Day 13: Leaving

These past two weeks have been nothing short of amazing. I came into this trip thinking that it could be cool to see another culture and to be fully immersed in it. I underestimated it. This was a great experience that I will not soon forget. Even the hotel added to my experience. The windows didn't lock, our first door was not functional after just one day, we woke up with morning dew all over our belongs, and there was even a day we did not have running water, but the other days the water was just cold and pressureless. I would still not swap Hotel America for a five-star one. Bonding with 16 other students for two weeks really made me some new friends and I hope to keep them throughout the years. People normally say after living with so many people your going to want to kill them, I feel the opposite, I wish this was a four week program. There were so many cultural differences I picked up. Some that I would like to bring back to America and some I am glad that they are in Chile. I like the way people greet and talk in Chile. It is very personal and people are genuinely interested in becoming friends. There is no personal bubble, but I am okay with that. People are also very accepting, at least to me, and this is something that I would not mind see a little bit more in the states. The stray dogs that accompany the streets are good companions and they are all very well trained. Since we were such a big group, dogs would follow us left and right and this is something I got used to and started to like. Even in our lectures when we asked about the dogs, the natives said how they are big fans and even though there are laws to keep them off the streets they are glad that they are very lightly enforced. Something I do not like is the amount of trash cans and the size of them. I would have to search for a couple blocks or two just to throw out something as small as a little ice cream dish. This was everywhere though. Some of the only trash cans were in the bathrooms and this was for your toilet paper. I would not mind if this tradition stayed overseas. One thing that really got me thinking was the presence of English. I keep thinking that if this trip was swapped, say 17 Chileans coming to America that did not speak English very well, that they would have a much, much more difficult time adapting. There were restaurant signs in english, they had English menus, and even more important most of the people there were able to at least have a basic conversation with you. We visited Chile in the winter, which means there were not many tourists so I could not picture a better time to see the country and get fully immersed in the culture. I feel so Chilean that at the airport in Dallas the first few words I said when I ordered a snack were in Spanish! Chile overall was a great experience and I just wanted to thank Jorge and Sarah for being the best mentors and the other students that made my trip unforgettable! :) Oh, and sorry for the pictures being huge. Both my laptop and phone broke over this trip so I needed to get these pictures off of facebook so they may be a little big/blurry. Thanks for reading!

Day 12: Horseback riding

Our final full day in Chile was definitely a good one! I can not decide which of my days I liked the most, but this one was definitely up there. We had another early morning, but it was worth it. We took our bus for a little under an hour and arrived at a little ranch. We immediately hopped on our horses and headed out. We crossed a street and entered the beach. It was beautiful. We started at a slow walk and got progressively faster and for some points on the beach we were galloping on the edge of the water. The beach seemed like it went for miles. It was so nice and then we entered an area full of sand dunes. These were a little more difficult to maneuver on a horse. They were just as beautiful though. Every time we got to a peak we would stop and take pictures and just take in the view. We took a fifteen minute break on top of a sand dune and ate some clementines with some true Chilean ranchers. For the rest of the break I laid down and just took in the natural scenery. We retraced our steps on the way back to the ranch and was greeted with wine and pisco-sours. It was beautiful and we were given 2 hours just to relax. I played soccer, jumped on a trampoline, and just hung out on one of the two hammocks. We then came back to the hotel for a 3 hour break before going out to eat pizza with Professor Warner, the professor that worked with us. He made sure to keep refilling our beers at the table, he likes to see other people have a nice time and I like that. At the end of dinner we were given a treat. USM sweatshirts were given out and they even had a University of Pittsburgh emblem! This is something that I can see myself wearing many of times. This is the perfect memento to end the trip. I am now about to nap to get ready for our long night ahead of us. We are planning on going to a neighboring city and we probably won’t get back until very late. This was a great last day to end the trip so far!

Day 11: Free morning and Paintball

Since we are done with all of our company visits and university lectures, the last few days are just for fun. Even though the first days were great, it has gotten better. We had the morning to ourselves so I ended up sleeping in until around 11:30. Originally I was planning on going to the local market in the morning, but this trip has been so busy those extra hours really did help me. Instead I woke up and went to the beach with a bunch of my peers. It was so nice just sitting on the sand and talking with my friends. After we left the relaxing beach, Mike and I went to the grocery store and bought a chicken. A fully cooked whole chicken. We then proceeded to get lost in Vina, but we finally got back about a half hour after we should of. We took our private bus to paintball and this field was nothing like I have ever seen before. It looked like where the Chilean army would train. It was just mounds and brush everywhere. It was still a great moment, but I just wish my gun didn't break towards the end. A bunch of us are going out to try the Chilean-Chinese food and I feel like this will be a good experience. This trip has been great and I do not want the next couple nights to go by as quickly as the first section did. We also plan to go out tonight to the same place we went to last Wednesday. A difference I've noticed, maybe because I'm not 21, is that the bars are always crowded and even on a Wednesday night there will be a lot of Chileans there having a good time. Drinking is a big part of their culture and even the professor that works with us have given us money for drinks and let us have an outdoor party at his own residence. Hey, I am not one to complain about this difference in culture, I have been having a very nice time.

