Marathon training, honors thesis, and looking forward to internship

I've reached the point in my marathon training where I'm doing long runs in the double digits. This weekend I'm doing 14 miles, and the weekend after that I'm doing 16. Oxford is a fairly small town, so my training partner Adrea and I are having to get creative with our long runs. At least it is more interesting than just running the same streets over and over again, and we have actually gotten to see some gorgeous English countryside.

Obviously this is not my natural running pose. But isn't the countryside beautiful?!

Running with a water belt on a 13.5 mile run and not ashamed.

In other big news, I've decided to pursue an honors thesis. At Wellesley theses are optional, but anyone who meets a GPA minimum and gets department approval can write one. It is a yearlong process. If a student completes the thesis and passes an oral examination in the 2nd semester of her senior year, she is awarded departmental honors. So, I've decided to write a thesis in the religion department. I have a general idea of what I will write about, but still have to do some preliminary research before I can formulate a research question. I will keep you all updated as I make progress!

Finally, this term (the 2nd of 3 terms) is almost over, and then I have a 6 week break. For the first week I will be doing some thesis research at Oxford, but then for the 5 weeks after that I will be working an internship in Rome! I will be interning with a non-profit organization that works with the Italian government to train diplomats and compile research on international relations. I am so, so excited to return to Italy (I was last there when I was 16), improve my Italian (I have taken 2 years in college) and have a chance to work with what sounds like a great organization.

One last thing: because I don't have too many pictures to show you this week, here are some my parents have sent me of our dogs, Gioia and Argos, who I just think are so cute.