Mi Vida en Chile

The beginning of my travel.

July 30th, 2015.

At the end of July, I packed all of my belongings into a suitcase and caught a plane to South America. I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into. 

It was my very first time traveling out of the United States and I was going to travel all alone.

I planned to fly out of the Denver International Airport to the capital of Santiago, Chile before travelling to Viña del Mar, Chile. I booked my flight through my program AIFS and it was scheduled to depart on July 30th (AIFS does not offer flights to Chile out of Hawaii unfortunately). My first appearance  in the airport however, did not go smoothly.

When I arrived and began the check in process on July 30th, I was told that I was not allowed to fly out of the United States due to not have obtaining my student visa. Although, I was told by my program director at AIFS that I would obtain the student visa upon my arrival in Chile and I would only need to show the airport and immigration my acceptance letter into the University. However, for DIA this was not sufficient. After countless phone calls back and forth from the immigration in Chile, the University, and AIFS. I was rescheduled a flight for the next morning.

(However, every other student who participated in the AIFS program, flew out of the U.S. with no problems at all. None of them had student visas issued before their departure out of the U.S. and half of them did not even have to show their University acceptance letters. So for this one, I am not sure.)

My program AIFS helped me immensely throughout the entire process at the airport and re-booked me a flight through a different airline the next day at no cost. Therefore, I do not blame the program at all for this happening to me and I feel that AIFS is a good program to study abroad with.

We also did get our student visas in Chile with the assistance of the University and the AIFS program with no difficulties and barely any cost later on in the semester.

So, Advice.

1. Make sure you obtain the necessary travel documents before studying abroad, such as your student visa. (So, you don’t miss your first flight!)
2. Travel Insurance is always a good idea.
3. Arrive to the airport early.
4. Always stay positive. Things will work out in the end!
5. An extra day to spend with your family is always a good thing.

July 31st.

Adiós USA! Today, I was able to leave the Denver International Airport without any problems. Although, my new flight itinerary was very lame.

My first flight was Denver to Toronto, Canada, a seven hour layover, and then Toronto to Santiago, Chile.

After flying in the opposite direction to Canada and then back down South, I finally landed in Santiago, Chile.

Once, I arrived in the Santiago airport, I felt a wave of excitement wash over me. I found my way to the baggage claim and retrieved my guitar and large suitcase. After I made it through customs, I began to realize I could not understand a single word of Spanish from anyone.No one spoke English around me.

The Chileans also spoke Spanish rapidly and the words often times did not have endings but rather merged together. So, if your main goal is to become fluent in Spanish in Chile, you will not become fluent in the grammatically correct Spanish, but instead with Chilean Spanish!

If you do book a flight through AIFS, they also provide you with transportation from the Santiago Airport to your home stay family in Viña del Mar.  Even though, I was a day late the University still sent a nice professor to pick me up from the airport.

The professor was Manuel Casanueva, a Spanish, Politics, and Culture professor for international students. He turned out to be a professor for two of my classes. (Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism in Latin America and Culture and Identity in Latin America) He was very friendly and eased my nervousness the entire drive to Viña del Mar. He also became one of my favorite professors as he was easy to talk with, adventurous, extremely intelligent, and not the typical college professor.

After about an hour and half of driving, we reached my home stay family in Viña!

Profe. Casanueva helped me grab my luggage out of the taxi and rang the doorbell for my host mother.

She was not at all what expected.

She was short, extremely tan, and very beautiful. (keep in mind she's 66 years old). She was wearing larger heels than I have ever worn and was dressed extremely well. She then gave me a huge hug and kiss on the cheek. Below is a picture of my host mother and I.

My home stay was a cute, cozy home. There was a living room, dining table, kitchen, and bathroom on the bottom floor. The upstairs was also very nice with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. 

I lived only four blocks from the beach, two from the shopping mall, and one block from the main street Libertad. (A perfect location within the city.)

As soon as I set my things down in my new bedroom, my host mother came up to get me. If I’m honest, I could not understand a single word she said, but she understood my confusion and remained very sweet to me. She said we would be going to eat lunch at her daughters restaurant and I would meet my host father there. 

