Chile: Introduction

Chile was the first country outside the US in which I lived. Here's the short version:

During my senior year of college (2009 - 2010), I decided I wanted to take a gap year and leave the US to achieve fluency in Spanish, which I had been studying for two years. I was saving up throughout the various jobs I held in college, so I had some money but no plan.

Luckily for me, there's substantial international demand for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), so I simply enrolled in an online TEFL course a few months before graduation and was signed up for a 3-month volunteer position in Chile as part of the program. A month after graduating from college, I was on a plane to Santiago!

The program, English Opens Doors, was established by the Chilean Ministry of Education and offers positions that last anywhere from a few months for the winter program to an entire year or longer. Program volunteers are matched with host families and can be sent to any participating school along Chile's 2,700-mile ribbon of territory (a few regions were closed during my time there due to inclement weather). The participants of my group - about 40 people from the US, Canada, and the UK - gathered at a hostel in Santiago for a week's worth of additional training and were sent off shortly afterwards to our host families.

What follows is a personal reflection of my time in Chile and includes topics that range from Chilean food to the World Cup to cultural differences. I hope you enjoy the posts, and please feel free to leave comments or to contact me if you are interested in more details regarding the program.