When "finals" doesn't just mean exams

Tuesday, June 23, I skipped my morning Cuentos class (I figured I still have two more excused absences, and listening to other people talk about their papers when I could be using the time to write my own seemed a little silly.) Hung out in the depto all day with Lauren and Joe and worked on my papers while Roxana attempted to clean around the three of us. I went to my Premios class to turn in my final exam, which turned into a two-hour ordeal as my professor attempted to teach us new material even though technically we had already completed the course. We finally escaped and did a little dance in the hallway- that class was easily the worst class of my life, even though the professor was nice and the workload was a joke. Even so, those three hours every week seemed like ten. I went home to start studying for history, and hung out with Ben and Lauren for a bit before going to bed.

The next morning, Lauren and I studied and finished the readings until it was time to go. The three of us hopped on the colectivo, took the final, which was not hard but was intensely boring. Sergio didn't show up, and neither did Silvana, who was supposed to administer the exam, which was kind of sad since we were all hoping for a chance to say goodbye and thank them both. Afterwards, I headed straight home to work on my Cuentos paper. I worked on it straight through until 230am (interrupted only by Kela coming over for a bit) and then went to sleep for a few hours.
I woke up by 5 to finish the paper (biggest piece of crap I've ever written- and in eight pages of Spanish, to boot) and printed it out at a locutorio nearby. I'm pretty sure the security guards were completely baffled by my nighttime activities (and outfits) that night, but at least I got everything done. That morning, I went to Cuentos and got rid of the POS paper, and then sat around eating cookies for an hour and a half listening to my professor make an attempt to be nice to us for the first time all semester so we wouldn't blast her on our course evaluations. (I did anyway.) I headed back home after another brief victory dance in the hallway, and studied and skyped for the rest of the afternoon. After making the hour-long trek to school for my evening final, I discovered that my prof was stuck in traffic and would not be showing up to administer it. I then had to trek an hour back and wait around all night for him to post the prompt online for us to email in, which he never did. Lauren and I made a brief effort to go out- got dressed and ready and everything- before deciding that we were both exhausted and collapsing into bed. Not exactly the most exciting way to celebrate the last day of classes, but very satisfying.

Friday was our first day of freedom, which of course we spent doing errands because our lives got put on hold for finals week. We did laundry and ordered Modena and skyped our various favorite people, and then spent the afternoon packing Lauren's stuff to go home. Since she is legendarily horrible at packing and I am actually pretty good at it, it worked out fairly well and we finished in less than two hours. At that point, the prompt for my final had been posted, so I had to rush through it to email it in before our dinner reservations. I ended up writing it in 25 minutes, which may not have been the best decision, but made it to dinner on time. Our whole crew met up for a last goodbye dinner/Happy birthday dinner for Steve at Meridian, which was a lot of fun. It turned sad at the end since I had to say goodbye to Memo and Kela for the last time, but at least I could postpone the rest of the goodbyes until later. I went home and talked to Josh for a bit, showered and packed, and went to bed at around 230 intending to get at least a few hours of sleep. Instead, Lauren and I stayed up talking until well after 330, which killed the sleeping plan but was nice since it was the last late-night roomie chat we'll have for a while.

On Saturday, Joe and I got up at 4am to get ready to leave for Peru! We tackled the still-sleeping Lauren to say goodbye, which was sad but too rushed for anyone to really get upset. After that, Joe and I headed out in a cab and met up with the girls at the airport to start our big adventure. Our flight was delayed by more than an hour (such a typical start to any vacation plans in Argentina) so we hung out and got breakfast in the airport to kill some time. We finally got on the plane after a few hours, and were on our way. Our adventures in Peru are going to have their own entry, however, because it definitely deserves its own spotlight. More to come!