{"id":226,"date":"2008-07-02T15:19:17","date_gmt":"2008-07-02T15:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/?p=226"},"modified":"2013-10-22T17:29:31","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T17:29:31","slug":"staying-much-longer-than-id-planned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/locations\/chile\/staying-much-longer-than-id-planned.php","title":{"rendered":"Staying (MUCH) longer than I\u2019d planned!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"pic-box size-full wp-image-817 alignright\"  title=\"Santiago de Chile\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/chile_a.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" \/>I\u2019m French but I used to live in Florida. As my working permit was expiring I had the option to go back to France or move to another country. In United States I met a couple people from Chile. We immediately became friends and they would go on and on about how great their country was. I thought that I had to see that for myself and I decided to move there, probably for a year or two at the most. That was the plan&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that Santiago was something else! Apart from the fact that the city was much more developed than I thought, I was pleasantly surprised to find cute streets, beautiful buildings, a rich culture, a very positive atmosphere and lots of vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>Sure this was nice, but I still spoke no Spanish and if I were planning on staying, I had to find a Spanish school. The first one I found was expensive and only proposed individual classes: this wasn\u2019t the right way to make friends (after all, I only knew those two Chileans I met in the US!). This first school I visited actually was the one that directed me to the School where I ended up studying. A school vouching for another one? I had to check it out.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It only took about three steps inside to be convinced I was at the right place! I had barely stepped through the entrance that the school secretary greeted me with great sympathy and patience (she had to bare with my bad Spanish!). Five minutes later I met the director who explained to me in English how the entire school worked. Five minutes later I was doing the initial test so they could determine my Spanish level (at the time I didn\u2019t answer many questions!). Five minutes later I was already signed up for a bunch of extra-curriculum activities (rafting in the river, rally in the dunes, tour of Santiago, etc etc.). And another five minutes later I was already meeting friends who, like me, where here to study or improve their Spanish. I couldn\u2019t wait to start my classes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"pic-box size-full wp-image-818 alignleft\"  title=\"Santiago de Chile\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/chile_b.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" \/>My teachers were the best! They had answers to everything and we would always learn in a very fun atmosphere. We would even play games sometimes that some of us would mess up just to bother our teacher, but he (or she) wouldn\u2019t mind: we got along so well that we all knew it was for fun. I managed to get a hold of the Spanish grammar very quickly and my vocabulary was sky-rocketing compared to my first day in Chile. In only two months, I felt that I could participate in a conversation without any problems.<\/p>\n<p>And I did! Because eventually all the teachers and the staff from the school became my friends. I even started to travel to meet the staff from other schools in the chain (like Bariloche and Buenos Aires). All those friends lead to other friends and after a year I had such an amazing network of friends that I couldn\u2019t see myself leaving just yet. Chileans are just so nice and so much fun that life in Chile was too good to leave!.<\/p>\n<p>I spent three years and a half in Chile. I never thought I would stay that long! And I would frequently think to myself: &#8220;thank god I met those guys at the school, otherwise I really don\u2019t think my experience in Chile would have been that amazing&#8221;. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.applelanguages.com\/en\/learn\/spanish\/chile\/santiago-de-chile.php\">The school<\/a> not only gave me a very solid base to my Spanish, but it also transformed a small trip into a wonderful experience. I already have plans to go back for vacations!<\/p>\n<p><em>Niko (France)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m French but I used to live in Florida. As my working permit was expiring I had the option to go back to France or move to another country. In United States I met a couple people from Chile. We immediately became friends and they would go on and on about how great their country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[84,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chile","category-santiago-de-chile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Staying (MUCH) longer than I\u2019d planned! - Apple Languages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I spent 3.5 years in Chile, I never thought I would stay that long! 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