And So It Ends...

I have done a lot of things in my life, but riding a horse was never one of them. It's not that I never would have like to try, I just never had the opportunity or any real strong desire. That is, until Thursday. Our last big activity of the trip was to go to a local stables and take around a three hour horse ride across the sand dunes and down the beach. I was excited but really nervous at the same time because I had no idea what to expect and I didn't want to make a fool of myself. But once I actually got on the horse and learned how to control him, I suddenly realized that not only was it fairly easy, but it also was a whole lot of fun.

My horse did not have a name, or at least our guide could not remember when I asked him, so I christened him Diego. I don't really know why, but the name popped into my head and it just kind of fit. He was a very independent and excited horse; he always had to be at the front of the back and once he was comfortable with me on him it was extremely hard to hold him back. We started out our journey wading through a rather deep river, which was kind of nerve wracking but got the worst part over at the start. Then we set off through some shrubbery till we reached the large sand dunes. It was at this point, that we began to trot and then sped up into a full out gallop. Trotting is not so much fun, because all you do is basically get thrown up and down the entire time and it is quite a pain in the ass, literally. But galloping is one of the most exhilarating experiences, especially when you are racing off at the front of the pack, speeding across sandy plains and up and down dunes. We made our way down the flat beach where we had plenty of room to gallop some more and then crossed another, even higher river to make our way back to the campsite for a barbecue. The whole trip was so much fun, and even though I am already very sore as a result it was one of my favorite activities of the trip. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and the ride was new and exciting. I definitely would like to ride horses again in the future, especially if I can take as great a trail as the one we rode.

After horse back riding, I passed out for a two hour nap, which was excellent, and then we went out for our final, farewell group dinner. Almost all of our Santa Maria friends showed up and we got to eat and talk with them. We were even given a special gift: a Santa Maria sweatshirt with the Pitt logo and industrial engineering logos on it. It looks awesome and I was really happy I have something to remember them by.

My Boy Diego

I am going to miss them all so much, and this country even more. As I sit here writing this, I am only about three hours away from starting off on the journey to get back home. While I think I am ready to get some rest and see everyone back home, I really love all the things we have done and people we have met in Chile. I hope I can stay in touch with them and maybe even come back to visit them all the future... Until then, I want to thank everyone at the University of Santa Maria and all our friends who welcomed us in to their homes with open arms. We love you and we will miss you. And if you ever come stop by the University of Pittsburgh, we will be glad to do the same for you.

Adios Chile!!! I will be back home manana!

Over and Out.

Pablo, Alejandro, and One Really Big Pool

I never knew much about Pablo Neruda besides the fact that he was some random Chilean poet. But after visiting his house on Tuesday, I've since discovered that he is actually a really cool guy. A little eccentric maybe, but he put so much work into his vast collections. Neruda built his own house in Isla Negra, one of the three he had during his lifetime. All of them were by the sea because Neruda was an agnostic who believed that the ocean was the source of all life and so he wanted to salute in his architecture and his decorations. His house in Isla Negra was modeled after the inside of a ship, with vary narrow doors and wooden floors. He kept building on to the house room by room as his collection grew, ending up with a house that was long and winding and perfect for a museum. I really loved seeing all the sea related things he had collected, from figureheads to ships in a bottle to shells. He even had an actual narwhal tusk!

After we took the tour of Neruda's house and explored the surrounding area and beach we grabbed some lunch at the restaurant in the museum and stopped by some little shops near it. Then we got back on the bus to head for home, but took a last minute detour to San Alfonso del Mar Resort where we saw the largest swimming pool in the entire world. And believe me, it is huge! Over 1,000 yards long, covering more than 20 acres and 115 feet deep at its lowest, the pool is like an ocean in its own right. They supposedly built it because the ocean right near the resort is unswimmable because of the crazy currents that pull bathers out into the sea. It was a great story to say I had seen it but it would have been better if I could have swam in it.

On Wednesday we had another relaxing day with little formal activities to go to. We had the morning off so a few of us wandered more around Vina del Mar to finish up our gift shopping. Then got a group lunch and sadly had to say goodbye to Mimo, who is leaving for New York for a week. We all went down to the beach since it was so nice out and some of the Chilean students organized some fun beach games. We played tug of war, a sack race, and some awkward "kinky" balloon games. Then we just relaxed, played some volleyball, and sat on the beach entertaining a friendly dog who we named Alejandro. He would run around jumping and chasing sand we threw and he even stole our soccer ball and almost ran off with it once.

