Sobreviví!

Hola todos,

The internet cooperated enough to eventually let me upload last week's pictures (check them out in the entry below!), but stopped its concessions there... haha. So I'll upload more pictures when I can.

I survived my week of tests! It was actually quite a feat. I studied constantly, in a panic, for about six days straight; it was the most stressed I think I've ever been. I couldn't sleep, felt faint and clammy, and had terrible stomachaches. It was pretty bad. If I don't pass all of my classes, I won't graduate, and that is what's really been stressing me out, along with what not-graduating would entail.

Even though I'd done all the readings, I hadn't studied them closely, and I really needed to. I had to memorize the names and centuries of hundreds of medieval art works, hundreds of important sociological names, dates, theories, and terms, and the historical contexts of them all. And... I did!

I hadn't been overestimating how hard the tests would be: all that studying was actually necessary. I'd studied churches, sarcophagi, murals, mosaics, and bibles for medieval art (at this moment I could probably name and approximately date 300 of them), but on the test the professor asked us to identify a small jeweled brooch. A brooch that was mentioned for twenty seconds in class and in one short paragraph of the 1,000 pages of reading for that class... And that question was worth about 25% of the total grade. I knew the answer to it because I hadn't understood the technical word for "brooch" and had looked it up online and found the same example. Google saved my life! haha. Anyway, after all that loco studying, I feel confident that I passed all my tests.

The next time around (I unfortunately have two more series of tests), I'm going to work on memorization and studying as I go along so that I won't stress myself out so much. It was terrible, but I'm really glad that's done!

My friends and family have done a lot to help me through these weeks, by believing in me, being there to listen, and by trying to help me relax, and I can't thank you guys enough! Les quiero, I love you! =)

I did take a few breaks throughout the week in attempts to maintain my sanity. I went to the Book Fair with my friend Jenn from California and again on my own the next day. I went to a party with Jorge and drank lots of mate tea and coffee with Leo.

The book fair was amazing. There were thousands of books — three huge, classic Greco-Roman style buildings were filled to the brim with them — and hundreds of stands representing Argentine provinces and countries from around the world. I saw a gauchesco dance (a traditional, cowboy-style dance), an Arabian dance, a photo exposition of porteño (Buenos Aires-style) body-painting, with tango, filetto, and urban themes, and got a book-light and pen as free gifts. I told Jenn that it felt like Christmas: all those books and nice cultural, artistic things everywhere, and someone randomly handed me a book-light, which  I'd been wanting for about a week! haha. And a new pen, which I also needed. How great!

I bought four great books for 10 pesos: the best oferta (sale) I've seen in all my time here! I got gauchesca (cowboy) poems, four stories by Cervantes, a novel by José Martí, stories recounted by desaparecidos and their friends and families (the desaparecidos were those kidnapped and tortured during the dictatorship).

After my tests yesterday I opened a book of Sylvia Plath's diaries, one of my favorites that I'd brought from the US, and found the receipt for it marking a page inside. The receipt is handwritten on a printed grid and lists all the other books I bought at the same time (at a little used book store in Glen Ellyn, Illinois with David): Cyrano de Bergerac, Gather Together, Walden and Disobedience, poetry by Quevedo, and Sylvia's diaries. It looked like a prescription (and a good one!), haha. There's no doubt about how much I love reading and writing, and when I'm done with school and find a job, I'm going to dedicate myself to that. =) I've been writing a lot while here, but need to type it all up and edit it. My main project right now is memoirs. I will keep you posted on their development!

Besos!
Kaeli