On our final day, it was time to present our pitch before the judges. I woke up in the hotel room, looked out over the city through the big window, brushed my teeth, and headed down to grab a little bit of breakfast before we walked over to UDLA. The food for breakfast was pretty standard breakfast food, but there were also some fruits not found in the United States that they had. One had a sweet, green flesh with lots of seeds in it, and I usually got that one every time. They also had some deli meats and cheeses which isn’t common in a lot of American hotels.
On our short walk over to UDLA, I took in the cool, crisp, dry air and the sunshine. It was springtime in Santiago whereas it was fall in Pittsburgh (since Chile is in the Southern Hemisphere), so I was savoring every ounce of sunshine. We made it onto the campus and our group made last minute changes and started rehearsing our speech. Once it was time for Elmedin and I to go up and do the pitch, we were both pretty nervous, but once we started talking we both got into a good rhythm; we even got some laughs from the audience at a few of our jokes. We ultimately didn’t win the competition, but everyone on our team was just happy to have gotten the chance to meet each other.
After the pitches, we enjoyed some food which included a few traditional Chilean dishes. One of my favorites was the fried pasty that could be eaten with either sweet or savory sauces or meats.
Once everyone was dismissed from the university, we all went to Parque Araucano which was recommended by some of the Chileans in the group. It was a beautiful place in the middle of the city with volleyball courts, an outdoor gym, and fields to play soccer or other games on. It was a wonderful opportunity to use one of the same parks that the Chileans would use in their free time.
We finished the day eating at one of the many restaurants in a mall nearby. Unlike the United States, the malls in Santiago were always packed, lively places.
Swanson School of Engineering 