A rite of passage: hasta el sur
Story and photos by Jeremy Turley, spring 2018 travel writer at La Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile
HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Pardon the dateline, but I couldn’t resist. At the moment, I sit in my living room surrounded by packing lists, suitcases and freshly-laundered clothes. I leave tomorrow for what I hope will be the southern excursion of a lifetime. Only twelve hours in an airplane lie between me and Santiago de Chile.
In physical preparation, I am a procrastinator in the truest sense of the word. I have yet to pack what I need to take with me, and I have scrambled to get my finances and travel preparations in order. Though in mental preparation, I am already there.
Since early childhood, I have viewed a semester in Latin America as a rite of passage. My mother studied in Mexico City nearly 35 years ago, and the experience has formed her life philosophy and professional arc more than any other. She learned to speak Spanish, saw firsthand the challenges of living outside the U.S. and became an immigration lawyer upon returning home. Now, most of her clients come from Mexico. She has become one of the most trusted gringa lawyers for Latinos in the Chicagoland area.
When I was a little kid, my mom used to tell me about her time there. Even though college seemed so far away, I always knew I would make the pilgrimage south. Finally, I have gotten the chance to do so. You could say I’ve been waiting a long time for this.
In the tradition of procrastination, I have waited until a few days before my departure to square away my housing situation and buy the things on my packing list. However, my preparation started, in earnest, about a month and a half ago.
I was warned by study abroad coordinators (and my mother) about the visa process, a thorn in the side of every exchange student. For me, it also served as a wake-up call. The documents I turned over to the Chilean consulate were official in nature: police background checks, good health certificates and proof of financial solvency. While acquiring these materials, it finally began to feel real — I would be willfully abandoning the comfort of my home, university and native language in a just few short weeks.
That realization probably should have scared the hell out of me. Instead, it generated an excitement within me. I have always enjoyed venturing into the unknown, whether it be an unfamiliar place or a new mental challenge. Chile is sure to be full of both.
Perhaps the greatest challenge will be the language. I have studied Spanish for many years in many classrooms, but 50 minutes a day of language courses cannot adequately prepare someone to interact with native speakers in a foreign country. In Chile, I will need the Spanish skills to earn more than just good grades. I hope to earn a spot as a functioning and communicative member of Chilean society. By the end of my time there, I want to be able to live as they do, and an inability to properly speak their language would certainly prevent this.
Since the Chilean semester doesn’t start until late February, I have been out of school for nearly two months. In December I felt somewhat confident in my Spanish-speaking abilities because I had just finished a fabulous course at Mizzou (Spanish in America with Asier Alcázar). Alas, my gains in that area have since abated, and a few weeks ago, I could barely express my most basic thoughts. In an attempt to be proactive, I recently started listening to Spanish-language podcasts (namely NPR’s Radio Ambulante) and speaking in Spanish with my mom. Hopefully, I’ll at least be able to ask the questions necessary to survive in Chile, though I still worry about how I will fare down there.
Since my main goal is to solidify Spanish fluency, I have opted to live with a Chilean family in Santiago. I was warned about the uncertainties of a family stay, but it seems I have lucked out.
From what I can tell through email communication, my host mother, Mariana, seems like a lovely person, and the living situation seems almost too ideal. She has two children, one of whom is my age and several pets (I suppose this could be very much not ideal for a person with allergies). In addition, the house is only a bus ride away from my university. I hope living with them will help me learn conversational Spanish in a way that I couldn’t, had I chosen to live with other foreign students.
I am very excited to meet them in two days, and I hope to form some strong relationships under their roof.
Finally, I would like to offer some practical advice to future exchange students. I suspect that most of the readers of this blog will be students looking to go abroad.
Take the visa application process more seriously than I did. I thought it would be easy to obtain a visa, when in fact, the bureaucracies that make it somewhat difficult. The hardest thing for me to find was the state police background report. It took me a 2-hour drive to Joliet, Illinois and more than a week in all to get this document. The consulates (which are usually located in big cities) cannot process a request until all the paperwork is filed, and because of the background report, I briefly panicked about not having my visa in time. Especially if you don’t have two months like I did, try to get it done as early as possible.
Don’t freak out about housing. Certainly be proactive about finding a place to live, but it’s not worth losing sleep over housing. In my group chat with other foreign students at La Universidad de los Andes, several people have found a place to live after arriving in Santiago. By my estimation, there are people in every city willing to rent out a room to you.
Go to Santiago! According to the folks in the MUJA office, I’m only the second journalism student from Mizzou (shoutout to the pioneer Taylor Twellman) to go on exchange in Santiago. I’m not there yet, but it seems like a really cool experience in an awesome city.
The next time I write, the brutal Chicago winter will be long behind me, and the warm Santiago sun will grace my untanned skin. Farewell!
