Viajes en Chile

Hello all! Welcome to my blog page for my year in Chile! Here is an overview of what I know so far:

I will be flying into Santiago on July 29, where I’ll be spending the first few days going through orientation with the other 21 students participating in Middlebury exchange programs in Chile. On July 31, the six of us heading to Valdivia will take a 10-hr bus ride south. We arrive in Valdivia and meet our families on August 1.

Valdivia is a city of about 130,000 people, located on the northern border of Chilean Patagonia (latitude: 40 degrees south). Universidad Austral, where I’ll be studying, is a national university of 10,000 students. The city’s architecture and cultural events reflect its heavy German influence. The area gets huge amounts of rainfall every year (106 inches a year compared to Seattle’s 36 inches), and this region and the Olympic peninsula are two of the few places in the world with temperate rainforests. During the summer (December, January, and February), the average temperature is about 70 degrees. Winter (June, July, and August) has average temperatures of 50 degrees.

While in Valdivia, I’ll be renting a room and living with my landlady/host mother, Jacqui; her six-year-old daughter, Manolla; and four other Chilean boys who are also boarding with Jacqui. I’m really excited about the living situation, as I think it will be a great way to enjoy a family atmosphere, while also meeting students my age who can hopefully help integrate me into the social life.

Starting in September, I will be taking three classes at Universidad Austral (University of the South). I’m not sure exactly which classes I’ll be taking, but I’ll be focusing on history and literature. Chilean students choose their major before starting the university and proceed to follow an established curriculum where the majority of their classes are predetermined. Fortunately, as an exchange student, I am free to jump between departments and take classes without having to worry much about prerequisites. I’m a Spanish major and, as long as I take courses with a focus on Latin America or Chile, all the credits will transfer to my major at Middlebury.

I would love to hear from all of you while I’m away, so please feel free to post comments on this site or email me (adappen@middlebury.edu). I promise to get back to you as soon as I can!