October 18, 2018: A productive day and a night with the (Irish) lads!

I'm officially 1/3 of the way done with my final and that calls for a drink. And by drink, I'm referring to redeeming my coupon for a free beer that's been sitting in my email for a few weeks.

This jueves sure was one for the books. I continued with my routine of running at 9:00am, but luckily was joined by Cassie today. We talked about how everyone here, and especially the men, stare at us when we walk past. "It's like they've never seen legs before," Cassie said. I lolled, but it's also sadly true. They don't even try to check us out discreetly- they stare. Whatever. Enjoy the view you freaks.

For some reason, Cassie and I were both dying on this run. And let me tell ya we were not going fast by any means. But we got it done and that's something to be proud of. When I got home, I stretched, worked out, and decided to try something new for breakfast. I mashed up half of a banana, added it to a bowl of some oats, poured in some milk, and then microwaved it to make oatmeal. When it was the proper chunkiness (and I like it #thicc), I added in a small spoonful of peanut butter. Try to criticize that meal, Gordon Ramsay!!!!!!

Instead of jumping into my work right away, I decided to listen to an audio (that was recommended in a different video I had seen) about success and being a successful person. While I listened, I put my phone and other distractions away and I just listened. I also did some stretching / my own version of yoga while listening and I felt very relaxed yet very empowered and focused. I highly highly recommend giving it a listen. We've all heard tens of speeches on how to be successful and things like that, but this one really spoke to me and gave me specific examples of what I can do. It also helped me to realize some bad habits of mine. The main argument is that "success is the progressive realization of a worthy idea or goal." This sounds complicated but what it really means is that each and every time you take a step in the direction of your goal, no matter how big or small, you are successful, because you are moving towards achieving your goal.

At one point, it asks you to grab a piece of paper, write down your goal, and write down 3 key sayings. Your goal has to be specific. You should think about the goal every single day. Just doing this increases your likelihood of success immensely. I'm sharing my goal with you all below because I feel like keeping it only to myself implies that I'm scared people could find out I failed, and that means I'm already thinking about possibly failing at my goal! I plan to listen to the audio again soon. If you have 31 minutes and 36 seconds to spare, and I know you do, give it a listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeaBfM3TdHQ

I will now step off my soap box and continue telling you about my day, which I know you are all dying to hear about. Now that I was in a motivated and positive mindset, I was ready to work. I made Clarisa a card for Día de la Madre because Mother's Day is this Sunday in Argentina and then I ate lunch. We had so many leftovers from Tuesday's dinner so I finished the second half of them. D to the E to the to the to the hit it Fergie! Delicious.

Then I walked to a public biblioteca to tackle my midterm (which is really my final) for my literature class. I stared at the 3 questions I had to answer, feeling so close yet so very far from being done with this class. Well, I'm happy to say I am officially 1/3 of the way done because in my 4 hours at the library I completed one of the questions! I don't really know why it took my 4 hours... I spent about 15 minutes eating an apple outside but I think it's just because I was working in a relaxed manner and not really rushing.

The guy working across from me offered mate to the 2 other people at our table and at first I was offended that he didn't offer me any. I almost texted Julie to say that it upset me that he asked everyone else but me, but then I paused. First of all, Julie doesn't care or need to hear that, I realized. Second, so what?? Why would I take this situation personally? Maybe he didn't offer me any because he knew I was from the US and figured I didn't like mate. Well, that special power that's been watching over me (I mentioned it in my last post / it doesn't actually exist) must have recognized this because the guy then offered me some mate a few minutes later!! I know this is just a small situation but it made me realize that it is so easy to complain about so many little things and I have always been quick to be offended, but complaining is useless and actually harmful and it's healthy to learn how to not take things personally. Imagine if I had complained about this guy not offering me mate and then he offered me mate just moments later... think I'd have to turn it down in that case (and I'd also obviously feel bad about what I had said earlier)!

This cost zero dollars.

So I left the library at 6:00pm and then came home and snacked a little bit. My momma bought some apple / raisin / cinnamon jam at the responsible consumption fair and I put it on a slice of bread and it smaAaAaAaAacked! I then went up to my room, worked on the blog post you're reading right now (or not reading @subscriberswhodon'tactuallyreadthisblog), called Loli to verify plans for our trip to her house in La pampa, and wrote some little notes to people.

Clarisa was very kind to prepare dinner a bit earlier for me tonight because at 9:15pm I left my house to walk to a bar with Cassie. Anthony, the Irish guy I met in Córdoba, is now in Buenos Aires and he reached out so that we could meet up! I was so excited to hear him say things like "lad" and "fancy a drink" again.

Seeing Anthony again was fun and he brought two Irish friends, a guy and a girl who were actually a couple. The girl, Martha, told us she was gonna "Irish us up" but Cassie and I took it easy tonight. We asked them about stereotypes of Americans and she said we all wear baggy shirts and have "really no style." HAHA. But she also said we're all very polite. She then asked us if it's very common to say, "I'm on a boat motherf•cker" and that was hilarious because no one says that.

Cassie and I started falling asleep in place around 12:30am so we walked home at 1:00am and now I am gonna brush my teeth and go to bed!!!

Song Recommendation of the Day: "What's The Use?" by Mac Miller

P.S. - When Clarisa first saw me this morning she said, "Hello baby" and I thought that was hilarious.