By William P., Chile study abroad participant studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago

Today was my second day and I was still very frustrated that I was having trouble understanding even the basic words that I know I should remember from high school or that I know on paper.  However, at least I was starting to understand most of what the teacher was saying today as she spoke to us in phrases that an intermediate beginner would know.  I know that learning a language does not occur overnight but because I know I am not very good yet I realized I was getting very nervous in front of people and ultimately too scared to talk.  My nervousness would make me forget simple verbs and phrases that I easily remembered later but was stuck without words at the time.  It also is very difficult to conjugate verbs on the spot and while I may know it on paper, speaking them efficiently will take many hours of practice.  Therefore, I did not have a lot of confidence in my abilities at all today.

However, when classes were over I went on my computer and decided to chat with one of my friends in the United States that speaks Spanish.  He was more than willing to help and in our conversation online I found myself finally being able to put what I have learned to good use.  There was no need for me to be nervous behind a computer.  I also had the comfort of both my verb book and dictionary and with the lag of the Internet and the numerous other reasons for pauses such as chatting with other individuals, I could easily communicate with my friend online and fill in gaps that I needed.  I started to learn a lot better this way.  I also for the first time gained some confidence that I can do this.  Due to the successful conversation I was able to control my anxiety a little better and therefore was more willing to talk in Spanish to others.  I obviously have a very long way to go but today I just might have gotten over the hump of not being afraid to make mistakes.

Therefore I strongly suggest for anyone else in the same situation where you are very nervous and afraid to speak do to worrying about mistakes and being embarrassed, then find a chat room in the language you are studying and start off by writing online.  Better yet, if you know a friend that knows the language, chat with him as friends will generally be more than willing to help you out.  Writing really does lessen the anxiety and it is also a great way to learn.

I will continue to chat with my friends that know Spanish using my very book and dictionary to build further confidence throughout the time I am here.  It was a great idea for me and I think it is a good idea for everyone providing of course you make the effort to speak to other people afterwards.  I don’t want the computer to be too much of a crutch for me  but I think as long as I make the effort to also speak the language here in the City, the computer is a good way to continue to lessen Spanish anxiety!

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By William P., a guest blogger studying at AmeriSpan's Santiago Spanish school in Chile

Today was my first day in the City and it has been very interesting.  First of all, one difference I was made aware of right away last night was the existence of manual elevators.  The place where I am staying has an elevator but you have to manually shut the door before it will work and then manually open it.  I have never seen this before and had no idea what it was.  I usually take the stairs but when I was carrying my luggage up I used the elevator and the fact that it was manual was very strange to me.

Along the same line things are generally not as modern as what I am used to in the United States.  Doors do not close very well and get stuck easily.  They also don’t lock or open the same way as what I am used to and therefore this takes some adjustment.  Also, while I am used to traffic and lots of cars in Los Angeles and California, it still is different here.  Cars do not seem to be as alert for pedestrians as they are even in the busiest of cities in the United States.  It could be that I am just not used to the city but it appears as though one has to watch more for cars here than in the States.

My experience at the school was very good.  The staff was very welcoming and after taking the written exam I realized I remembered quite a few more words and verbs than I thought.  However, that excitement unfortunately did not last long. It was one thing to remember some words and verbs but quite another to try and speak. I got really frustrated at times because I could not understand the teacher or other staff and have been giving myself the excuse that it is only my first day and therefore I can just fall back into English all the time with those that speak English

This is the best advice I can give to those considering a program: Do your best not to fall back into speaking English even if you don’t know a lot of Spanish. The mother in the family I am staying with at the homestay does not know English and I am learning the most from this experience. I am forced to try and speak it and learn more words to use.I am confident that after a month’s time here I will know quite a bit as long as I keep trying. It is very difficult now and very frustrating when I can’t understand people, but so far I am really enjoying it. In addition one reason I know I will improve and learn Spanish as I am already thinking the Spanish equivalent for several of the words that I am typing and have to remember that I am writing in English. Words such as talk, of, learn, and etc.  I think this is what will definitely lead to lots of Spanguish in the future for conversations and I can understand why it is done often with people that are bilingual.

In regards to the city of Santiago, it is really nice and the Andes mountains in the background are gorgeous.  I am really excited to ski in them this Wednesday.  Furthermore, the school took us on a tour today, which was really nice.  Unfortunately I did not understand the guide which really frustrated me but hopefully I will take another tour in a couple weeks and will understand it at that point.  Overall, I am really glad I chose this program and I one last thing to mention about why Santiago is a good place to study Spanish is the lack of English speaking tourists.  No one knows much English here and the tourists are not generally English speakers. It is great. My only fallback is to the numerous students that speak English with me of course I am at fault in this regard as well.  I will try to work on this in the future.

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Guest blogger William P. details his experiences in the Spanish and Skiing program in Santiago, Chile

As I am on the plane and on my way to Santiago, I begin to think of all the things to come.  As a graduate of law school who just took the California Bar, and what seems like an endless wait of four months until the results come out in November, I knew I had to find something productive to do with my time during the waiting period.  Living in Southern California, I know that learning Spanish will be a tremendous benefit to me as I enter the job market soon and therefore I thought going to Santiago, Chile would be the perfect learning/vacation opportunity to reward myself for all the hard work in law school and studying for the Bar.

After all the worries of packing and worrying about what bring I am finally on the plane.  I just packed my winter clothes and bought a Spanish dictionary and verb book to look over. While I always worry that I forgot something important, I know I have all the essentials and can just buy something in Chile if I forgot anything else.  The simplest things were the most stressful including what to get as a welcoming gift, which I did not plan for until the day I left, today.  I decided on some candy and thankfully a gift store in the airport was still open so I was able to get some coasters with a picture of Los Angeles on them.

I’m already trying to start getting somewhat involved with the language.  Because I took a Central American Airline, Copa, the primary language is Spanish so I can listen and do my best to speak some Spanish with the comfort that people still speak English.  Of course once I get to Chile I’m hoping to use English as little as possible.   Hopefully everything goes smoothly on the plane and I am able to get to the homestay family at a reasonable time.  Overall, I am very excited and looking forward to the experience.

As an update, I made it to the family and they were very welcoming.  However, what an experience it sure was.  I was surprised that very few people knew English at the airport and even more surprised that the customs agents did not know much English.  However, this really forced me to use the broken Spanish that I do know in order to get through smoothly and find the airport pickup.

I had taken some Spanish in high school and more and more words are coming back to me.  For example, I did not have a pen so I had to ask a customs agent for one and remembered the word in Spanish.  I also realized that I was talking to officials and therefore remembered to use the formal usted form.  The most important phrase that I remembered was donde esta for where is as well as some simple directions for right and left.  I’m far from being able to speak the language but at least I am thinking in the simple phrases without having to translate in my head such as words like for, but, please, thank you, with, etc. 

I look forward to my first day at the school tomorrow and am excited about how much I will learn.  Of course I am more excited about the skiing on Wednesday, which appears to be the planned day for the group from what I am told.

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

The Time is 7:00, do you know where your children are?  Well if you are my parents, then you should know that I am sitting in the terminal at Miami International Airport, thinking about how excited I am to reunite with my American friends and family, while simultaneously distraught with longing for my Chilian friends, family and cultures!

But this blog is not about me…It is about the people who I have encountered throughout the past for weeks (and subsequently officiated our relationship via Facebook) so that when your/their name pops up on my mini-feed I will have these memorized, etched forever in the analogs of my memory (this blog) and to reference from year to year.

The cast and credits of my experience in Santiago, Chile…in the order that they appeared by category:

MI FAMILIA, In the order that they appeared in my life..
-Mamá (Elijara) opened the door as I was getting out of the Transfer Van from the airport and greeted me warmly with a hug and the Chilean kiss on the cheek, and for the next four weeks never failed to treat me with love and affection.  Cooking the best meals, at times cleaning up my room for me, and always helping me when I had trouble making a phone call, doing my homework or anything I could have ever needed help with!

-Mo(rgan) greeted me with a hug and a kiss and by our second night living in the casa (mas loca) burrowed herself into my heart when she said “buenas noches hermano” and from that point on I knew that we were a family.  Whether she was knitting at the table, reading/watching la guerra y paz, or the numerous conversations we enjoyed as we walked through the cold to school together in the mornings.

