Day 13: El Fin (The End)

May 18, 2012

Today was officially our last day in the wonderful country of Chile. It hasn't encompassed much besides packing and leaving, as  It has been such an amazing trip, getting to spend time with such awesome people, integrating ourselves into the culture for the two weeks, enjoying the awesome activities we got to do, and making new friends. I'll really miss almost everybody from our group, as well as our new friends Chilean friends. It is always a group bonding experience when you go on trips with people who you previously were not extremely close with, or in this case, basically didn't know at all. Its awesome the way I entered as part of a group of just seventeen engineering and business students, and I left with sixteen close friends. We had so much fun together, from watching and playing soccer, to singing karaoke, to paintballing, to riding horseback across the Chilean beach. We learned a lot together as a group as well, about the Chilean economy, culture, and doing business in Chile. Today, the day began with mainly just packing, doing my best to make sure all of my clothes and souvenirs fit into my suitcase and backpack. 49 pounds and two shoes in Stefan's bag later, I was physically prepared to leave, but I could not possibly be emotionally ready to leave. After lunch, we said goodbye to Hotel America for the final time, which despite all of its flaws, had grown on me, and it was sad to see it for the last time. Then we headed off to the Santiago airport, ready to finally depart Chile, but hopefully not for the last time ever. Hasta la vista Chile! Until we meet again!

Christian Ranallo

Fun fact of the day: In Chile, the term "common folk" refers to normal people, while "ordinary folk" refers to the lowest of the population, those who don't work and live on the streets. In the USA, these terms mean the opposite.

A group of new best friends, heading home from two awesome weeks in Chile!

Day 12: On Horseback

May 17, 2012

Today is our last full day here in the wonderful nation of Chile. It is going to be so sad to hop on the plane tomorrow and head back to the states, to say goodbye to all our new friends we made here, and to leave knowing we may possibly never return to Chile again. But while we are still here, we have been doing our very best to keep enjoying our time, and we certainly have done a good job doing that! We left around 9:00 this morning to head to our final activity of the week, horseback riding on the beach. And we definitely saved the best for last. Horseback riding was amazing! We started off at a ranch where we each got our own horse, then began by heading down a path down to the beach. Unfortunately, my first horse was a little too wild, and I couldn't totally control him, so I had to switch with one of the guides horses, which worked out much better. We then headed down the beach, eventually coming to a vast landscape of sand dunes as far as the eye could see. It was really cool trekking up and down the steep sandy dunes with the sure-footed horses, just enjoying the gorgeous landscape around you. We rode for three hours, with only a short break a little in, and enjoyed every minute of it, even though your butt really gets sore after a while! The coolest part was on the way back, all of our horses were galloping on the beach, and we looked like an army flying down the beach on our steeds, it was an awesome sight. After returning to the ranch, the people there cooked us a full meal on their open flame grill, with sausages, steak, pork, rice, potato salad, and vegetables. The meal was delicious, especially the sausages. After the lunch, we headed back to the hotel, and had a while to just relax, begin packing, and just do whatever we needed to in order to prep for leaving tomorrow. Then at 8:00, we had our last meal with our Chilean friends, as we all met for pizza, and exchanged gifts. We received Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria sweatshirts, and we gave them all Pitt t-shirts. It was sad saying goodbye to all of them, and we will miss them greatly. So now we are back at the hotel, preparing to go the discotheque for our last night out here in Chile. Its been fun Chile, thanks for helping me end it on such an awesome note today!

Fun fact of the day: When your horse is peeing, you are supposed to stand up in the saddle so that you don't squeeze the horse

Horseback riding on the beach!

