What:Study Abroad – CHILE 2011

When: January 4th – April 30th, 2011

Where: Santiago, Chile at the home of a presumably lovely lady who has been kind enough to open up her home to me.

Why: to master spanish, experience another culture, and to earn credits/take classes that will go towards my spanish degree.

Why Chile? and not Spain? or Costa Rica? Or Mexico? well. I figured that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I expect to have opportunities to go the other places at some point. Spain, mayhap on a tour of western europe, Costa Rica could be done in a week with a reasonable plane ticket, and Mexico is a prime location for mission trips or whatever if I ever want to go there. Chile just seemed like the most exotic and the one I would be the least likely to go to at some other time. Not to mention the lovely scenery (mountains, beaches, rivers, etc) and a chance to travel further south than I’ve ever been before. And as it turns out Chile is known to be the safest country in south america!

Why study abroad at all? I’ve wanted to study abroad for quite a while. Traveling appeals to me though I’ve never really traveled much on my own. This is kind of a test run for more traveling in the future. It seems like a way to figure out if I can potentially stand to be away from things for extended periods of time. In a place where I don’t know anyone and don’t feel quite fluent in the language.

One of  the reasons I chose to go to Boise State instead of some other more expensive school was so that I could potentially have money to study abroad. Which fact I kind of forgot and disregarded in the midst of life and such but was reminded of it when some previous plans went askew and boise state offered me a grant that made my amount of financial aid fall above and beyond the amount I needed for normal school. Coupled with enthusiasm from relatives and friends (“just go!” they said),  I took that combination of events as God telling me that I needed to go. So go I’m going. and go God. He’ll come through and I’m praying that this experience will help me to draw closer to Him if nothing else. It feels like an exploration in trusting God.