Food

Back in the Saddle

I am here to write one last blog post and as I try to think of the words to say, I can’t help but feel as though I am trying to describe a dream that I must have had. To think that only a few days ago I was walking in the Andes Mountains, or on Chile’s coast , is almost mind blowing. Last week, which seemed to be slow moving at first went into fast forward and now, here I am, writing this post almost a full week since we have returned. The blur of a week which can be replayed in my head at a frame by frame is now only a vivid memory that has given me the confidence to be both more independent and open to interaction with new people and cultures.

Additionally, I have caught myself thinking of the food that I ate in Santiago and have even tried to make recreations in my dorm room, to no avail. While I didn’t expect to have withdraws so soon, I am already missing the tree-lined streets, constant views of the mountains, and the cool breezes that made the city feel so connected to nature. The bleak landscape of Columbus, no matter how attached I am to this school, is just not cutting it at the moment. And of course I miss not having the same level of responsibilities, but I suppose that is to be expected after returning from paradise to reality.

I am glad to be home with my friends and back into the swing of things with only four weeks to go in my first year. The time we spent in Santiago, while only a little more than a week, will continue to fill my mind with thoughts and memories for years to come. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible and to those who made it unforgettable.

I will let you figure out what was me and what was Mestizo.

 

 

Hasta Luego, amigos.

“What was your favorite part of Chile?”

Home sweet home!  We have made it back to Columbus safely.  It has been a little over 24 hours since we landed in Columbus.  While I was excited to see my friends and am excited to see my family next weekend, I can’t help but miss Chile a little bit.  When we got off the plane in Columbus and I looked out the window, all I could see were gray skies and brown, leafless trees, the total opposite of the lush, green parks of Santiago that I loved.  I have to say that this has been the best trip I have ever been on, and Chile is now my favorite place.

I have spent the last 24 hours trying to get back into my normal routine.  I unpacked, did laundry, cleaned a little, and went to class today.  Going to class was good because I got to see all of my friends and we got to share our spring break stories.  Just about every person asked me “What was your favorite part of Chile?” and every time I have to pause because it is such a hard question.  So many answers immediately come to mind- the food, the weather, the mountains, the views, the parks, Valparaíso.  There are so many things I loved about Santiago that I can’t decide.  I was excited for the trip, but this trip greatly exceeded all and any expectations I had for it.

The food I found to be incredible.  I loved the idea of fried eggs on everything and I also loved the fresh fruit.  It was some of the best fruit I have ever had.  I also really enjoyed the empanadas, tres leches, and charquicán (Chilean stew).

The weather was incredible, and stepping off the plane into 30 degree weather was probably the saddest part of being home.  No more sunny, blue skies, flowers, or green trees.  Everything thing here looks dead and sad.  Hopefully spring gets here fast because I miss the warm weather (Today was the first day of Spring, but it wasn’t very promising).

I still can’t get over the views.  Just about everywhere we went had amazing views.  Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucía, Costanera Center, Universidad Adolfo Ibanez, the Benedictine Monastery, Innovation Center, and Cousiño Macul Winery just to name a few.  I miss the mountains.  Ohio is so flat.

The parks in Santiago were amazing.  I can’t get over how many trees they had in their city.  Whether they were just lining a street or scattered throughout a park, there was a ton of greenery.  I loved it.  I often felt as though I wasn’t in the middle of a huge city, but rather a forest or just out in the country.  In Columbus, our parks have trees, but usually you can still see from one end of the park to the other through the trees.  The trees in Santiago parks were so dense that this would never happen.  I wish Columbus had more parks like this.

Valparaíso was like nothing I have ever seen before.  I loved all of the colors and how the houses covered all of the hills facing the ocean.  The street art was amazing as well.  It was a very cool city to see, and was very fun to jump over to Viña del Mar and sit at the beach for a little while.  We even saw seals!  We just have traditional suburbs and the Olentangy and Scioto.  Nothing compared to Valparaíso’s neighborhoods and body of water.

Chile is a place I definitely want to visit again.  Maybe next time I will explore the natural aspects more like the mountains, desert, Patagonia, and Easter Island.  I keep joking that if I could speak Spanish I would move there.  I mean, the Adolfo Ibañez Graduate School was really cool, who knows?  Until next time Chile, adiós!

Go Bucks! (Sunset from the Costanera Center)

We’re not going hungry in Chile

Food may not be the first thing you think about when traveling to another country, but it actually plays a big part in the trip. I was a little nervous about the food in Chile, but it turned out to be better than I ever expected. Honestly the food is one of the things I will miss most about chile.

Fresh fruit and eggs with hotdogs

I’ll start with breakfast. Everyday for breakfast they offered lunch meat and cheeses, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs with hot dogs, toast, cake, and cereal. I usually had fresh fruit and cake—I know, cake??? I will for sure miss being able to have cake for breakfast everyday without being judged. The fruit was some of the best fruit I have ever had—strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew, and grapes—all of them were very good.

Cake for breakfast!

My lunches and dinners usually consisted of dishes containing empanadas, fried eggs, and mayonnaise. Empanadas are a baked, or sometimes fried dough with filling inside. They’re kind of like big raviolis made out of dough instead of noodles, and there are so many different varieties. I had cheese, beef, shrimp, spinach, and veggie filled ones. All were equally as good. I definitely want to learn how to make empanadas at home because they were just so good. I’m pretty sure I had them with most of my meals.

Cheese and beef filled empanadas

I was surprised by the amount of fried eggs the Chileans eat. I’m not a huge fan of eggs, but I actually loved having a fried egg on top of normal dishes that we already have in America. My very first meal in Santiago was a sandwich with sliced beef, cheese, and a fried egg, and it was so good. The egg really made the sandwich. We also hade fries one night with chopped beef and a fried egg on top. It was equally as good!

Fries with beef chunks and a fried egg

A weirder trend in Chile is the use of mayonnaise, on EVERYTHING. Sometimes mayo would be on things like burgers and chicken sandwiches, like in the U.S., but the Chileans take it one step further and put mayo on pretty much every sandwich.

A very popular dish in Chile is actually called an Italiano. This is a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, and tomatoes. The colors of these toppings are the same as the Italian flag, hence the name Italiano (that one took us some time to figure out). This did not sound very appetizing to me, but we are here to experience the culture, so Lisa, Anthony, and I tried it one day for lunch. This was probably the only thing I didn’t like in Chile. Lisa didn’t care for it either, but Anthony enjoyed it. The combination of mayo and avocado was weird to me. The Chileans really love hot dogs, though. One day we went in their local grocery store, and in the freezers that are in the middle of the isle that we normally fill with turkeys near Thanksgiving, were filled with hot dogs. I have never seen so many hot dogs in my life.
I have noticed that the Chileans eat a lot of meat in their meals, especially beef. I already talked about the shredded beef sandwiches and the fries, but I also had many more great dishes with beef. At Mestizo, I had a beef ragout, which was shredded beef over gnocchi with a white sauce. It was amazing and one of the best meals on the trip.

Meal at Mestizo

I also had a burger for lunch one day. At first I was unsure about ordering a burger because we have burgers at home, but I’m glad I got to try it because the Chileans do theirs a little differently. Everything was the same—burger, cheese, lettuce, tomato—but they also put fried shredded potatoes on top. I really enjoyed this on my burger because it added an extra crunch. They were very similar to the potato sticks snack you can buy at home.

Chilean burger

Probably my absolute favorite meal of the trip was a traditional Chilean dish called charquican. The stew consisted of potato, carrots, peas, pumpkin, and onion, with a piece of braised beef laid on top. I can’t even describe how good it was. I am definitely going to figure out how to make this at home.

Chilean stew was my favorite meal!

I also tried a few desserts while in Chile, my favorite being the tres leche cake from Mestizo. It was layered cake with milk and whipped cream. It was very moist. Dulche de leche, which is pretty much caramel, is also a very popular treat in Chile. I tried dulche de leche fudge and it actually tasted a lot like the caramels with the cream centers. I also had dulche de leche gelato. It was pretty good, too, but I don’t think dulche de leche is my favorite flavor.

Tres leches

Overall, I loved all of my meals with the exclusion of the Italiano hot dog. I was really surprised by this and kept waiting every time I ate for the food to be sub-par, but it was very excellent every time. I don’t understand how all of the Chileans are so fit with such good food. I’m hoping to learn to make some Chilean dishes so I can have my favorites again.

Last Day

Food in Mestizo

Dessert in Mestizo

Time is going fast. It’s already last day in Santiago. This is a busy trip that we probably never stop our step. However, I recorded the Chilean food as well as I always do. I think Chilean food is tasty over I imagined.

To begin with, I want to talk about the drink I taste on Santa Hill on first day. Actually, I am unwilling to try this strange drink when I saw it in the first time because it is not good looking. However, somebody taste it and recommend to me. I just had a try. To my surprise, it so sweet! I immediately fell in love with this drink. According to a local person, it is a famous drink in Chile, called Monte con huesillo. People put wheat, peach, red sugar and water together and boil them over one and half hour to make this amazing drink.

Moreover, I would like to say something about restaurants we have been. In fact, I think all of the restaurants we had group meal in are good. But I like Mestizo most. To begin with, there are a good environment. This restaurant is half close and half open that customer can appreciate the pretty surrounding when they are having food. Besides, the food is also delicious. I ordered beef with pasta. The beef is smooth while the pasta also taste good. I also like the dessert which is as sweet as honey.

At last, I also want to recommend the fruit in Santiago. Mulberry, Blueberry and grape are famous here. They are sweet and full of water. Maybe this is the reason why their wine is well-known around the world.

Overall, I totally change my impression of the food in Chile. I love the food here. It may be a reason if I back to Chile for travel again in future.

Food in Santiago

 

 

One of the most exciting things for me in Chile is the foods. These days in Santiago, I tried many foods in this city and I want to share my experiences with them.

I like seafood very much, so seafood was my first choice when I went to any restaurant. In the night days, I tried 3 kinds of fish staple food, crab, and some appetizers with shrimp and other seafood. Salmon is super popular here. I had three meals with salmon and the most popular way they cook salmon(and even all kinds of fish) is fried. Also, I tried perch and hake fish. Different from salmon, they are white meat and have a lighter flavor. I liked the Perch which was taken from a French restaurant, but the Hake was not as good as I thought.

Because of my curiosity, I tried the Chinese food here. The Chinese restaurant was a fancy one in the shopping mall. It’s a little bit expensive but not really good as Chinese food. We ordered five dishes and three of them tasted all the same. The only difference I can tell in that three dishes was the material- one made of chicken, one beef, one shrimp, and octopus. Also, I ordered chicken fried rice, a very common Chinese dish. However… the rice tasted wired and I felt it was not cooked enough.

Overall, I’m a little bit disappointed about the foods in Santiago, because I hope I can get some fresh (alive) seafood here, but all I found was chilled. Still, I had really good time here.

Hake

Rib

Oyster

Salmon

Perch

Chinese food

lunch box I found on the street (looks wired but really good)

Goodbye Santiago!

Vega Central

Today we went to the market as our last spot before departure from Santiago. The market is crowed with people from all around the world. At the market we see different kinds of fruits and some of them are in cool colors I have never seen. The market is pretty similar to the one we have in my home town, but much cooler.At noon we tried the Peruvian style sushi which was super good too.

Overall in think Santiago is a beautiful place with mixture of South American and Spanish colonial culture so at many spots you might feel like your are in Europe instead of South America but in some place you suddenly realize you are still in the city of Santiago.

We will be soon going back to Columbus but I will never forget the adventure in Santiago. I will remember the street trees-sycamore which provide nice shade when we waked along Ave. Providencia. I will miss the old-fahsioned drink(peach and wheat) at street corner. I will miss the dogs as our companion during our walks. I think this city is such a fusion of different experiences. The point is that you can see everything in the city of Santiago instead of going to different cities to experience different ideas and cultures, which I think it’s cool, too. What’s more, I will miss passionate Chilean who helped us during this trip!