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 11: Paintballing

May 15, 2012

Hola un otra vez! Today was our second to last day in Chile (I can't believe it is going by so fast already!) and like every other day before it, it has been a good one. It is amazing how every day here has been so fun! The culture here in Chile is just so amazing to experience and become immersed in the culture here, and see what life is like for the Chilean students. Today we had a free morning, so a group of us went to find fresh bread for breakfast at one of the small fresh bakeries in Viña del Mar. We quickly found a lovely little local place, with really cheap but delicious bread and sweets. It was an awesome breakfast, and it only cost roughly 1000 pesos, which is the equivalent to $2! After breakfast we went to a cute open markets for gift shopping, and then headed to the beach, where we spent a fun few hours taking pics and just hanging out. It was nice to get a fun few hours with the group, just reminiscing about the trip and talking about how we want to meet up again as a group once we go back to school next semester. Then in the afternoon, we headed out to go paintballing. This was my first time ever paintballing, and I thought it was a blast! We drafted ourselves into two teams after receiving our jumpsuits, pinnies, guns and masks, and then we each took our positions around two separate towers, roughly 50 yards apart, with a large ditch in between, and sandy, desert-like terrain. The goal of the game we were playing was to capture the flag that was placed at the bottom of the ravine between the two towers, and successfully bring it to the other team's tower without getting shot. But if you got shot, you had to put your hands up and return to your tower for 40 seconds, before you could get back in and help your team again. Playing was so fun, it was like a real life video game, and the fact that it did sting a little when you got hit just pumped up the adrenaline even more. We played several games, and it lasted more than two hours. I enjoyed it so much, and would definitely go again once back in the states! After paintball, we had a free dinner, so a large group of us decided to try Chilean Chinese food, just to see what it was like. Fortunately, our waiter actually grew up in Arizona, so he was fluent in English as well as Spanish, and could help us in ordering as we would have had no idea what to get otherwise. The food was actually very good, I got pineapple chicken, which was just like our sweet and sour chicken, and the mixed rice we got was delicious as well. Well, tonight is our second to last night here, so I will only be blogging from Hotel America one more time!

Fun fact of the day: 1 American dollar is currently worth roughly 482 Chilean pesos. For an example of how this works, a large pizza is worth around 5,000 Chilean pesos.

Delicious and cheap breakfasts!

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 10: Hela, Centauros, y Cueca

May 15, 2012

Hola a todos! Today was our third to last full day here in Chile, and it is hard to see it going by so fast! I am not even close to being ready to head back to the states, we have been having way too good of a time here. Today began early, hopping on the bus at 8:45 to head to our first company visit of the day, our visit to Hela, the company my group did our presentations on. Hela is a tool manufacturer, mainly focusing on paintbrushes and wire wheels, which are then sold to large factories or companies. It was cool seeing the processes of how the brushes and wheels are made, especially after having done so much research on the company. After Hela, we then visited Centauros, a food canning company, famous in Chile for their tomatoes and tomato paste. We received a tour of their factories and saw the canning process and how that works, and we got to try several of their products, including the canned tomatoes and tomato paste, delicious canned peaches, and pumpkin puree, which looked like baby food but tasted amazing. After this visit and smelling and tasting the food, we were all starving, so we stopped and got delicious empanadas for lunch. In case I haven't described empanadas before, they are a common Chilean fast food, most similar to a small, fried calazone, filled with delicious ingredients like cheese, beef, steak, shrimp, chicken, and vegetables. I got corn, chicken, and cheese in mine, they were so delicious! After the empanadas, we went to the university to learn how to dance Cueca, the national dance of Chile. I was worried it was gonna be stiff and not enjoyable to learn, but it was actually quite fun,as it was alot about the flirting that goes on between guys and girls, so it was light and fun to do. And now we are back at the hotel, doing our nightly blogs, waiting till we get hungry to go out to dinner.

Fun fact of the day: Centauros is currently producing celery juice to be sold in Japan and South Korea, where it is very popular.

 Pumpkin puree making machine

Our Cueca teachers showing off their moves and authentic Chilean garb

Hasta mañana,

Christian

Day 9: Futbol y Presentaciones

May 14, 2012

Buenos dias! Today we had our very last lectures here at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria (so sad). The lecture began with each of our groups doing their presentations in front of all of us students and our business professor, Jaime. The presentations went really well, as all of our groups put a lot of work into their presentations in order to show the Chileans how interested we are in their companies. Jaime asked us a lot of questions, and we were all mostly prepared to answer them (until he asked the wine group about specific Chilean grapes). But the rest of the lecture was really informative, as we really got good insight into several major Chilean programs, such as the hydroelectric power plants and the health care system. After our last lunch at the university (also so sad), we came back to the hotel for a while, and then headed out again to play more soccer. Soccer was so fun, us Americans were mixed in with a group of 6 Chilean guys that were there, and we split up into three teams and just rotated games. It was a great time, and a great workout too! I may have played like 15 games in a row just rotating teams, I was dead tired by the end. After that, Nick and I hit the gym for a good workout, and then a group of us grabbed empanadas for dinner. Since then, we've just been chilling, and now we are preparing to head out. Its Monday night, and that means karaoke night!

