Working hard and playing hard

So we're in the last week of classes, right before finals, smack in the middle of crunch time. What a time to start a blog on reflections on typical Penn life. All around me, I see students half-asleep, walking around like zombies with cups of coffee and Red Bull practically permanently attached to their hands. Study lounges are packed, and don't even think of trying to get a spot in the library unless you've staked out your carol early on. But nevertheless, despite the tense atmosphere and stress all around, I try to take a step back and put things in perspective. It's almost comical how we drive ourselves crazy around this time. It's something you get used to, and something you bond with your peers about. You come together in your suffering, and when it's all over, you've never been happier. That's what it's all about-- work hard and play hard. But in the end, the positives always seem to outweigh the negatives, and in the long run, the negatives never really seem all that bad anyways.

In an attempt to mentally flee from more immediate academic obligations, I've started looking towards my summer plans. Today, I finally bought my plane ticket to go back to Buenos Aires this summer. I studied abroad there last fall and had SUCH an amazing time that well, I just had to go back! I mean, I'll be using grant money for undergraduate research through the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism so technically I think I'm supposed to be doing quite a bit of work while I'm there. But again, I can sense that whole theme of "work hard and play hard"coming up again. Now that I've actually bought my ticket, the whole thing finally seems a bit more real to me. I had been feeling a little stressed about my summer plans (or lackthereof) recently since all of my friends were hearing back about exciting internships; I'd started to tell people I was going to be working on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska or as a lion tamer at the zoo when they would ask about my summer plans. But then I found out I'd gotten this grant which was perfect-- the chance to travel and be abroad under the pretense of doing something academic and productive! No just kidding, I mean I will be doing quite a bit of work, and the topic (the participation of young people in politics, and the recent re-opening of cases of human rights violations that occurred during the military dictatorship) is very interesting and important to me, but let's just say I'm extremely glad that I will not be in a stuffy office building from 9 to 5.

It's going to be slightly nerve wracking this time around since I'm basically going completely on my own. No one will be there to pick me up at the airport, I won't have my program office to turn to if something goes wrong, I won't really know a ton of people my age (most of my friends were other American students while abroad), and I actually don't quite know where I'm going to live yet. Buuuuut those are just minor details, I'm sure everything will figure itself out in the end! I mean, a friend of mine studying abroad in Australia ended up living in a hostel for like 6 weeks. And I'm kind of excited to be there on my own and be really independent. And also maybe finish up all the shopping I didn't have the time/luggage space to do while I was there the first time... Ok, but enough about Argentina. Basically, this just goes to show that there are tons of great opportunities and resources for Penn students, and they're not always what you'd typically expect them to be! I never thought I'd be able to do something like this, especially as an undergrad. I mean, I didn't even really know what "doing research" meant until a few months ago, but I guess I'll find out! Ok, chau for now...