I have been out of the country four times, two times to Canada and twice to Europe. In middle school, I went to Montréal and Québec with my French class and a few summers later, I traveled to Prince Edward Island with my family. I have also been to Europe twice with my high school. The first time, I went with my French class again and traveled around France, seeing all the major cities. Last summer, I again went to Europe with my high school and traveled through Italy, Monaco, France, and Spain.
I want to go to Chile because:
I have never before been to South America and I don't know when I will get another opportunity to go to Chile. Having never really known that much about Chile in the past, I am excited to get to know more about the history, politics, people, and culture of the country. I also love to travel and would like to add another country to my above list.
I think the main professional work differences I will experience will be:
I don't expect there to be huge differences in the professional work place. However, I do think that Chileans will do business with a bit more formality than we do business here in the U.S. I expect that the dress, culture, and atmosphere of the workplace will be more formal and that people will interact with more politeness. I also think that positions in the workplace are more respected.
I think the main cultural differences I will experience will be:
Being a primarily Catholic country, I expect that religion will play a bigger role in the everyday culture of Chileans. I also think that family life will be more important and that Chile will be less individualistic that the United States. Other than these aspects, I am not quite sure yet what to expect but I do think that Chileans will be very friendly and welcoming.
I think the main political differences I will experience will be:
I don't really now what to expect of the political differences in Chile but I think that the system is generally very similar to ours. However, it is very interesting to me that Chile has a woman president and that she was ranked #27 on Forbes Most Powerful Women of 2007 list.
I think the students I meet in Chile will be:
I am very excited to meet the students in Chile and to learn more about the typical Chilean student. However, I expect that they won't be too different from us because I think that students almost anywhere you go around the world all want the same things in terms of education and social life. I think that we will be surprised to find how many interests we have in common.
I predict I will be surprised to find:
I think that I will be surprised to find a lot of things about Chile but I am not quite sure yet what those surprises are. Mainly, I will probably be surprised to see the differences between Chile and the U.S in terms of how people live but I think that I will also be surprised by all the similarities.
I think the major differences in living conditions will be:
In the places that we visit, I think living conditions we be very good and I don't think that people will live very differently from people in the United States. However, Chileans probably are less grand with how they live and I expect that homes will generally be smaller and less extravagant than many homes in the U.S.
Anything else you want to say:
I can't wait to go to Chile and have this amazing experience!
