Fin del homestay

In an hour, my whole group will be heading to the airport to fly south to Temuco, Chile for about two weeks. It's crazy how fast this academic semester has passed by, and sad to realize this is the end of my homestay. A few nights ago, we had a farewell dinner with all of the host families and their students. It was really fun to sing "Todos Juntos" (a song we learned in Spanish) as well as "American Pie" to our host families, even though we were very disorganized and it just turned into hilarious entertainment on our part without trying. We also had a slideshow with pictures of our families together and it was fun to see my host mom's reaction to the pictures I picked, and other families' pictures.

After the farewell dinner with Emily, my host mom, and me

While some people are doing their independent study projects in the south of Chile and living in hostels or apartments, some people who choose to stay in Arica stay with their host families. I am really excited to be moving in with 3 of my really good friends on this program into an apartment when we get back from the south in November! I am happy to make this change because I worry that without a solid schedule with classes and clinic visits in November, I think I would have spent a lot of time alone in my homestay house being unproductive and unmotivated. I'm hoping my roommates will be a constant source of motivation but also entertainment!

I'm hoping to blog soon about chilenismos, Chilean slang, and my trip in Temuco focusing on the Mapuche indigenous group and their traditional medicine. Stay tuned :)

- Marisa