By ilakes2015
The week before Spring break is generally the most chaotic one. Most students have their midterms so a mix between stress, happiness and desire of leaving the city consumes them. This particular week also represents the middle of the exchange program and it turned to be the shortest one as well. Already more than two months in this country, who would have said that?
As the weather has been crazy, last Thursday was declared as a snow day, the second one since I got here. Is the global warning trying to tell us something or what? While on Wednesday everyone was freaking out, praying and checking the news to know if they had to stopped studying for their exams or not, I was checking my email praying to not receive a “flight cancelled” message. I did not have exams because I’m going to have them the week AFTER Spring break, what means that instead of being full relaxed, my mind eventually would be thinking about the million things I have to study. Anyway, I stayed up writing until 4am when I assumed that GW was not going to cancelled classes and I went to sleep. The light of the sun woke me up the next day. My roommate had turned off my alarm clock when she read the most expected email. At that time my flight was still not cancelled so my friends and I decided to go outside and build a snowman together before I had to leave. This time instead of going on Spring Break together, as we wanted in the first place, we ended up going to 5 different places and I was the one that was leaving first. After lunch we met in front of E Street and Dion and I started building the snowman. I must say, build a snowman is more complicated than it looks like. It was still snowing so the snow did not compact so after 4 different tries and 40 minutes later we kind of found the best way to create our little cute monster. After that, we decided to walk to the Lincoln Memorial and spend some time there. On our way we took the long walk so we saw the frozen river and the ducks lying on top. We approached a little and the ducks started walking through us so we got scared and continue walking to the memorial. When we finally made it we realized that the Washington Monument had “disappear” in the middle of the mist. Everything around us was white and everything looked nice so we ended up playing like little boys with the snow. After the snowman, the walk and the snow war, we ended up all wet and cold so we run to my place for some tea and a warm shower before I had to leave to the airport. When all of these happy things were happening I forgot the reason why I had an extra day: the snowstorm. My happiness didn’t last much. When I was saying bye to my friends and leaving my apartment, an American Airlines call destroyed the smile in my face. I had to return to my place, call the airline to change my flight to the first one available, call my family and friends waiting for me in Miami and re organize my whole week. After almost two hours and 3 different calls I finally changed my flight to Sunday morning. That meant that instead of being the first one leaving, I was now the last one. That also meant that instead of having the following week to study, I had to organize almost all my writings in two days.
On Thursday night I had dinner with my friends and we watched a movie together. I was supposed to be travelling but instead I had Spaghettis, homemade brownies and “The Italian job”. Actually, a really good replacement. 
Last week I also used my time to cook. I’m not a really good chef because I never practiced but living alone makes you learn new things either you like it or not. Fortunately for me, I really enjoy cooking. The past week I decided to eat some of the things that I had on my fridge and never cooked before. Homemade hamburgers, spicy rice, tortilla de papa, calabaza rellena, chicken wok and croissants were some of the dishes I prepared. For being my first time, I must say I did a really good job. Not that someone else tasted it but for me those looked and taste really good.
The weekend was also not as bad as I expected. It was my roommate’s birthday so I surprised her with a delicious cake and 22 candles. We spent the day studying but at night we went out to celebrate. Also, my friend Vicky and me decided to go to swim at the gym so we spent almost two hours doing some exercise. I also called my parents and my best friends with Skype and I stayed up studying until 4 am on Sunday when I had to leave to take my flight. At the airport I did the security and check in things in less than an hour so I had plenty of time to have breakfast and look into the duty free stores. At 7am I was ready to leave and I must say there was nothing as beautiful as looking the sunrise from my window. A whole week was reaching its end, a new day was starting, A city stayed behind while two hours from that moment the beautiful warm Miami was waiting for me. Spring Break is about to start and too many new adventures are waiting for me. So let’s close my eyes, sleep and wait for it.. 