From the time I was handed the form to go on an overnight field trip at the local volcano to the day before we went, I had been constantly asked (with a heavy spanish accent,) “Do you have permission to go to snow?” I would always reply, yes. For the kids at my school, it is not a normal thing to actually be on the snow as it does not snow in town. You only see snow when you go for on a specific trip up the mountain or if you are fortunate enough to go skiing. So, this trip was big for the seventh and eighth graders.
The day before the trip I packed my gear. The packing list translation was iffy. And if it was correct, it was an odd combination of items, from botas de goma (rubber boots) to a buzo (diver - which I deciphered as a swimsuit, or a jogging suit. I didn’t know which one to bring so I brought both still confused as to where I would be swimming on a glaciated volcano …but you never know. When I got to school the next day, one thing I realized is that I was one of very few people to fit everything into one backpack and the rest had several bags. And I started wondering how they were going to hike up the mountain with three or four bags. You see, what I thought at the time was that the spot that we were going to sleep at we would have to hike to. (Later that day I was proven wrong.)
After a two-hour bus ride we arrived to the mountain. When we got off the bus everyone was standing outside a building, soon I found out that this is where we would be sleeping. At first, I ended up in the incorrect room and was placed on the top of a triple bunk bed with no railing. So, if, while sleeping, I rolled over in the wrong direction, I would fall the ten feet to the hard ground. It was definitely a step up from a Belknap top bunk! Luckily later that day one of my classmates that was in the room I was originally supposed to be in wanted to switch rooms with me. Of course, I said yes and was able to get a middle bunk this time so only about a five foot drop instead of the ten.
Once settled in our rooms we went outside to do some games before our “hike.” I’m pretty sure the game we played was hokey-pokey in Spanish but I can’t be sure. After the game the teachers handed out shovels and poles. A bit of fear came over me, here I am on a volcano…My first thought about the shovels was that we were going into a high avalanche danger area and with the poles was: is this going to be a super challenging hike? I didn’t think that a bunch of fit twelve and thirteen year olds would need hiking poles. Mentally I prepped myself for a long day ahead with crazy crevasses – shoving an extra granola bar in my pocket I followed the group for the hike.
So my Spanish was not quite as on par as I wished and our “hike” turned out to be a half mile walk to a spot where we ate lunch and learned some aspects about camping. What a relief! The shovels were not for digging someone out of an avalanche but for digging snow caves at the campsite. On the hike up we did switchbacks as one does up a steep hillside so once we got to the flats, I was hopeful that we could stop doing switchbacks. But we continued to do switchbacks and stay in a line. Again it took me awhile to figure out that we were in fact practicing avalanche safety.
That evening we made pizzas from scratch, the next morning we had a traditional Chilean breakfast of yogurt, eggs and bread (pan). I was fortunate to get a few extra pieces of pan to fill me up! After breakfast we made igloos. Building the igloos was awesome and might even be the highlight of my trip. Or maybe at least by that point in the trip I was much more comfortable and could enjoying being playful even if I still did not understand all that was always being said!
Going on a school trip in Spanish was quite an experience. Throughout the entire trip, I generally understood the rules, but the overall meaning sometimes didn’t make sense until we had completed the event. The “trip to snow” was an awesome experience that I will remember forever and I can’t wait to have more life changing experiences here in Chile.
