machu picchu pictures!

okay, the wait is over. i finally got my computer to work with uploading fotos on facebook. so, here are the links to the two albums.

part 1

part 2

enjoy!

some pictures

okay, well, i got the album of my trip to the north working before i could no longer download fotos.
so, here it is!
el norte

peru pictures soon to come...

so, this is machupicchu. it was incredible. i'll write more about it later, probably.
peace.

machu picch-who?

just wanted to let you all know (all being...my parents and sisters-in-law?) that i will be heading to peru tomorrow with camilo and bernardita, my host brother and sister. we leave tomorrow night and get back the following monday. i will take lots of pictures, and probably post them at the end with my pictures of the north and my last days here in sudamerica.
see you soon.
chao,
kait

i just wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow i will be leaving for a week-long trip to san pedro de atacama, a really small town in the north of chile surround by amazing nature, such as the driest desert in the world, the second tallest natural geysers in the world, and one of the best star-gazing places due to the high altitude, low pollution, and low ambient light. i'm extremely excited to go, and i hope to have some amazing pictures when i get back. however, i may not be available for the week, because i'm not sure if the town has an internet cafe. so, if you try to email me, that's why i don't answer!

i had my last day of class today, although i will have a couple finals still when i get back. we also had our goodbye dinner for the program and it was that first small realization that it's almost over, as we all said goodbye. however, i think that because i'm not actually leaving for a few more weeks it hasn't hit me yet. i hope it doesn't for a while...i still have a lot to do!

random note: the other day, i heard a mom speaking native english to her daughter in the supermarket, so i asked where they were from. she was very nice and said they were from alaska and that about 6 months ago, she and her husband decided to move to chile with their two daughters, elementary-school-age, in order to learn spanish and experience a new culture. they are planning on returning before the beginning of the school year in aug/sept. i think that is amazing and super inspiring. i hope that when i have a family i will never be unable/unwilling to pick up and move to a country where i don't speak the language, simply for the experience. that, for me, is living life to the fullest.

peace.

quince paginas

it's done.
the 15-page monster is done.
thanks to my friend felipe for his editing skills, i have officially printed and stopped thinking about this thing that i, literally, spent at least 50 hours working on. including putting on the song "i'd rather dance with you" by kings of convenience and doing a celebration dance in camilos room while it was printing.

then he and i had a good chat about how great it is to feel known by the family to the point that i can dance like a fool when i finish a paper and not feel weird.
then he told me that their new gringa (to live with them next semester) is also named kate and she comes a couple days before i leave. and...how there's just no way she will fit in with the family like me. anyways, i decided that for those couple of overlapping days, i'm going to have my stuff packed up and i'm going to sleep upstairs with the family in my sister's room so we can have some more tight bonding time before i leave. camilo thought it a great idea. and we an talk about the new girl and i can judge her. juuuust kidding. kind of. but anytime any of us start talking about me leaving, we all get sad and decide not to.

i had a conversation the other night with patricio, my host dad, about what its like to live in this state in which i know i'm leaving in a month and i don't know, realistically, when i'll be back. (although i will). it's like i notice everything. like i want to breathe deeper, see everything, remember every detail. and in reality, it's a beautiful way to live. it makes life so much more...alive. the other day it just felt surreal. like my life was a...baz luhrman movie. (moulin rouge---since frank doesn't read this.) a great conversation with my best friend, a smile from a cute boy on the street, a great cup of coffee, a breath-taking view of the andes, and suddenly, a person walking down the street with a huge sword. surreal.

also, a couple of the boys i work with just found out i'm not chilean. and a couple girls in my dance class found out i'm not venezuelan. (i know, right?)

i hope, if anything, i can learn from this. the joy that it is to understand how precious every moment is. the joy of recognizing an expansion of my heart to people and places i never expected. the joy of living amongst mountains! the joy of feeling like i may be able to call myself, gulp, fluent. and the joy of knowing that a random dance party is just as joyous in any continent or language.

besos,
kait

la vida

so, just thought i'd give a bit of an update, make the mood a little more light-hearted on the ole blog.
1--i'm in the midst of my big paper, 10-15 pages, the longest i've written in any language! the closest i've come was a 12-pager for a social work class in which i had to write about...myself. needless to say, this one with the working title 'globalization and nationalism: end of the nation-state or resurgence of ethnic nationalism' is proving to be a bit more of a challenge.
2--there was finally a tremor! jaja. i've been hoping to feel one the entire time i've been here, and miraculously, there hasn't been one. which is rare for 5 months. but i was out the other night and suddenly one of the guys we were with said, 'there was just a tremor, did you all feel it?' i didnt feel a thing. however, i got really excited, like maybe an after shock or something, while another one of the girls, a colombian, started freaking. apprently they don't happen in colombia either. so i guess technically experienced one, i just didn't know it.
3--we went out for my best friend here, alejandra's birthday. (night of the tremor.) we went to hear some live reggae, which was pretty cool. but more so, it was great to hang out with her. we were laughing that most people come back to their study abroad country for a boyfriend and i was going to have to come back for her. it was also a cool night because in the group that was there, there were 2 colombians, 1 gringa (yo), 1 cuban, and about 5 chileans. we felt very cosmopolitan.
picture of ale and me--


4--i almost burnt down the house. okay, not really. but, i was drying my hair (which, for the record, i hate doing, but my host dad gives me hard time if i walk around with wet hair. theyre all hypocondriacs here.) anyways, i was drying it, and it had been a while, probably 15 minutes, and i started to smell something. so, i put my head up, and there is a TORRENT of smoke coming out of the power adapter. so, i shut it off, dropped it, and seriously RAN out of my room, thinking for sure it was going to explode. it didnt, luckily, but the torrent continued. so i had to open my window and door and start fanning the smoke with a towel. and keep in mind i'm still in my bath robe. and of course, thats right when my host sister and mom came downstairs. it was pretty embarassing. obviously the power was too much for the adapter, which was melted. it was crazy.
5--i'm going to peru with my host brother and sister!! i'm extremely excited. we finally got everything worked out with the tickets and we'll be going as soon as they get to winter vacation, the second week in july. i'll get back a few days before my flight to the states. we're all reaaaaally excited.
ok, should be getting back to the current ideological and idiomatic mess that is that paper.
chao chao.