Hola a todos!
Surprisingly, this past weekend Santiago had its first sighting of snow in over 10 years. I remember waking up to my host mom’s wails of unbelief. Contrary to her excitement, I recall being quite unenthused – primarily due to the absurd amount of snow Boston gets in its winters. Honestly, I was looking forward to not dealing with snow for the next few months and soaking up some sun in the meanwhile. Nevertheless, the snow grazed mountains kissing the city’s skyline was beautiful as ever, and I fell in love, again, with the intrinsic beauty offered by the landscapes here. Due to the unexpectedness of the snowfall, the city lost power in most parts, and my neighborhood did not have power for three days. In the interim of them fixing it, I did a lot of Spanish reading and movie-watching towards my goal of improving my proficiency in the language. To this note, I am proud to report a portrayal of my progress.
Yesterday, my company, Hosping, was interviewed on a popular Chilean radio show, which reports on innovation and technology and is hosted by TV/Radio personality Nicolรกs Larraรญn. Since I spearheaded the innovation lab at my company (a technology startup), another intern and I accompanied the CEO on the show and were given an opportunity to speak on ourselves and our role within the company. Since, as noted before, this was a Chilean show, it was recorded completely in Spanish. However, I was able to understand and answer all of the host’s questions. Initially, I had quite the jitters, and felt like I was about to skydive with no parachute, but once I arrived at the show everything changed, and I quickly became acclimated by the relaxed and comical demeanor of the host: Nicolรกs Larraรญn. Apparently, he’s quite the star here in Chile and even ran for president in the past. Anyhow, everything went well and furthermore, I finally remembered I hosted my own radio show for 2 years in college, so any reason to fear became quite juvenile.
In this photo: my CEO, me, Nicolรกs Larraรญn, and intern #2 who is also named Chris.
Overall, this experience was quite amazing and exhilarating considering how far it initially catapulted me out of my comfort zone. Notwithstanding, I now possess an expanded comfort zone, an increased confidence in my Spanish proficiency, and another reaffirming experience of adapting to new, foreign, and challenging situations.
Bittersweetly, I have officially crossed the halfway mark of the program, so the wave rolls downward from here, but as they say:
“Don’t be sad it’s over. Be glad it happened.”
Until next time!
Chris