December 26

You all probably already know why I haven't written in here for over 20 days. When you're boyfriend is in town who has time to sit on the internet for an hour writing a blog post.

But, because I haven't written in so long, I've forgotten most of what's happened... so I guess I'll work my way backwards. Most of it's not super important... lots of party's and goodbyes and such fun things.

I want to comment about something Katiana said in her blog. She said she's going to make changes at school next year. But instead of talking about how much she's going to work harder and focus on accomplishments, she spoke of spending more time with friends. I feel like before I left, the reactions I was getting to the the information that I was going to study abroad were things like, "oh, I wish I would have done that in school," and "wow, you're going to learn so much." I kindof got this feeling that I would go away and learn the secrets to the world and come back to school with the gusto and knowledge to work hard and fix everything and be generally more like Dr. Kalu. But no, if anything, I've lost interest in a lot of the things I used to think were important. I feel like I'm finally viewing college as an exciting place to LEARN instead of a place where I have to go to school to get the knowledge that I need to be a productive member of society. I've learned that you don't always have to be stressed and freaking out about everything that's going on around you. Americans are really up tight. I've learned that what I really care about is people. I told Royce and Lauren one night in the middle of a long and deep conversation, after one of them pointed out that I was supposed to be studying spanish for my test the next day, that those types of conversation are the most important things to me in the world, and that I would never stop having them to do something else. As much as I love learning and classes, you can never learn as much about people out of a book, as you can from their mouths. In sum, I'm agreeing with Katiana. The moments with people are the most precious and delicate things. The book will be there in the morning, that beautiful individual sitting across from you may not be.

Anyway, Christmas in Argentina:

Christmas Eve I went to the family dinner of my 'me responsible roommate' Sebí and his sister. It was a gorgeous house just outside of the city with a long narrow backyard and a pool. We didn't end up swimming because it was windy and cold. There were a lot of people there. Sebí's grandparents are Italian so they have a very big, tight, crazy family. It was very nice to see children running about, the youngest was about 7 I think, the light of excitement in their faces. It was very fun. Everyone was very nice. Even if most people did insist on speaking to me in English... grr. There was lots of food and drink. Then we spent some time painting one of the walls of the yard in bright colors following the coloring book like design of trees and birds and hearts that one of the aunts had already painted there. Then at midnight, the world seemed to explode as fireworks filled the sky from all over the city. Unfortunately they were mostly the noisy ones without too many pretty colors. At the same time we all toasted to Christmas and then everyone ran around clicking glasses of champagne and kissing each other on the cheek. Then a few people went to the huge pile of presents and started calling out names and dishing out all the gifts with each person hungrily ripped open unceremoniously before moving on to the next package. All the gifts were opened at midnight. Sebí and Malena (his sister) were kind enough to get me a couple packages so I didn't feel left out. I was a little overwhelmed and exhausted by this time. After the gifts there were cakes and desserts followed by salsa dancing. They don't do Christmas music here. I didn't hear one rendition of Jingle Bells, not even in Spanish. After a little bit of watching salsa dancing in a stupor I went to the hammock and took a nap until Malena came to get me to go home. I got home at about 3:30 am. It was interesting, but fun none the less.

Christmas morning I again joined Sebí and Malena this time going to their Dad's house for lunch. He also gave me a gift. A cd of Argentine folk music... so I wouldn't forget them he said. It was just us three and their dad and his wife. It was very relaxed and nice. Good food. I got home at about 4:30 pm and then spent about 2 hours on the webcam with my family in AK. In the evening I went to my friend Tracy's house, who was also feeling weird on a Christmas free Christmas day, and we made some make shift gingerbread houses out of crackers and dulce de leche and some candy we'd gotten from the one open Kiosk in the area. It was fun.

I decided it was better to not have snow and Christmas music because without it I could just pretend that it didn't exist instead of being sad that I wasn't at home. Besides, my Christmas was really on December 6th when Royce got here.

Now I'm off to visit my Pakistani friend!
Be back soon!

December 5

Hmm... Mostly I've been consumed with studying and anticipation since I last wrote... and because of that, not much has happened.

I got an overall 6/10 in my modern class. I think that equals approximately a B-. Don't ask me how it works. I expected a 7/10 so I wasn't very happy about it. My modern class is split into two sections in which we learn two distinct modern styles. The one we had twice a week, Martha Graham style, was the hardest for me and the teacher gave me a 5... to which I was frustrated. The other style was more the kind of style that I had learned at UNC and was easier for me to pick up. That teacher gave me a 7... to which I was happy. Unfortunately the average equals 6. sigh. I'm not really angry as I did better than a lot of others in the class... I'm just used to getting A's in dance classes, that's all.

In keeping with the 6 tradition (I also got a 6 in my first intensive spanish class) I also managed a 6 in International Relations. To this however, I am ecstatic! I was expecting to get a 4 as I rarely understood/payed attention in class and didn't do any of the readings. I did study for the final though. And I guess it paid off!

For pretty much the past week, I've had a very hard time thinking about anything but counting down the days until Royce gets here... now we are at about 17 hours. yay!

As my classes come to a close I am very excited for them to be over and for my visitors to come so I can show them around... but at the same time I am wary of the impending sadness of when Royce and Lauren both leave and I am stuck here for Christmas. Then the family comes and it will be all joy (and sweat as it's supposed to be like 100 degrees in the city). Though by the time I finally get back to Greeley in February I will be very out of practice in terms of dance... and I can't help but wonder what I'm going to do with myself once I get there... then there's the every itchy questions of what I'm going to do for the summer, my last year of undergrad, and after. I don't worry about it, but I wonder.

Last night I introduced Lauren and my good Pakistani friend. It was very enjoyable eating Pakistani food and pudding and talking about the world, sometimes in Spanish, but mostly in English. Good times.

It is a gorgeous day, I get to dance tonight and eat fondue with friends, tomorrow my love arrives to visit me from afar, sometimes I catch a glimpse of a fake Christmas tree in a store window. Life is good. Breathe it in. Pass it on.