Hey everyone! So catching up on all of these takes a lot more time than I expected! I hope you're all enjoying the detailed versions of my adventures. I'll certainly enjoy looking back at them in the years to come. :)
So it had arrived. I work up Monday morning still in a frustrated mess from the sad information the night before and the stress of my pressing exam. Trying to relax I studied in bed for a bit before getting ready for class and enjoying a quick breakfast. Sole had bought a ton of eggs over the weekend, so I made some scrambled. Protein for the exam. :) Finally it was time to go and I walked to the university, managing to bump into Deven on the way in. Together we found the classroom and waited outside for the teacher to arrive. We were all aware that her second year class had an exam at 8am, so it wasn't surprising that we were still waiting for someone to show up around 11...30 minutes after our exam should've started. When we finally did begin, our head professor wasn't even there. It was just the assistant (or Monday professor). The exam was hard! Even with all the studying I'd done, it was still a lot of information, and I walked out of there feeling pretty frustrated and wondering if I'd even passed... I just kept reminding myself that if I didn't I could take a makeup exam on Wednesday and it would be just fine. Caroline, Caitlin, and I started walking towards spanish class and they decided to try something new instead of the usual vegetarian place. So we just continued walking up the main street until we found a corner restaurant that looked good. I was in a pretty down mood and didn't really feel like eating anything, but Caroline talked me into ordering a milkshake and I was really glad I did! It was peach and delicious! I also stopped at a kiosk for some gum and it must have been my lucky day, cause I found a Snickers too! That got hidden away for later when I was sure I was going to need it. I left the others to their lunch and headed to spanish on the bus so that I wouldn't be late. When I got there most people were still sitting outside and enjoying the sun. I found my group of girls and we caught up on the latest news. They could tell I was down and it only took one of them asking for me to break down into tears again. It even surprised me how hard this was hitting. I'd known Sasha wasn't doing well and she was pretty old for a dog, but still...maybe being so far away has made me even more sensitive. Whatever the excuse, I pulled myself together and we headed into class. Spanish was nothing exceptional and we simply went over exercises for the final. I definitely devoured the Snickers during break...what can I say, I'm one of those girls who finds comfort in chocolate. Especially in a familiar candy bar from home. After the rest of spanish it was back home for lunch and a nap. In the evening I worked on attempting to study. We won't know our grades from the history exam until tomorrow, so I didn't have any desire to start studying that again. Instead I looked at my spanish notes and even drug out the tango information for a bit. It was a light night though and I went to bed rather early being emotionally and mentally exhausted.
Tuesday morning I woke up with time to study before class and worked on a little more spanish before heading off to development. It was our last real class. Next week is the "final" and we're having a discussion about the worksheets we have to fill out for that class. I've REALLY enjoyed this class and I'm glad I took it. Although it may seem like a cop-out to take another class from the program, it seemed like a stable and confident decision that I would be able to count on to learn and also to have the support I needed to succeed. In the end, I think it was honestly my favorite class! During break we found out from our TA Nico that all of us had passed the second history exam and wouldn't have to take the make-up on Wednesday!!! Hooray! One step down for the week. After class I walked back home and settled in for the usual lunch and a nap. Then it was a focused night of studying for Spanish and a little for tango.