We then walked down side streets that were filled with graffiti. Some of the graffiti was beautiful and was more of a street art and others were different. This was the first significant difference I noticed between the U.S. and Chile. The city was filled with graffiti and it was rather normal for them. On the way, there were many small shops, restaurants, and parks along our walk. My host mother continued to talk to me, even though I'm positive she knew I understood nothing. I kept saying si and nodding and it seemed to get me by.

Eventually, we ended up in front of a restaurant called Aji Color.  Once inside, I was introduced to my host father, Manuel, the daughter, Veronica, and the granddaughter, Victoria. I was hoping the granddaughter would speak English….but not really. She could understand what I was saying and helped me with the menu but she did not speak to me in English. This made understanding and holding a conversation with my host family extremely challenging in my first few days.

At the restaurant I tried my best and communicated as much as I could with my new family. We had an amazing lunch filled with three courses. I also later discovered, my host sister Paula was well known in Viña del Mar for traditional Chilean food.

Although, I could not understand much of what my host family said. They were all very sweet to me and I already felt very welcomed and at home. My inability to understand them often brought us to laughing and the food was better than I ever imagined before. 

Gracias Familia. 

My next few days in Viña del Mar included getting to know the other AIFS students and having a walking tour of Viña where we saw the famous "flower clock", German castle, casino, and many other places. We walked along the coast and through the city. My host mother also took me shopping in the mall and to the beach. (Although, the beach was freezing in this time of year.) 

Unfortunately, within my first weekend, there was a terrible storm that destroyed a restaurant and many vehicles along the coast. I did not go out, but instead stayed home with my host parents and attempted to communicate with them more. 

A truck damaged from the storm

A nice restaurant that was destroyed 

The aftermath of the storm

There are more posts to come! 

More from the United Kingdom, and A Trip to Paris!

With my good friend Jess in the Catacombs of Paris

 Studying in England! And a quick Trip to Paris!

Since the end of the semester was near, and a friend was a in town we decided to take the Eurostar train from London to Paris. My friend Jess was here in England for a week, and she actually did a semester at HPU. Coincidentally that was were me met, so her visiting during my study abroad was really amazing. We visited various popular tourist sites in England, and Paris. These photos capture that week, as well as other amazing moments during the semester. The photos in my first post captured my first few weeks, this post is more post culture shock. In these, I think I have adapted fully to my surroundings, really enjoying my time here in England, and with my new friends!
-Sophia Suarez-

Teaching my friend Sam how to carve a pumpkin in time for Halloween. I realized during this time, that Halloween in England isn't as big as it is in the U.S. or let alone in Waikiki. Also costumes here are known as "fancy dress".

Another photo from a night out on campus. This occasion was a friend's birthday.

I had never seen blue Fanta before! Or known what "shotaka" flavor

was supposed to be, it tasted like grapefruit. One thing I've adjusted to 

is using the term "fizzy" for soda or pop, as well as the numerous 

flavors of Fanta available that are not in the U.S. 

After a day of shopping on the busy Oxford street. The streets were decorated for the holiday season.

An over the shoulder shot of the view from the iconic London Eye!

Standing in front of some of the amazing art in the Louvre.

Selfie in front of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral!

Another shot from inside the Catacombs

All laughs with some of my new "mates"! 

The Eiffel Tower lit up at night our first day in Paris!
Pictures don't do it justice!

Winter wonderland is a popular attraction in London. It is
filled with carnival rides, fair games, food booths as an ice
skating rink!

Overall, studying abroad not only has exposed me to a new culture but given me the opportunity to travel and make some really amazing friends. I know that I won't forget my time in England. One thing I really have appreciated was how welcoming everybody has been. It took time to really adapt to a different routine, but I think it has been well worth it! My next and final post will be the very end of my semester since I don't leave England until January 16th. So, the post will all about spending my holidays abroad.  The semester at University of Hertfordshire operates differently than at HPU, with a two week break for the holidays, and then a return for one week of classes and then another for final exams. It is definitely different than what I am used to, but it is all part of the experience!

