Hello,

It’s been a whirlwind of a week, but very enjoyable all the same. Uruguay is vastly different from the US, but there is still strong evidence of American Culture everywhere you look – whether it be the McDonald’s every few blocks or the Beatles songs that the older Uruguayans so eagerly tell me that they love to listen to.

The school (University of Montevideo) in which we have class is almost like a large house. It has a very hole in the wall feel, and I often feel that I am back in high school. It is weird to not have entire streets of campus, and instead just a gated off school off the main road. The class we are taking has 19 students in it, 14 Uruguayans, 4 Americans, and a Singaporean. It is very similar to operations management, but goes much more in depth. Each day we have a different lecturer, whether it be the head of the program at the University or someone who works in the Private Industry in Uruguay. The course is extremely well run, and each day I get the opportunity to learn more about Supply Chain, but also about how much differently business is run in Uruguay. There are many companies wholly reliant on FTZs, which is something we don’t see as much of in the US.

The food here is also incredible (Except for cow kidney and blood sausages), and our host buddy Flo has been very kind to us. She has taken us to great restaurants, to market places, and to Colonia (where the picture was taken) – an older town in Uruguay that is incredibly beautiful. We’ve also had a lot of ice cream… with our engineering counterpart Evan stopping twice each day to try some new flavor. Oh! Also people here eat at 9PM at the earliest. It’s unbelievable. We tried to go out for dinner at a restaurant at 8:30 and they said they wouldn’t start serving dinner until 9! My food schedule has been all jacked up because of this!

The people here are incredibly caring, and everyone goes out of their way to make you feel at home. Not many people speak English, but I can work my way around due to the semesters I took here at Pitt. It’s 9:40 now, so I have to go start making dinner (so weird!) But I’ll be back with updates next week for sure.

🙂

and to everyone who reads this – Ciao, Gracias!