Travel report Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. Viña del mar, Chile Spring

Transcription

1 Travel report Universidad Adolfo Ibañez Viña del mar, Chile Spring

2 Contents 1. Preparing for exchange Visa procedure Exchange studies Courses generally My Courses Free time and general information Cost of living Accommodation Free time Traveling... 7 Final comments... 8 Photos Preparing for exchange Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI) will contact you for the first time around September (for the spring term, which starts at the beginning of March), so around half a year before the exchange. I would assume this to be the same for the fall term. The acceptance of your exchange studies from Aalto will not be enough, and you will have to send an application form with some attachments to the university. These include a letter of statement (you will get the form from the ), a copy of your passport, a transcript of records and a copy of an international health insurance. For this you will get clear instructions via . After sending these successfully, you will be accepted to the university. With the acceptance you will get some information regarding how to travel to Viña del Mar and to the university from Santiago (where you will probably arrive unless you travel before the exchange). In addition, you will get a buddy (tutor) from the university, who will contact you at some point. I actually met my buddy only once during exchange, but I m sure she would have helped me if I would have had any problems. If for some reason, you cannot send all the required attachments, do not be alarmed. For example my insurance company couldn t offer me an extension to my travel insurance until one month before the trip. I ed the exchange coordinators of UAI and got permission to send the copy of health insurance later. If you have any of these kind of problems, just contact the exchange coordinators (Agustín or Valeria) 1.2 Visa procedure The whole visa procedure is fairly unclear, and I wouldn t be too surprised if you will get as confused as I did. UAI will tell you in the first , that you will need the student visa for your exchange. You can get this visa from the Embassy of Chile in Helsinki by delivering them multiple documents and paying around 400 euros. You will have to finalize this visa once you arrive to Chile in some government office. 2

3 There is also another option for getting the visa, of which UAI informed me about months later via . You can get the student visa also when you arrive to Chile. This option includes a lot bureaucracy and will take some time off you in Chile, but it s also significantly cheaper than getting the visa from Finland (if I remember correctly the difference would be up to 300 euros). The third option, which UAI didn t mention in their messages is just ignoring getting the student visa and entering the country with tourist visa. This is fine if you just tell the passport control that you are in Chile just to travel and then exit the country once within next 90 days, so you will get new tourist visa of 90 days. While the third option might not be the most legal or recommended option, this is the option I would suggest you to use and which I used also. Lot of people did it this way and nobody had any problems. Also even if the university didn t mention this option in their s before the exchange, they actually mentioned this option for students that didn t have a visa yet during their orientation day presentation. So it s fairly accepted from the university s point of view as well. If you don t want to risk it, just bring all documents you would need for the visa with you to Chile, and then you can decide there if you want the visa. This is what I did. There are few benefits with just using the tourist visa option: 1. No need to go through Chilean bureaucracy, which can be slow and frustrating 2. Cheaper than either of the student visa options, as you probably would exit the country anyway 3. Good reason to go wine tasting to Mendoza for example (a really good weekend trip) 4. The student visa doesn t benefit you much (a bit cheaper tickets to the subway and to some national parks) 2. Exchange studies The spring term starts at the beginning of March. My orientation day was on Friday 3 rd of March, and the classes started next Monday. The classes last until end of June (24 th of June was my last class) and the exam period can last until second week of July, though this severely depends which kind of classes you have, which will be covered next. I would recommend attending the orientation day (it is mandatory, though nobody really checks if everyone is there) as it is a good way to meet the other exchange students. After the activities at school, there are tours of the City and other activities. Good for getting to know people. 2.1 Courses generally Courses in Adolfo Ibañez are divided to two sections depending on the used language. Specially designed courses, which are primarily for the exchange students are in English (Spanish language classes mostly in Spanish though) and the pregrado courses, which are in Spanish and mostly with local students. There are around 15 different specially designed courses and they are divided to 3 different categories: Latin American business, Latin American culture and Spanish language. All these courses have their final exam before the exam period, usually on the last class. So they are all over before the end of June. The variety of courses offered within pregrado courses is much bigger than in specially designed courses and there are ton of options for courses in topics of business, law and psychology for example. These courses have 3