United Kingdom- University of Hertfordshire

STUDYING IN ENGLAND

Hello all!

  My name is Sophia Suarez! I'm a senior at HPU majoring in Business Management. I chose to study at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, England for my Fall 2015 semester. The university has a wide variety of resources available to their students, including their exchange students. Despite still speaking english, I experienced some culture shock. Some things are just different than mainland U.S. and Hawaii. For instance somethings I would look for in the grocery stores that I was used to buying, such as gatorade or lucky charms etc just were not there. Its not a bad thing, but its just something to adjust to. Their methods of teaching and timetable for classes also took some adjusting to as it was very different from HPU.  Getting used to a different currency, and assimilating to English slang and language took time. But the entire time was part of a bigger and wider learning experience. 

These photos are from my first few weeks in England!

En Route to London Heathrow Airport!

The Church of St. Peter in St. Albans. My first look at the intricate architecture in England. 

My flat mate Mercedes  (left from New Mexico) and Menni (from Finland on my right) taking a break in St. Albans

The Forum at University of Hertfordshire. A fun night out on Campus, also the location of Ed Sheeran's video "Lego House" 

Another Church in St. Albans

Taking a lunch break at a farmers market a short walk from King's Cross Station

Making friends with the neighbor flat!

Had to get a typical shot with a phone booth at least once!

Mi Vida en Chile.

Viva Chile. Mi Vida en Viña del Mar.

Hola. My name is Shalynn Marissa Murphy (most of you may know me by my preferred middle name Marissa) and for the Fall semester of 2015, I studied abroad in Viña del Mar, Chile. This blog will follow me on my four and a half month journey of studying abroad. I will write about the people I encountered, the culture of the Chileans, and my new perceptions of the world we all live in. I hope you enjoy!

Firstly, Why Chile?

Chile is an incredible and absolutely stunning country. Chile possesses the Andes Mountains to the East, The Pacific Coast to the West, the Atacama Desert to the North, and Patagonia to the South. This country basically has it all.

The two greatest reasons I wanted to study abroad were

1. I wanted to meet new people who were different from me.
2. I wanted to experience a new country and lifestyle that was foreign to my own.

Although, Spain would have been amazing I decided I wanted to experience a country that was still developing and under discovered in some ways. So, I chose South America, a continent filled with beauty and excitement that I do not believe everyone has the chance to experience.

There are more posts to come soon.

Also, if you are considering studying abroad in Chile and have any questions for me about the country, my experience, and so on feel free to email me at smurph15@my.hpu.edu and I would love to share more with you!

One of the keys of success is persistence. Persistence is definitely one of the things that has gotten me here today.

Studying abroad is something that I have longed to do since hearing about it. Then again, I have always enjoyed traveling. Just thinking about the sheer number of places I have been would make me something of a more than casual traveler. The preparation it took to get here in Australia started with a desire. Even so, Australia was not my first choice. At the time when I first started looking into the study abroad program, I began researching the various programs that offered packages and such, and along with those packages I researched various countries of interest. At the time, I was interested in studying abroad in France, Spain, Germany, Japan, or China perhaps. As time went on, my options narrowed. When I say narrow, I’m referring to my options as a student with Veteran’s Affairs benefits utilizing the GI Bill that is granted to those who have served a full or partial active duty term within the military. For me, it was the navy, and I desired to use those benefits in the best way I could. I thought why not study abroad? What better way to utilize the benefits granted to me than to study else where? The only thing was I could not use the various programs with my benefits. I had to basically go to the host country university as if I was applying directly. The main difference is I would work with my home university under their program to study abroad. That was and is the only way I can use my VA benefits to do so. There are pros and cons to using the various packaged programs or not, but in the long run it is a matter of what one does and what one would like to do while studying abroad in my opinion.

