On Friday October 18^th, things officially changed forever in Chile. My group and I went on a tour in the outskirts of Santiago and when we returned in the evening, we didn’t recognize our city. Graffiti had exploded all over the buildings, people were screaming and chanting, police officers were trying to control the protests, and there was an orange glow to the city from all the fires that had been set to buses, buildings, and metro stations. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was terrified to say the least. There was tear gas in the air and protesters were throwing rocks at the cops spreading the tear gas. This entire situation started late on Thursday when the Chilean government announced an increase in metro prices. The average cost is a little more than $1 per ride, which really adds up when you have to take the metro to and from work 5 times a week. This becomes very expensive when the average salary in Chile is $400 a month. The Chileans also need to pay for food, water, gas, education for their kids, and electricity. The protests about the metro prices rapidly turned into protests about so much more. The protesters then found out that the current president has been evading taxes for over 30 years which sparked protests about everything the citizens are unhappy with. Chile has the worst education in all of Latin America, and also the most expensive. The cost of one college class is 41% of the average person’s salary, and the dropout rate at universities is 50%. In Chile, water is privatized, the only country in the world with private water. The pension system doesn’t provide the elderly with enough money to pay for the cost of living, so most of the elderly is forced to live with their families.  The healthcare system is ridiculously expensive and favors the elite and can take up to 3 years to get any kind of medical appointment. The salary of the elite is 33 times the salary of the working class, and there are so many more problems with Chilean society. We experienced a curfew for 2 weeks to try to control the protests, but it only made it worse. The protests have been going on for over a month, almost all our classes have been canceled in the past month, and my host parents haven’t been able to work since this all started. The government has agreed to write a new constitution because the current constitution was written during their military dictatorship. It has been scary being here during all of this because there have been very violent protests, but it is a very important part of Chilean history.