Chile Forum

It said new users start here, so here I am :p Hola!

I've browsed this forum a couple of times in previous months and was again directed here recently from the tripadvisor forum after starting a thread with some visa questions and figured it was time to join.

I'm a 23 year old Australian and I've been studying Spanish at uni for nearly 2 years now. I decided that if I'm going to continue to study at uni I might as well make the most of it and do a student exchange! And given I've been learning Spanish, it seems only fitting to go to a Spanish speaking country. I have heard that Chile isn't the greatest place in the world to learn the language but of all the cities/universities in the world I could apply for, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago was easily the best option for me, for a whole host of reasons.

And so the short story is I'm headed to Santiago in 8 weeks to begin a 12 month stay/student exchange! My girlfriend will be accompanying me for the first 6-8 months and so the next 8 weeks is time for us to get organised! I'm sure it will be quite hard/tough/frustrating at times but I think that's part of the appeal.

Have already spent a lot of time researching the city, the neighborhoods, transport, apartments, visas, banks etc. etc. but as is often the case my research only leaves me with more questions haha. Seems like there is a ton of info here though so I'm looking forward to lots of reading/asking and making the most of it as we prepare for our move,

thanks for having us!

Nice to have you in the forum... I can't help wondering though, you're going to Chile in December to start at PUC just when everyone is leaving for a 3-months summer holiday?

FrankPintor wrote:Nice to have you in the forum... I can't help wondering though, you're going to Chile in December to start at PUC just when everyone is leaving for a 3-months summer holiday?

Yep, figured we'd join in on the 3-month summer holiday too My uni finishes here the same time (end of Nov) so I figured, why stay here for 3 months forgetting all the Spanish I've learned when we could go straight over to Santiago and get started!? Plan on spending a few weeks finding a place/getting settled in, do Xmas and New Year over there, have January to see some of the countryside, get to practice/improve language before uni starts etc. And then I have pre-semester intensive language courses that start in Feb. Hopefully by then I'll be a lot more familiar with the city, culture, language and so forth and the transition into full-time study in a foreign country will be a little easier. My girlfriend isn't studying full-time so she's going to look at maybe doing some volunteer work to get involved in the community as well as a language course throughout the semester.

y gracias eeuunikkei

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC) is a very good school, but when you walk out of class you will still have to learn Chilean.