Free Time

It's so wonderful to have this huge long break. Sure, after a point all the days mesh together, and there really is absolutely nothing left to do. But it is such a beautiful thing to go out, to the mall or the movies and NOT deal with the hordes of loud junior-high and high-school kids on the subways or the streets. Beautiful.
Today, for example. After a meeting with a teacher, I can so go down to 34th Street, to that huge Forever 21 store and shop in just 30 minutes because there won't be clothes everywhere due to the rude and crazy students that shop there. And then, I can take the not-crowded subway back to Queens to tutor my little 5th graders, and then be home. All without chaos.
On the other hand, I really am running out of things to do. But I don't worry about that. Starting February, I'll be plenty busy when classes start again. So for now, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy my free time.

This was supposed to be the future...

...only two or three more months before it becomes second-nature to write "2010" at the top of my papers and on checks. I keep forgetting what year it is - actually, I keep forgetting what day it is. I just realized today is Saturday - this, my friends, is why Winter Break is fabulous. This is my first semester off since I started college and the amount of free time is quite nice. I've knitted a whole sweater!

On the downside (or maybe upside...depends), I've started to get emails from next semester's professors about books. My Sexuality and American Culture class looks awesome; only one textbook, plus Toni Morrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a few other decent reads. It's a Macaulay course, so I know it'll be stimulating at least. Also, a lovely email from Sylvia Tomasch about reading The Power Broker next semester. Much less thrilling...

Grades are almost all in and I'm pretty satisfied so far. I'm only waiting on one more - it's freaking aggravating. I'm making cookies to stave off my irritation =) (BDSE, be prepared for cookies when I return!)

I hope everyone is enjoying these first few days of 2010, before our resolutions fall through and our apathy sets in about still not having jetpacks or pill-form dinners.

New Year's Eve in Argentina

Yesterday, I woke up quite early, but apparently not early enough for breakfast. Besides, I wanted to lie in bed for a while. Sometime later, I got myself up and took a shower in order to wake up. Around noon, my friends and I went out to look for a Mexican restaurant because we were craving some guacamole and burritos.

We walked around, but we couldn’t find a Mexican restaurant. The one that we found was not opened because it was New Year’s Eve. As such, there was going to be a celebration later at 9:30 pm. Since we knew that there was going to be a lot of food later on, we only ate some fruits and a salad.

Around 9:15 pm, everyone got ready to go to the New Year Eve’s Party. We walked 10 blocks and arrived at the restaurant, which was situated on the harbor. There were a lot of appetizers, but many of them were too salty for me. I didn’t even know what the contents of half of the appetizers were. Yet I tried them as I was set to taste what Argentineans think good Argentinean food is.

The main course was steak, of course, and there were barely any vegetables to balance out the meat. After we finished our main meal, we went outside to watch the fireworks that went off when the clock struck twelve. I have to say, though, it was so windy and cold that I thought Argentina had gotten it’s seasons mixed up.

We stayed outside for quite a while and then went in to find out that everyone was on the dance floor. It was then that I saw what the real Argentinean spirit looked like. Around 1:30 am, they served us ice cream on a brownie with a drizzle of fruit syrup. We walked back to our hotel around 2 am and fell asleep immediately after we hit our beds as we were thoroughly exhausted.