Soccer with the Chileans

Fun fact of the day: Chilean McDonald's are ridiculously expensive (a snack wrap costs over $4.00) and have terrible service

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 8: Is It Really Day 8 Already?

May 13, 2012

Hola todos! Y feliz Dia de Mama! I cannot believe how fast this trip is flying buy, we have already been here more than a week! We have been having such a great time here in Chile, its sad to think that we only have 5 more days here! Today was a very relaxed but fun day, as it was our first day without any planned activities during the day. fortunately for us, who had been running on very little sleep the past few nights, that meant sleeping in. After waking up at around 10:30, six of us decided to go out for brunch at around 11:00, and then go out to one of the outdoor markets here in Viña del Mar. So we picked a little cafe we kept seeing called Mango as our breakfast spot, but after all trying to order, we found out they only had 5 sandwiches total in the cafe and there were six of us! So that was an interesting experience. The outdoor markets were awesome though. Because it was Mother's Day, there were even more booths than usual, trying to sell their wares to the public, hoping the holiday could bring them just a little more business. For as much as I don't enjoy shopping, I have to say that was cool. I didn't even mind waiting outside while the girls in the group shopped for jackets (especially because they treated me to ice cream afterwards for being so patient). We even had time to just walk along the beach and enjoy the view and the nice day. It was funny seeing all the Chileans staring at us crazy gringos, as we were all being goofy and taking pictures right along the water in our shorts and t-shirts, while they are wrapped up in coats because its their winter here. Oh well, sixty degrees is shorts and t-shirts weather for me, winter or not! Then at 6:30, we went to one of the greatest dinners I have ever had at a restaurant right along the beach here in Viña del Mar. We got steak and shrimp skillet appetizers, which were amazing, and then I got pumpkin gnocci for my main course, which was also awesome. It was a really fun day today, but now we are on to our last 5 days here and its sad that its ending so quick!

Fun fact of the day: Chileans use the word "guagua" to mean baby, instead of the normal Spanish word "bebe"

Amazing sand art at the beach 

Ice cream!

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 7: Spa Day!

May 12, 2012

Hola amigos! Today was such a fun day, as it was our first day without having lectures, company visits, or classes of any sort, so from 11;00 to 6;00, we went to the Chilean spa. This spa was not just an ordinary spa though, as it did have pools and saunas and massages, but it also had a soccer field, ping pong tables, foosball tables, and other really fun stuff to do. We first played soccer with the Chilean students, and while they were really good, I feel like we were able to hold our own against them. We split up into three teams, two American teams and one Chilean team, and played games of 4 on 4 plus goalies, with the first team to two goals winning. Our teams were actually able to win a couple of games, and I actually scored the very last goal to win the last game we played! It was exciting. After that we had an awesome lunch, as it was a buffet style meal filled with Chilean dishes, and the food was amazing! After our wonderful lunch, played a lot of ping pong and foosball and basically just hung out with the Chilean students, and even played a game of "Name the movie that this music is from". After our spa day ended, we went to the house of Professor Werner, the head of the program here on the Chilean side, for a barbecue. The food was delicious, and again we just got to hang out with the students, play more foosball (I'm becoming really good at foosball) and just generally have a good time. Now we are back at the hotel, and about to go out for Abby's birthday!

 Playing soccer with the Chilean students

Joanie, Allison, and I having fun at the barbecue

Fun fact of the day: In Chile, the movie Jaws is called "El Tiburon" which simply means "The Shark"

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 6: Wine But No Water?

