I've been in Chile for about 2 1/2 weeks now (though it feels like much longer in a lot of ways). Haven't done any traveling outside of Vina and Valparaíso, but next weekend I'm going to Mendoza, Argentina with some of the "gringos" in my program :) I've survived my first week of classes at the university -which included having the wrong hours for one class and going to another where the professor didn't show up- and am currently reworking my schedule a bit to drop some classes and pick others up (fortunately we have a month to try out classes before formally enrolling).

I had the good luck to get sick on Monday with a throat/fever thing that is now more of a congestion/throat/stomach thing and am hoping to recover over the weekend (with the aid of lot's of sleep and tea!).

I've been doing a lot of walking around Vina del Mar and am finally pretty well oriented here. I am also more familiar with the public transportation (they have great subway, bus, and shared taxi systems) so I can make sure I’m not the recipient of a “gringo tax”, which is nice. I'm planning on getting to know Valparaíso better later on. I'll most likely be spending a lot of time there for my photography class, since the architecture is more interesting and there is more action on the streets to capture.

OK! Off to have “once” (a light dinner) with my mama! Saludos de Chile!