Ok here goes nothing Even with some practice, I have very little idea what I am doing.

1. This city doesn't drain very well, the streets flood after an hour or two of hard rain, even going to the supermarket can be an adventure when you can't cross the street...

2. This is not nearly as fun in English, but so that people can understand.
how cool
at the beach
with the slingshot
Buena onda is a phrase that more or less means how cool. Buena onda can also be used to describe a person or place. Onda is also the word for slingshot. I really did this today. We sat at the beach, a friend and I, shooting rocks at a bag stuck on a stick. I won too.

3. Winter break just started here, meaning my semester is finally over, meaning now it's time to go home, back to the southern summers I love. However, the idea of where I belong is bending, since I'm torn between ties here and ties there. Sorry if the alliteration with b bothers anyone.

4. Happy 4th This is probably the second or third time I have been out of the country during the 4th.

5. I love the sunsets here, into the ocean. The second is similar to the first though not an exact translation. A more literal translation would be:

the sunset
and its red rays
the crown of the sea

6. Went to get icecream with a friend before she headed back to the U.S.

7. The system of getting out books (just to look at/photocopy) at the Chilean national library is the biggest pain in the bum. It involves getting special papers and filling in all the info for the book you want, which you have to look up on the computer, then going somewhere else to turn in your ID card and the slips of paper to get the book, but you can´t leave the room and you can only take out two at a time, and the books are located all over the library....frustrating.

8. backpacking, again

9. winter surfers at sunset

12. Scariest road ever to get to the place where you can walk along the train tracks to the city below Macchu Picchu, much cheaper than actually taking the train.

13. Also cheaper to climb the steps (and faster) than the bus to the top of Macchu Picchu. We climbed up at about 4 AM, hard climb, but worth it.

14. Getting back to civilization on unpaved mountain roads, ugh...

15. Puno and Lake Titicaca. Uros are floating islands, no kidding, they make islands out of a floating reed plant. One of the ones we visited had ten families living together. One man had a TV (and lights) that were powered by solar powered batteries. Coolest thing ever.

16. Waiting at an internet cafe before going to the airport this afternoon to fly back down the country.

17. Home is an interesting concept for me.

18. More citrus

22. Culture shock...

23.

28. rained today. Finished the second book.

AND I AM DONE! six minutes to midnight, nothing like last minute...