May 11, 2012

Hola amigos! Today has been a very interesting day, in both good ways and bad. It started off on the wrong foot as our entire building had no running water when we woke up this morning. It was a rough start to the day, as none of us got to shower or brush teeth or anything, but the day got much better as it went on. Our first stop of the day was Viña Indomita, a vineyard located in the Casablanca Valley here in central Chile. We received a really cool tour of the winery, seeing the giant vats for fermenting the young wines, and the French Oak casks for keeping the specialty wines. And the best part of the visit was at the end, when we got to have a wine tasting session with several different types of wines from Viña Indomita. The white was very good, but I was not a big fan of either of the reds. After the wine tasting, we heading down the coast to visit Isla Negra, the home of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet from the mid 1900s. Once there, we had an amazing lunch along the beach, with awesome seafood including razor clams which were delicious. After lunch we had an hour to just chill on the beach before our tour of Neruda's house, and that was actually a really fun time, as we just climbed the giant rock formations there and watched the waves. It was nice to have some time to just relax and hang out at the beach. The tour of Neruda's house was really cool also, even though it was all in Spanish, as he had filled his house with naval artifacts so that it looked like an old wooden ship. We returned to the hotel for the earliest time yet tonight, because we don't have any more dance lessons, so Nick and I went to the local gym to work out. We got in a solid workout, and after grabbing McDonalds for dinner, I'm now doing my blog for tonight before we head out to the local discotheque.

Fun fact of the day: Chileans have the self -proclaimed worst Spanish pronunciation of any Latin American country

 The wine cellars at Viña Indromita

 Wine for our tasting!

The beach at Isla Negra

Hasta mañana,

Christian

Day 5: Bosques del Mauco

May 10, 2012

Hola amigos! Welcome back to Viña del Mar, Chile. Today we got up pretty early again to go to another culture lecture with Jose Luiz, our instructor at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. This lecture also focused on culture, but this time we talked about differences in doing business in Chile, Chilean ads and how they represent the culture, and Chilean music. Seeing the ads were really cool, and Chilean music and dancing is really interesting as well. After the lecture and a lunch of fish and rice in the university's cafeteria, we headed off to our second company visit at Bosques del Marco, a mushroom farming company that we reached after a picteresque 30 minute drive along the beach out of Viña del Mar. Bosques del Marco was some experience. Walking through the the different areas of the factory, we were flooded with one of the worst smells I have ever encountered, as the fertilizer for the shrooms was a mixture of chicken droppings and ammonia that had a scent which flooded my nostrils and nearly made me vomit. The smell followed us throughout the factory, but it was actually really cool inside, the way they grow the mushrooms in crates in giant stacks of 12, and then pick them by hand and package them fresh. Despite the smell, I am glad we got to see it. After grabbing a quick bite for dinner, we had our last dance class, this one being reggaeton for the second time. We reviewed the steps we learned from the first class and picked up some new ones; reggaeton is a lot of fun and a great cardio workout! It was sad to say goodbye to our instructor, David, as he was a lot of fun as an instructor. After the class, Constanza, one of the Chilean students, interviewed me in Spanish about organic restaurants for a project she was doing, it was a neat experience. And that brings us to now, blogging in the hotel, looking forward to going out to the discotheque later tonight when the Chilean students come pick us up!

 The worst smelling fertilizer in history

SHROOMS!

Fun fact of the day: Today is Chilean Mother's Day!

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 4: LAN Airlines

May 9, 2012

Hola Amigos! Today was a very interesting day. The day started off with a bus ride to Universidad Tecnica Federica Santa Maria, where we had a lecture from Jose Luiz, a  cool Chilean professor. His lecture to us was all about Chilean culture, and it was much more interesting than our previous lectures at the university. We went over several interesting aspects of life here in Chile, such as the education strike, Chilean art and literature, and earthquakes and their affect on Chile. After our lecture, we went to lunch in the Chilean cafeteria, but it wasn't very good, at least for me, as the empanadas they gave us were mainly filled with onions. After lunch, we left for a one and a half hour trip to visit LAN Airlines at the Chilean airport. We had a really cool Q and A with an engineer at LAN, and learned a lot about the company. After our tour of LAN and the hour and a half ride back to Viña del Mar, we had our second salsa lesson with our dance instructor, Davíd. Davíd really knew his salsa, as after only two days of classes, he had us moving and salsaing like seasoned professionals. It was a good time, and I feel like I could even teach a salsa lesson now that I've had it taught to me! After that, we split up into small groups for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel.

