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!