Fondas, or Fiestas Patrias, is the most popular holiday in Chile because it celebrates the “birthday” of Chile. Yes, you probably imagine July 4th, but not exactly. Fondas or the celebrations last for whole two weeks, not only a day. Most, but not all, fondas take place at parks. It costs 5.000 Chilean Peso ($8 USD) …
Category Archives: Study Abroad
From Home to Rome
Everyday I get a little more excited about my adventure next semester – studying abroad in Rome, Italy, through IES Abroad. Last week was the Study Abroad Orientation here at Hope where, in addition to a lot of helpful information, I got to hear where across the globe my peers are headed this spring. Everyone …
Chileans Speak the Hardest Spanish
Spanish is truly hard in Chile. I have to admit that my Spanish is not at the highest level at all, but Chilean Spanish is truly hard. There is a saying that, if one can learn to speak Spanish in Chile, than one can speak Spanish anywhere else in the world. Again, keep in mind …
Machismo Culture in Chile
Chilean culture has a lot of positives, like cuisine, optimism, tradition, happiness, dances and more, but like in every culture there are some faults, which are very obvious and culture of machismo is one of them. For those who are not completely sure what is machismo culture, then let me briefly explain. It basically means …
Football Is a Religion in Chile
Like Canada is run by ice hockey, Chile is run by football, or like Americans would say, soccer. To future references, when I am saying football, I mean soccer, not American football. In Chile everyone watches football, especially when the national team plays. You enter a restaurant or sports bar, there is some kind of …
Street Dogs of Santiago
There are a lot of street dogs in Santiago. In the beginning, I took a tour and they were talking about street dogs. Usually, they are on the street for two reasons – one is sad, and one happy. Let me start with the sad one, which is the least likely scenario. People buy a little …
Chilean ID
In most of the post Communistic countries, an ID of citizenship is required for every person. People in the United States are not familiar with this. This ID of citizenship works like driver’s license in the United States (it works like, it is not driver’s license.) If police stops you or at hotel they need to …
Beautiful Santiago!
Santiago as a city is absolutely beautiful. The city is illustrates long history, modern world, nature, parks, sports or arts. Santiago is very historic city. It was found in 1541 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. Without any knowledge of orientation is he founded Santago right in the middle of future Chile. In the beginning …
A Fascinating Connection to the Czech Republic
Until I was 15 years old I lived in the Czech Republic, a country that in my opinion is still recovering from communistic regime. Since I was 15 years I have lived in the United States, a country that has never experienced communism. Actually on the contrary, United States were based on idea capitalist system, …
Continue reading “A Fascinating Connection to the Czech Republic”
House of Pablo Neruda
As I said in the previous post, one of the greatest arts attraction in Santiago is house of Pablo Neruda. I personally visited with the organization that I am studying in Santiago and I thought that it was enough interesting to write a post. Pablo Neruda, officially named Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, was a …