Day 14: Back in the good ol' USA

After a nine hour flight we arrived in Dallas, Texas. Everyone was pretty upset to be leaving Chile but on the bright side we were back home. We had a two hour lay over in Dallas and it was onward to Pittsburgh. As I sat in the Dallas airport I began to reminisce about this amazing 2 week experience.

The people I met on Plus 3 Chile will be friend that I have for life. Even the students we met in Chile were great and we are all friends on Facebook. We will definitely be keeping in touch. This trip was something I will never forget and something that changed me for the better. To start it has been years since I flew on an airplane so that experience alone was an interesting an eye opening one. I knew a few girls coming into this trip but the girls and guys I met throughout the workshops were great people. Not going to lie everyone seemed a little weary at the workshops and the excitement hadn't yet kicked in but the second we boarded that plane it was all a reality.

This was only a two week excursion but I could not possibly have asked for a better two weeks. We learned so much about the culture, economy, food, people, and many different places. I would love to return to Chile to learn more and explore more cities. Looking back on the trip I wouldn't have changed a thing, not even the hotel we were staying in. Yes Hotel America wasn't 5 star but it was an experience and adventure in itself. My absolute favorite day was when we visited the wine company then went to Isla Negra and had that amazing lunch and explored the beach. The weather could not have been any more perfect and I could not have asked for better people to spend the day with.

We, hands down, had the most fun out of any Plus 3 program and had two amazing advisors. I would like to say thank you to Sarah Wagner and Jorge Abad for easily one of the best times of my life. It went too quickly though but it will always be a memory in my head, something I could never possibly forget. The knowledge alone we learned from this trip in the lectures and attending the University were great but getting out in the real world and exploring and putting that knowledge to the test was a completely different story. I loved having the ability to work on my spanish and practice it in real life situations not just in the class room.

Thank you again for an amazing two weeks. I will never forget this experience and I hope the freshman next year have just as good of a time that we did!!

Day 13: Leaving Chile :(

Possibly one of the sadest days so far on this trip the day we had to pack up and

leave. I woke up this morning in severe pain from horse back riding and in a bad

mood because I knew we were leaving just a few hours later. I decided to pull my

painful body out of bed and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. And of course

for my last shower in chile it was again freezing cold. After a quick wash I knew it

was time to start the inevitable task of packing. All of my clothes and things were

spread all over my room and I had no idea how I was going to fit it all or how I

even fit it in the first place. I started to fill my space bags and I quickly

figured out that my suitcase would easily be over the weight limit of 50 pounds.

After a solid two hours I squished everything in my bag and sat all my body weight

on it to close it. I reweighed it with my friend Alyssa's suitcase weigher and as I

suspected it was 55 pounds. O well looks like I'm paying the extra 100 dollars. It

was now 12:00pm and it was time to go to our last lunch as a plus 3 group. We had a

couple issues picking a place but after a small focus group we decided to go back to

where we started...tiki taco. That was where we had our first lunch together and it

was only fitting to have our last there. We ha d a delicious Mexican lunch with

excellent salsa verde and some fajitas. We all talked about what we thought about

the trip and who and what we would miss most. It was a sad but good lunch together.

We cut it a little close with the time we finished lunch and the time to catch the

bus. We boarded the bus at 2 for a two hour bus ride to Santiago, which again I

napped on. Now we are in the Santiago airport munching on some subway getting ready

to board in five minutes. Now off to Dallas!

Day 12: Last full day in Chile :(

Today was a sad but amazing day in Chile. It was our last full day here. I can't even fathom how fast these two weeks went. So crazy, but we had some great highlights today. We started our day waking up a little early but highlight we got Starbucks! Espresso is my new favorite thing. So after a nice 45 minutes bus ride and lovely morning nap we arrived a gorgeous ranch with pigs, bores, and of course beautiful horse. Actually over 40 of them! We all wandered around the farm looking at the different and cute animals they had. I loved all the dogs they had. Then we were called over to the pasture with the horses all saddled up and ready to ride. I got a semi calm horse which I was okay with because I didn't need to be bucked off. It's name was Pomedorno and he was very pretty. He was a rather tall horse because I am a rather tall person. haha.

My horse for the afternoon

When it was time to ride we received a lesson from the lady who owned the ranch and learned how to turn and work the horse so we could get it to do what we wanted. It was a little tough at first, my horse enjoyed walking sideways. Of course I got the weird horse. But once it came time to follow every one and get to the real ride he was all straightened out. We rode down a long drive way where it met the beach and we rode along there. We had three guides helping us and they taught us how to gallop. WOW was that a good time. I have never galloped on a horse before and my horse could fly. I held on for dear life as we flew down the beach through the water passing everyone. It was a once in a life time feeling and it was incredible. We then approached some forests which of course there was more water then we had to trot through getting a little wet. These small windy paths led to enormous sand dunes that our horses climbed up and almost fell a couple times but they were built for it. You could tell who was not used to riding horses because you always need that one person who falls off the horse...this time it wasn't me. (No mom I wasn't the clumzy one on this adventure). But we hiked up what felt like mountains of sand is was gorgeous!

