all she wrote

December 22nd. wow. At times, I thought this day would never come. At others, I couldn't believe how fast life was passing by! The reality is, it's here. It's time to pick up and leave Chile. Tomorrow. crazy. In some ways this is reminiscent of the end of college. Everyone is going in different directions, I don't know what lies in front of me, I'm broke...On the other hand, it's different because Chile will continue to chug along. My host mother will still buy bread each afternoon, go to church on Sunday nights and worry about every aspect of her son's lives. Chile will elect a new president, the students will continue to protest, vendors will continue to sell used pens, pirated CDs, band-aids and peaches from the same cart.

In this sense, it's comforting to think that when and if I come back (I'd love to come back and travel more in the south of Chile), not much will have changed. I know that Sunday will involve a huge lunch followed by coffee and dessert and the standard conversation bouncing from weather to family gossip with silly humor mixed in. In Chile, family is the highest priority.

Not money, fame, possessions--as much as American influence is trying to change that. Life moves a tad bit slower here. People complete one or two tasks a day instead of trying to "fit" or "squeeze" everything in over the lunch hour. Lines are standard. The bank, grocery store, pharmacy, bus. Waiting is a way of life and Chileans learn from a young age that impatience will get you no where here. I've definitely taken away the virtue of patience here. I'm guessing it'll take me a second to get used to drive through, self-checkout and driving my own car.

In the end, all things must come to and end. And this is yet another end in my life. I'm blessed and fortunate enough to have experiences many only dream of and for that I am endlessly thankful and humbled. Nonetheless, goodbyes are difficult. My host family has been a rock for me this year and without the stability of my host mother, I don't know what I would've done. (I even managed to make a peanut butter addict out of her!) I learned a lot through my first year of teaching and I've been able to travel to the top and bottom of Chile. When I write it all down, I've done a lot. At times, I've been bored, cold, frustrated and lonely. At others, (like now!), I've been energized, inspired and surrounded by loving people.

This is a super random post but I think I'm going to keep it as such. Such is life in Chile. RANDOM. así no más. :)

Off to pack while pumpin' the reggatón beats.

Chao pescaooooo.

Adiós Chile

I love lists. Organizing, categorizing, crossing off items, everything. I just love 'em. :) I find they help me make sense of things. Not only the obvious everyday processes like packing or grocery shopping but also what I like, don't like, pros and cons of a certain big decision and finding out what's important to me.

Therefore, I find myself making mini lists in my head all the time. Lately, it's been a "what I'm going to miss about Chile" list. I leave in 7 days and can't really believe it. There was so much that went into this year (application, working, saving $, volunteering, packing, endless amounts of paperwork and appointments, travel plans etc.) Then I arrived and had a year filled with highs and lows. I learned a lot! How to teach, how to plan lessons, how to live with a Chilean family, how to navigate the bus system, how to stretch my meager stipend, how to travel, how to be alone, how to arrive at Duoc just before a downpour, how to speak Chilean spanish and on and on. See, I already made a list before the list I was meaning to make!

Saying goodbye is always bittersweet. (Unless the experience one had was completely negative.) While I didn't love everything about this year, it is definitely going to be hard to say goodbye to Chile. In many ways, the difficult moments made me realize how easy my life has been / is and appreciate what I have. (family, friends, transportation, heat, ability to get a job, a good education). Also, Chile, and living in my green house here in Concepción is all I have known for a year. It'll be strange and uncomfortable to enter back into the world of capitalism and consumption. Buy! buy! buy! A world where people are constantly connected- music, cell phones, internet- but yet struggle to communicate face to face.

I've said to myself many times (especially the past few months) that I am ready to leave Chile. I'm ready to go back to the US, find a job-or two- and work, save money, spend time with my family and work on figuring out my next step. I truly think I am ready. I don't want to teach at Duoc another year. I don't want to live in Conce another year. Yet at the same time, it will be hard to ride the bus one last time and wave to my kind host family from the window.

I tell myself I'll be back. I want to continue traveling in South America --especially the south of Chile and Patagonia. But who knows when this will be. Hopefully its not an empty promise...I still have yet to return to Costa Rica. But, as Laly says, "You have a house in Chile."