Wednesday I didn't have anything until the Spanish exam, so I slept late and then studied some before leaving for class. The spanish exam was roughly what I expected and I was super happy to be done with that. One more class checked off the list. I left walking with 3 other girls from class and we had all decided to have lunch together. However when we arrived at the restaurant, I was afraid it would take too long, so I headed back home to drop off school books and study a bit more tango. I met up with the girls as usual at 5 and we walked to our last tango class reminiscing about the semester and fun moments. None of us expected the Tango exam to be complicated. It was all supposed to be multiple choice or true/false. However, it was arguably harder than the history exam I had taken earlier in the week! There was vocabulary on there that I'm pretty sure we never discussed in class, as well as different types of steps and movements... I left feeling absolutely ridiculous! How could I possibly fail a tango exam...that would look great on my transcript. Passed all the hard classes and failed tango... I'm sure I didn't actually fail it, but I was surprised by how hard it was. As per our usual tradition, us girls stopped for ice cream on our way back. I was supposed to be at a meeting with my history group for our upcoming presentations, but when I had texted Caroline, she said they were almost done. Since I had sent in my slides the night before I didn't feel too bad, but I still felt weird about not being there... When I got home I had time to quickly type up a written summary for the group project and mail that off before meeting with Whitney to go buy tickets to Chile. We'd all decided that this weekend was our last chance and so finals or not we were going! The plan was to meet at 8:30pm since most stores don't close until 9, but when we all met and walked to the store, we found that they had closed at 8:30... go figure. Then a surprise Zonda came in without warning and within 5 minutes we were all running back to our respective houses from the blowing dust and grime in the streets. When I got back I actually washed my face and wiped off my arms and legs, it was that bad. The rest of the evening was spent trying to relax and think about Chile while also gathering more details for tomorrow's presentations.
Thursday morning bright and early at 8:30am found us all waiting outside the Congreso auditorium for our professors who were...you guessed it! Late as usual. By the time we actually started, it was already after 9. Predictably, our professor (who has a mild obsession with my friend Caroline) asked us to go 2nd. The poor class didn't know what they were in for (and honestly neither did we). Our classmate, had sent us the presentation after he finished the powerpoint early in the morning, but what we didn't know, was that he had added slides and changed words in our parts so that when we got to our slides we were slightly confused. Overall, I thought that the presentation was a disaster. By the time our group was finally finished, we had been up for more than an hour!!! How UNNECESSARY!!! With presentations like that we really were going to be there until 6pm! At this point we took a short break and students disappeared to the university buffet for a coffee or snack before we continued. By 1pm we had hardly gotten through 4 more presentations... It was driving me crazy to sit there and slowly as people finished their presentations they left. By 2:30 I was the only foreign exchange student left from the 8 in my class. Overall, there were only 3 of us that stayed until the end of all the presentations. They finally ended at 3:30 and I went straight home for a bite of lunch and a nap. My stomach was acting up, so I didn't eat much, but after the nap I felt much better. Then, week of hell down, I left with lighter spirits to meet up with Nico (our TA) and some others for ice cream in celebration of the end of this week. It ended up just being Nico, Augusto (another guy from the class), and me, but we had a great time talking and eating. I headed back to the apartment after a couple short hours to pack for Chile. We were officially leaving at 10:30pm and I couldn't be more excited! Of course Whitney met me at the house at 10 so that I had time to watch the latest installment of Vampire Diaries...I seem to be developing an addiction to this show. Then it was off to the terminal!
So I survived the week. After 3 exams and 7 hours of presentations I had survived. Now its down to my final history exam, one more tango class (just for kicks), and the development final. I'm still crossing my fingers about Sociology, but I still don't know my grade for sure on the project or our global...so that's still up in the air. It was quite a relief to get this week over with. I've been stressing about it for months and with all of it out of the way, it seems like a big weight has been lifted. Even if I'm not yet done, I'm that much closer and feeling much better about the overall outcome. Not to mention, that the day I get back from Chile (Monday) my parents and little brother come into town and I could not possibly be more excited to see them! It will have been just over 4 months since I've seen them and I miss them more every day. If there is anything that this trip/semester has taught me, it is to truly appreciate those who are important in your life. You never know when they might disappear or be gone forever. I know that coming home and learning to show how much I appreciate all of you in my life will be a new focus for me. I certainly wouldn't be the same person without your support, love, encouragement, and strength. To every single one of you who is a part of my life, THANK YOU! You've made my world a better place. :)
I'll save all the fun details of Chile for their own blog coming soon!
Hope things are all well back in the states. I can't wait to see all of you soon!!!
All my love and besos from Argentina!
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