56 dias hasta el final

Only 7 more weeks of school now I cant believe it. I know all my finals dates now so now this dream is really coming to an end. I have one on the 15th, one on the 28th, the 30th, then the 1st. Im not sure right now of the one on the 30th so until Im sure I cant say when I will be home exactly but Im thinking of taking a flight if available on the 1st and be home by the 2nd. awww sad but happy all at the same time. Im really starting to feel like I live here in Buenos Aires but I cant stay forever, I have things I still need to do there in Sacramento and the US as a whole. well all my classes are going really well, I do need to do some more work on Portuguese because I have been focusing too much on my Political Science classes which is good but I would love to be able to speak a decent Portuguese some day in the future. O my! Last week I had to in my Macro class do two really embarrassing things. First off, we were in groups so I had to say my name in front of the whole class in order for the teacher to write it down on the paper for the group. Rachel Barry is a real touch name for a Latino hahahaaaaaa! I was definitely the foreigner in that moment. I had to spell it out o my gosh I was so embarrassed. Then I had to explain the mulitplying factor of an equation and how it affects consumption from year to year. I was nervous and shaky. O well its over! Atleast now I have spoken my Spanish infront of them. Its ok whatever, I gotta speak Spanish in front of natives later on soooo...might as well do it now, in a professional atmosphere. So what else? O the guys are moving! Tito got a job in the south, almost to Ushuia the culo del mundo, the ass of the world. Its like a days drive to get there from the capital. He is leaving in 15 days to set up base and see how the city is, then Cris will follow him in about 3 months, after I leave, and go find a job and such. They are going to live there for a year or so and save up money because it is double the pay. Tito told me here he loves his life but he cant enjoy it because he works soooo much. So if he has the chance of being able to save up some money, he is going to take it. o but now i have to say goodbye to him in 2 weeks! Im so sad. I made him a scarf for the cold. Its freaking freezing in the south! They will be soooooo close to Antartica! eeek! But its good, I was going to have to say goodbye sometime right? Then yesterday I said goodbye to my Taiwainese friend who is from here but moved to Taiwan 10 yrs ago and came back to visit her parents. I met her in my portuguese class. She is leaving today, we spent the day together, her, me and Eli an argentine girl. We walked around San Telmo and were being real nerds drinking mate and looking at all the stores with all the antiques. Eli´s boyfriend says that she loves all the crap in those stores, all the stuff that is unusually small. hahaha. O man she is a good friend and a neighbor too. And her boyfriend lives in another city, so she is in the same boat as me. Shes a good person to have here in the city when you get lonely or just want to chat. What else? Nothing much...things are coming to a close. Im going to see if I can make it up to Brazil before I head out of here because I really want to go and who knows if I will have the chance to later on or in the near future....later on yes but now would be better.

