Most of us slept in until 11 or 12 AM which wasted half of the day, but we ate delicious meals for both lunch and dinner.
About eight people, including myself, went to an Italian restaurant near the beach. The food at the restaurant here in Vina del Mar seemed more authentic than the Italian food I get at restaurants near my house. Although the food we ate was Italian, I was practicing Chilean customs. We enthusiastically greeted the host when we walked into the restaurant, a custom that is very much expected from anyone living in Chile (whether they are Chilean or not). In Chile, lunch is the biggest and most important meal of the day, and we definitely noticed that at the Italian restaurant. The restaurant was somewhat busy, and there were many people eating the meal with their families. What made our lunch feel like a Chilean lunch was how long the meal lasted. The waiter served us unperturbed, and took his time bring us our food. What we thought was going to take an hour actually took two and half hours.
After a nice bowl of spinach raviolis, we returned to the vendors on the board walk to purchase souvenirs that we did not have time to yesterday. I really like the idea of all the things being sold by the vendors are hand crafted. It seems as though that this is not as common in the United States, but I might think that just because this is not very common around Pittsburgh, my hometown.
Later that night, Jorge and Brice took us to a very fancy restaurant called Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire). The restaurant was similar to those we have back in the United States. What was very noticeable, however, was the behavioral differences between Chileans and Americans at the dinner table.
We were very loud, took up a lot of space and sometimes we would talk about inappropriate topics. When I observed the other tables on the lower floor, the Chileans were more quiet and sat closer together. I do not know enough Spanish to know what they were talking about, but I think it is safe to say that Chileans do not say many inappropriate things while eating a meal. I say this because even when I talk to the Chilean students during or lunch or even when we go out to a bar, they hardly ever say anything inappropriate.
On Monday, we will be starting the week by giving our presentations to Professor James. I'll definitely have to prepare well for that because Professor James is very knowledgeable about all of the companies. We'll see how it goes. Hasta manana!
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