Of rain, dogs, labor day, and America...

This week was slightly less active: the University finished their strike, and I spent a more relaxing weekend in my apartment (instead of hopping from one activity to another).

Highlights of the past 7 days:

- Sunday night and morning, we had the 2nd rain event of my stay here in Santiago (the first was a heavy thunderstorm back in March). So in 5 months, we have had 2 days of rain. Sweet!

- Yesterday, Wednesday, morning, while jogging in Parque O'Higgins (park o'higgins), I was bitten by a dog. "Bitten" might be a little too strong, but the canine's teeth did break the skin of my leg. I came home and washed the wound with hydrogen peroxide, and soap & water. Hopefully the dog doesn't have rabies or any other exciting diseases (I got a good look at it, and it seemed to me more of a playful nip than anything else... plus according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Chile has only ever had one case of human rabies, in 1995, from a bat bite). Why do dogs like to attack joggers and bikers? And furthermore, what should we do to avoid such attacks? Recall that I was bitten much worse back in October 2005 while jogging in Barbados.

- After the dog incident, I tried to cash my paycheck at the bank (and left after moving maybe 25% through the line in 20 minutes). Then I forgot what time the GBU group met and was 45 minutes late to our bible study. (For whatever reason, I assumed we met at 1:30 pm... even though our past 5 meetings, of which I have all attended, begun at 12:00.) And finally I tried to surprise a friend after school by taking the metro to her univ., only to miss her by 5 minutes. Oh well, it was just one of those days I guess.....!

- Today we celebrated Labor Day, and I took part in the celebrations by not working! After sleeping in (to the whoppingly-late hour of 9 a.m.!), I revisited the scene of the crime and jogged in Parque O'Higgins. Afterward, I joined my friend David from church for a nice lunch at his apartment, and then came back home and took a nap. For dinner, I decided to brave the Comida China (Chinese food) restaurant 3 blocks from my apt., and enjoyed some tasty fried rice (with egg, onion, and spice). Another time I might try a different dish, but the prices seemed quite steep for chinese takeout (~$6), so I wasnt keen on wasting $6 on food I wasn't even sure I would like.

- Tomorrow (May 2nd) I'm flying back to the USA to attend my graduation at OU!! It'll be really good to see friends, enjoy some American-style food, and celebrate those 7 years of achievements :) The guys have scheduled an honorary "play frisbee with Brad" game Sunday afternoon, which is just great, and the SoM secretaries have invited me to lunch with them next week. Plus there might be some storms mid-week (Tue, Wed, or Thu). Speaking of storms, today's setup in Oklahoma was reminiscent of 2003, where a major trough plowed through Nebraska/ Kansas/ Iowa/ Missouri prompting OU chasers to head north to intercept anticipated storms, only to have one or more tornadoes touch down in OKC this afternoon (and a long-tracked supercell which fomed north of Stillwater and was still tornadoing as I type at 9.20 pm CDT 01 May). I followed the event on radar & streaming video from KFOR (the local NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City).

My next post should come from Norman. Until then.....