Day 12: Heading Home =(

Well, Plus3 Chile 2012 has sadly come to an end. Thursday me and a few others woke up and got our last Chilean breakfast. I finally got my over-seas hot chocolate to fuel my already ridiculous addiction to it. Their hot chocolate is much thicker and chocolate-y in case you were curious. At noon we went back to Tiki Taco to make the restaurant our first and last meal in Chile.It was nice to look back at two weeks ago when we barely knew each other to now, where we know each other so well. Other than that, it was a lot of traveling to airports, standing in airports and being on planes. It took about 28 hours from when I got on the bus to go to Santiago to when I arrived at my house. Overall a long day, but I wouldn't change anything because it meant more time spent with my friends. I probably won't be able to see anyone over the summer because we live so far apart, but I look forward to our reunion at Pitt!

International Hot Chocolate

Day 11: HORSES!!!

By far the best day of the trip and possibly ever. We rode horses for 3 hours. But we didn't just ride horses-- we rode horses EVERYWHERE: on the beach, on the sand dunes, in the woods, etc. I used to ride horses when I was little so I was very excited to do it again but I was mildly nervous. We all had an amazing time. Everything was sooo pretty. I tried taking a few pictures, but cameras wouldn't do it justice. From the beach we could see the rest of the city in the background, and on the sand dunes it was legitimately just windswept sand dunes. To be perfectly honest, if I saw everything in a picture or TV I would have thought it was Photoshopped. For the first 2 hours we mainly walked a bit and trotted. I remembered how to post/ ride somewhat correctly which was nice. Basically, it means my butt hurts a little less than most people's right now. For the last hour, we turned around and went back on the beach. Some of that time we got to gallop. That was amazing. I was a little nervous because I last time I went that fast it was by accident when a horse just sped off. The instructor told me the horse wanted to be with his friend, as if that was comforting that I almost fell of a galloping horse. Either way, it was sooo much fun to do that, no matter how nervous I might have been. I personally love the wind in my face for some weird reason and galloping on the beach did exactly that. When we got back to the barn we had a delicious lunch. They grilled us pork and steak and lots of other rices and salads. We literally ate like kings. We were sitting around the fire and I mentioned that it was the perfect time for a s'more and the women who hosted us went inside and grabbed some marshmallows! She had never heard of a s'more before and when we explained it she didn't seem to like the idea. Oh well, more for us =) We grabbed some oreo-type cookies and had a few make-shift s'mores to make the day complete. We hung around for a while, looked at the animals on the farm, and enjoyed our last full day in Chile. For dinner we went out to a pizza place (fancy pizza, not regular) with a lot of the Chilean students for one last hoorah. Everything was very delicious and I'm glad we were able to say goodbye to the Chilean students. We head home tomorrow and I'm so sad to leave everything and everyone.

Day 10: Pastries and Paintball

The tough Team Rojo

Today we were able to experience more of Vina del Mar. A small group of us woke up a little early and walked around and looked for breakfast. We stopped at a small pastry and bread shop and got delicious fresh bread and other deserts. My pastry was very similar to a honey cake, and was very tasty, although huge. After that we walked around and went into another little market-type tent area to look at all the other things they had. More scarves and jewelry and souvenirs. I'm planning on what else I need to get people, now that we have another place to go. Completely by accident, we ran into the rest of our group as we were walking to the beach. We all enjoyed the warmer weather and ocean and took pictures all together. After that we headed back and prepared for paintball. I had never played paintball but I thought it might be fun. We all had a good time, although the other team won all of the games. I certainly have to work on my aim, but everyone else was struggling so it was more of a free-for-all. But hey, randomness is also fun. After paintball we came back, cleaned off the paint and some of us went for Chinese food. We wanted to see how different Chilean Chinese food was from United States east coast Chinese food. Our waiter was from the United States so he helped us with the menu. It turns out their Chinese food is a bit different; they didn't have General Tso's chicken or even sweet and sour chicken. I got a dish the waiter liked the best and he said was close to sweet and sour chicken, but with pineapples. It was delicious. Tomorrow is our last day and we finally get to ride horses on the beach! I can't wait!!!