Alright, I got sidetracked typing out my thoughts...here is the list.

Things I'll miss about Chile.

-My host family. Particularly my host mom, Laly. She has been my rock this year, always looking out for me, helping me, listening to my broken Spanish. Life's about the little things, and Laly gets this. She's always doing little things for me that I appreciate deeply.

-Spanish (as horrible as los chilenos speak, I'm going to miss Spanish. mucho)

-kiosks on every corner selling anything from kilos of fresh strawberries and asparagus to woll socks and sunglasses.

-Plazas. Every South American city has one and I love the feeling of community they emit. The US has no plazas, just malls.

-The mixture of mountains, rolling green hills, ocean, volcanoes, and rushing rivers all within a few miles of each other.

-my "good"students. By "good" I mean motivated, fun, interested, kind

-free time. I have a lot of it and I've been able to read, write, listen to music and chill more than I have in years. I know I'll miss it.

-I'm sure I think of more...I'm feeling the pressure of "the list" right now. :)

I hesitate in making a "things I won't miss about Chile" list at this moment. I'm focusing on the positive here...

Tonight I'm headed to Santiago for one last visit. I'm staying with Sidi and were planning on taking pictures around the city, buying last minute gifts and maybe renting bikes??

Still can't believe it's one week. Time is a sly guy, that's for sure.

Torres Day 4.

:( Qué triste, our last day came too fast!

In order to catch the catamaran out of the park at noon, we had to get up really early to hike up as far as possible to see the "Grey Glacier." After oatmeal and tea, we grabbed our water and set off for a 2 hours trek towards the wind and rain.

We lucked out on weather the entire trip. No rain, just a few clouds. Until we got up to the glacier. I felt like I'd been transported to Antarctica. I suppose I was pretty darn close! The whole scene was bizarre: the clouds were spewing freezing rain sideways. We could barely walk straight due to gale force winds and yet there was a rainbow on the other side of the lake. A few minutes later the skies opened up and the sun shined through. So unpredictable.

Pretty good shot of the glacier. If we'd had more time, the last part of the "W" hike includes a few more hours toward the glacier and camping there. We definitely weren't equipped for that.

Sun shining through.

Back down at the campsite. Passing time waiting for the catamaran. Chilean flag and Patagonian flag.

You've been good to me Torres.

Taken from the catamaran. What a way to end a string of unreal views.

Torres del Paine lives up to the hype. I've never seen nature like this. It inspired me to take advantage of my surroundings- especially since I'm moving to Colorado. I hope to hike, camp and get outdoors more.

It's far, but it was worth every peso I paid.

Torres Day 3

Day 3 was spent hiking up the valley to a Mirador. For some reason, this day felt really long. I think it's because we split our hikes into to parts. In the morning we were sans backpack (light as a feather!) and chugged up the mountain. We got our first glimpse at the glacier. You know how in the Alaska cruise line ads, the glaciers are always bright blue and sparkling? Well, I thought this was just crafty advertising and touching up. While I'm sure that's partly true, glaciers really are icy blue and sparkly! It's hard to capture on camera but they stand out like icy gems on the mountain.

The terrain was varied throughout the hike. We climbed rocks for awhile, crossed rushing rivers, tromped through woods and finally made it to a clearing of dead trees. It was starkly different from the rest of the landscape. Wonder what happened here...

One of our only group shots. These are my fellow Conce pals. Amy, Jen and Sara.

We made it to the top!

Throughout the week, I took a bunch of pictures through my sunglasses lens. I think it look cool. I was a bit off on this one..

The camera doesn't do it justice--if you look closely, you can see the icy blue glacier ice.

After a brief lunch of PB & J on tortillas, we started hike # 2. This time with all of our stuff. My turn to carry the tent. Definitely felt the difference. On this bridge, only one is allowed to pass at a time. Interestingly, the sign is in English. Guess they had to make sure the gringos understood..

After a couple hours frolicking through the meadow and singing Sound of Music, we arrived at Lago Pehoe, the site of the Paine Grande Lodge and people with lots of dinero. Luckily, they also have an inexpensive paid camping site. Hot water and beers available! We definitely weren't suffering too much on the trip!

I didn't love this campsite as much as the others, mostly due to the amount of people and it felt too exposed (to people and wind). But the view was spectacular.

Torres Day 2

Day 2 was our longest day in terms of hiking--we had to backtrack down the mountain to where we started, then hike over the lake and up to the free campsite. All in all, it was about 23km or almost 14 miles. It took awhile but the scenery made it easy to keep going. In fact, I was constantly torn between stopping and sitting for awhile and chugging along so we didn't arrive super late at the campsite. If I get the chance to come here again, I would stay longer. Honestly, I could sit and stare for hours here. 4 days wasn't enough for such down time. Hence the crazy amount of pictures. :)

A morning shot of the valley we camped in. Loved the green.

Back to the river.

The red flower was everywhere in the park. The perfect accent between all the blue and green.

The incredible Lago Nordenskjold.

We made it down to the beach!

The French River just outside our campsite #2. Washin' dishes in freezing cold water!

Torres del Paine National Park

The End of the World

This past week, I had the incredible opportunity to visit Torres del Paine National Park (Paine Towers) in the south of Chile, also known as Patagonia. It's going to take me a while to process my experience and I think this blog will help. I've never seen such concentrated natural beauty. Everywhere I looked, I could've taken a picture. (Because of this "problem," I ended up with over 400 pictures in a 5 day trip!) Words like beautiful, pretty, impressive, breathtaking and gorgeous don't do the park justice. Therefore, I'm going to take you on a virtual trip, starting from the airport in Santiago, in an attempt to share a little slice of the incredible beauty in Patagonia.

First of all, my travel group. The three girls I've mentioned before, Sara, Jen and Amy are all fellow Duoc profs. We had a week free from Duoc duties and decided months ago that Torres was a "must-see." Being the frugal volunteers that we are, we saved our pesos throughout the semester. We bought all our food for the park here in Conce and packed it in our backpacks for the long ride down to Patagonia.

Here's a map to give you an idea of the distances. I live in Concepción, about 7 hours south of Santiago.

Despite living in Chile, Patagonia is still really far away! It took us a good 36 hours to arrive at the park entrance. We left Saturday night for Santiago on an overnight bus, took a plane from Santiago to Punta Arenas, a bus from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales. There we rented our gear (tents, pots, pans, sleeping bags etc.) Thanks to a very kind student of mine, I had most of the necessary gear! Gracias Andres! We spent the night --cozy down comforters and all-- in Puerto Natales. The next day, we had a hearty breakfast and caught the 7:30am bus with slew of other gringos. Three hours later, we were there! Because we have Chilean ID cards, we got in for only $8usd instead of the steep $30 fee for foreigners. holla!!

We ran into a herd of sheep on the way to the park. Wool is a primary industry in Patagonia.

Our first glimpse of the Torres. We had to get out of the van, cross the bridge on foot, then get back in on the other side. Safety first in Chile too. (sometimes...)

I had to put this in here. We made 4 HUGE bags of GORP. Looking at this now makes me a ill...ugh.

And we're off! First big hike up the "W" loop. The "W" is the most popular hike in the park. You guess it, it's shaped like a "W"! We started on the right side of the "W" and hiked to the top of the 1st finger. I'm guessing my pack weighed between 25-30lbs-- more when I had the tent. The first day was about 14km total. Mostly uphill.

Getting closer the the Torres!

The weather the trip was awesome. (again, we lucked out) Patagonia is known for extreme weather, drastically changing throughout the day. We had clear blue skies the first few days and only a few clouds and drizzle the last day.

My favorite part of the park: filling my water bottle up at ANY stream/river! Glacier water is delicioso :) And free!

After setting up camp, we hiked the last 1.5hrs to the Mirador Las Torres. What a sight. After all the traveling, we were there. We took tons of pictures and later simply sat, quietly contemplating the view. I couldn't believe it. Very surreal.

Dinner was pasta and tomato sauce. Dessert: GORP. I'm pretty sure this picture was taken around 10pm--over 18 hours of daylight!

