Ciao Chile!

After being home for a little over a week, I have had plenty of time to reflect on our trip to Chile. Although I consider myself to be relatively well-traveled for my age, Chile was a very new and difference experience for me. A majority of my travels have been in Europe, and South America obviously was very different. The biggest challenge for me obviously was the language barrier. This trip has been the longest time I’ve been in a country where I didn’t speak the language. Most other countries that had languages I didn’t know well spoke decent English or I wasn’t staying there long enough for it to be an issue. Luckily, this difficulty did not damper my experience. One of my favorite things about this trip was that for the first time in a while, I learned about a completely new subject matter. I feel as though throughout most of our young adult life and into adulthood we are mainly re-learning, reviewing, or learning about subjects we already touched on previously in more depth. Chile’s history, politics, music, geography, and more were all things I knew relatively little to nothing about! As a history nerd, this fascinated me. Through music, art, and the everyday life I experienced with my host family, I grew to understand this culture at a deeper level. Chile was definitely a humbling experience for me. It was outside my comfort zone and I grew by having to navigate life in a foreign country where I struggled to communicate. As a future ESL teacher, I think this experience is remarkably important. Teachers will often say they “understand” how difficult a subject is, but with English teaches, this is not always accurate. After being in this situation, I feel as though I can really relate to young students trying to learn a second language must feel. My impression of Chile has not exactly changed, because I didn’t really have many expectation. I do now have a greater appreciation and understanding of a country I knew so little about. The camp really was an eye opener that I am right on track with my career choice. I love kids, teaching, and making a difference, and these were all things I was able to do at this camp. This trip to Chile is one that I will never forget.