This is my life. I eat constantly, go to class-in spanish, walk everywhere, talk to Chileans, meet new Chileans, spend every waking moment with friends, spend hours practicing spanish with my host family and wonder how this can all possibly be real.

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are beautiful. The life-style is slow, and everything is colorful. The people here are shy, but behind closed doors have nothing to hold back.They always make time to celebrate.

Family is a top priority, friends included. Anita, my Mama-Chilena brings me breakfast in bed almost everyday, we have 'once' (tea/coffee) with her friends and talk for hours when it's just the two of us. Her laugh is infectious and we usually find ourselves singing to the radio or sharing funny stories. Anita is clearly loved by all, for she always has friends over and her circle of friends is always expanding. My 25 year-old host-sister Fransisca is busy, she works in the trauma center at the Vina del Mar hospital and is gone for random hours at a time. She keeps to herself because she's either exhausted from working or studying for her residency exams. My Papa-Chileno Gonzalo works around 12 hours a day but is the happiest person on the planet. He always has Mondays off so we celebrate every week by drinking Pisco Sour and Chilean wine followed by a gourmet meal. He works as a chef part time, needless to say I'm spoiled.

As a group we've been lucky enough to go on a few excursions. We've been to two of Pablo Neruda's (a famous Chilean poet) houses, la Isla Negra and la Sebastiana. Both beautiful. Last Saturday we went to Curacavi, Pomaire and La Isla Negra. We took a tour of a chocolate factory and sampled over 12 different kinds of chocolate...my kind of tour. Better yet, there's still a lot to look forward to: next month we'll take a tour of Santiago, and La Serena in November. Not to mention my dad and Uncle Jeff's visit/ trip to Santiago to see Dave Matthews in October!

As of now I'm getting excited for my trip to Buenos Aires this weekend! I can't WAIT to see one of my best friends, Natalie, and live as a crazy Argentinian for a few days. More updates to come. For everyone at home: love and miss you all.