Semester winding down/Thanksgiving

Happy(late) Thanksgiving! I realize that about three weeks have passed since my last post. The only explanation can be that Chile  has a calendar system where the middle  of the month don't exist,because once again I don't know how the time can fly by so quick. These past two months especially I have seen the beginning of the month come and then suddenly it's the end of the month!

Anyways, for Thanksgiving a friend from my program invited us over to her place to celebrate, potluck style. Her roommates are Chilean and Australian, so with them and the group of us Californians it was a nice little mix. I actually brought a Chilean-style salad, with avocados and tomatoes splashed with olive oil. For some reason lettuce isn't huge with the salads here. There were all the traditional dishes too, including a huge turkey and pumpkin pie. Oh, and there was hummus with the appetizers...I was very excited to say the least! Seeing as there were over twenty people in a relatively small apartment, it wasn't your classic sit around the table say what your thankful for deal. I was happy enough to have the classic food and friends!
The night continued with a dance party to reggaeton(a genre of Latin American dance music), which isn't your typical post-Thanksgiving meal ritual of bumming it on the couch in a food coma, but it was still a blast!

A simple Chilean salad

My (first) plate of good old traditional Turkey Day food

Meanwhile, the semester is finally wrapping up here. I had my last day of classes on Tuesday and our goodbye dinner was that night, which was more fun than bittersweet, especially since I've seen my good friends in the program everyday since then. It's not goodbye quite yet! My internship is pretty much winding down too. I just have my exit interview next week for that. The class I may miss the most is actually my swim class. Last Friday all the classes had a combined competition and I swam after coming right from class. Literally I wasn't even wet before diving in the water for the race...so needless to say it didn't go so well. Oh well, it was all for fun! And afterwards some classmates and I got lunch together. I have  obviously socialized with Chileans before, but to be honest and say this was the first time I hung out strictly with Chileans, no gringos present. I felt accomplished!
The rest isn't so much fun and games. It worked out that all my finals are essays, which makes it nice for making sure my work is clear and grammar-error free. The bad thing is I have a total of 4 essays to write(3 for classes,one for my internship) in the next week and a half, all of them being in the 7+page range. However, one of them is a partner paper and I'm working with an exchange student from Japan. It's funny how we end up speaking Spanish to each other, because it's a language we both share(although I'm pretty sure she speaks good English too).
I think it's appropriate that Thanksgiving fell close to the end of the semester, because looking back on the last 5 months I do have a lot to be thankful for! The places I've traveled, the friends I've made, the fulfilling classes I've taken, and just the fact that I have another 7 months to look forward to on this year long journey. It's strange, my return flight was changed the other day(for visa purposes you have to book a round trip, and December was the latest I could do at the time), which is a very concrete sign that my experience will eventually end. But, it's far enough off that I can't begin to think about how I'll actually feel when I head home. I may not even know then what to feel! Anyway back to the present... I imagine by the next post  I'll truly be done with schoolwork and I'll be looking ahead to the summer(whose plans are still a work in progress). Chao for now!
Some photos of the (almost) end of the semester...

With Ashley and Amanda, two of my good EAP friends  at the goodbye dinner

My swim class after the competition( our "profe" is in the blue shirt)

My good friend and fellow year-longer Andrea. Only 7 out of 44 of us are  extending another semester!

p.s. You may notice the  floral background change. It's appropriate because spring is definitely in full swing, with summer fast approaching! That means the North Face jacket and scarves are tucked far away in my closet! It also means very sweaty,stuffy bus and metro rides during rush hour...