Hello Friends,

Its finally starting to feel like I'm living here, instead of just on a great vaction. I've got my routine down and I'm really starting to feel at home in the city and in my apartment. This week has been pretty low key so far, no really great adventures but just overall quality days. On Sunday I went to the beach to do some "studying" with friends. Very little actual work got done but we had a great time anyway. We witnessed a mother dig a little sand toilet for her child to use, then proceed to sit in front of it with her feet pactically in it for the next several hours. It was rather disguisting but I guess that's what you have to do when your country does not have public restrooms. No joke, in the entire city of Vina the McDonalds is the only place I know of that has free public restrooms, any other place requires you to purchase something before you can use their facilities.

I have also grown accustomed to seeing dogs everywhere. They just sort of roam the streets and play with each other. They are generally friendly and do not bother the people walking around. The really surprising thing to me is that most of them appear to be really healthy, I think some one must be feeding them all. I learned also, that the city has started catching the dogs and getting them fixed and then releasing them as a measure to reduce the dog population. Much more humane than euthanizing them I think. I am also rather fond of them as them seem to like to protect the gringos (white people) here. On Saturday night we had one walk a group of us all the way home, probably 10 or more blocks, barking at people passing by and chasing (and trying to bite) the cars. It was kind of nice to have the personal body guard. We later nicknamed him "Lassie".

Another thing that I have gotten used to is the cat-calls and whistles from Chilean men. Being a blonde haired blue eyed American girl I get quite a few comments and whistles on a daily basis. The worst is when we are running, as the Chileans seem to find that extremely attractive (yet none of them do it, so I don't really know). It is not uncommon for us to get honks from busses and semi-trucks, as well as comments from men walking with their wives, girlfriends, or children. It is never a very dangerous sort of attention, if you just ignore it the men don't really follow-up with more comments, but it is still annoying. I was especially surprised that the men with their wives and girlfriends make these comments, considering I would never put up with something like that, and upon talking to other Chileans and friends it seems that women in Chile just sort of expect that kind of thing. It is not that uncommon for a woman to get cheated on by her boyfriend and the woman just usually accepts it. So it seems they also expect their boyfriend to look at other women on the streets and make comments towards them. I am interested to talk more in depth with other Chileans about this intersting part of their culture.

Now that I have been here for a few weeks my routine is pretty set. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I have classes in the mornings from 8 to 12:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9:30 to 12:15 on Mondays. I take the metro to school, which is like a subway/light-rail that runs from Vina to Valpo. I have to walk about 25 minutes to get to the metro station and after 5 minutes on the train I walk another 10 minutes (up several large hills) to my school. It takes me close to an hour every day to get to school and back, but it saves me some money and I enjoy the exercise. Between all the walking I do and running several days a week I should be in pretty good shape by the time I get home. That is if I can avoid the ice cream places, it seems that everyone in Vina loves ice cream and just about every street has a little ice cream place on it. I hope to try them all, if I can afford it :)

In the afternoons I usually go home for lunch, sometimes with my family, sometimes alone depending on their work schedule, and then I usually try and go out and explore a little bit, or at least get some homework done outside. When the sun is out here it is gorgeous, mid-sixties, and very pleasant, especially considering it is their winter. I live only a few blocks from the ocean so I have taken advantage of that little bonus a few times for studying and running. In the evenings I usually do homework, catch-up on emails, talk with my mother and sister and occasionally watch a little chilean television. It is actually mostly American television with either sub-titles or dubbed over in spanish. Then I go to bed and do it all over again the next day!

Well that's about all for now, I'll update you again soon!

Adios!

Katelyn