Free Day- Tour in the City and Cultural Centers

Starting with a fantastic brunch, we started our city tour. We found a nice spot at the street corner. The city of Santiago becomes more interesting when you started to stop a little while and look at the people passing by. The students who just left from schools are chatting on the curbs. The older people are strolling by then busy streets. In the middle of the road there is a guy busking as the signal turns red. Far away from your position, there is a man carrying a giant ice cream box on his shoulder with loud cries of selling. Suddenly you realized somehow it is the culture shapes the city and what you see is really the reflection of Chile history.

Coffe Cup in Brunch Restaurant

Corporación Cultural Matucana 100

Later we went to the culture centers near Quinta Normal Park. The culture centers are having seldom exhibition while the architecture itself is good enough to visit. Again many murals can be found in this art district. Corporación Cultural Matucana 100 is mainly composed by a central theater. The exterior of this theater is a historical remnant with red bricks. Inside we see the wood structures holding high ceilings. Then you can explore more on the lower level. There are some mini exhibitions going on there.

The Sea Was Angry That Day My Friends

One of the last sonnets Pable wrote in his home in Valparaiso. Pablo compares the bond he and his wife share to various things in nature, implying a deep and pure connection.

Spending the day at Valparaiso was possibly my favorite day yet. From seeing the street art to swimming in the ocean, I felt like I really got to experience some of the best things the city had to offer. We even stopped at a sandwich place Anthony Bourdain ate at!

Sandwich from the shop Bourdain stopped at. It had ham, bacon, onion, peppers, and a fried egg.

It was actually my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean period. I heard it would be cold, but I had no idea what I was getting into. A couple of us ran into water at the same time with no idea how cold it would be. My body felt like it went into shock; I had never been in water that cold. Sergio wasn’t playing around.

I didn’t have high expectations for the two hour foot tour, considering it pushed back lunch. I was pleasantly surprised however, and really enjoyed the street art that I saw. It was colorful, confusing, and I felt like each piece told a different story. Between dodging dog poop and keeping up with the group I was still able to get some cool pictures.

My favorite stop was the house of Pablo Neruda. It’s interesting to see the space hat he actually existed and worked in. The things he surrounded himself can give an insight to the influences of his thinking and in a sense the decorations of his own mind. The view from his house was great, but what was inside will stick with me most.

Rapid fire thoughts

I have a lot of thoughts about this trip that aren’t enough for an entire blog post, so I’m gonna say all them here.

 

 

There are dogs everywhere. I know they are stray and this isn’t a good thing but I like it.

This dog took a break from the hot day at Plaza de Armas.

They eat dinner really late here. Like 9. I don’t really know why.

The Pacific Ocean is really really painfully cold.

Don’t be fooled, this water is ice-cold. Also look at all the mayo on the sandwhich.

The street performers are really talented.

Empanadas are amazing and everywhere. Big fan.

They listen to American music and watch American movies. I feel like it’s hard to not feel an American presence everywhere.

Monte con huesillo is a drink type thing with a liquid that tastes like sweet tea, some mangos, and some sort of grain in the bottom. It’s very good and pretty cheap.

This is the amazing treat.

There’s way less red brick here. I also just realized how much I like red brick buildings.

Everyone seems more relaxed here than American cities. For example, in the Plaza de Armas, everyone was just sitting on benches enjoying the weather.

The weather here is amazing. I’ve eaten outside everyday so far. I only do that about twice a year at home.

Pablo Neruda has an amazing house. It doesn’t seem like much from the outside, but the views are amazing.

This is my sketch of the view from Neruda’s dining room.

There aren’t many bugs. I’ve seen bees but that’s it. I also haven’t seen roaches, rats, or mice.

Finally, the mountains are amazing.

