homework, UGH!

homework, ugh!

thats right. i am knee deep in about a million assignments that i have due this week. who would of thought i would actually have to do work while i was down here? not me! :)

just kidding. i actually really like having homework and projects. doing them in spanish makes it much more entertaining, at times more stressful, but for the most part, a little more lively.

i am actually sitting in an internet cafe right now taking a little break from a 10 page paper i have to write over relations between the united states and guatemala . . . i know you are all probably rolling your eyes, but it is actually really interesting and i am learning a lot. and it feels pretty cool to be able to babble in spanish for 10+ pages. i also have a huge collection of great music to get me through it.

this weekend i went to frutillar and purto varas. wow. i went to a national park and saw some of the most crystal clear green blue water i have ever seen in my life, jumped in some lakes, swam a while, and saw incredible waterfalls. the following day we spent the whole day on a farm with a chilean family and rode horses, played a crazy 2 hour game of pick up soccer, and did a bunch of canopy and tree climbing. man, i forgot i used to use so many muscles when i played soccer. i am sore!

hmmm, well i would love to write more, but if i think too much more in english it is going to be hell trying to finish that paper!

i love you and miss you all!

katie (who is head over heels in love with chile) tompkins

wow. i am bad. it has been almost a month since my last blog. well the reason for not blogging is because i have been so busy and happy just living my life down here. when i think about leaving valdivia in december, i actually get pretty sad. i am going to miss this place so much. i have been toying with the idea of returning for the second semester in march, but i am not sure how realistic that is . . . regaurdless, i know that i will at least visit valdivia in the not to distant future!

so what have i been up to? well two weekends ago i went to argentina! i went to bariloche which is a beautiful city nesteled in the andes of the patagonia region in argentina. incredible. i honestly think it is one of the most beautiful places i have seen so far. but i cant make any judgements too soon, because there is so much more i have yet to discover! tomorrow i leave to go down south, but this time i am staying in chile. no crossing borders. i am going to puerta varallas and frutallar. i am excited about that! both of those cities are supposed to be beautiful as well!

i have made so many amazing friends here. i think that is going to be the hardest part about leaving. whenever i walk through the streets i always run into people i know and i love it! i need to leave extra time before i go anywhere, because i stand and chat in the middle of the sidewalk forever when i run into people. i also love taking with my collectivo drivers. collectivos are like taxis but you share them with random people who are going in the same general direction as you. i have met some quite interesting characters. always entertaining!

last sunday dos amigos took me out to niebla for almuerzo! (almuerzo = lunch, and it is the main meal of the day here). niebla is the first place i visited when i got to valdivia and it is on the coast just a little further south of valdivia. it was an incredibly beautiful day, and we ate lunch on the water. then had a huge sand fight on the beach. i think after 3 showers i finally got all the sand off. then they took me to their campus and showed me where they study. here in valdivia my university has two campuses. i got to the campus on the island (la isla teja) which is for liberal arts and sciences. the other campuis, miraflores, is the engineering campus. my buddies are studying electrical engineering. jose is actually graduating in december, so i am going to go to his graduation! i am excited about that.

as for my house, i LOVE it! they family is great. and we have a nanny who is the funniest woman ever. what a character! i really dont know how to describe her, or who i can compare her to. but her name is cecilia. she is a short jovial chilean woman who loves to gossip and tell me juicy stories of the craziness that goes on while she in at the supermarket, on the bus, washing clothes, or algo así. i love it. she always sings to me in spanish, and when it is only us in the house she turns the raido on really loud and belts out every song. when i eat breakfast with her in the morning i always sing simon and garfunkel´s ¨celia ¨. she loves it!

hmmm, well i have to say i have not had any more stories as exciting as my throwing my pee all over a waiting room (oh man, oh man. thats all i can say). i have had a few comical runs, which more often than not are something to the effect of me running, and little middle school boys running alongside me in their school uniforms as they jump off the bus, or trying to find a new route to run and end up getting lost for a little bit, or stopping to pet extremely cute stray dogs, and sometimes getting a running partner/dog for a block or two.

classes are great. i still think my history professor is the bees knees. i want to take him back to the states and have him be my professor at uw!

i miss you and love you all so so so so so so much.

rainydawg! i listened to you the other day, and chatted with jeckert! for those of you who dont know what rainywag is, it just so happens to be the best radio station IN THE WORLD. www.rainydawg.org!

(that was my little radio station plug! i miss you guys and cant wait to come back!)

ok time to go! love love love for everyone!
-katie, katty, margarita!