Anyway, love you all!
Chau chau!
Rachel

Me faltan 2 meses

Today is April 18th and the semester ends in exactly two months, my adventures here in Argentina are coming to an end I cannot believe it. My dream of studying abroad is closing, I have done it, so cool! Last week was a good week besides I was still pretty sick. I have had this freaking cough for two weeks now, ugh! Anyway, so what did I do? I have been spending a lot of time with my friend from Brazil, Tiago. We went to the movies on Friday night and saw Date Night with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. It was hilarious! But at the same time I hate going to movies like that because they really make me think about the US because the humor is just sooooo from the US and SNL and to me its just really that sarcastic Californian humor. The humor me and Steven and Lauren and Mom and all my friends share. But anyway it was good. Tiago is the sweetest little guy. He is my little brother here. I love it. Well as usual, I have found my gay boyfriend here, Tiago just told me that he is gay, which I kinda already knew...but I didnt want to ask him because its none of my business. But its so funny how I just always have a gay best friend. Maybe it means I need to do something in life with gay rights. Gosh that would be so hard in Latin America, they are just so behind still, I mean we are still behind too. The only place in the world that is ahead of the times really is Holland, they could care less. When I told my friend from Holland that Gay marriage is banned in California, he couldnt understand the concept. He was like what why?
So then also last week I went with my Mercosur class to Congress here in Buenos Aires and we watched a meeting of the Argentine diplomats discussing the argument of what to do about the Malvinas. It was really interesting because I have never been to something so official and so governmental! It really got me to really want to work in the government again. It was really cool! For that class I have to write a paper about integration and something that interests me, Im going to write about the Environmental Problems facing Latin America and how it ties them together and how they work together when it comes to Global Warming or something like that. Not quite sure yet but I got two months to do it ha! In that class I have a really good friend from Canada who is from the French part so its good because she DOESNT speak English. Gosh too many people here speak English. Anyway, I have gotten back to not speaking English so much and my Spanish is back to the level I want it to be at. I only have two months left, gotta take advantage. So, her so name is Coralie and she is a good friend to have here. She lives here with two other girlfriends from Canada and we all get along really well. I actually went to their house last night for Hara´s birthday, one of her roommates. It was really fun! There were Argentines there from the North who played and sang guitar and sang like old folk music from Argentina. The real gaucho music. It was really cool. Everyone was really sweet. And every Argentine that I meet cant believe that I chose to study here, they just dont understand why I would choose their country. Seems like a lot of ppl here dont like it here and want to leave. In fact they really like the US. I guess its like me, I wanted to leave the US and so I did. But now that I have, I realize that I really love my country and it is a great place. I mean Argentina is great too and a good place to learn from and I am greatful for all I have learned here but I really do love California. I think I will live in other places in my life but I will always come back to California, its what I call home. O and yesterday I went with my friend from my girl workout group here and we had lunch and went later on to the house of the English Ambassador. They had an openhouse thing here where you could go and play games and see the house. God it was amazing! There is a tennis court and a pool and there was grass. haha! I havent seen grass in a backyard here in so long. Thats such an american suburb thing.

Well folks I better be off to studying! So far I know two dates for my finals:

Globalization: June 15th
Mercosur: July 1st
Macro: ?
Portuguese: ?

Im hoping we will find out next week then I can make my plans for my return date. eeek its really coming up soon! Back to good old Sactown! Back to my bike that I miss ever so much and f course all of you!

The 4th Week of School

Its done another week of school and all is going well. Today is Pascua or Easter or whatever you want to call it. Its basically not on Sunday. Everyone celebrates today, actually today is the Day of the Malvinas but also Easter. And since this country is mostly Catholic, everyone is very strict when it comes to their beliefs. They cant eat red meat today and so all that you smell in the air is fish! haha! Its so funny. I love it. Argentina eating fish. Anyway, nothing much is going on, the guys are still gone, Im assuming that they have to be returning soon. Its rainy today, a perfect day to study. I have to catch up on some reading for my Mercosur class and Macroeconomics. I need to understand these equations because the last class period this annoying guy in my class was really bothering me. We were doing word problems and I was reading the problem and every 5 seconds he named off a different American band from the 80s that he knew. And like the stupidest bands ever, ones that no one even liked. Like Milli Vanilli and whatever else. Anyway, so I didnt get to do the problems because he distracted me too much. Im going to tell him next time that I have to get a B in this class for my requirement so I cant discuss American pop culture with him anymore and if he wants to speak English, maybe he should go to an institute to speak it because I have spent a lot of money to live here and speak Spanish, I will speak English when I go home and I dont have much time left here, so I prefer to speak Spanish. Ill be nice. I know he is just trying to connect with me but its kinda like, awww nevermind. I need to get over it. Anyway, Im choosing my classes for the next semester at Sac State right now. Im going to take Spanish Literature, Spanish Culture, Envirommental Issues, Political Research Methods, and then a class on Political Thought for the 20th century. Should be pretty interesting and then my Spring semester I only have two classes and then Im doneeeeeeeeee! Graduation station! Woo hoo! So excited. Then I get to apply for my Masters. Anyway, nothing much is going on. Im going to read and maybe go paint some eggs tonight at a friends house. hehe.

Talk to you all soon!
Rachel