It's a good thing the 10K wasn't IN the desert.

Hooooey the Nike 10K Santiago was this morning! It. was. AWESOME. I picked up my t-shirt yesterday at Mall Sport (a mall full of sporty stores), and even THAT was cool. Everybody got a chip to put on our shoes so that we could know our exact time (they haven't posted them yet, but I think I ran it in about an hour and one minute). It was a chilly, cloudy morning for the race but it didn't bother me, especially because of the big, elaborate Nike set-up at the start/finish line. It went by pretty quickly too. I ran with my host brother-in-law for about 8 and a half km and then finished about a minute after him. The route was up one side of the river and down the other, so it was really cool to see the leaders running on the other side. Our friend Pablo took pictures, so I'll post them when I get them :D

As for the desert, it was cool but really touristy. I mean, obviously it's touristy for a reason, but my mom compared it to Niagra Falls, and I think that's pretty accurate. Awesome nature, weird atmosphere. I can't figure out why that takes away from a place, but it does. One of the things I don't like about the tourism there is that everything is pretty far away from the town of San Pedro de Atacama, where most visitors stay, so tours are almost necessary. And a bunch of different agencies do the same trips, so everywhere we went there were vans full of other out-of-towners. However, the company I was with was good and we stayed in a really great hostel, complete with a bunch of cats (three of them gingers) and a couple dogs. And an above-ground pool. During the days, we went to the Salt Flats of Atacama (not very flat, but very salty), the Geisers El Tatio (not very tall, but there are a LOT of them), a fertile valley that looks really out of place in the middle of so much sand, and some small towns out in the desert. (Stole the pics from my friend Matt because I forgot to bring my camera.)





At night we sat around and made dinner at the hostel, and watched Chile QUALIFY FOR THE WORLD CUP!!! That's right, if you hadn't heard or were too busy celebrating the US's victory in Honduras (wait, the US has a soccer team?), now you know. Chile is going to South Africa in 2010. I'm going to have to buy myself a jersey now. The whole country seems pretty jazzed about it.

Both university and volunteering continue to go well. The high school kids warm up to me more and more every week. I showed them a bunch of pictures of Madison last week and they were really attentive the whole time I was talking about it. Pretty cute.

Other thoughts that I can't muster up a paragraph for:

I left a birthday party at 3:30AM on Friday night and got made fun of for leaving "early."

A new TV series started two weeks ago called "Los angeles de Estela" or, in English, "Estela's Angels." I watch it with Magdita sometimes. It's kind of like a soap opera but entertaining nonetheless. It makes for good sister bonding.

Speaking of TV, I have been keeping up with The Office and Grey's Anatomy (it is much easier to find pirated movies and TV shows online here). Both seasons are off to a fantastic start and that's a fact.

My friends and I have been making pies pretty regularly. They get better every time. The pumpkin pie we made on Friday was the best yet. We also made banana cream.

It's totally spring here, so if you're looking for an escape from the snowy midwest (yuck, by the way), come to Santiago. If you don't mind a little smog, it's beautiful. And you can still look at snow, but from a distance (of about 5000 meters, on top of the Andes). Peace!