Friday May 17, 2013 .... Day 14

Today is Friday May , 2013. This is my last blog post of the trip. Today was mostly a day of reflection because we left at 2:00 for Santiago for our flight home. I haven't really said too much about the people I have met during the trip, Pitt and Universidad de Santa Maria students, and Jorge and Brice. First, I would like to thank Jorge and Brice for helping us make this trip great. They were so nice and helped with everything. My favorite part is that they participated in different things with us like horseback riding and dancing. I think I have met some lifelong friends though throughout this trip. Everyone was great. I came into the trip knowing only four people, and now I know thirty or even more. I am glad that I have met so many more Pitt students because I am sure we will continue hanging out and studying with each other for the years to come. The hardest thing was leaving all of my new friends from Chile though. They were the best. I couldn't have had such an amazing experience without them. They helped us with everything from ordering food, to finding our way around the city, or just hanging out with us. I'm really going to miss all of them. I especially want to thank Paula, Sebastian  and Javier for spending extra time with us and helping me practice my Spanish. I think that maybe someday we will all see each other again and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. However, I already know that everyone is going to be successful because they are all such great people. It’s been a pleasure getting to know everyone and I can’t wait to keep in touch and hear about where everyone’s lives are taking them. Until next time Chile.

Thursday May 16, 2013 .... Day 13

Today was the best day. We went horseback riding all day. It was the coolest thing we have done in Chile and one of the cooler things I have done in my life. The tour was very scenic. It encompassed different areas like the woods, beach, dunes, and more. It lasted 3 hours, more or less I think. It was interesting because the guide only spoke Spanish to us but by this point in the trip I was able to understand most of what he was saying. I had forgotten almost everything I had learned about Spanish in high school but spending time in Chile has refreshed my memory. The guide was really cool too because he didn't care if we wanted to walk or gallop. We were going as fast as possible almost the whole time. It was so much fun. My horse didn't listen to a thing I told it to do. I would tell it to go faster, it would slow down. I would tell it slow down and it would run faster. It also seemed to like the water a lot because when we were on the beach he ran into the water even though I told him to go the other way. He kept going deeper so I was getting soaked. I really didn't mind though because I was having the time of my life. After that, we returned to the ranch and had a barbecue. The guide said he made sure to buy American style food for us, and he gave us a pretty heart felt speech at the end. Overall, it was the best day on the trip.

Wednesday May 15, 2013 .... Day 12

Today was a relaxing day. We went to a hotel with a pool, restaurant, and soccer field. I took a nap by the pool for a while and by the time I woke up we were almost ready to eat lunch. This was nice because we had a chance to talk to everyone about previous times on the trip and catch up with each other. Lunch was great too. We had steak, eggs, fries, and onions. I liked it a lot. These foods are something I am more familiar with. After lunch, I was ready to do something. Some people wanted to sleep or sit by the pool but ten of us started a game of soccer. This was a lot of fun. Verner, the professor from Universidad de Santa Maria, played with us as well. He was really good too. After the game we were all pretty tired and it was almost time to go. Everyone got together and then we walked to Verner’s house for a barbecue.

His house was really cool. It had a pool, ping pong table, Foosball table, outdoor seating, and a pergola with grapes growing over it. I meant to take a picture of the pergola because I know my boss from last year would definitely want to make something like that at his house. They had someone come in to cook the food. I don’t remember the name of the food, but it is like sausage except better. They also had shish kabobs which were really good as well. The food today was overall really good.

Tuesday May 14, 2013 .... Day 11

Today was a really busy day. We had three company visits, starting with Hela. This is the company that we had researched. We were able to see some of the manufacturing processes for different tools. The company does not require extremely hi tech equipment to make its products which is good because this reduces the cost of machinery and maintenance costs. However, Chile does not make its own machinery, and many of the things were imported from Europe or Asia. Importing these machines adds to the cost greatly. Would it be better to invest in developing machinery in Chile or is it just cheaper and better to import these products? This is something they have to figure out.

