Spring is in the air! I know from the sounds of it those of you in Minnesota probably don't want to hear it right now, but down here its definatley feeling like spring. The photo above is just one of many flowers that are in bloom here. The weather is warming up (it was close to 80 yesterday!) and the beaches are getting fuller by the day. It makes life in Vina even more like a vacation than it already was.

Other than the weather life in Vina has been pretty uneventful since my last entry. I am really enjoying my service learning work, coaching field hockey. Its amazing how much first and second graders can teach you about a language. And I love all the hugs I get from them. My host family is still wonderful, we celebrated both my dad and brother's birthdays this week, so I got to meet a lot of the extended family which was really fun.

There were municipal elections this weekend, which was a really interesting learning experience for us. There are a lot of differnces between here and the U.S. For example their elections are always held on Sunday. Almost everything is closed for the day so that everyone has the opportunity to vote. There is also a law that says no alcohol can be consumed in public places the entire day. This meant that every business that serves alcohol (bars, restaurants, night clubs, etc.) had to close at 11pm the night before, which made our Saturday night rather uneventful :( Men and women have different voting locations so that the men can't influence the women on who to vote for, in my opinion an unnecessary rule in 2008, but that is just another example of the male chauvinism or "machismo" that exists in Chile. The most interesting difference to me is that voting is obligatory. If you are registered to vote, you have to vote and can be fined if you don't. Though this makes the voter turnout seem higher (all registered voters vote), especially among young people there is a trend not to register to vote. Its hard to tell if in the end the law leads to a higher or lower voter turnout, but its definately interesting.

This weekend we leave on our 8 day trip to the south, so you probably won't hear from me for a while, but expect some great pictures and stories when I return!

Love,

Katelyn