Travel is tough… but wonderful

(Article written by Rachael Z.)

Travel is tough. Especially long term travel to another country. Your brain is bombarded with travel posters, signs, directions over the intercom, long lines, waiting, rushing to your terminal; did they move my gate? Did I pack my toothbrush? Will I make my connecting flight? What if the guy who sits beside me on the plane smells? What if I get to Chile and forget all of my Spanish? What if they lose my luggage? Did they just say my name on the intercom?

I met up with my fellow Program Leaders in Pittsburgh, PA. For two of us, this is our first time leading a program with CIEE. For two of us, we are visiting Chile for the second time. All three of us are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and we are all middle/high school Spanish teachers, (Youssef is currently teaching in D.C). All program leaders for CIEE are a diverse group of teachers and leaders from all over the United States who have extensive experience with the language, travel and cultural teaching, (a fancy way of saying we like to travel!)

Valparaiso, Chile Session 1 has 24 students. From the conversations I have had with them, most students are excited to learn more about Chile’s vibrant and artistic culture and better their Spanish. Luckily, we will be doing a lot of both!

We met up with most of our students in Dallas, Texas. We had a few flight delays and our students were set to arrive at different times throughout the day. However the travel Gods had a sense of humor. Our night flight to Santiago was delayed a until the morning so it was a mad dash to customer services to guarantee hotel rooms for our students. When I arrived at the ticket counter, I explained that I am traveling with teenagers to Chile and the airline representative said, "you should have cut to the front of the line", and she also gave us food vouchers. The students were troopers! 4 students to 1 king bed because that was the only room available, no checked luggage and a very early wake up call. 3:00am is too early for anything. This was the first glimpse I got of our students. They are resilient, positive and ready for adventure.

By the time we survived a delayed take off, the 11 hour flight was finally over, we all took a bus from Santiago to Valparaiso to stay in a hotel for the night. The students are anxious to meet their host families, eat a real meal, and sleep.

Traveling is hard, but it is wonderful. My cousin used to say, “The worst the experience the better the story.”  I sure have a lot of stories and most of them are wonderful. Time has a funny way of teaching us lessons, we experience something-in-the-moment and it is visceral and raw. It is the most (fill-in-the-blank). That moment was the most uncomfortable, the most beautiful,etc. But when we look back, time makes those moments look like old polaroids, slightly out of focus, the darks and lights are stronger. We remember the best and the worst. The key is perspective. We endure the hard times and learn and laugh about them later. But the best memories, those we savor like sweet manjar dessert. Our memories are wonderful but there's nothing like living and enjoying the moment.

-Rachael Z

“Discover a new culture. Learn new skills. Gain new perspectives. The world is waiting.”

-CIEE High School Study Abroad