-Guagui (Wowwi!) aka Jorge – Mi papa chilena.  And always ready to show his love by making fun of the fact that all I ever wanted to do was eat or sleep, and all he ever needed was a piscola, cervesa or a copa de vino after a long day at work.  Guagui was full of love for his family, always invited me to family events and affairs, and made sure I was in the look as part of the family.

-Max – At 17 years old, the “baby” of the family is about 1 year away from graduating high school, and like any good teenager is a master of navigating his home, his family, anything technologic, and always inviting and introducing his friends into the home. 

-Andreina – Came in with her pulola to watch the World Cup with the family and then continued to visit the house for dinners, afternoons, and whenever she could to bring smiles to the family as the oldest (?) daughter of Mama y Guagui

-Clau(dia) – Mi hermana meyor, mi hermanita, y mi guia chilena en la ciudad!  Siempre lista para mirar una película, ir a un mercado, subir un cerro, y hablar muy lento para que yo podía entender.  Llenó con amor y sonries Clau fue mi mejor amiga de Chile, y se encanta mucho y voy a extreñar hasta que ella visitará California ¡PRONTO!

-Lauren – Hellllloooooooooo, was always mama’s response when Lauren’s name was mentioned, as the Califonian that I just “HAD” to meet!  My first few days in the house, my other gringa roomate was off travelling the world, and our first real time hanging out, my congested self hawked up something disgusting into the street, looked at her disguted face and said “Ya, I am gross” and we have been inseparable ever since!  Finished with her EAP semester, Lauren is enjoying her post-study abroad experience as she stays in town late into September to be apart of Chile’s weeklong 200th birthday party! (Mid Septemberish)

Michelle – After Morgan had left for the United States and Lauren hopped on a plane to Uruguay, our family shifted to bring Michelle, a New Yorkian, into the house.  Very unique in her position, as the only married boarder in the house, she brought love, wisdom, laughter and the ocasional crude remark as she began her month studying Literature in Chile as mine came to an end.

-Rylene – I can’t pronounce, I can’t spell it, but the Brazilera who made her first international travel into our home, in our one week together shared many memorable occasions.  Her first time out of the country.  Her first day of class.  Her first time seeing snow.  Her first time skiing.  Her last time skiing (10 minutes later), Miercoles Po, and the waterfall of tears and endless affection that marked her departure only 6 days after coming into our home.

MY SCHOOL FAMILY!
There are so many amazing people that I have come to know through the school.  I have learned with, taught with, traveled with, ate with, danced with, drank with, skiied/snowboarded with and GROWN with throughout my four weeks as I made my school my home away from home.

I feel the best way to approach the numerous people who I have come into contact with through the school is by reflecting on some pictures that epitomize the experiences we shared together!  So if you are reading this on facebook, you may want to click over to the blog for the fotolicous version.

-Los Brasileros – Andre, Thiago, Gustavo, Mariana, Jacqueline, and more were some of the nicest, most positive, Portuguese-speaking, people that I got to travel with, chat with, practice with and learn to love the city and the school with! And of course the gringos Angelique and Henry helped me rep the US by sharing our stories, flaunting our accents and "hablando-ing" Español!

Andre [Brazil], Rascha [Hawaii],Natalie [Cali!] and I headed for the mountains together, and Natalie, with her California home near Orange County(?) may be finding herself up at Mammoth with me in the future. Rascha’s raging Hawaiian self knew how to go big on the mountain, and in life, and would fit right in on the ski weekends with the UCLA team, but more importantly brought the go big or go home attitude with us as the powder started to dump in El Colorado around lunch time to get us back on the mountain to shred some pow…

-Dhanishta [Trinidad], with her English accent, repped Trinidad and Tabago like no other.  Always up for an adventure, a sushi lunch (which unfortunately was never realized), or just checking in/procastinating work and class for a quick snack

-Amanda [Texas], Steve [Netherlands???] and Alex [Down Under] threw down big 2 wednesdays on the mountains and then in the nights during Miércoles Po!  Whether or not they made it to class the next day…thats a different story all together

-On the right, we have Marin [New York but originally from small town in the south?] and Kira [Gringo, but moved to Chile to work at the school] and Rolando [my first spanish teacher] all had so much love and positivity for the school, and seeing how much they loved the school and the people there paved the path for me to do the same!

