Chilean Family

My Chilean Family

Yesterday I found out my Chilean family. Here's the discription the school (Pontífica Universidad Católica de Valparaíso PUCV) gave me of my family.

María vive junto a su esposo y a sus 4 hijos en una casa grande en un sector residencial de Viña del Mar llamado Recreo. Son una familia muy católica que participa de actividades en la Iglesia. Su esposo se llama Eduardo González Figueroa y ambos son Ingenieros. Sus hijos son Isabel de 12 años, Ernesto de 10 años, David de 10 años y Andrea de 6 años. Ernesto y David son gemelos. 

I'm pretty excited. I have already sent the mom an e-mail and she sounds excited for me to come. She also sent some pictures of the family. Check them out!

23 day in counting...

One more week in Long Beach. In less than 24 hours I will be starting finals, moving out if the 629 Park house, and moving back to Rancho Cucamonga. It feels amazing to know that I'm going to be leaving Long Beach soon. It is also a great feeling to know I will soon be living back with my Mom, Dad, and siblings in the house I have spent most of my life growing up in before I travel to a foreign and strange new land. 

I am definitely going to miss all of my roommates Tyler, Jesse, Donny, Jorge, and Dylan plus extended family roommates Conner and Muscles, also Jen, Jessica, my blood sisters and brother, Mom, Dad and many others. I'm sad, nervous, and excited to leave (jan. 6th) all at the same time. I know this experience is going to be life changing and as some hinted life altering. I know I will not change as far as my morals and long term goals go but if anything I will come back with a new appreciation of culture and a better understanding of communicating in different environments amongst people from a variety of backgrounds. At the same time my family and friends will be growing up and learning new life truths here while I'm away and before long I will be back in Long Beach to finish my final two semesters.

Tonight gave me a little taste of how much I will be missed while I'll be studying abroad. At Chris' tonight a few people brought up my soon to be departure and as soon as I got to Conner's friend Alex's birthday extravaganza more people did not fail to remind me of my soon to be departure to Chile. I do not want to sound center-of-attention like but it does feel good to know that people will miss my presence while I'm gone and at the same time acknowledge my soon to be embarkation without having to be reminded.

So, on a happier note before I go I plan to finish out the semester strong, do well on my finals, and spend time with those I care about most during this holiday season. Happy Holidays everyone, hope to see all or most of you before the time comes to leave.

Love,

Bobby  

Pics of Valpo!

Before Departure

Studying abroad just started as an idea about no more than a year ago. At this point it seems almost unreal that I will be leaving in little over a month for almost 7 months. I will definitely miss my friends and family but this journey alone to a foreign and strange new land is next on my lists of things to accomplish. You may all be wondering why Chile? Out of all the other Spanish speaking countries why there?

I always wanted to learn Spanish. Coming from a half Latin American family I feel it is my duty to learn how to speak the language. Without knowing how to speak Spanish I have missed out on getting to know many of my uncles and aunts and especially my grandmother on a different level. 

As I was narrowing down my decision among the many Spanish-speaking countries, I knew for sure I did not want to go to Spain (even though I would love to go there in the future) because most everyone that wants to study Spanish in a foreign nation chooses to go there. I wanted to be different and travel the unbeaten path. In high school one of my Spanish teachers of two years went to Chile and I remember him telling the class he absolutely loved it there. Because, I have already been to Europe, Mexico, and Central America I felt South America and more specifically Chile was the right place to go. With the beach and mountains in close proximity to one another the climate seems familiar to my current living situation and with my love for both the beach and the mountains Chile seemed the best way to go. 

I will be living in Valparaíso, Chile. It is on the coast and is about an hour and a half away from the capital Santiago. A couple things I really hope to do while I'm there include; getting accustomed to the culture, learning Spanish and being able to speak it fluently (of coarse), and travel to the Andes to snowboard, and see Machu Pichu. 

The plan is to use this site so I can keep in touch with everyone. More importantly though this is a means to allow everyone a little insight into my life and experience in Chile without having to keep in touch with many people on a more personal level. Also I hope to write on here as much as possible to build on my writing skills and share my way of thinking. You may even expect to find some essays, poetry, and photos on here as well! If you have any comments or questions feel free to post them and I will try to address everyones questions as best as possible. Don't forget though I will still have my facebook and myspace and will probably be uploading many photos on that. Happy reading! 

with love, 

Bobby