Day 9: Hardware and Tomatoes and Cueca!

We had a super busy day today. First we went to visit Hela, a hardware company. We got a tour of the plant and the different stages to make paintbrushes and other equipment. I used to work at a hardware store and saw all of those items, although not Hela's, on a regular basis so it was cool to see them being produced. I hadn't realized that there are so many steps to produce one paintbrush. After Hela we drove to Centauro, a canned food company. We talked to the owner of Centauro and he discussed all of their products, and how they even change the name of their brand to seem more Italian to appeal to that business in the US. He let us taste their canned peaches and tomato paste. I thought the peaches were so good, and even better than the ones we have at home. The owner mentioned that their peaches are very popular and they don't have any preservatives or much additives so that may be why they tasted so good. Centauro just started production on squashes/pumpkins for the first time. The owner seemed very excited that they were venturing into this line. He let us have a taste of the pumpkin puree and it was actually really good. We stopped for a late lunch of empanadas and then had cueca lessons (we were very Chilean today with both). Cueca is Chile's national dance and our instructors came with the "costumes" for it. Cueca is much slower than the other dances we learned so that made it a bit difficult, although it was mostly walking around in circles while the men "wooed" the woman. It was cool to try the national dance because salsa and reggueton are both Latin American dances so we could have learned them anywhere. That was all for today. Its amazing how we've been ending early the past few days but still doing so much.

Day 8: Soccer and lectures

We had an easier day. We had our final lecture at USM today and presented our companies to Jamie. We had a lot to discuss because we had visited Bosques del Mauco and got much more information than the website gave us. After presentations and our final questions to Jamie, we had our last lunch at the university and headed back to the hotel for a quick break before we played more soccer. It was weird for me to finally play this time because I haven't played soccer in three years, and I definitely missed playing it. We split the games up by guys and girls so us girls had a lot of fun joking around and playing while the guys took it seriously playing with Chileans again. It was a close game and we all took a few tumbles from either the turf or the interesting contact moments we had. After soccer we went shopping some more. Many people hadn't been at the mall yet and people wanted to look around and even try to get some of the types of the clothes the Chileans wear. They are always dressed up pretty well, and a couple of the girls wanted to get their shoes and jackets and such. Once the mall got a little too American for us, we went back to the tent outside too look at the hand made things again. We ran into a few girls that went to school in Arkansas and were studying abroad for 3 month. Their classes were actually in the hotel they were staying at and their teacher just taught from there. I personally would rather actually going to a university for classes, especially since they were Spanish majors and well versed in Spanish. Either way the experience would be amazing. I can't believe this trip is almost over. I keep realizing that we leave in a few days, especially since we had our last lecture today.

Day 7: Free Day!

Today was a free day. I finally caught up on sleep (yay!) and ventured out for breakfast. We walked around the area by our hotel looking at all of the stores and restaurants. We realized how weird it was to see the people around the town in daylight because we are usually only in Vina del Mar at night. We found a little cafe, and I finally had some hot chocolate! My trip is now complete because I've now fueled my hot chocolate addiction internationally! It was a bit interesting because they kept coming over because they didn't have enough food. We ended up having 5 sandwiches for 6 people. Oops. After eating we walked around and aimed for the mall. There were many tents out selling things for Mother's Day. I bought some thing for my mom and dad, and some souvenirs for myself. We finally got to the mall. Its the biggest mall I've ever seen. We left pretty quickly because it was more American stores which we could have gone to when we go home. We dropped our stuff off back at the hotel and went for a walk by the beach. The beach was so nice and we took so many pictures. The Chileans thought we were entertaining posing for pictures by the freezing water. There were more stores so we decided to stop and look around again. Many of the stores were up because it was a Sunday which is very family-oriented and because it was Mother's Day. We headed back and got dressed up for dinner. Dinner was at this nice restaurant that was right along the shore. It was pretty funny when we realized we were eating there because we actually noticed how nice the restaurant was when we walked by it a few short hours ago.  Tierra de Fuego was so good. I got the house filet and it was muy delicioso! We all had a great time and head back for the night. Our last lecture is tomorrow and our last time at USM. This trip is going by so quickly I can't believe it. 

