Planetario y Fish Camp Shoutout!!

Sunday, August 2nd

I slept in on Sunday. I love days when I don’t set alarms. I decided to go to mass at the Carmelo church, which is a gorgeous cathedral half a block from my house. I wasn’t sure if they had mass at 11, but I went just in case. They did. They actually have it every hour on Sunday mornings. The inside was beautiful, but definitely much more modern than the church I’ve been going to. They also didn’t have awesome handouts with the readings printed on them, so I think next week I’ll go back to the other church. I was able to follow most of the mass, and the homily. They’re still skipping the Peace be with you part, but I noticed a few people cheating and wishing each other well.

I ate lunch at Propozio and got Internet! I ordered a hamburger and a coke with the same waiter as last time. He’s really nice, and he knows the booth I like. I was nervous about skyping at first, but then I realized that duh, people talk at restaurants…my people are just in a different continent.

After that, I went to the Planetario. I’ve been meaning to for a while, and tonight happened to be the last day of their winter display. meaning they were showing lots of videos, including el Principito (The Little Prince). I wanted to see this. I subte’d there, and walked over, which included walking past the zoo, La Rural, and several parks. Basically, family hub. I LOVE seeing this part of Buenos Aires – the family part with happy people and kites. Love love love it!

I arrived at the Planetario right at 4:30, which was when the show was supposed to start. I saw a line outside the building, so I asked the woman at the end if it was to see a show. She said yes, so I was like cool. Then, I realized, duh, it was probably something else, and she confirmed that the Prinicipito had already gone in. So I decided to just wait for this one. I don’t know why I was so dumb this afternoon, because then I asked her if I needed a ticket, which I knew I did. I meant to ask if I needed to already have it. We both ended up befuddled, and I am sure I sounded like a total dofus.

I went inside the building (really cool architecture!) and asked the guy if I needed a ticket. We had a really confusing conversation as well, but I finally understood and headed back to the line, where the woman had a friend. 30 minutes later, the line started to move. I asked the friend a question and found out they are students from Bolivia. We talked for a bit, but it was stunted. Once I had my ticket, there was the line for people with tickets. The Bolivians invited me to stand with them, which was nice. One girl talked to me, the other one looked at me like I was really weird.

While we were waiting, I decided to go inside and look at the exhibits to pass the time. There really wasn’t much, maybe about 8 displays with some cools gadgets. Then I went back to the line. Finally, 40 minutes later, we got to enter. The movie was a smaller Imax, and it was all about El Nuevo sistema solar. Pues, it was basically everything I’ve always heard, except this was the first program I’ve heard since Pluto (pluton) was demoted. So that was interesting. I also found out it doesn’t qualify because it hasn’t cleared out other similar bodies.

It was really warm in the theater though, and I fought sleep the entire time. After that, I walked back, which was a little long. The subte was SUPER crowded with people coming back from la rural, but luckily I had already bought my ticket and didn’t have to wait in line.

I tried to get all my lesson plans organized, but had minimal success. We all ate a dinner of pasta in Lulu’s room and chatted. I went to bed pretty early.

p.s.
Fish Camp starts this week. It’s the first year I haven’t done it. I did participate in a study abroad video that’s supposed to be shown at camp, so hopefully I’ll merit the final cut and spread my influence to ALL the freshmen.  I cried a lot when I made the choice to pull my Cochair app and head abroad instead. And while it still pulls at my heart, I know I made the right choice (for me). With two amazing options such as that, I don’t think there was a wrong choice to be made. I always get really caught up in not wanting to make the “wrong choice” that will ruin everything I’ve built up. (dramatic much, no?) College just kind of built upon itself. My freshmen Fish Camp led to FLiP, which led to GLC, Fish Camp counselor, which led to SLC and Spanish major and UWC, which led to SLC Chair, which led to Italy, which led to AFIL, which led to SSFAB and MSCC VP and Buenos Aires. I can pinpoint exactly how most of those things took place. Most involved some kind of stressed out conversation on my part about not wanting to make the “wrong choice.”

As I’m faced with making some big decisions about my future now, I should remember the nights spent stressing and how everything fell into place more perfectly than I could have EVER planned. Duh. Haha, MUCH easier said than done.

I was looking at pictures from my last three years in college. It has flown by. En serio. I don’t have anything profound to say about it. These three cumulative years have everything and more. I can only hope that I continue this trend, of each year having been the best one yet. So I give thanks for everyone who has been a part of that, and for everyone who contributed to preparing me for this University life. I love it, and I am so blessed to have wonderful memories to carry me through lonely times.

I have one year left as an undergraduate at Texas A&M University. Although I am 110% happily biased, I would recommend this university to anyone for an amazing undergraduate experience. Whatever your passion, especially if you don’t yet know it (hello – example A!), the resources this University has are incomparable. It’s so beautiful, and I am so blessed to bleed maroon.

So thank you, A&M, because if I weren’t an Aggie, I wouldn’t be in Buenos Aires right now learning, loving, and living.

And Fish Camp counselors – Congratulations. You guys have been trained and have the heart to selflessly welcome in the Class of 2013. Whoop for that, and without being overly dramatic, treat the position with care. You set the Aggie standard for many freshmen.