Thanks for everything!  These people made the last week of school incredible! Whether a day on the slopes with Danielle [back in the blue scarf], the two new Brazileras, Vivian and Liliana [To my left], MY INCREDIBLE and ultimo Spanish teacher ANDREA and of course Michelle and Rylene (behind me and on the far right respectively) who made the final week at home, and school an adventure!

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

I am going to take the Dani Duran approach to starting this blog and see where that takes me:

This last week, I basically had to restart my Chile family experience because Morgan had returned to the states, Lauren was living it up in Uruguay and Buenos Aires, and for some ungodly reason, Clau (who normally works from home) happened to have one of her busy weeks where her trabajo is actually filming and she needs to be there to do her thing (I don’t think she is the star but she does some of the behind the scenes work…HOWEVER SHE COULD BE IF SHE WANTED TO!!!) 

So having the stilts who had lifted me up throughout my Chilean youth (the first three weeks), I entered into adulthood like a true Gringo…calling my family occasionally, and thinking of them as we separated physically…However I still had my Chilean mama and papa and max and the occassional Clau/extended family members (Pato, Andreina etc.) who came in for dinner and a laugh from time to time, so I turned to a new source of love and affection, and found it at my school.  The staff, fellow students and I had all grown fond of each other and they became like a second family to me.  (Including of course my 3rd family, who now consisted of two new sisters….never a brother…come on boys, you gotta get out more and travel…)  And throughout this week, I entered what all Tawongans know is the window of vulnerability.  That time in your life, where you are anticipating a big change, and you tend to let your emotions get the best of you from time to time. 

Despite my two new sisters bringing completely new personalities to the table, and sweet loving kindness to the family (albeit in their own less-traditional ways) My heart was not ready to open up to them in the way it had for the first three weeks.  While last night, we all curled up into my old king size bed, to look at photos, and google map the places where we grew up!  And while my new family may not be the unified indestructable force my previous one was, they are once again my family and we do make a fairly interesting team, to say the least.??But I think what really sealed the deal for my week was my fourth week of school.  I took an afternoon class, and a morning class but between my 8 hours of class each day of this past week, I went to lunch everyday with amazing people, jammed during recesses, shared our stories, opinions and jokes, and feared the upcoming end of the week where people would leave because, while we are all happy in our everyday life, we are also happy here, and CHANGE IS SCARY, but like in bunjee jumping, snowboarding and (one day) acupuncture, facing my fears has always been one of the most important elements of my personal growth.

So, I am feeling reminiscent of this last week, as it was an entirely different experience from the previous weeks, while the things I did were fairly identical.  Class, lunch with other students, snowboarding, Miércoles Po!, and of course the Almuerzo despedido on friday afternoon.  However, this time I was saying my goodbyes to a staff of teachers, administrators, tutors and students who I had grown to love, and I could tell from their uncomfortable laughter, that I too was a valued member of the family.  Within my four weeks in Chile, I have learned to love 3 very different very wonderful families.  I have learned to cope better with change, however as I am about 30 hours from my final “chau” in this wonderful country, I find myself nervously awaiting the return of one of the original sisters (and Clau being done with work) and for one night and the better part of one day, I will learn to love a new combination of the same people who have made this month incredibly memorable!

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

So, I guess consistency is a virtue, but wherever I go I always end up living with all girls.  Of the four students staying at my lovely house, I am the only male (the bloodchild of my chilean parents, however, is male as well as his father so there is some testosterone present in the household…unlike my Los Angeles homes…but that is a story for another time!).

