Had the first day of classes today! We started with Spanish and culture, and moved on to Business practices in Chile and the Chilean demography and consumer characteristics.

The one interesting thing I have noticed is that Chile is an almost developed economy with changing cultures that is fast becoming like that of the United State's. It is however, a very homogenous culture. People have the same sort of tastes and expectations. Marriage is becoming less and less important or necessary, with people often living together without getting married, while divorce rates have shot up after a recent law change that makes it legal.

There are so many interesting things that we learned in class today. Chile is so close to being fully developed, yet the nation has a wide disparity in income distribution. This is to the extent that the poorest 20% often do not even finish high school. But at the same time, Chile has a stable economy, stable social life and a steady rate of growth averaging about 6%.

That's only some of the information we learned about today. I will be writing a paper soon, so will keep you all updated with detailed information if you so desire :)

Adding some interesting pictures from the fruit industry and some other random shots.

The last three are pictures of the UDD campus... isn't it pretty?? They can see the mountains from anywhere they turn!

Fruit Industry of Chile

Today was pretty eventful. We made our first visit to Universidad del Desarrollo. The campus is set in what looks to me like a surprisingly upscale neighbourhood with a beautiful view of the Andes in the distance. The buildings themselves are not really very pretty to look at; they kind of remind me of my high school. But, they ARE very strong against earthquakes, which I guess is the most important thing. Their medical school is one of the best in the nation.  The Vice President welcomed us. He was very informative and entertaining. The school was only established in 1990, which means it is 21 years old. That is really young, but they seem to have created a great reputation for themselves already! The founders of the school are all over-achievers – two have even run for the office of President, one losing by only 2%!

The V.P. also talked to us about the earthquake and tsunami, and how the people of Chile were not warned in time. It appears that many lives could have been saved from the tsunami by evacuation to higher grounds but the people were not warned about it.

We then took long drives in the bus to visit three sites – ASOEX, COMEXPORT and USDA.

ASOEX is the fresh fruit association of Chile. They do the main research work behind fruit export, which forms a huge fraction of Chilean exports. They update the exporters on things like certifications required by specific countries, the amount and type of fruit exported everywhere, and such. They also do a lot of PR events to help promote Chile as a reliable fruit exporter. In the fresh fruit industry, reliability is a big part of being a good exporting nation, and fortunately Chile is considered to be one of the most reliable exporters.

COMEXPORT is one of the exporting companies for fresh fruit. We went to their plant and it was really interesting to see how they did everything from choosing the fruits, to making sure that the fruit was of a certain grade and met the requirements of the country that it was being exported to. The fruits are cooled to zero degrees centigrade approximately to make them last longer through the months. Fruits are separated according to sizes and boxed. They are then packed and samples are sent to the USDA for inspection.

USDA is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and its main function is to ensure that the fruits are free of harmful pesticides and bugs, and that it meets all the requirements of the United States. Randomly selected crates from the different exporters are checked everyday, and given a stamp of approval if they pass inspection. As many as 3500 crates are brought in every day to the USDA.

The fruit industry was extremely interesting to learn about and great to actually see up close.

Got back home to finally be able to fix my internet so I can get it in my room! Yay good days!

Time for bed now.

¡Hasta Mañana!