9 days left....

my time in buenos aires is quickly winding down
on dec 15th i get on a bus with my friend rosa that will take us to BOLIVIA!!!
i will be travelling for almost 5 weeks through bolivia and peru, so be sure to check here often for updates!!

A list of things i will miss about buenos aires:
1. my argentine family, mati and juan pablo, they have been really incredible and i will miss them a lot
2. the food mainly:
-tartas (quiche like veggie deliciousness)
-milenesa de soja (breaded soy - actually amazing)
-empanadas (so cheap and delicious)
-fernte and coca (my favorite alcoholic drink that is made from fermented herbs and gives you zero hang-over)
-meat (the meat here is in fact as good as they all say, coming from being a vegetarian, eating meat here was truely a treat)
-mate (the most delicious beverage ever, although im sure i will be able to find it in san francisco)
-frutigrans (this delicious cookie)
-paso de los toros (a sparkling grapefruit drink, probably the most refreshing beverage i have ever tried)
-and dulce de leche (the most satisfying thing possible for a sweet tooth)
3. yoga - my yoga class here and yoga teacher (i love you thuy!!) have been a huge part of my life here, an amazing ritual to keep me centered in this crazy busy city
4. my friends! really a lot
5. living in a city, i love wasting my days walking endlessly, always discovering new streets, new cafes, new plazas and parks, its been so refreshing to live here after being in ohio, however, this city is pretty gigantic and im ready to go back to my manageable san francisco
6. my tango class and tango girls! i took tango here and it was so fun, im still very bad but i met a lot of amazing people and it was really fun learning a completely new kind of dance
7. rustico- my favorite cafe, the cheapest food with the best quality, and the nicest guys ever who work there, i went there about twice a week the entire semester and those guys became a very big part of my weekly routine
8. the weather, spring here has been beautiful, even with the huge thunderstorms, i am pretty terrified about going back to 4 feet of snow in oberlin
9. how every block will have at least one: cafe, bakery, fruit/vegetible stand, butcher, grocery store, paper store and kiosk - you never have to walk far for anything that you may need
10. a stress-free life, i have been able to establish a life here that is void of stress, which for me, if you know me at all, is an incredible feat, it was helpful that my academics were not very rigorous, but it was also the pace of life here (very slow) that helped me slow down as well
11. my terrace, every night i sit on my terrace and watch the sun set, sometimes i drink mate, sometimes i read my book, it is the most peaceful place
12. speaking spanish, it has been a really incredible experience watching my spanish improve, i feel like i have gotten to a point where i am a fully functional person in spanish, i can be myself, and even make jokes sometimes, and i am worried about losing this

A list of things i wont miss:
1. dog poop everywhere, literally everywhere you walk there is dog poop
2. waiting for the bus for at least an hour at night to get home from bars
3. the money stress - coins are very hard to come by and extremely essencial for transporting oneself because the buses only accept coins, and breaking 100 bills is sooo hard, sometimes when all i have on my is 100 pesos (which can buy you a lot) i feel like i have no money because they are so hard to break
4. it is impossible to get tap water in restaurants, they will give you unlimited free bread, but tap water - no way, out of the question
5. living far away from all my friends. i never realized how convinient social life is at college, i mean i always knew, but i never truely apprciated it. one of the consecuences of living in homestays is it is very hard to find places to hang out, this usually means getting coffee or getting a beer. im not going to miss having to take 30 minute bus rides to meet up with friends

overall, this has been a truely incredible experience, 5 months of amazing adventures and a lot of personal changes, its been a transformative semester. thank you to everyone who was part of it!
ben master is coming tomorrow to visit me for 6 days, its going to be amazing
besos.
sar