An American abroad

By Emi Kojima Daily Bruin Senior Staff SANTIAGO, Chile “”mdash;
Steve Runyan gets up at 6 a.m., trying not to wake his Chilean host
family whose rooms are separated from his by only a thin wall and
curtain. He tiptoes past his two other host brothers as he makes
his way down the spiral, wooden staircase to the one bathroom the
six of them share, lighting a match for the propane gas water
heater for a hot shower. An hour later, he takes a micro, one of
the Santiago buses and a popular form of public transportation, and
spends an hour getting to class across town from his barrio of
Pudahuel. “It’s a good thing I like the micro because I
spend a lot of time on it,” Runyan said. “It’s a
different world, and you see parts of the culture ““ people
selling candy, playing the guitar, asking for money. It’s
definitely not what we have at home.” A day in Runyan’s
life is something most Bruins couldn’t imagine. True, Runyan
studies in classes that count toward his degree and lives in a city
full of traffic, but life is full of little differences that teach
him about Chilean culture through everyday experience. The
fourth-year physiological science student is one of 65 students on
the Education Abroad Program to Chile. EAP is a UC-wide program
that sends students to more than 30 countries worldwide to study at
universities where they can take classes that transfer for their
major. Runyan came intending to learn Spanish and has decided to
immerse himself in the language and make the most of his six months
here. “My goal was to be fluent, but here’s what I
learned in Chile. Fluency will always be one step out of reach
because the more I learn, the more I have to learn,” he said.
After going to Mexico every year since 1994 with his church to help
build houses, Runyan “thought it would be cool to talk to the
people there,” and started with Spanish 1 at UCLA. When he
returned the next year, he could converse. “It was like there
was a barrier between me and them, but learning Spanish was taking
it down,” Runyan said. “I found out about their
families, kids, and what they do ““ and then I just wanted to
keep learning Spanish.” What clinched his decision to go
abroad was a trip to Ecuador, where Runyan helped establish a new
church community. He met another group working on the same project
from Chile, and stayed in touch with some of his Chilean friends.
Living in the home of a friend helped Runyan convince his family to
let him go abroad, and this trip is the longest time he has spent
out of the country.

La Vida de la Familia After a language immersion program and
home stay with Chilean families in Viña del Mar during the
first month, students move to Santiago to take classes at the
University of Chile or the Pontifical Catholic University. Most
live with other students or families, or in pensiones, which are
houses where rooms are rented. Runyan said he’d rather live
with a family than with other students, prompting his decision to
live farther away from the city center. “I came to learn
Spanish and I learn more Spanish at home with my family than at
school,” he said. Runyan is the first foreigner the family
let stay at their house, according to Fernando Trureo, his Chilean
host father. While the family offered to let Runyan stay for free,
he decided to pay what other families at his church asks from the
foreigners they host ““ about $200 a month. Trureo said the
past three months haven’t been a big adjustment for the
family. “Nothing’s changed para nada,” he said.
“Steve’s a part of the family.” He said that
Runyan is “never of bad humor,” and that the family is
pretty laid back. María Salamanca Trureo, Runyan’s host
mother, added that Runyan’s presence only means
“another plate of food and another bed to make.”
“Really, there isn’t a difference,” she said.
“We’ll miss him when he goes, but that’s
all.”

Se Habla Inglés After spending about two hours by bus to
get to his internship, Runyan stands in front of a classroom of
about 20 kids. He is a teaching assistant in a mountain suburb, and
from the playground the school looks down upon downtown Santiago,
covered in smog. By doing an internship, Runyan can take fewer
classes and gain career experience. “I would love to use
Spanish somewhere in my career,” he said. “My dream
would be to teach Spanish, but I don’t know if I could learn
enough to teach it. Or teach English in a Spanish speaking country.
When you teach a language you learn about who people are, what they
think and you build relations.” On Wednesdays, he goes to a
private school, Colegio San Juan de la Cruz Padres Dominicos, where
he helps teach English to five classes with students between grades
3 and 10. “He gets involved with his students and they really
like it,” said Daniela Allende, the English teacher Runyan
assists. “He has a certain appeal with children and he has no
problem getting their attention. He’s very friendly with
everyone.” Runyan has done everything from teach the kids
tongue-twisters and an English techno song to report about
Shakespeare on his birthday, allowing students the experience of
hearing a native English speaker give a lecture. “Steve is a
serious student who is responsible, dependable and very
creative,” said Ricardo Sepúlveda, the coordinator of
the school’s English department. Runyan’s skill in
teaching the language lies in providing an incentive for students
to speak English ““ in more ways than one. “Because
Runyan has features that are not common in our country, they are
considered to be a prototype of beauty, ” Sepúlveda
said. “Girls consider it beautiful or attractive, and some
would say, “˜We have a beautiful gringo here to look
at.'” But he emphasized that Runyan’s performance
and enthusiasm were more important, along with his help explaining
parts of American culture from a first-hand perspective.
“It’s a privilege to have foreign students working at
our school,” Sepúlveda said. “Not every school has
native university students as assistants.”

