Chapter 11 ~ Yin and Yang

In which I will explain some of the downsides of living in a foreign country. 


I was going back and forth about posting this chapter, and in case you were still wondering, I did in fact decide to post it. I thought it only fair to the readers to share some of the downsides of my trip so far, so as not to confuse anyone in thinking it has been all butterflies and rainbows, because if I have learned anything in life so far, it's that for every up there is a down or is it that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; well that and the only guarantees are death and taxes, which turned out to be false because I happen to know that there are some people who do not pay taxes. Anyway I digress, before I get started I would like to state first and foremost that I have had the time of my life so far and if I could go back in time and change something, I wouldn't. I have learned more in the last four months of living in Chile than any other time in my life, and the struggles I am about to mention have only made me stronger and better. Having said that, lets get started, shall we?

The first struggle, and the greatest, is being away from my friends and family for so long. I am no stranger to moving, I did it often as a child and continue to move around as an adult. My experience with moving around has taught me a lot about friendships and family, and I figured that this trip would be just as easy (or hard) as when I moved after high school, or during college when I moved to the cities for a short period of time. The reason that this trip has been so much more challenging on me, I believe, is because I knew from the start that I was never going to be staying permanently in Chile. For that reason, I have had a much more challenging time connecting with the people here. It didn't help that up until a week ago the Chileans were all on strike from school, and I was stuck in a broken down high school out of town, never getting to meet Chilean students, never getting to know the university, not even being able to do some of the extra curricular activities I had originally planned on doing. No, I was in a run down building full of other foreigners, most of which didn't know much spanish, and most of whom had the same mentality that I did; after 5 months I'll probably never see these people again, why bother getting to know them? I'll admit that was wrong of me, I should have tried more actively to meet new people in the beginning, but unless you have done the same thing I'm doing right now, you don't understand the difficulties. You'll just have to trust me its easier said than done. It also didn't help that the school placed me as an 'independent', so while all of the other students had groups with counselors and leaders to help them go out and do things and meet new people, I remained alone.

It's may be at this point that you are probably thinking one of two things: either 'get over it, Sam, and stop whining!' or 'wow, that must have been really hard for you, I'm so sorry...' Well to both accounts, you can stop right there. It was hard in the beginning and I'll admit that I wanted to go home a few nights, but now I am more grateful for it. While everybody else was hanging out with other exchange students, I was with my host family and their friends, speaking spanish and learning the customs and cultures of Chile. So while everyone else got to experience the 'tourist' side of Chile, I got to live here as a Chilean, or I should say as close to a chilean as a foreigner can get. I can also say that my spanish has improved more so than most of the others', because I was forced to hang out with my host family while they were all forced to hang out with each other; I was speaking spanish most of the time while they were all speaking english. Now some of them may read this and want to argue, and they have every right; I'm sure they also have had a great time in Chile and learned a lot about spanish and culture, I'm simply stating my opinion and what I've found with the other exchange students. As for the school, yea it sucks and it made me so angry at first that I wasn't getting what I paid for, and I wasn't warned before I came here, but that is life and I've learned to live with these changes. The irony is now that I've finally learned to be OK with our little run down high school building outside of town, we are changing and going to finish our last two weeks of school in the actual university...

Other little things that get to me are the dogs that bark incessantly throughout the night, the food (don't forget how much bread, soup, and salad I eat), the lack of indoor heating, the daily struggles with the language, the school and its lack of reasoning (really though, the professors here have no reasons for anything it seems, and don't really care about the assignments or the grading process, they just seem to do what they want to do when they want to do it), the instant coffee, the lack of a job, the lack of personal items I have with me, the price of most things here (which may just be me paying more attention because of the lack of a job), and absolutely the daily threat of an earthquake, the buses I have to take, not being able to drive, and as always the spiders.

The interesting thing about all of this, I am almost certain that these are going to be all of the things that I miss most after returning to the US. The irony just kills me. I guess the point of this was just to let people know that I have daily struggles here, and it isn't alway fun and games. Living life in a foreign country is just like living life in the US (or anywhere for that matter), there are some good days and some bad days and you just have to take what comes to you and try and make the most out of it.

To end I just wanted to update you all on my trip to Chiloe (because I just hate ending on a bad note). It was great, I really enjoyed the company of my host siblings and the island is amazing. I went with a friend (on a 20 hour bus ride each way) and we toured around with my host brother. Saw some great churches, ate some amazing sea food, and it passed really quickly.

I have now entered my final month here in South America, and because of the lack of a job, my money supply is running low. I have a few more things I would like to do but it's kind of a wait and see. I hope you are all finding yourselves well, and I hope you understand the meaning behind this chapter. I will most likely only be updating my blog one last time before returning home, but of course if something extraordinary happens I will be sure to squeeze in another chapter. Thank you to all of you who continue to read my blog and support me in Chile, just know that the feeling is mutual.
No Vemo Muy Pronto!
S.R.