Once the parameters were set, I began to research what countries under my home university I could actually venture to. There was a list and I researched and formed my own list, and basically created a matrix of both countries and universities, their semester schedules and various little notes about either the country or university that was important to me. As I stated before, I desired to go to Germany or somewhere in Europe such as Denmark. After the minor research, I found out Germany was out of the question. For some reason their semesters start off at a significantly odd time during our academic year. This left me with Denmark, England perhaps, Australia and a few others. I also found out one needs up to at least a few semesters of respective languages to study in say Taiwan, China, or Japan. So, those were out of the question.
With all these things in mind, I actually started off fairly early in my journey to study abroad. I was told most wait until the last minute and use up all their electives. So, I held on to some of mine, which came in handy being that I had to change up my classes several times for approval.

Anyway, it wasn’t until two semesters before when I really had to start making this happen. Originally, I had wanted to do it 3 semesters out, and you can do it when you are ready. However, my plans changed, life happened and financially, I just wasn’t ready. So, I waited until I could live two to three months without any employment, which I will need to maintain until my VA benefits kick in later in October (more details on that later). I started setting many of the significant things in motion one year before I needed to travel. That was the most important part. Everything else came in steps, which greatly helped. Those steps, which are apart of my home university’s programs did not begin until my Spring semester (less than half a year prior to flying out). Once I narrowed down to the country, I had to narrow down to which university. For Australia, there were a total of 3. I originally chose Bond, a private university. It was full. That left me with Griffith University. I only knew once acquaintance that went there for her study abroad option. I suppose that also influenced my decision to pick Australia. Next, was picking the classes and getting approval for a letter to eventually get the student visa. That part as well as getting the visa turned out a lot easier than I thought. Not only that, but I had the visa within a week of requesting it. Depending on where you’re from and what channels you take, it may take longer.
After getting my visa, I was set to book the flight. I had already been looking online nearly two months before classes started. I desired to be there at least a week prior. However, looking back on it now, I should have allowed myself two weeks prior to classes. Not only did I have to book a flight, I also had to find accommodation (or a place to stay) during my time there. With the abroad university, there were three options; stay on campus, stay off campus, or participate in a homestay program. I opted to just stay off campus and eventually found a nice place with two other students as well as two others that are working. Normally, I would not pick a place prior to visiting or seeing it, but I didn’t have much time. So, I “bit the bullet” and don’t regret it in the least. My roommates including the “main mate” are all very nice and hospitable people with various background and ethnicities.

I suppose the most difficult or most time-consuming part was renewing my passport. That is something I did during winter break prior to the spring semester. That can take weeks. So, I am glad I got that out the way by the time I needed my passport for everything else. Second, was my classes. To get credit, one needs class approval from both the home university and host university. This is something I took very serious. Literally, the day before flying out, I had to make one final change with both the VA and home university in regards to classes.

Even so, it wasn’t all challenging and it wasn’t all easy. Either way, it was worth all the hard work to get here. That also gives one more incentive to maintain their GPA. I would definitely do some things differently but only the small things for improved efficiency in the process. Everyone including the staff at my home university and host university here in Australia were all extremely helpful in the process.

23 July 2015
Michaux

Stay tuned for more to come.

Fall in Love with Autumn

Autumn is already over yet I still have a hangover with it. I can't believe that I was able to experience Autumn (my first real Autumn) here in South Korea. It was really breathtaking to see the leaves changes from green to yellow, yellow to orange, then orange to red until it fully wither and fall on to the ground. I enjoyed walking and observing the scenery. I didn't went to different places that much but the scenery around the university is enough for me to feel amazed.

This image was taken on my way back to the dorm after I finished my class.

This is the view I saw when I looked down from the window of my room.

view from the other side of the lake

Pretty amazing isn't it? I hope that I will be able to see this when I get back to Hawaii.

Before the fall season comes to an end, me and my friends decided to go to Nami Island. According to other people, Nami Island is a good place to visit during fall or winter. I wouldn't stay here until winter so, I decided to go during fall. However, due to pushing the date until November, we were not able to see much interesting views. Still, we had fun and that's what matter the most. We took a lot of photos, walk around and act like a normal teenagers who like to have fun. I will let you see some photos that we took.


These are my friends who went to Nami Island with me.


