El Esmog

After two and a half weeks of school - we've passed the month mark - I'm officially in school mode. Chilean's love their reading, that's for sure. I have about 300 pages of econ reading to do, packets and packets of history, and the occasional short story. But I'm still making time to explore.

This weekend we went to Pomaire, a tiny little town about an hour outside of Santiago that specializes in ceramics. They make these pigs - some are piggy banks! - and the little one's have 3 legs. If you buy a 3-legged pig and give it as a gift, it's supposed to be good luck. Pretty cool.

Pomaire is also the home of the 1/2 kilo empanada. So in the spirit of trying everything Chilean, I split an empanada and a pastel de choclo and we still had too much food.

Today has been a pretty relaxing and productive day. I decided that in order to avoid gaining 90 pounds from all of the bread I consume, I'm going to start running. Outside.

I woke up to meet Madeline at 9:30 - Sergio exclaimed "Milagro!" (miracle!) when he saw me. My family jokes around that I hate waking up. But I can do it when I set my mind to it. It's just tough when it's cold and my bed is warm and snuggly (that's for you, Madeline). I ran to Madeline's, we walked around for a while to see each others' houses and then I dropped her off and ran back. Not too shabby. Except that now I can't stop coughing between my mini cold and the esmog. This is the first time that I've fully understood the smog's impact on exercising...

My Chilean ID card was supposed to be ready today, so Sergio and I went to pick it up. Every time I laughed in the car, I coughed and Sergio joked with me saying "Don't die, or everyone will think I killed you..." Hahah. Once winter is over, the smog won't have such a huge effect.

We're heading back on Friday to officially pick up my ID card. Chileans take their time with everything and deadlines don't really exist. It's more of a suggestion.