Planes at LAN Airlines

Fact of the Day: Since LAN Airlines merged with TAM Airlines in 2011, it has had no competition in South American airspace.

Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 3: Santiago

May 8, 2012

Yet another amazing day has passed by here in Chile, it feels like we have already been here for weeks, has it really only been 3 days? We have done so much in there three days, as our days begin early in the morning and end so late at night. Today was no different, as we began our day with breakfast at 7:30 and an hour and a half bus ride to the capital city of Santiago followed. Our first stop in Santiago was the Santiago Stock Exchange, where we watched a video about the exchange, were given a presentation on the exchange, and then got to actually tour the trading floor. One thing that I found really interesting about the exchange is that nearly all of the trading is done online now, so the trading floor is virtually empty in recent years, used mainly as a museum and attraction for tourists and field trips. After leaving the stock exchange we began our grand tour of Santiago, and there were some very cool sights to see. We visited the Cathedral of Santiago, the oldest and largest church in Chile, and it was beautiful. I was awed the first time I was in Saint Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, but the Cathedral of Santiago outshines it several times over. We also walked by La Moneda, the house where the Chilean presidents conduct affairs, and then took an incline up a gigantic hill near the edge of the city to look down and try to see as much of the city as possible. It was an interesting view. As far as the eye could see, was city. Santiago, with its 5 million inhabitants, stretches over an enormous amount of land, and because of the combination of that and the smog, we could not see the end of the city. In addition to touring Santiago, we had lunch there at Augusto's Fish Market, which was a giant restaurant seated inside a building that looked kinda like an old train station. My Chilean Sea Bass was quite good, but the salmon that other people got was out of this world. After the traffic-filled ride back to Valparaiso, we had our first reggaeton class, which is more upbeat dancing than salsa, basically the Chilean's party music. In our practice, we danced to fun songs like Danza Kuduro by Don Omar, and it was a great workout as well! The night ended with a nice group dinner, and now here I am late night blogging in the hotel.

Fact of the Day: Unlike American public restrooms, which always must be free for public use, Chilean public bathrooms cost 300 pesos to use!

Hasta mañana,
Christian

 The trading floor of the Santiago Stock Exchange

 Inside of the Cathedral of Santiago

The view of Santiago from the highest point in the city

Day 2: Life in Chile

May 7, 2012

Today was our first full day in Chile, and it really is an amazing change in culture and I am so glad to be here! We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, which consisted mainly of bread, jam, a little meat and cheese, yogurt, and juice, after a nice run along the beach. We were lucky, the day started off warm enough that we could run in shorts, and the weather only got nicer from there. We left to catch the public bus to go to the Universidad Tecnica Federica Santa Maria at like 8:30, and that was an interesting experience, as the bus probably went about 30 km over the speed limit and it flew around the curves! Once at the university, Javier and another Chilean student, Camilo, gave us a tour of the university. It is actually pretty similar to an American university, except without dorms, and the soccer field being the main sports arena instead of the football field. Then we had a lengthy but informative lecture on South American economies by one of the university's professors. Following the lecture was lunch in the university cafeteria, which is very different from US cafeterias, as there is only one plate to get (today it was blood sausage), and the seating area of the cafeteria was completely packed! After our time at the university, we were taken on a tour of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, the two connected cities in which we are living and spending most of our time. The cities are both centered around a giant cove of the Pacific Ocean, and are surrounded by hills, and the layout of the cities is the biggest buildings are near the coast, and then the cities just sprawl up the hills. This may be the largest amount of land I have ever seen taken up by one metropolitan area, as even at the tops of the hills, you cant possibly see the entire city! The streets in the city are crazy as well, winding up and down hills, full of perilous turns and flying motorists. After touring, we finally got to get empanadas for dinner, and they were as delicious as I had hoped! Dinner was followed up by our first salsa class, which was actually a lot of fun, and I will comment on that more in Wednesday's blog after our second class, so hopefully by that point I will be more proficient and can comment on my progress. Lastly, after salsa, we were taken to a karaoke bar by the Chilean students, and had an enjoyable end to a full day. 