It was great to get the chance to relax on the beach and enjoy the good weather. I still don't understand why the Chileans bundle up so much in this weather. I know this is getting to be winter for them, but they have no idea what a true Pittsburgh winter feels like. Our last activity of Wednesday was to go our last salsa class at the University of Santa Maria. I was kind of disappointed we never got to have a reggaeton class, but the salsa was fun once we got into it again and feel like I have gotten a lot better over our four lessons.

I cannot believe we only have two days left here. All the lack of sleep and constant bustle is starting to catch up to me I think, but I still am not ready to go home. Nevertheless, I am just going to enjoy and relish all the rest of the time we have here. Today we are going horse back riding, so that in and of itself will be an adventure. Check back for updates on the dwindling days we have left!

Journey to the Capital City

The entire country of Chile has about 17 million people in it. Our hometown of Vina del Mar and its next door neighbor Valparaiso each hold a little under 300,000. In comparison, the capital city of Santiago, where we went today, houses a whopping 7 million people. This was immediately apparent as soon as we arrived. The place was packed, with people walking everywhere, clogging the streets. It really was a shock after the relatively quiet Vina. However, I actually really liked it and I think the large amount of people just added to the excitement and bustle of the city.

The first place we went to was our last company visit, The Bolsa Commercial (Stock Exchange) of Santiago. This is the biggest stock exchange in Chile and helps enable stock and derivative exchanges for most of the largest companies in the country. Though I am not very interested in business and stock trading, I did find their presentation very interesting and it helped explain some of the things that have always confused me about stocks and bonds. We also got to see the trading floor, which is practically deserted today thanks to the upgraded technology allowing individuals, corporations and brokers to simply work and trade online. Nevertheless, the room was really cool and gave me a sense of what trading stocks used to be like.

We got lunch at a fish market, which was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. And believe me, that is high praise from a guy like me. They just kept bringing us out food: clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops, fish, more fish, and even more fish. It was all so delicious and I pushed through to eat it all even though I was starting to get full. The people were really nice too and we had three guitar players serenade us for a good part of our meal.

so much fish!!!

In the afternoon we took a lift up to the top of one of Santiago's hills where we were able to get great shots of the entire city and the Andes to the west. The scene was just perfectly picturesque, I probably could have sat up there on the wall overlooking the city for hours. There was also a big statue of the Virgin Mary and a church dedicated to her honor which was kind of cool to look at. It was a really cool area and we got to spend a good amount of time wandering around and finding different views of the city. On our way back down I discovered the first water fountain I have seen here in Chile, which I found kind of exciting. We also noticed how many of the people up there with us spoke English, which was kind of weird after not having heard English conversations for the last week. We talked to some Australians who were exploring all of South America, and quite enjoyed their thick accents from down under.

After we went back down the lift, we explored a small outdoor marketplace and bought some fruit frozen yogurt, which was really good too. I am just so impressed by how good the food has been here. We then reboarded the bus to go home and this time I managed to stay awake for the whole time. Someone decided to put Mamma Mia on, and though I didn't want to watch it at all, I ended up turning up my music really loud to drown it out and then just reading the Spanish subtitles anyway. I actually got most of the gist of the movie, which at least made me happy that I am beginning to understand Spanish. Not so much happy that I technically watched Mamma Mia though... The entire day was great though, and I really loved the contrast from Vina and Valpo that we got from Santiago. As one of our guides pointed out, Vina is a great, beautiful place to live, but Santiago is the center of everything and therefore the place to be and work in Chile.

You Are Now Free to Move About the Country...

After rushing around seemingly non stop for five straight days, it was definitely a nice change of pace to have a free weekend to ourselves, with no obligations and unlimited possibilities to explore. I already feel like I am honorary Chilean because of how we have been welcomed into the community, and even though we stand out like a sore thumb it seems like we aren't ordinary tourists any more. As such we decided not to do any real touristy sightseeing but rather wandered around our home city of Vina del Mar and got a taste of real Chilean culture. We met up with Mimo, who took out to lunch where we tried some terremotos (earthquakes), which is strong Chilean drink with pineapple ice cream. After lunch we were able to do some shopping at the local markets, which was great since I needed to get some gifts and souvenirs for myself.

