Awesome people

I am living with a host family in an apartment. My Chilean family consists of a mom, dad, and sister who just graduated from the University I am attending. They are also hosting another student from Notre Dame University. And the best part of my new home….a dog! Havay (no idea how to spell his name) is a gorgeous lab and I love him even though he has a tendency to eat all my socks. My family is unbelievably sweet but living here has had many challenges. Nobody in my host family speaks any English and my Spanish has deteriorated quite a bit since high school. Dinner conversations can be quite awkward as I try to explain what I learned in my medical imaging systems class using a combination of miming and basic nouns. But overall, I am much happier in a homestay than I ever would be in a hostel or hotel. I’ve been able to improve my Spanish skills greatly and have a place where I can truly feel at home. And the food is amazing as well! Making friends with the other students in my group has been very easy. We’re lucky enough to be on a dialogue with only nine students, so we’ve all gotten to know each other pretty quickly. From exploring the city together to struggling to read Spanish menus at lunch we’ve had a lot of bonding time already. And I can honestly say that everyone on this trip is an absolutely awesome person, including our professor! It’s an interesting mesh of people that would likely never have come together if it weren’t for this dialogue but that’s part of what makes our group so fun. We also study with Chilean students from our University here and it has been a blast getting to know them. They are all extremely nice and I’m excited to spend more time with our Chilean classmates!