El Fin

The end is near! In just a couple hours, I will leave my house here in Córdoba for the local airport, where I will fly to Santiago, Chile, and then straight on to JFK International Airport in New York City. Since my last blog post about our weekend trip to the northern part of the country, it seems like the time has flown. The last two weeks have been mostly focused on finishing up the academic term (do you sometimes forget that there are classes down here too?), so a great deal of time was spent on various presentations, exams, and whatnot. Now, however, all of that is over, as is my time in Argentina, and all so quickly!

Last weekend, we tried to celebrate our time in Argentina, since it was really our last weekend that we'd have a chance to have fun, because we were all leaving in just a week's time. We had a great time finding a couple places in the city and enjoying ourselves. There are a couple of girls who are lucky enough to live in a house with a pool, and on Saturday they were nice enough to invite everyone over for an American-style gathering - a backyard pool party, complete with chips and hot dogs! It was a gorgeous day, and a great day to hang out with friends by a pool, and I had a great time. After that, we met up with some of our other classmates as well as some Argentinian friends for some more festive activities to celebrate what was essentially our last weekend in Córdoba. All in all, a very enjoyable weekend, and it resulted in some great memories.

A photo of our nice day by the pool, copped from a classmate's Facebook page.

After a final week of tests and exams, we bid adios to our university campus for the last time on Thursday. That evening, all the students went out to a restaurant in Córdoba to celebrate by getting asado, which is the rough equivalent of barbecue in Argentina. Consisting of a great variety of different cuts of meat (ribs, sausage, chicken, etc) the asado is apparently one of the most celebrated parts of Argentine cuisine. At that restaurant, for the equivalent of $30, we got unlimited appetizers (buffet style servings of all sorts of cold food), unlimited meat, unlimited drinks (of any sort, from water to wine), and a dessert as well. Considering the full bellies and happy people at the end of the night, it was a worthwhile venture.

Then last night, we had the formal good-bye reception organized by the study abroad program. Students were encouraged to invite their host parents, and our Argentine speaking partners were all invited as well. It was a nice way to end the trip, and it seemed like everyone we'd ever met in Argentina was there. With some good food, drinks, and a nice slideshow of pictures, it was a good finale. 

Me with my host family! My host mom had just made a
comment about my height and wasn't yet prepared for the photo.

Now it's time to finish packing and say my final goodbyes! It's been a great time here in Argentina, and I'm glad I came, but I think I'm ready to be back home. It'll be nice to be back in a place where they have real breakfasts, where I don't have to ride a bus 40 minutes to school every day, and of course where all my friends and family are. That said, I'll definitely remember my time in Argentina, and I'll cherish all the memories and friendships I made here. Thanks for reading along with me on this trip, and I hope I made it almost as interesting for you as it was for me!