The beautiful, bustling city of Vina del Mar

As the sun began to set, I and a couple of my friends made the probably ill advised decision to go plunge into the ice cold, winter water. However, I had never been in the Pacific Ocean before so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was absolutely freezing and dirty, but it was a great adrenaline rush and now I have a good story to tell. There are several videos to back up my story too. One thing that we saw was the sunset on the beach, which I realized I have never seen before since I've always lived on the east coast. I feel like I might have seen it in Europe at some point, but I don't remember it, so I'm counting this sunset as my very first. That night, we went over to our guide and friend Camilo's apartment and hung out with a bunch of his friends on the roof. We celebrated two birthdays, one Chilean and one of ours, and I met a lot of new Chilean friends who laughed at my attempts at Spanish and showed me some really crazy and fun Chilean party activities.

Sunset on the beach

On Sunday we really took a day off to relax and recover. We went out at 1:00 to get something to eat and watch the Chilean soccer game at a local Taco Bar. Chile lost to Mexico 1-0, even with all of us wearing our knock off Chile jerseys. The atmosphere was not as great as I anticipated, but we were at a less popular place and I think that most of the people were probably watching the game at their homes instead of going out since it was in the early afternoon.

After the game, we basically just relaxed for the rest of the day. I caught up on glee and updated my journals. We got dinner at a delicious Italian place and finished the night off with some quality gelato. The food has been tremendous all throughout the trip, but then again, I am comparing to Market Central food, which was my fine dining all year at school. Though we did not take advantage of the free day to see some more exciting places, I think we all needed a day to just rest after the long week we just had and the busy week we still have left to come.

Some true Chilean gelato?

The more and more I stay here, the more attached I feel to this country and its fantastic people and traditions. I feel like I am becoming one of them and I really wish we could stay longer than two weeks. I also really like and get along with all the other Pitt students on the trip. We really lucked out and got a great group of people who are all eager to explore and experience everything that Chile has to offer.

Until next time.... adios!

A Few Visuals...

I forgot to add pictures to my last post. So here are some sights I have been seeing...

So much wine...

The winery was really nice

It was literally impossible to get the whole plane in one picture

A smaller plane... They were doing operational testing on this one

The cockpit of the plane... sooo many controls

Foosball!!!

The place was gorgeous... the weather kinda sucked though

This cool coin tossing game... kinda like cornhole. I got in the frog on my first try!

So Much to See, So Little Time

I feel like I have been so incredibly busy over the past few days I don't have time to take a deep breath, never mind recall and write out all of my incredible experiences. Nevertheless, I am taking a few minutes out of my day to update anyone who is actually still reading about my foreign adventures. You're very welcome.

On Thursday we had another pretty jam packed day. First, we visited Vino Indomita, a Chilean winery. I had never been to anything like that before and I was amazed at how my time, effort and precise care it takes just to come up with wines we know and love. If they don't check on the fermenting process and keep it within a 5 degree temperature range, all their hard work is wasted. I find it incredible that they can taste such intricacies in each different wine. This was extremely evident when we got to the wine tasting. Our guide was telling how each wine should smell and she was giving us specific details about the flavors and aromas that they should possess, like the white wine that smelled like pineapple or the red wine that had a smoky flavor. I felt like I noticed a few of those when she mentioned them, but I guess I just don't have a very perceptive or refined palate. I really did like learning how to go about tasting a wine: first you look at it in the light, then you take your first smell, then you swill it around for a while, then take your second smell because it has opened up more, and then finally taste it, making sure to swish it around a little to get your mouth used to the acidity. I think the whole process is a bit over the top, especially if I'm just having wine casually, but it is something I'm glad I know how to do now.

