Adventures Abroad

This past week has definitely been one of the most trying weeks I’ve had to endure while here in Chile. When I first arrived in Chile I definitely had to deal with a lot of new challenges and some things got frustrating—like constantly getting lost and not being able to communicate my thoughts and wants to other people accurately. This week I had some new, maybe even harder challenges than I faced at the beginning of the semester. But if it wouldn’t have been for the things I had learned from these past difficulties in Chile, I wouldn’t have been able to solve the sticky situation I found myself in this last week.
As I told you all in my last post very briefly, I was told last Friday that I could no longer work with the organization that I thought I had secured a volunteering position with. I decided about 2 months ago that I wanted to stay in Chile an extra month after my program ended, feeling that I really wanted to take advantage of the time I had off between semesters. I found this volunteering job working with kids with cancer in a hospital in Santiago and was very excited for the opportunity. I started working and had finished two solid days when the head of volunteering informed me that they no longer had space for me. I was very confused to say the least. I still don’t quite understand why the organization couldn’t keep me or why they told me this after I had started the job, but that was the least of my worries at the time. I now suddenly found myself stuck in a foreign country for a month with nothing to do. While this doesn’t sound half bad when I put it in writing—why not do some traveling? Hang out? Enjoy yourself?—I knew that I needed to find something to put on a resume for the summer. I will be entering my fourth and final year at Puget Sound and with the goal of applying for med school in the near future and with not too much experience volunteering in a hospital, I felt like I really needed to find something where I could prove I had gained some experience in my four years of undergrad.
The search began. I googled pretty much everything I could possibly think of to find volunteering positions in Santiago in some sort of area of health. After bookmarking about 20 organizations on my computer Sunday night, I was ready to hit the phone Monday morning, hoping that I could secure an interview or meeting that day. The calls began and I was quickly turned down by about 2 organizations, informing me that they only accepted volunteers that could give at least 5 months of service. Considering I only had exactly 4 weeks left in Chile, I knew this wouldn’t work. On the third call, I got somewhere. I set up an interview for the following Monday with a volunteer organization in a local children’s hospital. I was really excited about this opportunity but also worried since it wasn’t until the next week. To find out more information about the organization, I went to the office to see how many hours I would be able to work. I’m really glad I went because they were very confused when I said I had an interview the next week. Apparently this organization only allowed women above the age of 25 to work with them, and since I’m only 21, I wouldn’t be allowed to take a volunteer position. I was back at the drawing board.
After many more calls, emails, and two days of desperate waiting I found myself without any real prospects. While I had been hopeful Monday, thinking I had a lot of potential opportunities and just needed to wait for one to get back to me, I came home Tuesday night feeling defeated and unsure of what to do next. Emails kept coming back, saying they were sorry but they couldn’t offer me a position at the time; phone calls went unanswered or they explained they didn’t have time to talk; my possibilities were running out. As I walked through my apartment door that night, I felt totally hopeless, thinking I would have to change my ticket to return to the States early, because I simply couldn’t stay here if I had nothing to do. That night I remember being very anxious and feeling like I could cry at any minute. I didn’t know where to turn next—if I should give up and go back to the States, or if I should just keep trying with the knowledge that I might not ever find anything.
I was just about to go bed when a message popped up on my Facebook page. A friend from the university where I had taken classes this semester asked how I was. I really just wanted to go to bed. I could have ignored the message completely, but something made me respond. I said, “Fine.” He asked when my job started. I told him the situation I know found myself in. He asked what I was looking for and when I told him something, anything in health, he told me he would ask some of his friends in the school of medicine at our university and see if any of them knew of anything. I wasn’t expecting much, but I said thank you. I got ready for bed and when I went to close my computer, I saw that my friend had sent me 6 emails of students and professors at the university who were doing research and might need some help. I decided to send them all emails that night, before I went to bed, hoping that I could get a response from one of them in the morning.
