Spiders in Chile: Day 4

As a part of the University of Richmond's EnCompass Program, eight Spider student-athletes are traveling to Chile from May 1st to May 9th. \

Hi Spiders,

I hope you all have been enjoying reading these posts as much as we have been enjoying experiencing them so far throughout this trip. Today, we had a pretty long but very eventful day.

We started our day early this morning with a 7:30 am departure from the hotel as we drove about an hour to visit a local school, Colegio San Andres Maipú, which is a semi-private K-12 school. Semi-private meaning that it is a subsidized school, but is also paid for some by the parents of the students that attend, so it is about 50/50. We met with a select group of high-schoolers where we engaged in a Q&A session. It allowed us to see that this school has some stark differences from the secondary schools in the United States. For example, homework is illegal! The amount of work they do during the school day, which is from 8 am to 4 pm, does not allow them to give homework. They also study 12/13 subjects throughout the week. Some subjects are 4 hours per week, 6 hours, or even 8 hours per week depending upon the curriculum. These students, although in high school, were very impressive, and we enjoyed getting to answer their questions while they practiced their English and we worked on our Spanish. This week the school is celebrating its anniversary with a week-long celebration and after our meeting, we had the opportunity to witness and participate in some of the celebratory events. And, before we left, a friendly match of volleyball and basketball occurred in the school's gym between us and some of their athletes. Before we knew it, the gyms stands began to fill and students were cheering as if it were an actual competition. This was a really special moment as the majority of the students did not speak English, but as soon as we started playing the language barrier did not matter and we knew exactly what to do to help our teammates. Sports are able to transcend any barrier, bringing people together in a way that overrules any inability to speak the same language.

After our school visit, we headed to the Santiago Airport to catch a short domestic flight down south to Temuco, before driving to Pucon. Even though we are in Chile, we had to get a taste of home and got some McDonald's in the airport while we waited. The first thing I noticed after landing in Temuco, was how different the scenery is compared to Santiago. Even from the plane, you could immediately see just how green the landscape was. Before checking into our hotel, we stopped at a restaurant called Comida Casera, which can translate to "home cooked meal." Our guide explained to us that this was a restaurant the locals frequented when they wanted a taste of home.

After a quick stop at our hotel, we continued to our next activity, horseback riding. It was beautiful to horseback ride through the mountains of Pucon, Chile and even though it was raining, muddy, and became dark during our ride, none of us would change a thing as it was one of the most peaceful and amazing experiences for us all. A few people were nervous about riding a horse, only to end the night talking about how incredible it was. We also had a good laugh as we discussed the pre-trip question of whether or not they would be able to find a horse that would be able to support me. The initial weight limit for the activity was 220 pounds, and I am most definitely over! They were luckily able to find me a horse, but let's just say this horse was not very friendly. As I climbed onto the horse, the guide looks at me and says that this horse, "eats men for breakfast and horses for dinner" and "hates all other horses." This gave us all a good laugh as we talked about the many new things we have done together as a group so far this week.

We're having an amazing time and I can't wait for tomorrow.

Daniel Sellers
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