the not-so-good but not-really-bad day.

So I FINALLY finished that 20 page paper. Well, it was 16 pages but Griselda told me it'd be okay as long as it didn't suck as hard as my drafts. I rewrote it completely, so I figured 16 pages was pretty solid.

my throat infection came back, so i spent the first half of the day trying not to cry. However, I found my old prescription and it has 1 refill on it. So I took it to my beloved Farmacity and a very nice man gave me some pills. In celebration I bought a bottle of orange juice and a pack of ramen and stuffed myself and slept the rest of the day off.

I am en route to Tango now, and then Uruguay tomorrow!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, you guys!!! i'll see you on the flipside.

Philsophy Final

Little note: I can now no longer spell things in English--especially words that I frequently write in Spanish. Such as filosofy/philosophy or delinquent/delincuent.

So I rush into my classroom at like 9:01. Argentine classes start like 15 minutes late, so I figured, even for the final exam, I'd be okay. I run in, and there is absolutely nobody in the room. Finally a guy I didn't recognize came in, and I asked him if I was wrong. Which I was. I saw a guy in my class and creepily followed him until he lead me to the group of people in our class, standing outside of a room, taking roll. They went over it several times, but there was a lot going on so when I wasn't called I figured I was just dumb and asked them to see the list. I wasn't on it so they sent me to the office to discuss it with them.

The office ladies spent a long time asking me what class I was taking and where I was from. Finally one of them told me that the semester ended for foreigners on the 6th and that I was either not going to get a grade or I already had one, because we were supposed to make arrangements to take the test earlier. They told me I'd need to talk to the foreign student office and I tried not to cry. I went to say goodbye to my professor, but figured I should ask him about the form anyway. He hadn't realized it was for my final grade and was really nice to me about messing up. So I didn't have to take the test!

In other news, not including the trips I'm taking and the awkard 20-hour period in-between one trip and leaving for good, I have ten days left in BsAs. I am FREAKING OUT.

is finals week.

so leona please don't yell at me about how I haven't posted. I had a wonderful weekend and I took a bunch of food pictures, so be excited for like Friday when I am not writing my paper and studying for my final.

unless i need to procrastinate. we will seeee. wish me luck!

Things I've Learned

I've got 30 more days until I go to Lima, but I'd still like to relfect on this now that I'm officially Argentine (until January which means I can't fly back to BsAs on a discount ticket. lame.) I'll probably do this more again later, but w/e. The more cheesy, the better!

1. It's okay to imitate people. They generally don't call you on it.

2. Don't follow people you don't know to the bathroom when they ask you there.

3. When someone says "tengo que decirte una cosa"(I have one thing to tell you) it's never something you want to hear.

4. When in doubt, get in line.

4.5. Ask everyone around you in line plus the person creating the line what the line is for and if you're supposed to be in it.

6. North =/= up

7. There is no name that is easy for everyone to say.

8. Even if you don't know what it is, you probably won't die if you eat it.

9. Being afraid to ask is a waste of time.

9.5. Asking official-looking people things in a foreign language is both twice as terrifying and half as hard.

10. Sometimes it's okay to pretend I don't speak Spanish.

11. You can never have enough underwear.

12. It's okay to spend money on things that you want.

13. Only say no to the people selling things on the street.

14. Carrying water is an excellent idea. So are mints.

15. If you don't have it, you can usually buy it.

16. Even 30-year-old Argentines know who Justin Bieber is.

17. Despite what Smith thinks, 5:30 is not an appropriate time for dinner.

18. Americans are dumb, and we make good use of it.

19. If the question is "do you have change?" the answer is ALWAYS no.

20. When crossing the street, cross when no cars will hit you, not according to the light.

20.2. When in doubt, follow a mother with children. At least if you die you'll end up on the news.

21. Never tell anyone from outside your country that politics are complicated.

22. School has nothing at all to do with real life. We students blow it out of proportion.

23. Sometimes you have to use people that are using you.

24. Pretending you are drunk is cheaper and easier to control than actually drinking

25. Drinking beer is a life skill and you shouldn't be friends with anyone that doesn't do it without good reason.

26. Don't bring anything you don't want to lose.

27. These lists are super hard to do and please don't hold me to most of what I have said.

29. Make eye contact with people! Just not for too long.

30. People that complain about Americans are just people that don't know how to have fun.

omg this got super cheesy. sorry! I am just watching all of my friends wrap up their adventures and it's starting to freak me out.

The Penguin´s Funeral

Yesterday was rather epic, in terms of Argentina and important events. Everything--even the 25hour kiosks--was closed because Argentina was taking the census.

The way the census happens here is that everyone stays in their house and waits for the censist to come and ask them questions. Everything must be written BY the censist and on the card that they provide. It seems like a pretty good deal to me. I had a picnic and ate some salami and drank beer in front of the cementery, which was super fun.

The other major event was that the ex-president and current president´s husband died of a heart attack. They thought about calling off the census, but realized it was a bit too ridiculous. There is a lot of speculation about what the president will do without him because he is so involved even though he is no longer the president, and I am super excited to see what happens in the elections next year.

So today before going to class, I went to the Plaza de Mayo and looked at all of the mourners. The line to walk by the Pink House--the Argentine White House--went for blocks and blocks, so I didn´t get in. But people have letters to him taped all over the plaza and all of the graffiti is wishing strength to the current president. It was super exciting to see everyone together and I was almost surprised how positive everyone was. Nobody was saying that they were happy he was dead or putting down Peronism/Kirchnerism as would probably happen if we were in the US. He kind of looks like a penguin, so my friend and I bought little penguin pins and I will hopefully find someplace discreet to put it so my host parents don´t kick me out. They weren´t sad that he died, but were more positive than I thought they´d be. I wanted to buy an Argentine flag with his face on it, but they were U$S 10 and I can do a lot of other things with that much money. Also I would have been creeped out when I looked at it hanging in my Smith room a year from now.

Basically it was really cool! I am going to class now and I will upload pictures when I´m at home.

Last Day of USAL!!!

I know, right?! I now have only my IFSA Spanish class and Tango, if that counts. However, today was exciting!

As usual, and as you might expect, getting up at 6:30 was a challenge and I was convinced I was going to be late. Of course, I was early and had an awkward chat with someone in the other class about the test that I so gracefully bombed the week before. He told me that the exchange

students fail every year and I shouldn't be worried. When the professor finally came, she was in a super cheery mood and decided to let me and my friend go early because we didn't have any other material to learn that we'd be tested on. We sat in a cafe and watched Animal Planet and drank orange juice.

Then Andrea and I went to Abasto Shopping (a super fancy mall) with a sheet of coupons and looked in all of the stores on the list. Really, we just found them and determined that they were too expensive for us. We turned it into a a scavenger hunt and had a great time!

Andrea is writing her 20 pages on Peruvian food in BsAs (clearly I took the wrong seminar to make up credits for) so we went to a really fancy Peruvian lunch. In Buenos Aires, it's common to have a "menu ejecutivo" option for lunch. This means you pay in cash (usually about A$R 20-30) for a drink, a meal and either soup or a dessert or a coffee, depending on the place. This place had soup, and it was probably one of the best meals I've had in Buenos Aires. It was pretty healthy considering some of the things I've been eating here, and for A$R 20 it was an incredible price!

After lunch, Andrea had to go to a hemeroteca. I was as mystified as you are, but it involved going to the city legislature and pushing through a large crowd of people to tell the security guard we wanted to go there. We went through super back-room looking hallways to small storage rooms full of newspapers. It is probably against fire code, but the people there were super nice to us and let her copy her papers for free!

To top today off, I went to the grocery store and bought some ham-flavored crackers for the picnic we are having tomorrow in celebration of the census. You know you want to try them.

And here are the pictures!

I forgot to go to this but I was excited about it!

This is the church right next to the Plaza de mayo which was really cool! It has the tomb of Saint Martin in it, so you get two pictures for this day!!!

I had Sushi with Shaun on Monday, and it was super exciting! This was also a menu so it cost about $6 for two of these things of sushi and a drink.

YAY SCHOOL IS KIND OF OVER!

Intense Weekend!

I have been slacking on the leona challenge for a week already, although I have been taking pictures for it religiously!

Saturday we went to a David Bisbal concert in an (American) football fie

ld! I never realized quite how bouncy he is, in the most adorable way!

Sunday Andrea and I escaped Buenos Aires and Argentina to go to Uruguay. I was super excited to use my Argentine residency to leave the country and I even made a friend! We got super los

t when we first arrived, but clearly we are okay now! I will write another entry about MVD when I am more motivated...

Monday we woke up not in Argentina! But fell asleep there.

Tuesday was Katie's birthday! We went to Farrici and ate Dulce, per her request.

Wednesday I saw this ad for this show I always watch with Aldo, called BREEEEK.

Thursday Katie and I had amazing fake iced coffee at Milkaaaa!!!