Actually, I'm in Hancock, MI. But they appear to be basically the same city, just on oposite sides of the portage canal which connects Portage Lake with Lake Superior (don't sound inane by calling it a river). I've decided Houghton is a very cute little place. As Kristina pointed out, it's nestled in a small valley so you don't actually notice the depressing flatness that surrounds you. And we've been able to find tons of good hills for training purposes. No mountains, but there's long enough and steep enough hills to get good interval workouts in.

Miss Kristina Owen is being a good hostess and showing me around Houghton and the Michigan Tech campus. We went out to Sheldon's to get pasties for lunch yesterday. Pasties are a midwest thing and not very healthy. They are meat/potatoe/carrot filled pastries and can be quite good and almost always are exceedingly cheap for the amount of calories they pack. Good stuff for poor skiers/students/anyone. Yesterday, we also played a fun little prank; we gave a certain dog a shower and in doing so stained the floor of the MichTech Women's nordic showers a little pink. The dog used to be brown and white and belongs to a certain guy on the MichTech ski team who painted Kristina's turtle. I'm kind of glad that I'll be out of the state before the escalates too far.

We've been checking out the courses that will be used for Senior Nationals this January; they look fun!