“Educación es lo que queda después de olvidar lo que aprendí en escuela”

Education is what remains after you forget what you learned in school.

I’m having a really hard time summing up what I got out of this semester. When people ask me, “How was Chile?” it seems totally clique and arrogant to say “It totally changed my life” as much as this may be true. So I usually end up saying "it was really good" which is totally lame.
If anything, my experience in Chile was more a look at what it is like to try another life on for size for a while, let it grow and then eventually step back to see what was created. And while that life may have passed, it still influences the way I think and act. But communicating the fullness of this is virtually impossible. And communicating the things I learned about culture, and human rights and mining and everything else aren't the quick fun stories everyone wants to hear, as much as these are the things I care about and want to talk about.

As many people had warned me, the culture shock coming back is much worse upon return than it is when you are abroad. Usually, I found that my culture shock in Chile was never that bad because it was similar enough and the things that were different were usually surprising or funny or interesting.
But upon my return, I feel like I’m analyzing everything double. And my natural adaptation to freezing cold climes from 20 years of northern hemisphere life is completely gone. I feel completely cold physical but also the culture itself seems so much colder. Aside from hugs, there is no physical goodbye or hello. Everything starts and ends earlier. I’m currently back at Tufts visiting friends which is wonderful, but it’s exam time, so everyone is essentially freaking out big time. And everything seems so petty in a way I hadn't before: for example, while students in Chile have clashes with the police to protest the privatization of their education, Tufts kids complain when their cafeteria trays are taken away to be more environmentally friendly. Come on.
By now, I’ve at least stopped speaking Spanish inadvertantly to people, but this makes me feel sort of empty, like something I want to is inaccessible.
It's gonna be a little while before it's going to feel like my country again.