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.

Day 6: Vina, Lunch, Beach, Pablo's House

The days are starting to get lighter and lighter. After today, we are down to 2 more company visits and only one more lecture. We got an extra hour of sleep tonight and I took full advantage of it. I probably slept for 6 hours instead of 5. I am starting to get used to most of the Chilean customs. I have popularized once with some of the other plus three students. Two of my friends are packing bread everyday now in order to have their small meal at around five pm. This custom is something I will probably bring back since I am always hungry between lunch and dinner. I could just picture a little sandwich to eat in between. Stray dogs on the streets seem to be normal for me as of now. Most importantly though I am starting to understand more of the language and sometimes even help translate for some of my friends. The company visit today was with Vina Indomica, a vineyard in the Casablanca region. The tour was short but sweet. We saw the production process and the aging process. The tour concluded with a wine tasting with instructions on how to properly asses a wine. This was probably my favorite visit so far. We then hopped on the bus for an hour long ride to isla negra for lunch and a tour of one of Pablo Nueradas house. The lunch had a beautiful view! It was a typical lunch for Chile considering it took around two hours from start to finish. Our tour was not assigned until 4 pm so we had a little over an hour of time to kill. We walked to the beach that the restaurant overlooked. It was truly beautiful, I walked all over the rocks and tried to keep climbing and ended up falling shin deep into water. Worth it though, it was a great experience. The tour we then went to was completely in Spanish! I had two strong Spanish speakers in my group so they helped me out for some words that I didn’t know, but I am still surprised at how much I knew considering I haven’t taken a language class since my junior year of high school. I am now on the bus back to our hotel where I plan to get empanadas, groceries, and rest up. Once again, the Chilean students will be taking us out again.

Day 5: Lecture, Mushrooms, Dance

Today included going to a lecture about Chilean culture and music, going to a mushroom farm, and our final dance class of the trip. This was another early morning where I stocked up on bread to eat throughout the day. We took the city bus into the university again. This is becoming routine for me which is great considering the first day on the city bus was something that kind of scared me about the city. Lecture today was interesting! We got to watch some Chilean ads and it was cool to see the difference between how the two cultures and how they try to portray their product to the public. One of the main difference is that family is the most important thing in the Chilean culture. Pretty much every ad we saw was showing an entire family using the product and enjoying each other’s time. Number two I believe would be football. They love soccer here as we could tell from the Everton game we went to. They are a division two team. In America, a minor league team has about a thousand fans and not many passionate. The game we went to earlier in the week had an entire section of probably close to 1,000 and they were jumping and singing the entire time. The Mushroom factory was our longest visit so far. Once we got to the place, there was an overwhelming smell from all of the mulch and manure and it almost caused a gag reaction. We were given a tour by one of the owners so that was really nice. I saw the entire process from making the mulch to growing the mushrooms to packaging the mushrooms and then how they ship it. Tonight was our last dance class this week. It was actually a hard workout! Our instructor had us moving up and down the college floor for an hour. These dance classes are much more fun than I thought they would be. I am hoping to use what Ive learned tonight when the Chilean students take us out to the casino for a discoteca. I feel like even after these four dance classes I still look silly trying to dance though! It is all good fun though. So far, I am really happy with my trip to Chile. This is us trying to show the dance we learned!

Day 4: Lecture, LAN, Salsa

Yesterday I was very, very busy. I ended up waking up at seven-fifteen and did not go to bed until a little bit after four am. I was up for close to 24 hours! The day started with my standard breakfast bread and I also grabbed some bread for an on-bus once meal, which is a small meal that is common for Chileans to eat around five PM. It is normally a piece of bread with cheese or meat to hold someone over until dinner. After taking the crazy city bus to the university, we had a lecture on the culture of Chile. I am pretty sure that the bus driver accelerates during turns just to scare the customers. I enjoyed this lecture more than the first and it was very interactive. The lecture ended and we grabbed lunch in the cafeteria with all of the students from the university. I still haven’t had a conversation with a random student, but that is something that I would like to try in the next couple of days or so. We then bussed to LAN airlines and I changed into the steel-toed boots. The person who gave the tour is an engineer that maintains the planes when they come into the hangar for inspection. He was very knowledgeable and brought up some good points. Basically, if you want to work internationally anywhere in Latin America it is a necessity to be bilingual. This has got me thinking that learning a completely new language is something that will probably be very beneficial. Salsa was next on the list and this was the intermediate level of the class. There was a lot of stepping on other peoples feet. Salsa is something that I have enjoyed so far and I am looking forward to using my new found skills at a club. To finish the day we went to a pub. I am still not used to being of age to do almost anything. I have not even been asked for my ID once. We got a lot of funny looks from the natives, but it was fun to hangout with the rest of my Plus3 students as well as students from USM.

Day 3: A visit to the capital of Chile

Today started with an early breakfast followed by an hour and a half bus ride into the capital of the country, Santiago. This bus ride consisted of me sleeping the entire time since last night I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:30. Something I have noticed is that the Chileans stay up so late even when they go out to bars or clubs. I can tell already that once I hit my bed at home I will sleep for probably two straight days. We started our day at the Chilean stock exchange. We received a power point presentation followed by a question and answer section. The power point of the stock exchange was very informative and provided a good overview of basic supply and demand and how it affects money instruments. Since I am a first year student I still am not that familiar with these money instruments, but I definitely learned a lot. One of the main topics of discussion was the MILA which is the trade agreement between Columbia, Chile, and Peru. We then had a bus/walking tour of the city. The main stops was the “white house” of Chile and a very large cathedral that I forget the name of. Both were very nice, but we could only view the capital but it still was a sight to see. We went on an incline that was very, very steep and caused a couple of the students a little bit of anxiety. Something that I haven’t mentioned yet that is a big factor is the fact that there are stray dogs on almost every street you walk on. This is just a very big cultural difference that I have noticed. I actually like the dogs though. They give me some friendship for the quick ten minutes I get to walk with them. After we left the city we drove straight to the university and had our first reggaeton lesson. This was non-stop moving for an hour. I am now back at the room after a dinner with a majority of the other students and could not be more tired. I have to wake up in about 6 hours so I will update tomorrow!

