My First 2 Weeks in Chile_Sarah Margolis

My journey to Chile began with a flight from New Orleans to Houston on Cinco de Mayo… ah, “Cinco de Mayo”, these three words were the most Spanish I had spoken in the past 2 years! If you asked me to have a Spanish conversation before coming down here, I would have shuttered and told you that I didn’t speak any Spanish- boy oh boy has two weeks changed my life around! At this point in the trip, I have spent countless hours conversing in Spanish with all sorts of people: my host family, faculty, tour guides, policemen, random people on planes and my personal favorite, a camera crew that interviewed me at the airport! Although I can hold a decent conversation, I still don’t speak the language very well and have a lot of difficulty when conversing. I like the challenge, though. It really keeps the gears in my mind working 24/7! Anywhos, here’s a summary of what I have done thus far: 

Lizz, Jackie and I at Torres del Paine

Mis amigas, Jackie and Lizz, y yo decided to travel around Chile for a week before the start of our program. Patagonia (the southern part of Chile) was our desired destination! We spent the first 2 days in Puerto Natales, a very small town known for the national park, Torres del Paine, named the 8^th wonder of the world.  It is a breathtaking park home to scenic glaciers, turquoise lakes and waterfalls. We spent one day exploring the park with a tour guide that did a spectacular job accommodating our countless nerdy biological and geological inquires. I had just taken a course in Geological Oceanography before coming down to Chile and it was SO amazing to see rock formations and sediment deposits that I had been learning about for four months! I especially enjoyed seeing all of the stromatolites around the glacial lakes. (For those of you who don’t know, stromatolites are bacterial mats that are the first records of life on Earth that may date back to over 3 billion years!!!) In the park we also encountered many guanacos, a camelid in the same family as camels, llamas, alpacas and vicuñas. They’re pretty cool! Interesting fact, female guanacos are pregnant for 11 months out of the year, and mate very shortly after giving birth to repeat the cycle! Two cool birds we saw were Chilean flamingos and the Andean condor.  Andean condors are HUGE!! They can weigh more than 30 pounds and can have a wing span over 10 feet in diameter. One of the coolest parts of Torres del Pine was the Cueva del Milodón. It’s a cave where the remains of a Milodon, a giant prehistoric sloth, were found. These remains and also human artifacts and bones discovered in the cave date back to around 10,000 years ago.

The next stop on our journey was Punta Arenas. This is considered one of the southernmost cities on Earth! Here we took a day trip across the Straight of Magellen (also super cool) to Tierra del Fuego or “Land of Fire”. This land was inhabited by the Selk’nam people, an indigenous group also dating back to 10,000 years ago, until they were discovered by Europeans in the late 19^th century. Unfortunately like many ingenious people around the world, their land was seized and most of the tribe was killed in order for the Europeans to use their land to raise sheep. Today, this island is also home to a colony of King Penguins, which we got to visit! On our way out of Punta Arenas, our flight was cancelled and we were stuck at the airport for 13 hours due to an unusual amount of fog! I was interviewed in Spanish about the cancellation by a Chilean news station, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post. LOL…. That interview was too funny!

TV interview about flight delay

After Punta Arenas we visited Santiago and another city called Valparaíso. I enjoyed seeing all of the markets in Santiago and learning about the history of Valparaíso. For example, it is home to one of the first public libraries in South America! After a short trip to these cities, it was off to Concepción to meet our families and begin our 3-week teaching endeavor at Colegio Concepción. 

My host family is AWESOME! I live with a mom, Ximena, and two sisters. Veronica is 18 and studies medicine at San Sebastián University. Paula is 15 and is a student at Colegio Concepción. At first, Ximena and I barely understood each other and most of our conversations consisted of laughter caused by miscommunication, confusion and crazy faces. By now, her English has improved so much, and my Spanish as well, that we can actually have some great conversations! Veronica is very good at English and I am seeing more and more improvement with Paula as well :). Our work at the school is very challenging but rewarding. There is an enormous language barrier between many of the students/teachers and the people in my program. The school is not bilingual, but many of the students speak English very well. All of the teachers and students are beyond excited to be working with us, a mutual feeling, and somehow we are all able to communicate our expectations and feelings despite the language barrier. 

Profesor Salazar demonstrating a
thermal equilibrium experiment

Each student from LSU was assigned a teacher or subject at the school. I was paired with a physics teacher, Leonardo Salazar, for the next upcoming weeks. At first, I was incredibly nervous because A) I hate physics and B) I hate physics. But despite my nerves, I just jumped right in because- hey, I’m already completely out of my comfort zone here… why not see how far I can push it? Today I helped teach a physics lab on thermodynamics and I ACTUALLY helped the students. It was a really cool feeling J The next class I helped teach after the lab was scheduled to take a physics test. I wasn’t sure how I could assist the teacher after handing out the exams to the students so I just sat down and I decided to take the test too haha… I’m not expecting the best grade because I wasn’t clear on all of the Spanish vocabulary buttttt I actually think I may have gotten a low A! The third physics class I was in today was working on an activity: a crossword puzzle and then some physics problems. Much to my surprise, I was able to help some students with answers. I even taught them about torque because they hadn’t learned it in class yet and it was one of the answers to the puzzle. And yes, this was also all in Spanish! I give myself a huge pat on the back for conquering some of my fears, not only with the language but the subject in which I was assigned. On top of it, I truly helped a lot of students today and am already building really strong connections. This is one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I have done and I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks!