Final Conclusion

Well, this is officially our last day here in Chile. I honestly can’t believe that the two weeks are over, the time has just gone by too quickly. I have made some really good friends on this trip and made some memories that will last me for the rest of my life. Our plane leaves today at eight at night, and we had to get on the bus for the airport by. Before that happens, we all had to get one final meal in together, so what better place to eat than the first restaurant we ate at two weeks ago, Tiki Taco! This time, however, I avoided that huge platter of meat! Instead I had a delicious burrito with Mexican black beans and rice. After the meal we went back into the infamous Hotel America for the last time ever, they are actually going to tear the place down within a few months! Honestly though, this trip was a lot better because of the hotel. We were forced to leave and explore the city at night instead of staying at the hotel. If we were somewhere nice, I don’t think we would have gone out and had as much fun as we did. Anyway, we packed up our bags and thoroughly checked our rooms for any missing things. Then we got on the bus and headed out to the airport in Santiago. We got through the security easily, but we waited to get our tickets for a while. We had a couple hours to kill until we boarded our plane, so Sarah asked us for some feedback about the trip and how it could be improved for next year. So that killed an hour and then me and several others went on the search for some ice-cream, and to our surprise, there wasn’t any in the entire airport. So I settled for Subway and played around on my computer until we boarded the plane. They showed Sherlock Holmes 2, and it was really good. Now its 1AM and I’m finishing my last blog for Pitt Plus Three Chile. These two weeks have honestly been the most fun I’ve had in my life!

Last Full Day in Chile!

The day has finally arrived, it is officially our last full day here in Chile, and I have no idea how the time has gone by so fast! It honestly seems just like yesterday when we first got off the plane. These past two weeks have been the best two weeks of my life! Our final day was especially good; we went horseback riding on the beach and through the sand dunes in a small town about thirty miles up the coast from Vina Del Mar, and the bus company found my wallet! That was really lucky, and it made my day a whole lot better. Anyway, I have only been horseback riding once before, and I was only like eight years old at the time. So due to my lack of experience with horses, the guy decides that it’s a good idea to put me on one of the fastest horses they had! He only told me this about thirty seconds before we started galloping at full speed with the horses. I was really surprised when my horse just took off. It scared me, but I got the hang of it after a while and was able to control my horse. We rode the horses for a solid three hours. My back and legs were getting so sore. We had a small break up in the sand dunes for about twenty minutes before heading back down to the beach and back to the ranch. It was cold out and I think I’m really starting to get a cold now, but riding the horses through the beach and sand dunes is well worth it—as a side note, I was the only one to fall of my horse! Anyway, once we got back the people had prepared a huge barbeque for us. It was late in the afternoon so I was dying to eat. Our lunch was perfect and they had a small fire going so we all sat around it roasting marsh mellows for an hour after we ate. This was a perfect way to end a perfect trip. However, we still had to go and eat pizza for our last meal together. We went to a fancy pizza restaurant to have dinner with our whole group, as well as, all the Chilean students we met throughout the two weeks. The pizzas were delicious and now were all back at the hotel writing our blogs and waiting to go out one last time with the Chilean students!

The Final Sretch

This is our second to last day here in Chile! The trip is going by way too fast, and I’ve loved every second of it. Anyway, today we had a free morning—I finally was able to sleep in! After my much needed rest, we headed out to go paintballing. I didn’t even know that they liked and or even had paintball down here. I have never played before, but everyone who has said it is extremely fun. The course was an hour away, so everyone slept on the bus—like all the other trips. Some people were a little nervous heading out, primarily because we didn’t know if they were going to give us some sort of clothing to put on so we don’t ruin our clothes, which they did. We had to wear these really big and baggy jumpsuits over our clothes, a neck guard, as well as a paintball mask. After we were given the clothes, we were told the rules of the course, the rules of the game, and how to fire the gun. Then two people were chosen to be the captains and they choose the teams. We split up and headed out to the course—one blue team and one red team, I was blue. Anyway, we played a game that was similar to capture the flag. A flag was placed in the center of the course and the objective was to capture it and advance it up to the other team’s base. If you get shot, you are out for a minute and have to return to the base. My team won the first game easily, but I was shot many times—but I really didn’t think it hurt getting shot with them. After the first game, a lot of the kids were almost out of ammo. We were only given paintballs and they don’t last. The worst part of it was that they only had 300 more for the whole group. So needless to say, we only were able to get one more full game in. After that, the kids who still had some paintballs played another game while everyone else waited by the bus. I really enjoyed playing paintball, but there were a lot who simply didn’t have a good time. We got back to the hotel later in the afternoon and we had the rest of the day off. So some of us decided to go out to a Chilean Chinese restaurant, but I couldn’t find my wallet. I didn’t go to dinner and I spent well over two hours looking for the thing. So I had to call home and cancel my credit card and now I’m writing my blog hoping I just accidently left it on the bus.

Good Food & Cueca

Today we visited Hela and Centauro, and then we went back to the university and learned how to dance Cueca. Our first company we visited was Hela, which is a manufacturer of paint brushes and wire wheels. We got there rather early in the morning so we were all really tired for the visit. We toured their plant and saw how they manufacture the paint brushes and wire wheels. The visit was interesting, but I liked our visit to Centauro a lot better. Centauro is a manufacturer of canned goods—they are sort of like the Heinz in Chile. Anyway, we tasted some of their food like canned tomatoes, tomato paste, peaches, and pumpkin puree. All of the food we tasted was amazing, especially the canned tomatoes, which is surprising because I normally don’t like tomatoes. The best food, however, was the pumpkin puree, which looked a lot like baby food. After we tasted the food, we were given a tour of the facility and saw how the canning process and how it works. We ended our visit rather late in the afternoon, so we went out to get lunch. We got empanadas again, but these ones were easily the best yet. Empanadas are essentially like small calzones, but filled with different meats and cheeses. Our lunch lasted for a while, and we ran a little late for our Cueca lessons at the university. This dance is actually the national dance of Chile, but is common only in certain regions of the country. The dance itself was quite difficult to do, but it was a lot of fun. There is a lot of flirting that went on between the men and women, which was fun. Now I’m back at the hotel doing my blog, and going to get some Chilean Subway latter tonight.

More Soccer and Shopping

Today was a rather relaxing day again. All we really did today was present our power points to Jiame, one of the professors at the University. My presentation was on LANS Airlines and it went pretty well. The only down side to it was that the guy used to work for LANS and the questions he asked me were not quite as easy as the ones he asked the other groups! I survived them and over all had a good presentation. After everyone went, we had a short lecture from the professor about various aspects of Chile. Then we had lunch in the cafeteria at the university again. We came back to the hotel at around 2:30 and were told that we were going to play soccer with the Chileans a gain. We had to walk to the fields and we all went together. The fields were a long walk, it probably took us a solid twenty five minutes or so to get to them, but the walk was worth it. There were three fields perched atop the hill overlooking the city, the view was spectacular. The fields were small ones again, so we split up the teams like we did earlier at the spa. I was the goalie again and did another great job in net; I think my team won almost every game! After soccer, we had the rest of the day to ourselves.  There was a large shopping mall next to the fields, so almost everyone went there after. Chris and I found a gym in the mall and we lifted for an hour. We had some McDonalds—which was over-priced, had poor service, took twenty minutes to make my food, and wasn’t good. After the disappointing meal we walked back to the hotel and started to blog.

Surfing In Winter!

Today was our first and only free day of the entire trip, and I took full advantage of it! Mike, Aaron, Stephon, Nikit, Allison, and I went surfing in a small town thirty miles out of Vina Del Mar. We were picked up by a girl who we all thought went to the university, but we later found out she didn’t and none of the Chilean students knew who she was. Anyway, she picked us up in her truck that only had enough seats for six people, and we had eight including the driver. So Aaron and I sat in the bed of the truck for the whole ride. We had brought McDonalds and were eating it on the way to the beach, and we were getting some pretty weird looks from everyone around us. Anyway, the trip took a very long time and it was freezing in the bed of the truck. We arrived at the beach and the girl who drove us said she had to leave and that there was a bus stop somewhere that would take us back to Vina Del Mar. So she took us and left all us to fend for ourselves for the afternoon. We were a bit concerned about how we were going to get back. We paid for the lessons and changed into our wetsuits, and mine had several holes in them, and remember its winter down here and the Pacific Ocean is much colder than the Atlantic. So we were all ready to go and the two instructors with our group told is to get in the water. This was the coldest I have ever been in my life, and the water kept getting in my suit I thought I was going to freeze! However, I was able to cope with the cold and had a lot of fun surfing. This was also the first time I ever went surfing and the first time I was in the Pacific Ocean too! The lesson passed by quickly and we had to get back for a group dinner at 6:30. Getting back took a while and we just hoped that the bus we got on was the right one. The ride took a while, but we got back in time for the dinner. We ate at this really high end restaurant overlooking the ocean, it was amazing. I ordered some steak and it was the best I had ever had in my life. Dinner lasted until 9 and now I’m back at the hotel blogging.

SPA DAY!

Today was one of the best days of the trip so far! First off, we woke up later in the day, and we drove off to a spa. We didn’t have any company visits, lectures, tours, or any other activities planned. All we did from 11AM until 6 PM was hangout at the Chilean Spa. This was no ordinary spa, they had pools, restaurants, table tennis, foosball, soccer fields, and many other fun activities. The first thing we did at the spa was play soccer with the Chilean students. We played on a small clay field with smaller nets. We were divided into teams of four, with a goalie. Although they were extremely good, I feel as though we did a really good job, and we actually won several games. I played goalie for each game, and I made some excellent saves! After the soccer games, we went to a buffet style restaurant and ate some authentic Chilean dishes. We hung out at the table for a while before heading out to explore the spa. It was a cool day probably around 55 degrees, and the water in the pools were freezing cold, but that didn’t stop me and my friend mike from jumping in—a huge mistake. I jumped into the icy water and immediately regretted it. My whole body was shaking and I couldn’t move, and we couldn’t find any towels. So Mike and I got out and ran into the indoor pool, and it was amazing. The water was extremely warm and we just stayed there until we had to leave the spa. We left the spa to have a barbeque dinner at Professor Werner’s house, the head of program here on the Chilean side. All we did at his home was eat, hangout, and play more foosball. The food was delicious and we had a great time. We got back late at night and just passed out. Tomorrow is going to be soo much fun, we have the day free to do anything we want!

More Wine Than Water!!!

Our day started off poorly for the entire group, the hotel’s water broke and no one was able to shower and we had to use bottled water to brush our teeth with—well that’s Hotel America for you. Anyway, our first stop of the day was to Vine ido meta vineyard in the casa balanca valley in central Chile. We got to the vineyard really early in the morning and had a tour of their facility. The winery is rather new, began production in 2001 and had their first wines ready for sale in 2004. Wine is beginning to become very popular in Chile, and it is really cheap—making it popular with both the locals and foreigners. The tour of the Winery was really interesting, we were able to see the huge vats that are used to ferment to young wines, as well as the oak barrels that they are later stored in to age. They showed us there storage room and explained how it is naturally cool in there and that they don’t use any temperature control. After that, we were brought upstairs to taste some of their wine. I don’t remember the names of the wines, but we tasted both white and red wines—neither of which I am very fond of. We then got back on the bus and rode out to Isla Negra, the home of Pablo Neruda, a famous poet and Chilean politician from the 1900’s. Upon arriving, we had an amazing lunch in a restaurant adjacent to Pablo’s house. Our seats faced the ocean and there were massive waves crashing on large rocks, spraying mist many feet into the air. My lunch was delicious and we relaxed at the table for a good hour after we ate. Then we were given an hour to just relax and explore the area before we had to go on the tour. So everyone in the group went out to the adjacent beach and sat on the rocks and watched as the waves crashed beautifully into them. The hour went by quite fast, and we had to tour Pablo’s home. His house was interesting, he had collected many naval items to which he decorated his whole home with. His house looked like a boat. His room had a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean. After his house tour, we visited his studio, where he had a similar design to it. After the tour was over, we arrived back to the hotel the earliest that we have all week, so me and my friend went down to the gym and were able to get a good workout in. I am really happy that our dancing lessons are finally over, so I can now have more time to blog and just relax.