Day 6: SPA!

Today was so much fun. We got to sleep in (always a plus) and then went to the Spa. It was more like a resort than a spa, but it doesn't matter what you would call it, it was so pretty. There were palm trees and pools everywhere. First, we played soccer against the Chilean students. I contributed by staying off the soccer court, which I think was quite helpful. I think we held our own for Americans, although the beat us in all but one of the games. We played a lot of Foosball and played games with the DJ. Some brave people decided to go swimming in the freezing cold water. I was jealous at first because the pool was so nice and it was pretty warm, but their shivering reminded me how terrible of an idea it was. Lunch was the most delicious thing ever. Any time I turned around I saw something else I wish I had on my plate. We sang Happy Birthday to Abby and Allison and embarrassed them a bit. After lunch we played more foosball and ping pong. We spent a long and interesting bus ride to go to Werner's house, where he held a barbecue for us. More good food and foosball. Tomorrow is a free day so it will be a lot of fun.

Day 5: Beautiful Views and the Beach!!!

Today was definitely one of my favorite days. This morning, we visited Vina Indomita and learned about the wine making process. It was a gorgeous day out which made standing outside looking at the vineyard and the hills in the background lovely. Personally, anytime I think about vineyards, the movie The Parent Trap comes to mind. That vineyard was supposed to be in California, so I made a mental comparison between that vineyard and the one in Chile. I noticed they grew some grapes on the hill here, and later the guide mentioned that that was for a different type of wine than those on the flat ground. My parents’ friend is an international pilot and when he and his wife come over to my house he will bring wine from the country he was last in for my parents to try. I remember hearing them discuss all of the different wines and ways they are made, so that it was cool for me to understand what they have been talking about for years. There was some wine tasting, so now I know how to properly drink wine (when I’m 21 of course) and look like a mature person for once. We drove out to another beautiful location for the rest of the day at Pablo Neruda’s house. We ate lunch at the restaurant there and sat overlooking the beach. It was so pretty and the food was so good I almost didn’t know what to concentrate on first. There was a little time between our tour time and when we finished eating so we walked around on the beach. I really wanted to find a boogie board and ride the waves because they were so big and bright blue. Then I remembered that its fall here and the water would be freezing. So it was probably a good choice that we didn’t all go swimming, even though that didn’t stop some people from getting splashed by the waves. Pablo Neruda’s house was very pretty. All of the items in his house were his personal belongings, and most of them were in their original locations. Pablo accomplished so many things, and it was obvious that he was interested in so many more things by the different types of things in his house. He had a huge seashell collection that rivals my sister’s collection; different bugs on display and drawing of them, and so much more. The guide told many odd stories about his life. She spoke in all Spanish, but I was amazed at what I was able to pick up from it. Granted, she talked soooo much slower than regular Chileans so that we could understand, but I was able to get the general idea of what she talked about in most of the rooms. We headed home earlier than usual because we didn’t have dance class. Today is one of the girls’ birthday so we’re letting her pick where we eat for dinner. Happy Birthday Allison!

Day 4: Mushrooms and more mushrooms!

