Halfway.

I cannot believe it, but I am half way done with my semester here in Chile. I officially have 2 more months here, which is so bitter sweet (a lot of bitter right now)! The rest of my semester here already has flown by, yet I feel that I have been living here forever. It's hard imagining going back to school, living in my apartment, and continuing to study Biomedical Sciences. It's been quite a while since I last touched a science textbook. I miss it, but I think it's been a good break to give me some energy to finish my studies at CSU. I am hesitant to come home for the obvious reasons (Chile is awesome being #1) but another reason is that I am sad that my career at CSU will be coming to a quick close when I return.

In my time in Chile I have learned a lot about how culture affects a person. No one really can understand this unless they've lived in a different culture for an extended period of time. Even I will not fully understand after being here for nearly 5 months. Culture is very strong and really important in the formation of a person, how they behave, and how they view life. Here are some of the cultural aspects of Chile that have started to affect me... their informal lifestyle, and their compassion to the poor.

When I say that Chileans live an informal lifestyle, I kind of mean that they are lazy. At first it was a wonderful break from the high speed life I live in the States, and I really enjoyed the laid back mentality. Now however, I am starting to go a little crazy with the amount of time I have, and how chill everyone is. Ambition does not mean the same thing here as it does in the States. In the States, ambition usually means that you devote all of your time to studying and being successful, and though I have many worries about how that can shape a society for the worse, there is still some virtue to be gained from being a hard worker. Chileans let life happen to them, which could not be more opposed to the idea of the "American Dream", where we make life happen. Of course, there are many problems when a person starts to think that they will control every aspect of their life, and that their success defines them, but it's no better to just let life happen to you. A good mix of the two would be the ambition of the States and the understanding that sometime you can't control everything like in Chile. Hopefully I can try and master that mix when I return, but for now I am taking advantage of a relaxed semester. It's perfect because by the time I get home and all the craziness of Christmas is happening, I will be so ready to get busy my parents won't know what to do with me.

Something that I will also try to bring back to the States is the compassion for the poor that Chileans seem to have. It's not even like they do more things for their poor than we do in regard to monetary charity. It's how they treat the poor when they are serving them that makes it more compassionate than our service. They treat them like neighbors instead of some random guy on the street. They chat with them for 30 seconds when giving them their pocket change instead of just tossing a coin their way. Even when they don't have change to give, they smile and acknowledge the person as they pass by. I feel that most of the time in the States we choose to ignore the person. To be brutally honest, we ignore them because generally that person is dirty, ugly, and they're being a nuisance. That might seem harsh but I've ignored many a person on 16th street mall for those very reasons. When I see how Chileans treat their poor though, I start to notice that their poor aren't quite as poor as ours are. Our poor are not only poor in the material sense, but they are also lonely. Not saying that they aren't lonely here, but at least they are acknowledged on the street, and they get to have conversation with the man on his way to work. In a way that's a better gift than the dollar I gave him beforehand. I want to remember to treat the poor with the same human dignity I give my friends. A conversation could work miracles in a person who no longer feels that they are worth anything. A smile could remind that person that they are seen, and though others don't meet their eye, their existence does matter. It's a simple lesson, but a hard one to practice.

This weekend we are going to hike La Campana, which one of the most popular places in the Andes to go hiking. I pumped! After this week, pretty much all of my weekends are full of activities and trips, so the blogs will really start rolling in. Ciao!