Author: khelmick@rollins.edu

The last five or six weeks of my time abroad could be described as a whirlwind in which my schedule, hectic even for SIT’s standards, hardly allowed me the time to pause and reflect on the enormity of all I had experienced and learned and how quickly my time in Chile was coming to an…

During the very first few days of my program, I remember having a conversation with one of my fellow classmates that has continued, throughout the entirety of the semester, to perfectly encapsulate the tedious, complex, and yet entirely fascinating process of learning a new language. Our talk followed a particularly-lengthy orientation lecture, during which, at…

Yesterday marked the end of our first of two excursions during our program and, though physically exhausted, I feel a newfound emotional and mental revitalization that has brought me out of a slump that, before this trip, I hadn’t even known I was in. During the last six days, I have traveled to both Arica,…

It has almost been two weeks since I first landed in Chile, and I am not sure how time can move both so fast and so, so slow. This paradoxical passing of time is part of the magic – and genius – of SIT’s study abroad programs, where the tightly-packed schedules keep you so busy…

There is exactly one week left in the agonizingly-long wait for the start of my study abroad program in Valparaíso, Chile, where I will be attending SIT’s Cultural Identity, Social Justice, and Community Development program. As someone who prefers to be continually busy, I have found this long break leading up to my departure unsettling,…