Next on the schedule, we visited Centauro. Centauro is a producer of canned food products such as tomato paste, canned fruits, and prepared meals. They have a good set up because they have many contracts with farmers to supply them and they are located near Santiago and the coast. This allows them to export more easily and supply throughout the country. I think the most interesting thing about this company is that they change the name of the brand depending on where they are trying to market the product to. I have not heard of companies doing this until now.

Next stop, Bosques del Mar. Bosques del Mar is the largest producer of mushrooms in Chile, it’s closest competition only produces 30% of what they produce. It was also interesting that the guide has worked in Kennett Square and a mushroom farm that is 5 minutes away from my house. He said that compared to Kennett Square, they do not produce nearly as much, however, in terms of South America, they produce a lot and have an efficient process. We then took the bus back to our hotel to finish our touring for the day.

Monday May 13, 2013 .... Day 10

Today is Monday May 13, 2013. This was our last day for lectures at the university. Every group had to give their presentations, ours was about Hela. Hela is a manufacturing company that makes various products such as paint brushes, saws, and scrubbing brushes. A problem that Hela is facing is that it is not aligned with a distribution company such as HomeDepot or Lowe’s. This means it is harder to get its products on the shelf and payments are usually made a few months after they are sold. The benefit to this is that they do not have to give a percentage of their sales to the distribution company. If they do align with a company, they would have to pay the company a certain percentage of their sales, but they will have more shelf space. This is definitely something they will have to consider in the near future in order to stay competitive with other firms. After we finished up the presentations, we went back to the hotel to get something to eat and we were off to play soccer (football). We played with some of the Chilean students and this was probably the most fun on the trip so far. I haven’t played soccer in forever so I’m not that good but it was more friendly than competitive. We played for a few hours too which was great considering I have been pretty lazy lately. This ended our day.

Sunday May 12, 2013 .... Day 9

Today is Sunday May 12, 2013. This is our second free day of the trip. Like yesterday, I was still feeling tired from the week so I didn't do too much today. I wanted to reflect on what we have already done and learned so far. We have learned a lot about the Chilean economy and why its geography plays a large role in it. Chilean has the Pacific ocean to the west and south of it, the Andes mountains to the east of it, and Peru to the north. The country is very long and narrow as well. This means they can produce a variety of products depending on which region you are in. This is good because it makes the economy more diverse, however, the country is very stretched out. Santiago is a huge city in central Chile and this is where a lot of people go to work and study. The government is trying to find out different ways they can encourage people to move more north or more south in order to build up those areas like Santiago is. So far, it seems they are having more success with various programs to do this. I found this very interesting. I also thought it was really cool that we were able to visit LAN and we were able to sit in the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Not many people have the opportunity to do that. We also learned a lot about how the maintenance works for planes which I would never have thought of. Because today is Mother’s Day, we went out to eat at Tierra del Fuego, a very nice restaurant on the beach. The food was excellent and this concluded our day.

Saturday May 11, 2013 .... Day 8

Today is Saturday May 11, 2013. This is our 8^th day on the trip and first free day. I was pretty tired from all the things we have done and places we have seen so far. I wanted to use this day just to relax and prepare for the following week. A big group of us went out to eat near the beach, the restaurant served the biggest cheeseburgers I have ever seen. It was really nice because this is one food that I do really like. The food was very satisfying and we split up after this. Becca, Jeff, and I went to the beach to look at different shops and buy gifts for people. It was a perfect day out, maybe a little too hot, but it was nice. After we looked around at most of the shops, we just hung out until other people caught up to us. We then went bought ice cream which was really good. This was the best eating day for me because it was like eating at home. After that, we went back to the hotel and hung out and reflected on some parts of the trip. We met up with our Chilean friends and hung out with them for the rest of the day.

