Hola amigos!

Wow this week has been absolutely crazy with everything wrapping up as well as travelling throughout the province of Córdoba. I finally say that I have finished my semester abroad and all that’s left are three weeks of travelling! Apologies in advance if this blog isn’t very thorough; I’ve been super busy all week and now have an hour before I leave for Uruguay and still have yet to pack

Thursday was our going away dinner with everyone from our program, which also just so happened to be Thanksgiving. Our program coordinators did a fantastic job giving us our own little Thanksgiving dinner because we couldn’t be home to celebrate the wonderful holiday with our families. They even had pumpkin pie!!! I ate my fair share…three and half pieces Surprisingly, I was about as full after dinner as I usually am on Thanksgiving because the girls couldn’t finish their meals and I received all of the leftovers. We followed up our Thanksgiving dinner with a going away party at a boliche that Saturday night. The going away party was held at Studio, the boliche that seriously looks like it’s straight out of the movies. Here’s a pic from the upper level, which we had with all you can eat food: All of the speaking partners were invited to the going away party, and it was an absolute blast! It was the first time we stayed at the boliche until it closed at 5:00 AM and I wasn’t tired afterwards. Maybe Argentinian culture is starting to rub off on me after all!

I worked my last day at Pluto’s on Monday, and I pulled an eight hour shift because it was a holiday so we were extra busy. It wasn’t quite the same as Black Friday busy, but there was still a substantial amount of people. Saying goodbye to my coworkers was my first goodbye, and I sadly realized that it’s the first of many. At first, I was really hesitant about how much I’d be able to get out of working in a toy store, but I have to say it has to be one of the most helpful aspects of my time here in Argentina. A large part of this can be attributed to the people I worked with who made going to work a blast because we played games when nobody was in the store. Here’s the group: That night, we met up with our friends from Puerto Madryn to show them the pictures from our trip and make empanadas. It was really nice to catch up with them and to spend the night outside on the patio talking for a couple hours.

Tuesday, Sarah and I spent the day in Carlos Paz, a small town just an hour outside of Córdoba. This is the town where my Spanish teacher from high school grew up, who was the reason I chose to study Spanish as well as study in Córdoba! Thank you Señor Giorgis The city of Carlos Paz is beautiful with lots of palm trees as well as a lake. Nothing was really open because it was a Tuesday, but it was so nice to be outside the city and to get out on the water on a paddle-boat for a little while! Sarah took me to an ice cream shop where we got this monster of a cone for eight pesos, which is the equivalent of two dollars: The only negative part of the day was the horrible sunburn I got because I underestimated the power of the Argentinian sun.

We took another mini trip on Wednesday to La Cumbre and Capilla del Monte, which are located about two hours outside of Córdoba. Both are really quaint little towns situated at the foot of the mountains. We took a bus to La Cumbre first in hopes of going paragliding, but the wind was out of the wrong direction and didn’t cooperate with us so we took another bus to Capilla del Monte. There wasn’t a whole lot to do in Capilla del Monte, but it was nice to get out of the city and walk around a bit. We walked outside the city to the dam, and here’s a picture of Sarah, Sam, and I on the rocks near the dam with the river in the background:

For those of you who know me, you know that I may be one of the best procrastinators in the world, so me finishing my paper a day and half in advance is pretty incredible! I finished my 10 page paper on my internship yesterday afternoon and it wasn’t due until today After I was done, I felt like I should be going to bed because I usually finish papers around 3:00 AM, not at noon. I wanted to get the paper done with because I had to meet up with my group to prepare our final presentation and then go out salsa dancing for the going away party for one of the girls from our group. Salsa dancing was a lot of fun, but I had a hard time not mixing up the salsa steps with my swing dancing! After salsa dancing, we went out to a bar for dinner and drinks to give Sam a proper goodbye party. I can’t believe she leaves on Monday, nor can I believe that we leave three weeks from today. It’s crazy how fast the time flies!

Today I finished my last academic obligation for my semester here in Córdoba. My group and I aced our presentation and now the travelling commences! Tonight we’re taking a bus to Buenos Aires, and then tomorrow morning we’ll take the ferry to Uruguay. We’re staying in Uruguay until next Thursday, so it’ll be another week before I post on here. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures with more ridiculous tan lines while I’m laying out on the beach for the next week I hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home! I’d take winter any day over a week of 95 degrees without air conditioning!

Chau Suerte!

Danny

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