Learning about Chile

Today was a full day of lectures for us at the university. We met with our professor, Jose Luis Cortes, who started off the lecture by asking each of us what we wanted to gain from this trip. I came to Chile to learn more about the culture and the business world here because I would like to study abroad in Latin America again in the future. The lecture was split into a morning and afternoon session. In the morning we learned about the history, literature, geography, tourism, art, and culture of Chile. We learned about the controversies of Pinochet as a ruler, and the return to democracy after his ruling. After Pinochet, the four following presidents were all socialists or leftists, but the current president- Sebastian Pinera- is a rightest. The Chileans feel very secure with him as president, and he has led them through many difficult times, including the earthquake and miner's incident in 2010. We then moved on to literature and talked about two famous Chilean poets, Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral. After lunch in the cafeteria, we learned about Chilean society, gender issues, capital vs. regions, Chilean ads, and natural disasters. It was really interesting to watch some of the Chilean ads and their marketing techniques because that is what I am interested in as a business major. It was also really interesting to learn about the natural disasters, specifically earthquakes, and what to do when one comes about. Jose Luis talked about his experience during an extreme earthquake and how they had to run to the hills for safety. Overall, it was a very interesting and informative lecture and Jose Luis was a very animated and kind person who kept our attention the entire time.