Friday May 10, 2013 .... Day 7

Today was really cool. We visited Vina Indomita, a winery about an hour away from where we are staying. It sits on top of a hill in a valley so the views are great. There were so many acres of grapes, it was so cool to see that many in one place. It's amazing that they can take care of that many and there is only one harvest a year according to Chilean law. This means that if something happens to the grapes that year, their profits can be hurt pretty badly. We were taken to part of the building where they ferment the grapes. There are huge aluminum containers that  can hold up to 100,000 liters of wine each. They are all filled and this is their cheaper wines. The more expensive wines are kept in barrels and now I can understand why they can be so expensive. The barrels cost $1,000 dollars each and can only be used three times. The best wine can only be made in a barrel that has not been used yet. When they sell back the barrels to tourists, they only get $35. We were now going to Pablo Neruda's house, a famous Chilean poet. His house was very eclectic and had different themes for each room. Everything and anything had its purpose in representing something more. The house was located on the beach so we sat on the beach for awhile and just hung out. We came back to the university to dance. This time I think the teacher just made up dances but they were all really fun. This was the best dance class and everyone was really into it. This ended our day.

Thursday May 9, 2013 .... Day 6

This was possibly my favorite day so far. We started our day off with dance class in the morning. Today we got to learn the Cueca. It is Chile's national dance. The guy is supposed to dress like a cowboy while the girl is supposed to dress with Asian clothes. I am not really sure why they picked these things to wear for the dance so I will have to do research on that and find out. The guy is supposed to court the girl by dancing around her. In the first part, she is supposed to act uninterested and walk away. When the girl begins waving her towel, they begin to dance. As the dance progresses, the girl acts more and more interested and by the end of the dance, they are dancing together. I wasn't that good at this dance but it was a lot of fun seeing everyone try it, including me. Now that class was over, we were on our way to visit LAN, a Latin American airline. This was the coolest thing ever. We got to go in the hanger where they fix the planes. Jose showed us the place. We learned about the different checks planes have to go through like the A, B, and C checks. Depending on the condition of the plane, it may have to go through all three of these. If it can pass through only the A check, it saves the company a lot of time and money. Jose's job as an industrial engineer is to design the order that a plane gets fixed and how the checks are done in order to reduce the costs as much as possible. The coolest part of the day was sitting in the cockpit of one of the planes because we will never get another opportunity to do that. That ended our trip to LAN and we were off to Vina del Mar to end our day.

Wednesday May 8, 2013 .... Day 5

Today was a very interesting day. We started our day at about 9:00 for a day of lectures with a worker from LAN, a Latin American airline company. His name was Jose and he was great. He was very interesting and kept the lecture fun. He taught us about the Chilean culture, business, politics, music, art, and how geography affects all of these. Chile was a pretty isolated country because a chain of mountains runs along the length of the country, making it more difficult for people to move in and out. This allowed certain parts of the culture to evolve much differently than its neighboring countries. Differences range from types of dancing such as the cueca and business practices such as trusting each other more easily. We took a break and got lunch at the school cafeteria. It is always really interesting going there because I cannot understand anything anyone is saying and not all of the students speak English. Finding a table where we can all sit together is near impossible but it does give us a few good laughs. After lunch, we had a few more lectures and then we were on our way back to the hotel. We had our small group meeting and then we went out to eat our favorite food here, empanadas. I have eaten so many empanadas since I have been here, it's probably pretty unhealthy. There are so many to choose from to. It is like going to a Peace-a-Pizza where you can order any kind of pizza you want. So far I haven't been to adventurous and have only eaten empanadas with chicken and cheese so I will still have to try more. Tomorrow we will have a company visit so it will be very interesting. This concludes my day.

Tuesday May 7, 2013 .... Day 4

Today is Tuesday May 7, 2013. We started our day off around 8:00 to leave for Santiago, Chile's capital. Santiago is home to about 7 million people and accounts for approximately 40% of Chile's population. We arrived after about an hour and a half long bus trip and went to Chile's Stock Exchange. It has not been used nearly as much for actually trading stocks on the floor because they went digital in the mid-1990s. The woman teaching us about the stock exchange was very good. We took a group picture and then made our way to the largest cathedral in Chile. The cathedral was impressive. I could only imagine how many people could have fit in it. After leaving the cathedral, we visited a museum about Chile's history and history of Santiago. We went to a market for lunch and I ordered baked chicken and French fries. The food was very good, it may be the best I've had on the trip so far other than empanadas. Empanadas are similar to calzones and you can get practically anything you want in them. I have only tried cheese and chicken so far and I plan to try many more. After we ate lunch, we visited the Presidential Palace in Santiago. The president does not live there, he only works there. I found that pretty interesting and our tour guide was interesting too. He could only speak a little bit of English but overall he was able to communicate with us well enough for us to understand him. The highlight of the day was traveling up the mountain on the incline and walking the last steps to the top. The view from the top was amazing. We were able to see all of Santiago and many mountains and other towns. I was able to get a decent amount of pictures from there. It was just a very peaceful area. This concluded our day of touring and we headed back to Viña del Mar.