4 their exams during the exam period, which is held during the first two weeks of July. Though it s good to mention that the professors were fairly flexible and happily offered a possibility to do the exam earlier for the exchange students. If you don t speak any Spanish, the variety of courses offered can be fairly limited and maybe not challenging enough. Though the small amount of the English speaking classes is actually a good motivator to learn more Spanish through the pregrado classes. I had 2 business courses in English, one Spanish course and one pregrado course and I definitely learned most in the pregrado course. I would recommend picking 6 courses at the start, which is the maximum amount (you only need 4 standard courses for 30 ECTS). This way you can go check the first classes of the courses, and see if they are interesting or if the professor speaks Spanish way too fast for you. Aalto is fairly flexible with the courses, even if they are not that close to business topics, so you can probably also choose courses from history or psychology for example. I had Russian History as one of my first 6 courses. Also it is fairly easy to organize your courses in a way that you get a 4 or even 5 day weekend to travel. I had classes only on Tuesday and Thursday. This is also nice as the classes usually have high attendance rules (80 or 85%). 2.2 My Courses Marketing trends and strategies in Latin America, MKT335 Extent: 3 local credits / 7,5 ECTS Teacher: David Baeza Evaluation: Attendance & Participation 15%, Business Cases Quizzes (8) 35%, Team Project 30%, Final Exam 20% Marketing course that tries to explain the specifics and differences of Latin American market. Definitely, a very easy course, that does not offer too much new stuff from the marketing principles. Almost every week there is an article to read, and then in the class a group assignment regarding to that article. Even though the class is a bit boring, the teacher is nice and flexible. He would not care if you were travelling. You would just need to send him a picture of the plane ticket for example. Sustainable Business in Latin America, MGT336 Extent: 3 local credits / 7,5 ECTS Teacher: Diego Pizarro Sánchez Evaluation: quiz 20 %, first teamwork 30 %, second teamwork 45%, assistance 5% This course offers a very startup-minded approach to sustainable business and the assignments reflect this. The first teamwork is about Latin American B-corporations (sustainable companies), and each team has to pick one and present the main business idea, value etc. For the second teamwork we had to create our own B- corporation, which would solve some kind of problem in some area of South America (for example social or 4

5 environmental problem) and also function as a profitable business. Overall the course is fairly easy to pass, and the assignments are not too serious. The teacher is an engineer, who had founded a startup. He is a really chill guy, who sometimes likes to listen to house music during the class and he is fairly flexible with the attendance. Español Avanzado: Cultura Chilena, SPAN340 Extent: 3 local credits / 7,5 ECTS Teacher: Karen Caimi Korbler Evaluation: individual tasks 35%, group work 20 %, essay 15%, exam as a project in groups 30 % Spanish course that concentrates on Chilean culture. Very interesting and not too demanding. My Spanish level was low at the beginning of the semester, but that was not too big of a problem and the advanced class was just the right level for me. The teacher is really understanding and her Spanish is really clear compared to other Chileans. During the course we had few assignments, which used different kind of programs. We, for example, had a presentation about our travel picture on Instagram, a presentation of some trip made with Adobe Sparks, a Geocaching video and an audio guide to Valparaíso. The assignments were a nice change to normal essays and stuff. Would definitely recommend the class just for listening Spanish and learning the culture and traditions. Introducción a la economía política, ECO240 Extent: 3 local credits / 7,5 ECTS Teacher: Jorge Gonzales Evaluation: Combination of quizzes, a team project and the final exam Political economy course, in which I studied with Chilean students. This is a pregrado course, so it is fully in Spanish and the final exam is later than with the other courses (though I did manage to do the exam earlier, during the same week as my other courses). Definitely, the best course I had, but also the hardest. At the beginning of the semester, I had trouble understanding the professor, but eventually I got better. The topic is interesting and you get to know Chilean political history after the end of Pinochet reign and the most basic theories of political economy. Would recommend the course to learn more Spanish and to get to know locals better. It is good to note, that this course has a lot more work than the others I had. We had quizzes from academic articles (took me quite a while to read at the beginning of the course, as they were all Spanish) and a group work of around pages regarding some recent elections and the reign of selected president. Would still recommend the course even though there are easier options to get the required credits. 5

