A thing that I ate

A traditional Chilean dessert/drink is called mote con huesillo, and I tried it on Monday at the work party.  Here's a picture of what it looks like:

It's a dried peach in some sort of sweet liquid with wheat things.  It's really weird, but everyone is really into it.  I tried it and tried to like it, but the peach looked like a brain and the taste wasn't that good.  Tonight I also tried chirimoya, which is a fruit, with similar results.  Here's a picture of a chirimoya, outside and inside:

And now, early-ish to bed because I'm exhausted after a long week of sort of work.  Buenas noches!

New post up on our other blog

If you're interested, I just put a new post up on our other blog (samandcaroline.blogspot.com).  And yes, I'm blogging from work.  This week is sort of weird because it's right before a 5 day weekend for the Fiestas Patrias that are next week, so people aren't entirely here mentally (they're already on their out of town vacations :) ).  So moral of the story is that it's not that busy right now and I'm still getting settled anyway.  Keep checking the other blog for more updates!

Embarrassing injuries

I've had my share of embarrassing injuries.  The latest in this saga is that I think I pulled a muscle in my arm by shaking nail polish.  It really hurts.  Last month, I cut my knee by kneeling onto my fingernails while trying to get under the covers in bed.  So in total, I've gotten an injury by nail polish and a bed.  Not my proudest moments, nor injuries where you get a good story to tell afterwards.  ("Oh yeah, that gash on my face?  I was landing a flip on my snowboard and went through a tree.  No big deal.  Afterwards, I took myself to get stitches on my motorcycle.  What happened to you?"  "I was shaking some nail polish... really hard?")

Anyway, we're getting pretty close to packed for the trip.  This will be Caroline in another Spanish-speaking country: Chile rather than Spain.  We're going to be mostly posting on our other blog, The Adventures of Sam and Caroline.  I haven't decided if I'll keep posting on here much, but definitely check out our other blog, which we're planning to update regularly!

Here's my desk right before I completely dismantled all of my decorations.  I'm going to miss it!  And my job and my coworkers and Cambridge and so many things!  But we're going to have awesome adventures and I am extremely excited about what we have coming up.

And here's the packing process:

It's a messy and complicated endeavor.  But those piles are now (mostly) packed into our suitcases, and we leave on Thursday night!  Chile here we come!

Most of the furniture is sold and the internet is being very slow

Our bed is on the floor and we have almost nowhere to sit.  It's really getting to be real!  We're moving on Thursday.  I'm working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with my work goodbye party on Wednesday.  And at this time in 2 weeks, it will be the night before my first day of work in Chile!  Yikes!

Almost ready to leave!

We're almost ready to leave!  I only have 5 more days of work, and we've sold a bunch of our furniture.  We're off to Chile in 3 weeks!

Oh, by the way, I did finish the marathon.  Not that long ago.

347 miles down, 26.2 to go...

Tonight was our team pasta party, and earlier today I ran my last 2 miles until the marathon.  I felt pretty good today, but the news if you haven't heard is that Monday's weather is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80s.  So that's not good.  Obviously we have to revise our pace plan, since there's no way we can run a fast pace in that heat.  Stay tuned for updates!

Tomorrow is the BAA 5k, which Sam, Keith, Jenn, and Jenn's mom are running.  I'm excited to have a day of being a fan before my day of being an athlete! 

$110 left to go! And 5 days till the marathon!

By this time 5 days from now, I'll be done with the marathon!  I can't believe it.  And I have only $110 left to raise on my fundraising goal.  Thanks so much to all of my donors so far, you guys are fantastic!  I'd like to give an updated shout-out to my most recent donors - thanks to Allie, Rachael W, Megan B, Jenny M, Laura R, Caroline M, Jenna, Holly, Masha, Matt D, Chuck and Cherry, David R, Doug, and Grandmom (again!)!  I can't believe how much support I've gotten from so many wonderful people.  I'm really honored!

If you want to join these awesome legions, you can donate here if you haven't already: http://www.mos.org/marathon/meettherunners.php#lowenthal  Soon I'll be able to stop posting about this!  My mom will be so pleased.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to run 5 miles, then we're off on Friday, then 2 miles on Saturday, off on Sunday, and then the marathon is on Monday!  Yikes!  I've run 340 miles so far in training.  I'm definitely going to need to get new shoes after this, but for obvious reasons I don't want to change my shoes right before the marathon.  And hey, I'll probably stick with these ones for another week so I can do the triathlon in them too.  And then I think we should get them bronzed.  Just kidding.

In other exciting news, tomorrow I get to meet the first woman ever to run the Boston Marathon.  Her name is Roberta (Bobbi) Gibbs, and she ran disguised as a man in 1966, before women were permitted to run the marathon.  I'm so inspired by her, and I can't wait to meet her!

Glass mosaics has continued to be fun.  I've just finished 2 more pieces I was working on, and I have to decide what I'm going to do next.  I have a few pieces of glass that I really like that I want to use, but I haven't decided what to use them for.  If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments!  The piece of glass that I'm most excited about is orange and wavy and clear and looks sort of like fire, maybe like a dragon would breathe out.  I was thinking of making a dragon, but then the instructor told me that a lot of people make dragons, which made me less interested in making one.  So sue me, I want to be original.  Oh well.  I also have some gorgeous blue pieces, some pretty greens, and one light golden orange.

Enough for tonight, I have to start banking sleep for the marathon!