Summary of my lovely Chilean Families
The goal of this blog post is to show the differences in the three Chilean families that I got the opportunity to live with. It just goes to show how much a culture can differ from family to family.
My first family was from the comuna Recoleta. They live in a very small apartment in the heart of the city and I noticed that they were a very affectionate family. I lived with them for a month because all the exchange students in Chile lived in Santiago with a temporary host family for the first month for Spanish lessons, culture introductions and touring Chile. This family has two college students.
After the first month, the CIEE exchange students move to their permanent family in Chile. This year, out of the CIEE high-school exchange students, I was the only one to be placed in Santiago. So after our first month, the other students said good-bye to their temporary Santiago host families and flew or drove to their final towns in different parts of Chile. I also had to say farewell to my first family because the school I was placed in is in a different section of Santiago!
My second family I lived with for my second month in Chile while my school was searching for a family from my school. This family lives in the same comuna as my school is located in but they didn't have kids that were in the same school I was. I realize how important it was to my experience to have host siblings in the same school. So even though it was hard to move from this wonderful family, I am
glad I had to. Last week I went and visited this family for a meal. It was so great to catch up with them. They gave me a pair of beautiful earrings to remember my time in Chile with them and told me to visit them whenever I return to Chile and if they are ever in the US, my home in Colorado is always open for their visits. I think that they were so easy to connect with because they have a daughter that is also an exchange student in The States right now. (They want me to meet her before I leave because she just got back to Chile!) This family was more similar to my family back in Colorado also.
My awesome sister who is in University!
And of course, I got to meet all the relatives!
National Women's Day! Tio Jaime (my host dad in this family) had surprised us all with flowers!
The neighborhood
My third and final family I have been living with for three months. I am so thankful for all the great families I lived with, but this one especially! I think I definitley fit in and feel very comfortable in this family. They have three kids- a 20 year old daughter, 15 year old daughter, and 12 year old son. My host father plays soccer and works at Entel (phone service company), my mother has a part time job and they have a nanny that comes three days a week. In Chile it is super common for families to have a nanny that cleans, cooks, and looks after the kids. Some nannies even live in the house they are working at. The majority of the nannies in Chile are from Peru.
The room I share with my 15 year old sister.
The relatives!
I hope this blog helped clarify the situation of my families. My blog is not only to keep my friends and family in the US updated, but to share my experience, tips, feelings and helpful information that hopefully is useful for future exchange students going to Chile, or anywhere.
Wow... three more days until I return home. I don't want to write my final blog that sums up my experience and how hard it will be to say good-bye until my last day because I still have three more days of school and three more days of experiences.
Chao! I am going to enjoy and make the best of my last days of being a Chilena.