So much time has passed, but so much has been happening too! On Wednesday and Thursday we visited the fishing and forestry industries. They were both very interesting.
The fishing industry in Chile is divided between aquaculture and wild catch. Surprisingly, aquaculture is just growing in the country, so most of the quantities of the catch are still wild. The best part of the day was going on a boat to the military base on the other side of the fishing port! Even though it was cold we still went up to the top of the boat and stayed there the entire time.
The forestry industry is almost a monopoly, with the Arauco being the main player. The interesting thing about the company is that it is divided into different divisions for pulp, saw-wood, timber, plywood etc. The companies sell their products to each other as well as the outsiders. One of the reasons for this is to keep up with the inventory. Arauco replants part of the cuttings. Their main products are pine and eucalyptus. When we went for a tour in their replantation area, we learned a lot about how they grow them by the millions and then replant them when the trees are older. Surprisingly, only about 2% of the total plants are affected by some kind of disease.
We reached Viña del Mar today. The hostel we are staying in is a really colorful eclectic place. I love being in warm weather near the beach, but I really miss our crazy week in Concepción and my host family. Chilenos are so warm and welcoming. It really reminds me of the Indian culture. They wanted to take us everywhere and show us off to everyone. Even the aunts who would come over would start calling others on the phone and excitedly telling them that I had reached!
The homestay made me realize why on an average the people here are slim. Their dinner is usually very light, mostly just tea or coffee, with some bread and avocado and cheese or along those simple lines. Basically, dinner is what I would usually consider tea-time. I didn't get to eat lunch with the family the entire week, so I can only assume that lunch and breakfast is heavy enough to sustain them through the day.
Their sense of time is so weird. I knew from our meetings and our program advisors’ warnings, some facts about Chilean culture. One thing that we were told about is their sense of time. In Chile, our Spanish professor told us about how Chileans see time as a smoothly rolling event. This led me to believe that I was sufficiently prepared to deal with this cultural difference, especially since the “Indian standard time” is just as notorious. Even though throughout the homestay in Concepción, Camila was careful about mostly being on time, I confess that the last day resulted in a full-force impact of this cultural difference!
The fishing industry in Chile is divided between aquaculture and wild catch. Surprisingly, aquaculture is just growing in the country, so most of the quantities of the catch are still wild. The best part of the day was going on a boat to the military base on the other side of the fishing port! Even though it was cold we still went up to the top of the boat and stayed there the entire time.
The forestry industry is almost a monopoly, with the Arauco being the main player. The interesting thing about the company is that it is divided into different divisions for pulp, saw-wood, timber, plywood etc. The companies sell their products to each other as well as the outsiders. One of the reasons for this is to keep up with the inventory. Arauco replants part of the cuttings. Their main products are pine and eucalyptus. When we went for a tour in their replantation area, we learned a lot about how they grow them by the millions and then replant them when the trees are older. Surprisingly, only about 2% of the total plants are affected by some kind of disease.
We reached Viña del Mar today. The hostel we are staying in is a really colorful eclectic place. I love being in warm weather near the beach, but I really miss our crazy week in Concepción and my host family. Chilenos are so warm and welcoming. It really reminds me of the Indian culture. They wanted to take us everywhere and show us off to everyone. Even the aunts who would come over would start calling others on the phone and excitedly telling them that I had reached!
The homestay made me realize why on an average the people here are slim. Their dinner is usually very light, mostly just tea or coffee, with some bread and avocado and cheese or along those simple lines. Basically, dinner is what I would usually consider tea-time. I didn't get to eat lunch with the family the entire week, so I can only assume that lunch and breakfast is heavy enough to sustain them through the day.
Their sense of time is so weird. I knew from our meetings and our program advisors’ warnings, some facts about Chilean culture. One thing that we were told about is their sense of time. In Chile, our Spanish professor told us about how Chileans see time as a smoothly rolling event. This led me to believe that I was sufficiently prepared to deal with this cultural difference, especially since the “Indian standard time” is just as notorious. Even though throughout the homestay in Concepción, Camila was careful about mostly being on time, I confess that the last day resulted in a full-force impact of this cultural difference!
We had to be at a dinner with the other families by 8pm, but right off the bat Cami said we would aim for 8:30pm. This did not seem too bad: after all, wouldn’t more families on the Chilean time be late? However, by the time Cami and I went home, showered and dressed up, it was already close to 8pm, and it takes about 20 minutes to reach the city from her house. Just when I thought we were leaving, she said she wanted to relax for a little bit and drink some chocolate milk. She continued to maintain that we would be on time. When we finally left the house, it was close to 8:30 pm. Then, instead of walking over to the bus stop, we went to her aunt’s house because she had agreed to drive us over there. But the walk itself took about 15 minutes. I figured that we would leave right away, but Cami and her aunt immediately settled down to see some pictures of a safari that her family had recently been on. We left her house around 9 pm, and upon reaching the city realized we didn’t know exactly where the restaurant was. After some intense cursing in Spanish, calling her husband, and laughing so hard I was afraid we would hit someone, we finally made it to the restaurant at around 9:15 pm. By this time Tatjana, our program guide, had called several times to which Cami said irritably, “Why cant they just start without us. Oh, we are just so important!”
Just some of the random thoughts and incidents that took place during my homestay. Miss them all!
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