One expedient only is left to me – travel.

I could start this post the same way I did two weeks ago: That was a damn good burger I just had. Friday is burger day here. I usually grab, in addition to the buns and the patty, all of the following: tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, mustard, BBQ sauce, thousand island, relish, and, most importantly, baked beans. Mmmmm. And then I go back and make a second one.

The proportion of blog space I usually devote to running is substantially smaller than the proportion of my time I devote to running on a weekly basis. I say this because it strikes me as odd. Running is the biggest thing I do here in Middlebury. I use the word "biggest" because it is vague, and because I think it works here. The great majority of my memories of last year, for example, are from running, and decades from now I imagine the great majority of my memories from all of my college experience will be from running. Running really does rule my life, and I suppose that was somewhat the case in high school, but not as much, I don't think. That may have something to do with the fact that, in high school, I had a lot of friends who weren't my running partners, which I believe is made evident by the existence of this blog, or at least by my participation therein. In college, however, I really don't have that many friends outside of the team. This is because I spent all of my time running. Literally. I am actually running right now, with my computer in my hands. I do laps around the room when I have class, and I run between dining halls while I eat. And I like it that way.

On Tuesday we wrapped up our hill phase of XC training. Allow me to explain: For the first four weeks of the season, we run of Chipman hill four or five or six times in a row every Tuesday, and it sucks, but in the way that makes you feel like you did something worthwhile that day. Plus, we end every Chipmans with a high five lines.

But a few days before that was the Purple Valley Classic (a race, if you couldn't guess), and I ran well. That makes me happy. In fact, you could say it was a-a-a-a-a-awesome. Like this.

Yeah, that was pretty awesome, wasn't it? Watch it again. Only this time, turn it up so all your neighbors can hear.

Tomorrow I race the Vermont State Meet (the one in which we always rest our five fastest runners and still win by a landslide), and I am, of course, very excited. Racing is a lot of fun. This may not seem reasonable because it involves running and pain, but somehow the adrenaline or something makes up for that. It's especially fun when you're passing people, which I did about 40 times last Saturday. That's not a wild guess, by the way. The results page bears it out: I was at about 100th place (of 208) with three miles to go, and I finished 61st in 27:59.

Also, while I remember to say this, remember to wish Morgan Low a happy birthday if you see him today.

And Rich: I miss your posts. They filled my belly with hearty laughs. I hope they come back soon.

And another miscellaneous thing: The trees are turning color now. It's pretty. But I don't feel like getting up and taking a picture right now. Just Google it; there are better photographers than I in the world.

Russian lit is now irrevocably a-a-a-a-a-awesome. "The Queen of Spades", by Pushkin, is a good story, though in my opinion not as good as a couple of his that I read and mentioned here last week. But A Hero of Our Time, by Lermontov, is really, really good. I'm currently halfway through it and wondering if it gets better. It's a frame story of sorts, or rather a few frame stories, some of them separate, some of them within one another. I'm not going to try to explain it much more than that.

Perhaps at the end of the semester I'll figure out which books to recommend to you guys. For now, ignore my recommendations because it's likely I'll be making them every week.

Today I mailed a couple of things, one being a birthday letter to Grandpa, the other being my California voter registration thingamaroo. I am now officially an independent. A-a-a-a-a-awesome.

The Study Abroad Fair took place yesterday. I talked to a few representatives of universities in England, Scotland, Ireland, and New Zealand, and I picked up many more brochures from other ones, mostly in the same countries, plus Australia. Right now I am still unsure whether or not I want to go abroad; I'm having enough fun here that it would almost seem a shame to sacrifice a season of cross country. I really like XC, if you haven't noticed.

If I do go abroad, the options highest on my list (right now) are University of Otago in New Zealand and University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Like Pechorin (a character in A Hero of Our Time, which I just sang the praises of a little while ago), I want to travel the world more than just about anything. I guess I may as well start next year.