The next morning I woke up to one message in my inbox, a message from a one of the professors at the university, telling me to come visit his lab that day! I was ecstatic and hopeful again that I could find something to do with my month here. When I arrived at the lab and talked with the professor, the professor quickly told me that he had no problem with me working with him for the month! He introduced me to the students working in the lab, telling me that each one of them were working on something separate and they would act as my bosses for the month that I would work with all of them. The students showed me their research and gave me a tour of the lab. They were all PhD students working on their thesis. I couldn’t believe it. Not only did I now have something to do, I was super interested in the research, and I would be working with PhD students. How cool is that! I was ecstatic! This was perfect. I could get back into the science realm and get some much-needed experience in the lab.
This whole last week was definitely an emotional roller coaster, where I needed to keep positive thoughts in order to find an opportunity. While I didn’t always have those positive thoughts, I worked through the negative times in order to return to that more open mindset. I would have never been able to overcome this challenge in the beginning of the semester. From having to navigate to new areas in the city for interviews and calling organizations to discuss possible job opportunities, I was proud of myself. I was communicating effectively in a second language and getting much better at arriving at unfamiliar places even without many directions. My ability to deal with adverse situations has heightened tremendously and I know I couldn’t have done any of that without the many challenges I have overcome in my semester abroad.
After finally securing a job on Wednesday night, I felt so relieved. I started working on Thursday and Friday in the lab and was very happy with the work I would be doing. But there was one more challenge that I would have to face that week. It loomed over my head the next two days. I was dreading this next transition. Leaving my host family. Since our program had ended, everyone had either left, or out of about the 5 of us that decided to stay a little longer, had moved into new apartments. My host family had kindly offered to host me for one more week after the program ended, and I accepted, not wanting to leave this amazing family. But Saturday morning I would have to. I was moving into an apartment with one of the girl’s from my soccer team who lives with her boyfriend. I was excited for this new living situation but also very sad to be leaving my host family. I’ve become so close with them, that it feels like I’m apart of the family now and their home felt like my home.
Friday night I cooked dinner for them all and we did an exchanging of gifts as a sort of ceremonious good-bye. I couldn’t believe that in the morning I would have to pack my bags and really leave this beautiful family. But Saturday morning came. I spent the morning packing my things and in the afternoon my host mom and brother brought me to the new apartment. It’s just a couple blocks away, so the ride was short. As I sat in the back of the car, I could feel the tears coming. We pulled up to the apartment building, got my bags out of the trunk, and went up to the 19th floor where I would now be living. As we knocked on the door, my host mom said they wouldn’t go in. The door opened and I realized that quickly these people who had made such an impression on me in the last 4 months, would be leaving me. They each gave me a quick hug and said goodbye within a matter of seconds. I didn’t even have a chance to let the tears fall. As I shuffled my bags into the new apartment and the door shut, I felt lost, confused. Like I had just arrived in another foreign country and didn’t speak the language. Like I had been dropped off at college all over again. My family was gone. I was by myself now.
That afternoon, I unpacked and settled into my new room. Next to the picture of my family from the States, which has sat on my bedside table the entire 4 months I’ve been in Chile, I put the champagne cork from the bottle I had drank with my host family the night before. My host dad had written all of our names on it and the date. I have two families, now, I thought, as I set it next to the picture frame.
I know I will see them all again before I leave Chile for good, but it has still been a transition to seeing them everyday to now not seeing them at all. Overall, this week has been a week of transition and challenge. I went from taking classes and having a solid support system of my study abroad program and my host family, to now working in a lab with people I don’t know and in a new apartment with a couple that lives a very different lifestyle than my host family. And while all of this is very new and a little scary, I’m excited to make the transition and experience a new way of life in Chile before I leave. I’ve really proved to myself in this week how much I’ve learned since I’ve been down here and I’m ready to continue that growth in the next few weeks.

