Surreal

I took this out the balcony of my apartment the other night when I was up at 5 AM writing a paper. Whoops.

I finished my last class Wedneday. I'm quite confident that I didn't fail a single one of the five I took this semester. Can you believe that? I can't. A whole semester in Spanish, and I held my own. I do have one 'final' this Friday but I got a high enough grade on the midterm that I don't have to take the test, just have to show up and get my grade for the class. I can't believe I've already finished school, if this isn't obvious enough. I'm not ready to leave Buenos Aires, but I'm not actually leaving until the end of July. What am I going to do with the rest of my time here, you ask?

If I haven't already told/bragged/talked to about it, I am for sure going to go on the backpacking trip I talked about earlier. Three countries, 70+ collective hours on a bus, countless historical and majestic mountains/ruins/valleys/deserts—and memories. The trip is going to be a bit of a hike and a whirlwind journey, but I've recently been reminded of this little itch I have to travel. We leave Buenos Aires next Monday the 7^th of July for Salta in the northern province of Argentina. This first leg is a 20 hour bus ride, and hopefully the longest (I'll know for sure in a couple days, there might be one more 20 hour trip amongst the other smaller ones). We are taking another nice bus on this journey to spoil ourselves before we reach later legs of the trip where buses have a bit of a reputation for being not quite as nice as buses from Argentina, to put it nicely. A few days after Salta we're heading to San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. Atacama is the driest desert in the world and its Valle de la Luna is often compared to the surface of the moon. I believe it's even been researched and practiced on for future journeys to our moon. The desert has volcanoes, salt flats and flamingos. Yes, flamingos. ¿Qué sé yo?

After Atacama we will then continue on to the northern border of Chile and Peru at Tacna/Arica. If all goes well at the border we will then continue on to Arequipa to spend a few days. Arequipa is home to Colca Canyon which contains the first and second deepest canyons in the world; though I believe the first canyon is rather inaccessible. We will be most likely doing a two day hike through Colca to see the sites there.

From Arequipa we will head to Puno, Peruvian access to the highest navigable lake in the world and largest in South America, Lake Titicaca. A couple days will be spent at Lake Titicaca then we will continue on to Cusco. We hope to be in Cusco around the 19^th of July, barring any unforeseen delays and/or mishaps.

The absolute highlight of our trip will be our journey to Machu Picchu from Cusco. Explanation unnecessary.

My traveling buddy will fly back from Cusco the 24^th while I will be staying by myself to hopefully do some more adventuring the region until the 26^th. I have been crossing my fingers the entire time I've been in Buenos Aires hoping that something along these lines would happen. I'm incredibly excited about this trip and its going to be an absolute dream. I will be updating as often as is possible from locutorios, or internet cafés, from each destination and will of course be loading tons and tons of pictures. It's weird how small technology makes this world.

Recently not a lot has been going on other than finishing school. I finally made it out to a market outside of the city called La feria de los Mataderos (The Butcher's market). It definitely had a lot better and more carefully crafted goods than did most the typical bubble-gum booths in Buenos Aires. I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not having bought a few souvenirs early when the stuff was novel as opposed to falling ill to the normality complex.

I went to a dialogue last night that an organization my host mother is in put on. She's in a women's business club and the dialogue was between a priest, a rabbi and an imam. The talk lasted about an hour and a half and they talked about peace in today's world. It wasn't exactly the liveliest of dialogues and the rabbi and the priest both left early for one reason or another. Either way it was still interesting to see such a thing in a really fundamentally Catholic country.

My study abroad advisor was in town touring COPA last week and Kristin (the girl from SU who has been here a full year and has become one of my better friends here) and I took her to get a drink at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericana de Buenos Aires, or MALBA. Sue, our advisor, was equally impressed with the way our program works and the people running it. If anyone, ANYONE, is thinking about studying abroad in a Spanish speaking country I HIGHLY recommend this program. It has been absolutely fantastic in every way shape and form that was within their threshold of power. Never overbearing but always an extended hand. Back to MALBA; I love that museum. It makes me wish we had more big spacious museums with rotating exhibits where I live. Austin has its fair share that I've actually yet to explore but I will definitely be making more of an effort when I get home.

People are gradually leaving Buenos Aires from my program, one by one. It's a sad sight to see but it's also incredibly exciting to see how far we've come and the good friends I've made along the way. Thick and thin there is nothing in the world I would have traded for this semester. I'll make a more emotional and heartfelt entry about things I'm going to miss/not miss/fondly remember/other observations when I return to Buenos Aires after the trip and then have to leave for real for real. Tune in, it'll be a good one.

I'll post an update a day or two before I leave with a pretty detailed itinerary for those interested. Other than that ¡Chau!