a final goodbye

Sitting here in the airport in Chile, all of us can only reflect about what happened in the past two weeks. Every day was just so different from the rest and with each one a new memory was formed between all of us. We are all sitting here with our new USM sweatshirts and it is depressing to know that we will not be together again. We all did not really know each other before the trip, but we all came together just like our family, especially in our little meeting corners in the lovely Hotel America. We all wished we could have at least take a souvenir from the hotel seeing as how it was one of the weirdest and interesting experiences of our lives. I know it is safe to say that we will never have that same experience anywhere else. We all embraced the hotel and more importantly took on the Chilean culture and atmosphere to its fullest degree. Every day could easily be the best days of my life. I am torn between a couple of the days for my favorite, such as the Pablo Neruda house, horseback riding on the beach, the spa day, and especially surfing. This whole trip has opened all of us up to so many doors and experiences which few people get to have. I was not all to enthusiastic before the trip, thinking it would not be that much fun, but I could not have been any more wrong. I made a lot of new friends that I would never have met them at Pitt, but I know now that the memories we share together will always stay with us. These past two weeks have been the greatest days of my life so far and I hope to come back to Chile sometime in the future.  Even now, just hours after we all departed from eachother and it feels like it has been a year since we were all together in Hotel America. It is very depressing to think that we just spent two weeks in Chile and it is already done and gone. Sitting down and talking to my parents and family about my trip and all of our experiences truly does make me miss not only being in Chile, but everyone that was there to share the experiences with. We all came together with Chile as our common bond; no matter our background before Chile, we will always have that common thread that will be with us forever. If I could change one thing about my time in Chile it would be to truly appreciate every single day and moment that I experienced in Chile because our two weeks spent there went by way to fast. I remember sitting in the hotel room after surfing and just thinking that we were halfway done with our time there and that in merely five more days we would be on a plane heading back to the states. I think I speak for all of us when I say this, I already miss being in Chile, waking up in the morning and heading downstairs to see everybody and just enjoy each others' company.

Horseback riding

The day started off rough today. We were supposed to leave the hotel at 8:30 and Nick, Aaron and myself all woke up at 8:25. We had to rush to get down the stairs and just try to not be late. We made it and once we got on the bus we all passed out until we got to the place for horseback riding. I was the only one that was wearing shorts and the lady came up to me and said I will need to wear some of their chaps. Luckily everyone got them but it was a great start to the day. My horse ended up being the oldest and largest horse they had. It's name was Carnella but I renamed her Pinecone simply because I saw a pinecone on the ground and it seemed like a good fit. When we started to trot I noticed my horse was not the most agile of all creatures but she knew what she was doing. She had some miles on those legs. The view on the beach and in the sand dunes were amazing and life changing. This whole trip was spectacular and I am not ready for it to be over. After we were done riding the horses for 3 hours, we had a cookout at the main house and everything was delicious from the pork, sausage, rice, and the potato salad. Now it is time for another meal, the last one we will all have together.

free morning and a bit of paintball

I think it is safe to say I caught up on all the sleep I have been missing these past two weeks. a few of us went ot bed at around three thirty in the morning and I woke up and strolled out of bed just after 11. So it was technically an actual real night of sleep. Even though it felt like I was asleep for twelve hours, I woke up and still wanted to sleep a little bit after I got out of bed. Aaron and I then left for the beach and met up with mostly everyone. We all just sat there with some stray dogs and watched the waves come in. At about 1 o clock, Aaron and I were determined to get some food so we went to the OK Market. And I know all of you guys enjoyed what we came back with. That Rotisserie Chicken was demolished in about 5 minutes. Aaron and my walk back to the hotel took a lot longer than we expected. It is safe to say we got just a little lost, but we eventually found our beloved Hotel America. We then left as a group to go paintballing. Aaron was our team captain, and we absolutely dominated the red team. We won both games but ended up being out of paintballs. Constanza was the MVP seeing as how she ended up capturing the flag every single game. Now it is time to get some dinner and relax before our second to last night here in Chile. People are telling me as we speak that there really isn't water pressure right now for the showers, and they are freezing cold, so that's something to look forward to.