Sand dunes we were climbing over

I wish I could describe the experience better but it was just too amazing to put into words. After going for an hour on the sand dunes we stopped for a break so us and our horses could regain some strength and then continued on back down to the beach. We were on straight patches of beach for miles so all we kept doing was galloping. We were having some races and it was so much fun, but definitely a work out. After an hour of that we definitely tired our horses out and it was time for some lunch...for us and them. 

We arrived back at the ranch to a beautiful bbq and salad spread made by the people who worked there and it was a great outdoor picnic. We all sat around a fire and enjoyed each other's company and talked and laughed over some meat that they had prepared right there on the ranch.

Yummy!

Easily one of the best days of my life. Sadly this day is coming to an end. We have one final dinner with all of the Chilean students and then time for our last night out!! I'm definitely not ready to leave and I definitely want to come back! ASAP :)

Day 11: Paintball Team Sangre!!

Today was a great day! We got the chance to sleep in until 10:30 this morning and it felt lovely. We laid in our warm beds until we realized we should probably get our day started. So my day started with a fairly warm shower and it was time to get dressed. We then realized there was no "buffet" for breakfast this morning and we had to fend for ourselves for food. We found a starbucks and a had a yummy warm cinnamon roll and ice carmel macchiato. It was sooo good, definitely better and more filling than every breakfast we have ever had this hotel. It was a beautiful day outside and we had a free morning so what would be better than to spend our morning on the gorgeous beach?! Absolutely nothing that's what! We took the short walk to the beach and we spent all morning taking pretty pictures and spending our last free morning in Chile there. It was great!

I love Chile!

After a gorgeous and relaxing walk on the beach it was time to suit up and get down and dirty! It was time to play paintball. I was a little weary about playing because I am so injury prone but I tried my best. I was picked by my friend Alli to be on team red or team sangre (blood) and we also had both of our advisors so I thought we had an advantage, but I was wrong. Our team actually followed some of the rules. I did pretty darn well the first two games but when it came to the last game, that is where it all went down hill. I was shot straight in the head and in the butt. I'm not too sure who did it but now I have a huge welt on my head. Other people also received battle wounds and I would've much rather have been doing other things like staying on the beach and even reading. I don't really like to read so that is when you know that I would've rather been doing something else. But it was a once in a life time experience and I really mean once. But we quickly got out of our very little protective gear that we were wearing and hoped on the bus back home.

I took a little nap on the ride back and it was time for some din din. We ventured to a small italian restaurant and had a very filling pasta meal. We enjoyed some great conversation with team sangre and had a great time. I returned to the hotel took an ice cold shower which was a natural icing for my bump on my head. Now it is time to get ready to go out for one of our last night's in Chile. But one plus side...HORSE BACK RIDING TOMORROW!! 

Day 10: Two in One

Today we had to wake up at 8:00 but no lecture was scheduled. Instead we had the pleasure of attending two company visits in one day, HELA and Centauros. Of course I tried to sleep in as long as possible and was late for breakfast, so my breakfast consisted of yogurt, which I took the spoon on the bus with me, and I took two apples to try to hold me over...did not work. We arrived at the first company which was HELA, which is a tool producing company. Their specialty is mainly brush making, like household brushes. But let me just say, no disrespect to the people who work there, the job look pretty tedious and boring. I'm not an assembly line kind of person I guess. But anyway we arrived and of course had to wear our sexy steel toed boots, protective googles and ear plugs. Sadly we didn't get to keep the stylish safety googles but we did get the cheap ear plugs. I will be using those on the plane. The assembly process was interesting and to my surprise a lot of women work there. WHOO GO WOMEN GETTING OUR HANDS DIRTY!

Assembly of the brushes

After our exciting visit to HELA, it was off to Centauros, which was a canning company. This company was a good hour away from the other one so we all got to take a solid nap and I needed it. So we arrived and it was a gorgeous day and we pulled up to the same of fruit being mashed, turns out they were making pumpkin paste, which I found extremely interesting. We went into a small sampling room where we learned about their family owned business and actually got to try their product. We sampled canned peaches, canned tomatoes and their famous tomato paste. I'm not a fan of tomatoes but it was all excellent, especially the paste it tasted like it belonged right on some pizza. Well then toured the factory and it was really cool to see how they made the paste and we actually tried some of their pumpkin paste, not my favorite but still interesting. Again we got awesome outfits, some hairnets this time. We all look so good of course.

