time takes time ya know

Time is FLYING by. not only each hour in each day but each day in each month. It's insane. We are quickly approaching the first month of being here and I can't even believe how fast it has gone. I have definitely done quite a bit and explored the two towns i live in but there is still so much to be done.

i've been exploring Valpo quite a bit, before and after class and this weekend as well. definitely a cool town with a lot of atmosphere. i have yet to eat seafood here! that is definitely on the list. tomorrow i am making chili for lunch for my host sister's 25th birthday. trying to find the ingredients in the grocery store will be quite an experience. all i can hope is that it comes out tasty good, at very least.

walking along the beach, especially around sunset is my new favorite thing. watching the waves roll and crash onto the shore and to witness all the people out walking and enjoying the day, it is a beautiful thing. i also love watching children playing on the beach with their parents. there is something so special and amazing about that that i just love seeing. i saw one little girl playing in the sand the other evening while her father crouched down beside her, photographing her every move. she turned and looked towards him, dirty, sandy hands outstreched with the biggest grin on her round face. this is what pure happiness looks like.

my favorite part of this last week, besides finding good coffee(!!!!) for only $1.20, granted its not much coffee but its enough to satisfy my craving, was renting bikes and going on an approximately 20 mile bike ride with a friend of mine. it only cost us about six bucks to rent bikes for 4 hours, definite deal. it felt amazing to ride again, i have gone so long without it and am even contemplating buying a bike down here. i love it so much. theres something about biking that just makes me feel so at peace with everything in this world. cruising by, catching small glimpses of everyone interacting and living life and appreciating the beautiful scenery that surrounds me, it is so wonderful. maybe you know what i mean, if you love cycling as i do. if not, mayhaps you have found your own method of happiness. however you live your life i hope that you are finding your medium of joy. for me, it is to bike. we took a path from Vina to nearby Concon which is apparently 17km or so..round trip this was equivalent to approximately 20 miles or so. that sounds like a lot but it definitely didnt feel like that many. took us about 3.25 hours or so and we defnitely stopped often to just take it all in and appreciate the natural world around us. the vistas we came upon were some of the most amazing views i have ever seen in my life thus far. chile is by far the most beautiful country ever.

our path took us along the ocean the entire way. we went 2 hours before sunset and watching the sun set over the ocean was amazing. it was a decently warm day and probably one of my favorites that i have had in chile thus far. the morning was spent attending an ocean kayaking class, really life does not get much better than this.

my classes are hard. i kind of understand what is going on but have issues with understanding everything, espeically taking notes when i dont know many of the subject-specific words they are using. i am the only gringa in many of my classes which makes it hard to not at least have the moral support of another foreigner. i will get by but its going to be a definite challenge.

i am realizing just how rich of an experience this is. to be in chile. i feel so completely removed from eveyrthing i have ever known and in reality, i am. chile is down here, at the end of the world. if you think about it, when was the last time you really heard much about chile beyond seeing its name on a sticker attached to a piece of fruit you picked up in the supermarket? and yet the U.S. is so evident around here. many of the bars/restaurants play terrible 80s music videos and i am hard-pressed to go a day without hearing some sort of U.S. music from one era or another. many words are in english here, i went into a shoe store the other day and was confronted with sections of shoes 'cross training' 'womens' 'outdoor'...im not really sure why it was in english b/c spanish definitely has translatable equivalents but there it was. people here are obsessed with english. i dont really know why. while chile doesnt have much of a separate culture and the food isnt all that good, it is a marvelous country with much potential and a lot to offer. yet they are insistent on adopting english and many U.S. influences.

another neat thing i have done is climb up a cerro (hill) to the old prison. in 1906 there was a massive earthquake with its epicenter in valparaiso. nearly the entire city was leveled, aside from a few buildings, the old prison being one in which many of the walls stood resistent to the quaking earth. now the prison is a public community center. many have come and done grafitti and other expressions of art on its walls and while we were walking around this afternoon, someone was practicing the trumpet, others were playing futbol (soccer), still others were flying kites (!!!), and a group of students were sitting on the steps in one of the courtyards playing a sweet rhythm on drums. neat what they have done with this space. we also got to talk to a tour guide who spent 27 years in that prison and now is obviously free and spends his days taking photos, writing, acting, whatever strikes his fancy. definitely an interesting fellow.

my host parents have been gone this weekend which, while i think they are great and enjoy them immensely, it has been nice to just chill and do my own thing this weekend like usual. my room is at a great level of messy and i dont have to worry about anyone coming in to clean it all up. i get to make my own food which has been weird as i have grown accustomed to basically being waited on hand and foot.

so life is great, school is starting to pick up its pace which is sad as i have enjoyed having no responsibilities other than trying my best to keep in contact with everyone and explore this crazy place that i live in. hope summer isnt melting you away. spring is on the way for us, tehre are a few trees by school that have started flowering and that is super exciting. please dont stop writing, it does take me a while to reply but i will deifnitely reply.

que le vaya bien, may it go well with you,

katie