Overseas briefing

Author: Catherine Klem

VALDIVIA - By some luck of fate, I managed to defeat all odds (namely buying my plane ticket for the wrong month) and find my way to Chile at the end of February to begin my five-month semester abroad in Valdivia. After being accosted for sitting in the wrong seat on the bus, nearly going home with an old woman whom I mistakenly understood to be my host mother and trying in vain on several occasions to speak in what I considered to be Spanish but was received as some Martian tongue, I found myself in a small car with my host mother, Lady, and my three-year-old Chilean brother, Alberto, hurtling through the narrow Valdivian streets. First stop - the fish market.

The fish market was a firm confirmation of every stereotype I have ever held of the vibrant South American life - voices yelling out in unison, "Loco! Loco! Loco!" (which I later learned to be a type of seafood - not an insult to my persona), a young woman who insisted on selling me a plant that appeared to grow eggs and sea lions (affectionately called sea wolves down here) flopping and growling on the river docks. After purchasing a delicious wild salmon and making one final inspection of the plants that supposedly grew eggs, we returned home and I settled into my new home in this small Chilean city, located in northern Patagonia, which runs along a beautiful river just miles from the Pacific ocean.

Later that evening, there was a brief misunderstanding in which I thought I was being asked whether I was sleepy and answered, adamantly, "yes," not realizing that I had actually just asked for "pastries" to finish off my day. I fell asleep, the rich chocolatey pastries churning angrily through my stomach, excited by the prospect of five months of empanadas and wild fish and desperately wishing I'd paid closer attention in Spanish class.

Now, two months later, my Spanish is steadily improving, and I have settled into my daily activities of classes, soccer practices, an internship and, of course, vigorous amounts of bread eating (a true Chilean staple). At home I spend most of my time with Alberto, brushing up on my Spanish through episodes of "Hannah Montana," reconnecting with my childhood glory days during intense coloring sessions and chasing after him in some sort of "police" game that I have not yet come to fully understand (and at which I am constantly losing).

In addition to acting 20 years younger, I'm also taking three classes at the University, and enjoying the much more relaxed Chilean schedule of each class meeting just once a week. I have also enjoyed leaving the busy city life behind on weekends to hike nearby volcanoes, raft down beautiful rivers and explore the countryside by bike. The misunderstandings continue, but they make for good stories (for instance, how many people can say they accidentally tried out for the Chilean National soccer team?). I have come to love the laid back Valdivian lifestyle in which napping, eating and TV watching are all daily necessities - pretty much the opposite of my former, hectic life at Middlebury.