Lord of the Rings: One and 3/8 Towers

It was on this day that we visited Torres Siameses, Alejandro Arevena’s glass tower on the PUC campus, as well as Elementals Innovation Center. On the metro ride back to our hotel we met a man who was a student at the University. We told him how much we enjoyed these buildings and he was amazed because it’s was so simple on the outside. We described to him the inner beauty of the building, the reason why us architecture students loved it so much. I really enjoyed the texture of the concrete created by the molds used to form it. It was really unique how they chose not to enclose all of the fixtures and workings of the elevator system, as well as the central atrium, making the building far more sustainable as a whole compared to Torres Siameses. In this building, the glass skin that Arevena intended to make the building more sustainable and create a convection current around the building, to save on energy, seemed to make the building even hotter. The design also provided for issues with maintenance, in the areas where windows were later added, the most noticeable aspect was how dirty the building was between the two layers.

My drawing of the concrete’s texture at the Innovation Center

 

Travel within Travel

Ayer se ubica como uno de los mejores días de mi vida hasta el momento. He aquí un breve resumen de lo que pasó:

montañas -Watched pasan a Pink Floyd durante dos horas

-Toured La casa de Pablo Neruda y mirado a su colección litografía probablemente más tiempo que nadie jamás

-Drew Valparaiso de arriba a abajo

-Toured La ciudad y vio la más bella pintadas y murales de mi vida. Sintió totalmente inspirado por todo. Comprado obra y fue consolada por serigrafías en las paredes. Se recordó que la letra impresa no está muerto

-Found Un agujero en la pared lugar sándwich en un accidente que Anthony Bourdain había sido rellenado y nuestras caras en las rocas. Subió alrededor y dejar que el Pacífico salpique nuestros pies

-Cambio En trajes tan rápido como sea posible y se fue al océano a gran velocidad, dejando que el agua fría de hielo se convierten en nuestro mejor amigo para las próximas horas

-Frank Perdió sus gafas, Rico puede haber experimentado la hipotermia, y Kaz era del mismo color que la arena

-Walked Por el paseo marítimo y tuvo éxito en la búsqueda de un anillo y un novio

-fieltro Gusta llegamos al final de la tierra al final del paseo marítimo, regresamos a la tierra, se convirtió en una de las cajas de arena, sol, y la pizza

-Más montañas y Pink Floyd

-Más El Huerto, la conversación y el vino

-Reír tan fuerte que no puede respirar

-Más amigos.

Day 5 in Santiago

 

Today we took two hours coach to Valparaiso. This is a colorful town and all of houses have different colors with various murals in those walls.i like those murals and it gives me a good chance to get lots of great photographs. They build their houses on the mountain and those streets are pretty steep. I am curious about how those local people drive and walk in this town.
I really like the Pablo Neruda house. I went to Hemingway’s house in Key West last winter break. They have lots of similarities. Those poets like to live in those kind of little houses and write tranquil. They all have a large houses in a really small town near sea. In Pablo’s house, he has lots of decorations: the oil paintings and old maps on the wall are brilliant. I really admire he has big windows to see the view of this town and sea. I was standing near those windows and imaging the feeling when he looking the beautiful view. I think it would be give him a lot of inspiration for his poems. It is also a really romantic town. Life in here might be really slow and peaceful.
Along the sea shore, the town becomes busy and they have lots of restaurants in there. We picked a Mexican restaurant and the food in there is tasty. After lunch we went to the cafe near our gathering place and enjoy the sea wind and sunshine in the afternoon.

Kaz’s Park and Recreation

From its lush water garden and adjacent world-class restaurant, to the many centers of play sprouting spontaneous bouts of fun, Bicentenario Park is a fantastic and massive space that is an absolute gem within the city of Santiago.  After an utterly delicious meal, I was able to explore this space with great delight and a spring in my step, first starting with the water garden.  The vegetation drew me to what I would find to be the most beautiful part of the park, complete with flora and fauna both familiar and novel to me.  Being a child of a “birding” family, and having a general affinity for wildlife, it was joy to see a sundry of new types of birds utilizing the space together.  I would spend a good amount of time here taking pictures of the jumbo koi fish and every feathered friend I could spot on the water.  Safe to say, I was updated by my family to which species I had seen after relaying the images back to Cleveland.  The water garden felt both planned yet in a way to create moments of spontaneity, those like the areas where you can feed swans or flamingos, or anyone looking for a bite really.  These types of moments would fill my time spent in the rest of the park, one occupied by beauty, calmness, and spontaneous fun for people of Santiago and for anyone who has the pleasure to visit as well.

