A lot of people from the program are leaving Mendoza this week to begin their end of program travels. Because of this, we are starting to say goodbye to everyone since we all have different plans and are leaving on different days. Tuesday night we had an asado with a group of Megan's friends (It seems like a trend that Argentinian boys always want to invite all the American girls over for an asado). The asado was in Guaymallén at one of the boy's second home. Guaymallén, as I've heard, is the poorer part of Mendoza, where it's a little more dangerous to be hanging out. So we had to all take taxis, and I was very surprised that none of the taxi drivers we found knew how to get there, so we had to wait a while for them to figure it out. If I was a taxi driver I'd have this city memorized. So about 15 of us IFSA kids went for our last asado together, and had some really great chorripans.
The next day those of us who hadn't presented yet for our final in Spanish class had to present in class, and afterwords, we took all our Spanish teachers from the IFSA program out for Mojito Miercoles; very refreshing in the 90 degree weather we've been experiencing lately. We all had to say goodbye to Dan, who was leaving for Bolivia that night. The rest of us were all trying to figure out when the last time we will see each other is, trying to delay goodbyes as long as possible.
My sadness from saying goodbye quickly turned into excitement as I walked to the bus terminal to pick up Blake. Thirty two hours after leaving Colorado; Denver to Miami to Peru to Chile, then bus to Mendoza, I saw Blake walk off the bus right as I turned the corner, and we are finally reunited after four months apart!! I hadn't heard from him since Miami, and was hoping he would find some way to contact me, because you never know how long the immigrations office will take at the border. The day before he arrived, immigration officers were protesting their wages at the border, so cars couldn't pass, but luckily the protest stopped Tuesday, and Blake made it through with no problems and arrived in Mendoza right on time.
I took Blake to another farewell dinner at Skylar's house because her host family invited a few of us over for a goodbye dinner. Her pool was recently filled, so we swam and had delicious lomitos. Afterwords I took Blake to PH for mojitos, the best in Mendoza! I can't believe Blake is actually here in Argentina!
Thursday I finished up my finals. It was a bit pathetic how much of a joke these finals were since we are pretty much guaranteed to pass anyway. Our final presentation for our Regional Development class had no guidelines except to make a presentation or video over any related topic. And after those presentations I had to say more goodbyes to some of the people I've become closest with here. I think I'll be able to see some of these people in Colorado in the future, but it's easiest to just say a quick goodbye, not think about the fact that we are all leaving, and just remember the amazing times we've all had together this semester rather than dwell on the goodbyes.
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