10:30 a.m.—Sixth alarm. Host mom opens the garage and starts her car; my host brother is playing one of his many instruments. Think about getting out of bed.
11:00 a.m.—Forced out of bed thanks to seasonal allergies.
12:00 p.m.—Find cold leftover ham and cheese empanadas for brunch.
1:30 p.m.—Check Google and find out that the exchange rate went down. Sad, head over to bank to withdraw Argentine pesos.
1:40 p.m.—Arrive at bank and get in line, assuming it’s for the ATM. Turns out that it is not for the ATM, and proceed to the ATM, where there is no line. Withdraw money and head for the door, only to be stopped by security who murmurs something. Fail to understand, and ask for him to repeat. Pretend to have understood and wait.
2:15 p.m.—Get on Subte Línea D and head for Universidad de Buenos Aires: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales.
3:00 p.m.—Arrive at Facultad de Ciencias Sociales for my Argentine Social History class.
3:10 p.m.—Professor hands off her mate to a student, who then proceeds to make, drink and pass around the mate with other students. Wait for Argentine classmates to offer it to me, but realize that I’m too far from today’s mate cluster.
4:37 p.m.—Stare off for a minute and lose track of lecture. Think about the readings I should have done for the class.
5:00 p.m.—Rush out of class to get café con leche before the second lecture.
5:13 p.m.—Attempt to take notes.
6:00 p.m.—Think about how I would understand more if I had finished the readings for class. Miss the small discussion-based classes at Grinnell. Think about medialunas.
6:57 p.m.—Worry about all the readings I have to do for the mid-term paper. Start panicking. Regret not studying abroad.
7:00 p.m.—Leave class fully caffeinated.
7:09 p.m.—Get on Subte Línea E and head home.
8:00 p.m.—Arrive home to host brother playing his instruments. Snack on crackers and dulce de leche.
9:13 p.m.—Nap.
10:15 p.m.—Struggle to get Wi-Fi in bed as I wait for host mom to call me down for dinner.
10:27 p.m.—Host mom calls me down for dinner: meat with shredded carrots.
11:13 p.m.—Miss spicy food and share photos of spicy Cheetos with Grisel Hernandez ’17, also struggling with Argentine cuisine. Begin liking cooking videos on Facebook.
11:41 p.m.—Attempt to do reading for class.
12:37 a.m.—Convince self that it’s study abroad and head to bed.
12:39 a.m.—Hope that the panaderia has chocolate covered churros with dulce de leche filling in the morning.