After the winery, we headed to the LAN Airlines hangar. This was the visit I was looking forward to the most, because I am doing my group project on the company and I have always wanted to see an airplane hangar. The planes were absolutely huge once we got close up, it took me like three different shots just to take a picture of the entire length. I really liked seeing how they were doing checks and repairs on the fuselage, wings and engines because I got to see some of the inner workings of the plane which was really cool. We also got to go on one of the planes they were doing an operational check on and I was able to go in the cockpit and check out the first class seats. Let's just say I definitely could get used to sitting in a section where the seat fully reclines to a bed. And on top of all that, our guide gave us, you guessed it, more free stuff! Overall, it was one of my favorite visits so far just because of how rare it is to see all the things were were allowed to observe and also because of all the engineering concepts that were on display.

Thursday night ended with a barbecue at Werner's house. Werner is the head of the industrial engineering department at Santa Maria and runs this program. The food was great and we got some impromptu dancing lessons where we learned so more modern, popular Chilean dances.

We finally got a chance to slow down a little bit on Friday when we went to the Rosa Agustina Resort and Spa out in the countryside. The place was incredible, there were at least four pools, a big dining hall, games to play, and free food and drinks all day long. Unfortunately, it rained the entire day. But we didn't let that stop us from having a good time. Finally, at long last, we got to play soccer. I was really excited to test out my skills with the Chileans, even though I am really rusty and out of shape, having not played any kind of competitive soccer since last summer. It was loads of fun though, and even though the rain made the basketball like court very slippery I loved getting to run around for once. I scored a couple goals, so I was happy. We also got the chance to really talk and interact with the Chilean students. I really enjoyed learning about their lives and I hope we can continue to become good friends as the trip goes on. It really is amazing that we really are very alike even though we live on opposite ends of the globe.

I can't believe that we have been here for almost a week already. I feel like I've been here forever, but at the same time it seems to have flown by. And we still have a whole other week to go yet. Which is probably a good thing because I don't think that I am quite ready to come home yet :D

Here's the 5-1-1

If you didn't know already, I am most definitely not a morning person. I enjoy sleeping in and have a lot of trouble dragging myself out of bed before 10 or 11 on most mornings. So you can imagine my joy at having to get up at 6:45 on Wednesday Morning so we could set off on the bus by 8. It also didn't help that I made the ill advised decision to stay up til about 2 in the morning the day before. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out of bed and caught a little extra sleep on the bus as we headed off for our first company visits.

Our first visit was at Codelco, the copper smelter. We had to get attired in all sorts of safety gear: steel toe boots, helmet, goggles, neon orange vests, and gas masks just in case. It all looked rather ridiculous but i guess it was probably the smart way to go since the factory did appear very dangerous once we got inside. We learned about all of the processes the copper goes through to be refined and I was surprised by the complexity of it all. I was actually able to put some of the knowledge I obtained in my chem class to understand the electrolytic refining process. Who knew something I learned in a class would ever actually come in useful? We also got an earful of safety tips and pointers for how to behave in the smelter and learned the 5-1-1 code: use your five senses, take care of yourself, and focus on the activity. Apparently grades are given out in numbers so if we followed the safety instructions they would add up to 7, which i guess means we get an A! Inside, the smelter was actually really cool and we got to see a lot of the processes at work, like the molten copper being poured out after going through one of the refining process as you can see above. I was really impressed with the whole process and I found the engineering side of it very interesting.

Next, we moved on to Centauro, a canning company that makes and packages various goods, from tomato sauce to soup to canned peaches. Once again, I was not sure what to expect but I really liked the whole tour, even if we had to wear funky hair nets the whole time. The manager was really nice and helpful and it was really cool to see exactly how the food was packaged. And we got a free can of soup and a package of tomato sauce! I have to say, I really love free stuff.

Our long day continued with a return to the University of Santa Maria and another lecture taught by Mimo. This one dealt with Chilean culture, from arts to tourist sites to cultural differences. I really like hearing about the latter because I actually felt like my viewpoints and attitudes towards life correspond more with the Chilean way of thinking than the American way which I found very interesting. We also got to watch some fun soccer and food videos and Mimo surprised us with empanadas to eat while we watched. Again, free stuff is awesome.

The day ended with one final salsa class, where we not only danced with partners but were mixed in with Chilean students as well. It was interesting to say the least. I feel like I did pretty good for never taking a dance class before in my life. Who knows, maybe I'll even take a few more classes in the future... Overall, the day was long but I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next company visits and our upcoming free weekend. More to come soon!