Week 6

Good evening and warm greetings to Greece! I hope you arrived safely and are enjoying your first day. Send my regards to Grit and Christiane as well! Since my blogger alter ego is going on vacation tomorrow too, here's my week recap in advance. 

Not much happened really. Last week, I probably overdid it a bit and all the heavy rain storms have not been good for my health either. 

Monday begins Semana Cinco (Week 5) at the university. This means exam period, as the first of three blocks in this semester is nearing its end. I have several assignments and three presentations coming up, so it's going to be stressful. 

Additionally, I won’t eat any sugar this week (fruit is okay), which means I'll have to cook a lot and meal prep, otherwise I'll get really hungry at the university. I just need a bit of routine in what I eat again.

Instead of my university class, on Monday I'll be attending a lecture by the former Colombian ambassador to the USA, Andrés Rugeles, in the first hour. He has also taught at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, and in London. It’s quite interesting; I even have to speak! 

But he says that young people are out of place in a government because they lack experience. Hmm, for someone who is dissatisfied with the current state of the world, you have quite a lot against change. Have you ever thought that the “experience” of old white men in government might not be exactly what the world needs right now?

Anyway, afterwards I have volleyball, but I’m pretty exhausted. It continues like this later at the university. In the evening, I'm preparing a presentation about a Mexican/Dominican trans activist in Ecofeminismo. I go to bed as early as possible and sleep for 11 hours.

But the next morning, I wake up with a headache, nausea, sore throat, and 37.6°C. I'm pretty sick throughout the day, but still manage to drag myself to two hours of university, which include some assessments. In between, I sleep for an hour. Today is Xaver’s birthday, but I'm too tired to join for food, unfortunately. Instead, I sleep another 11 hours at night.

The next day, luckily, university is online. I sleep all day again and catch up a bit on university work and paint something for my sad walls. In the evening, I feel definitely better, go get sushi, and spontaneously buy shoes and a skirt. I want to treat myself well. 

Thursday morning is the next presentation in history, we talk about the independence of the USA. The teacher praises our Spanish since we are three internationals in the course, which makes me happy. Afterwards, instead of going to volleyball, I head straight back to bed. I also finally call Jakob, who has now arrived in Porto. I think he’s doing pretty well. Later, Alan kindly drives me into the city, where I pick up a package from Florian that was sent incorrectly and would have been returned to Germany otherwise. My first birthday package is here - I’m a little excited. In the evening, there’s another course, and I go have coffee/tea with Mar. Unfortunately, she’s not flying with us on vacation but is traveling to Spain for the European Championship in flag football instead. However, she will be back here perfectly on the morning of the 29th, yay!

Then I work for a while on the final project, this time for Global Challenges. We have to create a social media campaign with a video on the topic of climate migration in Africa. 

On Friday, I feel so much better that I can go dancing. Today we practice lift figures, which I feel super uncomfortable with. I’m not sure why, but I’m the only one in the class who is afraid of being lifted. During one attempt, I accidentally give Alan a jab, oh man. But at some point, it somewhat works; I just really struggle with being lifted. I guess I need to work on that. 

Afterward, we have the presentation of our video and the campaign, which goes really well. I also receive the final grade for this block course, which ends after one cycle, a 94.75! Quite good, but it doesn’t count for the German university, so it’s a bit irrelevant. At least I don’t have that dreadfully horrible teacher anymore; she did not work at all.

In the evening, there's another football game. I go again with Isaac, Emilio, Paula, and a friend from the weekend and Lydia. Quite nice and we lead until the weather turns and the world goes crazy. We get so wet in 5 minutes that we’re standing in water. 

We go back to my place to dry off a bit. We play Cambio there for a while (of course :) ). I also made super tasty and intensely flavored brownies with the guys, of which I try a tiny piece. When the others leave, I just lie down on the couch and listen to music. Finally, a little peace and quiet. 

On Saturday morning, I meet up with Paula and Mar at the Saturday market. I eat sugar again over the weekend, so I get myself a homemade ice cream, mini pancakes, and a fruit salad. Great breakfast! 

Then we go to my place and change because it’s so warm today and the sun is shining. We sit outside on the sports campus on a bench and paint today. Later, Laila also joins us, whom I can see again before I leave and unfortunately she herself. Let’s see if she comes back to Mexico City again :(

And in the evening, I go eat a crêpe with a football player, Gabriel. A classmate from the course connected us, and I was a bit unsure about this set-up. But the evening is nice and so is Gabriel; a bit reserved, but that can be a good thing. Maybe we’ll see each other again after Tec Week. The “Tec Week” before the new cycle is free for us internationals; all others have a specialization and therefore need to attend university. 

And now I’m packing and finishing up some university assignments. Tomorrow, Sunday, at 6 PM we fly to Baja California. We’ll be there until next Sunday with nine people in our group and we'll do a round trip. I’m so looking forward to sunshine, beach, and snorkeling; I haven’t had a summer vacation this year at all and feel a bit burned out (especially after last week). At least everyone is relatively healthy again, as our illness has really made the rounds throughout the entire friend group!

Well, that’s it for the less active, university-oriented week. I wish us all a relaxing vacation. Sagapao parapoli!