My new favorite Chilean pastime: foosball. They literally play all the time. Over the last few days we spent the majority of our time at the university, and every break we had we would wander around and explore the campus. We always ended up in this one little courtyard where a couple foosball tables were set up and groups of students were playing. The rules are very different here but I think I like them better. You always play two to a side and the first team to score two goals wins and stays on to face the new challenger. Naturally I had to try for myself, and Jorge and I set about picking up the strategy and fitting our way into their rotations. They really make it a very skillful game: they almost never spin their players and they are very adept at passing the ball to themselves to set up passes down the field and shots. The game moves very fast and we got quickly and soundly defeated our first several chances. However we soon began to pick up the strategies, with me on defense and jorge handling the offense. It took us a good ten games or so to score our first goal but we never seemed to be able to hold possession long enough to have a chance. However, at the end of Tuesday we got on a game and finally broke through. I managed to get a shot out of my defense bounce off of the wall and squeak in and Jorge finished it off with a great set up and shot that rattled the metal plate at the back of the goal. It was a very satisfying experience, believe me. The Chileans just laughed and a team came on, who we lost to after a tough battle. Still, I was proud that we managed to pick up this bit of their culture and hopefully we can keep playing and learning and maybe hold the table for a little while longer on our next visit.
Other than the university, where we spent most of our time listening to lectures on Chilean culture and business, we were able to explore some of the scenery around us. We toured Valparaiso and Vina del Mar with Mimo, one of our university guides here. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings and scenery, but one of the things that fascinated me about the cities was the fact that there are stray dogs literally everywhere. You can find at least one sleeping on every street corner and we even had several follow us around, often fighting amongst each other right in front of us. They seem fairly well fed and quite friendly for the most part, which makes them just another interesting part of Chilean culture.
The food here has been very good so far. We got a taste of Mexican the first day and then tried some authentic Chilean cuisine with our first empanadas. They are deep fried and filled with meat and cheese, making them a perfect and delicious snack. We also got to experience the university cafeteria, which reminded me more of a middle school like lunchroom with no different selections and one line. It was definitely a humbling experience to search for a table as we were being stared at by the Chilean students, clearly the outsiders. Other than those few moments, I have always felt welcomed by the Chileans who, though few speak much english, are quite friendly and often seem just as eager to find out about us as we are to learn about them. I hope to continue interacting with them as best I can and who knows, maybe I'll even pick up Spanish along the way!
