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!