Day 5

Day 5:

Today was dedicated to lectures solely. We got up and took the public bus to the university. We were all pretty tired running on a little sleep but  Jose Luis was lecturing us on Chilean culture and he was very charismatic. We were all a little concerned that the lecture would take the entire day but I thought the time passed somewhat quickly. The information was interesting and presented in an engaging way. There was information on history, art, geography, tourism, business, natural disasters, dancing, music and a few other topics all pertaining to Chile. One of the interesting things I never thought about was how Chile’s geography affects its economy. Right now an issue in Chile is that close to 40% of the population is living in Santiago and other regions of Chile that aren’t as populated are not being utilized of their resources. The government is considering implementing a rewards program that encourages citizens to move outside of Santiago by paying them a sum. We also learned about a program that funds new businesses and encourages competition and networking. Even if one of these new businesses fails, the idea is that the entrepreneur will have met some people that could provide a job in the future. During the lectures, we had a few breaks which a bunch of us spent buying “café con leche” and other snacks at the university. After we returned to the hotel, a small group of us went to the mall to purchase some adapters for our appliances, and this time we succeeded. We didn’t have a lot of time to get food because we had plans with some of the Chilean students, so we grabbed something quick at the food court. Then we went back to the hotel and got ready to go out!