Last night, after a 5 hour trip home from a whiteout powder day in El Colorado, I raced back home for an amazing dinner with my EXTENDED Chilean family.  Both of the other gringo students’ families were in town so my Chilean parents invited them over for a feast of feasts!  Basically, any type of meat that they sell in Chile was thrown into a giant pot, with some vegetables and oils and water and turned into a magnificently hearty Chilean stew….which if you know what it is called please comment it below….but basically it had carne, pollo, mariscos, papas and more; all thrown together in and boiled with love (and heat) to make an amazing meal.  This, plus the company, plus the red wine, white wine, and pisco after a full day of snowboarding 'powpow' (powdery snow) with gringos was just what the doctor ordered!  AND I was able to get the dozens of pictures that were taken of my chilean family so that I could post the good ones on Facebook!

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So, since my first trip since I got lost-ish at El Colorado, I have returned to El Colorado, and visited Valley Nevado twice.  The snow dumped and poured for the first two trips, and I had the opportunity to shred through some awesome powpow ("Nieve Virgen", or fresh snow) as we were among the only people on the mountain for these two, low visibility, high-awesomeness days.

The reason there wasn't anyone on the mountains is that the one windy road that takes us from Santiago to the slopes is pretty much worthless when the weather is sub par. People (busses) don’t put on their chains, and then they spin out and block traffic, and the one hour trip suddenly becomes a 5 hour trip as we navigate the 40+ hairpin turns to take us to the mountain.  But luckily, every time that I have been stuck on a long car ride to the snow, I have been able to catch up on some much needed sleep!  Two days ago, on my most recent trip to Valle Nevado, all the powder from the weekend before was gone, but despite only having groomers and hardpack snow, the sunshine and lack of clouds offered me the Bluebird day at Valle Nevado that I needed so that in one day I could hit EVERY lift (and pretty much every run) on the mountain!

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

Sample Day of class, and despite not sleeping much the night before, and the mild 'terremoto' in my head, it was a pretty awesome lesson overall.

First Hour: 9ish-10:30ish:  Class starts with the profesor (profe for short) asking us what we did last night, (Que cuentas?) and yesterday afternoon?  Who went out, who is tired now, did you go anywhere special, do anything touristy and so on…but all in Spanish.  We then went over our homework in pairs; reading through each other’s plans for the upcoming year and then sharing what we learned about our partner with the class.

The second half of the first block involved another partner activity, where the professor handed out 3 pictures; one of nixon, one of a woman with her head against a wall (the Berlin wall to be specific), and one of the Beatles practicing.  He also gave us about 20 strips on paper with words on them.  We had to sort through the strips and organize them, so that we would have the 3 paragraphs that go with the 3 pictures.  This gave us a chance to interact with the spanish, learn new vocabulary, and also refresh the present continuous.  After this is was pretty much time for recess.

Recess involves hanging out in the central room, drinking tea or coffee and snacking on sandwhiches (bread with butter or when we are lucky bread with dulce de leche).

After enough time to relax and socialize with our friends, we returned to our class (which has about 7 people and one teacher (profé)

2nd Hour: 11ish-11:50ish: This is always the hardest hour, the newness of the day is over, the excitement of the start of class has dwelled, and that sandwhich just wasn’t enough food to hold you over for the next two hours, so I sit staring at my tea (in part for nurture in part for warmth) as the prof starts to go over the next activity…which was just what I needed to get out of the second hour funk: Charades.  We were each given a strip of paper that had a sentence along the lines of “I was doing X until Y happened.  As each person acted out their sentence, we had to guess what they had, while conjugating our verbage appropriately in the preterite and imperfect continous tenses.  My sentences was “I was shopping in the supermarket, until I ran into my Spanish Teacher.”  —Not to hard to act out.

Then we separated into to groups, the police and the suspects, and we did an activity where the suspects had about 10 minutes to collaborate on a their alibi for the previous night, and then the police interview them one by one to see if everyone has the same story.  As the police collaborated, the suspects realized they had won, in that all of us were able to remember our alibi (of going to the park, then taking the metro to school, then doing homework at school, then going for Pizza in the town, followed by a movie ‘Superman’) and as a result EVERYBODY WINS!!!! 

Time for recess number 2…only 10 minutes or so, but just enough to stretch and ask Philipe (the social events coordinator) what the event was for tonight (terrimotos so I passed…because I had gone out for them the previous night and had big plans for the next day), and where I would be going snowboarding the next day.