We had another eventful day. Jose gave two more presentations; we continued discussing Chilean culture. Jose referred to a book written by an American giving advice as to how to do business in Chile. Family is extremely important to Chileans and it influences many aspects of life including the way business relationships work as well as television advertisements. We watched a few TV commercials and many of them brought up the importance of family and/or soccer. The commercials we saw did seem a bit different from those in the US because they were extremely family-oriented. We had a bit better luck with the food at the cafeteria for lunch today which was nice. After we ate we headed off to Bosques del Mauco, the mushroom company.  Part of the drive was along the coast and it was so pretty. I took so many pictures because the water was so much clearer than any ocean that I have ever been to. The owner at Bosques took us around the plant and talked to us about the different steps of growing mushrooms. I had researched Bosques for the group company project, and we hadn't really found a lot of information about the growing process so that was interesting. There is an entire phase just to grow the food for the mushrooms. This phase definitely contributed to the awful smell all around the plant. We were told that the smell was really bad before we went so I was expecting the worst, but most parts were not too horrific. We had our final dance lesson today with Reggaeton. I was surprised that I remembered some of the steps, and we had a good time making fools of ourselves in front of our audience.

Day 3: Airplanes and Salsa

Today was another extremely busy day. Our lecturer, Jose, used to be a s student that would guide groups like us around before he became a professor at the university. Jose discussed some aspects of Chilean culture such as art and writers as well as natural disasters. Two influential people were Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Minstral. We will be visiting one of Pablo Neruda's houses, La Isla Negra, sometime this week. He had a very interesting take on how to help Chile develop economically and won a Nobel Prize. Jose also talked to us about some social issues present in Chile today. We learned a lot about their education system and how students are protesting to change things to how they wish it would be. The protesting actually closed down USM for a little bit. I thought it was interesting to see how involved the students really are with their education because US students aren't nearly as involved. The presentation also included Chile's geography and how life and climate were so different. Now that I am in the country, it's a bit easier to grasp for some reason. I feel if we had discussed it while I was in America, I wouldn't have appreciated as much that the same country that has the driest desert is the same country that is close to Antarctica. We ate lunch in the cafeteria again and then took another bus ride to Santiago to visit LAN Airlines. Our guide, Luis, talked to us about the history of LAN, its different airplanes, and how LAN has expanded into different countries with alliances and expanding on their own. After LAN, we had our final salsa lesson. I remembered some of the steps from the last time, which was somewhat of a good sign. Some of the kids that joined our reggaeton lessons came back and learned salsa with us. Our group has more girls than guys, so when we paired up for partner dancing, I danced with one of the Chileans. He was much better than me, and made an honest attempt to help me figure this out. It was a little difficult with the language barrier to do it because he knew what the instructor said before I did but we still had a good time.

Day 2: Santiago

We went down to Santiago for our second day. First, we visited the stock market, Bolsa de Volors, with a lecture about their stock market. One thing the woman discussed was MILA, which was a trade agreement between Chile, Peru, and Columbia and was very important for the stock exchange. Then we actually went down to the trading floor. Before we went I thought this was shocking, because that would be difficult to do in Wall Street; however here, almost all of the selling is done at the companies' individual offices. There were only a few people actually working there when we went to visit and it was so quiet-- much different from the US. After Bolsa, we walked around the city, and saw many things, including the President's house. We went into a huge cathedral and a museum about Chile's national history. For lunch, we went to a seafood market. We walked around after we ate and saw all sorts of fresh fish and meats. Its something we never see very often in the US. Before heading home we took another incline. This one was much more stable, a nice surprise. Half-way up is a zoo. I think that it is a very interesting place to put a bunch of animals. At the top of the hill, there was an old outdoor church and a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue was so prominent, with Mary overlooking the city. Seeing this really showed how important religion is to Chileans. Its a bit harder to see that in the United States because there isn't one hugely dominant religion, at least where I live. After that we headed back to the university for reggaeton lessons. We had an audience for a while and they thought our dancing was pretty entertaining, but then the joined us for a bit. This dancing was harder than salsa but it was still fun. Tomorrow includes more lectures at the university and visiting LAN airlines.

Day 1: So many photo opportunities, so little time!