                                                             

After our company visit it was off to lunch, and thank goodness because I was starving. So of course just guess where we went..EMAPANADAS!! This place was different and these were huge. It was good and filled me up because we needed our energy because we had a dance class but this time was very different. It was called Cueca which is the national dance of Chile. Let me just tell you it was so cool to watch but so hard to learn. There was a lot of multi tasking with a handkerchief and lots of steps but after a few times I think I accomplished it. But once we had to do it with a partner that was an issue. But again after a few tries we got it. Our teachers were so good so I don't think I could ever be as a good as them. We are now all back at the hotel super exhausted but excited for tomorrow because it is a free morning. YAY! Time to sleep in.

 My cueca partner

Day 9: Last Lecture

Today sadly we did not get to sleep in today but today was our last lecture at the university. Sadly no more hundreds of steps anymore...o darn! But we gave our company presentations and ours went really really well. It was very interesting to hear about everyone's companies. But we did finish early today and actually had a pretty nice lunch this afternoon. Yummy noodles and I will especially miss the amounts of bread we eat. Definitely getting enough carbs in for the day. That is the only thing keeping me going, having little sleep is not the most fun thing in the world. But honestly I would not want to be sleeping because this place is too amazing to be sleeping and missing out on anything.

Final view of the university

After going to the last lecture we went back to the hotel and took a little cat nap before we had to get our athletic gear out and play some soccer. I played soccer over 10 years ago but I'm dusting off the cobwebs and remembering some moves, I had four goals out of 7...o yeah MVP! It was a soccer field on top of a huge hill over looking the mall and a lot of the city. It was a lot of fun and definitely a gorgeous day to play. We only played against each other but it actually was so much fun but I did receive some battle wounds from the turf but it's okay play hard! 

After some soccer and looking real rough we headed to the mall...again! This time I bought a few more things but still avoided buying shoes, it was tough. We got yummy frozen yogurt and walked around and explored the mall. Everything here is really expensive though. We decided to go to the outdoor shops and actually found other people studying abroad from the states! It was so cool running into them and they are actually studying spanish so I talked to them a little about that. Always nice to see a semi familiar face.

We walked back to our hotel...14 blocks again and dying of hunger. And of course where do we go for the second night in a row, to go get empanadas! Today I decided to try a new one and got some shrimp but of course still delicious. We had a great conversation with our trip advisor Sarah and she is literally one of my new role models. She is a great resource and can't wait to learn more from her.

Today was a fun day minus how sore I am. Now for the last time in Chile off to kareokee! 

Day 8: FREE DAY!!!

It is a beautiful Sunday morning in Chile and I woke up this morning at 11:15. Sleeping in felt amazing I can't even explain how bad I needed it. But after a successful catch up on sleep my friend Alli and I went for a 6 mile run along the beautiful coast of Chile. Let me just say I haven't ran in forever but it felt great to get back in the swing of things. We passed many people and felt the mist on our face as we ran not ever 20 feet away from the water. GORGEOUS! After our run we walked down to the water to naturally ice our sore muscles and let me tell you it was definitely like ice! Sadly Alli cut her foot open on some glass but DON'T WORRY Dr. Molly came to the rescue! I should switch my major...NOT! 

After successful run and shower it was off to the mall! It was a decent walk...14 blocks but worth it. I actually had restraint and did not buy that much mostly for others. I know such a giving person. Anyway this mall was at least 4 stories with every store you could possibly think of. Sadly we did not get there with enough time because we had to be somewhere at 6:30 so we did not get to do too much exploring. But we did find a nice flea market type thing outside with much cheaper but still pretty items. That's where I did most of my buying.

After a quick walk back, 14 blocks, it was time to get dressed because our advisors were talking us out to dinner. We to get all fancy and it was a surprise where we were going. We felt at 6:30 and walked a couple blocks along the beach to a gorgeous restaurant called Tierrra del Fuego (Land of Fire). It was directly on the beach and empty we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. We sat on the second floor and had a huge beautiful table. We luckily had a waiter who spoke english but I did practice my Spanish a little. First we had a delicious appetizer of garlic shrimp and sautéed steak. OH DELISH! Then I was brace and order salmon and literally was the best thing I have ever tasted! For dessert I was trying to be healthy so I did just order a fruit tray. Luckily I ate nothing all day because I needed my stretchy pants after this gourmet meal. So absolutely delicious!

YUMMY!

P.s. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM! love you