From the Long Strip to the Mitten

By Jania Bastías and Edgardo Leopoldo Maza

After being at Grand Valley State University for two months, we can only say that we’re so grateful to all the staff, faculty and students who allowed us to be part of this wonderful university. Summer vacation in Chile was left behind to come to the cold winter in Michigan, but we did want to know what Universidad del Bio- Bio’s partner was doing in terms of teaching and learning, especially Spanish as an ESL counterpart.

We attended different classes such as Spanish, English, History and Movement Science. As visitors, we had the opportunity to work with the students, talk   and give presentations about our university and Chilean history, geography, food and traditions.

Our days began at 8 am when we would arrive at GVSU. We would have a coffee and wait until 9 am when we would split to attend either History or Spanish classes. Then we both continued to visit other ones like English classes.  It was very nice to see how students were interested in learning about Chile and the university where we come from.

We learned about poetry, music and literature in the Caribbean with Professor Serrata and talked about Chilean’s first Nobel Prize winner in literature Gabriela Mistral. We remembered our days in high school learning World History in David Stark’s classes. In movement science classes we could realize that we need to work out more.  We showed the students of the Teaching Methods class how English is evaluated as a second language in the universities of Chile.

 Our stay at GVSU has made us aware of how much GVSU and UBB have in common, regardless the different cultures. Professors, staff and students have the same concerns, hopes, ideals and plans for a better life.

We feel very fortunate because the experience gained at GVSU will be so valuable for us, our colleagues and the students at Universidad del Bio- Bio. We hope for future visits from our university.

We’ll miss the conversations with the Spanish, History and English professors, the people from Padnos International Center, the visits to the LCR lab to check our emails from Chile and our coffees in Kirkhof Center. But most of all we’re happy because we’ve made new friends.