Un Estudiante Universitaria On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Runyan
attends classes, arriving at his Facultad of Filosofía y
Humanidades at about 8:20 a.m. He is taking two literature classes,
which count toward his minor in Spanish. “The longest paper
I’ve ever written in my life was in Spanish, between 10 and
12 pages,” he said, adding that he’s a South Campus
student at UCLA and unaccustomed to writing papers. “I have
about nine papers this quarter.” At the library housed in a
building with a huge mural of Che Guevara, Runyan reads his Bible
for a bit before class. This school ““ the Pedagógico
““ is known for being more radical and politically active than
other facultades, or campuses spread throughout the city. Runyan
says his Chilean friends from church make fun of the school,
calling it “Piedragógico” because during protests,
students throw rocks ““ or piedras ““ at the micros and
the police officers. At the facultad, Runyan said that he feels he
stands out, but doesn’t mind. “I feel like a
gringo,” he said. “Occasionally students will ask me
questions about English. They’re pretty friendly, but they
also know you’re a gringo.” In between classes, Runyan
looks for school materials he needs. “Resources are different
than at UCLA,” he said. “They don’t have books
like at the huge UCLA book store. You check out a book, photocopy
it and that’s your textbook. It’s hard to find the
books you need for class.” On the days when Runyan
isn’t at school or his internship, he studies at home in his
own room. “Steve is very quiet,” Trureo said.
“He’s alone a lot in his room, and we try not to bother
him when he’s studying.” The room barely fits his bed,
a bedside table and a desk Trureo made for him that is strewn with
papers and books. The walls are white, with the exception of a
small UCLA flag on the wall that a friend sent him. A laptop
computer case sits under the bedside table, and Runyan said his one
luxury is sending e-mail messages every day. On the tabletop sits a
pile of photographs ““ half from Chile and half from home.
“I know I’ll appreciate stuff a lot more at
home,” Runyan said. “Being away for six months and
knowing what you’re going back to, I feel like I give a
second chance to pick up where I left off with a new
perspective.” Although Runyan said that he misses his family,
he doesn’t miss the language. “I speak in English too
much to miss it,” he said, because he talks to other EAP
friends and writes e-mail in English. Still, said Ron Karpowicz, a
close friend and third-year geology student from UCSB, Runyan is
gung-ho dedicated to Spanish. “We always talk in
Spanish,” he said, adding that he referred to Runyan as
Esteban because many Chileans can’t pronounce
“Steve.” He sees Runyan about twice a week at the
Chilean politics and culture class required of all EAP students.
Yet while other students tend to get together for evenings out,
Karpowicz said that Runyan usually doesn’t join them and goes
to sleep instead. “Most students go out to drink, dance and
meet girls,” Karpowicz said. “Steve doesn’t
drink, doesn’t like to dance and already has a
girlfriend.”

El fin del día On the way back home, Runyan passed a church
where he bought his Chilean host mom flowers for Mother’s
Day. The latest he usually gets home is about 10 p.m., either from
his internship or from class. During the evenings, Runyan can relax
and talk with his family, who occasionally makes fun of
Runyan’s “acento gringo” ““ but all in good
humor. Maybe he’ll read a little, play a game of cards, or
might catch some television, like the teleseries “Sabor de
t픝 or “Yo soy Betty, la Fea,” another
comedy show. He’s usually the first one to go to bed. When he
first arrives home, though, Runyan knocks on the front door and
waits for one of his family members to open it. “The funny
thing is I don’t even have a key to the house but it
hasn’t ever been a problem ““ just a change in
lifestyle,” he said. Kojima is currently studying in Chile
with the Education Abroad Program. Check out
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eap for more information about the
program.