Day 2: Our first look at the University

Today was a good day. It started off at 7:30 am with a traditional Chilean breakfast. I had a hard bread circle with jam and it was surprisingly good. After realizing that lunch does not start until after 1 pm I am going to have to eat way more than one piece of bread to hold me over. We started our actual day with a tour of the university of 6,000 students or as I am getting used to 6.000 students. The period and comma our switched in pretty much every country but the United States. The tour was a nice one and I definitely noticed some difference between the two countries. The Chilean university, or as they call it the U or Uni, is completely closed in by a fence just like most other Chilean buildings that I’ve seen in Vina Del Mar. The university was very nice! After we had our tour we had our lunch with the students. This was an experience that was different from most lunches I have had before. It was so packed and I was forced to sit with only one friend to sit next to many students native to the university. Conversations in Spanish were all around us and I felt like my friend and I were out of place. It was fun however, there was a couple that were French kissing next to us and this was seen as normal to the population of Chile. We then had our first salsa class. This was great and awkward at the same time. This started with a solo portion and then the couples portion felt much more natural to me. It was very fun, but I am still sure that I am not a very good dancer. For the first time, I went to a bar where I was able to drink which is completely different from anything that I have done before. Karaoke was very fun and this was a good time to meet some of the other Chilean students. There is a video of some of us singing the Backstreet Boys, but I do not have the courage to post that up here. Sorry! Another good day in Chile and I am looking forward to a tour of Santiago tomorrow.

Day 1: Arrival

After leaving the University of Pittsburgh at 12 pm yesterday, we finally arrived in Santiago, Chile. Our journey began with taking Pittsburgh’s 28X to the airport. We flew straight to Miami and had a three hour layover where we went to a group lunch at TGI Fridays. Knowing we were going to be on a flight for eight hours I stuffed myself! The food was so good and this was one of our first bonding experiences as an entire group. I could tell I was really going to enjoy myself in Chile. This dinner took around two hours which was perfect because as we finished and walked back to our gate the plane was getting ready to board. Fast forward eight hours of me sleeping and I wake up to a breakfast on my tray table and the pilot saying we will be landing in 25 minutes. Walking off the plane it hits me that I am no longer the native. The first thing we have to go through is immigration and that was an experience in itself. Chile only accepts perfectly crisp and clean bills and this is something close to none of us had. A simple process was drawn out greatly due to everybody switching up bills with everybody else. I pass through and while getting my bag we saw dogs walking around by themselves. These were the most well trained dogs I have seen in my life. I was so surprised that they just let the dogs do the job of bomb security that in America also takes a policeman to walk around then with. As weird as it sounds, another thing I noticed different about Chile was the toilets had a trash can next to it. After finally translating the sign on the stall, I realized I had to throw out the toilet paper in the garbage. This is something that I would have to get used to soon unless I wanted to clog the toilets. We took out our first pesos and hopped on the bus for a two hour ride. I went to the casino to check it out. It seemed fairly normal. Something that was different from us is that they do not card pretty much at all. After talking to our Chilean student counter-part he agreed. Dinner was at a tiki bar and I tried to get an authentic dish. I got the Lomo a lo pobre which is a steak with a fried egg on top. In my opinion this was not the greatest of meals. My friend and I went back to the Casino to spend the rest of our free evening. After being up 80000 pesos, I got too greedy and tried to chase losses and ended up losing close to $30. All in all a fun night however and I am ready to head to bed to wake up for a 7:30 breakfast and 8:30 bus ride into the university to get a tour.

Anticipation

Today is May 5th. To some, this is Cinco De Mayo and there is a huge celebration. For me, there is a celebration, but for another reason. Today is the day that I leave for the country of Chile. This trip is going to have so many firsts for me! This is the first time I have ever studied abroad and this is the first time that I have traveled to the continent of South America. As an 18 year old college student of the United States, I hope to be treated as, and act as, an 18 year old Chilean college student. I do not want any special treatment and would like to live the next few weeks as any standard Chilean university student would. To be fully involved in something means a lot to me and this is the way that I would learn the most about a completely different culture than ours. Speaking of different cultures, something that is different down south is that they are very personal and get close to others while talking and even in their greetings. Even though at some points I can be an awkward person, I hope this will help me grow as an individual and make me feel more comfortable in group and even one-on-one settings. Another thing I find interesting is that there is no time difference. If I sleep on the entire plane flight I should wake up feeling completely refreshed and ready to start the day. This is something that I have never done before in traveling due to the jet-lag. Something that I am going to miss is my family and my friends, but meeting new people for a couple of weeks should be a nice change of pace. So far, all of my fellow plus3 members seem to be very nice and I have connected with a few of them. All in all, I am very excited for this trip and can't wait to study abroad in the South America country of Chile!

Here is the first picture! It is me at the airport checking my computer.

Welcome to Aaron Markowitz's Blog

Welcome! My name is Aaron Markowitz and I will be traveling abroad to Chile from May 5th, 2012 until May 19th, 2012. This will be a place that anyone can read about my experiences outside of the United States. I plan to talk about culture, politics, the university, and just what the average day consists of abroad. Keep posted for updates and I will start my daily updates a day before I get on my long, long flight. Enjoy!