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!