I haven’t written in a while and I feel like whenever I don’t write for a couple of weeks, I must give an explanation. I love writing the blog and I like making it punctual for you all, so usually when I haven’t written it means something exciting is happening that has made me put off writing. So let me explain myself. Excuse Number 1—I went to Perú for a week. It was one of the most amazing trips I’ve had while down here and was truly an experience to get to know this country. Excuse Number 2—When I returned from Perú, everyone from my program was preparing to leave. With everyone finished with classes, our program had come to an end and so I took the last couple of days to enjoy them with the friends I had made here and that were returning to the States. Excuse Number 3—I had a bit of a personal crisis. I didn’t leave Chile with the rest of my program because I decided that I wanted to stay down here and volunteer for a month. Finding a volunteer program, I started working and had my whole schedule set for the month. Then very abruptly I received an email last Friday informing me that I could no longer work with this organization because they didn’t have any space for me. A little shell shocked, I’ve been frantically trying to find other things I can do for my month down here. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail with this whole “mini crisis”. Although still not solved, I know it is something I will grow from and I will update you all on how it resolves itself.

Now that I’ve given you all a quick update on life, I want to tell you all more about my trip to Perú. There is so much I can say about this trip. This country was so different than Chile, it really shocked me at first. I had been to Argentina and traveled around Chile, but nothing could really prepare me for this. However that being said, I loved how different Peru was from Chile. I loved that you could really see the indigenous roots of the people even in a big city, like Cusco, and that everything was so colorful and antique looking. From the cobblestone streets where little old ladies would sell their scarves they had just weaved in front of you, to the small children running around in brightly colored dresses and coats, this country was truly an experience.

For the entire 6 days we were there, we visited countless sets of ruins. We traveled through the Sacred Valley to visit Macchu Pichu (a must have if you’re going to Peru) and also visited other less known ruins that were just as breathtaking. I could talk for hours about the amazing sites we saw and how much fun it was each day to climb to the top of a mountain and take in the amazing 800-year-old ruins before us. My mind was literally blown everyday by the Incan Empire and how much we can still see of it. I learned a lot and it made me want to learn more about the history of Peru. But when I think back on this trip, there is one moment that really captures my heart. I’m sure most of you will laugh when I tell this story and it will seem so juvenile of me, someone traveling the world, to say this is the moment that they will remember forever in Peru. But this is how we work, I work, the mind works. We remember those corky moments that made us laugh and for some reason or another our heart swelled with happiness so much that we could burst. That’s how I felt when this happened and so I want to tell it to all of you, no matter how corny it may seem.

It was early evening and me and the two girls I had traveled with to Peru had just grabbed a quick dinner off a taco stand in a small town in the Sacred Valley called Pisac. We had spent the day here and after a long 5-hour hike up the mountain, we were all exhausted and ready to eat. (I have to say that the tacos from this stand were literally the best tacos I’ve ever had in my life and I highly recommend people stop in this town simply for these tacos.) Taco in hand, I was walking to the bench where my two friends where eating, when out of nowhere a big furry white and black dog walks by, attached to a leash that is in the hand of a Peruvian man dressed in a red poncho. I started to freak out. There was no doubt in my mind that that dog was an Old English Sheepdog. Perfectly groomed, he looked like he was straight out of a kennel club magazine. Now this may not seem like much to any of you, but I had Old English Sheepdogs growing up and they are absolutely the coolest dogs out there (I may be a little biased). Not only that, but these dogs are rare to see in the States, especially groomed well. To put it in a little perspective, I see about one Old English Sheepdog about every 2 years in the States and out of these, I can count on one hand the amount that I have seem well groomed like this dog was. But here I was in this tiny town in Peru, seeing a perfectly groomed Old English Sheepdog walk down the street. WHAT!!! ????

The first shot of the Old English Sheepdog. I was frantically running while taking this shot, that’s why its a little blurry.

“Get a camera, get a camera!” I nearly shouted, knowing I had to document this moment.
I quickly realized that I had a camera in my pocket. Shoving my plate of tacos at my friend, I whipped the camera out of my pocket and started rushing down the street that the dog was half way down now. I frantically snapped some shots, but because I was running and it was dark, I couldn’t say they were of high quality. I felt accomplished though. I had documented the moment and I could prove to everyone that I had seen an Old English Sheepdog in Peru. I sat down with my tacos, giddy at what I had just witnessed. I kept saying “Wow! Wow! Did that just happen?” I couldn’t believe it. Had I really seen that? It seemed so unreal to be true.

Another shot I took the first glance I got of the dog. I had stopped at this point and got a little clearer picture.

