Chile: A Second Way of Living

Submitted by Alyssa Santiago on the 2020 winter session study abroad program in Chile sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures…

This week felt like a learning curve to me. I had to cope with feelings on top of everything I was adapting to already. I realized that Chile is like a second world to me. I have a different routine here, a different family, different friends, listen to different music, speak a different language, and even buy things with different money. I miss my life in my first worldm but life feels like it’s moving so fast here that sometimes it takes a silent moment to realize. I keep trying to find ways to show my first world self to my second world people, but that is not being my authentic self right now. I am in a different world so I am a different self. And my first world people can see my second world through pictures I post and send of my life in Chile, but they will never fully understand. It is a similar feeling to when I adapted to college for the first time. Change is good and sometimes you need to immerse yourself in a different environment to grow.

The view from the top of the hill at Valparaíso. We took a lift to get up the hill because it is very popular to use instead of hiking. I saw everything up there from the rolling hills to rooftops to the Pacific Ocean. Valparaíso is an old port town so many ships are exiting and entering the town by the Pacific Ocean.
View from one of three of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s houses. This one is called “La Sebastiana”. Pablo had a creative wit and loved to name everything including his furniture and homes. His houses are now museums that display most of his furniture still intact and are very popular among tourists to visit .
In Valparaíso, Chile, there is a little town up a hill that is filled with beautiful, creative murals and graffiti. Every corner you turn, there is artwork to see. Many people come to this town to take pictures in front of the graffiti like I am in this photo. This mural was one of my favorites.