Day 3:

Day 3:

Today we woke up pretty early to have breakfast before we headed to the university, Universidad Tecnica Frederico Santa Maria, that partnered with us on this program. A few students came to meet us and we took the public bus to the university. Once we reached the university, the students gave us a brief tour of the campus. Everything was beautiful and we learned a lot about the university and the student life style. We then had a lesson about the Chilean economy from Jaime, one of the professors at the university. There was a lot of information and he answered all our questions very thoroughly. Then we took a break for lunch and ate with a few of the students. They told us more about life in Chile as we ate the lunch provided by the school. After that, we met up with two new students who would be guiding us around the city of Valparaiso. The first sight we saw was the Open Sky Museum, which was essentially a series of uphill streets that had murals painted by famous artists. It was absolutely amazing and all the walking was definitely worth it. We then briefly visited Pablo Naruda's house. Unfortunately, the house was closed so we couldn't go inside, but we still saw it from the outside. We continued walking down more streets and took lots of pictures of the scenery. Every view was beautiful and I took way too many pictures. Then we went down and looked at the memorial statue for Arturo Prat, a hero in the War of the Pacific. From there we headed down to one of the main ports in Chile . There was a lot of "artesanias"that sold souvenirs and knick-knacks so a lot of us spent time buying gifts for friends and family. Then we took the us back to Vina del Mar to get some empanadas, which are basically HotPockets made with real food for dinner!!! I chose the ham and cheese empanada and it was absolutely delicious. I will probably be eating them all the time. After dinner, we headed to our first dance class at the university. Our instructor spoke only in Spanish so we had a few of the students translate for us. We learned the basic steps of salsa dancing and it was so much fun, even though I am a terrible dancer. That pretty much sums up our day. It was really interesting to learn about the economy of Chile and how it compares to the United States and other countries of Latin America. Being a business major, I definitely appreciated all the data and charts that made comparing everything easier. Today was a fully packed day and there wasn't a ton of down time, but I enjoyed staying busy and going from one activity to the next. I can't wait to see what other activities we'll be doing this week!

at the university

A mural in the Open Sky Museum