11/9/2009 - Hansen Spent Eight Weeks in Chile
By KEVIN SLATER, Associate Editor
Shenadoah Valley News Online
Laura Hansen is no stranger to foreign places, South America in particular, but the eight weeks she spent in Chile as part of the Shenandoah AFS program gave her an entirely different perspective.
“It was a great way to see what else is out there,” said Hansen. “It was a great experience – one that I’ll always remember.”
Hansen spent her time in a small town outside of Quillota, with a large family with children in age range from college to second grade.
She said her AFS family was very welcoming and made her feel right at home.
“My mother was great, she stayed at home to take care of the kids and she always cooked us a big lunch, which was the main meal down there,” Hansen recalled.
She departed from Shenandoah on June 24th and returned August 18th. Although she was there for our summer, it was actually winter in Chile due to its location in the southern hemisphere.
While there she attended school, which see said was pretty similar to what she was used to with the exception of a couple of classes.
“They have a religion and a philosophy class, so I didn’t really know what was going on in those,” she laughed.
Hansen said she attended what was one of the top schools in Chile, so the majority of the students spoke English. This allowed her to adjust gradually into speaking more Spanish in a daily routine. She said students there took English as a class, but she didn’t necessarily have an advantage over them.
“They study British English, so it was actually pretty hard,” she said.
She also said one of her most memorable, and embarassing experiences took place in failed translation between the two languages.
While attempting to order peanuts for the school concession stand, she said she was embarrassed to find out the word had an entirely different meaning in Chile.
“To them in means a male’s (‘parts’),” she laughed.
According to Hansen, the biggest difference between Chileans and Americans is concern with time.
“In America everything is about time, there they don’t really care because they are usually about a half hour late anyway,” she explained.
She said this was evident in the two-hour breaks they would take for lunch.
“They would shut down all the stores and everything,” she added.
Laura’s mom, Christina, is the sending coordinator for Shenandoah AFS and said she feels the time in Chile was great for Laura.
“We missed her at first, but with technology it was easy to stay in touch, and we got on Facebook,” Christina explained. “It was a wonderful experience, I wanted her to see what else is out there.”
Although being an exchange student can be expensive, AFS has scholarships available that can pay up to half of the cost. Hansen said money should not stop anyone that really wants the experience.
“If you want to go you can,” she said.
Hansen had previously visited South America when she traveled with her mom to her home country of Columbia.
That was one of the things that inspired Hansen to request Chile as he destination of choice, a decision she said she didn’t regret.
“It was great, I would definitely recommend it to others,” she said. “I’m going to go back to Chile some day.”
Hansen is a senior at Shenandoah High School this year.
Read the original article here.
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