double company visit day

You would think that waking up every morning at around 8 o clock would get you in a routine and you would be able to function. Well we are almost done our stay here in Chile and every morning is still a struggle. Thankfully we had a long bus ride to Hela where I ended up being able to lay down and use my backpack as a pillow. We got to Hela and it was a lot bigger than I expected. We were able to watch how each prodcut was made from the brochas to the raspadores. The machinery was very high-tech and very German as pointed out by Christian. We even got to wear these cool loocking protective glasses and ear buds to block out the noise. To be honest Stefan and I kept getting distracted by the ear buds and kept playing with them when we had free time. After we had to give the glasses back, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Centauro where we were able to taste test their canned peaches, canned pear shaped tomatos, tomato paste, and squash puree. All of it was surprisingly good and tasted delicious. They are going to be making fruit juices and some vegetable juices in the next year to try to expand their product list. I personally think they will succeed in their markets. After the company visits and some empanadas, we headed to the university for the last time for a new type of dance. It was called Cueca (again the spelling is probably not right). It took a while to getting used to but it seemed very fancy and we were told it is a very old dance specific to Chile, even more specifically an actual region. Now we are at the best hotel in the history of the world, we were actually given towels today, and it is time for a nap.

last day at the university

After a calm night at Hotel America, which may be the best hotel in the history of the world, we woke up bright and early to head back to the University for our final lectures and to present our powerpoint presentations. We as of right now have not gone to HELA so we still could not really know what to expect when we finally do go there tomorrow afternoon. We are trying to figure out how well their company is doing but I expect we are downplaying them a lot. After we did our presentations we went back to the hotel, where Aaron, Stefan and I were trying to find a lock for Stefan's suitcase. I don't know where we ended up but I almost got hit by five birds that kept flying at me. They must really not like me trying to find a lock for Stefan. After being unsuccesful with the lock we bought a couple souvenirs and headed back to the hotel. After an hour nap we headed to a turf soccer field with Camillo to play with some of Camillo's friends. They were absolutely filthy good. I have never seen some of the foot skills that they had, I ended up scoring a goal though (it was mostly the Chilean student passed it off my foot into the net) but it still deserved an excessive celebration. We celebrated our loss by going to the mall and having a late lunch then heading back to the hotel. It has been a long day and worthy of a nap.

Our day off, but we went surfing

A couple of us (Aaron, Nick, Nikkit, Allison and Stefan) all decided that we wanted to go surfing. We had Javier call the girl I met on Monday who is a surfing teacher. So she came to the hotel, we greeted her with a kiss (lucky me) and she brought us to her friend who was waitng in the car. We had to squish into the back of it and Aaron and Nick had to sit in the bed of the truck. They said they had a lot of fun in there because they got to pretty much fly around whenever there was a bump. So after a half hour drive we got out of the car and Carla told us that she had to leave because her friend was sick and needed her. She left us in teh hands of Pedro who did not even turn out to be our instructor. We had two female instructors who were very nice and eventually called me "super Mike" for some reason but I don't think that with a nickname like that it could be a bad thing. We all tried to fit into our body suits which was a struggle, but we all eventually did it and then it was on to the lesson. We had to lay on the sand and our boards and pretend to paddle, exactly what you see whenever you see surfing lessons on TV or in a movie. After about ten minutes it was time for the water. It was one of the coldest water iI have ever been in. The waves weren't that big but they were big enough for us. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.Even just sitting on the board as the waves went by was so relaxing, but I haven't felt the way I did when I was riding the wave for my first time ever before. I am so glad that I got to come here to Chile where I reallly am having the time of my life and will remember this trip for as long as I live.

I don't think I can ever eat a mushroom again

Thursday started even earlier than Wednesday so we were all zombies after a night out with the Chilean students. Once we were at the University we had another interesting lecture about the cultural differences in Chilean life and business. I guess nobody in Chile trusts anyone because it just ends up biting them in the rear-end. We also learned about the Chilean music and the different regions that have different types of dancing, ranging from a hula dance from the Easter Island inhabitants to a cowboy like dance from northern Chile. We had lunch again at the University and found out that at the University, Chilean students often go up to the trays that people just used to see if people left any uneaten food and even asking complete strangers (once the stranger is done eating) if they could have what is left on their plate. I have never seen anything like it but that is just another difference between our culture and theirs. After our lunch we went to a mushroom selling company and saw the whole process of how they prep their fertilizer (made of straw) and combine it with a chicken manure compost then letting it ferment so no ammonia will be in the fertilizer. Then we got to see the actual growth rooms where there were crates on top of crates of mushrooms growing in the soil and it was actually very interesting to see the different growth stages and even leading up to the packaging process. They do everything in one location so they can minimize cost, having the making of the fertilizer to the end product all packaged and ready for sale. We then headed back to the University for our second