Living with Pato and Isa

Living with a host family is a huge part of the Duke Engage Santiago experience. For sure, it was an aspect of the program I was apprehensive about. Are they nice? Will they like me? How will I live with strangers? Will there be WiFi?

I was fortunate enough to have Pato and Isa as my family. Pato and Isa are pololos (that's girlfriend and boyfriend, for those of you who do not speak Chilean). From day 1, they treated me like their younger sister. Home was not just a place to sleep. The first week, I had once (a Chilean meal kind of like tea time) at Pato's mom's house, cheered from the sidelines at Isa's soccer game, and helped cook. With my hosts, I have cooked lomo a lo pobre, shared my favorite youtube videos, hiked in Cajón de Maipo, eaten the best empanadas in Santiago, attempted to dance cueca.

Pato and Isa were also people I could talk to about my work at Acción Emprendedora. I showed them both the video I was editing and the directory we were working on and listened to their suggestions.

My hosts have plans to come visit the US and stay with me --- they have skyped with my (real) family several times already. I can't wait. And I have plans to return to Chile and visit Isa's family in the Osorno. I just have to tell my parents.

And yes, they had WiFi.