More to come on days 2-4. I have a lot of pictures to sort through...

coming to an end

It's been a few weeks since I've written..mostly due to "flojera," one of my favorite Spanish words used to describe laziness. My students are "flojos," for example. Muy flojos.

But! I'm finished with classes. As of yesterday, I am no longer a WorldTeach teacher. There are still a few last minute grades to post and the looming "oral final," but pretty much, the party's over. And I'm excited about that. This year has been many things: random, trying, frustrating, cold, rainy, exciting, depressing, eye-opening and challenging. I could say this about teaching in general too. I've enjoyed my students but I'm excited to move on.

Last weekend, I was up in Santiago for the End of Service Conference with the whole WorldTeach crew. It was fun to see everyone and catch up on the last semester. These are the people I met at the airport in Miami, sat through a month of orientation with and teach at various Duoc sites around Chile. Because of this, we are all very connected and have lots of common ground. It's funny how everyone came down here to "teach English at a technical/professional school" but in the end, each volunteer's situation looks very different from the next. I found it fascinating to hear about host families (good and bad) and friends people made. In terms of teaching, we all had similar stories. We could still be exchanging tales...

We had a few "sessions" complete with reflection, reverse culture shock talk and a resume-building workshop. The latter was what stuck with me the most. I haven't really been thinking too intensely about the future but when we all started working on our resumes and sharing ideas, it struck me that I'm going back to a very different world. A world of self-promotion, competition and strategy. I'm not sure I'm ready for such a world, but my bank account says otherwise. In the end, I know I'll find a job (or two) and work for awhile. Yet, my travel bug hasn't been cured by this year living and teaching in Chile. If anything, I think it's worse. I have no idea what the future holds, but I'm thinking it involves a passport...

ps. Currently packing for PATAGONIA!!! That's right, I'm headed to the end of the world.

chao chao. manu chao.

Por fin! The infamous "music scene" hit Conce! Manu Chao concert November 23rd.

Mi amiga Laura (a fellow WorldTeach volunteer and Wisconsinite) introduced me to Manu Chao on our trip to Peru in July. I fell in love with his sweet beats and different languages and now listen to it all the time.

Last week, we heard a rumor that Manu Chao was coming to C

once. Turns out, the rumor is true! We are all SO excited for this. After almost 10 months of living here, I've determined that the "lots of concerts and live music and great night life" description of Concepción, Chile is false. Unless you consider reggaton blaring from dark, creepy nightclubs "great night life."

Nevertheless, this is not my typical Monday night event :) holla.

This morning I ran another 10k. This one was hosted by DiarioSur, one of the local newspapers.

I felt really good throughout the whole race and (I know this sounds weird) actually tried to push myself a bit. Throughout this year of running/racing, I've gotten used to just arriving and running. Not really thinking about it beforehand, not eating anything special to prepare. I just go.

But today I decided to run a bit faster. Turns out, I ran 8:30s and finished in 52:30. And so continues my increasing obsession with running. I really, really like it. I think it's the camaraderie of completing a goal with other people. Woo! sports! I like seeing all the different people that show up and how everyone cheers each other on, working towards "la meta" (finish line). And the random t-shirts, medals, water bottles and other free stuff doesn't hurt!

Two more weeks of classes! Hallelujah

cotton candy cloud.

typical monday evening

I spent the evening making signs about "permission, obligation and prohibition."

"You can recycle this item."

"You aren't allowed to push the button!"

It may be the effect of white board markers but I decided to take a few pics of "mi pieza." My room has evolved over the past 9 months from a bed and small dresser into my own haven. It's been "Jennerized." haha. Honestly, I spend a TON of time here. Not as much as the winter, but still plenty. I find when I'm away from my house for long periods of time, (class all day, weekend trips, even just a few hours!) I crave my room. It's the one space here that is solely mine.

It's my office, my bedroom, a library, internet café, mini movie theater, karaoke bar, a yoga studio, even my kitchen sometimes!

Oh heey-ayyy! (I'm telling you, it was the strong markers..)