I turned to my friends after a few minutes of gushing over the crazy sight I had just saw, saying, “You know what would be cool? If he came back. Then I would really know it was real.” About a minute later, I see the same dog turn the corner and walk right towards us!!!! No way! This was too real now. I wasted no time this go around. I took my camera, pulled my friend by the arm to come with me, and told her she was going to take a picture with me and the dog. Again, chasing the owner half way down the street, I tried to catch his attention. He finally turned around and I asked what type of dog he had, fully knowing what breed it was. When he responded that it was Old English Sheepdog, I explained that I had this kind of dog growing up and it was so strange to see this breed in South America. I asked to have a picture. He laughed and said yes.

Right after I asked to have a picture with the dog. I was so giddy and happy I couldn’t even focus when my friend said she was taking the picture.
 

After snapping some photos, I said thanks, petted the dog one last time and then headed back down the street. That was the best moment of my life, I thought as I walked away.

This was the last night of our trip in Peru and although I had seen some pretty amazing things—one of the 7 wonders of the World, for goodness sake, Macchu Pichu—this was definitely the highlight of the trip. Seeing not only an Old English Sheepdog in South America, but one that was perfectly groomed, as if it could walk into a dog show at just that moment, was absolutely incredible and topped every ruin we had seen. To put this into perspective for you all, one of my good Chilean friends told me that people in Chile don’t buy their dogs from pet stores, they simply grab them off the street if their kids ask for one for Christmas. This means that pretty much all the dogs here are mixes, not full-bred poodles or Labradors. And this is in Chile, a much more developed country than Peru, meaning that it is even more strange and rare to see such a superbly bred dog here. REALLY??!!! And I had seen maybe the ONLY well bred and groomed dog in the entire country. No joke. It could be. This experience was one for the record books. I can honestly say I don’t think I will ever see that again—an Old English Sheepdog in South America.

The final shot. Literally the best moment of my life. One of the highlights of studying abroad. It’s the little moments that count.
 

Traveling is funny like that, you see things that you would never expect and even though they have nothing to do with the reason you’ve come to this place, it’s the thing that you’ll remember the most about that trip. I’ve found that with a lot of my travels this semester thus far. Although you go to see the sights, and yes you’ll always remember these things, it’s the little things that are so unexpected that will stay with you for life. These are the things that when you look back on the trip you’ll say, “Remember when . . .” And that’s how this moment will be. “Remember when I saw that Old English Sheepdog in Peru . . .”

Because I felt like we couldn’t have a post about Peru without a picture of Macchu Pichu

Hello my long-awaiting readers! My deepest apologies for the long delay between this post and the last one. One thing led to another and I found myself so engaged in my life here that every time it crossed my mind that I should be writing more entries I found new things to do. In any regard, I’m going to try to give a recap of some notable past events; no guarantees that it’ll be in the correct order of when they actually took place, or that I will remember everything, but it’s better than nothing, right?

We took a weekend trip to Uruguay that was an absolute blast. We had to cross the Rio de la Plata, which is the river that separates Argentina from Uruguay (remember how I said they call the “dialect” of Spanish here castellano rioplatense? Well that rioplatense part refers to the area around the Rio de la Plata). I had no idea how big this river actually is; from the skinniest part it is about two miles wide but it can reach up to 140 miles wide! It turns out that there are two options to cross it, both of which are by boat. You can take the fast one or the slow one; the fast one crosses the river in about an hour, the slow one takes about 3-4 hours. Going to Uruguay we were on the fast boat, which allowed us to cross the river in no time at all. We visited two towns in Uruguay; the first was a small pueblo called Colonia del Sacramento which is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay. It was founded in 1680 by Portuguese settlers and still has many remnants of its past inhabitants, including the walls and cobblestone streets. It was quite the quaint village, and it was completely dead. Apparently it is a summer vacation town for many Uruguayans and Argentines and because it was winter (and very cold and rainy while we were there!) there were not many people around. However, there were plenty of street dogs! They were quite entertaining and once we got over our original hesitancy about them they turned out to be fun partners. While our group did some silly games on the beach, thanks to staff member Goyo (who is a physical education teacher) the dogs watched us and tried to get involved. They more or less integrated us into their pack as well, which meant that as we were doing a walking tour of the town, they were constantly by our sides and always sought to “protect” us from any threat. This included chasing after and barking at passing cars, and almost getting into some gnarly fights with rival street dogs. They were quite sweet though to us, and even stuck around the hotel so that any time we would leave to go get food or walk around they would be right outside waiting for us. We stayed in a Radisson hotel in Colonia which gave us access to wonderful amenities that we don’t normally experience: for one, I got a full-sized bed, which was a nice change from my single in my host mother’s house. Also, the continental breakfast was to die for; a huge spread with all sorts of fruit, pastries, and most importantly, eggs (Argentines do not eat eggs for breakfast, or have large breakfasts in any sense, so it was a nice piece of home) was waiting for us the next morning.