Mushroom Factory and Final Dance Lesson

It’s already Thursday; this trip is going by so quickly! We started our day off with another lecture down at the university, followed by another lunch at the cafeteria. After that, we headed down to our next company visit, the mushroom factory. A lot of people say they enjoyed this visit, but I can’t really say that I shared the same feelings as them. It’s not that the tour was boring, it was just that I could not stand the foul smell that comes out of from making mushrooms. I honestly almost threw up! I don’t even know how to explain the smell other than saying that you honestly don’t want to inhale that foul aroma. Aside from the smell, the visit was interesting. We saw the whole process that is involved in the production of the mushrooms. There is a good amount of chemistry that goes into making one of these little puffy mushrooms. My favorite part of the visit was when we went into the giant dark room where the mushrooms actually grew. It didn’t smell in there, and the place was quite interesting! After the visit, we all headed down to the university, again, for our final dancing lesson. Today’s lesson was on rigitone, and it was the most difficult of all the lessons so far! The instructor doesn’t really tell us how to do the dance; he just does it and makes us keep up with his pace. Even though the lesson was hard, they were still fun and I am glad they were part of our itinerary. After the lessons, we gave the instructor a gift for helping us, and then we got dinner. After that, I got back to the hotel where I am blogging and waiting for the Chilean students to take us out again!

LANS Visit and more dancing

Today was a really long day; I woke up in in the morning around 7:30 and didn’t sleep until around 3! Anyway, our day started out with another long lecture, though this one was more interesting and interactive than yesterday’s—so most of us actually stayed awake! We covered more points about the culture of Chile. After the lecture, we headed down to the cafeteria for some more Chilean university food! After lunch, we all got onto the bus and rode an hour or so down to Santiago again to visit LANS. LANS is currently one of the largest air carriers in the world, and the largest in South America. This was the company I had to research and give a presentation on, so I was excited to visit them and get some more information about the company. However, the visit was nothing more than a random employee, speaking broken English, giving us a tour of the website. His presentation lasted very long, and was accompanied with an even longer Q & A session. Most of the questions asked weren’t even relevant to the company. So, needless to say, I really didn’t gain all that much from the visit. Also, we were told that the kids from last year were given a tour of the tarmac and the cabin of one of their planes! All we got was a tour of a website and about a half hour of waiting in the lobby. Anyways, after the visit we got back onto the bus and found our way back to the university where we were taught our last Salsa lesson! Salsa was easier than Rigitone, in terms of physical activity but the steps and moves were quite difficult than the first day’s lesson.  After that we got back to the hotel and got some dinner and now I’m blogging about all the day’s activities.

Santiago City Tour

Today we visited the city of Santiago. Upon arriving, we toured the Santiago Stock Exchange. I was surprised to learn that the Stock Exchange was started over one hundred years ago. After we were lectured about the history and relevance of the Santiago Stock exchange we visited the trading floor. There was next to no one down there because they have an electronic system. I was expecting to see a scene similar to the New York Stock Exchange, but this wasn’t the case. We really didn’t stay at the exchange for long, so afterwards we began our tour of the city. Our first stop was at the Chilean White House where the president works. Afterwards we went to the main square in Santiago, which was the origin of the city. Whenever Spain would create a new city, they centered it around a main square. The square was beautiful, and there was a very old and ornate church on the square as well. We spent a good twenty to thirty minutes in the church looking at all the details. It really reminded me of a church in Europe. After that we visited a museum that outlined the history of Chile. The museum was interesting but everything was in Spanish and there wasn’t anyone around to translate it for us. Its times like this that make me regret not being able to speak a foreign language. Anyway, the museum was fun and we went to a nice restaurant in a small market place for lunch. It was an all sea food establishment, and I’m not really fond of fish. So I ordered some shrimp, and just ate a bunch of rolls—all of the places in Chile have delicious and freshly made bread! After lunch we walked around the market place for a while to shop for some souvenirs. Then we rode off to this mountain that is located in the middle of the city and rode a very sketchy incline up to the summit—and I was quite nervous on the ride since I almost died on one yesterday! But I survived, and the view from the top was breathtaking—even with all the smog covering the city. It really in a shame because the city is so beautiful, but you can’t really get to appreciate it. We spent a good hour or two up there before heading down to a local street with a bunch of boutiques and shopped and got ice cream. Then we returned to the University for our first dance lesson. We learned how to dance rigatoni tonight, it was honestly like participating in a workout video, but it was a lot of fun. We then headed back to the hotel and I’m currently blogging and waiting to head out with the Chilean students later tonight.

