Student Blogs/Rosalyn in Chile
Let me be honest... I’ve started typing up this blog post at least three times not knowing where to start. With 6 months of living in Santiago, Chile under my belt, I have experienced a plethora of events, both highs and lows and to hone in on one aspect of my life just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen for this post. So, I’ve decided to narrow it down to these three respective topics: improving my Spanish, growing as a person, and one of my favourite hobbies — traveling.
To keep this short and sweet (might be long and dull, but I hope not...), 3 years ago I never would have thought that I would be living abroad, and in a Spanish speaking country. When I first arrived in Santiago, I was definitely nervous knowing that the accent here was distinct and one of the hardest accents to understand (not only according to foreigners from outside the continent, but from people from the neighboring countries too!) But, this was also a reason why I chose to live in Chile. I wanted to grow; I wanted to have the ability to adapt to an environment in which I knew I would be pushed everyday to make conversations in the beautiful (the locals would say ‘ugly’, I personally love it now, haha!) language of chilean Spanish.
Now after 6 months, (referring back to my last blog post...), I know exactly when they ask me where I’m from, haha! Furthermore, making Chilean friends has probably been the best way for me to really learn the language. Sometimes for fun, I will message them on WhatsApp and start telling them a random story in Spanish of my experiences and they would most of the time, make them laugh (that’s always my goal). WhatsApp has a function of sending voice messages too... and the majority of my friends I’ve made here in South America send them all the time!!! Funnily, this has really helped me with trying to understand them since I can listen to the messages multiple times and absorb it, and also has encouraged me to reply in voice message as well, practicing my fluency in Spanish.
It was definitely difficult in the beginning when I first arrived in Santiago, and at times I don’t understand the first time I hear them say something, but after saying ‘mas lento por favor/ cómo?’, I can reply with ease. Learning and understanding one of the most difficult accents in South America up to this point of my exchange has been such a fulfilling and rewarding experience and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Being on exchange has allowed me to grow in so many ways. I have learned so much about myself. Specifically, what has allowed me to grow is becoming more open minded and seizing every opportunity I can with a genuine desire to learn! I find myself saying ‘yes’ to just about any opportunity I can immerse myself in while abroad, whether that’s meeting new people, traveling, or trying something I never have before! Having this optimistic mentality has helped me so much and will continue to help me for the future. I am so glad I went on exchange for this reason; to never fear of the unknown and to take it all with a grain of salt.
Speaking of salt... I recently traveled with one of our fellow BIB Sprotties, Sydney to the salt flats of Uyuni as one part of our travels in the amazing country of Bolivia! We met up in the highest capital city in the world — La Paz, Bolivia. This is where we started our adventure filled week in the country!
The first day we arrived, we decided to take it easy and rest up because the next day we would be biking what has been cited as the most dangerous road in the world — Road of Death (self-explanatory, right?). We were both a bit nervous, but after hopping on our bikes, it was like it all went away and it was smooth sailing... kidding! It was bumpy practically the whole way down (about 5 hours), but for the views, I am so grateful to have gone on this biking adventure (even after 3 days of sore arms). I also want to add that we took multiple breaks throughout the day going down. One of these breaks involved zip-lining in the middle of what looked like a jungle. The best thing about it was that the views while on zip-line was like I was in a dream... and what’s also dreamy is that it only costed $12 CAD. Loving the low prices here in Bolivia!
Another highlight of this trip was traveling to the official capital, Sucre. I felt like I was walking in a small, European city while wandering the streets. Sydney and I signed up for a city tour and we learned about the history of the country, walked to the main plaza, got to eat a typical Bolivian sandwich at one of the local markets, and saw an amazing view of the whole city.
To end the story of our travels on a high note, as mentioned earlier, we went to the salt flats of Uyuni and that in my mind was the cherry on top of the trip! We signed up for a two day tour of the salt flats and we were paired with 4 ladies from Argentina, so we got a taste of the Argentinian accent for a couple days.
On the first day, we visited the Train Cemetery, went to the salt flats and took a bunch of funny photos, went to the first hotel ever made of salt in Bolivia and ate lunch there, drove around the salt flats a little more and took pictures of the sunset and headed to our place where we would stay, a small village known as Coqueza in a mountain on the salt flats. The next day, we walked up to 5000m on the mountain of where we were staying at and came across this incredible view...
We got the chance to see flamingoes and finished off the tour with going to a market and we bought some small souvenirs!
Although we were able to see all these great places, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed conversing with the ladies from Argentina because we taught each other a bit about our home cultures.
So far, being on exchange has taught me some valuable life lessons including:
I could go on for days what great life lessons I’ve learned while on exchange, but for now, I’ll keep it short and sweet, like I said. ;)
Chao!
Rosalyn is a third-year Bachelor of International Business student spending her year abroad in Santiago, Chile.