Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Chile has truly fabulous pastry! They have a lot different cakes, because people love to eat sweets. As, I wrote in the post about Manjar, they put Manjar to a lot of their pastries. Here are some typical Chilean desert. Brazo de Reine It is the traditional Chilean desert or roll. Some people would say that it is the cousin of Swiss or Czech roll, but it is really not.

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IT Study Abroad 52

Terminalfour

DECEMBER 22, 2016

We look at some of our favorite 'Happy Holiday' videos from Universities and Colleges

Higher Education 52

Higher Education Education 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Most students’ host families lived in little houses, but there were some who lived in an apartment buildings, including myself. Most students, like 95% lived in these three neighborhoods: Providencia, Nunua or Las Condes. I lived in Nunoa, very close to Plaza de Nunua, which is the roughly the middle of Nunoa. Just so one can imagine, just Nunoa has over 100,000 people, so when I say neighborhood, I mean a neighborhood that takes 30-40 min to drive from south to north.

IT 52

IT Study Abroad 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Everything great in life comes with sacrifices, and my study abroad is not an exception. Since I am an international student from the Czech Republic, I had mixed up all my flights, which resulted in extremely long journey home. I am very sure that I am not only one who has to travel 40 hours home. I fly from Santiago to Detroit via Atlanta and then from Grand Rapids to Prague via Chicago and London.

Study Abroad 52

Study Abroad 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Have you ever saw the pictures? San Pedro de Atacama Valle de la Muerta ( Valley of the death) in San Pedro. Let me tell you something about it. This San Pedro, but most people imagine Atacama desert. This desert is the driest desert in the world. Atacama desert has not received a significant rain from 1570 to 1971. This is a good news because when you will be studying in Chile and you will visit it, you know you do not need raincoat.

IT 52

IT Study Abroad 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Bomberos are local firefighters and they are definitely worth of mentioning because the story behind them is amusing. Bomberos were established in 1970 at Santiago, Chile, and they are all volunteers. In one of my classes, we had a presentation about Bomberos and the life style is very similar to fraternity house in colleges and universities in the United States, which is funny.

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Recruitment Study Abroad IT 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 4, 2016

Valparaiso is a beautiful cost city in Chile only 1.5 hours from Santiago. It was founded in 1536 and it has roughly population of one million people. Valparaiso or Valpo is a very important strategic city in Chile because it has large seaport. Besides all these “boring” information, Valpo has an amazing view at the ocean, historic downtown, colorful buildings, is part of UNESCO World Heritage Site and Pablo Neruda has or had there one of his three houses.

IT 52

IT Study Abroad 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 3, 2016

If you get the chance to travel to Santiago, you HAVE TO go to Emporio La Rosa ice cream place. It is a Chilean company and their ice-cream is ranked in the best 20 in the world. Their ice cream is phenomenal. They had around 40 different types of ice-cream and it was not too expensive as one would expect from place like that. Probably the flavor that surprised me the most in a good way was leché y arroz (milk and rice).

IT 52

IT Study Abroad 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Coming back to my classes, this class was the only one I did not take through FEN or University of Chile. It was provided by the organization that I managed the whole the semester abroad. Comparing it to my previous Spanish classes, it was very different. We had only one workbook. We did not have a textbook where the grammar was explained. They already expected that you know the basics of it.

Management 40

Management IT Study Abroad 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

My day started usually early morning, because I was living 20-30 minutes by bus from the school. When I woke up, my host mom prepared the breakfast. She put bowl and cereals on the table. Living with a host family is a lot about communicating what I wanted, so she always asked me what time I was waking up next day, so she can get ready. After the breakfast, I did my morning hygiene and went to a bus station.

Study Abroad 40

Study Abroad IT 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

On November 25, my study abroad was ending and I am heading home. A lot of happened during 180 days at Chile here are couple thoughts to perspective students why study abroad was a great choice. I went to a Chile, which is a country with completely different values and culture because I wanted to experience a completely different behavior and mindset.

Study Abroad 40

Study Abroad Food IT 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 9, 2016

 The transition is from Chile to Hope is actually quite extensive. I will spend two days in Hope College and both of them will be full of meetings. Firstly, I will have to talk to Registrant office about transferring all 16 credits from University de Chile to Hope College. I have to fill out bunch of paperwork to manage which credits will count to which degree, etc.

Study Abroad 40

Study Abroad Admissions Management IT 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 7, 2016

Christmas is just over 2 weeks away, snow is in the forecast for the next week, and final exams begin in a few days. I’m sitting with my housemates as we divide our attention between Hairspray Live and the homework that needs to be done. I have two exams and a research presentation on Monday, my last exam Wednesday, and then I’m done. Over the next week, in addition to finishing off the semester, I need to pack up all my things, say, “see you later” to all my friends, and

Research 40

Research IT 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 6, 2016

The center, in my case in Santiago, manages the whole program. The CIEE in Maine only selects candidates. The center picks home families, is in touch with the university, takes care of all the paper work, organizes trips (including the one to Patagonia) and solve problems. They actually do a lot of things for you, so if you are perspective student and you are worried that you mean not like your experience, they will really make it better.

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Insurance Food Management IT 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 6, 2016

The weather in Chile is amazing and weird at the same time. I am sure that everyone knows that in southern hemisphere the seasons are switched, so when in U.S. or Europe is winter, in Chile is summer. It is very weird for someone to walk in to a shopping mall and see a Christmas three, while being 95° F outside, but that is not why the weather is weird.

IT 40

IT Study Abroad 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 4, 2016

Does this yellow symbol remind you of something? If not, then Walmart has the same symbol. Lider was established as Chilean hypermarket chain in 1893, but in 2009 it was bought by Walmart and they very interesting “relationship”, which is very similar what I experience in Czech. What Walmart does is that many times what they do not sell in the United States, they ship over to Lider (Chile) and they actually mark up the price as a new product or something special.

IT 40

IT Study Abroad 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 4, 2016

If anything in Chile is completely different compare to United States or Europe, then it is how young people get or “try” to get independent from their parents. In Chile it is normal or even I would say it is a standard that the children lives with their parents until one is 28, 29 or 30 years old. We, students from United States and Europe, were pretty shocked when we heard that.

IT 40

IT Study Abroad 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 3, 2016

My host family was only a host mother and she was great. I did not ask, but my guess would be that she is somewhere around her upper 60s, but she looked much younger. Generally, people in Chile look much younger than they actually are. That is probably all the sun and no stress. She has a son, who is around 35 years old. He actually went to Boston University for four years and became a computer engineer, so she knew how American university system works.

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Engineering Food IT Study Abroad 40

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 3, 2016

When you travel in Santiago via public transportation you have a lot of other company other than passengers. You get to meet a lot of performers, whom I will talk next post and a lot of businessmen or salesmen. The salesmen sell literally a whole range of products. There are two types of them. The first group are salesmen that are selling on behalf of a company, usually Coca-Cola or Super 8 (Nestle) (Super 8 is the most common and I would say popular candy bar in Chile).

Transportation 40

Transportation Medical IT Study Abroad 40

Terminalfour

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Sales versus Evangelism - what does it all mean?

IT 52

IT 52

Hope College Network

DECEMBER 4, 2016

Similarly to the salesmen, the bus performers are on almost every bus ride, but they are much less annoying than the salesmen. There is whole range of the bus performers, from singers, poets, speakers or just something they would make bloopers on America’s Got Talent. They usually bring a microphone and a speaker on the bus. Probably and that by far the best performers were these three people.

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