Day 10: Hela, Centauro and Cueca

We started our day with a visit to the factory of the company Hela. Hela produces products that help out homeowners that want to renovations or paintings. Even though this visit was more focused on engineers, I really enjoyed it. We saw the entire production process of a paintbrush used for outdoor painting and a wire wheel used to descrape paint or smooth things out. The wire wheel production used some huge machines. It was almost completely machine made from the twisting of the wire to pressing in of the wire into the wheel. The paintbrush was more of a human made process. We then went straight to Conservas Centauro, which was my company. We had a tour from one of the owners and he was great. Another engineering based company but this one was much larger. Something that surprised me was when I asked how much tomato paste they produce in a year, he said 220,000 drums that were all close to 50 gallons. That is so much paste! We than had some more empanadas. This cultural difference is something I am a fan of. I am getting a little bored of them since Ive had them, I think, 4 times so far. We then had our traditional Chilean dance, which is the national dance, the Cueca. This was so different from our raggaeton and salsa classes. We had to use a handkerchief and twirl it above our heads. It was slow moving but complicated. Our day has come to a near end and I am looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow since we don’t have to be ready to leave until 1:45.

Day 9: Presentation, Lecture and Soccer

We played soccer again today with Chileans. This is something that I really enjoy. To start the day we went to the university for the last time of the trip. The University of Fredrico Santa Maria has been so nice to us and it’s sad to think that this was the last time we would be at this place. We did our presentations today and I thought we did better than I had planned. Our lecture was followed by some questions that had us thinking. We were asked about the economics of Conservas Centauro. This was followed by a question and answer portion about Chile in general. I have learned so much about the culture this trip. I could see myself having another extended stay there. The people are friendly, the dogs on the street are friendly, and even better the people are accepting when I am trying to speak to them in their native language. We then had a short break that was taken up by Stefan and I getting some PizzaPizza. The best part of the day followed our lunch break. We went to a soccer field in the middle of the city. There were locals playing and we picked a couple of them up to play with us. These were some authentic Chileans and lived up to the stereotypes being that they were very good at the sport they have grown up with. We are now back at our room and I am about to take a much needed nap! I am so sore from a combination of soccer for the last two days and surfing. I am also pretty much sleep deprived and can tell I’m starting to slow down. This is all completely worth it! These two weeks have been great so far and I expect the next few days to maintain this path.

Day 8: Free Day

Today was a great day. As much as I wanted to sleep for 20 straight hours, I woke up early to go surfing about thirty minutes away from our hotel. This was a great decision to not waste my free day. On the way there we actually had one of USM’s students drive us but there wasn’t enough room in the truck so Nick and I sat in the bed of a truck going down the highway at like 50 mph. This is definitely something that I will remember for a while and it is so crazy how lenient they are in Chile. We coasted down the beach in a truck eating McDonalds and getting looked at by about every car that passed by. This would not have been okay if we were in the US. We got to the beach we wanted to and were given some wetsuits. They are so hard to get on but we needed them badly considering it is the end of fall in Chile. Our two instructors spoke very little English but it was still not hard to understand them. We had our short lesson and then we hopped into the water. After a little, I could not feel my feet anymore so I was used to the water, but they were probably just numb. I have surfed once before but not for a while so it took me a while to get back into things. By the end, my success rate for standing up and riding it in got pretty high. The people that drove us left right away because one of their roommates is sick. Which means we were on our own in a foreign country and not really sure where we were. We talked to the locals for a while and they helped guide us to a bus which we eventually got on and took us to Vina del Mar. I was so surprised that we did not get lost once and actually made it back in really good time. Once we got back we went to our favorite empanadas place. We are back in Hotel America now and I am about to get ready for our formal dinner tonight! Hotel America is another story, our first door was broken and they have just assigned to a new room! I am glad we are in this hotel, it is definitely adding to my experience. Chile has been great so far.

Day 7: Spa Day

When I heard we were going to a spa, I would of never thought it would be nearly as nice as it was. There were many pools, complementary food and beverages, and even a soccer field that we got to use. We started our day there with a little bit of lunch when we arrived. Since we are in Chile, we were fed some empanadas, which I was not a huge fan of. The empanadas I get near the hotel I enjoy much more. But my day was only going to get better. We than decided to play some 5v5 soccer. This was one of the most fun things on the trip so far. We split up into three teams: two from pitt plus three and one with the Chilean students. Games were to two goals and I ended up playing around eight games. In the beginning we always lost our games but out of the last four games, my team won two and I even scored a couple of goals. The Chileans were just so tired from winning and staying on that I am pretty sure they let us win though. This was a sport that they grew up with and it was very fun to play this with them since it is such a huge part of their culture. I can see why they are so passionate about it too, all it takes is a ball and a few sticks and you can get a full game going. We were than given time before we ate to do whatever we want in the spa. I ended up just lying down for a while until we were invited in to eat. The food was buffet style and was so good. We also drank Pisco sours which is an alcohol that is native to Chile and very popular here. They say it tastes close to whisky. The Chileans like to mix it with everything: cola, sprite, lemon juice, you name it. After dinner a couple of American and Chilean students and I went to the shop to buy a swim cap so that we could go swimming in the indoor pool. The outdoor pools were freezing but I jumped into one but had to get out since I never got used to it. After we left the spa we went right to one of the professors house where he gave us Cristals and mini hot dogs. They were great and this was a great time bonding with the other students from both universities. This was a great, great day.