Expanding Horizons: Winter-Term in Chile
By Michael B. Levine

Michael Levine is a sophomore majoring in linguistics and philosophy. Over winter break he participated in a Winter-Term Study Abroad program in Chile. Below are excerpts from his journal.

SUDDENLY I AWAKE to a distorted voice saying, “Bienvenidos a Chile!” Consistently fluid and unintelligible notions of salutations and updates are expressed in Spanish. I attempt to activate my long-since-accessed knowledge of Spanish acquired during both middle and high school. I am still lost. Though disoriented, I look to the right; an Andean sunrise paints the mountaintops. A moment of solace. Welcome to Chile.

AFTER BOARDING A BUS for Central Santiago, a rougher, less cushy part of Santiago (the country’s capital), I, with 14 other eager students who deny disorientation, traverse a long highway lined by snowy Andean peaks and trees, where the trunks look like pineapples. Our movement is locomotive. Our first weekend is spent in Algarrobo. Cabanas, huts, bungalows, hotels, hostels, motels—decorate the beach town. Two llamas adorn an awkwardly shaped slope outside of the main office, yet they appear content with bountiful grass and shade.

I MEET A WAITER, and when I mumble, “Pablo Neruda,” he becomes ecstatic and divulges an endearing personal interaction. We visit Neruda’s house in La Isla Negra. Upon returning to Santiago, our classes meet across the street from our hostel, Plaza Londres, in Central Santiago. We discuss literature, Pinochet, Neruda, Allende, our impressions, and are afforded lectures and conversations with artists, teachers and advocates.

THE FOOD IS DIFFERENT. Meals varied: Peruvian cuisine, sandwich, cow intestine, even “blood sausage.”

IN VALPARAISO, a compassionate family embraces us within their bed-and-breakfast. Each morning we strengthen bonds with our “amigos,” Chilean children, ages 6-14, by way of an “after-school” program. Their smiles resonate.

IMAGINE: after reaching the foot of a snow-capped volcano, and traversing an 11-mile hike on the face of a barren mountain-side in 98-degree weather, sitting in a 120-degree natural hot spring nestled in a chalk mine. Exfoliations galore. Professors of kindness accompany, as well, shepherding other eager individuals, my peers.