Santiago - Weeks 3 and 4

The past two weeks in Chile have been really chill but fun at the same time. I am enjoying a different pace of life here. I loved Argentina and I loved everything I did there, but I felt like I was constantly going somewhere every minute of the day and constantly trying to see everything I could. I think you should be doing this, but sometimes I was exhausted and just needed to rest and felt like I couldn't. Here, the city feels much more suburban and I feel that I am able to rest a little bit better (also thanks to my super comfortable bed). 

I am really enjoying my life with my host family here and I have the same roommate as I did in Argentina which makes the experience better as I get to share it with someone I am already comfortable with. Overall, I like my classes here more than in Argentina, but that is solely because I am taking things I am a little bit more interested in. My favorite class that I am taking so far is my Chilean history class. This class focuses on Chile’s history and politics and the way that Chilean society works and functions. We are learning about the dictatorship that was present in Chile under the role of Pinochet, about religion and the history of its influence in Chile and South America in general, and about other topics too. I really enjoy this class since it is a flipped-style classroom. Basically, we watch videos at our homestays about what we are going to discuss the next day and write notes as if we are kinda teaching ourselves the material. Then, in class, we discuss what we learned from the videos or our own research. We also go on many field trips in this class including a mountain that has a view of Santiago, the national cemetery, a Mapuche community education center (one of my favorite field trips I have done with IES Abroad), and more! 

I also really enjoy our emerging economies class that we are continuing from Buenos Aires here in Chile. This class, however, is more focused on presentations and little research projects that we do with preassigned groups. The thing I enjoy most about this class both in Buenos Aires and here is the field trips. My favorite field trips were to a local market and to a vineyard. I also am taking a sustainability and business class, but that one is not my favorite in comparison to the others! In that class, we are learning about sustainable development goals, how Chile is trying to implement them to become a greener country, sustainability in corporations vs. personal sustainability, and more. We also have field trips in that class too and that is my favorite part about IES Abroad courses because it allows us to see real experiences. Overall, I really really enjoy my classes here and I enjoy getting to see the comparison between Argentina and Chile through my classes, experiences, and time here.