Day 2 in Chile: Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria!

On Monday, May 9^th 2011, we began our day with breakfast at the hotel and shortly after met some students from the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. We took the bus to the University and were given a tour of the campus. It is extremely beautiful, but since the buildings are mostly all open it was rather chilly inside as well as outside. On this tour, we learned some interesting traditions of the University. One of these traditions was to throw someone in the pool located outside if it is their birthday or if they are graduating. When the students are graduating, they supposedly give them their diploma then cut the boy’s tie or cut the girl’s stockings before throwing them in the pool with all their clothes on… suit jackets and all. The tie or stocking is then posted on a poster where they congratulate the student. After this tour, we participated in lectures about Chile’s culture and history. These lectures were very intuitive and thought-provoking. It helped me gain a better understanding of the country and what I can learn from this experience. Later, we took a tour of the cities Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. The cities were similar, but definitely had their differences. Valparaiso is more of a city and tourist area, although I did not notice any other tourists. Vina del Mar is not as populated, but it still looks similar with the houses up the sides of the hills. We stopped in several locations to take pictures and walked to a spot with great view of Valparaiso. Additionally, we stopped in a Roman Catholic Church, which was beautiful, but the outside looked nothing like a church. It was a yellow colored round building with a statue of a man in the front. There were also beautiful praying areas near the church. We walked to get fried empanadas and they were very good. I had one with ham and cheese, but they also had dessert ones that looked delicious. We traveled back to the University after this tour of the area to learn how to salsa. We learned the steps and danced to some salsa music, which was fun. Later, we joined some students from the University and went to a pub. It was a very exciting day, but now I am going to bed.