Residents of the park, the black-necked swan, commonly referred to by their scientific names: “honkers”. Complete with jumbo koi

Flora, fauna, and Radic’s Mestizo: a recipe for a perfect day in the park (if you can afford it)

Great Food and Even Greater Edge Conditions (Day 3)

Salmon and Quinoa Aesthetic

Pampas grass

Papyrus

Diagonal walkways/borders of plant species cutting through the pond

No doubt the food here keeps getting better and better, especially when we ate at Mestizo Restaurant! I got the salmon and quinoa dish and it was the most perfectly cooked and aesthetically pleasing meal I had ever seen/tasted before. Muy Delicioso! After lunch my favorite part of the day was exploring the edge condition of Bicentenario Park. The water gardens were filled with numerous plantings, such as Pampas grass, Feather Reed Grass (Karl Foerster), and Papyrus. With some of the grasses reaching up to 10ft tall my views were limited, but the diagonal walkways reaching to the middle of the water garden, my interaction with the landscape changed. I was able to not feel enclosed by the vegetation and able to see the views that I couldn’t see when I was standing on the perimeter of the garden. The implementation of different programs within the water garden were also fascinating. Different sections of the garden contained an Egret and Flamingo sanctuary, Carp and Fish pond, and a section for marketing their decorative hedge designs. After the water garden, Bicentenario Park began to transition its landscape into more open spaces with less vegetation. Incorporating park like amenities, such as playgrounds and different jogging, biking, and walking trails. A drastic difference between the beginning of the park and the end of the park.

Judgements on juice and ice cream

In these couple of days, I tried different types of fruity juice and ice cream. I’m pretty surprised by how different could a fruit turns into drinks. Because when I have breakfast at the hotel, the fruits such as melon and strawberry have really sweet taste, but juice has a bit of bitter, which reminds me of the super sweet dessert in the restaurant at parque bicentenario.
First of all, I tried some fruits that I have never had before, such as the custard apple from the same restaurant. The custard apple juice have the balance of sweet and sour, it surprised me how the sweetness could overweight sour taste, and it actually could stay in your mouth for a little while, which is very interesting.
Another juice I tried is the pomegranate juice. The pomegranate juice is much more bitter than what I expect for, probably is because they don’t peel it when getting the juice. I get it near the subway station of la moneda, there’s people extracting the juice from the entire pomegranate near the station. The process of witnessing the fruit being extracted into juice is amazing.
From the San cristobal hill in day one, I got the juice named mote con huesillos, it’s new to me with the sweetness both from the juice part and fruit part as it is probably peach. I love the various layers in this juice.
I tried different ice cream as well, from the frozen yogurt nearby the hotel, I can chose two types of fruit I would like to add into the ice cream, I choose strawberry and pińa, and I experienced the way they mix fresh fruits with yogurt and frozen it into ice cream. The machine of mixing and freezing it is incredible, and the taste is good. Compared to this, another ice cream store called emporio la rosa, the flavors I tried are lime and coco chocolate, the lime one is super sour, which could prove its 100% natural extracted from fresh fruits. And the coco chocolate one isn’t strong enough for me to taste out coconut. Probably the percentage of sugar is reduced from that to enlarge the flavor of natural fruits.

Custard Apple juice

pomegranate juice

mote con muesillos

frozen yogurt

emporio la rosa

Day 3-4

In these two days, we have traveled to many amazing buildings and parks. The church Benedictine Monastery Las Condes gave me a really deep impression. It uses simple materials to create a clean and sacred space. The interaction between the dark gray walls and the white walls is good and also the different patterns and tailings on them soften the contrast to make the place closer to people. The light pouring down from the gaps between walls, surrounding the central cross of the church. I like to visit churches where make me feel peaceful and this church is one of the greatest ones I’ve visited.
I had two good lunches these two days. One was in Mestizo and one was in El Anclg today with Momo, Shihan, Ziyuan, and Jackie. We had a group lunch in Mestizo and I ordered salmon and the cake in the glass bottle. The salmon was really, but the dessert was tooooooo sweet for me (haven’t tried a dessert sweet like this even in America). El Anclg was a recommended seafood restaurant on Yelp, so we decided to try it. Many kinds of seafood can be found there and the flavor was good (though a little bit salty). I ordered crab claws. The sauce I haven’t tried before, which is super heavy. It’s not bad but it covered the flavor of crab claws, so I think it’s too strong for me. Really miss the Cantonese seafood in Shenzhen!

