Uno mes.

I had one month full of adventure, opportunity, challenges and muchos empanadas.

The month I spent living in Chile was nothing less than perfect in my dictionary. The word “perfect” for me includes being able to acknowledge ups and downs of any given thing and understanding that both are good for you, in my case it was my situation and setting. I chose to take on a risk of flying to a foreign country where I did not speak the native language and opening myself up to living with strangers - whom are now my lifelong friends.

My thoughts before arriving in Santiago were something along the lines of, “It’s a capital city, everyone must speak English, so I will be fine!” Boy was I wrong. The minute I got on the plane to Santiago I had realized how difficult it would be for me to communicate in Chile not knowing any Spanish. I remained optimistic and dived into learning the language.

My program was designed to teach me and sixteen other students from all over the States the healthcare system in Chile and to give us hands-on experiences in healthcare.

My educational experience there was so involved that it would take another article to discuss that. Because of the experiences, I learned that I want to be involved with children in the future as a doctora. My future goals changed from wanting to follow every other pre-med student, going to medical school, and becoming a doctor to wanting to learn about other cultures, languages, religions and medicine at the same time.

I think studying abroad is not the best term used for programs where you have homestays. I think "living abroad" is more of a valid term. While in Santiago, I was completely immersed in Chilean culture and Spanish. Yes, I studied. Yes, I was in a classroom. However, I had a Chilean family. I lived as a Chilean. I walked to school, I took the metro to get around, I bought snacks from street stands, and I drank water from the tap! I lived in Santiago.

Parents send their children off to college to learn to become independent, mature, and gain experiences. I believe I learned more in my one month away in Chile than I have in my year and a half at college. As crazy as it sounds, I recommend everyone go abroad. Not only are you gaining knowledge from another country and perspective, but you learn so much about yourself. That is truly priceless.

I learned how to read a map to get around the city because I had no GPS.

I learned how to navigate my way through public transportation -- and now that I have survived countless rush hours, I can say that I mastered the “red line” in Santiago.

I learned how to clean up after myself -- my bedroom became my entire home and I needed to keep it spotless all the time. Slowly, it turned into a habit of making sure everything was neat and organized.

I learned that I can live without using my iPhone every minute and that I can live without Wi-Fi, although we did always ask for the clave wherever we went.

I learned how to be independent and confident -- my Spanish speaking skills were terrible but it never held me back from using hand gestures and broken Spanglish.

But most importantly, I learned that there is so much in the world to see, there are so many people in the world to meet, and there are endless learning opportunities. I learned something new each day.

My experience in Santiago truly showed me how to be a better me, showed me how to deal with life and how to enjoy the things we have. I will forever be thankful that I had the experience to go abroad and find adventure, opportunity, challenges and muchos empanadas.