Fun fact of the day: Chilean karaoke bars have as many American songs as they have Spanish songs

Hasta Mañana,

Christian

La Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria

 Valparaiso, Chile

Mike dancing the salsa with our dance instructor, David

Day 1: We Made It!

May 6, 2012

We are finally in Viña Del Mar, Chile! It is wonderful to be here and finally see what its like to be immersed in a Hispanic culture. We boarded the plane from Miami about a half hour later than expected, in fact we were the last people to board, but still managed to get off just about on time. The flight went smoothly, mostly sleeping and listening to music, they had "We Bought a Zoo" playing on the TV but I determined sleep was much higher on my priority list. The flight lasted roughly 8.5 hours and at around 7:35 Eastern time (which is the same time as here in Chile currently due to Daylight Savings Time) we landed in Santiago! We had an interesting time getting through customs, as we had to pay an entrance fee to get in to Chile from the US. Our wonderful trip advisor Sarah had the fees prepared for us to pay, but the customs officers wouldn't take a lot of the bills because they were "too wrinkled!" So that was a hassle, but we eventually made it. After taking our first Chilean pesos out of the ATM and meeting our first Chilean student, Javier, we boarded the bus to take us to Viña Del Mar. It was a hour and a half bus ride and we saw some cool sights along the way. We then checked into our hotel, had some fun trying to get the key to work (never thought bending a key would fix it!), and went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Food was good and huge portions, we had variety ranging from steak and eggs to blood sausage to fajitas. After that was the highlight of the day, we went to a Chilean soccer game! The game was crazy, fans were chanting and screaming the whole time, cards were being thrown out left and right, and the home team of "Everton de Viña del Mar" came back from a 2-0 defecit vs San Marco while playing down two players to win 3-2 late in the second half. I've never seen police with riot shields used to escort a referee out of a stadium before! Also learned that Chileans don't boo when they are angry at sporting events, they whistle instead (I'm personally not a fan, doesn't give off the same angry vibe that a good boo does!). Let's just say there was a LOT of whistling during that game! It was so much fun, and I got an Everton flag as a souvenir! So now we are back at the hotel, we plan to go out to grab dinner soon, and then chill here until bed. Early day tomorrow, as we are up at 7:30 to go to our first Chilean lecture!
Hasta mañana,
Christian

Day 1/2: Almost There!

May 5, 2012

This is my second trip blog entry and sadly we still are not in Chile! We had this morning to hang out and get prepared to go, a couple of us grabbed Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and then we met at the bus stop at 1250. We all managed to pile onto the 28X airport flyer, that was a fun ride as we took up basically the whole bus! But we made it to the airport, and at 500, headed off to Miami, and made it safe and sound, although it may have been the tiniest tightest plane I've ever been on. We all grabbed dinner at TGI Friday's in the Miami airport (which is a very poorly laid out airport if anyone was wondering), but it was a cool meal as one of the chefs came out to talk to us and he was a world traveler, having been in over 40 different countries! So now here I am, waiting to board in Miami, soo excited to finally get to Chile! Unfortunately there is no internet here so this will be posted tomorrow as I am only doing this in Word.

Next stop: Chile!

Day 0: Group Bonding

Friday May 4, 2012

This is my first actual trip blog. Our trip begins tomorrow, as today we had to check in to Tower B to stay the night here at Pitt before leaving tomorrow. I checked in at around 2:00 brought my stuff up to my room and just hung around with the other guys for a while. We had our meeting for all the groups where we had to put on skits about what not to do in our countries. They were quite funny, especially the German group with the repetitive WWII references. After that, we went to dinner as a group, and had the rest of the night free to just hang out with all of our group mates. It was a fun night, as I really didn't know anyone in the group very well until last night, and we finally got to hang out and get to know each other. I am really excited to finally leave tomorrow, I can't wait to actually get to Chile!