Monday May 6, 2013 .... Day 3

We did so much today. We started off the day at around 8:00 in the morning and ate some breakfast in the hotel. We met up with a couple students from the university and took a city bus to the school. The drivers are pretty aggressive in general but that is like any other city. We arrived at the school which sits on top of a big hill and took a tour. The tour was led by two students and they showed us everything from the auditoriums, to classrooms, and to the fields. After that, we were able to eat lunch at the cafeteria. Because of the picky eater I am, I only ate bread but that was more than good enough for me. After that we had class for about three hours with an economics professor. He seemed to know anything and everything about the Latin American countries' economies. He went in detail about different things such as GDP, different indices, and why certain values of currency would have drops or gains. It was interesting to learn different facts about the Chilean economy. Most of the economy is driven by mining, forestry, and grape and wine production. Also, because Chile has a smaller market compared than the world, more and more companies are merging and tend to dominate different sectors in the market so they can compete worldwide. After our class, we were able to walk around Valparaiso and drive to the top to get a better view of the city. The view was great and the weather was perfect to see everything. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar are two cities connected on the Chilean coast. From the top of Valparaiso, we could see both cities and more cities further away in the distance. We finished our tour at the harbor and shopped a little bit and then we had dance class. We were being taught the Salsa by students at the university. It was probably the highlight of the day and watching everyone enjoy themselves only made it better. This ended our day of touring.

Sunday May 5, 2013 .... Day 2

Today is Sunday, May 5, 2013. We arrived at Santiago International Airport at about 8:00am. Chile is located in the same time zone as home which I did not know at first. After getting off the plane, we regrouped and went through customs and security. Now we were on the homestretch. The last thing we had to do before we left was line up at the ATM and take out some money. There are about 500 Chilean Pesos for each $1 USD. We met up with Jorge, our group leader, and two students who go to college in Valparaiso. They will be showing us around the following two weeks and introducing us to more students. We got on our last bus trip before we made it to our hotel in Vina del Mar. The trip was about an hour and a half but the scenery was great. There were mountains everywhere you looked. The valleys before the mountains were full of trees and crops. We passed by a few small towns on the way and passed by Vina Indomita. This is the vineyard that we will get to tour later on this week and see how everything works. Before we knew it, we were in Vina del Mar. The city is great. It is located right on the beach in central Chile. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and the right amount of wind so it wouldn't get too hot. We walked around the beach area and ate at Tiki Taco. I ordered chicken quesadillas and they were some of the best I have had. We continued walking along the beach and watched some mimes mess with people crossing the street. We even saw a Jack Sparrow look alike. We took pictures and made our way back to the hotel and now I am here writing my blog.

Saturday May 4, 2013 .... Day 1

The first day of my trip was Saturday, May 5th, 2013. This is where I am beginning my two week trip to Chile with Pitt's Plus3 Study Abroad program. My day started out by waking up around 7:00 to get ready for the trip to the airport. We hopped on the bus and made it there with much time to spare. While we sat in the airport waiting to go, we went out to eat and had a chance to get to know one another. Then we were off. The plane was much smaller than I had expected and we sat right next to the engine. However, that was insignificant because in one more day I would be on the trip of a life time. The flight attendant was even nice enough to give us a handout with facts about different planes. The flight was going to Dallas Fortworth International and we had a pretty long layover there. About ten of us ate dinner at TGI Fridays and got to know one another a little bit better. Some people played cards and some people read books as we waited for our flight to Chile. I decided to read Game of Thrones which was a very good idea to bring. So far I have read a decent amount on it and in the down time of the trip, I plan on finishing the book. Only 600 more pages to go. We got on the plane and flew throughout the night. When I woke up the next morning we only had about one more hour to go before we landed.