Last Week (Part 2)

Thursday
We had our final exam for Spanish class and the rest of the class presentations. I felt good about my exam and learned about Carlos Gardel (the most famous tango singer), Patagonia (like the Alaska of Argentina), and even more about meat. I think I'll become a vegetarian for a bit once I get back to the US because I have had it up to my eyeballs with meat here.

Emily, Holly, and I met some other girls in our program at Cafe Tortoni (the oldest Cafe in BA) to have tea and one of their famous desserts. It was heavenly! They also have shows in the evening but we left because we had our program evaluation to do. And when we went outside, there was another leftist party march (we saw one Wednesday night also).

Later that night the whole group (Allison, Jocelyn, Eric, Emily, Holly, and our directors) met up at Las Cholas to have one last meal together after doing our program evaluation. Afterwards we met a lot of other North American students from our University and spent most of the night hanging out together.

Friday
Last day of school! We met up in the classroom, received our final grades, and then bid each other "Hasta luego" (you rarely hear "adios" in BA, it's usually "until later", even if you may never see each other again). I got an A in the class and was very satisfied with the education I received. Emily and I went to this cafe with an Empire State building theme and did a little shopping before heading home. I sat in the park and read my poetry book for awhile then went home to say goodbye to Ashley because she was leaving on a trip to Juyjuy (northwest part of Argentina) that day. Here's a picture of us drinking mate:At midnight the whole Sol group met up again to see a percussion show (like STOMP) since the theaters are opening up again after the "worst" of H1N1 is over. Too bad WHO says that 1/3 of the world's population will get this unstoppable sickness in the next 10 years before it dies out. I wonder if that's true. Since it was our last night in BA we stayed out all night and had a great last time as a group!!! I'm really going to miss the people and the city.

Saturday
I decided not to sleep and went to the grocery store to buy more mate to take home with me, and bought Susana's favorite flowers for one last thank you for all she and Jorge have done. Later I went to the small market by my Subte stop and bought some last souvenirs for my family and friends back home. We ate lunch as a family and visited until Adriana picked me up to take me to the airport. It was surreal to be leaving, a month goes by too fast esp. when in that environment.