By Leo Nye, CASA Chile Fall 2019 (Johns Hopkins '21)

I never imagined that I’d be in so many eye opening educational experiences outside of the traditional academic environment during my semester abroad, but I feel that my time here has been so unique, a once in a lifetime experience. I can’t help but describe my experience with these clichés because it’s as if we’ve came to Chile just in time to get a sense of how Chile compared to its own reputation and facade of stability and...

By Alexis Roman, CASA Chile Fall 2019 (Brown '21)

Una semana me queda en Santiago. I got here in the winter, in July, my Chicago summer cut short, and now it’s summer in Santiago in December and in one week I’ll be back in the winter. Seasons aren’t what they used to be.  

As I prepare for the next seasonal inversion, my mind races to capture all the memories. The fear of forgetting looms beneath me. It tries to shake me, but living here for this long means I know what it actually feels like for the earth to tremble, and right now I am still....

By Peter Morrissey, SIP Argentina 2019 (Harvard '21)

On my last night in Buenos Aires this summer, my host parents invited over all of the extended family one last time for a sendoff dinner in the apartment. After dinner, 9-year-old Belisario went over to the home computer, typing away at something. Maybe twenty minutes later, while I was in the back bedroom watching How to Train Your Dragon for the second time with my 29-year-old host sister (Angie) and the grandkids, Belisario ran in to deliver me a paper. Without waiting for me to open it, he hurried...

By Rachel Danner, CASA Argentina Spring 2019 (Brown '20)

The day I arrived in Buenos Aires I had the best ice cream I’ve had in my life. It was passion fruit flavored (maracuyá in Spanish) and it had the seeds of the fruit included, which added the perfect extra crunch. I was in awe of the culinary prowess and explosion of flavors. I was also terrified. I had just gotten off of an eleven hour flight to Argentina and had arrived at a 8^th floor apartment in the heart of the city and met my somewhat (very) eccentric host mother. I knew no one,...