From one winter to another

Chile is cold. This is winter here and i was shocked the moment i walked out of the airport and saw snow on the roofs of all cars! This winter is not like the winter i encountered in Brazil. This is harsher. But the winter means that i see snow capped mountains circling around Santiago, and my 19th floor apartment looks right into these mountains through a string of skyscrapers - making a wonderful sight to wake up to.

Santiago is a nice city and I've had a good two days here in the capital of Chile. The city breathes in Spanish and Spanish only - too bad for me! I really need to learn Spanish. It is going to be very difficult to get my way around the city and live here for 10 more weeks without learning the language. I'm picking up words and recollecting those I've learnt earlier - but the curve is harshly steep! The plan is to learn enough to communicate smoothly by the end of the internship.

My internship began three hours after my 40 hr flight journey ended and i was able to keep up the entire day because of the exciting conversations all day along. This is a great opportunity to positively impact a company that is ripe with opportunities and I'm very glad i made this choice. The next 10 weeks i will be working on taking this company to the next level and hopefully get the CEO to invest in the infrastructure and man-power required to do so. In my first few conversations with him, he seems to be more than willing to listen to us.

Us? Yeah - i have a partner, at least for the next five weeks. There is a Harvard half-MBA who has been here for three weeks and will return in five weeks. He's a Spaniard and speaks fluent Spanish, so i seek his help to talk to people around. Yesterday, we were involved in a wonderful conversation about what we can do for this company and we'd walk out happy if we can achieve the things we discussed. He's done some great work in the last three weeks and we hope to take that forward in the next 10 weeks. We'll see how that goes.

I feel like August 2007 in Chicago - new city and not many friends. I've made a few friends in the last two days, but i need a translator to talk to most of them. There is a bunch of interns in the city and we need to meet up pretty soon and start exploring the city and Chile. More updates as it happens...