My daily life while studying abroad in Chile consists of going to school, running errands like going to the grocery store and cooking food in my homestay and — whenever I get the chance on weekends — traveling around Santiago with friends.
In the photos below, I’ll take you through my typical school day!
I begin my day by walking for about 10 minutes to the bus stop that takes me in the direction of my university, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI).
Once I arrive at the stop, I take one of three bus lines that has a stop at the university.
I was lucky this morning on the bus because it was not crowded, and I found an open seat.
On the last stop the city bus makes, I walk to the stop where the university bus picks students up.
Technically, the stop is about 5 yards back where the light-post is. The students waiting are not in the wrong spot — that’s where students hitch-hike for a ride up to the university.
Students hold-out their thumbs out in hope another driver is headed up to the university as well. Since the bus is usually never on time or predictable, we try our luck in hope that someone is kind enough to stop. We were lucky this morning, and I am grateful because I was running late to class.
I happened to be going to the same building as the driver, so I did not have to wait for the smaller school bus that drives up and down the hillside campus. Drivers tend to drop students off at Building A where most students must go, but this morning my class is in Building D, farther up into campus.
Before heading to class, I double-check the screen with room assignments to make sure my class has not changed location.
After class, I head to the UAI bus stop to go down to building-A where my next class is taking place.
Luckily for me, these buses pass about every 7 minutes.
I get off at the stop in front of Building B and make the walk down to Building A.
In between classes I go to the library or open study rooms to get some work done — and sometimes take a nap.
I decided to get some food from one of the food trucks that were on campus for only two days this week.
This is my professor for my last class of the day, Starting Up in Latin America, preparing his presentation.
To get home, I line up to take the school bus that drops students off along the way to the Grecia Metro station.
I then ride the bus for about 25 minutes to its last stop, Grecia.
After getting off the school bus, instead of taking a city bus, I take the 15-minute walk back to my home.
Rodrigo Polanco is a fourth year international business major with an emphasis in Spanish and Latin America. He is studying spring semester at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Santiago, Chile.
The global experience, as told by SDSU students 
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