12ish-1ish marks the 3rd hour where we practiced vocabulary regarding the home and the things we find in there.  We then had to use this vocabulary to describe our own home (in Chile) and rank it on categories of Location, Facilities, Decoration, Price, and Hospitality and use the accurate vocabulary to defend our rankings as we shared in pairs.  This, mixed with some worksheets to help us learn the vocabulary took up the entire third hour (which always goes by faster than the second…even though I am pretty sure the second is shorter) and we were left with our tarea – to write one paragraph describing our homes.

Then the prof dismissed us and we dispersed into the streets of Santiago and I went back home early to spend some time with my Chilean family (we went to the market and watched movies, and I napped A LOT) and had an excellent dinner before packing up for snowboarding the next day!

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

WHAT A TRIP IT WAS!!! 

So the day started with me waking up at about 6:40 in the morning to my Chilean Mama with my breakfast ready to go, and tea!!! I dragged my bag (with wheels) the 30 minutes to my school to meet the drivers who would drive me and one other student (Tim, from Texas) to the mountain, El Colorado.

However, in the vicinity of El Colorado, there are 3 other mountains, and there was a bit of confusion about which one we were going to (I still want to go to Valle Nevada, but that is for another day, and a little bit today, read more and find out!!!). But while Tim was renting his skis, I sorted out the destination business, by standing around and waiting for the people in charge (which were the drivers, no one from the school comes except the students, and there were only 2 of us this time).  But after Tim rented his skis, they loaded tons of people into the vans to take us to our various destinations.

We spent the morning exploring el Colorado, and it was fun.  We kept away from the park because it was early in my season (DAY 1), and the park wasn’t for Tim.  But after a while, we were running out of runs.  So we stopped for a quick lunch, (a snickers bar and an oatmeal raisin cookie) and then I said I wanted to go check out the park. 

As we looked longingly at the small terrain park on the left side of the mountain, Tim noticed some runs (another backside?) just a few meters past the park.  So, we decided to check these out before tearing up some terrain.

In true "Go big or go home" sprit, we put the pedal to the metal as we traversed left along the mountain.  A little too far left, and as we sidewinded away from El Colorado. We eventually arrived at the next closest lift, Which was a completely different resort- “LA PARVA”.

It took some time to negotiate our way into getting back up the mountain, but eventually the manager gave in and let us PURCHASE some lift tickets (because our El Colorado lift tickets were no good here).  But this sarcasm (and about $60 total) aside, Tim and I were on our way back up the hill.  The alternative was to walk about 40 minutes through the streets back to the parking lot of El Colorado.  Oops!

The important thing is that we made it back to the van, ready for a nap, 1 minute before it was time to leave!

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By Jonathon L., guest blogger studying Spanish and skiing in Santiago, Chile

On my first day of school, I took a test to determine which Spanish class was appropriate for me. After the test, I played table football (foosball) when I was waiting for test results. Moments later, the secretary told me to go to room fourteen. I arrived a little later to class than the other students, but we introduced ourselves to the whole class and the teacher began a short lecture of the past perfecto (I think). An hour later, we had a short break and returned to read an article about the Mapuche (indigenous people) in South America. And in the last hour, we had an oral test to determine our personalities. The teacher asked us what we would order in a bar, what we would wear when sleeping, what is our most favorite type of film, and where we preferred to go for a vacation. My result was that I like things simple and I'm content.

After school, we had a free school lunch, then two Americans (one from New York and one from Texas) and I walked to the Providencia region to search for clothes that were warmer (because it is winter in Chile!). While we did not buy much, we had fun walking the streets of Chile. The Providence is a very urban area and shops are more expensive than I would prefer(and not made in the U.S.). Then we walked to our homes. I lived further from the other pupils.

During our adventure, we talked in Spanish a lot. Some times they tried to have conversations in English, but I liked to speak Spanish only. Because when I was thinking in Spanish, it was a bit difficult for my head to change back to English. Tomorrow, I do touristy things in Santiago, and if possible, travel with students from other countries, like Brazil or Switzerland. All in all, it was a good day. While my family is very nice, I dont have many friends yet (its the first day, but I have many aquaintences) to explore with me).

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