    

Autumn is love


    After spending quite some time in Nami Island, we decided to eat lunch and went to Petite France. We took the bus, which made me feel sick, for 25 minutes. The Petite France was shown in some dramas like My Love from Another Star and variety shows like Running Man. Petite France is also one of the good place to visit, however, we didn't have enough time to go around the place. We decided to wrap up our little adventure after I took a picture with my little prince.

   

Hey! I finally found my Prince.

Fall will not be complete if you don't play with the withered leaves.

That's all for now. 

Holiday at Muuido Island

여러분 안녕하세요! It's me again.

Today I will share one particular experience I had in South Korea. This happened during 추석, also known as Korean Thanksgiving Day. This year, it was celebrated on September 26th to 29th. 추석 is one of the most important holiday in South Korea.  Korean families normally spend it together to worship their ancestors or spend their time together. As for us, we planned to go out of Seoul. First, we planned to go to Busan. However, many people were also going to Busan during that time so we decided not to pursue our plan. Instead, we decided to spend our holiday in 무의도, also called 무의도 Island.

   

at the metro (subway) early in the morning   

무의도 is about 1-2 hours far from Seoul depending on what type of transportation you will use. It is located near Incheon airport. Me and my friends decided to leave early to avoid the rush hour. However, things didn't worked well as we planned. First, we have to take different routes for the subway because some stations were not open during holiday. Second, we missed the first bus going to the ferry so we ended up waiting for another hour to take the bus. Third, after our five minutes ride on the ferry, we rode a bus, which was way worse than riding a roller coaster. Fourth, the room or the pension house is quite small for five people (but we just let it slide since we were just going to stay there for one night). Fifth, it was quite boring since we didn't prepare anything unlike the other travelers.

          

Sunset hike with bits of photo shoot

Though we started setting on the wrong foot, our whole stay in Muuido was still worth it. I had lots of memories that I would cherish and would be happy to share to others especially our hiking. We didn’t really plan to hike but one of the local people recommended us to hike the mountain since the scenery above the mountain is spectacular. So, we agreed to do it since we don't have anything else to do. It was already 5 and the sun was about to set around 6. We hurriedly climbed the mountain to watch the sunset. Luckily we were able to see it well even though we weren't on the top yet. We took a lot of pictures of us and of the sunset too. After watching the sunset, I asked my friends whether or not to continue hiking ( I was quite worried since no one knew the way and we were just following the paths). One of my friends said that we should continue since we were already halfway through the top. As we headed up to the mountain, the path was getting harder and harder for me, for it was already dark. I was really scared. We don't know whether we were on the right track or not. The hike going up seemed forever. We spent about two and a half hours going up until we reached the peak. Well, our crazy little adventure didn't end when we reached the top. As you all know, we  still have to go down. It was really dark during that time so we depended on the flashlights of our phones (luckily I charged my phone before going up). The path to go down was harder than going up (or we were just really scared that something might pop up in front of us). There were many stairs made up of stones/rocks that weren’t stable. We took care of each others back and kept on guiding each other if there were any obstacles. During that time, we built a strong relationship with each other since we helped each other along the way. We were doing good until at one point, we cannot see a trail. We were hesitant on where to go because everything felt weird and quite dangerous. But, one of my friends (the only guy in the group) decided to take the lead to cross the rocky path. 만세! (Hooray!) He made the right choice. We were able to go back after one and a half hour going down. 

As we reached the peak of the mountain, we took a photo to commemorate our success.

After our hiking, we decided to treat ourselves by eating a delicious dinner. I ordered 바지락 갈국수 or clam noodles, while others ordered bibimbap and fried fish. The foods that were served to us are really delicious.

Then morning came, we watched the sunrise even though we were still sleepy and didn’t had a good view to watch it. It was really cold that morning but it was worth it since we were doing it together. Once again, we took many photos individually and by groups until we were satisfied. Then in the afternoon, we have checked out and go back to our own dorms.

   

Good morning Muuido!

Stairway to Heaven memorabilia

Oh I forgot to mention, Muuido is the shooting location of some famous Korean Dramas namely Stairway to Heaven and Boys Over Flowers. So, if you are interested in visiting drama locations, Muuido might be one of the places you should go.

Good Bye Muuido! Thank you for giving us a wonderful memory during our stay.