Wrapping it up

In a recent phone conversation with my parents, my mom pointed out that the bulk of my (now very infrequent) blog posts have been discussing struggles, and I really haven’t talked too much about the joys of my experience. She has a point. I guess I’ve been focusing on the negatives because I needed the chance to vent. Venting is an essential part of life, and it’s tough when you’re struggling to talk to everyone in a foreign language and are so far away from friends and family.

But I want to make it clear; this semester hasn’t been all negative. It’s been pretty spectacular actually. The opportunities to meet new and exciting people and learn a distinct language and culture, to travel and discover new beautiful parts of the world, to get to know a city and region at a very intimate level... But I didn’t need to post all that. You can see my photos, I can talk to you about it, but the great parts of life aren’t that interesting. This blog would be even more boring than it already is.

But with all the incredible ups there have also been a few huge downs. The stresses of a study abroad experience in such an isolated world away from family and friends have given me the most challenging struggles of my life. Homesickness, social isolation while being trapped in a Spanish-speaking world, preoccupation over the lack of close and meaningful interaction with others, struggles with a slower and less efficient pace of life, challenges to my values, beliefs and customs, and frustration with a culture which is sometimes hard to understand and adapt to… Those are just a few of the emotions and tests which have worn me down. Yeah I don’t think it’s like this in all study abroad programs. But in one with such a big focus on immersion and dedication to the language, the struggles can be really debilitating. And I think that was true for pretty much all of us in the program in Valdivia this semester. We got emotionally beat up. It’s something they don’t mention in the Schools Abroad handbook, it’s supposed to be all fun and games. Yeah, it wasn’t what I expected, but I wouldn’t change anything because while it was an emotionally taxing experience, it has been incredibly gratifying.

A few days ago, I had a chance to go to the beach one last time with a few friends. After five months living here in Valdivia, just 20 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, I still never actually went for a swim. I came that afternoon resolved to finally do so. It didn’t matter that it felt like it was about to snow when we stepped off the bus, nor did it matter that there wasn’t a single ray of sunlight in sight. It didn’t matter that I didn’t bring a decent towel or warm clothes or that none of the others were going to swim. I needed to do it, not to prove a point, but to bring some sort of closure to my experience here.

It was more than just a quick polar bear plunge into the frigid 50 degree ocean. My body’s clash with numbingly cold water helped bring this whirlwind of a study abroad experience to an end. It knocked out all my frustration, stress, loneliness, and isolation. The icy water told me, this is IT, this is life, let it beat you up and kick you around, just live it and LOVE it because when you come out of it you’ll be stronger.

My semester in Valdivia may not have been the ideal study abroad experience. But I wouldn’t change it at all. It’s given me plenty of positive, unforgettable memories, and the struggles which never let me be made me a stronger and better person, and for that I am grateful.



So what am I up to next?

This Sunday, I leave the city I’ve called home the last five months for good. But I’m not coming home immediately. I’ll be heading to Buenos Aires for a week to spend the holidays with relatives. Then on December 28th I head back down to Southern Chile, starting a sixteen-day solo trip south through Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia. I will be covering a large corridor between Puerto Montt, Chile and El Calafate, Argentina in an ambitiously short timeframe. But hopefully it will give me a chance to relax and reflect, and I’m sure the solitude will get me even more pumped than I already am to return to friends and family back up north.

I reunite with my fellow Middkids/Valdivianos Lilly and Allison in Puerto Natales, Chile on January 13, where we hope to trek the entire Torres del Paine circuit. If you haven’t heard of Torres del Paine, do yourself an eye-candy favor and complete a quick google image search. After finishing the trek we’re off to Punta Arenas, the largest city in Patagonia, for a brief visit, and then Ushuaia (the southernmost city in the world) for one last hurrah of hiking and hopefully a boat trip on the Beagle Channel… I’ll be back in the States on January 29th and just a few days later will make the trip back up to Middlebury.

Well that’s it from Valdivia. I’ll update again when it's right.

Anyway, I love you all, and can’t wait to see you again.

-Alex

Quiet Study

For a moment this afternoon, I forgot I was in the library writing two essays that I need to finish tonight. People were shuffling in and out of the room, moving tables and chairs, yelling, laughing, saying hi to friends. This is life in the study lounges of Chilean universities...

But in all seriousness, everything is so much louder here in Chile. My nights are dominated by the sounds of nervous neighborhood dogs barking (here in Chile dogs sleep all day). Most days I wake up to the loudest and most obnoxious bird call in existence... the call of the queltehue. If I'm lucky, a neighbor's insanely loud burglar alarm is also going off (while crime rates are relatively low here, people are obsessed about protecting their home with fences and security systems. 99% of the alarms that go off are caused by somebody opening a door before deactivating the alarm...).

Life at the university is extremely loud. Not just in the study lounges. In my climatology class, I always have to sit in the first row if I want to get a chance to hear the professor, the other 80 people in the class are busy chatting with their friends. With no air conditioning, windows in Chile are always open, so you might be trying to enjoy a nice discussion on Argentinian history while some guy with a leafblower drops by.

It keeps life fun and interesting, but it'll be nice to come back to a slightly quieter world.