Our First Full Day !!!

Today is our first full day here in Chile! I have already had a lot of fun last night and at Pitt the day before, and today was even better! We got to see the University of Santa Maria during our tour of the campus. The university is located atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The whole university was founded by a generous donation from a local wealthy Chilean who wanted to promote engineering in Chile. The campus is beautiful; most of the buildings are very old and remind me of the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. We also met a few of the local students who are going to be with us for our time here in Chile. After the tour, we headed down into one of the classrooms and were given a lecture about the business culture and climate of many South American countries. I thought the lecture was interesting, however, it could have presented a little better. After the lecture, we headed down to their one and only cafeteria on campus. There must have been nearly a thousand students waiting in line to get in. It took us a decent amount of time to get our food. Anyways, after the lunch we got onto the bus and were given a tour of Valparaiso. The city is located right next to Vina Del Mar, which is where we are staying. You literally cross a street and you’re in the other town. It’s essentially one big city divided in the middle. The tour was amazing, I always enjoy visiting new areas and learning about how it was created and its history. The tour was going great until I nearly died! We rode an incline up to the top of a mountain to take pictures and shop at some local stores. However, this nearly ended badly for me. There is a rickety old wooden door in the back of the car that you get in and out of, and me, being the smart person I am, was standing right next to it. Then, as we were passing the other incline on our way up, the car jerked. Everyone was tossed a little and I flew back against the door and I felt it bend back. If I would have hit it even a bit harder, it would have opened, and I would have fallen down the whole mountain! But that didn’t happen and I survived that near death experience. After the tour, we went back to the University to have our first dancing lessons. We all learned how to dance Salsa, and it was really enjoyable. The only bad part was that we were doing these lessons in a courtyard and there were a lot of local students who were watching and laughing at us during the lesson, but they were really fun! Now I’m back at the wonderful Hotel America writing my blog and later tonight some of the Chilean students are going to take us out!

Chile at last!!

Chile at last! We have finally made it to Chile. I can’t wait to finally get this trip under way. Everyone who I have talked to before coming here who has taken the trip says it’s the most fun they have had! Anyway, I wasn’t able to sleep for a minute on the plane and we got into the airport early and still had the whole day ahead. After we got off the plane, we had to go through customs, which was one of the most agonizing and slow processes I have ever gone through. But I managed to survive. After that we packed onto the bus and were all swindled out of a few thousand pesos by a guy who helped put our bags in the bus. Oh well, the ride from Santiago to Vina Del Mar, the city where we’re staying at, took about an hour and a half and everyone was passed out on the ride over. Upon arriving, we got to see our hotel for the first time, and it isn’t pretty! It’s old, run down, small rooms, really small bathrooms and ackward hall ways, but I don’t mind. All we will do there is shower and sleep, so I think I can manage it! After everyone was settled in, we walked across the street to a restaurant called Tiki Taco for some lunch. I shared a huge platter of meats and vegetables with Sarah, and we only finished half of the monstrous pile of food. After lunch, we headed down to see a local soccer match. The game was really fun and different than any other sporting event I have been to before. Everyone was cheering and singing their team’s song. There weren’t many people there, but it was loud. The local team ended up winning 3-2, after trailing 2-0 in the first half. After the game, we headed back to the hotel and were given the rest of the night off. So my friend Aaron and I went down to the casino, sorry dad—it was part of the Chilean experience! I didn’t do too well, but I was easily one of the best dressed people there. It’s not so much about playing good as it is looking good, and I was rocking the suit tonight! However, the Black Jack table destroyed me and I inevitably ended up going back to the hotel depressed and had nothing else to do but start writing my blog, but it was well worth it!

day before we leave

Today has been filled with a lot of waiting and anticipation. Tomorrow we will be heading down to pittsburgh International to finally get ready for our trip to Chile. We will be flying first to Miami and then to Santiago. But before all of this we had a meeting down in the business school to have our pre departure meeting. Nothing really important was done there, a skit we had perform in groups took up the bulk of the time. The skits were basically a large final ice breaker, I really don't like group activities so my participation in it was non existent. Afterwards we went down to south oakland and had a group dinner at a little mexican place. Nothing else really happened after that.

Welcome

My name is Nick Mankosa and I will be going to Chile for two weeks. Look here for updates on my trip.