Exchange Students!

There are many Facebook pages to "like", blogs to follow, and tumblr pages to scroll through of photos of exchange students all over the world. Being an exchange student you begin to feel part of another community and even another world. All of these social media pages allow you to hear some crazy stories about other exchange students literally all over the world. We can all relate to most of the posts. It is a really cool thing to see what thousands of other exchange students are doing in their host country. It is truly an amazing experience and it is sad to be on the final couple months of my exchange in Chile. It's a year full of everything unimaginable. I am so grateful I get to make this a chapter of my life.

I wanted to share this post in one of the Facebook group pages I belong to. It is dedicated to us exchangers! It really describes a year abroad quite perfectly! It can also give a good insight to the outside world as to what we go through everyday on our exchange!

"Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colorful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.
Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.
Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.
Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that girl is going to react when you see her again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.
Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.
Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.
Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.
Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world.
It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.
Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.
Exchange is falling in love with this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.
Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…
Exchange is understanding.
Exchange is unbelievable.
Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.
Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.
Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.
Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.
Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.
And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.
Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.
Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it !"
-Patricia

Chao Verano

Goodbye summer. It is painful to have to write that! My first, and last summer in Chile is unfortunately coming to an end.  It was a relaxing summer for the most part with some very memorable moments as well! I traveled to Argentina with my class from school for a week. What an amazing trip that was and a perfect way to start my summer off! While being there I was able to cross two items off of my "Bucket List", traveling to Argentina and riding a horse! At the end of January I celebrated my first ever summer birthday with my best friends here. I also changed host families, which was for the best. And of course numerous days spent poolside enjoying the sunshine! 

Summer coming to an end only means one thing, school is starting again! Classes start on Tuesday, bright and early in the morning! I would be lying to say that I wasn't looking forward to going back. I miss being occupied and with my friends all day. Lets be honest though, I have not missed waking up so early! I can already tell it will be a rough morning having to get up at an hour I haven't seen in such some time! And I have mixed feelings about whether or not I miss my school uniform! Tuesday will be an eventful day!

I honestly thought the summer months here would go by a lot slower. It is crazy to know that it is already March! I still can't figure out where the time has gone! I never thought, in August, when I arrived that I would be looking back at almost 7 months in Chile. It's also very bittersweet to think that I only have 4 short months here. In an exchange students perspective, 4 months is basically nothing! I don't want to waste a single opportunity in the coming months! My time to really shine here in Chile!