¡se acabaron las clases!

Classes are OVER!

The last two weeks were comprised of buckling down (kind of) and wrapping up all the final exams and presentations. I done good!

The school system is much different here and I've come to realize I appreciate the states' way of homework and tests. Here, work you do leading up to the midterms or finals counts for nothing. So everything rests on that one final, or the average of the midterms and finals. It makes for a nice and low workload the whole semester, but then when the final's a-comin' round the corner, it's all about cramming.

But I've really enjoyed my classes this semester, and in each class my final was an oral presentation, which makes for really good practice of speaking Spanish. In my Spanish language class, I gave a presentation on Not For Sale and modern day human slavery.
In my literature class, I analyzed a poem by Jorge Luis Borges and related it to Facundo, a very classic and important piece of Argentine literature written in 1845 by former president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.
In my modern Argentine history class, I talked about los desaparecidos during the military dictatorship in the '70s, but more spefically about the children of the leftists that were kidnapped and illegally adopted by the military. It's such a dark time in Argentine history, especially with this ilegal trade of babies.
Lastly, I think my favorite presentation was in my Cultural Anthropology class, which was my only class with other Argentine students (as opposed to within the study abroad department). The foreigners in this class (5 Americans and 1 Brit) did a lengthly presenation about racism in our countries. It was really cool to get in front of these Argentines and talk about what's going on in America now. They were all really interested to hear from their peers, and had a ton of questions for us, like are there any stereotypes of Argentines in the states (no, not really because no one knows anything about Argentina) and do we feel discriminated against in Argentina as Americans (yes!). It was a cool dialogue. I felt good about my Spanish and that moment. I tried to convey as much good about America as I could, even with all the crazy racist shit that goes down.

Woo! Long post. Thanks for reading. I'm excited and proud to be done.