Classes started up again today and I am back in the swing of things in Valdivia. It is spring here, which I tried to show with today's picture taken during the walk home from school. It was really interesting to hear where everyone in my group went over their breaks. Some went to Argentina in Buenos Aires, others to Patagonia, some to the Andes to ski, and the rest to Michu Picchu and Lima. I feel like I had a very satisfying vacation, and it was relatively inexpensive considering all the places we went and the length of our stay. Being away from Valdivia for so long made me realize how much I love it though. It gave me a new appreciation for my classes, my host family, the size of the city, and the fact that I get to speak Spanish all the time! To be honest I was kind of out of my Spanish mode after spending 9 days with my fellow gringos. However, after 48 hours of being here I am back to normal. Now, whenever I talk in English I always hear a faint echo of the Spanish translation going on somewhere in my brain. I went out to lunch today with a girl who is in the second half of her year studying abroad. It is great to have someone to talk to who can give me some suggestions and advice about what to do while I'm here. We kind of had the unspoken understanding that we would speak Spanish the whole time and it made the lunch even cooler for the both of us. After 3 hours of conversing and eating I went straight to my Spanish class where we had to talk in front of the class so that the teacher could listen to us and note the errors that we consistently made. Since I was already in the zone, the Spanish came so much more easily to me than it would have otherwise. Then I went straight home and chatted with my host family for another 2 hours. I have probably spoken about 2 minutes of English out loud this whole day...very cool.