Our first full day was great! We got up early, had breakfast in the hotel and got on the public bus for Valparaiso. The buses there are so different from the ones in Pittsburgh. They drive so fast and don't really wait for people to get back on or anything. When we got to Valpariso we went to Universidad Tecnica Federico de Santa Maria and met Javier. Javier took us on a tour of the beautiful campus. The view was fantastic with the beach and houses in the hills. Even though I didn't have my camera today it was still amazing. I was able to enjoy the view without the camera in front of me. We then had two lectures about Chile and other Latin American countries' economies and governments. When we went to lunch in the school cafeteria, we honestly felt like we had three heads walking around. We definitely stood out; people actually moved away when we sat down at the table. After lunch we had a bus tour of Valpariso and Vina del Mar. Everything was so pretty. I think its so cool to see everything painted all over the walls and stairs (so many stairs!). I was really impressed by the amount of talented people that painted the walls. At the end of our tour we stopped at the General Prat memorial. My group researched Prat for our presentation, so to see how honored the fallen were, being in a huge square. One of the students that came with us on the tour said that this square was often used for parades. At the square we met a guy from Australia who was running all the way down Chile to raise cancer awareness. He was running 33 miles a day, which is more than a marathon and has another month to go. Oh my goodness. Another highlight of the tour was going up the incline to see the whole city. After the tour we finally had empanads! Then we had salsa lessons. I personally have two left feet, but it was still fun and apparently we were pretty good.

We're Here!

After a long few days of travel, we are finally in Chile! The flights were not bad at all, although the plane we took to Miami was the smallest plane I’ve ever been in. Fortunately, the eight hours to Santiago went by pretty quickly and we were finally in Chile!! We had a lot of laughs and really got to know each other. Going through customs was a bit of a struggle because the money we had to pay the entry fee was not up to par with the employees’ standards. They wanted the crispest and newest bills possible, which we were not prepared for. The language barrier also contributed to our problems because we did not understand what was wrong with the money at first. The Canadian Handball team that was in line with us laughed at us silly Americans because we couldn't just pay the simple fee. One of the coaches asked us what the problem so hopefully they changed their mind of us living up to that American stereotype. We are staying at the Hotel del America, which will probably bring as much stories as the actual trip. We ate lunch at Tiki Taco by our hotel and I learned pretty quickly that I don’t remember a lot of vocabulary words from Spanish class.  Hopefully, I’ll start to pick up on everything again and the language barrier won’t be too much of an issue. Kirsten and I split chicken fajitas, and a lot of people got definitely interesting, but a lot, of food. After lunch we went to the futbol (soccer) game. I personally love soccer, so it was amazing to see it played in a country where it is more popular. Another thing that was very impressive was the fan section. The fan section was jumping up and down and chanting the entire game and was very enthusiastic. We found out later that most of the chants were protests about new laws that made it illegal for them to chant and make banners, but during the game we thought it was great team spirit. The Vina del Mar home team won the game 3-2 to San Marco, which got intense towards the end. I've never seen so many players go down in one game. It was pretty easy to tell it was for show, but I thought it was pretty shocking that it was in just about every play. The players got pretty heated over those supposed fouls and the ref even got escorted off by police officers as if that was customary. Another thing that was shocking was the amount of stray dogs. My friend who had done the Plus3 Chile trip last year had told me about them, but I was still not prepared. It was weird to see a bunch of dogs on the sidewalk taking a nap and following us around. One in particular followed us the whole way to the stadium, and we named him Howard, partially because its odd for us to see an unclaimed and unnamed dog around. Tomorrow we're going to the University and also learning salsa.

Counting Down for Chile

Hi everyone. This is my first post for my Plus3 Chile blog.
I am so excited to be going on this trip. I went abroad when I was too young to really appreciate it, so I'm really looking forward to experiencing another country. I can't wait to be in a totally different culture. It's a little nerve-racking because my Spanish is a little rusty and I don't know exactly what to expect. In exactly 3 weeks I'll be back in Pittsburgh ready to go! I can't wait!