no lo puedo creer...

Still in a state of unbelief down here in UY. A week from this moment I will have been in Texas for almost 12 hours already. Nuts.

Just wanna give a rundown of this week. We have been so busy with preparations for finals, dinners with friends, and activities with the group. They are keepin' us busy down here. Jessalyn and I both have already started packing things up and setting aside piles of things to leave here. Today Andrea came over and I happened to be putting some things in my suitcase. She made a sad face with eyes pleading me to stop, so I quickly kicked the suitcase back under my bed. Jessalyn told me today that she's really hurting for Andrea because Andrea told her that she doesn't even want to meet people anymore because they always leave. I don't claim to know exactly how she feels, but I do know how it feels to leave many relationships. Leaving Oxford, to name one, was extremely hard. Yes, some of those people I went to Oxford with are still some of my best friends and all of them will remain close to my heart, but the reality is that things are never going to stay the same. You get close to people, learn beautiful things from each other, and then take those things you've learned with you and sow them into the next relationships and the next places you go.

This time last year I did NOT want to leave my house on Canterburry. It didn't even seem fair that people would move into MY home, only a week after I left. They shouldn't get to call it home...They surely could not feel about this place the way I feel for it...These are the thoughts I had. But the truth is, it was someone's home before me and it would continue to be after me. It's crazy how, in four months time, I can be so in love with a place and a people I hardly knew existed before my arrival. But that is how I felt about Oxford, and that is how I feel about Uruguay. I call them both home. And though things and circumstances were very different, they are both places I will never be able to completely separate myself from.

Okay...we need to quit talking about these things for a bit. I can only handle so much. I need a break from my mind because I seriously think about these things all day long. It's rough. Today was especially bad because I went out walking. Note to self-don't go walking while listening to your "chill" mix on your ipod while in an emotionally unstable state unless you want a bunch of strangers to stare at the tears rolling down your cheeks. Especially if you have no sunglasses to cover them up.

By the way, I wrote a song yesterday morning. Also, I decided I am going to record some of my songs and the Spanish versions of them on CDs to give to some of my friends here. Shout out to Garage Band!

This blog is a whole bunch of randomness, but that's how things get when you are about to leave home. Things get hectic and crazy and if you don't make notes to yourself as you go throughout the day, you will never remember everything you need to get done. That's how I feel about this blog. There is no theme. There are only things I do not want to forget to say. So I will deliver them as they come. If the lack of fluidity bothers you, get someone else to read it and summarize it for you or something. In fact, I'll just go ahead and outline some of the highlights.

LAST NIGHT- we had an evening tea at a fancy little tea parlor and we invited all of our teachers and lab professors, as well as Raquel and Mariella. They all looked so beautiful and so did all my little classmates. We all joke that we are not going to recognize each other around campus because we will actually have make-up on and wear clothes other than our PJ's to class. And if we are feeling really crazy we might even take showers and do our hair. Okay, so we're not that gross down here. All the time, at least. Anyway, all that to say that everyone looked lovely last night. Not that they don't always. But... uh....ok I'm diggin' a ditch.

TODAY- was dia de muerte. DEAD DAY. Yesterday was our last day of classes and today was our prep-for-finals/cram study day. Just kidding. We college kids never cram for anything. We are always efficient with our time. But seriously, it's been a fun day. I have been sitting right here on my bed for most of it, editing essays to submit in my Travel as a Narrative English portfolio. We have all been sippin' on coffee and maté all day long. I try to like that maté mess because I think it looks really cool and legit when people drink it, but I'm afraid I don't enjoy drinking something that tastes like grass (sorry Uruguayans... and Jessalyn). Go ahead and dump a handful of sugar in it and I'll sip it down like water, though (Here they say that only women and babies drink maté like that- "con azucar"-Well I'm proud to be a woman, thank you). I did buy a maté gourd but I'm afraid I am only a poser, and I'm pretty sure I'll be sippin' coffee out of it when I go home.
ALSO TODAY- we had a special lunch for Mariela and Raquel. Wimon and Rosalinda, with the help of many vegetable-choppin' maniacs, cooked up Beef Curry as a way to bless Mariela and Raquel for cooking for us all semester. Zanessa made rice crispy treats for dessert (don't worry, Mom- yours still win, hands down) and Lawson saranaded the ladies with a beautiful Spanish song he had learned. What a sweetie.

TOMORROW- we have FINALS! wahoo! Not only that, but the whole town is basically shut down. It's Labor Day here. Uruguayans do it right. Literally NADIE works and NADA is open. Raquel and Mariela made Shepherd's pie for us to heat up for lunch tomorrow since they have the day off. Wimon and Rosalinda volunteered to cook us all dinner if we'd pitch in. They are cooking up some kind of African Stew. They sent us an email telling us not to worry because they would be make a less exciting, more bland pot for the not-so-adventurous eaters in the Casa. So thoughtful, those Walkers.
ALSO TOMORROW- night we have a pajama party at the Casa! There will popcorn, bonding, lots of laughing, and a slideshow that Lawson put together from pictures that everyone submitted. I forgot to submit pictures. But I can imagine myself in most of the pictures- I know pretty well what I look like because, believe it or not, I have lived with me for my entire life. Crazy, I know.

Well, that's about as far as I will go for tonight. I need to get back to revising my essays and then get some good shuteye.

Paz y Amor,

~Face