Cuando dejé mi corazón en Santiago de Chile

I had the incredible blessing of living with the sweetest host family on the planet, who adopted me as their own and made me to forget what missing home felt like. I set out on this study abroad semester with the goal of improving my Spanish language skills as a part of my Spanish major; I came home from this semester with a wealth of wisdom that I could never have anticipated. I loved to travel before this semester, but now I know the beauty of living in a place that was not your own, as a resident and not a tourist. I came home with a head full of knowledge about the culture and history and politics of Chile, with a heart full of awe at the beauty of diverse peoples and geographies, with a spirit full of new understanding about Who created me and what else He made when He spun Creation. I could never have fully anticipated the depths to which I would be moved and the angles in which I would be pulled during my five months in Chile. Yet sometimes I fall asleep with the simple, happy image of a still lake that is home to a small town called Frutillar, whose only landmark is a dock on the lake -- I have so many little sweet snapshots of memories stored in my mind that remind me of beauty all around the world, near and far.
My perspective has been greatly widened since my time abroad, and it seems that the ripples of that experience have yet to stop unfurling and teaching me new things about how to look at this life. Not to mention the fact that I can converse with a chileno now, which was an impossible goal when I first landed in Santiago, being that "Chilean Spanish" seems to be an entirely separate language upon first contact (and even after months of immersion, if we're honest, sometimes).
I wouldn't trade my time in Santiago for anything in the world. And USAC was a wonderful facilitator of this experience; I highly recommend the program offered in Santiago.