Un Año en Mendoza: No Seas Boludo

It's November... Scroll back, what?
I have hit three months in Argentina. I am nearing a hundred days. What?

One of my classes finished this week, another finishes next week, and finally, by the 16th of November, all of my classes will be finished (besides the final I have on the 24th). I have eleven days until I start my summer vacation and three weeks until I begin my travels around Latin America.
That's insane.
Time is a magnificent contradiction.

Besides the fact that school is almost over, the last few weeks have been going really well! I passed both my midterms, one of my professors loves me and read one of my assignments to the class, I have kind of been keeping up with the readings (more like: I have only been reading what I feel is necessary), and I have progressed to a level of Spanish that allows me to argue/discuss/ask questions during class. I am not worried about failing any of my classes like I was earlier this semester.

I made the most amazing revelation this week! I was listening to a podcast about the Anthropocene and besides learning that the start of the Holocene is marked by the extinction of a snail species in Italy, I figured out exactly what I want to study! As I laid in the grass, observing the world around me and listening to the final speaker explain in detail the Global Seed Banks in Svalbard, Norway, I put it all together. I want to study Food Systems; the dispersal of food around the world, the sustainability of our agricultural systems, and how to feed people on a global scale without destroying our planet! I already started the process of emailing various advisers, scrolling through the University of Minnesota's website, and I have determined, it is possible, just difficult, but I am determined. I will see what the world has in store.

If you know what the Emotional S Curve of studying abroad is, I am definitely following it. Around the first or second week of November, it is predicted that you will hit a low, and guess what, I did. For the last few days I have been swimming in a sea of confusion; I hit a mental block, couldn't get past it, and shut down. It is/was a combination of missing home, stress about school, having to say goodbye to my friends that won't be here next semester, the fear of gaining weight, and problems I am having with my host family. I am very proud of myself for recognizing the normality of this low and not letting it consume me for more time than it did.

The rest I will explain with pictures for I am too lazy to write paragraphs about each, and not blogging weekly makes it difficult to remember exactly what I did.