranger. They made me a part of their family. And of course, by living with them my Spanish improved astronomically. No one spoke English except my host dad who spoke a few words, so it really forced me to use me resources and think in order to be able to communicate. Living with two sisters was also extremely interesting…. they fought all the time, which never made for a dull moment! It was a huge comfort having them around to interact with, and I even helped them both pretty regularly with their English homework. If you are someone who is looking to study abroad a highly recommend that you look into having a host family, they will help, support and love you in ways that you cannot imagine. I still talk to my host mom every couple of weeks.

Throughout my stay I traveled to Patagonia, and the costal cities where you can go to the beach, as well as see one of Pablo Neruda’s houses (which was beautiful), went on numerous hikes, as well as going to the Atacama Desert. I went to soccer games, on wine tours, to an amusement park, and stayed in hostels throughout the country. Of course Patagonia was an incredible experience, however I think my favorite trip was to the desert in the north. One of the most amazing things we did was a guided star gazing. We drove out away from the town so there were no lights, and I can honestly say I have never seen stars as breathtaking as the ones in the Atacama Desert. One of the other days a couple friends and I went on a horseback ride. Now, I had never ridden a horse before and when I told them that they gave about three instructions and then told me to get on…. which was terrifying! Luckily I quickly got the hang of it.  It was really amazing because we got our own private guide and we were riding past the most amazing rock masses. It wasn’t what you might think when I say ”riding through the desert”, we were really riding through a kind of canyon. The area was called Garganta del Diablo, and despite the name it was actually a very beautiful place. We were surrounded by huge sandy rocks, with a stream that ran through the whole place. The entire ride lasted about 4 hours, which was super long but ultimately an incredible experience.

This is really just a snap shot of what my experience abroad was. The relationships I established and valuable cultural lessons I learned can’t even be communicated in one blog post. It really was just the experience of a lifetime and I now feel that I have a huge connection with this country that is essentially at the other end of the world. I would go back in a heart beat. Also as a last note Chile has the most fantastic wine in the entire world!