September 30, 2018: A stressful day but a good night

I felt restless today to say the least... but I'm feeling a little more calm now.

I'd like to start this post with a shoutout to my next door neighbors for blasting bad music at 9am and - because that wasn't enough - for scraping a metal shovel against concrete as they constructed a garden on their back porch, conveniently located just to the side of my bedroom window. It was so thoughtful of them to wake me up early so that I could get started studying for my midterm right away. Dear vecinos, to what do I owe the pleasure?

Considering that my midterm is tomorrow night, I devoted today to studying. I was relatively successful but I kind of felt worried about it all day... which is weird because I love taking tests and rarely get nervous for them. I think I felt restless because on top of the midterm, I also have to plan for my trip to Córdoba on Thursday and I don't like that feeling when you're in the process of planning / doing multiple things and none of them feels complete or solid. I felt better after dinner though, which I will explain later.

Cassie and I ran to break up our studying (she too has a midterm coming up) and we planned to stop at Food Fest during the run since it was in our path. The line for Food Fest was well over 100 meters long so our plan to go there died right then. Chau. On our usual cool-down walk, we passed by a restaurant's outdoor seating and these 4 sandwiches pictures above were sitting on a table next to the check and the tip. We made sure the coast was clear and then took them to give them to a homeless person. We could not believe that someone would waste this much food!!! And we knew the restaurant was just going to throw it out, so we tried to put it to good use.

We could not find a homeless person to give it to (of course, cuz they're everywhere but they're nowhere when you look for them) so we decided to place them on this ledge outside of a plaza, in a very visible spot close to where homeless people sometimes camp out. I am saddened to report that I later saw birds eating them... but I guess better to feed birds than to throw 4 sandwiches in the garbage??

This room is so cute! The string lights are always on and their pattern always changes... sometimes they flicker, sometimes they fade in and out... it's soothing.

For the rest of the day I continued to read and to study. I told Clarisa during dinner that I was stressed about the test and about my trip to Córdoba and she was SO helpful and made me feel a lot better. She helped me figure out the exact transportation I will need to take to get to my destinations and I realized it is a lot more simple than I thought. I did mess up a few things though in terms of where I booked my Airbnb so for future trips I will be more diligent and plan them further in advance.

*Special Announcement*

I decided yesterday that I will try to be a semi-vegetarian for the rest of my time here. Let me clarify. Clarisa provides me with breakfast every day and dinner Sunday-Friday. This means I have control over what I eat every day for lunch, and every Saturday for dinner. I am going to try my best to avoid consuming meat for those meals. I technically could tell Clarisa to not cook me meat for dinner, but that complicates things for her a bit and I would prefer to avoid making her life harder. Also, we don't eat meat that frequently so I won't be eating it daily.

I decided to do this because I have been watching so many No Waste and vegan videos and I feel inspired to take action because just caring about the issues isn't enough. Here's one tip for you all to move towards No Waste (but realistically less waste) - when you wash your hands, try to air dry them or dry them with a cloth towel. Try to avoid using a paper towel. It's small and simple but could make a different if enough people did it!

Now I'm going to head up to my room, write down some details of my Córdoba trip so that I feel more at ease about it, read from my book for pleasure, and then go to sleep!

Song Recommendation of the Day: "I Feel Like I'm Drowning" by Two Feet