Day 10

Day 10:

Today was our last day for lectures! We went to the university for class with Jaime at 9. All of us were exhausted after staying up late the night before. My group was the first to give our presentation on our company LAN. Since we had already visited the company, it was to our advantage to change a few things to reflect what we learned at the visit. Jaime gave us a few critiques and ways in which we could improve our presentation, which was great because he knew a lot about our company. Everyone else gave their presentations, which took a little bit of time, and then we had a break to get coffee and snacks. When we returned to class, Jaime asked us about our experience in Chile so far and we discussed the differences between Chilean culture and the culture of the United States. It’s interesting to compare the two because they are completely different, but there are some odd similarities you never would guess. For example, I noticed that Chileans listen to a lot of American music. I would have guessed Spanish music would dominate the radio stations but it was quite common to hear a familiar song playing on a daily basis. After our discussion, we all went outside and enjoyed the nice weather in the courtyard. The view of Valparaiso from this area was great. I wish I would have taken a picture, but maybe I can steal a photo from someone else. Next on the agenda was a soccer (football) game with some of the Chilean students. We went back to change at the hotel and then grabbed a quick lunch in the food court at the mall to fuel us. We met the other students at the turf fields and waited as they got ready to play. Now I consider myself athletic, but soccer is one of the few sports I am simply not good at. I had my doubts at first about playing with people who were clearly much better than me, but I made the most of it. I started off playing goalie and just praying no one kick the ball at my face, and eventually I moved onto the field and did some decent defensive work. It was really fun and got pretty competitive between some people. I was more concerned with having fun than winning, and I think I succeeded in that department.