Week 2

This trip to Chile was an amazing one, one that I will never forget. I enjoyed everyday there. In the last week, we all had a little more free time to explore the beautiful country and experience the culture first hand. On Monnday we went into the capital of Chile, Santiago, where we visited the Santiago Stock Exchange. This company visit was very interesting because I was able to see the difference and similarities between the Santiago Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, one that I am farmiliar with.
After we visited the stock exchange, we then toured around Santiago looking at what the capital of Chile has to offer. This city is very unique and unlike none I have ever seen. The streets are packed with people and has a very big city feel to it, however, when we went up the incline to view the whole city, we were able to see that Santiago is very unique in the fact that the whole city is surrounded by mountains making it like one I have never seen.
The next day we visited Pablo Neudra's house, this was filled with many interesting artifacts that helped him with his poetry and gave him ideas about what to write. He was very influenced by the ocean so this is why his house was overlooking the Pacific. It was too bad that the day we went here, it was very cloudy and foggy so the view from his house was tainted by the wheater.
The best day I thought was the day we all went horse back riding. I will admit, at first I was skeptical, but once we got on the horses and started going I really enjoyed it. We we able to see the unique Chilean landscape and experience it while riding a horse. It was extremely fun especially since it was my first time riding a horse and like many things in Chile I was able to experience something for the first time I enjoyed a lot.
Overall, I would reccommend this trip to anyone that is intersted in traveling and are open to new and interseting things. There was no dull day here in Chile and while here I was able to meet a lot of Chilean people, who welcomed us all with open arms. Ialso met a lot of new friends from Pitt. This trip broadened my horizons and expanded my knowledge about world culture and international business as well. Chile was Awesome!!

week 1

We all got settled into Vina del Mar and noticed that everyone knows we are Americans just by looking at us. They call Americans “gringos.” During the first week we spent a lot of time at Santa Maria University where we took classes about the Chilean culture and economy. Throughout the week I was able to see the culture influence in society, meaning that dancing and music play a huge role in everyday life for the Chileans. These aspects of the society help make up each person’s personality which differs them from other societies and make them unique to the Chilean culture. Toward the end of the week we started to go on company visits. Our fist one being to Cadelco which was cool to see the factory and how copper was made, especially since copper is one of Chile’s most important export. We also visited Vina Indomita, a privately owned vineyard. This was extremely interesting to see how wine was created in Chile and how it was different from other vineyards, however, the wine market in Chile is far more important to the economy then compared to other countries. In the same day we visited Indomita we visited LAN airlines, this was also very interesting because we were able to see the operations of Chile’s most flourishing airline company. LAN is doing very well as a company and is finding new ways to save money and materials but still increase sales and profit, for example they are installing a new winglet on some of their fleet which will enable LAN to save on gas.
Also during the week we were able to tour around Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. Vina is smaller and not as populated it seemed. We went to Valpo a lot of nights for bars with the Chilean students we met on Monday. They are all very nice and are very welcoming of us. They all want us to have a very good time in their country. On the weekend of week one we had it to ourselves, where I caught up with some sleep that I did not get during the week because I noticed that the Chilean students do not leave till late and do not come back till late or early I guess in the morning. And also on one of the free days I was able to explore vina a little bit more b going to the mall and other various places getting a better understanding for the city as a whole. Near the mall is the soccer stadium which is where we went to go for the Everton soccer game. This was very interesting to see because I have never been to a soccer game before let alone a South American one. The fans are really intense and everyone here lives for soccer. Overall the first week was a great experience and interesting to see the difference in cultures. We meet some amazing people that are awesome to hang out with and extremely nice I had a great time and I am looking forward to the next week here in Chile!

chile plus 3 website

http://www.abroad.pitt.edu/ to go back to plus 3 website