Today is a historic day...I had my first class FINALLY after nearly 3 weeks of keeping myself busy with independent study, walking, blackberry picking, bread making, and activities of that nature. I really can't complain about all that free time, I did enjoy it. And come to think of it, my schedule isn't exactly packed at the moment either, so I will undoubtedly continue with many of my hobbies. However, it does feel nice to be a student again and being able to relate to my friends about having to wake up early and do homework. I was talking to the other gringa from the program about this semester, and again we were both just so happy to be back after our challenging summers that made us realize how good we have it here. 

After class today Theresa and I decided to go on a stroll. Somehow we ended up in the best chocolate shop in Valdivia...not sure how that happened...Anyway, I wanted her to meet Marcelo's mom who is a travel agent, since Theresa is thinking about doing some traveling in July and August. Plus, I just love introducing nice people that I know to other nice people that I know, and I figured Katia wouldn't object to a chocolate or two. After chatting with Katia in her office, Theresa and I parted ways and I walked my favorite stretch of sidewalk along the river to mentally in physically prepare myself for the three course lunch that awaited me in the house. I have become really comfortable with having plenty of free time to myself, and not getting too anxious about it. I always want to make sure that I am challenging myself, and the beauty of living in another country and speaking another language all the time is that I feel I challenge myself on a daily basis. Therefore, I try to relax and enjoy myself during the extra time off. I ran into Tomas on my way home, which was actually the second time I had run into him that day. Again, this is why I love Valdivia because I constantly run into people I love to talk to. There was a rather noisy cat sitting in my front yard, so Tomas pretended to speak cat to it for a while by meowing and then treating its nonstop meows as actual responses to what we had meowed to it...Hard to explain really but quite entertaining. I am heading over to Marcelo's house for dinner tonight so I will undoubtedly run into Katia and Tomas again while I'm over there. My goal is to organize a Skype date during that time between their old exchange student and my good friend Devin via my laptop. We will see. If it works it will be awesome, and if it doesn't happen today it will happen soon because I know it will be one of those great unforgettable moments that makes everyone involved feel all warm and happy. Right now I am deciding what to do with my afternoon until that point. I might head out and pick more blackberries...I made a large cobbler for my family with the blackberries I had picked a few days ago and within 12 hours the cobbler had disappeared...I took it as a huge compliment, and I don't think they would object to another one.