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes- the wood door

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes

Benedictine Monastery Las Condes

Crab claws in El Anclg

Day 4 in Santiago

 

The most interesting and challenging thing in today would be the innovation center in PUC. It is a really interesting building that I want to explore. But I afraid of height and the elevator that allow me look through the whole interior make me feel nervous and scared. I just went to he eighth floor and explore the cafe in there. It was a great cafe with some tables on the balcony and the view in there in awesome. After I saw other people had token elevator going up to the eleventh floor, I started to persuade myself. I try to tell myself I should overcome the fear but in the moment when I saw the door of elevator was opening, I decided to go down and do some sketches. Even though I failed to challenge myself, at last I ensure I am survive right now.
After that we went to a restaurant to try seafood. Since we cannot speak Spanish, the order process looks awkward and funny. We used our all gestures that we can make and apps to translate what we want to eat. I got a grill octopus. It looks scared and huge but it is delicious. Since we arrived the restaurant a little bit late, we did not have enough time to enjoy it.

Innovation center from bottom to top

Cafeteria in innovation center.

Grill octopus. It looks scared but tastes great.

First Impressions

Picture of an average street in Providencia

Today was our first official day in Santiago, after the very long 9 hour flight it was nice to spend the day getting acclimated to our environment. Coming to Santiago, the first thing that I noticed from the airport were the mountains and the luscious palm trees. Also another surprise were the amount of street trees in the city, the tree canopies covered majority of the street and I’ve never seen that in a big city.

Watermelon and tunas that I bought from a street vendor.

Lunch was great. For lunch we split up in groups and walked around Providencia. We ordered food from Juan Maestro (ordering food is the biggest hassle ?), we got papas fritas y empanadas; later we found a woman selling fruit on the street (I’ll be going back). I also tried a new fruit called tunas, it had a lot of seeds and looked like a kiwi but really was a native fruit to Chile that comes from a cactus.

The statue of the virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristobal

We also visited Cerro San Cristobal, I was not expecting the view. It was amazing, you could see the entire city and the Andes from the cable car. From the bottom of the mountains you really couldn’t see the view of the Virgin Mary at the top but when you walk to top of the hill the statue is complimented by the beautiful landscape places for people to sit. After seeing everything today, I’m excited to see the other locations, we’re going to this week.

FOOOOOD!!!

I knew coming on this trip that I wanted to try the local cuisine, but I did not think I would be this overwhelmed by it. Don’t get me wrong, when I say overwhelmed I mean it in a VERY good way! There are so many options that I just do not know where to start and definitely have not clue where I will end. For starters, there are ice cream shops everywhere. I walk down a street and see multiple signs for helado shops. I have yet to get a ice cream cone, but it is for sure on the list for Monday with a group of friends. Helado and churros; I plan on coming back a churro snub and complaining about how the churros in Scott do not compare. I really cannot pick a favorite spot yet, however there is a restaurant around the corner where the waiter offers great service. I am looking forward to eating at Mestizo because it looked “fancy” compared to that places that I have been so far. Very curious to see what the prices are like there as well. I have learned it does not cost much to feed yourself here and that is great for both my pockets and stomach. I just wish there was a Chilean store or restaurant in Columbus now.

