May 1-2

This weekend I've spent in and near Lima. Yesterday, a group of exchange students from my program and I went swimming with sea lions. It was a neat experience. We went to the Islas Palominas. After a relaxing ride out to the islands, I wriggled my way into an already wet wet-suit. After having my life-jacket secured I jumped into the extremely cold ocean water! I had expected it to be cool, but was a bit shocked by the frigid temperature. There were tons o sea lions of varying sizes and colors, but all seemed to share the same stench and loud barking voice. One of the sea lions touched me, which I wasn't a huge fan of, because they seemed a bit scary with their enourmous mouths and I wasn't so sure about swimming with creatures bigger than me.

This morning I ran a half-marathon through San Isidro and San Borja (sections of Lima). It was a lot of fun. There were bands playing at a few places and tons of people. There were 8,000 participants in this mornings races, which were hosted by Adidas. There was a 42k, 21k, and 10k. If I'm correct this is the 2nd largest marathon event in Latin America. It took me 5 minutes to pass under the timers to start after being herded down the street with thousands of other people. I think I was closer to the front than the back, so I wonder how long it took those people to cross the starting line. The first 5k were really tough to move during, because we were packed like sardines and everyone kept tripping over one another or slowing way down to avoid collisions. I was really impressed with the organization of the event and am really thankful for four friends who came out to cheer me on at 3 different locations.

This next week, we have mid-terms so definitely have some studying to do, especially for my anthropology and film classes. All in all, it's been a great weekend.