Today we were extremely busy. We started the day at Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. First, we
had lectures from Professor Jaime, who is a Chilean professor who got his
doctorate at Pitt. Our lecture focused
on the economy in Chile and other South American countries. We also ate lunch in the cafeteria at the university. This was a very different experience. There were no options like at Market Central,
instead you just picked up all of the parts of the meal as you move through the
line. We had sausage and mashed potatoes with a salad and bread. It was extremely packed in the cafeteria, so our
group had to split up to eat. It was
only me and another girl who sat at a table full of Chilean students. I felt pretty out of place since we were
speaking English and obviously not a part of the University.
Next, we went on a tour of Valparaiso, which was really fun.
There were a lot of murals on walls and the stairs which were really
gorgeous. The houses were all really
pretty bright colors. While in Valparaiso,
we met an Australian man who was running to raise awareness for cancer. He was running all throughout Chile- over 55
kilometers each day, which by my rough calculations is about 35 miles every
day. We also went on an incline up a
large hill in Valparaiso. The ride was a
little scary, but once we got to the top, there were a lot of little shops.
Later on, we got empanadas, which were my favorite food I have
gotten so far on the trip. I got an
empanada with goat cheese and chorizo inside, which was really good. These were also very cheap, which was
nice. I have noticed that food tends to
be pretty expensive here. Most meals
cost about 8000 Chilean pesos, which is about 16 dollars. When I eat out in the United States I usually
spend about 10 dollars on a meal.
However, I really appreciate the patience the waiters have had with us
so far on the trip. When we go out for
dinner we are on our own and none of us are fluent in Spanish. I try to use my Spanish, but a lot of the
words for food are different here than I learned in high school, which
complicates things. The waiters however
are very patient with our giant group of 17 gringos and they typically can
speak some English, so they try to help us too.
We also went out to a karaoke bar with some of the Chilean students,
which was very fun.
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