A Day in the Life

From reading my blog posts I realized that it seems that the only things I do down here are travel and go to parties. This is less true than I would like, and I want to take this moment to explain to both of my readers about what I actually do on a day-to-day basis--classes, thesis, things like that. 

Classes first: I'm taking 16 credits down here, which translates to like 14 hours in a US academic sense. Hopefully though, when I get back all I'll need to graduate with a double major will be three hours of Spanish and to finish my thesis. And in four years, too. Hate on, haters. I have nine Spanish credits down here, three of which are grammar, and six of which are culture and communication, and are taught by a charming and friendly communist woman. It honestly doesn't bother me at all, but I did find the song we listened to about Ho Chi Minh to be a little out of place. Five history credits--Formation of the State and Nation in Latin America (basically history up to 1900) and Twentieth Century Latin American History, which is exactly what it sounds like. Neither of these are very entertaining. Finally, I have a class on the internationalization of Chile's economy which is interesting and fits in perfectly with my wine thesis. And is also a great segue. 

My thesis, for those of you who don't know, examines the causes of the export growth in the Chilean wine industry over the past twenty years--basically researching how Chile became the 5th largest wine exporter in the world in a relatively short period of time. So far has been going well. Most of my research has been recreational in nature, but I think I'm interviewing the sales and export manager at my first vineyard on Friday and I've made contacts with several people in wine-related industries that I can interview. 

Finally, I told both my grandfathers that I'd periodically send out wine recommendations. Here's the first: Oveja Negra (Black Sheep) does really good blends of reds from their vineyards scattered throughout the country. The Cabernet Franc/Carmenere is my favorite--and is apparently an under $20 best buy, if you're in to that sort of "spending money well" thing. Here's a list of the awards it's won, if you don't believe me. I'm not sure how much it costs in the US, except for under $20, but it's about a $5 bottle down here. Pretty awesome. 

And an update: next week I have two tests, a paper, and a presentation. In two weeks I'm going to Buenos Aires by way of Montevideo. Wish me luck, y'all.