6 3. Free time and general information 3.1 Cost of living The cost of living in Chile is lower than in Finland, but not really as much as one would probably expect. For example for groceries, the price level is fairly high, close to Finnish level, and the same goes for restaurants as well, at least in Viña. Of course there are places to find cheaper stuff, but I m mostly considering the supermarkets etc. that I used that were close to my place. As one would expect, alcohol is lot cheaper in Chile than in Finland. Other South American countries that I went (with the exception of Argentina) are lot cheaper than Chile. You won t need to pay for the university as the fees are covered by official exchange. I didn t need any book for my courses or any other materials. The school has free bus transportation to the campus from Viña, so you don t really need to pay to go to school. If you live in Valparaíso, you will probably need to take a bus or metro to the university s bus stop. 3.2 Accommodation The cost of accommodation is fairly good compared to Finland. For exchange students a room in shared apartment is around 200k-300k CLP (around depending on the exchange ratio at the time). I lived with three French exchange students that also went to UAI and payed around 210 CLP for my room. Usually other costs like water, gas, electricity are not included in the rent, so one should probably check how much they are probably going to be from the property owner. My room was small, but otherwise our apartment was great. Next to the beach, on the 21 st floor with big living room. Trip to the school bus stop was around 10 minutes from our apartment. You should not really try to get an apartment before arriving to Chile. Viña and Valparaiso are both big student cities so finding an apartment is not that hard. Also pretty much every other exchange student is looking for a place to stay also, so finding roommates is not hard. There will also be rental offers in the UAI exchange student Facebook group, to which you will be added at some point before exchange. None of my friends really had any trouble finding an apartment. I myself was happy with my apartment, but afterwards thinking I would have probably lived somewhere else. Viña is a nice city, but real culture of Chile is in Valparaiso. Living there would have probably been awesome, though maybe not as safe as in Viña. In addition, most of the nightlife is in Valparaiso so living close to the clubs would have been nice. Overall, you should think what you want from your apartment. If you want to live in a bit safer area and closer to the university, I would choose Viña. If you want to experience the culture of Valparaiso/Chile and a real city (check section 3.3) I would definitely choose to live In Valparaiso. If the exchange had been for a year, I would probably have moved to Valparaiso for the second semester (couple of my friends did this). 6

7 3.3 Free time As I already said before, it s easy to arrange your courses in a way that you will have a 4 or even 5 day weekend. This means that you will have a lot of free time. Viña is in a great location for all kinds things and if it s summer season, also for just hanging on the beach. From Viña it s easy to do a weekend or even just day trip to Santiago, for a big city experience. Also close by there are some national parks that are definitely worth visiting (for example Cerro de Campaña). Viña itself doesn t really feel that much of a city, more like a resort. It s next to beach, but it doesn t really have cultural downtown and feels like upper middle-class summer city. Still there are pretty much all the services you need; lot of restaurants, clubs, and grocery stores and malls. The real cultural and historical center of the area is Valparaíso, which is Chile s biggest port and one of the most iconic places with its colorful houses and street art. Valpo is also the place for best night life in the area, and we mostly went to clubs in Valpo. As I said before, choosing where to live depends what kinds of things you prefer (Valpo or Viña). But don t worry too much about this choice as these cities are right next to each other, and are pretty much just one big city. The transportation between them is easy, either with metro or with micros, which are these little buses that are everywhere in the area. 3.4 Traveling Other way to use your long weekends is to travel a bit farther away. Chile is enormously long country in southnorth spectrum so there are lot of different things to see, especially if you re into hiking and nature. During the semester I went to Patagonia for 10 days to mostly hike. The place is amazing and would totally recommend going there (check Torres del Paine national park for example). One thing to remember going to Patagonia is that it is really south, so they actually have a real winter there. So for spring semester you need to there before end of April (preferably earlier) to have all the hike routes open etc. There are also lot of others destination in Chile. For example Atacama Desert in the north is amazing, and lot of my friends really liked Pucon with its volcano. Also I really recommend traveling to other South American countries. For example before or after the exchange. The flight tickets to South America are pretty expensive and it s not really a place for just a long weekend trip later, so you really want to take advantage of being relative close to all these amazing countries. Budget wise it s super easy to travel cheap. The buses are really good, and if you can get used to sleeping and sitting in a bus for more than 10 hours, you can cut down your flight expenses a lot. My longest trip was from Santiago to Cordoba that took 27 hours. Though the border control was really slow which contributed a lot of time. I travelled around 5 weeks after the semester through Peru, Bolivia, North of Chile and Argentina. If you re into hiking and history, I would recommend Salkantay hike in Peru that leaves from Cusco and ends up in Machu Picchu. Other highlights from the trip were the salt plain of Uyuni (biggest in the world), Valley of the Moon in Atacama Desert, downhill biking Death Road in Bolivia and Buenos Aires in general. 7

8 Final comments I would definitely recommend going to exchange to Chile or anywhere in South America. For me the continent is the continent of adventure with its history and diverse nature and landscape. And I didn t even go to Amazon (yet)! The education during exchange was better than I expected, and the university held up its name as one best universities of economics in Latin America with its great campus and good teachers. Chilean Spanish can be a bit hard in the beginning with its slang and fast pace, but it s also a good way to push one out of their comfort zone. I didn t speak much Spanish before the exchange (only 4 courses in university), but managed to learn language well. This would have been easier if I would have been living with a local (You should do this). Overall the exchange was a real success for me study and travel wise. I think I became more independent and also more open to different cultures and people. I m going to end this report with a reality-television cliché as I feel like I really have grown as a person during my exchange. Photos 8 Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

9 9 Machu Picchu, Peru

10 10 Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia