Santiago Summer Highlights

Santiago's first High School Summer Global Discovery program has come and gone, and boy was it a whirlwind. A group of thirteen 15-year-olds from all over the United States spent 21 days in Chile's capital learning about Global Entrepreneurship, living with Chilean families, experiencing Chile's culture, traditions and culture, traveling to the Pacific Coast, trying new foods, working hard, and having fun. 

A lot was done and accomplished over the last 3 weeks that it would be impossible to tell about it all, but I think that a few highlights of the best parts will be a great way to summarize and remember Santiago's first group of high schoolers (they're a group to be remembered on their own anyway). 

The first week in Santiago was super busy. The students had class every day, had visits from guest speakers, went on a walking tour of the city, made to visits to entreprenurs, and most importantly ate a lot of ice cream. After a week of hard work we took a day trip to Chile's most important port city: Valparaíso. The day was a bit chilly and cloudy, but we had a blast anyway. We had a guided walking tour where students learned all about the history of this important city, saw important street murals and graffiti that tell the modern tales of the city's inhabitants, rode up and down the 100-year-old cable cars, and learned about the city's fascinating architecture. Massive burgers and sandwiches were required fueling after our long walk. In the afternoon, we took a quick bus ride over to Valparaíso's twin city: Viña del Mar. And finally, we had some time to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean at Reñaca Beach. The water was freezing cold, but that didn't stop these students from wanting an afternoon ice cream!  ​

During the second week of the program the students also attended a Folklore Workshop all about the culture and traditions of Chile. Chile is the world's longest country and is also one of its most geographically rich. Due to its length and array of geographical zones, the indigenous people of Chile have developed many distinct and beautiful traditions each unique to their region. The students learned to dance the Tirana, a religious dance from the North of Chile, Cueca, Chile's national dance, and the Sau Sau, a typical dance from Easter Island. The students also learned a traditional haka, an ancient war song and dance from Easter Island. The workshop finished with an introduction to the south of Chile and the unique worldview of Chile's largest indigenous group, the Mapuches. 

After a day dedicated to Chilean dancing in only seemed fair to have a day dedicated to Chilean food. On Friday afternoon after class, students made a visit to CIEE Santiago's resident chef, Patty. Patty gave the students a cooking lesson about on of Chile's winter delicacies: the sopaipilla. The students took turn dicing up ingredients to make pebre and making the sopaipilla dough that would later be fried in small discs. The students had a blast cooking, but enjoyed the eating even more. 

The final highlight is our weekend excursion to the coast. We took a 2 hour bus ride from Santiago to escape to a small beach town called El Quisco. We learned a lot about the flora and fauna of the region, the importance of agriculture, and we were also able to relax. On Sunday morning, we were able to meet 2 important bee keepers from the town and they taught up about how the make honey and other natural products using bees, how to care for bee colonies, and how to distinguish different types of honey. The students were able to open a bee colony to see the honey making process and they were also able to taste the honey of the same bees they saw. Following this activity, we had a relaxing class of introductory yoga. For some of the students, this was their first time doing yoga, some others were experts, but the class was a great opportunity to relax after the week and to connect with the week to come. 

A lot more happened over these 3 weeks, but it was during these activities that the most laughs were shared.

I couldn't have asked for a better group to start the High School Global Discovery journey here in Santiago. I wish all of these students all the best and hope that one day they come visit us in Santiago again! Here at the CIEE Global Institue, we are looking forward to receiving our next group of students who are going to change the world.