Semester abroad in Santiago de Chile

As part of his dual studies in industrial engineering at the company Mankiewicz and at the graduate school “Nordakademie”, Nick spent a four-month semester abroad and got to know life in Santiago de Chile - an unforgettable experience that he now looks back on:

The start of my stay abroad was a challenge at first - my luggage took a week longer to get to Santiago than I did and my shared room was not available as planned. However, after the first three challenging weeks, I slowly settled in. After a short waiting time, I moved into a student dorm where I lived with students from Spain, Italy, France and Chile. 

During the first days at the university I noticed that Chilean Spanish is quite different from the Spanish we learn at the university in Germany. For example, there was a misunderstanding when I talked about my girlfriend (Spanish: "Novia"), because "Novia" means "fiancée" in Chile. Girlfriend, on the other hand, is called "Polola". Also Chileans speak very fast and swallow a lot of letters. 

My two favorite classes during the semester were "Recycling & Upcycling" and Economics. What I liked most about "Recycling & Upcycling" was that in addition to the theory part, we also gave presentations in which we took on the role of a consulting company and created small business plans for different companies. The economics lectures consisted mainly of theoretical content. Since the topics were well taught by the professor, this course was also very interesting and helpful for my further studies. 

Besides several activities which were prepared for us by the Chilean students, I had the opportunity to go skiing in Valle Nevadado in Chile because of the diverse nature and landscape. In Pichilemu (capital of surfing) and Concon we went surfing and in the mountains, a bit north of Santiago, we went climbing. Not to forget, of course, the countless hikes. My highlights were the Salkantay Trek in Peru, which ends at Machu Picchu, and the volcano climb of Villarica in the south of Chile.