20 in Chile

On March 25, 2018 I completed the second decade of my life on the planet, which was definitely a weird feeling. I left my teen years behind me and I had a great time doing it. I’m pretty used to spending my birthday in other places and with minimal friends/family because it always falls on spring break and either everyone else is gone or I am travelling for my birthday so this year wasn’t all that strange/different for me. It was a little strange however, that instead of seeing my friends and celebrating a week late I’ll be seeing my friends and celebrating three months late. My travels this year for Spring break took me even farther South than Ecuador to Santiago, Chile. For those of you who didn’t know, my senior year of high school I had a student from Chile named Tere staying in my house for a couple of months so for my spring break I got the chance to go down to Santiago and see her for the week.

View from Santa Lucia Park in downtown Santiago

I arrived Friday night around 6PM which wouldn’t have been that bad except for the fact that I had woken up that morning at 5:30AM to catch my flight and I don’t sleep all that well on planes. It would have been even better if I hadn’t let my friends convince me to go out to the discoteca the night before. As an early birthday present one of my Ecuadorian friends had gotten me a reservation and a free bottle of celebratory champagne at our favorite Thursday night discoteca and I really couldn’t pass that up so I told myself it wouldn’t be that bad. In reality, going to bed at 2AM when I had to wake up three and a half hours later probably wasn’t my brightest idea, but I had fun all the same. When I got to Chile, I was greeted with a huge hug from Tere and a couple of her friends and we drove back to her house from the airport, where I got my first chance to take in the scenery and beauty of Santiago. Chile and Ecuador are very different in appearance. Chile had more of an Arizona, southern California type of feel with lots of hills and not a whole bunch of greenery whereas in Ecuador all of the hills around me are always green. But the sun was shining, and the change in scenery was gorgeous.

Me hitting a couple of balls in my free time

I was exhausted and my brain was fried so my Spanish definitely wasn’t it’s best as I was trying to keep up with conversation amongst the Chilean accent and fast talking. This was one of the first things that really took me by surprise. As far as speaking goes, Ecuadorians talk pretty slow and enunciate words well so they are pretty easy to understand as someone who is still learning and improving her Spanish. Chileans however talk super fast, without a lot of annunciation and with a lot of slang. So I was having a hard time understanding anything that was going on for the first couple of days. Luckily, everyone was made aware that my Spanish wasn’t perfect and did their best to slow down for me. When we got to Tere’s house I was given the warmest welcome by some of her sweet family (her mom, dad and sister were home at the time). Tere is one of six children and her family is big but only three of the kids live at home. Her mom made us burgers and salad for dinner and made sure they had sorbet so that there was something sweet and non-dairy for me to eat for dessert. After we were done and I got all settled in, we finished off the night by going to a birthday party for one of Tere’s friends where I got to try Chilean pisco (a liquor made from distilled grape juice), and got to try even more to understand what the heck the people around me were saying which became increasingly difficult as they got tipsy and their words starting blending together even more. By the end of the night I was absolutely drained and a bed never looked so good. The next day we woke up a little early to head to an all day reunion out in the countryside for a group my friend is a part of called Paso a Paso that helps kids in public schools with less money. We stayed there all day and I got to meet so many sweet people but once again when I got home that night I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up the next day nice and late because after all you get to sleep in as long as you want on your birthday. I got up around 10AM, got ready and headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. I had eggs, avocados on toast, and a latte. I was in heaven. If I were in charge of the food group pyramid, avocados and coffee would both be their own food groups, and let me tell you these people eat a lot of avocado (I definitely found my crowd). One of the highlights of my trip was coming downstairs to see a giant plate with a mountain of mashed avocado to eat with a slice of bread when I wanted. A little bit of food and a cup of espresso later, I was ready for the day. After my delicious breakfast, Tere took me out for birthday shopping where she got me my present, an cute little book filled with Chilean phrases and slang.

Filete de lo Pobre

When we were done, her family insisted on taking me out to birthday lunch and I got a delicious meal called Filete de lo Pobre and a brownie dessert. It was absolutely so sweet getting to celebrate with a group of such caring people who treated me like a part of the family from the second that I arrived. What I had anticipated would be a small lunch with my friend, her parents and maybe her sister, turned out to be an event where almost her whole family showed up and I had so much fun. Since I was away from my family and my closest friends from home, it felt so nice to be celebrated by such kind and welcoming people. We finished off the day with some relaxing and then a movie and it was great. It was such a lowkey but fun day and such a good way to celebrate my 20th.

The rest of the week was pretty relaxing too. I’m a pretty busy person and most of the time, I like staying busy and exploring as much as possible, but not doing so this week was such a nice change of pace for me. I had a couple nice and lazy mornings where I drank coffee and read Harry Potter in Spanish out on the patio as I waited for my friend to finish with her clases. I really do not remember the last time that I felt so relaxed. It was so nice for me to sit back and not to worry about the things I had to do, and their deadlines, or the people I had promised to hang out with. I just had a little bit of me time where I got to do something that I genuinely enjoyed. After I got done with my lazy mornings, I would get ready and go about my day with Tere, messing around and hanging out. One day a friend of Tere took me out to go get sushi for lunch while Tere was in class, another day we spent our day exploring Santiago, and another I even tried to sit through a Chemistry class with Tere entirely in Spanish where I surprisingly picked up on a lot more information than I expected. I got to see my two other sweet Chilean friends that had been a part of the exchange program with Tere as well as meeting a ton of other really nice new people.

Sofi, Antonia and I. xoxo

The week wasn't one in which I had a lot of wild and crazy adventures, but it was a week filled with awesome people, great food and a little self love and care. Needless to say, I entered the third decade of my life on a very happy note and doing something that I love, traveling. I got on my plane the following Friday a year older but with a heavy heart because I was leaving such a wonderful place and wonderful people to go back to more school. But as I was on my way back to Ecuador it felt a whole lot like coming home. Chile was a nice break from my routine and a beautiful place that I absolutely want to return to in the future to explore, but after being in Ecuador for what seems to be so long, it definitely has a special place in my heart and I was excited to be back here too.

Now, at 20 years old I am feeling so extremely grateful for all of the opportunities that I have been given to travel and explore. I don’t know who I would be if I didn’t love exploring new places and I am so blessed to have such wonderful parents and such a wonderful life that has given me the chance to go so many places and do what I love at such a young age. Now one year older and a little bit wiser I cannot wait to see where my life takes me in the coming years, and what new experiences it will bring both in my travels and in my career. As the months of study abroad become less, and my next step into nursing school draws closer I am both nervous and excited to see what the next couple of years of my life have to offer, now that my teen years are behind me and I’m almost a real adult with a real job. I’m ready to take on this next year of my life and all of it’s curveballs and I can’t wait to do it with all of my loved ones by my side when I finally make it home to Oregon. Stumptown coffee, evergreens, and Portland: you’re on the horizon and I can’t wait to make it home to you.

Chao por ahora,

Claire