Office, closet combo

There's a lot to be said for space when one is living in a foreign country. When I'm out and about, personal space is not what most Americans are used to. I cram my legs into a seat on the bus next to everyday José, I push my way to the front of the line to buy a snack at Duoc, I perch next to the treadmill waiting for it to his 29:59 and then pounce.

If nothing else, I've learned to be pushy in public! A foot of space between you and the person in front of you at the grocery store is an open invitation to let granny and her whole family go ahead of you. Lingering patiently a comfortable 5 feet from the treadmill means you will never actually work out.

After a day- or 9 months- of fighting for space, I appreciate my square more than anything!

Ok, last but not least, I have two new books to add to my list. I finished Mudbound last week. It's a really quick read. But still left me thinking after I put it down. It's a story of two families in rural Mississippi in the late 1940s, early 1950s. One family is black, the other is white. They also both have sons that fought in WWII. When both sons arrive back in town, they are met with the sad reality of unchanged perspectives regarding race. The boys connect on a different level, far away from the harsh farm land of Mississippi. Their friendship is complicated by enduring prejudice and hate. I won't give away the end, but as the book says, "they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale and find redemption where they least expect it."

The other, My Invented Country, is by the Chilean author Isabelle Allende. (Niece of Salvadore Allende, the president who was murdered Sept. 11th, 1973 by the military coup led by Pinochet). I'm flying through the book because it's like reading about my day to day life. Every few pages, I say to myself "yes!" and "exactly!" She writes about Chilean culture, food, dress, politics, daily life, classism, sexism etc. It's like Allende crawled into my brain and made sense of all the random thoughts I've had while observing this country. Because I'm living the words on the page, I find this book fantastic! Not sure everyone would, but I'd still recommend it. Fantastic insight into the people of Chile. (With a feminist, socialist, expatriate bias). Allende is one of few outspoken Chilean female writers and lives in California.

Good night!

punto c l

**I started this having no idea where it would go, and it turned out to be a wordy meandering around the subject of technology and culture. If you get through it all, gracias!**

I find I have a hard time organizing my thoughts lately regarding the blog. Blog, what a funny word. I had no idea how huge blogs are now in the US. Everyone blogs. I find it oddly fascinating that people voluntarily share the inner-workings of life with the masses. Documenting daily eating habits, the latest sale, whether or not Janie has a cough, weight-loss tips "to live by," and on and on. The possibilities are endless. The fact that we can sit in front of a screen all. day. long. reading about the lives of people we won't ever meet is mind-boggling. Clearly, this is a two-way street. The bloggers have to keep up his or her end of the bargain by constantly updating, "blogging," and the readers have to read, post comments and share the blog with friends to keep it going. It's a new, virtual form of cultural capital. What if the Internet crashes all of a sudden? How would we interact? Where would we start?

This wave of instant information and constant, incessant connection to anyone in the world has not yet arrived to Chile. For this, I am thankful. I realize that in a few years when I come back to visit, Chileans will be tweeting (probably very passé by then in the US) and blogging but for now it's nice to live among the technology of yesteryear--or the early 2000s. Technology is something that evolves at warp speed and countries like Chile try to keep up but they always fall just a bit short. CD walkmans are still popular. And Windows 4.0 I, for one, opine that that's a good thing.

That being said, every boy in my house has a computer, the majority of my students have laptops and I heard on CNN Chile that a higher percentage of Chileans than Americans own cell phones. The cell phone in Chile isn't used for lengthy conversations, per sé, but instead quick snippets of dialogue that more or less consists of the same script:

"Where are you? When will you be home? Did you buy bread? Ya. Ok. Bueno. Listo. Chao. Besito." (all in the span of 20-30 seconds depending on the last few "chaos" and "ya pos."

I'm convinced Chilean mothers somehow funded the campaign aimed at young people in order to have unlimited surveillance on their children. And no, Chileans can not screen their calls. If mom is calling, they answer. Not answering is not an option. Even at 4am on a Saturday night.