Trying New Foods

 

Empanadas from Mensajería (restaurant)

One concern of mine going to Santiago was trying new dishes. I was not sure if I would enjoy all of the options. My first lunch in Chile was at a restaurant in front of the hotel and recommended by our amazing tour guide, Sergio. He suggested that we order the “Vienesas Italianas”, which are hot dogs with tomatoes, avocados, and mayonnaise. I am not normally a fan of tomatoes, but I made an exception so I could try popular Chilean dishes. I was pleasantly surprised by the mix of flavors.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant across the street that had a wide array of options. After pondering on what to get, we all decided to get empanadas of different types. Each was spectacular and filling. It’s been great to choose local food that isn’t seen in the United States. Even today, we went to get ice cream after our lunch and I ordered a Dulce de Leche flavored ice cream. Later, I ordered a Dulce de Leche latte to gain more caffeine. It’s been great exploring different foods, even from the more mundane items. While it may seem scary to try new foods at first, it’s always a rewarding experience after. And if it isn’t, then it’s a good story.

Mayonnaise and Prostitutes

Two things I didn’t think would be so involved in my day, mayonnaise and prostitutes.

Let’s start with the first one. This country loves mayonnaise. A lot. The first meal I had in Chile came with fries. The fries, or “papas fritas” if you feel like butchering the language like I have been, came with mayonnaise to dip in. I was vaguely aware that some countries did this (thanks to Pulp Fiction), and figured that Chile was simply one of the countries who liked a little mayo with their fries. Little did I know. My next meal was a sandwich. On this sandwich was meat, avocado, tomato, and mayonnaise. A lot of mayonnaise. Like half a jar of mayonnaise. I thought it was some sort of queso sauce at first. After doing my best to eat my surprisingly good meal, I had a pool of mayonnaise collected on the plate. After noticing this, I became very aware that almost all advertisements for restaurants include a picture of a sandwich with a large amount of mayonnaise. This isn’t the biggest culture difference I’ve noticed, just the most suprising.

Now the other part of my day I wasn’t expecting. We spent a warm Sunday afternoon in the town square, La Plaza de Armas. In the square was what you would expect in a big city. There were street performers, children playing, people eating ice cream, musicians, a fountain and some prostitutes. The prostitutes were hanging around in full view of the family as well as the police. Now I am not surprised Santiago, along with every city, has prostitutes. I was surprised at them being in the open town square at Sunday at 2 pm. I’m not even really sure what conclusions to draw from that.

2nd Day Wrap Up

On the second day of our trip, we mainly went to Plaza de Armas and analyzed Santiago city street. The plaza was crowed with locals and pretty occupied. We did some basic sketches of the plan and section of it and then we headed off to the street we were assigned. It is a Sunday so the street are full of people who are hanging out with their friends and families. Along our group walking we got these cute homeless dogs following, or sleeping around  us. It is just astonishing to see the homeless dogs are actually grow very well and being friendly to people. Besides those what impressed me most is how patient Chilean can be. We did a couple of lunches by our selves and I don’t know Spanish much. But when we tried to talk or explained something that they don’t understand at first, they were pretty parient and tried their best to get to know what we tried to say. Even though sometimes we still got misunderstandings but we are not discouraged. At Plaza de Armas  there was a Chilean lady asked me what we were doing(since we had a couple of people doing sketch there) and she was nice and introduced me a little bit of Chili culture. We had a special experience today and I am looking forward to see more about Santiago!

First Day Food

I was not sure what to expect with the food in Chile but after being here for a only a day, I can say I am very excited about what other food this city has in store! For lunch, per recommendation of our tour guide Sergio, I went to spot just down from our hotel and got the Viena Italiana as well as the Viena con queso. Both were amazing especially the Viena Italiana. You would not normally think to put avocado or mayo on a hotdog but somehow it worked really well and tasted even better.

After lunch when the group was at Cerro San Cristobal, I saw many people coming down with an interesting looking drink and thought I would give it a try. The drink called mote con huesillos was a sweet and refreshing way to end our time at Cerro San Cristobal. I thought it most tasted like a sweet syrup one might find associated with canned fruits. Finally, to end the day, I enjoyed some local cuisine at a place called La Mensajeria. Here, I had two different types of empanadas. One was mushroom with cheese and another was chicken with olives. Both were very tasty and if someone is looking for a place to eat this week I would highly recommend dining there!

Picture of  lunch of Viena Italiana and Viena con queso