Hola!!! Today is day 2 and early this morning we had
breakfast and headed to the university. Our whole group stuffed onto the public
bus for the short ride to Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria. The university has the most beautiful
campus that I have ever seen. It is located right on the edge of Vina del Mar
and Valparaiso, so it splits these two cities.
Two students took us on a tour
of the university and it was very nice. They have a lot less students than we
do at Pitt, but the campus was still very large. The classrooms were similar to
a classroom I was in at David Lawrence Hall, but nothing like classrooms in
Bendum Hall at Pitt. After our tour, we had a 3 hour lecture on Chilean
competitiveness and Chile’s economic situation. The professor was very
intelligent and it was interesting to see how Chile compared to other Latin
American countries and to the U.S. A few things that I learned are that Chile’s
poverty rates are at the lowest they’ve ever been and prosperity growth is
strong, but they struggle with serious inequality problems. Also, the gas in
Chile is $7 per gallon!!! After the lecture we ate lunch at the university, met
two new students, and took a bus to Valparaiso. Rodolfo and Thomaz gave us a
tour around Valparaiso. We started with the sky museum, which was art work
lining the streets up a giant hill until we reached a beautiful view of the
city and the ocean. We went to many places including an overlook of the city,
the statue honoring the commanders in the War of the Pacific, the harbor, and
an incline to watch the sunset over Valparaiso.
After this, we had dinner and went to our first dance class! Today we learned basic Salsa steps! Our dance teacher did not speak English, so the students translated for him. He was a great dancer and very entertaining! I already knew a few basics of the Salsa, but he taught us how to turn and how to dance it with a partner. After class, we met up with Rodolfo and he took all 19 of us to his friend’s apartment. We got to meet about 10 of his friends and they took us to karaoke with them! His friends spoke as much English and I spoke Spanish. It was fun to try and communicate with them. I had so much fun going out with the Chileans!
After this, we had dinner and went to our first dance class! Today we learned basic Salsa steps! Our dance teacher did not speak English, so the students translated for him. He was a great dancer and very entertaining! I already knew a few basics of the Salsa, but he taught us how to turn and how to dance it with a partner. After class, we met up with Rodolfo and he took all 19 of us to his friend’s apartment. We got to meet about 10 of his friends and they took us to karaoke with them! His friends spoke as much English and I spoke Spanish. It was fun to try and communicate with them. I had so much fun going out with the Chileans!
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