Life

Sorry I haven't written in here in so long! Life here has become my new normal, so I often feel that there is nothing significant enough to write about. Last time I wrote about missing exams because I was sick. I made them all up, and here's how I did (keep in mind I can pass for the US with a 60, and my classes are in Spanish):
Math                   98
English                98
Health                 54
Physics               69
Social Studies     72
Spanish               71
So overall I did well on the first round of exams. Term grades are formed here from averaging your two exams (or one if you exempt the second). Knowing this, I paid lots of attention in class, and I studied really hard for round two which began this week. So far:
English                Exempted
Math                  Exempted
Health                100
I'm starting to feel pretty optimistic that I won't have to do virtual school in addition to regular school when I get home since I only need six credits here. School has a tendency to be boring since we sometimes do nothing, but it gives me lots of time to hang out with my friends. I've come to realize I'm really going to miss my friends from school a lot when I'm gone. They never fail to make me laugh, and I always feel included. When I first got here, I would follow them around because I didn't know where to go, and I always felt badly like maybe I was annoying them. Now, I feel like they want me to follow them around because we're actually friends. Voy a extrañar 10-4!

This past weekend I went to the Lady Gaga concert in San Jose with Eva and Kelsey. Lady Gaga was crazy and ridiculous as I had expected she would be. The concert was scheduled to start at 8, but she didn't come out til 10. Luckily, she had done all the songs that we wanted to hear before 12, so we left at 12 so we could get a taxi before things got crazy outside. We had a great time dancing and enjoying Lady Gaga's craziness. I'm glad I went with Eva and Kelsey because literally no one was dancing except for us, and I wouldn't have done that by myself!

I made a list of things that I will miss and will not miss when I leave so that I can remember the details of my exchange. It's a work in progress, but here are the things I'm going to miss (keeping it positive and not sharing the things I won't miss):

• All of the delicious packaged cookies
• Paying only $6 to take a bus to San Jose
• The beautiful view of the mountains from my house on a sunny day

• My friends from school
• American exchange students
• Gallo Pinto (The beans and rice in the photo below)

• The sodas (restaurant/snack bar) at school
• Often starting school at 10 or 1
• Realizing my Spanish is improving
• Mamones

• Class being cancelled
• My friends from school trying to speak English
• People thinking I'm older than I am
• Hearing people say Pura Vida

For those of you that didn't realize through facebook, I am coming home early. This is something that I have been considering for an extremely long time now, and as cheesy as it may sound, journaling helped me to become extremely confident that I wanted to come home. I have learned so much in my 3.5 months here. I have a good grasp on the culture, and I speak Spanish extremely well. I have met a lot of amazing people on my exchange, and I truly believe that I will keep in touch with some of these people for a long time, maybe even for my entire life. I am extremely happy and confident in my decision to come home on November 26. See you all soon!