The next day we took a bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Along the way we passed by gorgeous beaches and waterfront apartments. Apparently the city is quite the vacation spot for Uruguayans and Argentines alike who flock to the area during the summer to lie under the sun. In Montevideo we received a walking tour of the city by a guide who was very informative and showed us around the city. To be honest, it very much reminded me of Buenos Aires but a much more relaxed version. In Uruguay, in contrast to Argentina, drivers will actually stop to let you cross the street and the people there were much more friendly and willing to talk to us. Perhaps the fact that Buenos Aires is a big city, like New York or Paris, and bustling with people means that people are too much in a hurry to take the time to talk to foreigners but I certainly felt more at ease and calm in Uruguay. We also got to see the Presidential Executive Tower, which is where the President of Uruguay works. It is quite the sight; it is a modern glass high rise that is in the middle of the main city square, not behind fences or anything! The President of Uruguay, José Mujica, is also an interesting character. A former guerilla fighter, he has rejected any sense of a life of luxury and refuses to live in the presidential palace. Instead, he and his wife live in on a small chrysanthemum farm where they farm the flowers to make money due to the fact that Mujica donates 90% of his salary to charity. He drives a very old Volkswagen beetle and is publically an atheist. Such a thing could never happen in Argentina, a very very Catholic country. In any regard, I would love to spend more time in Uruguay and see more of the country, and of course eat more of the food! I ate my first chivito which is a Uruguayan sandwich that has beef, a fried egg, ham, lettuce, tomatoes and a mixture of other toppings. And it was fantastic!

Moving on, we also had some tango lessons in Buenos Aires that was quite a fun experience. I’m certainly not one to go dancing, but since it was an activity put on by the group and I’m in Argentina I couldn’t pass it up. We went to a dance club held inside an Armenian cultural center where we received lessons by two Argentine tango pros (any by pros, I mean pros, they were unbelievable to watch). I learned the basic tango steps and we all switched partners a bunch to switch up the dancing. I felt as though I was pretty competent at the basic tango steps but trying to do some of the advanced moves that our instructors demonstrated I realized that Yo soy de madera (the Argentine equivalent of saying you have two left feet, it means “I’m made of wood”). After our instructions in a private room we went downstairs to the actual club to watch some regulars dance the tango. The club serves as a local dance venue for people who live in the area and they regularly come to dance. The tango is certainly a beautiful dance and those who were very proficient at it amazed me with how smooth they could move around the dance floor.

I also signed up and attended the rugby game between Argentina and England. While I know nothing about the sport of rugby it was great fun going to a stadium filled with people to watch a sporting event. I made sure to wear blue (to support Argentina of course!) and while I didn’t know what was happening on the field, I made sure to cheer whenever the Argentines were cheering and to throw my hands in exasperation whenever the British scored a point (I’m sure it’s called something else though…). One notable experience from this trip was the reciting of the Argentine national anthem at the beginning of the match. Unlike the US national anthem, which is sung very solemnly by a sole singer while the audience stands in silence, the Argentine anthem is very much a participatory event. Seemingly the whole stadium was jumping up and down and chanting the anthem together which was quite the spectacle to see. To be honest, I rather preferred this performance because it brought the crowd together in support of their team and animated the crowd.

Obviously there is much more that I’ve been doing but as finals are due this week I can’t devote too much time to going over it all. I thought at the very least I owed you all a little taste of what I’ve been doing and I will certainly elaborate more upon my return to the States. Cheers!