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