Tantas Cosas, Tan Poco Tiempo

The University view first coming in

Monday was a great day! I was so surprised on how much stuff we had planned and also about the early times we have to be out by, but that’s okay lol. Monday, Daniella and Valeria came to our hotel to take us to the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria where we will be studying for these two weeks. We had to take the public bus, and this bus system is nothing like WMATA or Port Authority. We all had to jam on the bus and I swear it was like a roller coaster ride. Everyone on the bus might have been a little annoyed at all of our “wee’s” and giggles but despite the craziness, it was such a fun ride! It took about 15 minutes to get to university and Daniella and Valeria gave us a tour. The college was absolutely beautiful.  It has a view of the beach and wonderful green area around the campus. It was very different for me because Pitt, despite its nice architecture, does not have so much green around campus and is overlooking the city of Pittsburgh versus the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, I think all of the Plus3 students were in awe of the campus. I also found it interesting that the students have 6 years to complete at the university to earn their degree.

Following the tour, we had a lecture presented by Dr. Jaime C Rubin de Celis Zambrano about Chilean business and economics. Managing in Complex Environments was such a difficult introductory business course for me, but I can say I was very pleased to see how much Atkin’s class prepared me for the business world, for the majority of key terms I learned in the course this past spring semester, were definitely utilized during the lecture Dr. Celis Zambrano presented. It was very interesting to see Chile’s real GDP and its factors compared to other Latin American countries and the world in general. He engaged aspects of socioeconomics with Chilean economics, business, and industry analyses which gave us more diverse backgrounds of the different factors. He really challenged our thinking and overall I learned so much!

After the lecture, we ate lunch in the lunchroom. It was different to see that the majority of the students eat lunch together, which made it a little bit awkward trying to find seats for everyone in our group. A lot of the students stared at us, for they were a bit surprised too to see “gringos” in their lunchroom. I was really excited to eat the food, but as I was eating I realized cafeteria food is cafeteria food wherever you go! Overall, I was still excited to be eating with the Chileans as students of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria and not just as awkward foreigners (even though we were the first day).

After lunch, two gentlemen named Rudolfo and Tomas, friends of Daniella and Valeria, took us to a tour of Valparaiso, a neighboring city of Viña del Mar (where we’re staying). I’ve never seen such an artistic and vibrant city like Valparaiso! We traveled up the Open Sky Museum  which is basically a hilly path full of different artistic works that artists have created. We traveled up through the entire “museum” and one thing I can say about Chile is that this country has amazing views for the view of Valparaiso because from the top of the hill was beautiful.


I forgot to mention that Chile also has a stray dog issue, so during our travel uphill there were about 3 dogs that took the place of Rudolfo and Tomas’ roles as tour guides. Let’s just say I’m not the biggest fan of large, beast-like creatures…

Like I said earlier, this was a very full day. After Valparaiso, we headed to our salsa lesson! Dance classes are part of the program for the first week, and were one of the things I looked the most forward to. However despite how much rhythm and skill I thought I had, this class definitely put me to the test! However, I refuse to look discombobulated with dancing, so I really had to focus to look like I gained some type of groove while salsa dancing. Even though it was tricky at first, I learned enough to show off when we went out Monday night! 

Me and my first empanada!

After our salsa lesson, we all went to this restaurant that specializes in empanadas! The people who went to Chile last summer said this is the main food they ate here, so we wanted to see what all the hype was about. I ordered an empanada con queso, carne, y elote (cheese, meat, and corn). I FELL IN LOVE! The bread was buttery and cheesy in the crust, and then mixed so well with the rest of the ingredients. If I ever am hungry and don't know where to go, empanadas are probably going to be the first option! Monday was such a good introduction to hopefully an amazing trip!