Te amo Chile!

Hola! Sorry about the late blog, I thought I posted this yesterday but my internet went down apparently. But anyway, my blog for May 5th:

Today was our first actual planned day in Chile. It was awesome! It was super busy and lots of fun. First, we went to the University de Santa Maria for a tour around campus. It was gorgeous, it was a little foggy so you couldn’t see the view as well but it was still very pretty. The campus was made up of different buildings and courtyards and even a swimming pool in the middle of one which was unique. The students who gave us our tour were extremely nice and willing to answer any questions we had.

After our tour, we had a Chilean economics class. The professor was so intelligent! I was surprised at how well he spoke English and knew so much about everything it seemed like. Any question we asked he seemed to know the answer to. After class we presented our companies projects to the professor. It was nerve-racking at first but he was not intimidating and was eager to hear our presentations. After class, we went and ate at the University. I heard some pretty bad things about the food, but it was actually good! It was cafeteria style which was different than at Pitt.

After our visit to the University, we went on a tour around Valparaiso. There was recently just a big fire in the city so I was nervous about that. First we stopped at a place on top of the mountain of the city which was an amazing view and they had cute little vendors on the street which all of us shopped at and purchased some Chilean things for keepsake. Next we got dropped off in the middle of the city and just explored with our Chilean students. We saw so many things that we wouldn’t have seen if we just went on a guided tour – we got the inside look! It was awesome we went up the incline and explored streets with beautiful graffiti. There were more cats in Valparaiso I noticed, instead of dogs. We wandered for about two hours probably and then the tour bus took us to a popular beach. The waves were huge!! At the beach, we went to an empanada place and I ordered my first! Andres (one of the students) helped me decide what to order and how to order. It was interesting hear about his life and their culture. We showed each other our IDs and compared them also.

Following our tour, we took salsa lessons at the University! It was awesome! There were basic steps but it was hard to get the hang of it. Once I got in my groove it just came naturally. So, basically I’m a professional salsa dancer now. Okay guys, I have a busy day tomorrow, I’ll tell you all about it then!