The last of my travels, to Budapest, Amsterdam, and Prague, were all such unique experiences and I wish I could elaborate more on all of them, but time caught up with me at the end of the semester. These three cities were all together the best trips so far, with Amsterdam at the top of the list. Of course I had my expectations of the city, between the Red Light District, Coffee Shops, and liberal attitude, but it was more exciting than I imagined. We went on a canal tour of the city – cheap and definitely worth it, I saw and learned so much of Amsterdam than I would have otherwise.

And so it ends.
This post is an attempt to have logical thoughts, but, let’s be honest, they’re quite scattered.

This past week was our finals (something no college student enjoys) and we’ve all made it our relatively unscathed. We had papers and projects and exams and stress and complaints. But we also had fun trying to pull one another through and breathing a sigh of relief every time we handed in one more test, usually followed by a look of shock because we generally had no idea how we did on the tests.

Here’s a tad more British vocab.

Trousers – pants, jeans, you know.

Pants – sometimes refers to what Americans think of as pants, but quite often refers to one’s undies, skivvies, panties

Jab – shot

Theatre – operating room

Lollies – suckers

Full Stop – the dot at the end of the sentence

Boot – trunk of a car

Bonnet – hood of a car

Motorway – freeway/expressway

Pram or Buggy – different types of strollers

Starters – appetizers

Mobile – or MO-bi-el, a cell phone

Flat – apartment

Jam – jelly

“Alyssa, where is your hat?” Jacque, my flatmate, reprimanded me.

“I just sick of having something on my head,” I touched the orange paper crown under the rim of my plate.

On November 28^th I finished my last final exam. On November 29^th I was in Punta Arenas, 240 miles from the Southernmost point of land on the planet (outside of Antarctica), a mere 2,000 miles from the South Pole.

This past week has been a mess of anxiety, potato pancakes, and snow. Lots of snow. Did I mention snow? When I decided to go abroad in the Fall semester, I was most giddy about leaving the November grey snow of Saratoga Springs, New York for a magical land in ‘southern’ Germany where the weather is nice and the sun always shines. Well, that’s partially true—Freiburg is the sunniest city in all of Germany, but man is it snowy AND it’s ten degrees colder here than upstate New York. Thanks a lot climate change.

Just a quick update here as I prepare for my final final tomorrow. I hate to admit it, but I’m actually having sort of a hard time with exams this week. Apparently, no matter where you are, the end of the semester is always stressful. There are always final exams and final papers and final projects to finish before it all ends. So much finality.

Three weeks ago (I’m terribly behind on my blog) was my birthday–a day which normally makes me feel badly that time moves so quickly and I just can’t keep up.

Looking back on the past year, however, gave me an odd feeling of pride. In this year I’ve lived in a foreign country: learning Spanish, making friends, understanding a foreign culture, keeping up with studies, etc. etc. At the same time, I got this terrible feeling in my stomach–a feeling of reality: I won’t be in Ecuador forever, and one day Quito will no longer be my home.

During week one we could only find a crew of small high school kids on a dusty blacktop struggling to get the ball into the same area code as the netless hoops. Week two offered a small full court that (sketchily) doubled as a throughway for fruit-laden pick up trucks. In the third week we discovered the jackpot, though it was impossible to realize from the beginning just how perfect Parque Araucano was.