I'm not dead or anything, promise.

Hello loved ones!

So I've been here three months now and I have learned a lot.  For example, I can recognize any Luis Miguel song by his voice only.  I can tell you where to get the best completo in Valdivia and why you should be excited about it.  I know to look forward to the first week of the month at school (it has to do with really really cheap chocolate) and why you should never party with jotes.  I have also learned that I am the worlds worst blogger.  THE WORST.  I'm really sorry I never write on this and I pledge to write more when I am more mobile this summer (more details on that later).  I will have exciting things to write about then, I promise.

So this blog update is all about why I never blog!  It has to do with my daily and weekly routine here in Vadivia which is not that exciting.

Monday through Thursday I go to school in the morning, come home for lunch with my family and go to a few more classes in the afternoon.  Tuesdays are a little different because I help out at the local elementary school in the morning and then have class in the evening.  Weeknights I do homework and read a lot.

On the weekends when I'm not traveling I read and eat and sleep during the day, sometimes going downtown and sampling various cake and coffee at cafes (the coffee sucks here, if you don't ask for espresso they will give you instant) which is all wonderful.  The town is really pretty.  At night I usually go out with friends (both American and Chilean, but mostly American).  We have a few karaoke bars we frequent and we drink beer and sing and eat greasy bar empanadas.  If the mood strikes we go dancing after but sometimes I just go home and sleep late the next day.  The biggest difference about nightlife here (other than that I'm allowed to participate) is that bars simply don't close until everyone leaves, usually around five or six am.

Sometimes though I travel on the weekends.  Last weekend I went with some friends to a beautiful tiny town on a lake about two hours inland called Panguipulli where a Chilean friend has an adorable house really close to the beach.  The place looks like this: 

And a few weekends before that I went to a cool town called Pucon.  It's also inland and on a lake (there are a lot of lakes here) and we did some hiking and visited a fake Mapuche (the native people of Chile) village.  Pucon is cool because it's right in the shadow of a huge volcano called Vulcan Villaricca.  There is also a crazy awesome black sand beach.  It looks like this:

So there you have it!  I've not been blogging because I do pretty normal student things here, the catch is that it's all in Spanish!  But this summer (Dec-March) I will be travelling around and will blog more regularly.  Hope all is well wherever you are!  Chao! (That's what Chileans say when they want to say Adios)