My name is Amanda Dezamits and I am a senior studying Community, Environment, and Development – International Option in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Anthropology and Spanish in the College of Liberal Arts. Although I absolutely love studying at Penn State, I decided that for the Fall semester of 2013 I would apply for the CIEE Santiago, Chile Liberal Arts abroad program!

I chose to study abroad in Santiago, Chile for many reasons, but my top two were that one, I am a Spanish minor who has studied the language for nine years in total (but only two years in a university setting) and at this point can only improve if immersed into the language to learn “how real Spanish-speakers talk;” and two, as a person who absolutely loves the outdoors, Chile is an incredibly diverse country with their Atacama desert in the north, glaciers in the Patagonian region in the south, and everything else you can imagine in between! 

Overall I am thoroughly excited to begin my abroad journey. The only worries that plague me before leaving are understanding the dialect (since Chileans use a lot of slang) and immediately becoming accustomed to my surroundings. I suppose those are the worries of any study abroad student though!

As my abroad journey unfolds, make sure to come back to read up on experiences throughout the city, tips for travel in Chile, and anything else that comes to mind as I spend my next five months exploring a new culture and place!

Goodbye for now!
Amanda