Don't get me wrong. I am extremely grateful for technology being thousands of miles away from home. From day one, I've have good, reliable internet in my room. It's helped me with lesson planning, staying in touch, and helped me pass many rainy Sunday afternoons. Yet, I rarely interact at length with anyone in my host family because of computers. The boys are always playing video games. Except for onces, they are all squirreled away in their rooms, playing various bang bang shoot 'em up games. I think this is the pitfall of technology. It takes away, and in fact numbs us, to simple face-to-face interactions. The fact that I can be better friends with a fellow blogger than my own Chilean housemates is slightly disturbing.

Yes, the internet is an incredible tool and probably the most significant innovation (cultural/social/economic/political) of the late 20th/21st century, but what is it leading to? Seems to me, it's only getting bigger. More connection in little to no time. I look out the window each day on the bus and see stark differences between modernity (Mall, iphone billboards) and tradition (horse and buggies, door-to-door fish vendors on bikes with steam whistles) sitting side by side. In Chile, as in most other Latin American countries I've visited, people glorify the former and brush off the latter as "lower class" and "de campo" (country, hick).

In America, it's impossible to define our culture into distinct categories. We have no state religion, sport, dance, food etc. In Chile, it's Catholicism, soccer, la cueca, and a plethora of various forms of fried dough and meat. Not to mention the wine. There is definitely something to be said for that and I think it leads to more national pride and unity. When asked general questions about the US, I get frustrated and always find myself saying, "it depends." "I can only speak for Minnesota or Colorado." And this is only half true. I know nothing about the culture of Mississippi, Idaho or New Hampshire. For this, I believe exists the possibility of travel. Getting to know other places, people, customs, languages. Yet with the internet, will it soon be possible to do all of this without leaving what I know as home? I hope not. That is far too easy.

In the end, I suppose it's about balance. Like most things in life. With that said, I'm signing off and going out to see a bit more of Chile on this Saturday afternoon. Chao!

happy halloween!

...or should I say "Feliz Noche de Brujas!?" (Witch's night)Halloween is definitely not as popular or talked about down here. I've seen smatterings of Halloween paraphernalia here and there recently but nothing compared to the glorification of capitalism/candy that we have in the US of A. The big grocery stores have bags of candy and a few guys in the centro laid out sheets and threw down some plastic Scream masks and devil horns.

Due to a lack of costume options, I am going to be Waldo (or Walda?) from Where's Waldo. I have a red and white striped shirt...pretty lame, I know, but I'm going to try and jazz it up a bit.

Pictures to come...

In the meantime, I found these sweet shots today:

I like maps. I like coffee. I like books.

slow saturday

Hello all.

Well, I can finally say I "went out" here in Concepción. Last night, the run club, "WildRunners," went out to Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant and dance club. It was a pretty good time. We had (Chilean-made) Mexican food. I ordered green chile enchiladas that left a lot to be desired...I'm really excited about good Mexican food! And once the music started around 1am, we all hit the dance floor for a while. The music was a funny mix of reggaton, salsa, merengue, and then random American pop like "Hot and Cold" and Shania Twain's, "Man! I feel like a women." You definitely dance differently to a salsa song than to a pop country tune. :)

I find it crazy that it's taken me this long to truly "go out" here. But in the end, it's not too surprising. I'm not really much of a party girl in general and living really far from the center of town gives me a fantastic excuse. Also, all of the good places to go out require a car and more money, neither of which I have. Oh, and Chileans like to party until 5am and the American in me is way to lame to do that. Nonetheless, last night was pretty fun!

This morning came way to soon as I had to get up and teach a 3-hour conversation class at the Norteamericano. Surprisingly, it wasn't too rough-- nothing a few cups of nescafé couldn't fix.

Yesterday marked the 2 month countdown. Honestly, in this moment, with two months to go and 9 months of living in Chile, I'm pretty excited to get back home. Not that I'd want to go tomorrow. It's just that I feel as if two more months is perfect. I have one more big trip planned--- Torres del Paine-- and an end-of-service conference up in Santiago. Other than that, I'm planning on hanging out in Conce, enjoying the good weather, and looking in to possible jobs in Colorado.

Time is a tricky, finicky little fellow and I realize I need to keep and eye on him. He's easy to lose and find weeks later still ticking away like always.

A few things I'm excited about:

-milk (never been much of a milk-drinker but the powdered stuff is getting old)

-Chipotle salad bowl

-Target

-driving

-space, windows, natural light

-coffffeeeee!

-food. food. food.

-Christmas cookies ;)

~Welp, see ya later. Off to onces with random bus drivers that have been hanging out on the couch all day. And Nelson.

i read books. yo leo libros.

I've been lucky enough to have a lot of free time during my time in Chile. Despite the fact I have high-speed internet in my room, I often opt for a piping hot mug of Nescafé and a book. Reading, like running, has helped me escape and pass

some of the more 'tranquilo' moments. (By 'tranquilo' I mean very, very long afternoons, busrides etc.) There's nothing like a good book- in English- that makes you think about a different place, perspective, culture.

My friend Jen, another Duoc teacher, is also a avid reader so I have her to thank for many of these good reads. Also, thanks Mom, for the disgustingly overpriced book at the airport. :) I swear I'll read it twice. Currently, I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo in an attempt to read a classic, something I often find overwhelming. But...it just so happens that I've also developed a slight addiction to Desperate Housewives ... Count of Monte Cristo vs. Desperate Housewives.

The Count of Monte Cristo-- Page 12. Of 618.

Desperate Housewives-- Episode 8, Season 4.

Who will win, no one knows!!

Anyway, here's a list of the books I've read so far...

This might be my favorite book. It's so well written. It combines two of my favorite things: Spanish and the cello. (I know I played the viola, but I've always loved cello). It's about the life of a little boy destined to play beautiful music. A historical fiction covering the Spanish Civil War and World War II. I highly recommend it!

People of the Book: Awesome book. It's often compared to The DiVinci Code but I think this is better. It's not as sensational and the characters are deeper. It's the story behind a 500 year old Jewish prayer book known as the haggadah. Learned a little about the art of book restoration/preservation too.

This is the first book I read here. It's an edgy coming of age novel about a Dominican-Republic/American boy in NYC. Sad at times- no happy language or literary rainbows, but very raw and real all the same.

"A Free Life" is about a Chinese couple's struggle to realize the American dream. The main character, Nan, is a well-educated poet but soon realizes being a scholar won't pay the bills. He and his wife work endless hours running a Chinese restaurant in Georgia. An interesting novel to read living outside the US.

Hilarious!! Great short stories. A good "getaway" book to get through the rainy winter. I like his dry, witty sense of humor.

I loved this book! It's a historical fiction loosely based on the life of Laura Bush. I never really think about the lives of "first women" but Sittenfeld does a great job of humanizing the smiling female figure constantly accompanying the most powerful man in the world.

I didn't realize this was going to be a movie when I started it. I actually thought it was really slow and confusing for the first 100 pages. Then I got into the story and couldn't put it down. I'd like to see how it ended up in movie form given all the jumps in time.

me gusta.

so chilean it hurts.

good evening amigos.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend--marathon in Los Angeles. (I stole them all from facebook.) Turns out the group is obsessed with capturing every kodak moment, including the 7am wake-up call.

First: the finish line!!! 1 hour 54 minutes.

I forgot to put my hands up.

Super intense look back at the crowd.

Stretching?

St. Olaf soccer represent!!

Alright this photo was taken at approx. 7:08am and it's SO Chilean I had to put it up from two different angles. You see, first you have a huge bag of bread on the table. See all that white bread? Then you have a bag of jelly, an electric tea kettle and a container of Nescafé.

Pre-race meal? A "bread" with blackberry jelly and 2 cups of Nescafé.

Here you have the whole table, everyone enjoying bread...and of course the TV on in the background.

This was a 10 minute walk from our cabaña. Called "Salto de Laja." Pretty sweet waterfall.

Outside the cabaña with Pedro, "Peter." he just oozes "nice guy." :) Oh and he ran the 10k--60 years old!

The cabaña (cabin).

Group photo with the "David Beckham" of Chile. No, really he's just a sports announcer with a pretty face...can you guess which one?

I think I'm confused by all the reggaton music at 10:30 on a Sunday.

The Wildrunner crew post-race hanging out.